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kanelflarn

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kanelflarn's Game of The Year 2023

To be honest I've mainly played 3 and two halves of games this year. Another year where my number one has dominated my time, on and off screen.

I'm settling in on that feeling where the gaming industry flies past me. Especially this strong year for new releases, it's vital to accept that not all can be played along the hype.

With all that said, I still try to gather impressions on all those that slightly catch my interest. At least enough to have an opinion. So here's a few honorable mentions that I intend to play more of, or for some reason didn't yet quite make this list arbitrarily limited to 10.

  • Cities Skyline 2
    A couple of hours on Game pass. Looking forward to play this again when the game's seen abit optimization. It's a heavy game, performance wise and dense with information. A logical next installation upon the excellent first game.
  • Pikmin 4
    Only the demo told me I will have fun with this game. If only it could talk a bit less, leave more time for exploration. If the whole game lives up to my now set expectations I will have to modify this list afterwards. Perhaps a given 5th place?
  • Planet of Lana
    Sweet little game that does nothing new, except being beautiful to look at. Had higher hopes for it, even as a couch play-along.
  • Station to station
    Looked like a builder, but was a puzzler. Was still fun. Just not grabbing my attention further among all else there've been this year.

Dishonorable mention

  • Starfield
    Fuck this game. What a let down. Luckily only played on game pass. I was promised a Bethesda game with exploration of space with all the expectations of wandering around their excellent world building that few other manages. It even starts out very promising, with solid mechanics that feels good. After a bit of time it dawns on me that this is only a series of small scenes or points connected by loadings screens.

List items

  • This year's epic. Tears' lives up to the promise that Breath made. The prequel was awesome but didn't grab me along for the entire ride. For like 260 hours later I'm about to take on the Demon King with cold feet because it means the game is truly over. It's comically more stuff to do - all - the - time. Different stuff. In entirely different areas. I believe that has kept my interest up. That which I see as strength, has sadly been the reason for my partner frustration in the game. Who probably sunk as many hours on Breath instead.

    The greatest moments I had playing Tears, was having my 4 year old along, watching and solving puzzles. Getting to steer and looking around, collecting. Having her going from finding all monsters too scary, to inciting fights: :)

    With Breath I've come to like Zelda. Now I love it. My expectations for where they take the series next is beyond high.

  • Not having left Act 1 yet I feel ashamed having BG3 this high. I wish I've had the time to play more solo, and play it just as I've played Dragon age and loved every hour of that type of game. So far this has mainly been my once a week 4 player co-op session. It does that even greater than Divinity Original Sin 2, and that's saying quite a bit.

    This Baldur's gate will live on along with me for a while. In a way that the previous games hasn't managed.

  • Gem of the year. I completely understand why people wouldn't like it. Annoying mini games and a bunch of embellished fetch quests. But I liked what it had to offer. Eery, but never too scary. Lovecraftian. A gobbled these fishes right up, all the way through.

  • Wish I had clocked more time in this years Steamworld masterpiece. Whatever this series (as it's no longer the same studio making them all) takes on, it seem to be able to become among the best of what that genre has at that time. Now finally in a genre overridden (in my opinion) by survival games. This is both a traditional and fresh take on a city builder and a dungeon crawler, all in league with Dungeon Keeper.

  • A new platform puzzler along the lines of Limbo and Inside. Yes, please. This time around perhaps I've grown tired of aimlessly solving puzzles, not entirely knowing what I'm doing, but stumbling along anyway. With that said, Cocoon has tremendous atmosphere and style. Though a bit tedious at the latter part of the game. Still had that "just a bit further"-momentum.

  • Felt a bit rushed playing through this puzzler, and a bit tired by the end. Brilliant way of making language the mechanic, without becoming abstractly difficult. Along that line it also lacks that appealing complexity of Fez, which "helped" building my expectations a bit high.

  • Remastered. First time playing this game, this year. For what I gather it's a great remake. Never played a Metroid game this much, but loving this "Metroidvania"-genre a really liked what I played of Prime. Imagine I should only like the later Prime-games even more. The famous backtracking got the better of me later on in the game though.

  • A new Diablo. Fun in multiplayer with friends, but I have higher hopes for what this will become, rather than for what it currently is. I came to adore Diablo 3. With this nostalgically eyeing the roots it's way slower and I seldom reached those moments where I had real fun. Before another RPG took the world by storm.

  • Great 2D Super Mario game. I'm no good at 2D Mario games but that frustration is inherently a part of the series, and the reason why I can't really hold them that high. Wonder is a very approachable installation, and encourages replaying levels, exploring with different badges.

  • Another game pass game. Wouldn't have played it otherwise, but I found it enjoyable what I played. As I usually do with these type of rythm interlocked games I get stuck. At some stage an enemy is introduced, or a mechanic, that requires of you to learn it and plow through. I only found that frustrating and not worth it for the story. Glad this cool game exists though.
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