2023 was an all-star lineup for gaming. So many heavy-hitters dropped this year that it felt like every month brought a new game of the year contender. From long-awaited sequels to innovative indies, gaming’s brightest studios unleashed some of their best work yet.
RPG fans were spoiled rotten. Final Fantasy XVI modernized the iconic franchise with a combat system fit for action junkies. Meanwhile, Baldur’s Gate 3 brought the immersive world of Dungeons & Dragons to life like never before. Over in the action realm, webheads everywhere rejoiced when Spider-Man 2 let them freely swing through New York as both Peter Parker and Miles Morales.
Nintendo dazzled as usual too. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom built on Breath of the Wild’s open world formula with unreal freedom. And Super Mario Bros. Wonder overflowed with so many fresh ideas that it felt like playing a Mario game for the first time.
The year offered something for all types of gamers, from the hardcore to the casual. Diablo IV summoned hordes to slash through. Street Fighter 6 opened up its complex fighting systems so anyone could learn. No matter your flavor, 2023 dished out gems across the board. Let’s take a mouthwatering bite into the very best of the best.
#10 Street Fighter 6: A Knockout for All Players
In a year packed with fighting games, Street Fighter 6 stands tall for making the genre more accessible than ever. It brings players old and new into the fold with simplified control options that open up its wealth of single and multiplayer content.
Veteran fighters can still combo and juggle to their heart’s desire thanks to SF6’s familiar hard-hitting combat. But novices can now also get a piece of the action through the game’s Modern Control scheme and Dynamic difficulty features. Modern streamlines complex inputs into easy combinations that unleash the same hard-hitting attacks. Dynamic goes a step further by providing AI assistance to help land tricky combos during fights.
But the real innovation here comes from World Tour mode. This beefy, RPG-inspired single-player campaign lets budding fighters hone their skills against all walks of virtual life. As players roam Japan meeting mentors, they’ll brawl with karate masters one minute and box yogurt-eating teens the next. It’s a preposterous premise packed with side stories tailor-made to teach SF6’s mechanics through hands-on fights. There’s no better way to master cancels, counters and combos at your own pace.
By breaking down barriers to make its content more welcoming, Street Fighter 6 proves fighting games can appeal beyond the professional players. Its absurd World Tour teaches the genre’s fundamentals through a ridiculous romp any gamer can enjoy from start to K.O. This fusion of technical depth and accessibility makes SF6 a revelation that all gamers should experience firsthand.
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#9 Resident Evil 4 Remake: The Definitive Version of a Classic
Resident Evil 4 completely reinvented the survival horror genre when it first stalked onto the scene in 2005. Its over-the-shoulder gunplay and dynamic action set a new bar that countless games have aimed for since. Rather than try to outdo that high mark, Capcom chose to give RE4 the respect it deserves with this carefully crafted remake.
By preserving the original’s brilliant pacing and level design, RE4 flows just as smoothly as fans remember – but now with stunning modern visuals bringing its horrors to life. Exploring the creepy village and castle domain no longer feels like a graphical compromise. Enemies and environments alike feel tangibly real, drawing players deeper into mounting dread as decrepit walls Zaguanado on in lifelike detail.
Of course, a fresh coat of paint alone wouldn’t cut it. So Capcom wisely enhanced RE4’s combat and exploration to meet contemporary standards. Leon can now shoot and walk at the same time, quickly sidestepping projectiles while dishing back hot lead. Knife parries amplify the satisfaction of any close shaves with enemies by turning their strikes back on them.
Just as importantly, supporting characters like Luis and Ada contribute more to the journey with added cutscenes strengthening their roles. As a result, these upgrades make already memorable personalities even more integral to the overall experience. Rather than altering a formula that worked, this remake refines everything to feel modern and definitive without losing what made the original so groundbreaking.
By understanding exactly why fans revere RE4 so highly, Capcom managed to create the quintessential version. This remake offers the same masterful adventure longtime devotees cherish now capped with enhancements befitting a contemporary classic. If you’ve yet to experience Leon’s infamous rescue mission, this definitive edition makes that oversight inexcusable.
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#8 The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Exploring New Heights of Open World Design
Breath of the Wild set a lofty standard for open world freedom that few games have reached since. Rather than play it safe with a direct sequel, Nintendo shook the formula up in Tears of the Kingdom by handing players the tools to take exploration further than ever through unbound creativity.
Picking up after Breath of the Wild, Tears returns to the war-torn land of Hyrule. But this time, Link takes to the skies and dives below the surface to uncover secrets in floating islands and submerged caves left unseen in the first game. Traversing these new vertical spaces is incredibly intuitive thanks to Link’s newfound climbing stamina letting him scale any surface with ease.
Yet climbing is just the beginning of the enhanced movement possibilities. The real game-changer is Ultrahand, a magical ability that lets Link grab and glue objects together to create anything he can imagine. With enough salvage, you can engineer elaborate contraptions like enemy-blasting siege weapons or a homebrew helicopter to soar across the world. The only limit is your creativity.
By delivering these unprecedented crafting powers, Tears of the Kingdom transforms Hyrule into a bottomless toybox for your inventiveness. Puzzles, combat encounters and exploration now all bend to the player’s agency in ways no other open world game has accomplished. Whether designing weapons to defeat colossal bosses or constructing your own mystical castle piece-by-piece, Tears gives you the reins to limitations once thought technically insurmountable.
Over many years since Nintendo birthed the adventure genre with the first Legend of Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom represents the exhilarating next step in granting players dominion over an interactive world. Like Link controlling the forces of nature with Ultrahand, Tears hands you the power to freely shape your experience as never before seen in gaming.
#7 Starfield: An Epic Space Odyssey Across the Stars
You can’t aim much higher than the stars. After over 25 years of transporting gamers to fantasy kingdoms and post-apocalyptic wastelands, Bethesda finally turned its gaze to the heavens with Starfield – its long-rumored sci-fi epic promising endless planets to explore across the cosmos. Miraculously, it delivers on much of that astronomical ambition.
As a new recruit to Constellation, you freely traverse Starfield’s galaxies however you choose. Feel like swashbuckling across the stars in your own custom starship? Go for it. More interested in building up a thriving settlement as a trader and real estate mogul? You can spend hours doing just that. Or if playing space detective tracking down bounties sounds more alluring, investigate to your heart’s content.
Starfield grants complete freedom to seamlessly blend these activities through its factions, featuring familiar Bethesda staples like warring groups and outcome-altering dialog trees. Yet despite the daunting scale presenting infinite procedural planets, developer Bethesda managed to infuse bespoke touches nearly everywhere you visit. Derelict spaceships hide audio logs unveiling their doomed crews’ fates. Uncharted planets brim with alien secrets that can reward exploration or threaten your survival. Even brief stops at an outpost can unveil surprising narrative threads pulling you deeper into intrigue across the stars.
For its flaws and performance issues, Starfield represents a major triumph simply for reaching as high as it does nearly without compromise. It genuinely makes good on placing boundless alien galaxies under your control to conquer however you desire. Despite framing it as science fiction, Bethesda created a sense of wonder and exploration unmatched since fantasy RPGs like Skyrim. An unfinished work of brilliance, Starfield delivers on enough of its astronomical ambitions to prove genuinely wondrous.
#6 Super Mario Bros. Wonder: Overflowing with Joyful Creativity
When it comes to pure platforming joy, nobody does it quite like Mario. After over a decade without a new traditional side-scrolling romp, Nintendo delivered an abundance of happiness in Super Mario Bros. Wonder. This love letter to 2D Mario overflows with imaginative ideas shaping wild levels where familiar mushrooms offer just the start of experimental power-ups.
Rather than rehash past 2D outings, Wonder opts for freeform inspiration reminiscent of Mario’s earliest adventures. Powerful Wonder Flowers transform levels, shifting obstacles across surreal backdrops bursting with color. One area might plaster circular donut blocks everywhere, letting you traverse the stage by hopping through holes. Enter another room and sudden zero gravity turns walls into new pathways to explore.
With this unhinged creativity comes fresh enemies and hazards demanding unique tactics. Snake blocks slither along as winding platforms. Reverse chomps gnash inverse teeth to block your path. Spinies stack themselves into wobbling totems, making it tricky to time jumps between the rotating spines.
Yet for all the wondrous insanity on display, Wonder never overwhelms. Its charming visuals and catchy music ground the experience with familiar Mushroom Kingdom comfort. Playing as Mario, Luigi and other staples handling so differently across reimagined locales captures that long-lost magic many thought Nintendo lost the formula for.
Somehow after over 35 years of Mario games, Wonder feels freshly unhinged as if the series is just getting started. By rekindling the spark of innovation and fun so key to Mario’s earlier outings, this latest adventure feels both comfortingly classic yet dazzlingly new. Nintendo has crafted a side-scrolling celebration so full of joyful surprises that every leap leaves you smiling.
#5 Diablo IV: The Bloody, Glorious Return to Form
After the disastrous mobile-only Diablo Immortal left everyone craving some true demon slaying action, Blizzard valorously reclaimed the franchise’s dark throne with Diablo IV. This gore-soaked return to form erupts with hordes of hellspawn to mow down across a sprawling open world brimming with bloody side content.
Rather than try reinventing anything, Diablo IV fully embraces the core hack-and-slash gameplay loop that made the series legendary. Five playable classes like the Druid and Rogue offer countless skill combinations for customizing your preferred playstyle before hacking enemies apart in spectacular fashion. Geysers of gore drench the screen while you cleave through mobs using an arsenal of occult weapons and magical abilities.
Yet the engaging combat still outshines the stellar presentation. Expertly tuned runes modify each ability, allowing for experimentation tailored to your taste. Do you want to freeze and shatter foes as a merciless Sorceress? Prefer tearing unholy terror through hordes as a wicked Necromancer? Maybe a ruthless Rogue employing dirty tricks suits your roguish tastes? Diablo IV empowers practically any blood-soaked power fantasy.
And the possibilities don’t end with combat. The sprawling world of Sanctuary overflows with side activities like cleansing cursed shrines to earn buffs from the gods. Simple diversionary skirmishes frequently unveil surprising stories humanizing this dark world between epic encounters against Act bosses. Play long enough and you may just clear that staggering backlog of legendary gear to test out new character builds which can drastically reshape your playstyle all over again.
By refusing to fix what isn’t broken, Blizzard created the quintessential Diablo experience fans have craved for over a decade. Diablo IV’s exceptional combat and customization paired with an abundance of sinister content makes this the definitive modern hack-and-slash.
#4 Final Fantasy XVI: A Phoenix Reborn
You can’t keep a good franchise down. While Final Fantasy suffered a perceived slump over the last decade, Square-Enix triumphed with Final Fantasy XVI by taking the boldest risk in the series’ 35 year history. By abandoning turn-based combat for intense real-time brawls, FF16 modernizes more than just gameplay. Its politically charged narrative told through a memorable cast anchors the game with incredible stakes on par with classics like FF7.
Raising the tempo, FF16’s combat replaces turns with a free-flowing fusion of action and tactics. Quick blocks and well-timed dodges flow into ability combos chaining elemental attacks for major damage. Rather than just mashing buttons, players must juggle positioning, magic enhancements and special techniques to overcome challenging beasts and bosses.
This action makes each skirmish feel impactful, but the narrative context gives fights emotional weight. With the fate of entire nations at stake in the power struggle between magical Dominants wielding iconic summons as WMDs, every battle intertwines with the politically-charged story. Beyond just saving the world, protagonist Clive fights a deeply personal journey to rescue his brother Joshua from tragedy and seek redemption from a life of violence.
Through Clive and his fiercely loyal companions, FF16 tells an engaging tale filled with twists that warrants returning to after the credits roll to uncover more nuance. Their memorable bonds make the adventure more personal and grounded between Phoenix-powered struggles between kingdoms.
By embracing action combat and a politically potent narrative, Square Enix has reinvigorated Final Fantasy to feel refreshingly modern nearly 40 years since the first game. This departure from comfortable RPG tropes makes FF16 feel completely unpredictable and exciting. Much like a Phoenix reborn from its own ashes, FF16 signals an iconic rebirth for Final Fantasy from seeming stagnation back to breathtaking glory.
#3 Marvel’s Spider-Man 2: A Spectacular Superhero Epic
Insomniac did the impossible – they made a Spider-Man game arguably better than Spider-Man. Upping the ante on their acclaimed wall-crawler debut, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 webs together refined gameplay with emotionally charged storytelling for a superhero experience that rivals the Avengers themselves.
Centering on bonds of friendship, Spider-Man 2 tells a surprisingly grounded tale shadowed by Peter Parker and Miles Morales’ diverging lives. Balancing Spider-cop responsibilities strains their relationship as Miles questions living in Peter’s shadow while Dr. Octavius exploits their fracturing brotherhood. Fortunately, playing as both Spider-heroes benefits from even deeper customization granting unique combat and traversal options to mix things up.
Beyond narrative innovation, Insomniac also evolved already phenomenal webslinging and combat. Both Spider-Men now have access to customizable power sets and slick new abilities expanding their movesets. Zip around with tricky web gadgets able to yank and bind groups of enemies. Execute spectacular finishers tag-teaming thugs between Spideys with special dual moves. The variety makes mixing acrobatic aerial combos and hard-hitting heroics even more engaging.
These systems coalesce beautifully for unrivaled superhero gameplay. But equally impressive is the humanizing narrative unafraid to challenge its protagonists with the heavier realities of being Spider-Man rarely glimpsed in bigger blockbuster stories. Insomniac continues pushing boundaries of interactive storytelling in games for a holistically stellar experience cementing their status as leaders of the genre. Until this inevitable trilogy concludes with Spider-Man 3 down the road, no other comic book adventure comes close to the spectacle and substance of this latest Spider-centric masterwork.
#2 Baldur’s Gate 3: An Adventure With No Limits
For RPG fans, Baldur’s Gate 3 is the ultimate fantasy brought to life. This sprawling adventure condenses everything that makes Dungeons & Dragons so enjoyable into one unparalleled experience where you control the action. Get ready to kiss free time goodbye!
After a narrow escape from mindflayers and their nasty brain-burrowing parasites, you’re free to venture across the realm of Faerûn however you wish. With over 100 hours of content, there’s no shortage of places to explore and stories to uncover. Yet what makes Baldur’s Gate 3 special isn’t just its scale – it’s the sheer amount of freedom it gives you.
Want to charm your way past enemies or pick their pockets clean? Go ahead. Rather carve a path of destruction clearing out monster lairs? That works too. Feel like trying your luck at romance with one of your intriguing companions? By all means, enjoy some scandalous cutscenes! Baldur’s Gate 3 morphs around your choices, ensuring no two journeys are ever the same.
Making the experience even more variable is the wealth of customization for your created character. With 12 distinct classes and exponentially more skill combinations, you can fine-tune a build to match your preferred playstyle. Whether you’d rather sling spells as a crafty wizard or get up close and personal as a battle-hardened warrior, the choice is yours.
And if playing solo doesn’t suit your fancy, you can easily toggle between single-player and multiplayer at any time to adventure alongside friends. Each new co-op partner opens up even more possibilities for tackling quests and strategizing your way through combat encounters together.
With such an incredible voice cast bringing NPCs to life and near-endless potential for unique experiences, Baldur’s Gate 3 represents the pinnacle of fantasy roleplaying entertainment. Once you venture forth into its intricately-realized world brimming with surprises behind every decision, don’t be shocked if you find yourself still seeking adventure long after the credits roll the first time. This is a game built to last thanks to nearly limitless freedom and replayability at every turn.
#1 Alan Wake II: A Reality-Warping Thriller
If you enjoy games that challenge your perceptions and keep you guessing, Alan Wake II should top your must-play list for 2023. This psychological thriller hooks players with an intricate narrative told across two interwoven perspectives. Things only get trippier from there in signature Remedy style.
The first viewpoint comes from Wake himself, the titular horror author trapped for years in a nightmarish realm of his own making. The only way out is inward, diving deeper into the unpredictable darkness plaguing his reality. Each step inward risks driving Wake further into madness, yet also unlocks newfound powers to alter the environment through his writing.
Juxtaposed against this is FBI agent Saga Anderson’s investigation into a mysterious murder cult. Her detecting slowly unveils connections to Wake’s strange disappearance and novels years prior. As Saga questions increasingly strange paranormal clues, her version of reality also threatens to fracture.
Somehow melding these diverging, unstable tales together, Alan Wake II descends players into a bottomless well of existential uncertainty. Environments warp without warning as reality itself appears subjective. And that’s all before the game erupts into full-blown song and dance numbers seemingly torn from a Broadway musical!
Doubling down on psychological tension, developer Remedy opted for more dread-drenched horror in this sequel. Resources are limited, so each nail-biting encounter encourages evasion and distraction over action. This further amplifies the palpable tension.
Yet even within unsettling gameplay and a disorienting plot, Alan Wake II enthralls more than it overwhelms thanks to masterful writing and polished presentation. Those up for a provocative, imagination-defying challenge will find this an easy front-runner for 2023’s most creative experience. Just remember to leave the lights on after the credits roll.
Ultimately, Alan Wake II stands out as our game of the year because of its daring creativity. In a crowded field stuffed with sequels and familiar formulas, this title forged its own unique identity with irrational concepts no other release would dare attempt. The bizarre musical interludes represent this risk-taking ethos – one that pays off through sheer imagination. Between its reality-distorting premise, potent doses of horror and ability to keep players guessing what could happen next, Alan Wake II kept us enthralled from disturbing start to cryptic finish. For sheer vision and audacity, no other 2023 release compares. By challenging conventions of storytelling and gameplay, Remedy solidified Alan Wake II as the year’s most striking accomplishment.
