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.
