What's your game(s) of the year

[Aazealh]

I feel like it's topical to choose our favorite games as the year comes to a close.

Speaking for myself, I can only think of three games that stand out this year: Baldur's Gate 3, Alan Wake 2, and a distant third: Tears of the Kingdom.

I've talked about it in the chat before, but Baldur's Gate 3 is hands down my favorite game of the year. I played the original Baldur's Gate games back in the day and am a big fan of that type of game to this day. I was there for the revival of the genre with Dragon Age: Origins and Pillars of Eternity, and I had enjoyed Larian's previous titles, but I was skeptical of this project. Exhuming a series after 25 years is a tall order, and without the original devs on board its legitimacy is questionable. More importantly: that story had been told.

Despite those odds, Larian rolled a 20 and produced a game for the ages. Great gameplay, great roleplaying, and all of it smartly modernized so that it feels old school but meets the current standards for AAA production values. That means great cinematics with full voice over, but also a multiplayer mode up to four players that is just mindboggling. In short, it's the new gold standard for CRPGs, and believe me it's going to be tough to beat. Perhaps more impressively, by the end it really felt to me like it deserved to be part of the Baldur's Gate series.

Alan Wake 2 similarly has a complicated history. It comes from a small studio and was released 13 years after the original, with several aborted attempts over the years. But man, what an achievement. Remedy has really found its groove and it feels like they finally have the means to fully realize their ambitions. The game is gorgeous and pushes the envelope for storytelling while telling a compelling story. Whereas the first Alan Wake fell a bit short in terms of gameplay, AW2 delivered on all levels. And it also gave meaning to the idea of the "Remedy Connected Universe", with strong callbacks to Max Payne and a bunch of references to Control. I was sad to hear this week about the passing of James McCaffrey, who voiced Max Payne and Alex Casey (in this game). What a performance he gave in this game. Simply irreplaceable.

Tears of the Kingdom is a game I had a lot of fun with, mostly exploring the underworld if I'm honest. It's an interesting game, produced to build off the success of Breath of the Wild, which it achieved. But it catered to BotW's "power users" with its tinkering system, and while that was novel and interesting for a bit, it's ultimately not what I look for in a Zelda game. That's all fine with me though; what actually bothered me was the lackluster storyline. It's abundantly clear that it's not a priority for the developers, which I think is a mistake that holds their games back from becoming all-time-greats. There are some great ideas in there, and some great characters as well, but ultimately it just felt like a big sandbox with a last minute story added on top. A great game, but about which I'll probably remember little in a few years.

 

[Keratos]

Well... I honestly didn't play that many games that came out this year.
But the 2 I did play were honestly some of the most fun I've had in years.

These being Tears of the Kingdom, a game I've gone a lot back and forth on. Sometimes I felt it wasn't worth the wait, but then I play a bit more and find myself hooked once again on the expanded world and the new mechanics that let my creativity flow endlessly. Obviously it isn't without its flaws, as I said, I do sometimes feel it really didn't give us as much as I would've wanted from a BotW sequel. But this game is like a addiction to me, I have issues with it, but I just can't get enough of it.

And the other one is Super Mario Bros. Wonder, which though I haven't played that much of it yet, it's such a breath of fresh air from the 2D Mario games that have come out in the last... Decade? Even more? They have been so samey for so many years I've lost count. But this game feels so fresh in every way, it's honestly out of character for recent Nintendo. Can't wait to play more of it, but I'm already sure it's going to be one of my favorite Mario games.

 

[Domeniko]

Amnesia the bunker
it was good

 

[Walter]

My top game this year was probably F-Zero 99, a "free" game on Switch, which is a surprise to me, too!

I never had much love for the original SNES F-Zero, or really any deep affiliation with racing games. I always preferred GX on the GameCube—essentially their version of Wipeout XL. So on paper, a modern "Battle Royale" style remake of the SNES game didn't appeal much to me. But it is a really well executed balance of high skill ceiling and just fun arcade racing. And it's absolutely a blast racing against 98 other players, particularly with all the upgrades they've rolled in to this retro-remake. Boosting can be done throughout the race but it damages your health, you can spin attack to damage other ships but it also shields you from being bumped around, and collecting "sparks" that drop whenever someone has been damaged, filling a meter that enables a temporary Skyway path over the track and the other racers. All of these additions have added new decisions for each turn, and how/when you use them really does determine whether you finish in the Top 10 or the Bottom 50. I've had races where I did really well in the first three laps, and in the last turn, got bumped into the side, then lost momentum and placed in the 30s. I could have shielded that hit with a spin if I were more aware, and kept my momentum.

On top of all the actual gameplay optimizations, they've added a huge amount of unlockable superficial upgrades to each ship. From colors to decals that can change the way each looks, along with "Pilot Card" customizations that show off your milestones to others in your skill range.

I checked last night, and I've played it for about 8 hours, and each 4-lap round is about 4 minutes so... that's a lot of time on the tracks! I usually play about 5 matches a night. I haven't hit the #1 spot. Some of these dudes are excellent racers. But I'm getting better, so I'll get there.

Voidigo is another that came out of nowhere and sucked me in for about 2 dozen hours. Anyone who has played Nuclear Throne will immediately recognize that this is like a spiritual sequel to it. But other games I've played this year that didn't quite resonate include Tears of the Kingdom, which I played for about 60 hours or so, and didn't move me very much. I stopped around the penultimate dungeon (Fifth Sage), but I helped my son finish his game, so I've seen the final boss and ending. I'm pretty much done with it, I think. The same goes for Super Mario Wonder, which really just didn't hit me at all, I'm sorry to say.

 

[ApostleBob]

Game of the Year is easily Balder's Gate 3, the definition of a game made with love. It is so full of detail, impactful choices, alternate ways to play, of interesting characters, that I will probably be playing it for the coming years. It also gets D&D mechanics and world-building down incredibly well. The turn-based combat is full of strategy, and the role-playing element opens up a world of choices. And of course not only are the graphics top tier, but the character acting is incredibly impressive, with many memorable personalities in your party. None are cliches of their class.

 

[cijhho123]

I always prefer the indie scene in gaming so I gotta pick The coffin of Andy and Leyley.
I'ts an Undertale-ish horror adventure RPG with dark humor and great writing, the characters' interaction is on point and the themes explored in this game are very thought provoking.
There was some controversy around the game due to it exploring (among topics like abandonment issues, mental issues and dealing with trauma) incest - but it tackles it in a very mature and interesting way.
Currently 2 out of the 4 planned chapters have been released, so If you have around 5 hours and some guts () I highly recommend it.

 

[Griffith]

I'm taking things in a different direction this year, these are my...

Favorite BAD Games of the Year
(because complaining that everything is bad, except BG3, is IN right now)

Mortal Kombat 1 - Easily my favorite BGOTY! It's got great gameplay, great graphics, and great music... BUT, as I've seen multiple commenters actually say: that doesn't make a great game anymore! Wait, what!? I guess so! There's legitimate complaints here: this game had issues at launch and was released with bugs, which is as unprecedented as it is completely unacceptable for a game which costs as much as a tank of gas or hamburgers for the family to play (this is unheard of on PC). It's also missing some modern quality of life features, allegedly to be added later (probably to the premium shop with the kool skins, amirite!?), and the online could be better, which are fair complaints, but they're not the real problem... the problem is this game costs $70 dollars, and games shouldn't cost that because they've only cost $50-$60 the last 40 years (except every game the previous decade had a fake special edition for $10-20 extra), and not every character in the story mode is playable in the game, and some are coming later as DLC, and there's not enough cool skins, and the cool skins cost money because they only make the cool skins to charge you money, but I want those skins because I paid for the game already and I don't want to play it without knowing I get all the cool skins and kharacters NOW (even though I don't want to play them)! I want a great product that has great menus and skins, preferably for free, not gameplay and graphics, which I don't care about because I'm not going to play the game anyway and didn't even buy it because Ermac's not in the base roster even though he was in the story, which is unfair. Anyway, that's why this game is my Favorite BAD Game of the Year, because despite it being a fun game, it's just not good enough a product with the right amount of cool free skins and features I won't use.

Diablo IV - This is probably the worst game I've ever played this year. The kombat combat, loot and gameplay loop is fun, but once you play it for hundreds of hours and max out your characters there's nothing more to do! It didn't improve my life or make it more fulfilling after that, so it's not even my favorite bad game of the year.

Resident Evil 4 - Now this is the best video game of 2023! Not to mention 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2019 and 2021! What year wasn't this game the best!? It's come out more years than it hasn't since 2005, and that's just when it's called RE4, because this third person, over-the-shoulder action shooter has come out basically every year since! It's the BGOAT!

Street Fighter 6 - Yeah, this game's really good but it's got the same problem as Mortal Kombat; each character only recently got a third skin, and they cost an absurd amount of money! They had Ninja Turtle skins for your avatar for like $15 each so I could only afford 3 of them and that's more than I paid for the game on sale! It's like they think us people who care so much about cosmetics are some fucking stupid whales they can just bleed dry? We used to worry about pay-to-win, but now it's all about pay-to-skin, baby!

Baldur's Gate III - I haven't even played this game, so it must be worse than the others. It got any cool skins and free extra content!?

 

[Domeniko]

I'm taking things in a different direction this year, these are my...

Favorite BAD Games of the Year
(because complaining that everything is bad, except BG3, is IN right now)

Mortal Kombat 1 - Easily my favorite BGOTY! It's got great gameplay, great graphics, and great music... BUT, as I've seen multiple commenters actually say: that doesn't make a great game anymore! Wait, what!? I guess so! There's legitimate complaints here: this game had issues at launch and was released with bugs, which is as unprecedented as it is completely unacceptable for a game which costs as much as a tank of gas or hamburgers for the family to play (this is unheard of on PC). It's also missing some modern quality of life features, allegedly to be added later (probably to the premium shop with the kool skins, amirite!?), and the online could be better, which are fair complaints, but they're not the real problem... the problem is this game costs $70 dollars, and games shouldn't cost that because they've only cost $50-$60 the last 40 years (except every game the previous decade had a fake special edition for $10-20 extra), and not every character in the story mode is playable in the game, and some are coming later as DLC, and there's not enough cool skins, and the cool skins cost money because they only make the cool skins to charge you money, but I want those skins because I paid for the game already and I don't want to play it without knowing I get all the cool skins and kharacters NOW (even though I don't want to play them)! I want a great product that has great menus and skins, preferably for free, not gameplay and graphics, which I don't care about because I'm not going to play the game anyway and didn't even buy it because Ermac's not in the base roster even though he was in the story, which is unfair. Anyway, that's why this game is my Favorite BAD Game of the Year, because despite it being a fun game, it's just not good enough a product with the right amount of cool free skins and features I won't use.

tbh kinda unsure whether this is sarcasm or half sarcasm, but I agree with you that NS as a company is just milking the franchise, making a shitton of DLCs that they should've just included in the game, I can't believe how many people just eat this up! I mean, I guess it goes without saying. The world is mad stupid.

 

[Griffith]

tbh kinda unsure whether this is sarcasm or half sarcasm, but I agree with you that NS as a company is just milking the franchise, making a shitton of DLCs that they should've just included in the game, I can't believe how many people just eat this up! I mean, I guess it goes without saying. The world is mad stupid.

It's 100% sarcasm making fun of that mentality. I just want to expand my knowledge of the game but almost every thread is infected with people airing derivative grievances about any perceived flaw, usually through a lens of economic exploitation like this is the most consequential issue of our lives and not just reductively complaining about the cost of a completely superfluous hobby. It's really annoying after a while and I've found it's basically the same for all these games (D4, SF6, MK1) unless it's a self-contained single player affair, which is usually what I play so maybe this has been the norm for years (complaining... online? Naaaah) and I just haven't been subjected to it as much because I haven't played many games that are this "live" and "online" until later in their lifecycle.

 

[Domeniko]

It's 100% sarcasm making fun of that mentality. I just want to expand my knowledge of the game but almost every thread is infected with people airing derivative grievances about any perceived flaw, usually through a lens of economic exploitation like this is the most consequential issue of our lives and not just reductively complaining about the cost of a completely superfluous hobby. It's really annoying after a while and I've found it's basically the same for all these games (D4, SF6, MK1) unless it's a self-contained single player affair, which is usually what I play so maybe this has been the norm for years (complaining... online? Naaaah) and I just haven't been subjected to it as much because I haven't played many games that are this "live" and "online" until later in their lifecycle.

yep, forums are full of cancer, I have a buddy that goes around steam forums trolling people that are raging over starfield or other broken games

I tend to just call the game trash to my friends and move on, anything more than that and its inhabiting your brain for longer than it should. Like you said its a hobby, it's not a need. I used to work at a multi-media bookstore and people who came to buy things there acted like brats and as if their very life depends on having this one specific book People gotta complain about something i guess, when their life is smooth sailing