Game of the year 2023

 What is the answer? I have said it many times before and been wrong on reflection that it's been a poor year, including what now seems like an insane comment of 2013. GT5, Last of us, Bioshock infinite, Tomb raider reboot. Madness. Maybe this year will be the same, maybe... First off, biggest let down, Dead space remake, I have never played it before as when it came out I had no interest in survival horror but my tastes have since changed, but I just do not get the big deal of this game, it's riddled with many of my personal gaming foibles. backtracking, repetitive environments, long boss battles and most egregious of all, enemy attacks from behind you couldn't possibly know were coming (until such an act had made you respawn) that just eats up your health, especially in a game where health is such a commodity. I found it much more infuriating than any other adjective. But what were the good game? It sure as hell wasn't Sonic superstars, not made by the creators of Sonic Mania and the ultimate sin, 2.5d! but decent reviews gave me hope, How wrong. Presumably Sonic team have zero staff members left from the early 90's (especially Yuji Naka, Sonic creator, now in jail (I think (presumably for making Balan wonderland ( actually it was insider trading but that's boring)))) because they just do not get it, gimmick laden and unpredictable enemy placement (just like the lame DS games (unbelievably adored)), honestly, there's games like Spark the electric Jester out there for £5 and that is more of a Sonic game than this could ever be. Please hand over the series to fans now, at least the 2D series, and hey, maybe get some outside help for the 3D games as well so there's not sweeping changes between every release. Rant over (for now). 

Special mention to cult of the lamb, a far superior twin stick rogue like to Hades (yeah, I said it) but even though I played it in 2023, it released in 2022, hard cheese ( hmm, probably should have been nominated for last year, especially since I wrote that about 2 hours before I am writing this, but I didn't, Tinykin lucked out there). Speaking of, foolish River city girls came out in mid December 2022, does it not want to be nominated for this prestigious award?

There are some honourable nominations, Cocoon was a good puzzler, but not a really great one and Spiderman 2 was probably the best example of one of 'those' PlayStation games you'll get, but it's still full of that never ending mediocre story that curses them all. Also, all the bosses were the same and the one with Venom (spoiler alert) took the absolute biscuit with having 4 back to back stages, come on now. Also, I'm pretty sure (shudder) Mario wonder would have made this list, but I no longer have a Switch, so do one you Nintendo mug.

Resident Evil 4 remake

Not all survival horror remakes that I never played the original versions of are massive disappointments, case in point RE4, a series of games mentioned many times before. Since RE7 the series have delivered banger after banger (after banger (credit: Sheamus)). What a sensation, all elements of this game are bang on survival horror, sure it's changed up the setting to a less horrorey setting, but the feeling remains, along with resource management and crazy enemies, story beats and bosses

Starfield

Did it blow my mind like when I fired up Oblivion for the first time? no, but some of the hate that this game receives is crazy, it's the most Bethesda softworks game that they could make (it's really not tat difficult to understand that travelling to other planets is equivalent to travelling through 1 single map) and it's miles better of the lame duck that was Fallout 4 (that said, maybe if CD Projekt Red hadn't released a far superior game in the same genre like when Fallout 4 released, maybe I would change my opinion( hey, I'm replaying it now after the sensational Tv show)). I really enjoyed the story and for my money Andreja is the best companion Bethesda sortworks have ever made, although I would have liked to learn more about house va'ruun, but maybe it will be covered in DLC that I will never play. I also appreciate the unique new game plus they included even if I spent about 10 minutes in it.

Immortals of Aveum

This is the most comparable game to a nominee from the previous year I can think of (that being high on life). A decent but not fantastic FPS but with some great lore and a fun twist of shooting magic from your hands instead of regular old guns. It may not have the most original gameplay but sometimes you shouldn't fix what isn't broken.

Were this a better year this game would not have been nominates but gotta make up the numbers somehow.

Yeah, not a great year, just 3 nominees, a repeat of 2014, at least that was a new console year which are normally pretty poor, no such excuse this time. The winner by a mile is Resident evil 4 remake (although I was considering not picking it as I picked 2 remake previously), the only actual really great game this year, perhaps due to me never playing the original, but that's my situation.

So here's the list of winners thus far;

2013: The last of us

2014: South Park the stick of truth

2015: Rocket League

2016: Doom

2017: A Hat in time

2018: God of war

2019: Resident Evil 2 remake

2020: Maneater

2021: Guardians of the Galaxy

2022: Nobody Saves the World

2023: Resident Evil 4 Remake

I truly hope they do not advance to a Resi 5 remake after the presumed 9 next, I would much rather a more modern 1 or Code Veronica remake before.

game of the year 2022

I'm back for GOTY 2023, but before i do that, a year was missed. I am aware no one will ever read this, yet it is here for prosperity.

First of all, I've really gone off this Play station style third person action game style that has become so popular. I didn't enjoy God of War Ragnarok despite the previous entry being my GOTY winner in 2018, as a result I couldn't even bring myself to get half way through, the story was unbearably boring and the gameplay was okay, at best (when there was any). I think I encountered this first with the last of us part 2, but was most cemented by Ghosts of Tsushima, I barely got through a few a couple of hours. That said, I did enjoy Horizon zero Dawn, hardly the best game ever, but a fun story and plenty of fun side quests (some bad ones too though). 

This was a year of gamepass for me, which I picked up to play the soon to be mentioned Nobody saved the world, I got 3 months and milked it hard. I only had an Xbox one then (upgraded now, low finances be damned), so largely played this on my laptop, which I finally own one that I can play a game made after around 2005 on, but it must be said I never play games on PC, apart from FM of course. Anyway, Onwards

TMNT Shredders Revenge

Ever since Foul Play I have found a new love for brawlers that I never really had before, despite remembering playing the likes of streets of rage, goldenaxe and most appropriately Hyperstone heist, I think just to be part of the zeitgeist (a word I can't even spell now, let alone knew what it meant when I was 6). Having gone back to some of these fairly recently it is clear the genre has moved on, the likes of this game, River City girls and Mother Russia bleads wipe the floor with the so called 'classics'.

On to this, sure, I watched the Turtles cartoon as a kid and saw the 3 movies, but was never a big fan, but as soon as the trailer dropped with Mike Patton of all people performing the classic theme tune along with some lovely animation I was in. Then I played it, and it lived up to the hype, I even finished it twice (once solo, once co op), something I rarely ever do, at least not without a 10 year gap between the 2 playthroughs. It plays like a fantastic modern brawler, looks great, fantastic music and is just all round fun to play. 

Nobody saves the World

I love the Quacamele's, so what were Drink box doing making some top down twin stick shooter/ slasher. Well, they made the right call (let's just ignore that random Vita game I don't care about). Between multiple character's ability to swap and skills to match up, much of the fun of the game is figuring out what the best team is and what powers to use. It can be tough at the start but when you finally figure this out, the power is all yours to dominate.

The world is really fun, the RPG elements like levelling are done well (for once) and the story is cool. Twin stick games like this were something I was never really in to as a kid, but another I've had my mind changed on by many games, initially by Assault Android Cactus, and many more since and this game is by far the best one I've ever played.

Tinykin

A simple 3D platformer clearly made for kids with a nothing story, but with a great map to explore. You're a tiny alien guy who lands in a house on Earth and must make your way around the large (from your characters' perspective) rooms to fix your ship, kinda like Toejam and Earl. 

This game is very simple but figuring the way around maps with the help of the Tinykin that give you the abilities to get around is just a fun, if simple problem to figure out on each level.

High on Life

Remember when Rick and Morty was good? That was a while ago now, certainly before pickle Rick (rolls eyes), This game hits with it's comedy much better than the recent seasons of this show and again the levels are fun to explore (this is getting to be a theme) and the plot is fun. Hey, they even put a really weird 90's Denise Richards film in it that you can watch all the way through. Voice acting is great too, and hey, JB Smoove is in it as a gun, and who doesn't love Leon. Shame he plays the worst gun that I rarely used. Oh well.

As for the actual gameplay, it is very simple. This game turned out to be the first game I had dusted off my Xbox One for in a few years and I'll tell you what, loading times are shocking, were they always like that? I remember going back and playing Portal a couple of years ago (maybe the previous time to this the Xbone was used) and the loading times shocked me then, but didn't seem this bad, and that was a 360 game! This is my fault for not having a series X then, a problem that has since been solved. Anyway, a fun if flawed game.

And the winner is, NOBODY SAVES THE WORLD. A real breath of fresh air for me.

Got this out quick to jump on to the actual last year, 2023, so check back in soon (maybe (probably not)).