Top 10 games of 2023
2023 was going to be a quiet gaming year for me. At the start of the year I set myself the goal of watching 365 movies and I was on track to meet that goal... and then Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom came out and consumed literal months of my life, and then Diablo IV came out and did the same and from there the game releases just snowballed until I was sat staring at my screens, paralyzed by decision of what to do with my time.
To start with, There are some notable admissions from this list simply due to the fact I didn't play them. The big one would be Baldur's Gate 3. I had no idea it was the people behind Divinity Original Sin and since I hadn't played those games yet, I elected to start with that.
Other games I didn't get around to: Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, Tchia, Crime Boss: Rockay City, Dredge, Everspace 2, Humanity, Goodbye Volcano High, Dave the Diver, Planet of Lana, System Shock, Pikmin 4, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, Theatrhythm Final Bar Line, Venba, WrestleQuest, Sea of Stars, Chants of Sennaar, Mortal Kombat 1, Jusant, Bramble the Mountain King, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, Viewfinder, El Paso, Elsewhere, Metroid Prime Remastered, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, Wargroove 2, Lords of the Fallen, Endless Dungeon, RoboCop: Rogue City and Super Mario RPG.
Jeez that's a lot of games I probably won't remember to come back to. Now for a few of honourable mentions.
Final Fantasy 16 - The first half of this game was absolutely top 10 worthy. Very clearly influenced by Game of Thrones, the story was filled with political intrigue and a truly despicable villain. However the game clearly took that influence too far because much like Game of Thrones, this turned to shit about half way through. Discarding the more interesting villain in favour of a generic otherworldly threat, this game fumbles the bag so fucking hard. It's also got some MMO quality side content that is just god awful.
Diablo IV - I played so much of this mediocre game. The story was excellent and the loot treadmill is still appealing, despite the game itself seemingly trying to make it as confusing and unsatisfying as possible. The game has certainly improved over time, and I have faith it'll continue to get better as the years go by but right now I can't honestly say this is one of the 10 best games of the year.
Starfield - Fuck this game and Fuck you Todd for spending so much time on something so mediocre. BGS has entered "too big to fail" territory and I hope to god this game is the wake up call they need to not fuck up Skyrim 2. Seriously how did this take 8 years to develop.
Now for the top 10 games I played!