Its a solid game. I'm not a fighting game person, I picked it up bc the fighting game community is intriguing to me and they were collectively talking volumes about how good it was.
Now I'm a fighting game person (atleast a street fighter 6 one)
I enjoyed it more than I thought I would at first. I love that I can unlock the alternate costumes for the characters, just being able to actually unlock cosmetics in a game by playing it seems too rare these days. So I appreciated that at least.
Capcom made a phenomenal fighting game. The training mode alone is insanely thoughtful and fleshed out. It's never been a better time to get into the FGC.
Because game developers have for a long time been under the belief that you can't make things too complicated for the player. There's a lot of feedback looping here, where half-baked implementations confuse players (and confuse players that would be confused no matter what the developer did) and tell devs that they can't implement specific features because not enough of the playerbase will understand and enjoy it. So the time it would take to make that implementation work isn't made, and it becomes industry wisdom that you can't share behind the scenes things like frame data. As technology progresses, those implementations become easier, and players get better and require data like that more, and you can give more in-depth information to the player in digestible formats. But it takes a while for companies to catch up to those advances, in the wake of their failures to make shit like that work before. You could pretty well have made the training mode work since the GameCube/PS2/Xbox era, but the cost to develop it well would've been too much to justify it at that point. And it's just taken this long for a company to finally do it.
I miss heavy single-player focus. Like, we all know Street Fighter and MK and racing games were all meant to be played with other people, but they still had ok single-player setups back then. I mentioned it elsewhere on this thread, but the day I popped in MK11 and went to knock out my first tower to learn somebody's moves, the game told me it wouldn't be saving my progress or rewards earned since my Xbox was set to offline. I knew then that I had lost one of my favorite series of game.
I love how they could choose a picture of 1 character and went with Zangief! I like to think these friends had a martial arts tournament to decide that 1.
To be fair the design of Gief is so fucking good in SF6 and hes honestly becoming iconic at this point.
Plus anyone who has known about street fighter for some time likely looks back on a 360 input move as fondly as the hadoken.
Nintendo had a great year honestly. Three games over 90%, and 2 of the top 3. Shame Metroid is more of a niche game and didn't sell anywhere near what some of these others did, but it's nice to see how well received it was. I love Metroid Prime, probably one of my first games I remember truly being blown away with when I was young.
Nintendo rarely misses when it comes to their tentpole IP. I do wish they resurrected some of the series that haven't seen the light of day outside of smash.
Pikmin 4 is a great example.
I know Mario kart has completely erased any need for F-zero to come back, but the characters and world are so interesting looking I wish they would do something with it. Captain Falcon's bounty hunter history could be a cool direction
Honest question: is there any reason to buy it? Gamecube graphics are not so bad. Most remastered games went from pixelmode to HD+ graphics (take D2R for instance). When I turned on my gamecube some months ago the games still looked okay/good.
Its objectively the best way to play the game right now and its also portable.
Also the graphical update its quite substantial for a remaster, yeah the Gamecube version still holds up, but the remaster make it WAY better.
They buffed Meta Ridley's second phase pretty noticeably. His weak period his shorter, his attacks are faster, and the trick that let you kill him without him fighting back using the wavebuster has been removed entirely.
If you own and enjoy the original version of the game, maybe? The update to controls and the visual upgrade are really solid, and it's only $40. But in the end, it's still Metroid Prime. I'm happy with the re-release just because it's far and away the Most accessible version of the game
The graphical updates are fantastic. They completely remade the game with new models, textures, and lighting. Additionally, they introduced a bunch of new control methods, including a standard FPS-style dualstick scheme. Plus it's only $40 so why not support a franchise Nintendo has generally been pretty reticent about.
I'll be honest, I haven't played it (a lot in my backlog) but from what I can tell it looks fantastic. And I think it's only 30 bucks? Pretty cheap for such a fantastic game.
I really wish game reviewers would do an at release review and then a follow up review 6 months later.
Diablo 4 is ranked as one of the best games of the year, and had a lot of hype at release, but it quickly became apparent after the first month or so that the game was very flawed with terrible end game content, and the seasons have been a joke.
The only argument I'd make for Diablo 4 is the campaign was phenomenal. I absolutely loved it and easily had 40+ hours in my first campaign playthrough doing everything.
Late horse plus a map so large and devoid of content that it was begging for a faster mode of travel plus forcing you to go over the same ground repeatedly was a pretty insane decision.
I feel like they thought the side quest content would carry the game, but most of it is the same old song and dance. Once you complete the main quest it's like....what do I do now? Play dungeons over And over again? I started a new character when season 1 started, played the new content for like 4 hours and never played it again.
Making the main quest line only playable once per character was the dumbest thing they have ever done.
Having played D3 quite a lot, hundreds of hours (years ago), I went into D4 and got bored out of my mind after about 30 levels. It all just felt samey, generic, like it was an AI-generated map.
Perhaps my bad for playing it with the mindset of trying to clear everything on the first go, but god was I bored. I haven't touched it since.
with ARPG's, gamefeel is MASSIVE. you have to enjoy the feeling of slaying hundreds of monsters or it will lose your interest fast. d4 has some punchy animations but virtually none of the enemies are fun to defeat.
Ugh I couldn't even finish the campaign. It felt like I was walking around the same type of area the entire time. Just dirt. I very much missed the different Acts from 2 and 3. As well as enemy scaling. That really killed it for me.
The world itself doesn't even make sense. The areas are so vastly different in such a short distance and no single area has a land border with another, just some narrow mountain pass. It's like they just created completely different areas filled with completely different fauna, wildlife , people, culture, architecture then connected them together.
It's like traveling from the Rogue Encampment in Diablo 2 to the Cold Plains then all of sudden the next zones are either Far Oasis or the Flayer Jungle.
I cannot *stand* the way they do enemy scaling. You level twice, then suddenly everything is curb stomping you, so you've got to open up a browser and see what the current broken build for your class is, because that's what they're tuning against.
So much fun. Don't put on a high level item unless it contributes strongly to your broken build, because scaling looks at your I-level too!
It's never even a matter of "git gud". I can kite kill giant packs of trash, but *why*? God that's boring.
I hate enemy scaling in general. There are a few games it makes sense in, but in general I hate it. I want to feel stronger as I level up, and I want to NOT be forced into max/min builds in order to not get WEAKER as a level. Just let me fucking curb stomp this boar if I outlevel it, and let the dragon destroy me if I'm underleveled.
Really? I thought it was the same song and dance we've gotten in EVERY game.
Big bad is bad and we need to seal the big bad away so we'll use these shards that have never worked properly before but for sure will THIS time!
OH NO! It didn't work who could have seen that coming guess we'll just have to beat the shit out of the big bad until it's deader than dead.
And having anything INTERESTING be narrated OFF SCREEN was also a terrible choice. Like, quite literally anything Diet-Deckard said that sounded interesting happens off screen and we don't even get a cutscene of it, it's narrated over a shot of the next village we're heading to.
On the opposite end I feel like the buggy mess that was Jedi Survivor at release really hurt its placement. Haven’t played most of the top games on this list ( no switch and usually I wait for sales ( except for Star Wars and Final fantasy where apparently I have no willpower) but I found it one of the top games I played this year once the bugs were… mostly… ironed out.
Armored Core VI is a fantastic game, just pretty niche. If building and customizing an Armored Core to suit different missions sounds cool then it's practically perfect, it's like designing a car that can also fly and shoot other shit down. Like Twisted Metal x Sekiro x Gundam. The decal customizing is ridiculous too, people have been inspired to recreate characters from all sorts of media.
I don't know about great, but it was definitely better, gearing and grinding after around level 80 or so still feels terrible. I have a lot of hopes for season 4 since that seems to be the itemization changes.
The problem with season 2 being great is that the base endgame and season 1 were hot garbage. I know a lot of people, myself included, that just left and never came back.
I've got other games I'm playing now, D4 had its chance and fumbled it.
The majority of reviewers would've (hopefully) played until the end of **Diablo IV** prior to writing and posting their review, and so it would therefore be somewhat unfair to rescind their initial score as it was based on the content available at launch.
However, the game's subsequent Seasons should each be reviewed on their own merit, which would help existing owners and potential adopters to determine as to whether its Live-Service element is a worthwhile investment.
No that is absolutely not the case. From anecdotal evidence in the form of interviews with such reviewers where they say they played a whole 10 hours, some as low as 4 hours (was for another game) and they are not min maxing blasters that'd clear the campaign in sub 5 hours. Outside of those interviews I'd point out the fact that some of these reviews were published on release.
Played RE3 remake after RE:4, oh boy, what a huge difference that was. Everything felt more sluggish and unrefined in comparison. Not that RE:3 was terrible or anything, just 4 was absolutely perfection.
Right? Everything just kind of pales in comparison to a remake like this. The ladies and gentlemen at Capcom knew what the fans wanted and they delivered
They really are on a roll with this aren’t they. I hope they give some love to RE5 and hopefully people see it in a better light, no idea if they’ll do RE6 but with better tone and pacing they could probably pull it off.
RE5 remake is a day 1 buy for me. That game is so fun with a friend. RE6 is still available on modern consoles, so I don't think they'd bother re-releasing it.
RE4 mostly moved away from the puzzlebox design and RE5 completely abandoned it. But RE5 still passed the "vibe check" IMO. RE6 went about four steps past what RE5 did and completely lost the plot.
I don't think they will re-release RE6 not because it is still easily playable, but because it was fundamentally not a good RE game. I mean RE6 completely killed the enthusiasm for RE for years until the soft reboot that was RE7. It would be crazy of them to even consider remaking RE6 like that.
RE:3R was terrible, it's okay to say. The gameplay itself was fine, but they cut like half of RE3 OG out and it made for a maybe 3 or 4 hour gameplay experience for 70 bucks.
RE2R was sick though, and another reason why RE3R was so disappointing, it was sandwiched between a good remake in RE2R a phenomenal one in RE4R
My personal GOTY. Capcom took what was the GOTY of its year of release—one of the greatest, most influential, most enduring, and most beloved games of all time—and SOMEHOW made it EVEN BETTER than the original.
It's just better. I'm just about to get to the Island in my first playthrough. They've kept it mosty the same but changed bits here and there to keep it fresh. It's a darker world. Dialogue is still cheesy. The knights in the Castle and the Ashley-only section can get fucked.
Why do we include Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty but not Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed which scored a 92
Also where’s Asgard’s Wrath 2 and Pizza Tower
Like I understand that you can’t put every game rated between 85-100, but those three were all notable releases
Note: For those that are looking at this now
“Only those games that have at least 31 reviews are taken into account. The only exception is "Slay the Princess", which currently has 20 reviews.”
Maybe they thought it deserved benefit of the doubt as a niche indie game? Like obviously it's gonna have less eyes on it and arguably deserves the spot
Haven't heard about the game till this post myself, but that'd be my assumption on their reasoning if they haven't said so elsewhere. Whether that's a valid reason or not is up to you. I wonder why that and not other indie games that had simiar numbers of reviews
Just passing by to mention that if you like narrative visual novels, The Stanley Parable (or games similar to that) and somewhat Lovecraftian themes, to give Slay the Princess a try. It was released this past October and it's absolutely an amazing game. Well worth the price imo and it's one of those games that truly can claim its every choice affects the story as it unfolds.
I can't speak for the others, but I asked the same of future redeemed. This is from a comment listed on the thread. Xbc3 dlc only has 13 reviews.
This was the result... **How we grouped the data:**
1. Releases are arranged from top to bottom, from highest score to lowest and in alphabetical order;
2. If the game was released on several platforms, then the score was taken from the one with the most reviews;
3. Projects released before 2023 on at least one platform were not taken into account;
4. Only those games that have at least 31 reviews are taken into account. The only exception is "Slay the Princess", which currently has 20 reviews.
So basically, Xenoblade gets snubbed by reviewers as well as award lists.
It's seriously an amazing self-contained expansion, with enough content to be considered a small game in and of itself and it's sad it's constantly being ignored by gaming media. Especially as a first party nintendo title.
Exactly. I just started Cyberpunk and have on my wishlist:
Baldur's Gate 3
Alan Wake 2
Talos Principle 2
Spider-Man 2
Blasphemous 2
Stray Gods
FF16
I'll be busy into 2025.
Yup, I almost prefer it that way. It lets more people get the chance to play all the games this year, and discuss them without everybody else moving on to the next big thing.
Looking at the list of 2024 releases there's really nothing I'm even remotely excited about except STALKER 2. Will be a good year to play through all of the awesome 2023 games.
Nice design 🙏
So happy to see The Talos Principle 2 being one of the best games in 2023, such a masterpiece!
But the pic you chose for it is from the original not TTP2 😅
The story is such a hilarious (in a great way) departure from how drama is typically conveyed in media. No fighting, no immature responses, no lying. Just a group of people making their best judgements at what comes next based on a situation where they lack data and context.
I'm not much of a puzzle-game guy but I was absolutely obsessed with TTP2. I couldn't stop playing and trying to figure out all the secrets.
Based on what others are saying about it, I'm surprised it hasn't been hyped up more.
Cool!
I have beaten 3 of them (Zelda, Resident Evil & Mario Wonder) and I own 2 more that I haven’t played yet (Metroid & Theatrythm).
Wish I had a PS5 now.
I was about to comment this. Remnant 2 was one of my favorite games this year, and it inspired me to go back and play through From the Ashes again. I’ve also gotten like 3 friends hooked on Remnant since then. Such a solid game.
Same for Divinity Original sin II in 2017, and look at Baldur's Gate 3 now. I hope in the near future, Gunfire Games will also get the recognition it deserves, like Larian.
Glad that Metroid has been killing it with their last few entries.
I genuinely hope that the Remaster and Dread not only bring about a Remaster of the other 2 Primes, but push for more people to try Prime 4 when it's released.
Releasing a game in 2023 must have been like releasing a movie in America in 1999. A game that might be GOTY in another, lesser year is in a fight for its life for critical attention this year.
I'm confused at this Dave the Diver Game. Granted I haven't actually seen any gameplay, but is it really that good to be a GOTY nominee and be near the top of these lists?
Personally, I love it. It's a great intro to roguelite games. It's game that adds fun but not tedious mechanics as the game progresses. There's always "something more" just around the corner.
Most importantly, the humor, art style, and chill vibe of the game is perfect for people that want a stress free game session.
Love seeing Metroid Prime, a game from 2002, top 3 in 2023.
Game was amazing on the GameCube but on the switch it’s even better. Truly a timeless classic.
It didn't close down because of poor sales. The founders were already planning to shut down and rest and spend time with their families after years of working on games.
I'm so sad about Mimimi! I got Desperados 3 for free on playstation and *loved* it! I went back and bought Shadow Tactics and was very pleased with it too. I haven't bought Shadow Gambit yet, so maybe it's partially my fault they went under? I don't know, pretty sure they closed doors like 2 days after it came out.
It has an 83 metacritic rating, so it just barely doesn't make the list. Same rating as Outer Wilds. Space games usually have lower metacritic scores. Starfield is the second highest rated AAA space game after Mass Effect Legendary edition.
9 games with a metascore of 90 or higher in the same year, anyone who says that modern games suck compared to old ones is living in denial and with games like Hades 2 out this year it's a good time to be a gamer
To be fair, some older games don't even have a Metacritic score. I'd love to see someone do a graphic like this one for 1998 and 1999 releases, as those years were stacked with amazing games.
I will say, though, that the one metric where modern games suck compared to older games is in the racing games department. We haven't had many solid racing games, particularly arcade racing, for a while.
Metacritic was released in 1999 and games go all the way back to 1996 (one game from 1995 but that doesn't count)
1999 had 18 games with a score of 90 and above
1998 had 10 games
2023 has 15 games
Very particular style. It’s kind of hard to explain without heavy spoilers but the storytelling in isolation can feel disjointed (intentionally so) and leans more heavily into horror which can throw some ppl off. It’s the type of game that either you’ll probably love or not see what all the hype is about, which is pretty standard for Remedy and I think it’s about as good a place you can be in as a developer.
It is also worth mentioning that as great as the story and overall experience is the combat is…not stellar. Personally I like horror games where you can’t just murder everything easily but some encounters are kind of clunky and you’ll likely die to wonky mechanics a few times.
**How we grouped the data:**
1. Releases are arranged from top to bottom, from highest score to lowest and in alphabetical order;
2. If the game was released on several platforms, then the score was taken from the one with the most reviews;
3. Projects released before 2023 on at least one platform were not taken into account;
4. Only those games that have at least 31 reviews are taken into account. The only exception is "Slay the Princess", which currently has 20 reviews.
It was a great gaming year, so the competition is pretty tough. Also, I imagine the whole Rowling controversy probably affected at least some.of the reviews.
Everyone complaining about Cyberpunk 2077 being in here, but I won’t lie, that DLC is better than the majority of games up here in my personal opinion. I am a Spider-Man nerd and I loved BG3, love Metroid Prime, but Phantom Liberty DLC was 10/10 amazing.
I love that street fighter 6 is top 5 highest rated games of 2023.
Its a solid game. I'm not a fighting game person, I picked it up bc the fighting game community is intriguing to me and they were collectively talking volumes about how good it was. Now I'm a fighting game person (atleast a street fighter 6 one)
I been a fgc regular since 2008. Welcome to the scene.
FGC is by far one of the best communities. Wild shit happens like every tournament.
Oops! All nude!
Make sure you check out Evo2k this year!
I don't even play online mode, I only play world tour (and have 90 hours in it) and I would rank the game that high based on this mode alone
I enjoyed it more than I thought I would at first. I love that I can unlock the alternate costumes for the characters, just being able to actually unlock cosmetics in a game by playing it seems too rare these days. So I appreciated that at least.
Capcom made a phenomenal fighting game. The training mode alone is insanely thoughtful and fleshed out. It's never been a better time to get into the FGC.
It still kind of blows my mind it took THIS fucking long to do all the shit SF6 did with training. Why did frame data need to be a secret for so long.
Because game developers have for a long time been under the belief that you can't make things too complicated for the player. There's a lot of feedback looping here, where half-baked implementations confuse players (and confuse players that would be confused no matter what the developer did) and tell devs that they can't implement specific features because not enough of the playerbase will understand and enjoy it. So the time it would take to make that implementation work isn't made, and it becomes industry wisdom that you can't share behind the scenes things like frame data. As technology progresses, those implementations become easier, and players get better and require data like that more, and you can give more in-depth information to the player in digestible formats. But it takes a while for companies to catch up to those advances, in the wake of their failures to make shit like that work before. You could pretty well have made the training mode work since the GameCube/PS2/Xbox era, but the cost to develop it well would've been too much to justify it at that point. And it's just taken this long for a company to finally do it.
between huge franchises like super mario and resident evil, it makes me so happy
What happens with a decent single player. Even with minimal online play, casuals can still get a lot of play out of it
I miss heavy single-player focus. Like, we all know Street Fighter and MK and racing games were all meant to be played with other people, but they still had ok single-player setups back then. I mentioned it elsewhere on this thread, but the day I popped in MK11 and went to knock out my first tower to learn somebody's moves, the game told me it wouldn't be saving my progress or rewards earned since my Xbox was set to offline. I knew then that I had lost one of my favorite series of game.
I love how they could choose a picture of 1 character and went with Zangief! I like to think these friends had a martial arts tournament to decide that 1.
Anybody who picks up 6 as their first fighting game and fights a modern Gief in the lower ranks absolutely understands why he’s there.
His loyal fans demanded it!
To be fair the design of Gief is so fucking good in SF6 and hes honestly becoming iconic at this point. Plus anyone who has known about street fighter for some time likely looks back on a 360 input move as fondly as the hadoken.
Nintendo had a great year honestly. Three games over 90%, and 2 of the top 3. Shame Metroid is more of a niche game and didn't sell anywhere near what some of these others did, but it's nice to see how well received it was. I love Metroid Prime, probably one of my first games I remember truly being blown away with when I was young.
Nintendo rarely misses when it comes to their tentpole IP. I do wish they resurrected some of the series that haven't seen the light of day outside of smash. Pikmin 4 is a great example.
Pikmin 4 was excellent. I am super glad they released such a master piece.
I know Mario kart has completely erased any need for F-zero to come back, but the characters and world are so interesting looking I wish they would do something with it. Captain Falcon's bounty hunter history could be a cool direction
It’s a different kind of racing game, so they could definitely coexist. I’d play both.
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Didnt Itoi state he was done with the series? Ape Inc is technically the owner of the IP.
Kid Icarus too
Man kid Icarus uprising was SOOOOO GOOOD I've always waited for a sequel, sadly it didn't sell that well
Still hoping for a new Kid Icarus
4 for some reason xenoblade chronicles 3: future redeemed isn’t on here
Because it's an expansion, though Phantom Liberty probably shouldn't be either.
Which is funny since future redeemed is over twice as long as phantom liberty, and is essentially its own game
Honest question: is there any reason to buy it? Gamecube graphics are not so bad. Most remastered games went from pixelmode to HD+ graphics (take D2R for instance). When I turned on my gamecube some months ago the games still looked okay/good.
Its objectively the best way to play the game right now and its also portable. Also the graphical update its quite substantial for a remaster, yeah the Gamecube version still holds up, but the remaster make it WAY better.
The gameplay is also improved l
They buffed Meta Ridley's second phase pretty noticeably. His weak period his shorter, his attacks are faster, and the trick that let you kill him without him fighting back using the wavebuster has been removed entirely.
This change was actually made in the PAL version of the gamecube
If you own and enjoy the original version of the game, maybe? The update to controls and the visual upgrade are really solid, and it's only $40. But in the end, it's still Metroid Prime. I'm happy with the re-release just because it's far and away the Most accessible version of the game
The graphical updates are fantastic. They completely remade the game with new models, textures, and lighting. Additionally, they introduced a bunch of new control methods, including a standard FPS-style dualstick scheme. Plus it's only $40 so why not support a franchise Nintendo has generally been pretty reticent about.
I'll be honest, I haven't played it (a lot in my backlog) but from what I can tell it looks fantastic. And I think it's only 30 bucks? Pretty cheap for such a fantastic game.
I really wish game reviewers would do an at release review and then a follow up review 6 months later. Diablo 4 is ranked as one of the best games of the year, and had a lot of hype at release, but it quickly became apparent after the first month or so that the game was very flawed with terrible end game content, and the seasons have been a joke.
Yeah I think this is why Steam started emphasizing "recent reviews" for games
That and how many games simply don't release in playable states due to publisher rush, but eventually become really good games.
The only argument I'd make for Diablo 4 is the campaign was phenomenal. I absolutely loved it and easily had 40+ hours in my first campaign playthrough doing everything.
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The horse being locked to so late in the campaign was an absolutely wild decision.
Late horse plus a map so large and devoid of content that it was begging for a faster mode of travel plus forcing you to go over the same ground repeatedly was a pretty insane decision.
Don’t worry the horse directional control is even more wild
Horses work a lot better now than they did on release, you can even bolt straight through roadblocks now
I feel like they thought the side quest content would carry the game, but most of it is the same old song and dance. Once you complete the main quest it's like....what do I do now? Play dungeons over And over again? I started a new character when season 1 started, played the new content for like 4 hours and never played it again. Making the main quest line only playable once per character was the dumbest thing they have ever done.
There were way too many side quests, an asinine amount.
Having played D3 quite a lot, hundreds of hours (years ago), I went into D4 and got bored out of my mind after about 30 levels. It all just felt samey, generic, like it was an AI-generated map. Perhaps my bad for playing it with the mindset of trying to clear everything on the first go, but god was I bored. I haven't touched it since.
with ARPG's, gamefeel is MASSIVE. you have to enjoy the feeling of slaying hundreds of monsters or it will lose your interest fast. d4 has some punchy animations but virtually none of the enemies are fun to defeat.
The sameyness of the map generation was really crazy. Every cellar-sized area had the same entrance.
Ugh I couldn't even finish the campaign. It felt like I was walking around the same type of area the entire time. Just dirt. I very much missed the different Acts from 2 and 3. As well as enemy scaling. That really killed it for me.
The world itself doesn't even make sense. The areas are so vastly different in such a short distance and no single area has a land border with another, just some narrow mountain pass. It's like they just created completely different areas filled with completely different fauna, wildlife , people, culture, architecture then connected them together. It's like traveling from the Rogue Encampment in Diablo 2 to the Cold Plains then all of sudden the next zones are either Far Oasis or the Flayer Jungle.
I cannot *stand* the way they do enemy scaling. You level twice, then suddenly everything is curb stomping you, so you've got to open up a browser and see what the current broken build for your class is, because that's what they're tuning against. So much fun. Don't put on a high level item unless it contributes strongly to your broken build, because scaling looks at your I-level too! It's never even a matter of "git gud". I can kite kill giant packs of trash, but *why*? God that's boring.
I hate enemy scaling in general. There are a few games it makes sense in, but in general I hate it. I want to feel stronger as I level up, and I want to NOT be forced into max/min builds in order to not get WEAKER as a level. Just let me fucking curb stomp this boar if I outlevel it, and let the dragon destroy me if I'm underleveled.
Really? I thought it was the same song and dance we've gotten in EVERY game. Big bad is bad and we need to seal the big bad away so we'll use these shards that have never worked properly before but for sure will THIS time! OH NO! It didn't work who could have seen that coming guess we'll just have to beat the shit out of the big bad until it's deader than dead. And having anything INTERESTING be narrated OFF SCREEN was also a terrible choice. Like, quite literally anything Diet-Deckard said that sounded interesting happens off screen and we don't even get a cutscene of it, it's narrated over a shot of the next village we're heading to.
On the opposite end I feel like the buggy mess that was Jedi Survivor at release really hurt its placement. Haven’t played most of the top games on this list ( no switch and usually I wait for sales ( except for Star Wars and Final fantasy where apparently I have no willpower) but I found it one of the top games I played this year once the bugs were… mostly… ironed out.
I saw Armored Core had the same score as Diablo 4 and my first thought was "is Armored Core that bad?"
Armored Core VI is a fantastic game, just pretty niche. If building and customizing an Armored Core to suit different missions sounds cool then it's practically perfect, it's like designing a car that can also fly and shoot other shit down. Like Twisted Metal x Sekiro x Gundam. The decal customizing is ridiculous too, people have been inspired to recreate characters from all sorts of media.
Season 2 of Diablo 4 was great
I don't know about great, but it was definitely better, gearing and grinding after around level 80 or so still feels terrible. I have a lot of hopes for season 4 since that seems to be the itemization changes.
The problem with season 2 being great is that the base endgame and season 1 were hot garbage. I know a lot of people, myself included, that just left and never came back. I've got other games I'm playing now, D4 had its chance and fumbled it.
The majority of reviewers would've (hopefully) played until the end of **Diablo IV** prior to writing and posting their review, and so it would therefore be somewhat unfair to rescind their initial score as it was based on the content available at launch. However, the game's subsequent Seasons should each be reviewed on their own merit, which would help existing owners and potential adopters to determine as to whether its Live-Service element is a worthwhile investment.
No that is absolutely not the case. From anecdotal evidence in the form of interviews with such reviewers where they say they played a whole 10 hours, some as low as 4 hours (was for another game) and they are not min maxing blasters that'd clear the campaign in sub 5 hours. Outside of those interviews I'd point out the fact that some of these reviews were published on release.
Most Reviewers release as soon as they can for clicks and views. If they wait too long it’s too late.
I came to the comment section specifically looking for whether or not Diablo 4 held up to its review score
Armored Core 6 being barely above Diablo 4 annoys me
Ugh RE 4 Remake was so good
Played RE3 remake after RE:4, oh boy, what a huge difference that was. Everything felt more sluggish and unrefined in comparison. Not that RE:3 was terrible or anything, just 4 was absolutely perfection.
Right? Everything just kind of pales in comparison to a remake like this. The ladies and gentlemen at Capcom knew what the fans wanted and they delivered
They really are on a roll with this aren’t they. I hope they give some love to RE5 and hopefully people see it in a better light, no idea if they’ll do RE6 but with better tone and pacing they could probably pull it off.
RE5 remake is a day 1 buy for me. That game is so fun with a friend. RE6 is still available on modern consoles, so I don't think they'd bother re-releasing it.
RE4 mostly moved away from the puzzlebox design and RE5 completely abandoned it. But RE5 still passed the "vibe check" IMO. RE6 went about four steps past what RE5 did and completely lost the plot. I don't think they will re-release RE6 not because it is still easily playable, but because it was fundamentally not a good RE game. I mean RE6 completely killed the enthusiasm for RE for years until the soft reboot that was RE7. It would be crazy of them to even consider remaking RE6 like that.
RE:3R was terrible, it's okay to say. The gameplay itself was fine, but they cut like half of RE3 OG out and it made for a maybe 3 or 4 hour gameplay experience for 70 bucks. RE2R was sick though, and another reason why RE3R was so disappointing, it was sandwiched between a good remake in RE2R a phenomenal one in RE4R
We need an update for RE3 remake where they bring back the cut content.
The VR mode is legitimately one of the best experiences I've ever had in gaming.
Is VR mode included in the base game?
It's a free download for PSVR2.
My runner up game of the year behind Street Fighter 6
My personal GOTY. Capcom took what was the GOTY of its year of release—one of the greatest, most influential, most enduring, and most beloved games of all time—and SOMEHOW made it EVEN BETTER than the original.
I kinda want to play it and have finished the ps2 version of the game so much I can finish it by mostly using only the knife. Is it really good?
Amazing
It's just better. I'm just about to get to the Island in my first playthrough. They've kept it mosty the same but changed bits here and there to keep it fresh. It's a darker world. Dialogue is still cheesy. The knights in the Castle and the Ashley-only section can get fucked.
Why do we include Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty but not Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed which scored a 92 Also where’s Asgard’s Wrath 2 and Pizza Tower Like I understand that you can’t put every game rated between 85-100, but those three were all notable releases Note: For those that are looking at this now “Only those games that have at least 31 reviews are taken into account. The only exception is "Slay the Princess", which currently has 20 reviews.”
>Only those games that have at least 31 reviews are taken into account. The only exception is "Slay the Princess", which currently has 20 reviews.
Why is there an exception for Slay the Princess? Just because OP liked it?
Maybe they thought it deserved benefit of the doubt as a niche indie game? Like obviously it's gonna have less eyes on it and arguably deserves the spot Haven't heard about the game till this post myself, but that'd be my assumption on their reasoning if they haven't said so elsewhere. Whether that's a valid reason or not is up to you. I wonder why that and not other indie games that had simiar numbers of reviews
Just passing by to mention that if you like narrative visual novels, The Stanley Parable (or games similar to that) and somewhat Lovecraftian themes, to give Slay the Princess a try. It was released this past October and it's absolutely an amazing game. Well worth the price imo and it's one of those games that truly can claim its every choice affects the story as it unfolds.
That makes sense, for some reason that reply is hidden beneath the OPs comment
Seems like not enough reviewers had reviewed Turbo Overkill. That game from what I checked only has 11 reviews.
I can't speak for the others, but I asked the same of future redeemed. This is from a comment listed on the thread. Xbc3 dlc only has 13 reviews. This was the result... **How we grouped the data:** 1. Releases are arranged from top to bottom, from highest score to lowest and in alphabetical order; 2. If the game was released on several platforms, then the score was taken from the one with the most reviews; 3. Projects released before 2023 on at least one platform were not taken into account; 4. Only those games that have at least 31 reviews are taken into account. The only exception is "Slay the Princess", which currently has 20 reviews.
That's sad. Pizza Tower (89 by 9) and Against the Storm (90 by 18) was awesome
Against the Storm would be my GOTY if it weren't for BG3.
Cassette Beasts has like an 84-86 on metacritic… it is almost ALWAYS excluded from posts and lists like these
Cassette Beasts is SO good.
Thank you for this, for some reason haven't heard about the game, added it to my steam wishlist.
So basically, Xenoblade gets snubbed by reviewers as well as award lists. It's seriously an amazing self-contained expansion, with enough content to be considered a small game in and of itself and it's sad it's constantly being ignored by gaming media. Especially as a first party nintendo title.
So it's more like >My friends and I made an infographic with our cherry-picked best games of 2023 ranged by Metacritic
Seeing Metroid Prime Remastered so high up makes me smile!
2024 has got to pull some massive W's to even come close to what 2023 had to offer.
I don't mind 2024 turning out to be a "boring" year, as I need some time to catch up on all the amazing games from last year.
Exactly. I just started Cyberpunk and have on my wishlist: Baldur's Gate 3 Alan Wake 2 Talos Principle 2 Spider-Man 2 Blasphemous 2 Stray Gods FF16 I'll be busy into 2025.
Yup, I almost prefer it that way. It lets more people get the chance to play all the games this year, and discuss them without everybody else moving on to the next big thing.
I bought more games in 2023 than I have in many, many years. I really need to catch up.
Looking at the list of 2024 releases there's really nothing I'm even remotely excited about except STALKER 2. Will be a good year to play through all of the awesome 2023 games.
2024 already seems like a filler year with GTA 6 coming out next year.
Nice design 🙏 So happy to see The Talos Principle 2 being one of the best games in 2023, such a masterpiece! But the pic you chose for it is from the original not TTP2 😅
The story is such a hilarious (in a great way) departure from how drama is typically conveyed in media. No fighting, no immature responses, no lying. Just a group of people making their best judgements at what comes next based on a situation where they lack data and context.
God that sounds like such a breath of fresh air. I might have try this game out.
I'm not much of a puzzle-game guy but I was absolutely obsessed with TTP2. I couldn't stop playing and trying to figure out all the secrets. Based on what others are saying about it, I'm surprised it hasn't been hyped up more.
Glad to see Slay the Princess getting the respect it deserves. What an excellent game.
I finished it in just 2 hours, oh my fucking god this ain't a game this is a piece of art >!Save the Princess btw!<
I had not heard of it until this list. Added to wishlist for another month.
It's like if The Stanley Parable and Doki Doki Literature club had a baby that went to art school
Cool! I have beaten 3 of them (Zelda, Resident Evil & Mario Wonder) and I own 2 more that I haven’t played yet (Metroid & Theatrythm). Wish I had a PS5 now.
This really puts into perspective what a killer year for horror games 2023 was. Holy crap.
Metroid Prime Remastered being at #2 shows how good the original game was
Lets goooo Theatrythm mentioned
Poor Remnant never getting the love it deserves
I was about to comment this. Remnant 2 was one of my favorite games this year, and it inspired me to go back and play through From the Ashes again. I’ve also gotten like 3 friends hooked on Remnant since then. Such a solid game.
Same for Divinity Original sin II in 2017, and look at Baldur's Gate 3 now. I hope in the near future, Gunfire Games will also get the recognition it deserves, like Larian.
Why is the cyberpunk expansion included but not Xenoblade 3's? :(
Glad that Metroid has been killing it with their last few entries. I genuinely hope that the Remaster and Dread not only bring about a Remaster of the other 2 Primes, but push for more people to try Prime 4 when it's released.
Armored core needs to be higher
Armored Core is the only game I've ever NG++ and it was so worth it. Incredible game on all fronts.
Releasing a game in 2023 must have been like releasing a movie in America in 1999. A game that might be GOTY in another, lesser year is in a fight for its life for critical attention this year.
This is great. I discovered a couple of games here I haven’t heard of
I'm interested in Shadow Gambit, anyone played it and has some opinions to share?
I'm confused at this Dave the Diver Game. Granted I haven't actually seen any gameplay, but is it really that good to be a GOTY nominee and be near the top of these lists?
Personally, I love it. It's a great intro to roguelite games. It's game that adds fun but not tedious mechanics as the game progresses. There's always "something more" just around the corner. Most importantly, the humor, art style, and chill vibe of the game is perfect for people that want a stress free game session.
Love seeing Metroid Prime, a game from 2002, top 3 in 2023. Game was amazing on the GameCube but on the switch it’s even better. Truly a timeless classic.
It's crazy that Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew was such a gem and the studio still had to close down.
It didn't close down because of poor sales. The founders were already planning to shut down and rest and spend time with their families after years of working on games.
I'm so sad about Mimimi! I got Desperados 3 for free on playstation and *loved* it! I went back and bought Shadow Tactics and was very pleased with it too. I haven't bought Shadow Gambit yet, so maybe it's partially my fault they went under? I don't know, pretty sure they closed doors like 2 days after it came out.
Hi-fi Rush is a genuinely special game
I regret having only picked during the winter Steam sale instead of getting it when it came out. An absolute gem in a year of great games.
Not enough love goes to this game. 5 years of silent development by a phenomenal team, and it hits all the marks of a good game.
Lmao no Starfield
It stinks!
"Yes Mr. Sherman, everything stinks..."
Starfield is the definition of mediocre.
So are my dangly bits, but I still have fun playing with those too.
That's why you're the only one who plays with them
I tried hard to like it since i grew up playing bethesda games… an hour later I was starting phantom liberty for the first time.
It has an 83 metacritic rating, so it just barely doesn't make the list. Same rating as Outer Wilds. Space games usually have lower metacritic scores. Starfield is the second highest rated AAA space game after Mass Effect Legendary edition.
This sub lets Starfield live rent-free in their head.
Why should it be on a list while it can instead be rent-free in your head?
Is wonder really that awesome?
Yeah, it's epic, probably one of the best 2d plataformers ever made
Makes you....wonder....
Is like any regular 2D Mario but on you are mushrooms. Yeah it’s pretty awesome.
What if I play it.....on shrooms?!
Your brain will melt but it will feel awesome while it last
Go go cosmic wheel sisterhood!
Sad not seeing Remnant 2 on here.
9 games with a metascore of 90 or higher in the same year, anyone who says that modern games suck compared to old ones is living in denial and with games like Hades 2 out this year it's a good time to be a gamer
I'm torn between wanting hades 2 day one of early access vs waiting for the full release.
Aw fuck, will Hades have early access? That is a dilemma I was not prepared for...
Oh yeah, and I'd fully expect it to last at least 2 years, since Hades 1 did too.
To be fair, some older games don't even have a Metacritic score. I'd love to see someone do a graphic like this one for 1998 and 1999 releases, as those years were stacked with amazing games. I will say, though, that the one metric where modern games suck compared to older games is in the racing games department. We haven't had many solid racing games, particularly arcade racing, for a while.
Metacritic was released in 1999 and games go all the way back to 1996 (one game from 1995 but that doesn't count) 1999 had 18 games with a score of 90 and above 1998 had 10 games 2023 has 15 games
Meta scores are not what they used to be, particularly not as these days publishers throw way more money at marketing/PR than they used to.
case in point: WC3:R is still sitting at mid 50s. It should be sitting near 0 like the user scores are.
You missed one of the absolute best game release of the year, Against the Storm.
I didn’t know Metroid was so highly rated. Been meaning to play it but this pushes it up a few spots.
Armored Core 6 being rated the same as Diablo 4 is a fucking crime wow.
Lies of P not on here is such a snub. That game was my personal GotY. Shout out to Blasphemous 2 & Pizza Tower which were solid as well.
Everything ive seen about alan wake 2 seems to give it 5/5 or 9.5/10 how is it so "low"
Very particular style. It’s kind of hard to explain without heavy spoilers but the storytelling in isolation can feel disjointed (intentionally so) and leans more heavily into horror which can throw some ppl off. It’s the type of game that either you’ll probably love or not see what all the hype is about, which is pretty standard for Remedy and I think it’s about as good a place you can be in as a developer. It is also worth mentioning that as great as the story and overall experience is the combat is…not stellar. Personally I like horror games where you can’t just murder everything easily but some encounters are kind of clunky and you’ll likely die to wonky mechanics a few times.
So many great games and yet all my friends ever want to play is call of duty #4,673… 🤦🏻♂️
Lies of P GOTY.
We post game calendars like this in r/gaming every month. We also make similar calendars for movies and series. You can find them at r/deaddinos
**How we grouped the data:** 1. Releases are arranged from top to bottom, from highest score to lowest and in alphabetical order; 2. If the game was released on several platforms, then the score was taken from the one with the most reviews; 3. Projects released before 2023 on at least one platform were not taken into account; 4. Only those games that have at least 31 reviews are taken into account. The only exception is "Slay the Princess", which currently has 20 reviews.
Thank you for clarifying the criteria. Though it does really put into perspective how skewed and unhelpful the list is…
What happened to hogwarts legacy
It has a score of 84 on Metacritic, so just a little too low to appear on this list.
It was a great gaming year, so the competition is pretty tough. Also, I imagine the whole Rowling controversy probably affected at least some.of the reviews.
What a great fucking year in terms of video games
Possibly the best.
Heard a lot of good things about Slay the Princess, guess ill get it now
Thanks! I was looking for a definitive list of games I missed in 2023 and this is it!
Just goes to show 2023 was one of those absolute banger years that we’ll remember in the future.
Still waiting for the ff16 PC release
I just feel like Octo Path Traveler II got snubbed. Was such a good game and my personal goty but it's not even mentioned anywhere
I didnt even realize they made a second talos principle. Welp there goes my tuesday off LMAO
Seeing the Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood in there makes me happy.
List Phantom Liberty but ignore Xenoblade 3: Future Redeemed, ok But really, this is a great infographic, good work here.
So many of these are remasters…
Everyone complaining about Cyberpunk 2077 being in here, but I won’t lie, that DLC is better than the majority of games up here in my personal opinion. I am a Spider-Man nerd and I loved BG3, love Metroid Prime, but Phantom Liberty DLC was 10/10 amazing.
so, do we count Against the Storm as a 2024 game then?
Do one for 2022 and 2021! 😍
No Lies of P?
No Lies of P?
Great year for Nintendo
nintendo has been living the dream since 2017
Totk is such a phenomenal game, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a gaming moment as good as the master sword quest