2023 was a stellar year for gaming, surpassing any recent year in memory. The year started off rough, with a few unpolished PC ports, but it finished strong with one of the best RPGs ever made, along with many other titles of interest. Let's take a quick gander at what I played this year. An asterisk notes a single-player title played to completion.
Deadspace (2023 remake)*
Shadow Warrior 3*
Half-Life*
MCU (Master Chief Collection)*
Hi-Fi Rush*
Prodeus*
Atomic Heart (15 hours before I gave up)
Star Wars Jedi Survivor* (over 90 hours spent!)
System Shock (2023 remake)*
Red Dead Redemption (over 20 hours, still pick it up from time to time)
Starfield (abandoned after 6 hours)
Baldur's Gate 3 (still going after 120 hours, will certainly play to completion)
Lies of P (18.5 hours, will probably finish)
That's thirteen titles, with some substantial time spent in Jedi Survivor and Baldur's Gate 3. I usually don't play so many new releases (7 this year), but 2023 was so stacked, and there were so many titles that I didn't get to that I might have in a slower year (Resident Evil 4 remake, Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty, Diablo IV in particular). Here are my favorites in various categories.
Best Remake: System Shock versus Deadspace
Citadel Station from System Shock.
System Shock was quite the experience to play. An update of the 90's classic, the remake keeps the basic labyrinthine design of the original, while adding a few quality of life updates (the recyclers; cyberspace is different). There is little direction, no markers telling you where to go, no quest log. Initially, it's thrilling to be placed in a vast space station with little idea what to do or where to go, but after a while, you might find yourself consorting a walkthrough lest your playthrough end early because of lack of direction. I found the resource management to be a little harsh on normal difficulty as well, and the combat wasn't always interesting. Yet System Shock wins points in my book by being a playable time capsule of a 90's shooter/immersive sim forerunner, and you have to give Nightdive credit for delivering on their promises.
Deadspace was clearly influenced by System Shock (as well as Resident Evil) and although I didn't play the original, the remake apparently also keeps things pretty similar. Combat is fun and vicious, and the necromorphs are suitably nasty. The graphics are a real highlight, with much attention paid to lighting, and performance was great maxed out on my Ryzen 7 5800x, RTX 3080 powered rig. The only complaint I really had was a slight frame-rate stutter that seemed to appear every time you entered a new room.
Deadspace
Winner: Deadspace. It's more fun and it looks great. Still, props to Nightdive for bringing back a defunct series. I hope they get to develop System Shock 3.
Best Surprise: Hi-Fi Rush versus Lies of P
Neither of these games were on my radar, but I've played both on Gamepass, justifying my subscription. Hi-Fi Rush is one of the best rhythm games I've ever played, and it has a humorous story and stylized graphics. Lies of P feels like a Fromsoft game, albeit one that performs well and looks great. While I'm still playing the latter, I think Hi-Fi Rush gets it for coming out of nowhere and being something I wouldn't normally play (not a huge fan of anime or rhythm beat 'em ups.
Winner: Hi-Fi Rush.
Biggest Disappointment: Starfield versus Atomic Heart.
I wasn't excited about either of these games, so perhaps it's incorrect to call them disappointments, yet they were, nonetheless. Atomic Heart looked cool, but after 15 or so hours, its bullet-sponge enemies and boring puzzles led me to abandon it, even though it was delightfully weird (the line "Choke and die, you fat turd!" delivered by protagonist P will live with me forever). Starfield was pretty much exactly what I expected. The internet is rife with videos shitting on Bethesda's outdated game design, but really, they've been making the same game since Oblivion. I knew gameplay would consist of various loading screens, managing a constantly encumbered inventory, potato-faced npcs, and quests that boil down to "kill everything and get the loot." Other than the characters, I did think the graphics were good, though.
Winner (or loser?): Starfield. While certainly not a flop, I don't think Starfield will have the same legs as Skyrim, and most people will likely forget about it very soon.
The moon in Starfield.
Best Game of the Year: Star Wars Jedi Survivor versus Baldur's Gate 3.
Jedi Survivor
Jedi Survivor has a lot going for it. It has a great story with some compelling twists and turns, great combat that's expanded from the original, gorgeous graphics and cool locales. While only being about a thirty-hour game, the fact that I played it over 90 hours is a testament to its quality. Really the only thing holding Jedi back is that it's a really bad PC port (console versions had issues with frame rate and image quality at launch). I experienced weird texture bugs, large frame rate drops that couldn't be fixed by adjusting settings on my high end computer, constant stuttering in the Koboh region, and no support for upscalers besides FSR (DLSS was eventually added months later). Even after 7 or so patches, Jedi still stutters all the time, and performance with ray-tracing is unplayable. I paid 70 bucks for a beta, and I let that horrible piece of malware known as the EA Launcher install itself on my PC. Never again will I knowingly purchase a game this buggy and broken.
Baldur's Gate 3 has its share of bugs and performance issues, but it's a competent PC game. After 120 hours, I'm still hooked. Some on the internet claim that Act 3 doesn't measure up, but it's been my favorite so far. I've infiltrated a vampire sanctum and let my companion enact his revenge. I've bested a multitude of Sharran cultists with Ice Wall and Call Lightning. I just kicked the ass of a devil in the House of Hope, utilizing a mix of summons, the Hold Monster Spell, and Lae'zel's general ass-kicking abilities. This game lives up to the hype. It's the best RPG I've ever played, and I can't wait to finish it so that I can do another playthrough.
Winner. Baldur's Gate
It can be pretty frickin' funny, too.
So that's it for 2023. Not much is on my radar for 2024, but I'm sure something will appear. Maybe I'll just play Baldur's Gate 3 all over again.
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