Welcome to the first of many individual Game of the Year lists at TheGamer, that initial bean that eventually forms the full enchilada. You know how these lists work. Ten games. 2023. My ten favourite games of 2023. And so on. It’s gaming, it’s 2023, it’s 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:mathematically the best y♌ear in two decades, but let’s throw out the equations and get all subjective up in this๊ maths class.
At TheGamer, every editor here 🐼does their own Game ♉of the Year list, then on December 18 we publish the siꦦte’s overall list, deduced by tallying every vote. Yes, I think my vote should count for more too, but sadly it doesn’t▨.
10. Cocoon
10. cocoon
10. COCOON
Cocoon’s worlds within worlds indie is a devilishly clever puzzler with a crisp and clean art style that begs further explanation. Just like Ronan Keating’s ex, this game says it best whe⛎n it says nothing at all.
9. The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood
A deck builder where you actually build the deck? Set in outer space? As a mystical witch? With 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:core trans representation and fierce polit🌜ics? Why am I asking so many questions? Here’s a final one: why haven’t you played 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood yet?
8. Slay the Princess
Another highly overlooked game (I’ll get to 2023’s most popular smash hits soon), 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Slay the Princess 🉐is a visual novel where nothing is quite what it seems. Even the game’s title, a directꦗ defiance of fairytale conventions, is more of an optional path you can walk down. Short, sweet, and very sharp, I hope this hidden gem gets discovered by more people soon.
7. Fire Emblem Engage
Finally one of 2023’s most popular triple-A hits! I mean, kinda. January releases often get forgotten by GOTY season, and with the density of 2023 that goes double. But while 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Fire Emblem Engage was a big step down in the world building from my personal 2019 GOTY 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Three Houses, the tactical gameplay 🔴in Engage is deeper and more developed than any 🔯other Fire Emblem, and that’s worth celebrating.
6. A Space for the Unbound
Games that feel retro without forcing it tend to resonate the most with me. In 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:A Space for the Unbound, I don’t need a million Easter Eg🥃gs pointing out that this looks like a Game Boy Color game, I just need a sad Indonesian boy solving metaphysical puzzles and befriending cats in a bizarre Donnie Darko-style chronological kaleidoscope. Isn’t that all any of us needs?
Honourable Mentions that didn’t make the final cut
5. Goodbye Volcano High
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, they weren’t bigger than the whole sky. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Goodbye Volcano High’s melancholic tale of dinosaurs waiting for annihilation at the hands of a meteor is really about 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the youth of today growing up into a world they know could burn at any second. I🅺t☂’s sad, beautiful, tragic, and rather than risk cramming in a third Taylor Swift reference, I’ll stop there.
4. Resident Evil 4
I’m always a little iffy about remakes going on my GOTY list, and have a hard-line rule about remasters or ports. But Resi 4 changes so much, it was already 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the best horror game I’d🗹 ever pla𒁃yed, and then they went and ma🐎de it better. How can it be all action set-pieces all the time and still build chilling suspense? Leon… uh… find⛦s a way.
3. Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo
A dark horse I discovered entirely through word of mouth, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Paranormasight is the biggest surprise package on a list that, given all the hits 2023 has played, has a fair few surprises. The eerie detective thriller plays with both narrative convention and the ꦺvery format of gaming itself to pull you into its twisted world - the hard part is pulling yourself back out again.
2. Spider-Man 2
I make my case for 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Spider-Man 2 pretty well in the video above🧜. I ain’t typing it all out again.
Much like its predecessor in 2018, Spider-Man 2 is a very good game with the misfortune to come up against a truly great title that enters my all-time top five. In 2018 it was 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Red Dead Redemption 2, and in 2023 it’s…
1. Baldur’s Gate 3
What can I say about 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Baldur’s Gate 3 that hasn’t already been said? Quite a bit since I’m going first, but you all know the score by now. Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the richest CRPGs, a perfect recreation of the tabletop form that devs have aimed for and fallen short with for 20 years. Plus everyone is pretty and you can kiss them. From 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Karlach’s boisterous tragedy to Avꦦenge the Drowned’s legendary race agains꧋t the clock, Baldu✃r’s Gate 3 is a game for the ages, and my Game of t⛎he Year in this year like no other.
