The GOTY thread (not-time sensitive edition) 2023

video games
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struggling to seem calm while trying to talk during a blaring * * KLAXON * *

I can agree with this not-really-hater stance if we’re talking about “publications” (however loosely that is even defined these days), however I can confidently say that when I’m coming up with a personal list I am not adding older games to it out of any sense of irony, or to seem “edgy”, or “cool”, or the like.

As the years go by, I find myself playing fewer games – particularly fewer newly released games, and often won’t have a list of ten strong candidates worthy of note that were released in the year in question. It really does just end up as a “here’s stuff I liked touching this year” list, and because – until now, here in this thread – there was no better place to put it other than the general GOTY conversations that is where I put it.

I mean, it is kinda funny how each year Frank turns up to the GOTY episode recording and only has about two games to talk about; however I figure I’m not recording A Show so perhaps it is more interesting to have a mixture of new and old that genuinely represents what I enjoyed.

Perhaps a “better” way would be to have a rolling list we talk about every quarter. Games released in Jan/Feb/Mar are often under represented due to being “old” by the end of a year and partially forgotten about, games released in Dec are too late in the year to often have a reasonable appraisal. A sliding window of the previous 12-or-so months of Good Stuff is probably interesting. It is probably also far too much effort and would be abandoned after the first round. Neat thought experiment however.

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Oh, I wouldn’t have assumed that of anyone here, and maybe my tone was a little too cavalier and haterly. I’ll unplug the klaxxon, though. Sorry, buddy.

I do just think that, you know, after a certain point of wryly critiquing (rightfully) the mainstream videogame zeitgeist for being a FOMO obsessed, hype-fueled, engagement grind, that whips itself into a self congratulatory froth primarily to widen revenue streams by bringing in ever more lineups of dubiously wealth-laden marks, saying a game from 2021 is a GOTY for 2023, just becomes a noise vs. signal issue on a conversation I do think is getting continually more interesting at least within these past few years.

Part of my position is also just a bit of megalomania. I don’t view Us, as in, the absolute legends who handsomely and/or beautifully post on forums.insertcredit.com, as a publication, per se. But, I do kind of view us as being made up of enough individual people who have enough thoughtfulness and insight and experience with games, that we achieve some kind of collective critical consciousness that is perpetually saying interesting and insightful things about videogames. So, like, we’re not a publication, or some kind of singular critical pseudo-celebrity who has built up a lot of critical stature by doing serious critique on a popular public platform, but I think we’re collectively a meaningful voice on the subject, at least to each other.

We’re kinda like a Greek Chorus on videogames. We’re a voice that is multiplicitous, in that it has its own internal disagreements, but the totality of what we’re saying is itself of its own unique substance and worth, perhaps because of how we get there is so comfortably elevated and confidently multi-faceted. Like, the parallel meta-discussion we’re doing right now, that having any back and forth is, if nothing else, proof of my claims that this environment produces conversations of substance like it’s going out of style.

So, to maybe reorient where I was trying to go tonally there, I’m really in favour of this thread and its premise, as I think the conversations of “what were the best games that came out this year” and “what were the best games that we, on an individual, independent level, played this year” are both valuable conversations, and perhaps where I was really going with all of that is that they are both enhanced by being more cleanly separated from each other. Old game likers and busy people, you are freed from the obligation of the collective ritual of Declaring GOTYs, forevermore.

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My three this year:

  1. Rain World
    This was one of my favorite video game experiences ever. The environments, presentation, mechanics, and themes all come together so elegantly.
    .
    Maybe it was coming off of burnout from the aimless collecting and “little treat” design in TotK or a few hours of Fallout 4, but the singularity of purpose and vision in this felt very refreshing.

  2. Downwell
    This game’s base mechanic is so simple/clever it feels like it inevitably had to exist, which for whatever reason makes it very satisfying to play. I really enjoy playing a few rounds during a quick session on my stationary bike. Flipping the Switch (or TV!) 90° adds some fun novelty, too.

  3. Pikmin 4
    I dunno, I love Pikmin! I’m still delighted by the charm of this series, although limited control options feel like a step back from 3 Deluxe.

Runners Up (or games I enjoyed but didn’t finish)

Coffee Talk
Personally, this was a nice, relaxing way for me to practice some trans-femme voice training. It has a special place in my heart.

Dishonored 2
This game is clearly very good, but also so engrossing that I got stressed out a little more than halfway through and never picked it back up.

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If anybody else also has the memory problem of remembering what the heck you have played, I recently started using Backloggd and it does a good job of remembering for me. It’s just letterboxd for games.

I’ve played some real good ones this year.

Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love
There’s about 1300 words somewhere on this forum about why I love this game a lot.

Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys
The less canonical Ys IV. The more distance I get from this game, the more I think it’s my favorite Ys. The fan localization effort is really impressive.

Yakuza 3
The Okinawa setting. The soap opera narrative.

Void Stranger should probably be on this list but it’s a little too recent in my experience for me to put it on just yet.

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@Mnemogenic I use How Long to Beat, my understanding of which is that it’s inferior to Backloggd (but hey, I’ve been used it since 2014 so I’m invested), and looking back at what I’ve played this year from previous years there’s a real mix of stuff but the biggest budget stuff is what I’ve tended to enjoy the least, Hitman trilogy aside. I played God of War 2016, Jedi Fallen Order, Tom Braider reboot, and Detroit and they were all fine.

Conversely I also played Rogueslide (tile sliding roguelite rpg on itch), Stigmatised Property (horror), Soul of Darkness (thanks to Brandon mentioning it on the 3DS episode), Arrest of a Stone Buddha (yeo’s second game) and a bunch of older games like Contra Hard Corps, Etrian Odyssey 2 via the new port, and Klonoa 1, and they all rule.

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Even though I didn’t mention it in my initial post I don’t think I’m fooling anyone by saying that in terms of the strictly 2023 releases, this one is my fav. Void Stranger and the myhouse.wad remain the two most memorable gaming experiences I’ve had this year. And on top of the ones I already mentioned, HUMANITY, the new puzzle game by Enhance was also pretty fantastic.

Do you think it’s a good idea starting with this one or I should try King of Dragon Pass First?

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don’t start with Lights Going Out. I think you could start either with KoDP or Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind. Starting with KoDP is perfectly fine but the current PC version is a mobile port that looks a little worse than the old 1999 version in terms of UI (don’t know where you kind even find that since the re-release has superseded). It’s also a more difficult game that doesn’t explain itself all that well - which is arguably part of the appeal of course.

The benefit to starting with Ride Like the Wind is: interface is better laid out on PC and it’s got a better tutorial,

Either is fine, it’s a matter of personal judgement like when people ask if they should start with Yakuza 0 or Yakuza Kiwami

you’re going to have a real party with Raw Danger! in that case ! speaking of GOATs

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a good year for this evergreen

BIjembk
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@yeso I thought about that while typing my post! I wasn’t sure whether to count it because it’s a remake. Also, I was expecting a multiplatform release, but after some research, it looks like it’ll get one! While on the subject of Nightdive Studios, I’m looking forward to Turok 3 and Dark Forces Remastered.

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@JCP gotcha. Seems like it’s been overlooked a bit. There were a couple notable indie immersive sims this year. Not trying to correct you or anything but just fyi in case you’re interested in playing them

and this one might make a 2023 release

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here are my Games Of A Year of the year

got my ps5 in like february and wanted to see the largest graphics it could make so i played ratchet and clank: rift apart over a weekend. just gobbled that one down like i bought a box of cheez-its and couldn't stop eating so accidentally made that my dinner. that game traced so many rays and it was one of the better brain-off entertainment games i've played in a while (i haven't played any of the others in the series and from what i understand it's more or less like, a ps2 ratchet and clank game but looking better but whatever, bubblegum is tasty sometimes)

lost judgement was my other big ps5 timesink, i love the whole like a dragon thing a bunch and that was the last one of them i hadn't played, and i really liked it more than a lot of the rest of the yakuzers. not sure where i'd rank it but top 5? maybe top 3 of em? not like, groundbreaking, obviously, but just well-refined, and the whole high school side quest subplot was a fun change of pace from the usual yakuza type things. plus the kaito files dlc was unexpectedly really fun to play and fight dudes in (even though plot-wise it really seemed like it was a b-team creation that wasn't quite good enough to go in the main game but not SO bad they totally scrapped it)

i also did play like a dragon ishin which was fun and i sank like 70 hours into it and beat it thoroughly but it wasn't one of my top top games, but i still enjoyed it lots

i played mother 3 for the first time all the way through, after attempting it like 3 previous times over the past like 15 years. throwing it on my 3ds so that all of the rhythmic battle aspects worked 100% correctly for the first time was the push i needed to keep going and it was so perfectly devastating in the way i love so well, had a serious cry about it at the end. great game

also i got a switch for the first time like a month ago and the only thing i've played on it so far is i'm like i dunno, two-thirds thru breath of the wild? that game really is good it turns out, also i keep like doing things way out of order and not realizing it until later and the game is just like, yeah do whatever, it's not gonna break nothin but it might be kinda tough for a sec. i beat 3/4 of the divine beasts then went to the south end of the map which is like.... clearly the intended path after you beat the tutorial of the great plateau and it's amusing to be in Level One of the game after beating levels 15-27 first, but the game balances it out by adding tougher versions of normal enemies, etc. anyway like i bet every single person already knew all this about the zelda like 5 years ago but i'm loving it, it really is living up to the hype and is the elden ring experience i think i actually wanted from elden ring

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i know it’s goty season but the year is not over there are two more months in which to game!!!

anyway my gotys so far:

before the green moon (2023), which i have already talked about enough but which is a genuinely wonderful experience, in that that it’s not afraid to be boring or alienating, which in turn means that its emotional peaks are fucking transcendent. one of my favorite bits of incidental storytelling was literally a bug that got patched out, which speaks 1) to how transporting the game was that i read it as a purposeful feature and 2) how this game’s emotional resonance is achieved specifically through its status as a digital reality in which i, the player, can participate. it feels very novelistic in its effects, but i can’t imagine it working as well in another medium… at least, not without some heavy adaptation.

pandora’s tower (2011), which i still haven’t finished. a beautiful, elegant, gnarly little game; does some great stuff exploiting the distance between the player and the player character.

melon journey: bittersweet memories (2023), which is surprising to me because i didn’t feel that it was a huge thing when i played it, but it sticks out to me now. part of that is because i played the original melon journey after completing this one and i gained a lot of love and appreciation for how bittersweet memories works in references to the original; it’s a game about memory, about how the past is never as good as we picture it, and does a metatextual thing capitalizing on memories of the previous game in a way that feels genuine and not pandering. also it’s just very charming and breezy.

beautiful desolation (2020), almost entirely on the strength of its atmosphere and worldbuilding; much greater than the sum of its parts, which is good because it kind of biffs the ending.

the legend of zelda: oracle of ages (2001), because its puzzle design goes incredibly hard. the water dungeon? glorious. tbh this spot could also go to minish cap because i think playing that game defined my year a little more, but i want to be a little contrarian and i feel like ages is slightly underappreciated by zelda standards.

honorables arrrre gravity rush 2, lunistice, and smushi come home. i will say that i think the games i’ve played this year are, on the whole, not as good as the games i’ve played last year - or don’t feel as meaty or substantive. in retrospect it feels like a lot of junky food.

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@yeso No worries. I think we’ve been rather spoiled with immersive sims up until now. It feels weird in 2023 to have a weird co-op hybrid, a remake of THE Imm-sim Granddaddy, and indie stuff that has a way to go until full release. Maybe it’s fitting to have some obscurity this year, though I always yearn for these games to get multiplatform releases and widespread recognition. Pretty excited for Gloomwood and will look into those other games.

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re: new immersive sims these are pretty good as well (all still on EA though)

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My GOTY kinda came in at the last minute and flew under the radar. I’m not sure it’s the best example of a game, but it left a pretty remarkable impression on me and it’s free!

Golden Pheasant (The Game)

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hey me too! i have used letterboxd for tracking movies almost since it came out so the design felt very intuitive and easy for me. tho since i try out a lot of games without completing them the next difficulty is remembering to log everything.

the best game i never played before in 2023 has gotta be SUPERHOT. i think it’s also the only new game i beat in 2023 (helps that it’s short!).

i didnt beat ff7 remake when i first played it in 2021 but i am pretty close to the end this time and definitely determined to go All The Way. i love it. as mentioned in the final fantasy thread ive been playing it alongside replaying og 7 for the first time since i was a teenager. they go really really well played side by side (even if the narrative efficiency of the original sometimes lays bare how much remake drags some things out unnecessarily).

i played a ton of Days Gone when i was laid up with COVID which was a lot of fun until it wasn’t. i like an open world game i guess im a big sucker for them but i didn’t give enough of a shit about what happened to biker man’s girlfriend to keep going after i got a little bored of the combat.

i think the only games actually from 2023 i played were when i still had game pass and they mostly sucked (looking at you, Atomic Heart). Baldurs Gate 3 seems extremely my shit but i never even got around to either of the Divinity games i own so feels weird to plunk a big chunk of change down before i give a sincere try to those two collecting dust in my Steam library.

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@Coffinwarehouses you rule

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@MoH hey wow ty so much!

my true GOTY 2023 is this forum. it’s been such a great experience becoming active here and reading all the awesome stuff people say all the time.

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If you want to find me, @Funbil , and @yeso on Backloggd, just look at who gave Oἶκοςpiel Book 1 “the dog opera” a five star rating.

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@Gaagaagiins real recognizes real