The title of this post made me think about the best and worst I’ve played this year.
The best:
- The Case of the Golden Idol. Short and sweet mystery game in the vein of Return of the Obra Dinn. Not quite as good IMO but I still liked it quite a bit.
- Marvel’s Midnight Suns. Don’t let the IP fool you, this is a really solid turn based strategy game, occasionally with really solid writing. The “dating sim”/downtime parts were surprisingly fun at best and dragged down the pacing at worst.
- Death’s Door. Really cool, minimalistic, take on a Zelda-like game. Similar to Tunic in a lot of ways. Funny, cute and probably the best game about death I’ve ever played.
- Moving Out. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as much while playing a game as I did with Moving Out. It will always hold a special place in my heart for allowing me to connect and laugh with people I love but don’t get to see very often.
Generally I mostly play games a while after release and based on recommendations I trust. As such there aren’t many real stinkers I can think of (plenty of games that I found overrated though). With that said, here are my worst:
- Doki Doki Literature Club. With the way this game is set up it’s all about the twist. The problem is that the game it pretends to be until then is incredibly boring. Maybe it would have helped if I wasn’t somewhat aware of what is really is but generally I found this game to be a slog.
- Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion. Games that rely heavily on humor are always hit or miss. Unfortunately this one wasn’t for me in and the actual gameplay was incredibly bare bones.
Thanks for reading! What is your list?
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Best game i played this year was Alan Wake 2, though I can imagine it’s probably not for everyone. The Marvelesque “homework” you’re recommended to do before playing to catch all the references and understand the interconnected lore might seem daunting, but the world and narrative Remedy has built continues to impress me. A lot has been said already about how Remedy has been pushing innovation and mixed media, but I’ll also add how impressed I am with the level of writing in general. Not only is the narrative mind bending, but all the characters are compelling and distinctive and all the different styles employed are nailed perfectly and mesh surprisingly well, from the Noir-caricature Alex Casey monologues to the goofy Koskela brothers TV ads.
The worst game I played this year was Ghost of Tsushima. Okay hear me out. The game is beautiful, well optimised and the combat is solid and satisfying. The game is just roughly twice as long as it should be considering what it is. The story is only okay at best, but suffers from a consistently dour and overly serious tone which really starts to drag as time goes on. The only bit of comic relief is Kenji, and he is barely around. On top of this the quest design is 90% “talk to person, move to area, kill the enemies there, go back and talk again”. Main story missions overly rely on walk-and-talk and/or ride-horse-and-talk. There are a handful of missions with more to it than that and those are good, but there just isn’t enough variation to sustain interest over the playtime (especially if you’re attempting to do everything and thus have to chase down the Ubisoft level open world stuff). After about 10h playtime I was loving the game, but by the third act I was thoroughly worn out and bored.
Unfortunately I had to drop Alan Wake after the prologue. The game is probably great, but I think my PC has finally hit a AAA game it just cannot handle. Perhaps I’ll give it another shot once I upgrade.
I absolutely get your criticisms with Ghost of Tsushima. While I personally loved the game when I played it, I do recall commenting that it had the same gameplay loop as I criticize Skyrim for i.e. go here, kill things, repeat, but for me the core combat mechanics were good enough that I didn’t mind. A shame that you weren’t able to enjoy them to the same extent, but very fair critique
Best:
- Baldur’s Gate 3
- Against the Storm
- Dave the Diver
- Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew - I usually hate tactical strategy games, but this one’s good. The quicksave/reload feature makes it pretty fun to experiment and goof around.
- Dead Cells (I’m behind)
- Grounded
- Tears of the Kingdom
Mediocre
- Dredge - It was a unique experience, but I never really understood the fear/consequences despite fully finishing it.
- Armored Core 6 - The balance in this series always ruins them, even though I try to love them every time. Being forced into a specific build takes the fun out of customization.
I guess I avoided the worst games this year!
Baldur’s Gate 3 was the best I played this year. There might be recency bias, but I genuinely think it’s one of the best games I’ve ever played. Persona 5 Royal isn’t super far behind, was also great.
Worst game I finished was Starfield. Did not see that coming. Worst overall was Vambrace: Cold Soul. Incredibly gorgeous game with a complete disaster of a core gameplay loop.
The best that are not replays:
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Bloodborne. I’m glad i finally got to play it, because holy hell it is good. Orphan of kos can f**k off tho, definitely the one of hardest bosses in any game i’ve ever played.
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Yakuza 0. Super happy i liked as much as i did, since i bought 0 thru 7 before even playing a yakuza game, stupid i know.
Can’t really think of any other games that wow’d me.
Edit:
I also played the ps3 ratchet and clank games and come on, they’re ratchet and clank, what’s not to like.
Also played resident evil remake, which got me into og re2 and 3.
“Bad” games:
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Metro 2033. It’s not a bad game, i just ran into alot of bugs that hampered my enjoyment.
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White knight chronicles1/2. From the boring ass story to the giant maps that are cancer to traverse, i really didn’t enjoy it.
That’s about all the “bad” games i can think of, especially since i don’t go looking for them.
I loved White Knight Chronicles and miss it constantly. The charm of the game was with the online though, and you’re missing like 2/3 of the appeal.
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The best I played this year
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Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead with the Sky Islands mod Absolutely best survival game I have ever played by a long mile. There is just so much time and love behind this game.
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Deep Rock Galactic A flawless game
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Halo Infinite multiplayer it is actually good now!
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Battlebit So good to have a battlefield not owned and ruined by EA
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Going to second Midnight Suns. I’m a big XCOM fan, and while there were a lot of differences, it still scratched that same multi-genre itch.
I also played (in no specific order):
Hitman - World of Assassination - A whole hell of a lot of game in one package. Definitely the highlight of the series if it is your type of game.
Horizon Burning Shores - A worthwhile reason to go back to Horizon Forbidden West, though it was over sooner than I’d like. I’d feel better about the length if it was easier to miss the story, but anyone who goes from Forbidden West to the next game without playing Burning Shores might be caught off guard by the new character. (And I’mma be mad if they don’t bring back the new character!)
Death Stranding: Director’s Cut - Another YMMV game that will suck you in if you like good progression mechanics and don’t mind a slightly slower pace. And Hideo Kojima being Hideo Kojima.
Crisis Core - FFVII Reunion - You know the old school parenting style of making your kid smoke a pack of cigarettes so they want to wretch every time they catch a whiff of them? I accidentally did that to myself with JRPGs during the PS1 era. I thought maybe Crisis Core could coast by on nostalgia factor because I was able to enjoy FFVII Remake. Crisis Core was a big stinker though. The story hits every bad JRPG/anime trope you can think of (fucking Genesis… WOOF), and the quest design seems designed to embrace pointless backtracking and tedium.
Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty - I will argue until I’m blue in the face that while the PS4 and Xbox Series Whatever was a shitshow, the PC launch of CP2077 in 2020 was only a bit rocky. All the praises that people have been singing about the game since 2.0 and Phantom Liberty? They’re praising the same elements that have made the game great since Day 1. It’s just not sandwiched between T-poses and occasional CTDs any more. PC veterans who lived through rough launches of great games (like Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines or, hell, Witcher 3!) were right at home. The Phantom Liberty Expansion was a great excuse to revisit Night City and remember why I fell in love with the game three years ago.
Slay the Spire - Because I’m going to hit A20 and kill the Heart with Silent eventually, goddammit.
Baldur’s Gate 3 - Because best $50 I spent in 2020.
No Man’s Sky - I waited until this year to pick up NMS and this was another one that sucked me in for a solid couple months. Hello Games has sunk years into making this game a great bang for your buck if you like exploration and building.
You know, I’m thinking I’m either not playing enough games, or getting “too old” because most of the stuff I remember playing is either old or, ahem, adults only.
This year was the year I finally fully played Star Wars Dark Forces. Would’ve been a great game at the time, playing nowadays would be just for curiosity, really.
I played Fallout 4 a bunch, especially once I discovered how to get infinite enemies/gear/money by building settlement traps to catch Gunners. Silly loop, but I had lots of fun coming up with new ways to blow them up shortly after stepping out of the traps.
Super Smash Bros Ultimate is still the best fighting game I’ve played this year.
Phantasy Star 1 for the Sega Master System is the worst I’ve played this year. I don’t think it’d be much fun even back in 1989, because it mixes typical jrpg with first person dungeon crawling and the latter is awful. Feels like the purpose of the game was selling strategy guides and/or magazines with walkthroughs.
I’ve played many games this year. The highlighting are:
- Fallout 3 - I forgot how fun this game is. Especially the exploration;
- Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings - good game as well;
- Dead Rising - a truly hard game, that is also fun. Zombies!
- Dead Space (2008) - still an awesome game!
- Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - the game is fun with the graphics and Force powers. Even though most boss fights are lame;
- Silent Hill 2 - still awesome!
- The Callisto Protocol - pretty good game! Surprised me how good it is;
- Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 - what a garbage game. Bad boss fights just to pad the game out.
Elden Ring and Stardew Valley ate a decent chunk of 2023 for me. And are both amazing games in their own right. Totally different, though.
I didn’t play anything really bad this past year, but I did bounce off Crosscode pretty hard after expecting to love it given I’m a sucker for early JRPGs and the 8 and 16 bit eras in general. It’s a well made game, just overlong and featuring some tedious and frustrating mechanics.
I’m currently on playthrough 4 of Stardew. Love that game
I’m enjoying it, but after a certain point I feel like I had to consult a guide. Late-game stuff is expensive!
I played a bunch of the new releases and some older indies.
Best (in no particular order)
- Tears of the kingdom - Game was very good. I can’t imagine going back and playing breath if the wild after this, it improves on pretty much all the gameplay in that game.
- Armored Core 6 - This was very fun, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I played through it 4 times to get all the endings (i messed up a choice when trying to get the third ending and had to play through a fourth time).
- Starfield - This was really fun for awhile when it originally released. It has some issues, but I really like it.
- Factorio - I got super into this during this summer. It’s the best factory game.
- Sanabi - Indie released last month. It’s incredibly fun with a touching story. It’s an action platformer where you swing around the levels with a chain arm.
- Omori - As a game this is just alright, but it has probably the saddest plot of any game I’ve played.
- Signalis - Survival horror indie game that’s like resident evil crossed with dead space, complete with cool eldritch horror vibes.
- Library of Ruina - Intense deckbuilding game with an interesting setting. There are a lot of strategies to build decks around that are super viable.
- Cassette Beasts - Fantastic indie Pokemon type game that is miles better than anything gamefreak has pushed out lately. Has interesting battle mechanics, a great soundtrack, and a cool throwback art style.
Worst
- Shadow of war - couldn’t get into it. I played the first one when it released, but I just couldn’t get into this one.
- Spelunky - I got this one in a bundle a long time ago and decided to boot it up. I couldn’t really get into it and only did a few runs.
- Spyro Trilogy - I don’t know why I finished the first two. I don’t think Spyro’s gameplay has aged super well.
- Outward - I want to get into this, but the game is frustratingly difficult. I feel like if I play it some more I’ll get it and it’ll be fun, but I don’t like playing to get to that point.
Sorry to hear you had a bad experience with Spelunky! I guess it takes a special kind of masochist to enjoy it, but Spelunky 1 and 2 are two of my all-time favorite games, having put several hundred hours into both.
The difficulty makes the wins feel extremely satisfying to me.
Best:
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Cyberpunk 2077 (1.6) My first open world AAA game, I really enjoyed it and even though I was a total noob the gunplay and missions were very doable. The lore in everything made the immersion so deep too. Great soundtrack too!
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Slay The Princess I really liked the writing and art. It really feels like a full experience, the voice acting is on point too (I loved The Voice Of The Smitten!!)
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Deltarune (chapter 2) I loved Chapter 1 and Undertale, and this new chapter did not disappoint either. Didn’t had the time to play it yet until now
Worst:
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Warzone 2.0 Made me realise those more realistic shooters weren’t for me at all. Had only played more cartoonish shooters before (Fortnite, Valorant etc)
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Hitman 3 Hitman is on its own really fun, but I just couldn’t seem to find the solutions. I got stuck at the Bangkok mission.
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Best: Just Cause 4
Worst: Returnal
What did you not like about Returnal? I haven’t looked into it much beyond the trailer, but was considering trying it out.
After some plays it got frustrating when you’re going along fine but a massive monster spawns right next to you and kills you with one hit before you have time to react
Favourites, not really ordered
- Street Fighter 6 - Really really good fighting game, definitely a recommend if you want to play one.
- Baldurs Gate 3 - It is BG3, what more needs to be said?
- Octopath Traveler 2 - It is more of the first, but more refined and better at tying the characters together.
- Dead Space Remake - If you like the original, you should really play this, it is incredible.
- Remnant 2 - Great game, a good refinement of the first remnant, and fantastic in co-op.
- Last Epoch - I really like the leveling systems(Character and also Skills). Not perfect, but fun and chaotic.
- Crab Champions - Crab goes BRRR. Not many games I go out of my way to 100% but this games feels incredible to play.
- Spiderman & Miles Morales - Finally pick up on the cheap, if you enjoy the Batman Arkham formula, these two are fantastic. Miles Morales definitely feels like a large DLC though.
- Driftwood - Longboarding Sloth, super chilled out and relaxing. Just enjoy carving down the hills on sticks of butter.
- Lumines - The best game on the PSP, and still love it(picked up for cheap with Tetris, but prefer Lumines)
The not so good.
- Ghost Runner 2 - I want to like this more, I loved the first game, but the wide open levels and bike traversal just don’t feel good or fun.
- Diablo 4 - Play Last Epoch instead, D4 feels boring and bland and uninspired after finishing the story.
- Blasphemous - Didnt click with me, the combat felt good and the movement was good, but never stuck with it, will probably try again at some point.
- Hyper Light Drifter - I have tried a few times, and I keep bouncing off it.
- Ori and the Blind Forest - I also want to like this game, but bounced off it again.
While Street Fighter 6 is my Favourite game of the the year, Baldurs Gate 3 is definitely the GOTY. I would strongly recommend any game from the favourites list. I haven’t played any really bad games this year, Diablo 4 is probably the worst I have played, do not recommend it. Unlike the other games which I would be tempted to suggest under certain circumstances.
On Ori and the Blind Forest - if you generally enjoy platformers, I would encourage you to give the sequel a shot, Ori and the Will of the Wisps. I played BF years ago and like you, I bounced off it. Then a couple of years back I tried WotW and loved it.
I subsequently went back and retried BF, and I realized that every issue I had with the gameplay had been fixed in the sequel.
The story of the first game only factors into the second game in minor ways, so you’ll be fine if you skip it.
I will give it a try, pretty sure it is in the steam library, but probably be a couple months til I get round to it now (Granblue is being an absolute blast).
Best: System Shock: turns out the 90s darling gal can still run with the best of them in 2023 thanks to Nightdive’s excellent remake. Citadel Station was a real blast to explore. It almost made me disappointed to see how little gaming has advanced since that time, I’d have expected to view the remake as a relic of a simpler time. Instead I played something way more fun than the typical hand-holdy shooters of today.
Cyberpunk 2077: Update 2.0 made this a real videogame. I absolutely hated playing Cyberpunk 2077 when it released, so much that I refunded it. The combat felt awful and floaty, the RPG systems felt stupid and poorly thought out, and don’t even get me started on the bugs. 2.0 is the reason to buy the game again, and with modding support already available I have a feeling this game is going to grow the kinda legs of Witcher 3 and Skyrim. CD-Projekt Red managed a real miracle. Oh, and the DLC is pretty rad too.
Warframe: There’s been a lotta new content added to Warframe this year, and it’s all been pretty good! I was a little worried about the game considering the change in leadership, but Rebecca Ford knows what the players want and seems really skilled at walking the fine line that makes a grind enjoyable. If you’ve never played, and have always wanted to play a mass murderer in space with magic powers, I’d recommend hopping in.
Worst:
Elden Ring: Miyazaki please where is the DLC. It’s been two years, I just want to play through a new poison swamp.
Best this year, I think would be Astal Ascent as I love the gameplay loop and how it feels.
Worst this year is undoubtly Endless Dungeon. Released in a beta crappy state and doesn’t seem fully realised.
Wwaste of money that one.
