I wanted to talk about the games I played and have thoughts on for this year (good and bad). This is long, but it's not comprehensive and I really only included stuff I thought wasn't getting enough love or had something specific to say about. These aren't exclusively 2023 releases.

With that out of the way, let's talk about the

Games I Haven't Played (yet!)

Alan Wake II/Cyberpunk 2077 (+Phantom Liberty)

I know I'll like these, but I want a new PC so I can max out the traced rays, because I'm only playing through these once.

Remnant II

I liked the tutorial a lot, but I'm waiting for the steam/egs/gamepass/console crossplay to drop before I tell all my friends to spend money on it (I have it through Game Pass)

Super Mario Bros. Wonder/Pikmin 4

After playing a game that appears further down in a section of this post called "Games I Played and Have Opinions On" I decided to leave my Switch in my storage unit on the other side of the country. So, yeah, didn't get to these yet!

The Talos Principle II

I loved Talos 1, but this game isn't going anywhere so it was lower priority for me.

Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew

Did not hear about this until very recently, and it seems I was not alone in this experience as the developer has gone under. Hell of a year, huh? But it's a stealth game that has quick save/load as a core mechanic, which is I think a really smart acknowledgement of how these games are actually played.

Dave the Diver

Appreciate a game about a thick king makin it happen. I'm kind of hoping one of my friends takes the plunge first so I can ask them for their thoughts on this one.

Philly Spence's Game Pass Presents: Games That Will Get There, So I Didn't Sink Tons Of Time Into Them Yet

Starfield (Game Pass, ~5 Hours)

It's a perfectly cromulent videogame but I can wait for it to have its moment before sinking time into this one.

Cities: Skylines II (Game Pass, ~15 hours)

This game has a much better foundation than the first game and the improvements to systems like electricity, water, transit, etc are really appreciated as someone who sunk about 150 hours into the first one. But, I mean, it's a little rough and the game isn't going anywhere. Wake me up when the first big DLC drops.

Kerbal Space Program 2 (9.5 Hours)

This game runs like shit. It's getting better. No worries!

Hi-Fi Rush (Game Pass, 2 hours)

I actually love everything this game is doing, but I was kind of in a podcast game mood when this came out, so this is a free weekend sometime in the future game for now.

Games I Think Are Good In No Particular Order

Cookie Clicker (~1500 hours this year, 4800 hours total)

When I explained this game to my girlfriend she was like "why do you need cookies?" and I said "you can buy stuff that makes more cookies with the cookies" and she got mad at me.

Halo Infinite (Multiplayer, ~20 hours)

I think with some distance from the launch and backlash, it was finally possible for me to appreciate what they got right with this game. It still could use a few more maps, but I tried to meet this game halfway and played stuff other than big team battle and you know what? It's fun!

Baldur's Gate 3 (~175 hours, 50% on Steam Deck)

I know everyone's probably tired of hearing the endless fawning over this game, so I'll spare you the essay about how this is an incredible love letter to D&D. I also can skip over the spiel about how it's a masterfully written roleplaying experience that embraces player creativity. You don't need the deep dive into how it's also a mechanically excellent tactics/resource management combat game.

The only important thing you need to know about Baldur's Gate 3 is that it lets you hang dong in the middle of a city and talk to cats, and the cats all have different voices, and one of the cats is named Grub lmao

Yeah! You Want "Those Games," Right? So Here You Go! Now, Let's See You Clear Them! (1.5 hours)

My favorite is the test tube one

Beton Brutal (2 hours)

This is basically a standalone Minecraft platforming map that's also a Bennet Foddy's Getting-Over-It-Like. I didn't finish this game, but I love what it's doing. This is the only one of those "you fuck up and you lose half an hour of progress" games that I don't find makes me blind with righteous gamer fury when I fuck up. It's a weirdly relaxing experience, so if you want to just do some pure first person platforming this might be for you.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (35 hours, Steam Deck)

After watching Harris Bomberguy's video on the first new Deus Ex (a game I generally liked) I decided it was time to try its sequel. It's a real shame this game didn't do as well as it needed to, because this *could* have been the modern Deux Ex series' Assassin's Creed 2 moment. It really is excellent. If you liked the first one *or* are immersive sim curious, it gets a hearty thumbs up from me; I found it to be an excellent on-ramp to that kind of gameplay.

Dark Souls (Prepare to Die/Non-Remaster, 25 hours)

For me, it took beating Bloodborne twice, dropping DS3, and beating Elden Ring as a full caster before I was ready to give this game another go (I tried once ages ago, and didn't get very far)

I loaded the game up and streamed it over discord to give the squad something to chat about when the black knight sword dropped right at the start. My friend remarked that it was a "blessed run" and that I was in for a "super memorable playthrough". By the time I got to anor londo I was running the full bullshit ultra tank build (Havel's Armor, Havel's Ring, Ring of Favor and Protection, Grass Shield) and having a great fucking time.

This game is so good it's become a cliche to say that it's good, so I'll end this by saying that I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to finally experience what makes this game so special. Next year it's Dark Souls 2 time!

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun (5 hours)

This is how long it took me to beat the first of three episodes. I'll play the other episodes some other time, I was mostly killing a weekend with this one. But it's really good! This game sells the ultra-heavy marine power armor feeling better than any other game, bar none.

This game is also full of phrases like "Adeptus Mechanicus" and you do blow up guys called like "Chaos Ultramarines" and your little floating Navi thing is a flaming skull that is like a spirit from a sort of like, purged heretical library or something and unfortunately the thing I took away from my time with this game is that I think Warhammer shit is extremely cool actually. This game has almost certainly ruined my life. My natural defenses against becoming a wargaming guy have been deactivated, I am fully at the mercy of the first dude willing to ask me to paint some figures or whatever.

Dwarf Fortress (Full release/GUI update, 10 hours)

"Perhaps this is the year I actually learn how to play Dwarf Fortress" murmurs my stupid, useless brain once every other year or so. Folks, 2023 was not the year I learned how to play Dwarf Fortress, but it was the year they got me for more time than my last settlement in Rimworld, and so I choose to mark it as a success.

Powerslave Exhumed (8.5 hours)

Minotti's most correct opinion is that this game is good. It's a neat little Metroid/Duke Nukem thing but all Egypt-y! If you're into Metroid games and boomer shooters this is a no brainer.

Metroid Prime: Remastered (~20 hours, Steam Deck 👀)

It's a good experience, and maybe the only Switch game that's actually nice to look at, but I really do recommend you check out...

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (~25 hours, Primehack)

Primehack is a fork of Dolphin that adds mouse and keyboard support to the Prime games. Playing Prime 2 with PC controls and 100+ degree FOV turned the entire game into a metroid-themed boomer shooter. There's a lot of interesting Metroid software development happening right now (including a a PC native game engine for Metroid Prime, a level editor, and additional developer tools) which is kind of crazy - there is a bright future for these games beyond the loving (but ultimately limited) walled garden of Nintendo platforms and official releases.

Half-Life (25 Year Anniversary update, just deathmatch, ~8 hours)

Easily the most fun I had playing online multiplayer this year. Loading into a half-life 1 deathmatch server feels like diving face-first through a plate glass window into a 32 person bar fight. It feels like the drop in the Turn Down For What? music video. Playing deathmatch in the 25 Year Anniversary update to Half-Life feels like walking into my high school gymnasium for the first time since I graduated and immediately getting hit in the chest with a cantaloupe. Loading this up for the first time felt like finding out goth girls are real.

The only reason I haven't put more time into this game is that it takes my entire brain to stay alive for more than 5 entire seconds and after two matches I need to take a nap. But what a rush!

7 Billion Humans (9 hours)

Human Resource Machine is the world of goo devs teaching you how to do assembly programming. 7 Billion Humans is those same developers teaching you CUDA. It's neat!

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (20 hours, Game Pass)

This is, weirdly, extremely good? Jan wasn't working us on this one at all? I enjoyed the simple but engaging combat, and the patter between the characters effectively lays out where everyone is in a way that sets up the dramatic moments. It's paced really well! I'm sorry, I like to think I'm better than this kind of thing but unfortunately I had a great time the whole way through.

Pentiment (9 hours, Game Pass)

I adored this game. I think it's a beautiful, perfect game about the impact we choose and don't get to choose to leave behind. I'm tearing up now just thinking about this game. If there's anything on this list you should play, it's Pentiment.

Cats Hidden In Jingle Jam (10 minutes)

This game is one pannable/zoomable image with 100 hidden cats and every one you find unlocks an achievement. This is a pretty funny goof and probably worth about 10 minutes of your time.

Jess Voidburger Memorial Not Very Good But Spooky Games You Might Like To Look At For 10-120 Minutes

Paratopic (2 hours, Steam Deck)

This game is like 1 hour long and is mostly about spooky vibes. I don't actually think it's good, but it is $5 and if I'm trying to establish my bona fides as a curious and cultured gamer I can drop a "yea I thought Paratopic did some cool stuff with the concept of low fidelity media" and people might think I'm cooler than I am.

Lunacid (2 hours, Steam Deck)

This game is doing some really neat stuff! I love the look! The first few levels feel significant as you go from struggling to kill snails to one shotting them. Genuinely, it's so cool that *somebody* made a new King's Field! But...I shoulda been honest with myself and just not bought this, because as it goes along you are just supposed to keep figuring important mechanics out in a way that I just wasn't interested in. It's not bad at all, but this is very much not for me. Speaking of which....

King's Field (30 minutes, Steam Deck)

I knew this game wasn't like, playable, even a little bit, but I had to try it. It looks great at least?

Mostly I played this to kill time while dinner cooked. I think you should also play it for 10-30 minutes on a random wednesday. It's definitely not worth trying to finish but it is fun to see what games like this back then were like. I'll say this much - however you think this controls, it's not that. Just learning how to move around and land a few hits on an enemy is kind of fun in its own weird way, I think.

Games I Played and Have Opinions On

Destiny 2: Lightfall (~60 hours)

The worst thing about this expansion is that the gameplay has never been better. Strand changed the whole game, and the moment to moment action shines in the way no other shooter can. I had a great time with the raid, even as the consensus has built that it's too easy. But man, the new campaign is dogshit, and the seasonal model needs to change (I like the grind though!) This is the year my clan completely gave up on the game, I haven't talked to half of them in six months.

Bubsy 3D (Steam Deck, 1 hour)

I mean this game is ass obviously but much like Werner Herzog talking about his experience watching Honey Boo-Boo I felt a deep need to reckon with what dwells in the cold heart of videogames. I did finish the first two levels.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (~50 hours? I think?)

Look if you liked this game, that's cool. I think that's beautiful, honestly, and you're not wrong for not finding the faults that I did. But for me, I was really excited for this one and I put it down feeling like my time had been intentionally wasted.

The fan bike is this game's "Writing 'jetpack' in Scribblenauts" in that it solves every single traversal problem in the game. Crafting a weapon out of two parts is extremely clunky (equip base item as a weapon, drop another attachment through a different menu, then open fuse and attach it? There wasn't any better way to do this?) You do this probably 500 times in a normal playthrough. The game vomits random tchotchkes at you every three seconds (why are there like 30 different ways to make an arrow that sets stuff on fire?) Getting batteries takes forever and you have to go to a specific guy to do it and the resource you need is on a timer that takes literal hours to refresh? And it's at like 600p/28 fps? This is the game of the year for 2023? Have you seen Cats Hidden in Jingle Jam????

My real issue with the game is that if you follow the advice of "just explore whatever seems interesting" you can find yourself 50 hours in with 2/4 temples done with 20 hours left in the main quest and no master sword. I know this is technically avoidable if you go in with the knowledge that this could happen to you and work the main quest from the start, but I never had this issue with BOTW so I wasn't thinking about it until the novelty had worn off and I had basically solved the gameplay loop.

It breaks my heart that this game is the new model for Zelda. It's the Mario Odyssey school of "just constantly drip feed the player with little rewards so they don't get bored and load up tiktok". We can do better than this!

Overwatch 2 (~4 hours)

Man, fuck this