Game Of The Year Editor’s Pick, 2023

Game Of The Year Editor’s Pick, 2023 has been one hell of a year for gaming, with absolute bangers streaming in till the very end. These are my top ten of the games I managed to play, but there are countless more that I didn’t have the time to touch that I’m sure deserve just as much love. I’ll eventually get around to them, but by that time nobody will care what my favorite games of the year were, so you’re just going to have to accept the ranking I have now. Enjoy!

1. Dredge
   Dredge was a bit of a sleeper hit, garnering quite a bit of buzz despite being a debut indie game. It’s astonishingly fun, appropriately scary, and has a great gameplay loop that makes it far too easy to keep going back for more. I had quite a lot of fun picking up weird, mutated fish and selling them to upgrade my boat, and navigating terrifying, dangerous waters.

2. Dave The Diver
   Another nautical game? Damn, it’s a really good year for fishermen! Or bad, depending on how you see it. This one is a double-whammy of both a restaurant management sim and a deep-sea exploration roguelike. It’s stupid fun, with a gameplay loop that can keep you locked in for hours and story missions that keep you focused. I love to pop a podcast on, settle in on the couch, and play it on my Switch while my partner watches TV.

3. Venba
   I cried playing Venba, quite a bit in fact. This beautiful visual novel (with cooking puzzles!) about the immigrant experience hit home for me, and many others from immigrant families who feel like they’ve lost touch with their culture. It also convinced me I could make biryani if I really set my mind to it.

4. Diablo 4
   I spent many hours gossiping with friends and loved ones in Diablo 4 in the early part of the year. While the sheer number of great games in 2023 that I wanted to play derailed me from my journey to level 100, who knows? I might go back and check out the latest season in 2024 if Lilith so compels me.

5. The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood
   I love games with strong messages, and The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is brazenly political and women-centered. What I thought would just be a witchy deckbuilder turned out to be so much more than meets the eye, and it moved me far more than I thought it would too. If you go into it with an open mind, it’ll give you more than you expect.

6. Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name
   Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name was always going to be on my GOTY list, because I love the series. If Ryu Ga Gotoku had used the same formula the Yakuza games have always used with no changes, it probably would’ve still given us a good game, but it does a great job of tacking on extra combat elements and tying this side story into the larger game’s universe. I have a feeling the next game in the series will be higher on my 2025 GOTY list.

7. Chants Of Sennaar
   I picked Chants of Sennaar up to try out specifically because I knew it had made the GOTY lists of some of my colleagues, and it didn’t disappoint. This narrative puzzler has you playing a traveler who tries to reunite different castes of people – the problem is, you can’t understand the languages they speak, so you have to puzzle it out from signs, speech, gestures, and context. It’s thoughtful and extraordinarily satisfying.

8. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
   Killing Rick the Door Technician was one of my favorite gaming moments of the year. Also, Turgle.

9. Alan Wake 2
   Show me the Champion of Light and I’ll show you the Herald of Darkness! This dark, creepy, twisty game didn’t grip me at first, but the more I chipped away at Alan Wake 2, the more I found to love. That musical level truly is one of the great marvels of 2023, and the game’s wins at The Game Awards in Narrative and Art Direction are very well deserved.

10. Baldur’s Gate 3
    I do not need to defend this choice – there are a hundred good reasons this CRPG is dominating GOTY lists this year, and it’s an easy pick for the top of mine. Baldur’s Gate 3 is a shoo-in as one of the best games of the decade, and it’s now one of my favorite games of all time. I haven’t had the chance to play as much of it as I want to, but now that it’s dropped on Xbox, I’m going to spend most of my holiday season finally working my way out of Moonrise Towers and into Baldur’s Gate itself. I simply can’t wait, and this game deserves all the love and praise it’s gotten.