This is super self indulgent because who cares what games I liked this year but let's celebrate some great games!
10) Destiny 2 - Destiny 2 is my old friend with benefits that always opens their arms to me when I'm feeling down and depressed. It offered tons of stuff to do and a drip feed of story from a world where I love spending time. It quickly becomes a job, though, and our relationship is not healthy when it lasts more than a few weeks. Still, shout out to Destiny 2 and the beleaguered Bungie team for keeping it going.
9) Dead Island 2 - In a year that we're amazed at the way that Alan Wake II came out so long after the original, Dead Island 2 doesn't get enough praise for how good it is despite its extremely troubled development. The combat is a little too tough for me to really enjoy without cheats and the tone has shifted a bit with this game, but it scratches that hyper-violence itch very well, and I think it is just one of the best looking games that came out this year. I thought the same about the original and never understood why people thought it looked ugly!
8) Diablo IV - The story in Diablo IV is great. Isn't that bizarre? A franchise known for mindlessly clicking and meticulous grinding to get the exact stats on the exact gear for your exact build, and it had characters and plot that were actually interesting and, sometimes, even moving. Combine that with the fact that this was my absolute best multiplayer experience of the year. My friends from high school, all of us now in our late 30s, get together online every Wednesday night to play this, and it is just like old time when we used to play D1 and D2 together. Parts of it suck. The patches keep changing the balance week to week. But for the amount of time I have dumped into it, it has been way more good than bad.
7) Baldur's Gate III - I was incredibly excited for this game, having grown up with BG1 and 2, and having dabbled in tabletop RPGs all through my teens and 20s. It gave me massive Dragon Age Origins vibes, which is something that I had been missing for a long time. I can see what all of the fuss is about. Still, I did not love the characters, and I found myself feeling overwhelmed by the sheer possibility space. I had to stop and talk to every squirrel. Could I use speak to dead and talk to animals to speak to dead animals? How did I spend so long in the underdark? What was I even doing when I wandered down here? I never got a sense of the actual plot, but as a DnD sandbox it is unmatched. Never finished it and probably won't. If anything, BG3 broke me of the illusion that I can still sit down and dedicate 300 hours to a game. I just am not at a point in my life to do that anymore, and of all games to release me from that notion, I'm glad it was this one.
6) Cult of the Lamb - It came out in 2022, but this little gem kicks ass. I love the art style and its such an out-there concept. And it did not overstay its welcome. Great fun.
5) Road 96: Mile 0 - I don't suspect that this will turn up on too many people's lists. Such complicated feelings on this one. I was so excited to return to the world of Road 96. I knew that the format and gameplay were going to be different. Rather than a road trip where you are playing as different anonymous teenagers witnessing the events of the brewing revolution, getting to know all of the different main players in the story, this prequel has you actually control Zoe, one of the main characters that you meet in the first game. This changes the complexion of the game quite a bit; I liked the way that the main characters of the original existed outside of my view for most of their lives. Sure, your hitchhiking teens in Road 96 could influence their choices and fates but you were never deciding for them. Taking control of Zoe and her friend... it was a level of intimacy with the characters that I did not actually want. Still, it was great to see several members of the cast again in the prequel. It fleshed out the world of Road 96, especially how things were before the revolution. They took some wild chances with the gameplay, having it play more like a music video than a video game at some points. I was glad that I played it, but I doubt that I will return to it as often as Road 96. Even if the studio leaves this world behind I will absolutely play whatever they make next. For better or worse, I feel like they're making games to my exact sensibilities. The original Road 96 is my all time number 1, so its a bit shocking that this is not higher on the list, but here we are.
4) Resident Evil 4 - Modern Capcom does not miss with these remakes. They took a great game and remade it, and that remake is also a great game. I'm so happy about where the Resident Evil franchise is these days. Then again, I'm easy to please, and I enjoyed the hell out of RE5 and RE6 as multiplayer experiences. Maybe Resident Evil is a place, and you can set all kinds of action/horror games there. The last couple of years have proved that.
3) Aliens: Dark Descent - Where did this come from!? A licensed game that actually captures the spirit of the original while also mimicking the gameplay of beloved games like XCOM Enemy Unknown? I loved my time with this weird little map-crawler. I used plenty of cheats to help my soldiers survive; I did not want to feel the pressure and guilt of risking their lives and losing colonial marines, so I made sure that they all made it through the whole ordeal. I sincerely enjoyed my time with this one.
2) Robocop: Rogue City - This was the absolute best surprise of the year. I loved this game. And its a licensed Robocop game in 2023! What is happening? This game walked the perfect tightrope of holding onto the cynical parody nature of the original film while also not shying away from how genuinely cool something as dumb as Robocop can be. They fully engaged in the whole "is he man or is he a machine?" theme of the films. They even allowed for some player choice; you get to decide if the titular character sees himself as Alex Murphy or as Robocop. Or maybe something in between.
This game had no right being as fun as it was. I looked forward to playing it every time. The hyper violence of the combat sections was perfect and in the spirit of the original film. I started off trying to be a good cop and would aim for the legs whenever possible, but before long I was happily splattering the walls with the brains of criminal scum. You just have to. It was incredibly gory and embraced the absurdity perfectly. At the same time, much of the game is spent doing nonviolent police work. You write tickets for parking in front of a hydrant. You address noise complaints. You get to decide who gets a warning and who gets a fine. You collect signatures for a Get Well card. This game was incredible. I had fun from beginning to end.
1) Alan Wake II - It was hard to keep this one at number 1, given the game-breaking sound issues that required me to upgrade to a solid disc drive to even play it. On top of that there were some awful bugs, the worst of which was a whole inventory expansion upgrade that was simply not obtainable due to a glitch. (Vinny ran into the same thing in his recent late game AW2 video). And despite all of that, this was the best video game that I played all year. I love the light and gun combat of the original and I think that they did a great job innovating on it.
The most important thing that Alan Wake II does, however, is tell an interesting story. I couldn't wait to update my wife on what was going on after every few chapters, excitedly explaining all of the different mysteries and leads that we were dealing with. I loved what this game had to say about the power of art. I love how not everything is spelled out and explained. I loved how they shamelessly tied in Control and turned Alex Casey into an actual character. I loved the way that Saga's story plays out and how they touch upon feelings of inadequacy and failure. This game made me feel things moreso than any other game this year. I love how imperfect Alan Wake is as a character.
And that musical. Come on.
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