My 6 games of 2023

Hello GB friends.

This year has been a mixed bag for me. In terms of progressing with my life and getting on post COVID, it's arguably been the best year ever. Games wise...not so much. I'm coming to a point in my life where games just don't really do it for me anymore. I kinda grew up and moved on, I guess. When I was in my university years, hearing that an RPG would take me 70+ hours to complete, I would jump for joy and get a sincere thrill to really dive deep into. Nowadays, if I hear a game will be more than 20 hours, I groan and realise I've got no chance. I will still play a "big game" if I hear it's good, but even then, it usually doesn't do it for me. Octopath was the sole standout of the RPG genre this year, and I didn't even finish that.

Anyway, here's the 6 games I played this year, and what I thought of them:

1) Octopath Traveller 2: Switch

I really liked the original OT when it came out a few years ago. The art looked good, the combat was great, the music was ethereal and otherworldly, but the stories were a bit....crap. They just fell flat. I know the big criticism was that "They weren't interconnected" like something like Final Fantasy 6. I appreciated that.

Octopath 2 largely solved those problems. The new characters were a breath of fresh air (To use a tired metaphor) and again, the aesthetics were magnificent. Combat was brilliant, and the new night and day mechanics were pretty fresh.

Saying that, I didn't get very far before real life got in the way. I think I did the first 2 acts for about half the characters. I got to Partitio and the annoying accents put me off.

I could see that OT2 would be an amazing game, one I hope to go back to in the future. Just...I don't think the RPG genre is there for me anymore. More on this when I talk about the disappointment that is BG3

5 stars

2)Hogwarts Legacy: Xbox

I went into this with very little expectations, admittedly. I really wasn't sure what to make of it outside of "Wizard Assassin's Creed", but God I loved this game. Picking your house, meeting other students, learning fun magic spells, brewing potions, and exploring the amazing world of Hogwarts, it was such a treat.

I wouldn't call myself the biggest Harry Potter fan in the world, but I did read the books in my formative years, and I have watched the movies this year, and God I love the Wizarding World Universe.

Hogwarts Legacy did to open worlds what Tsushima did a few years ago: Made them feel interesting to explore, and have some consequence for investigating each little nook and cranny

I'm purposefully choosing to ignore all this idiotic "JK Rowling is a Terf" rhetoric, because it doesn't impact the game in the slightest, and I couldn't give less of a shit about an author's personal politics when it comes to playing a videogame. I'm not an American at University, I'm a grown man, and I don't have time to whinge about trans politics.

5 stars

3) Diablo IV: PC

I mean it's Diablo. You know what you're getting when you play a Diablo game. Click, boom, loot

The only downside I have is that the launch was utterly terrible, and the builds became very "Meta" very early on. I played the Wizard, and wanted to play the lightning variant, but it was very clear early on that if you weren't playing the Ice Spike spec, you were purposefully gimping yourself.

4 stars

4)Modern Warfare 3: Xbox

There's not much to say about MW3 that you don't know. My partner was a bit fan of Black Ops and Modern Warfare 2 back in the early 00's, so we bought this to have something to play in the winter months. I'm absolutely shite at it (5 kills to 15 deaths most matches) whereas she's brilliant at it (The opposite and more).

I haven't tried the campaign outside of the first level, as it looks a bit pants, but Zombies with a long time WoW friend is really fun.

I like the Xmas modes, especially the Snowball fight one

3 Stars

5) Jackbox Party Pack 6: PC

Specifically the alien game. It's a bit like Among Us but a bit different. It's really fun to play with friends, and just hang out accusing each other.

3 Stars

6) Baldur's Gate 3: PC

This was the biggest disappointment in years for me. I played a lot of the Infinity Engine games growing up (BG1+2/ Icewind Dale/ TOEE) etc, and I played a lot of the more modern CRPG's (OS2/POE) etc so I thought I would love this.

Turned out it just felt like a huge wet fart for me. The character creator is interesting, but I remember thinking the hair looked awful. It just has this distinct scent of "Dave's Eastern Bloc Game of the Year". If you told me Owlcat made this instead of Pathfinder, I'd believe you.

Then the game started and it just felt like much of the same. I played the first 6-8 hours and I just didn't connect with it at all. Maybe if I was the kind of person who engages with Twitch every day, the companions would appeal to me more, but they just felt pandering and tired. I know everyone likes Astarion, but again, I'm a grown man, and I don't need to go around in my real life making shrines to him because he's so bishy.

All in all, a let down. Boring world, and the combat just felt trite.

I've been playing DND for nearly 20 years, and I honestly kind of hate it nowadays. It's become so reductive and formulaic that I just don't really want anything to do with standard DND for a while. Starfinder and Pathfinder are more my thing nowadays

2 Stars

I kinda don't want to play any games next year, as they all just piss me off nowadays. There's no soul in modern gaming, and I honestly just want to go back to the xbox 360 era and play Viva Pinata again

See you next year maybe!

Good list, adding your rankings was a nice touch. Mind if I ask what kind of anime you watched this year if any?

Barely touched any this year. I think I finished Demon Slayer (I had about 6 episodes left from the year it came out) and then...the odd episode of Bebop here and there for Nostalgia sake. We did watch the One Piece live action which was brilliant though.

I think you should probably trust your gut and take some time away from everything video game related. You seem pretty disenchanted with the entire experience, even with games that you ostensibly feel you should like.

Also, for the record, JK Rowling is a TERF. It's not just rhetoric. It's fine if you enjoyed the wizard game in spite of that, but I would urge you to at least recognize the massive privilege of a statement like "I don't have time to whinge about trans politics."

Getting into Itch and indie RPGs has been a revelation. People have a gimmick or idea on what they want to get done in their game's story and usually in under twenty hours. Sure, you have to deal with some rough edges and Itch's search engine in particular is NOT GREAT, but you get so many more games that respect your time.

Also, to echo @chaser324, Rowling has done so much more than use her platform of privilege to espouse fringe viewpoints. She is genuinely hurting the social standing vulnerable people have in communities around the world. Based on what she has said, she genuinely believe that trans women really are NOT women and has repeatedly supported think tanks and advocacy groups that espouse and support those beliefs in the political arena. Supporting Harry Potter media is obviously your choice and the choice of any person, but as Chaser says, the complaints directed at Hogwarts Legacy and Harry Potter often come from a position of self-preservation and Rowling is not a victim even if she claims to be one.

I won't get into the whole J. K. Rowling thing. I don't like her for stuff she said besides the Trans stuff. There is a very good video on YT about the Harry Potter books, and how you can get a good opinion on what she believes simply from the stuff in her books, and none of it is good. But it's the holidays. Good vibes, only.

Anyway, good list. I see Modern Warfare 3 as a disappointment overall, but I've always enjoyed the Zombie modes in the Black Op games. I thought Cold War had the best version of it. And because of the free weekend they had recently, I was able to play the new DMZ version of Zombies and I liked it a lot. Not enough for me to buy the game at a discount, but still fun.

The one thing I'll say about Hogwarts Legacy is how I heard a couple of lads talking about the game for the entirety of a 25 minute bus ride. That game had clearly clicked with them and it's wild to think about, as a person who cares not a sausage about the fiction.

Agreed on the annoying-ness of Octopath 2's voice acting. I listened to it for about 1.2 minutes before switching it off entirely. This kind of dialogue just...doesn't translate well into audio, at least not in this game. Better leave it to the imagination. Apart from that, the story is great.