2023 one of the greatest years for gaming?

[noah98]

Is 2023 one of the greatest years for gaming of all time? Here are some of the titles to consider:

Out now

Starfield (my favorite game this generation)
Tears of the Kingdom
Diablo IV
Street Fighter 6
Mortal Kombat 1
Final Fantasy 16
Baldur's Gate 3
Hi-Fi Rush
Pikmin 4
Sea of Stars
Armored Core 6
Hogwart's Legacy
Jedi Survivor

Remakes

Dead Space
Resident Evil 4
Metroid Prime Remastered
Advance Wars 1+2

Coming soon in 2023

Spider-Man 2
Super Mario Wonder
Super Mario RPG
Sonic Superstars
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[Stalvern]

Not a very inspiring list to me, apart from a few standouts like Baldur's Gate 3 and Super Mario Bros. Wonder. I think any given year from 1989 to 1994 or from 1998 to 2004 wipes the floor with this. But I guess that's why I'm on this site in the first place.

[noah98]

Not a very inspiring list to me, apart from a few standouts like Baldur's Gate 3 and Super Mario Bros. Wonder. I think any given year from 1989 to 1994 or from 1998 to 2004 wipes the floor with this. But I guess that's why I'm on this site in the first place.

It's hard to compete with the classic years, but what about the PS3/360/Wii era to the present?

[noah98]

For me, Starfield, Mario Wonder, and Spider-Man 2 make this a really great year. I do recognize that two of those games aren't even out yet, lol!

[Stalvern]

It's hard to compete with the classic years, but what about the PS3/360/Wii era to the present?

The period from 2008 to 2011 didn't make it into my last post because I consider it merely very good instead of great, but I would still take any of those years over 2023 or the preceding decade. With the eighth generation, I sharply lost interest in mainstream console games outside particular releases like Alien: Isolation or Death Stranding or Elden Ring. I did think 2017 was a pretty good year in its own right, but overall, the industry since 2013 is so cynical and bloated with money that I just can't compare it to even the PS3's time right before it, when much of the foundation was laid.

Symptomatic of this is that almost everything in the OP is a late-installment sequel or a remake or a tie-in to a blockbuster franchise. It's a list that wouldn't move my spirits much in any generation.

[jon]

1993-1995

[newmodelarmy]

For me, Starfield, Mario Wonder, and Spider-Man 2 make this a really great year. I do recognize that two of those games aren't even out yet, lol!

Would love to hear more about Starfield? Any thoughts?

[DrLitch]

Is 2023 one of the greatest years for gaming of all time?

Delayed Covid releases bundling together in 2023, must say, best year since 2017 probably.

Starfield (my favorite game this generation)

This one has split the gaming community. Some love it like you. Ignoring the console wars and potential review bombing, Steam reviews seem to indicate a positive trend - albeit for a Bethesda game this one has even lower ratings than Fallout 76. At the time of writing, it is the worst Bethesda game ever according to reviews on Steam. I am open minded and intrigued about the possibilities, one's meat is another's poison.... The game looks pretty good at a distance. At asking price, I am not feeling heavily inclined to invest in a game that runs horribly on Nvidia hardware and my CPU seems incapable of offering a consistent 60fps lock. No DLSS either. Maybe next year, at half the price on a Steam sale, there will be some semblance of optimization to go along with the purchase. Probably going to be playing it in 2024, if they even bother to patch it up and take advantage of Nvidia's feature set (being an AMD sponsored release I would not bet on it).

2023 for me:

Out now
Final Fantasy 16
Baldur's Gate 3
Sea of Stars
Octopath Traveller 2
Blasphemous 2
Dead Cells Return to Castlevania

Coming soon in 2023
Spider-Man 2
Super Mario Wonder
Prince of Persia
?Hollow Knight Silksong?

[ASalvaro]

1979-1983

[nesfan]

It has its pros and cons. As an RPG fan, no year will top the Super Nintendo and original Playstation eras. But this year and the past couple years have one huge advantage over anything prior. And that's that video game companies seem to be a lot more willing to localize even the weirdest, nichest, Japanese games. And that's a huge deal for me. Like in the last Nintendo Direct from last week or whenever that was, they had a new game coming out based on Spy x Family. I don't know if I'm interested in the game. I haven't even seen the show. But the fact that it's even coming out over here is really surprising given how we would normally get nothing outside of the occasional Dragon Ball or One Piece game, the big popular anime shows. But Spy x Family? I'll bet if that game came out even as little as 5 years ago, we never would have gotten it. It doesn't feel like a ton of games get region locked anymore and that's making this current era kinda awesome.