I’ve been hearing a lot of talk recently calling 2023 one of the best years in gaming. To be completely honest, I don’t see it. I mean, yeah, a lot of pretty good stuff came out this year, but I feel as though very little of it was actually memorable or impactful. In my case, I feel like I spent a lot more time playing older stuff that I’d missed in recent years than I did new stuff. As such, I’ve got two games to talk about today. The first is my pick for the best of what actually came out this year, and the second is my favorite out of everything I played. Okay, let’s get right into it then!

Baldur’s Gate 3

I don’t think I can understate just how much this game surprised me. I mean, I’d heard about the Baldur’s Gate series before and heard good things about this one off and on since it entered early acces, but it never really grabbed my attention. It just seemed a bit too close to the tabletop Dungeons and Dragons style of RPG, which had never really interested me before. Honestly, if it weren’t for a good friend of mine giving it to me as a gift, I probably never would have gotten around to playing it. Thank goodness I did though, because Baldur’s Gate 3 is absolutely fantastic!

There’s so much to love about this game, but I think for me it really came down to both the characters and the sheer amount of freedom you’re given in how you come at things. In the first act especially, it’s as though just about everything you could think of was taken into account! Seriously, it’s as if the game has some sortof response (often with voiced dialog) for just about every approach you could take! I kind of just had fun trying to go off the beaten path a lot of the time, and I was almost never disappointed.

As for the characters, while I would have like more screentime for the likes of Raphael and a few more meaningful conversations with the party members, everyone still nonetheless felt like a very well-rounded character. I felt like I was really getting to know these people, even some of the antagonists as we continually bumped into each other. It was a compelling experience through and through (except for a really nast difficulty spike at the very end) and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who likes RPGs even just a little.

Returnal

As great as Baldur’s Gate 3 is though, the game that absolutely knocked my socks off the hardes this year was, unquestionably, Returnal. Seriously, once I finished learning the ropes from my friend and was able to really dig into the meat of this game with him, I got to have a gameplay experience the likes of which I don’t think I’ve ever had before. I mean, I’ve played a lot of incredibly fantastic games over the years, but there’s something about Returnal’s mix of music, tough-as-nails difficulty and flow that just hits differen, you know?

It also helped that the game is downright gorgeous to look at and absolutely nails the idea of a world that’s fascinatingly alien. I had so much fun playing this with my buddy at the beginning of 2023 that I’m still thinking about it all these months later, and my buddy and I are both lowkey thinking about jumping back in and climbing the endless mode’s leaderboard!

Honorable Mention: Signalis

I was so, so very close to choosing Signalis over Returnal for my top spot that I absolutely had to at least mention it. See, whereas Returnal was both mystifying and out and out fun, Signalis was just plain haunting. I mean, I absolutely had fun picking apart its puzzles and figuring out how best to navigate its existential locales, but its biggest impact came from its atmosphere and the overwhelming heaviness of its story and the themes at play.

Even now, I can’t quite put into words the full range of things Signalis made me feel. There was horror to be sure, but also outrage, bitterness, wistfulness, relief, disappointment, melancholy and other things for which I just cannot find the right description. It evokes a reaction from the player in the same way a masterpiece of writing, film or music does, and I don’t think I’ve ever played anything quite like it. Signalis is…well…it’s something special.

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Okay, and with that it’s time to close out another fun year of talking about gaming with you all! I absolutely had a blast and I hope you all did too! For now though, please be sure to tell me your own GotY picks in the comments below and make sure to check out Duck’s and Cary’s picks too! See you all next week for our Most Anticipated Games, and have a happy new year!

Image compiled by Hatmonster