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Need to go through this thread and read more lists! Apologies for not having done that. Wrote this all out this morning, what a year for games  At the end of last year I started writing down (on Backloggd) which games I finished which has made compiling this list so much easier. 2023 seemed like a really great year for games! The majority of my list is not from this year though. Also I decided my list only contains games I "finished" (for whatever definition of finished I felt was good enough :P ) so it doesn't include some big hitters that I also did play and agree were amazing like TOTK and Mario Wonder. Anyway, onto the list! 10 - Immortality I played this near the start of the year, one of the first games I played through on the Steam Deck. Having never played a Sam Barlow game before I didn't full know what to expect (but knew he liked messing with the player's head). I really really enjoyed this! The overarching story you come to discover honestly didn't blow my mind that much, but the 3 movies you get to watch pieces of over the course of the game were the most enjoyable thing. Watching the actors really act out a scene, or watching them acting to mess up a scene, or watching them acting practicing a scene was really interesting and I just think the amount of effort that went into this whole thing was really great! A great little gem that devoured a couple days of my life, definitely deserving of a place on this list. 9 - Sam & Max Hit the Road My wife had never heard of this game (or Sam & Max at all) and I brought it up as something we could play together. I let her play through it and gave some hints when some of the puzzles got pretty obscure. One of my favourite games since childhood, it still really holds up! The puzzles aren't always very clear but the absurdity and fun the game has makes up for it completely. One of the best point and click adventure games that everyone should play. 8 - Sackboy: A Big Adventure Another game I played with my wife. We started this last year (and I think I might have even put it on my list...) but finally beat the final boss this year. Great little action platformer. Controls so much better than any of the LittleBigPlanet games (which I still do love though haha). There's a nice variety in the levels, and playing dressup with Sackboy is fun. Fun alone but so much more fun in co-op. 7 - We Love Katamari Reroll I played both of the Katamari remasters this year. I had never played We Love Katamari before though! What a brilliant sequel! I didn't really know how they could follow up the original without it just feeling like more of the same but they introduced more gimmick levels with different rules to spice things up in between your classic Katamari "get really big" levels. I really do love Katamari a lot and I blasted through this in a couple of days because it's just so addictive. 6 - Resident Evil 4 (2023) I'm still not sure whether I prefer the original RE4 or the remake more. I think they both excel at certain things and it's really difficult to choose between them (thankfully we can all still just play both! :P ). In the end though, this is still a really really great game. Controls great, the shooting feels really good. Seeing all the setpieces re-imagined almost 20 years later was really cool. I love Resident Evil as a series a whole lot and will play any new one that gets released, so it's no surprise this is part of this list. 5 - DROD 4: Gunthro and the Epic Blunder 18 or so years ago I got super deep into DROD (thanks to one of my older brothers). Turn based action puzzlers with silly little stories. The puzzles are some of the best you will find in games. As a kid I think I was generally too impatient to try figure things out, but now 18 years later with a lot more experience I had an amazing time figuring out the challenges in this game. If you're interested in checking out this series than I think this game in particular is the best starting point now. It has a really good learning curve, while still introducing some of the more complex features/puzzle elements they added in the more recent games. DROD will always hold a place in my heart. 4 - The Case of the Golden Idol This game and its two expansions released this year are all absolutely incredible. Beautifully grotesque dioramas telling stories of greed (all centred around a Golden Idol) in which you need to figure out logic puzzles given the information you can see from one (or a few) moments in time. If you are at all interested in logic puzzles, or just puzzle games in general you NEED to play this game. So excited for the sequel next year! 3 - The Last of Us Part II I'm a big fan of Naughty Dog games. The original Last of Us was a game I bought day one, enjoyed thoroughly, and still think has one of the best endings in games. When Part II originally came out it was not a great time and so I chose not to play it as I thought it would just make me feel more depressed than I already did. Early this year after getting a PS5 I decided to finally buy and play through it and I think it was the right time now. A great story of revenge (and the pointlessness of it). The switch-up halfway through the game is played really well in a way that seems frustrating at first (why would I want to do this!) but allows the game to give more depth to all the characters. A devastating game that just keeps getting more devastating. I really hope they can leave the story as it is with the ending of this one. 2 - Lies of P I have loved Souls games ever since importing a copy of Demon's Souls because of the thread on this forum! Lies of P is a very blatant ripoff of From's formula, taking cues from Bloodborne and Sekiro, and it pulls it off perfectly. A very linear experience, it gives you a good series of challenging levels generally ended off with some really fun boss experiences. The story was so much more interesting than I expected it could be, and the weapon switching system (which allows any weapon's blade to be given any move-set by being placed on any other weapon's hilt) is super interesting! I'm happy more developers are creating really great games in this sub-genre and really doing them justice. Can't wait for the DLC and also for the sequel which is teased with a brilliantly stupid post-credits scene. 1 - Red Dead Redemption 2 At the start of December, number 2 on this list was going to be my number 1. With the release of the GTA6 trailer I thought maybe I'd finally give RDR2 a chance since I had never played it. The first RDR I played through about half of (I remember getting up to Mexico?) and so I had no memories of any characters except John Marston. Although GTA5 has a greatly realised world I think the story was incredibly weak, Rockstar's parodies of modern society are really quite lame in the end. Something about the 1899 setting of RDR2 I think allows them to be much more grounded in their storytelling (although there are still some silly things going on). Arthur Morgan's tale is really well presented. People give poo poo about Rockstar games just being the same kind of mission over and over (drive somewhere, shoot someone, rinse, repeat), but I don't really mind it when the story is so well presented, that's really what I'm here for! A tragic story with a surprisingly positive ending, it really affected me quite a lot and I think it might be the best story that Rockstar has told. Arthur and John are two great characters, and their growth through this game is really interesting. This was definitely the best game experience I had all year and I'm happy to have finished the year off with such a banger! Can't wait to see what 2024 has in store for us all Short list for ease of counting votes: 1 - Red Dead Redemption 2 2 - Lies of P 3 - The Last of Us Part II 4 - The Case of the Golden Idol 5 - DROD 4: Gunthro and the Epic Blunder 6 - Resident Evil 4 (2023) 7 - We Love Katamari Reroll 8 - Sackboy: A Big Adventure 9 - Sam & Max Hit the Road 10 - Immortality
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Dec 24, 2023 23:53
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Thanks for all the hard work from everyone involved in this, and thanks to everyone on the forum for their votes and posts. You are all awesome and I'm looking forward to some awesome games (and opinions on games) in 2024.
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Jan 14, 2024 02:39
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Have played Chrono Trigger, MGS2, Sekiro, and Shadow of the Colossus and they're all great! Have always been interested in Kentucky Route Zero so I should pick it up this year. The data doesn't lie!
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Jan 17, 2024 03:38
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Games
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Jan 18, 2024 01:00
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nice
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Jan 18, 2024 01:10
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