Wow, what a stacked year 2023 was. I usually have a hard time keeping up with game releases and finding the time to play them, but this is a particularly difficult one to get everything played that I want to try. There are absolutely some unmissable releases though so here we go for my favourites.
What can I say about Tears of the Kingdom. It had a lot to live up to considering the masterpiece that is Breath of the Wild, and I felt that this would end up as a glorified expansion pack to that game considering it was the same world and map. I was wrong. Nintendo triumphed on every level with this, surprising me with the map changes, breathing complete new life into the setting and making good on the narrative shortcomings of BotW to create one of my favourite stories in gaming. It packs emotion, great characters, possibly the most immersive open world I have played in years and all with such grace and excellence that it feels practically flawless. A complete masterclass from Nintendo and one of the greatest games ever made.
What a package the Resident Evil 4 remake represents. Absolutely stunning levels of action in a long and diverse campaign with a plethora of vile and intimidating enemies and characters with a good sense of humour as well as seriousness. This game is a complete triumph. RE4 is not may favourite entry in the series, and this remake still has the parts of the game that I was not thrilled on, but it can't be argued that this game does not ooze passion and attention to detail. It feels like a love letter to the fans, and also one of the best action games ever crafted.
The newest reboot pseudo sequel in my favourite fighting game series came out and I have to say, despite my expectations, I am a little disappointed in this one. The game is still very good, with a huge amount of passion and attention clearly poured into it, bit something just felt off. The actual fighting felt like a step back, not as free or aggressive as the immediate preceding few MK games, and the story really did seem like a fan fiction at times. It's ending was particularly weak, which is unfortunate as I have massively enjoyed the story mode of this series since the 2011 game, but this was not at that level. Still very solid, but ultimately not meeting my expectations for Mortal Kombat.
Lavish recreation of the Hogwarts castle combined with ambitious scale and genuinely interesting combat gives this a lot of strength, but I did find the story shallow and most of the side quests very bland and pushing every opportunity to take the player out of the magnificent castle setting!
