GOTY 2023 - What's yours?

[coopasonic]

The year is just about over and I think all the big releases have had their moment. What's tops for you?

I did a quick ranking based on my games played list.

1) Baldur's Gate 3
2) The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
3) Spider-Man 2
4) Remnant 2
5) Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty
6) Hogwart's Legacy
7) Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
8) Jagged Alliance 3
9) Starfield
10) Assassin's Creed Mirage
Final Fantasy XVI
Diablo IV
Dead Island 2

[Zarathud]

Baldur’s Gate 3, no contest.

[Blackhawk]

I strongly suspect BG3, although I haven't gotten that far in it. I honestly haven't played that many new games this year.

[coopasonic]

I'm honestly surprised Tears of the Kingdom ranked so high for me, and Diablo 4 so low.

Actually BG3 is a bit of a surprise as well given how hard it was for me to get into D:OS2.

[Skinypupy]

Top 5 for me:
1. Baldur's Gate 3. The best CRPG ever made, imo. Easily the best game this year.
2. Final Fantasy XVI. Took the series in a more action-oriented direction that not everyone wanted, but I absolutely loved the story and characters.
3. Theatrhythm Final Fantasy Final Bar Line. This is the best rhythm game series since Rock Band.
4. Hogwart's Legacy. I'm not a HP fan at all, but enjoyed this way more than I expected to.
5. Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores. I still think Horizon is the best open world game (not named Witcher 3) and this was a very fun add-on.
Honorable Mention: Diablo 4, Age of Wonders 4

Most disappointing:
- Starfield. Every single thing about that game just rubbed me the wrong way. That said, it was the game I tried to play right after finishing 100+ hours of Baldur's Gate 3. I'll need to revisit it at some point and see if I actually didn't like it, or if it just couldn't compare to BG3. I suspect it's a little of both.
- Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis. It was originally billed as a chibi version of FF VII, similar to what they did with FF XV Pocket Edition. While it did have some of that, you had to grind through hours and hours of a boring gacha crapfest to see it. Or pay to win, of course. I bought a new iPad pretty much just for this game, and played it for two weeks before giving up on the grind.
- Jedi Survivor. Was hoping for something more than a Jedi parkour simulator with the absolute dullest main character ever.

[Daehawk]

I dont think I have one this year strangely. Dont have the PC rig to run new stuff really and been playing older stuff and backlogged stuff. So I cannot throw one out so to speak.

I can say I've enjoyed Fallout 76 a LOT more than I thought I would . Not the game at all I thought IT was.

[Madmarcus]

1. Phantom Liberty / Cyberpunk 2077
2. BG3
3. JA3
4. Starfield

I'm not sure I've played another new game this year. If Phantom Liberty doesn't count you can move the others up one rank each.

In my mind it is surprisingly close between BG3, JA3, and Starfield. They all hit different things that I like. BG3 is the big rpg but the longer I played the more I disliked their interpretation of 5e D&D. JA3 was the opposite; small and more focused. At first the differences from JA2 1.13 seemed important but as the game went along it felt like the mechanics got out of the way and let me get on with the same type of map painting with mercs that I enjoyed in JA2. Finally Starfield really did hit the sense of space exploration I expected. I know I'm unusual but neither the fast travel nor the walking on planets bothered me. In the end the repetition of POI is the only real problem I have with the game

[Jaymann]

The race is just for what's in second place.

Baldur's Gate 3
God of War Ragnarok
Sea of Stars
Symphony of War

[hitbyambulance]

Zachtronics Solitaire Collection !!

[malchior]

BG3 by significant margin.

Hogwart's Legacy is probably number 2 for me. Several other titles were good this years in the middle between the most disappointing title which was Starfield by a significant margin.

[hepcat]

Baldur’s Gate 3, no contest.

Yup, ditto.

Zachtronics Solitaire Collection !!

I would have said the same if they’d added multiplayer.

[Jolor]

I just realized that I only played two 2023 releases this year. BG3 which I am burned out after playing in early release for way too long and can't seem to get into now that it's GA, and D4 which I am playing the heck out of but can't put forward as GotY 2023.

[YellowKing]

To me it's been a weird year. Super A+++ level titles, but none of them (aside from BG3) lived up to my expectations. I got bored with FFXVI and never finished it. I thought Starfield was excellent but ultimately got bored with that one too (to be fair, sci-fi is not my favorite genre so it's rare that I get hooked on something in that genre). And Diablo 4 was just meh - easily my biggest disappointment of the entire year.

Years ago I might have chalked that up to just my inability to finish games I started, but I've been on a roll over the past couple of years of actually sticking with games and finishing them. I think I finished at least 3 or 4 lengthy RPGs, in addition to other shorter games I knocked out. So I have to pin at least a *little* blame on the games just missing the mark this year.

[Baroquen]

The only new release I played this year was Diablo IV and I was disappointed. Not surprised, but that was unfortunate. I played a huge amount of Tactics Ogre Reborn and that was a late 2022 release, but ultimately a remaster/remake. Usually, the AAA titles don't grab me with the exception of the annual sports releases. I've been knocked out a fair number of old, backlog titles but really don't have a clear choice for GOTY 2023.

[Max Peck]

I don't know that I have a clear 2023 GOTY. The games that were released this year that I played and really enjoyed include Dead Island 2, Jagged Alliance 3, Baldur's Gate 3, Starfield and Cyberpunk 2077 (between the 2.0 update and Phantom Liberty DLC, I consider it to qualify as a 2023 game). Elder Scrolls Online probably also deserves a mention, given that I play the game almost every day (and it did get another expansion this year).

[Kraken]

The only "new" (to me) game that I played this year is Stellaris, so I nominate it for Classic GOTY.

I'm starting to tire of it though. Sounds like I should try BG3.

[Anonymous Bosch]

The only "new" (to me) game that I played this year is Stellaris, so I nominate it for Classic GOTY.

I'm starting to tire of it though. Sounds like I should try BG3.

Not a bad idea at all, but have you tried playing Stellaris with any of the expansions and DLC you purchased for it? Because if you're still playing base game-only, you're definitely missing out. The top tier expansions and DLC significantly improve and overhaul gameplay mechanics in a variety of interesting and compelling ways, while also adding a plenitude of new content and events to enjoy.

[Kraken]

The only "new" (to me) game that I played this year is Stellaris, so I nominate it for Classic GOTY.

I'm starting to tire of it though. Sounds like I should try BG3.

Not a bad idea at all, but have you tried playing Stellaris with any of the expansions and DLC you purchased for it? Because if you're still playing base game-only, you're definitely missing out. The top tier expansions and DLC significantly improve and overhaul gameplay mechanics in a variety of interesting and compelling ways, while also adding a plenitude of new content and events to enjoy.

Yes, my current game has all the new goodies. Because I wanted to check those out in a familiar context, I played the good humans again, and I am romping again. Everybody loves me and micromanaging economics and production is all that's left to do. The basic gameplay didn't change as much as I had expected it would, although I am seeing some things I hadn't seen before.

I'll probably play one more game using a different race just to shake things up. Might even quit this one early because there's no challenge in it. But all the love for BG3 is tempting me to take a short break from 4X games. What is it, 100 hours of gameplay? That's like one full game of Stellaris.

[Moliere]

BG3
Cyberpunk PL
Spiderman Remastered
Shadows Over Loathing
Everspace 2

[Blackhawk]

Actual 2023 releases I've played, not in any order:

Diablo 4
Jagged Alliance 3
Baldur's Gate 3
Starfield

Baldur's Gate 3 is temporarily back-burnered until I clear up enough free time to really give it the attention it deserves (probably as soon as I finish Diablo 4.)

Starfield is on hold for probably another year. It needs to have a lot of issues cleared up, and the mod tools need to be released so that the community can address the rest of the issues, and so that they can try to address some of the repetitiveness and similar shortcomings.

Jagged Alliance 3 I finished, and while it had a few issues, I really liked it and plan to play it again. A lot of the criticisms I've seen of it aren't "JA3 is a bad game", it's "JA3 isn't just like JA2" - despite a 24 year gap between their releases. In other words, it could not have been just like JA2 - game design has changed too much, and so has the audience. Given that, they managed to get pretty damned close to the 'feel' of JA2.

Diablo 4 I'm still in the middle of. It's... Blizzard. Blizzard is well-known for over-correcting, and Diablo 4 is exactly that. D2 was a great game. They made D3 a little too 'out there' and whimsical, so with D4 they took it back in the direction of D2 - but they overdid it a bit. Gameplay wise, it still needs some TLC. The campaign, for instance, keeps throwing enemies at me two or three at a time. That's too few to burn cooldowns or take proper advantage of abilities, which makes that aspect of the combat tedious (especially if you're a class that starts with 0 resources and has to build them up.) But then again, Diablo 3 was even more of a mess early on, and it took several seasons before they got it cleaned up and polished.

Still, when it comes right down to, I have to go with Jagged Alliance 3. It's better than Starfield, and it is better than Diablo 4 as it is right now. Baldur's Gate 3 would probably have taken the prize, though, had I played enough of it to feel like I could honestly claim it.

I also got Hogwarts Legacy, but have yet to install it.

Wait, five 'new release' games in one year? That's got to be a record for me. I usually get one or two in any given year. No wonder I'm broke!

[YellowKing]

Hogwarts Legacy I really enjoyed, and it was a much better game than it probably had any right to be. It had two major flaws: 1. The gear system was essentially meaningless after a certain point, and 2. It got REALLY tedious after awhile. Those first 20 hours or so, however, were absolutely stellar.

[Suitably Ironic Moniker]

BG3, no surprise. I don’t know how it’ll fall in my ultimate RPG list, but it’ll definitely be there among Witcher 3 and Morrowind.

[Grifman]

Starfield

Not even close to being interested in BG3, never been interested in high fantasy, me liking Skyrim is an aberration, I just loved the setting for some reason.

[Moliere]

[Moliere]

A great YouTube channel for gamers. For example, check out their playlist for games like Elden Ring.

[Blackhawk]

I've been watching them off and on for years since they got their start doing Blizzard videos.

[Torfish]

BG3 - everyone involved with it was passionate about making it special. Loved it
Diablo 4 - season 2 is where the game started to become good. Hope the other seasons make it eventually a great game

[Octavious]

It was a crazy good year for games. Even if I took a break halfway through I'd currently have to say BG3, but while it didn't come out this year or last year Cyberpunk in it's final version is flipping amazing. Resident Evil 4 was awesome too. And Hogwarts lets not forget about that gem! And then wait freaking Zelda! Sorry it has to be Zelda. I just adore the last two games. I'm a sucker for open worlds that are interactive. Damn what a crazy year. Might be the best year for games for me ever when I think about it.

[mori]

I am not one to jump on the latest titles but my list would be:
Football Manager 2023
Cities Skylines II
Jagged Alliance 3