![]() It’s especially difficult to put value on all the games that might not quite make every top-ten list, but are still crucial to rounding out the prolific feeling of an exceptional year. To render any kind of verdict, these considerations and others must necessarily be boiled down into a general gut feeling, like a baseball scout weighing player stats against experience and instinct. Some have deep benches but few standouts. What does it mean for it to be the best year in video games? Is it just about having the most best games? The most long-lasting and important ones? The most eclectic mix of outstanding games across multiple genres? Some years are full of great games that don’t stand the test of time. It’s more art than science, with history, personal taste, and general vibes all swirling around in a vat until the subjective winners bubble up to the surface. How do you even begin to compare one year’s release slate against another? There’s no objective method, obviously. Still, my god, 2007: Super Mario Galaxy, Halo 3, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Guitar Hero 3, Rock Band, BioShock, Assassin’s Creed, Mass Effect, Uncharted, Portal, Team Fortress 2, Crysis, and STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl. People’s picks will vary wildly based as much on legacy as anything else. The farther back in time these comparisons go, the bigger a role played by nostalgia and rose-colored glasses. Of these, I’d argue the frontrunners have to be 2007, 2004, 1998, and 2001, in that order. Start going farther back and the comparisons get much dicier. Read More: What Was Your Best-Ever Year For Gaming? There might not be entirely new genres that will recalibrate the market for years to come, but I would take this year’s top 10 over 2013’s any day. It also delivered Grand Theft Auto V, The Last of Us, Super Mario 3D World, Crusader Kings II, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Gone Home, The Stanley Parable, Metro: Last Light, and a bunch more. That was arguably the next high-water mark prior to 2017. It reminds me of when Dota 2 and League of Legends both came out in 2013. It’s not every year that two games go head-to-head in a new genre that redefines industry trends moving forward. ![]() Nintendo, meanwhile, jump-started its new Switch hardware with two of the best games it’s ever made, an incredible coup for a new console launch. Sony’s first-party machine was beginning to fire on all cylinders and developers were delivering on the big “next-gen” games they’d been promising. That was the midway point for the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One-and it showed. The list goes on: Horizon Zero Dawn, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Destiny 2, Resident Evil 7, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and Nier Automata. We got Dishonored: Death of the Outsider and Uncharted: Lost Legacy, Divinity Original Sin 2 and Persona 5, Cuphead and Pyre, Hollow Knight and Dead Cells, Night in the Woods and What Remains of Edith Finch, Fortnite and PUBG. We got The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey. The last time the deck felt this stacked was 2017. These Are The Cars You Would Use To Curse Your Worst Enemy Wow! Malia Obama's Red Hair Got Our Attention Megan Fox snarkily flouts SAG-AFTRA’s controversial Halloween guidelinesįantastic Beasts Is Probably Dead, As It Should Be The game of the year race just got a lot more interesting. Initial reviews have called it a triumph in storytelling. ![]() I’ve only played the first couple hours but I’m already in love. Wonder, David Lynchian survival horror sequel Alan Wake 2 is finally out. Just a week after Spider-Man 2 and Super Mario Bros. ![]() Baldur’s Gate 3 came out of nowhere and was all anyone could talk about for an entire month. It was, in fact, a certified banger that turned the Zelda formula upside down once again. Some worried The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom would turn out to be more of the same. Nine months later, it’s hard to deny: 2023 feels like one of the best years for game releases in a long time. A day after that, Dead Space arrived, a faithful but impressive remake of a 2008 classic. A day later, Hitman World of Assassination appeared, deploying clever roguelike mechanics to reinvent the best stealth game of 2021. Beautiful, vibrant, playful, the rhythm action platformer quickly won players over. When Hi-Fi Rush shadow-dropped on January 25, it was a shockingly pleasant surprise. Spider-Man, Alan Wake, and Zelda debate the best year in games.
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