Another year has come and gone, and once again we got to enjoy a lot of great games. Still, the releases never stop coming, and there are always plenty of cool and interesting titles to look forward to this year! I’m mostly sticking to major releases on this list, but I’m thinking there are a lot of cool smaller games to look forward to too. I just need to check my notes and remember what all they are (haha).

Atomic Heart

Anything that give me BioShock vibes is something I’m going to have my eye on, and I’ve had my eye on Atomic Heart for at least three years now. Alternate history, cool powers, interesting weapons, a unique setting and cool retro-russia stuff is all combined into one package here, so I can’t help but feel like it’ll be a home run! However, there are rumors that development has been troubled and the game has already gotten on of those telltale short-term delays. I’m really psyched for this one, but with everything that’s happened in the past couple of years, I’m probably going to wait and see nonetheless.

The Invincible

All I know about The Invincible is that I find it intriguing. Not all that much has been shown of it, but what has been put out there looks interesting at the very least. If you watch the trailer, you’ll notice that the aesthetic is very retro-futuristic, like the what people in the 50’s thought space travel would look like. I’ve always been fascinated by this very old vision of the future, so getting the chance to play around in a round built on those ideas sounds pretty awesome.

I’m not so sure about the gameplay yet since it’s looking like a slow-paced mystery kind of story, and gameplay for those sorts of games is always kind of hit or miss. Still, if they give us enough cool ideas to consider and breadcrumbs to play around with, then I suppose there doesn’t need to be a whole lot of action or exploration involved. Unfortunately though, it’s looking like The Invincible is going to be a PC-only release, and my poor laptop is probably a bit too old to run it properly now.

Dead Space Remake

At first, I was very skeptical of a potential Dead Space remake. First of all, this is coming from EA, the company responsible for not only running the series into thr ground with its stupid mandates, but also mismanaged the developer, Visceral Games, so badly that the developer had to close its doors a few years ago. What good could one possibly expect from a remake managed by the company most responsible for ensuring that Dead Space died in the first place, you know? Well, after seeing what [studio name] is actually doing with the remake, I’ve found myself actually looking forward to the result.

Surprisingly, they’re actually giving it the full remake treatment and not just overhauling the graphics like with the recent Demon’s Souls “remake”. Rather, they’re actually making a modern version of Dead Space. The USG Ishimura is no longer segmented into levels connected by a single train; players can explore it freely. No longer will the Necromorphs devolve into mostly predictable jump-scares; now even the developers are surprised by them. No more awkward zero-G jumping (as realistic as that might have been); now players can float about like they did in Dead Space 2 and 3. It all sounds rather great! Still, as with some of the other games on this list, I’m going to wait and see rather than just run out and buy it. Sorry EA, I still don’t trust you at all.

Starfield

Even though I’ve lost almost all confidence in Bethesda Softworks as a developer, I must admit that I’m very curious to see what a new, fully original IP from them will look like. This studio hasn’t made anything 100% original since the first Elder Scrolls game, so this really is a special occasion. From what I’ve seen, the game looks pretty and it’s sounding like there will be quite a lot to do and explore. I’m 100% down to try it out too, but I do have reservations.

This company’s track record has been pretty bad this past decade, so I’m not convinced that they’re suddenly able to make high-quality games again. Also, Todd Howard has mentioned several times that they’re going to be using procedural generation to some degree, which has me worried that we’re going to wind up with an early No Man’s Sky situation in which the galaxy will be filled with mostly empty planets that are basically identical. Who knows though? This one I’ll probably be trying right away, but only because it’s included in Xbox Game Pass.

Hollow Knight: Silksong

This is it. This is THE big release of 2023 for me (assuming it comes out this year). I and the rest of the Hollow Knight fandom have now been waiting for four years now, and the hype has only grown. The art looks even more beautiful than the first game. Hornet looks even more fun to play than The Knight. The world looks incredible, and the little bit of music that’s been released sounds wonderful too. Unfortunately, even though I’m sure that Team Cherry has been working incredibly hard on it all this time, it doesn’t seem like the project is making much progress. Updates have been few and far between and there’s still no word on an actual release window.

The first Hollow Knight was a massive surprise to me. I don’t even remember why I picked it up originally. I’m so glad I did though, as it proved to be an absolutely incredible experience! Hallownest is an absolutely fascinating place to explore, and the tough as nails, yet highly customizable gameplay is addictive in a way that very few games manage to achieve. Even more than that, the sheer atmosphere of the place and the incredibly heavy emotions that the story and lore manage to evoke have both remained with me to this very day. I mean, it’s been years now and I STILL choke up a little bit when I picture the City of Tears and hear the music in my head! Seriously, if you haven’t played it, you’re missing out!

Of course, I don’t want the team to rush. However long it takes to see Hollow Knight: Silksong reach maturity is fine with me. It’s just that I’d like to hear more about it you know? Some hope that it’ll come out before the end of this current console generation would be nice too. 🙂

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What are your most anticipated games this year? How many do you think will actually make it out on time?

Image from the Hollow Knight: Silksong Steam Page