Elder Scrolls: Online. Yes, I know I'm ten years late to the party, but it's been a real blast! Never played an MMO before, and ESO has probably ruined me for other MMOs.
this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2023
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I had a surprisingly good time with DEATHLOOP, especially after having completed Prey 2017 earlier this year and being a little frustrated about some of the design choices that were made, and wondering if Arkane had finally lost their mojo.
I almost didn’t even want to buy it at first because it had received such mixed reviews, and it certainly took some getting used to initially, but once it clicked and I finally understood all the rules and what the game was asking of me, I couldn’t put it down anymore for like a solid week.
Shattered pixel dungeon
Not a "new" game, but a new modpack (for Minecraft Java) update for all the mods 9 where they added gregtech into it and lots of good others, and just enjoying the variety and complexity of the mods added, some like create mod and the ones that add on to create are getting fucking wild and awesome too. Love building weird ass contraptions because I can.
Favourite game I played in 2023... None really stand out to me, mostly because there were no new games which I wanted that stood out, I hadn't played before, or were new.
I had an inkling for Metroid and being able to play Dread and go back into Fusion was a unique experience.
Experiencing and getting bored with Outer World was also nice. Funny thing is I did the same thing with New Vegas so I guess it's par for the course with Obsidian games for me.
First time playing through and beating Arkham Asylum. Was testing on Linux and got sucked in, was a fun game, and I want to try City when I get a chance.
Was also in the mood to replay Antichamber too. Haven't touch that game in forever and I am glad I did. One of the few games I'd call the Gameplay Atmospheric.
Also got to play The Cosmic Shake, a wonderful through back to PS2 era 3D Platformers. I think this is the only new game I played this year.
I had a blast with Zelda TOTK and Baldur's Gate 3 but my favorite was Armored Core VI, it was so demanding on the front end but super rewarding on the tail end and I even managed to get all of the S ranks and the plat on ps
Probably Antimatter Dimensions (10/10 incremental game) and Factorio with the Bob's/Angel's mod (basically Factorio but with 10x the recipies and lots of byproducts)
Deathloop. I put it off for so long because so many people said “if you’re coming here looking for another Dishonored or Prey, you’ll be disappointed because the story and immersive sim elements are far more shallow” BUT HOLY HELL Deathloop is the most unique AAA game on the market. The metagame is amazing in that while the moment-to-moment gameplay is FPS/action-style, the game as a whole is really a puzzle for the player to solve through exploration and discovery. Fuck me it works so damn well.
Who the hell am I? How did I wake up on this island? Who’s yelling in my ear all the time? Why do I wake up on this beach every morning even if I die? The game makes you ask questions and doesn’t let you leave them unanswered.
The icing on the cake is the amazing combat with cool guns and amazingly fun supernatural powers. I may be in the minority but I also love the way that the invasion PvP mode works. It adds a really nice difficulty jump when the game might start feeling too easy. The only two complaints I have are that the multiplayer networking experience is definitely subpar with a lot of lag, and that the game holds your hand too much at the end. It shouldn’t give you objective markers telling you how to actually go about solving the puzzle, it should force you to figure it out and implement it on your own.
Hard agree with all of this. I've never been good at shooters, especially PvP, but the invasions always felt like more of a chess match than a true gun duel. Outsmarting some human player who's a better shot than me made for super memorable and satisfying moments.
I'll also add that the voice acting and dialogue were great. Dishonored is infamous for having limited voice lines ("shall we meet for whiskey and cigars tonight?"), and in a game with a time loop mechanic and limited maps, I thought for sure it would be even worse. But I was pleasantly surprised. It's still annoying for scripted events that repeat, but the Colt and Julianna banter kind of made up for it imo
Oh absolutely. The PvP was really about outsmarting (just like the rest of the game, nice cohesion) and sometimes boiled down to tense gun fights. Even then you could rely more on the slabs than the guns if you wanted.
The banter also really adds to the game. Reminds me of Evolve and how the varied character conversations and banter helped keep the matches from feeling extremely repetitive.
I played Inside recently. Sure games like RDR2 and Cyberpunk 2077 are great games but Inside deserves love too. I'm not trying to say it's underrated as I read it received awards and is listed as one of the best games, I'm just raising awareness for it.
Quite a few good ones this year...
HiFi Rush was an unexpected delight!
Hogwarts Legacy was engrossing.
Maybe Fallout 3?
The one that’s standing out right now is Tyrion Cuthbert: Attorney of the Arcane. It’s been a long time since the last Ace Attorney game, and for an indie project I think they did a good job of it (on the same subject, case 2 of the excellently made “Occult Crime Police” is out). TC takes place in its own fantasy universe and does some pretty good lore setup without getting in the way of good mysteries.
Just got to the slight hints of a romance between the characters (already teased by some of the Steam game art) and it’s a bit cute. There’s also implications they’ve been able to start work on a sequel.
The cracked version of Judgement, Sega raised their prices here so I don't feel any remorse.
Absolutely Cassette Beasts. An amazing monster tamer and the ost is easily better than anything else this year and that's just an objective fact.
Rogue Trader was fun and while I'm not a 40k guy the setting and system didn't hurt the game like DnD did to BG3.
Season A Letter To The Future was a great game too, about cataloging a small slice of the world before the kinda event that marks a 'before' and an 'after' in history.
Saw someone else mention juscant and it's up there on the list too, i wish it was just a little more open or freeform.
Either Sea of Stars or Baldurs Gate 3. Honorable mention for Tears of the Kingdom and Alan Wake II. Honestly just a fantastic year for games.
I've started playing Darktide. When I got it things were quite lacking outside of the amazing visuals, atmosphere, sound, and combat but the recent revamp of how you customize your character's playstyle and it really made a good game great to me.
Amnesia: The Bunker for me. Close second would be Outer Worlds.
Warframe, new content drops have been absolutely on point. Still blows my mind that it's free.
Armored Core 6 topped it for me, with Tears of the Kingdom and The Talos Principal 2 as close runners up.
The Finals. It's a weird one for me considering I loathe free to play games. Overall it's been a good year in gaming. I thought Totk is going to be best game of the year, then BG3 came out and I was certain that would end up being the best game of the year (and I'm certain for many it is), but then I decided to give The Finals a try. For me it felt like a fundamental shift in online shooters, like a new baseline to compare shooters to.
On paper it doesn't seem anything exceptional. You have 4 maps with some variations on each map, 3 game modes and 3 classes each with a handful of weapons and gadgets. There's really not much content when you lay it all out, but the replayability is insane. The destructible environment and the tools to manipulate the environment has emergent gameplay going through the roof.
You can get really creative with how you want to attack or defend and it makes each match feel fresh. Sometimes you blow up the side of the wall and defend from the building across the street, sometimes you blow the roof to attack from above, sometimes you bring the entire building down to use the chaos to your benefit. You can use jump pads for an unexpected attack angle, you can put up barricades and defenses to block attackers. There's so much you can do within a match.
It has some flaws, but it's the most fun I've had in a shooter since some of the earlier battlefield games.
Prodeus, Chained Echoes, and Triangle Strategy were the big gems for me this year.