What is your GOTY (2023) & why is it Baldur's Gate III?

Oh forgive the title, I keep forgetting Game Spot community is one of refined taste. Naturally you'd select The Lord of the Rings: Gollum?

Jokes aside 2023 has simply been a great year for video games fans.

While some of them are retreading safe bets. Aka; Dead Space Remake, Resident Evil 4 Remake, Star Field, & The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Newer games flooding the scene in Hi-Fi Rush, Shadow Gambit & Dave the Diver.

Then add a game that finally might be worth playing in Cyber Punk 2077 2.0.

Plus return to glories within various franchises; Street Fighter 6, Armored Core VI, Pikmin 4, & the mentioned Baldur's Gate III.

And I'm only scratching the surface. Alan Wake 2 & Spiderman still haven't released.

*Regardless of the list it's BG3 for me and it's not even close. And I really liked SF6, DSR & Resi4R

I'd probably give it to Tears of the Kingdom so far. Just couldn't put it down, and now I have 280 hours in it and still don't want it to end. Since that happens quite rarely for me, kinda have to give it to TotK.

I have yet to play Baldur's Gate 3, and that game seems fantastic.

Pikmin 4 and Hi-Fi rush I also need to play.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is coming soon.

Currently playing Blasphemous 2, which I very much enjoy so far.

Good year indeed.

@Litchie: Dam Mario you just reminded me Super Mario RPG remake is still 2023 right?

What a year.

Couldn't get into the first Blasphemous, visually great but it was a stiff/ unresponsive Castlevania game from my time with it. Controls are always very important for me, if it's not handling my inputs well that really puts me off playing. Hopefully the sequel has improved in the areas it needed to.

I've played too many new games this year. Hard to say what's my GOTY and I won't rule it out till after November but I'll just list the games I play this year and had fun with are: (But not in this order)

1. Dead Space Remake
2. Hi-Fi Rush
3. Hogwarts Legacy
4. Resident Evil 4 Remake
5. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
6. Tears of the Kingdom
7. Starfield
8. BG3
9. Ravenlok
10. Atomic Heart
11. Mortal Kombat 1

The 3 games that stood out for me this year so far are: (in this order)

1. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
2. Dead Space Remake
3. Atomic Heart
4. Hogwarts Legacy
5. BG3

Those are the 5 standing order to be my GOTY of 2023. This year has been really great for gamers around the world IMO if you ask me. The games that have yet to be released like Spider-Man 2, I'm not really excited for it, but it's still a day one purchase. Not gonna bother with Alan Wake 2 until it goes into a deep sale. Will pick up Phantom Liberty next month and we'll see if it goes into my GOTY.

My rankings for games I played this year are,

Tears of the Kingdom > Street Fighter 6 > Pizza Tower > Tunic > F-Zero 99 > Prodeus > Mario XCOM 2 > Bayonetta 3 > Fire Emblem Engage > Advance Wars Reboot Camp > Hi-Fi Rush > Jagged Alliance 3 > Baldur's Gate 3

2023 was an excellent year, I enjoyed every game I listed save Baldur's Gate 3.

Edit: I am underrating Hi Fi Rush, since I have absolutely no musical aptitude. But the game is objectively speaking on par with Pizza Tower. A masterpiece in other words. I italicized 2022 games.

Need to check out Pizza Tower at somepoint looks like a lot of fun. Plus the weird enemies remind me of the James Pond & Putty games.

Surprising to see a lack of love for Baldur's Gate III but without context to why it's tough to grasp.

Perhaps some felt miss-sold what the game offers due to the extreme levels of hype behind its release and continuous success. Mechanically BG3 very similar to Divinity: Original Sin II. A very Larian CRPG with a lot of SRPG influence. Personally can't get enough of it, but I was also early access from day-one and a huge fan of the studios previous game.

The main reason I think is just that there were so many good games this year. So unless you are an RPG fan. It is very easy to pick something else as your GOTY. In my case I have been drifting apart from RPGs lately.

As for my dislike,

• Lack of Quality of Life: Everything feels far clunkier than it needs to be. Compare this to the snappiness of Fire Emblem Engage. And BG3 just feels clunky, obnoxious and frustrating to play.
• Encounter Design: Larian still suck at encounter design. With BG3 they proved they can pick up a monster manual. But they still don't know how to make threats, pace encounters or how to make engaging set pieces.
• Origin Characters: I dislike 4/6 of them. And the other 2 are merely tolerable. I don't really care for them. While there is one good companion, you don't get her until way later in the game.
• The game feels incomplete: Especially if you go the evil route.
• Complete lack of balance: Monks needed a buff in 5e, but they went way overboard and being able to do over 300 damager per turn as a monk with relative ease made the strategy aspects of the game sorely lacking.
• Incredibly Dumb AI: Not much strategy or thinking needed when the AI is this easy to exploit. Combine this with a lack of threats. In many cases, the AI even freezes on the spot, simply wasting its turn, and your time.

The game is a passable roleplaying game, but with how accessible D&D and other TTRPGs are these days thanks to Roll20. Simply being a good roleplaying game is no longer good enough. The game also does some emergent gameplay fairly well, such as the boxes and weight shenanigans you can pull off.

@Maroxad: Don't entirely agree with those notes. Though I can understand why that's off putting and you want just a little more polish/ refinement to your RPG game, namely one that is getting all the love and praise. Seems you namely wish it cooked for a little longer and had NPCs more preferable to personal taste.

I play evil aliment fairly often and not disappointed with BG3 honestly. Beaten the game four times now and three was more on the dark path, only one was a murder hobo though. I'm not against them adding in that area, they did with D:OSII overtime. Add a little more to Minthara I think would go a long way, and just use more of the empty areas in Act 2.

On that note, Origin characters take time to really get going, and don't standout right away. The only one I just can't seem to click with is Gale. But I can't say I disliked the others, they're just angry and bitter when the adventure starts off. Who wouldn't after being kidnapped and having a worm shoved in your brain.

Actually like many set piece battles in Larian games too. And even then I do actually feel D:OSII did this a little better than BG3. The various final battles you could have in D:OSII I think is much better than what we got in BG3. . currently.

I however wish they'd stop with only aggro encounters in BG3 because it gets a little stale when no other option for the situation is available. A game all about choices becomes a little samey in those sections. If I go to a cave full of spiders but my druid is in the form of a spider, give a peaceful solution, doesn't need to be easy, make me roll a 20, don't care. . I dunno lol.

Gloom Stalker Ranger I've found to have the highest damage output in the game it's disgusting. Take some crates with you for a constant high ground advantage and I can melt any boss in the game with a lone Ranger. I know this because I've been putting it to the test, one of my runs has just been with a solo Ranger on Tactician. And it's going smoothly.

From what I've read on FAQs four Gnome Barbarians throwing each other is the most broken thing you can do in the game currently.

Exploits however are always found, and in many games we all love. It's not as though Larian intends the games to be broken so badly, they're just humble enough to leave some in, embracing people finding cheesy tactics, it's part of gaming culture.

Don't think the A.I. is that horrible either, if anything at times it bugs out. Has moments of spacing out and not making good moves, but more than not I've found them to be clever. If I'm near a pit or cliff on Tactician they will push you off for an instant kill 100% the time. I wouldn't be against them refining it though so that spacing out part doesn't happen anymore in which the A.I. just keeps going up and down a ladder.

Can certainly see the clunkiness. Even just clicking on a barrel at times can be weird and instead engage an NPC for conversation. Not sure how they'd fix that however, it may be heavily a Strategy RPG but has more going on at once & latered than a Disgaea or Fire Emblem game. Which focus more on grid place movement and grid combat. Part of Larians chunkiness compared to those other similar genre games is because they're more focused on refining one aspect; whether as Larian like to give as many options to the player as possible, even if that can cause the noted clunkiness.

On the note of engage & FE. I have a friend who loves Fire Emblem and he wasn't big on Engage, mentioned something about a lootbox like system that was too RNG for his taste. I've also heared the game has horrible generic characters when compared to Three Houses. I've only played some 3DS entries so less familiar with the franchise as a whole.

Eitherway all in preference, good to have context. & I can see why BG3 is not your GOTY at the very least.

I just wish they had made the game a lot shorter. The game is way longer than it needs to be and spread their resources too thin as a result.

In terms of combat, outside of turn 1 the game really doesnt do anything interesting, and even that is a big stretch. Most encounters have absolutely nothing interesting going on whatsoever. I can make an hour long video analyzing Chapter 10 of Conquest, but outside of the siege or hag in chapter 1, I cannot bring up a single encounter I found memorable, and i can describe both of those within a minute. For most encounters, Larian relied on a single gimmick to try to make each stand out, rather than actually spending their time, carefully planning them. The AI isn't much better than the one in disgaea and falls completely apart to even the 23 year old game Thracia 776.

By being incomplete I had countless quests literally break for no reason, as in having the logic completely broken, forcing me to reload hour long saves. The whole game was nothing but pig slop. Because the game wasted so much of my time, and wasn't even any fun to begin with. I came to the conclusion that BG3 was the only bad game I played of 2023.

But then again, I got gamepass and tried out starfield... and oh boy, that game might be even worse.

@Maroxad: Oh whaw, pig slop. Never read that and BG3 in the same sentence before.

When I think of Act One I think of the Githyanki Creche. I won't throw spoilers for those who haven't seen it yet but a lot is revealed during this section and the main battle gets a little nuts. I wasn't too big on the Underdark though, fun to explore but the battles, hmm, didn't think the level design was very good or fun for the encounters you can find yourself in.

Regardless at least you have your reasons to feel that way. I'm pretty big on Disgaea (I know many just see it as a grind fest chibi game series) but for me I always liked the level design and super bosses of the series, even if the last two haven't quite lived up to the gameplay I enjoyed from D3, D4, DD1.2 & D5.

Usually people would spend this time to tell you your opinion is wrong or something stupid but I like to think you know what you like and what you don't. Larian failed to deliver what you wanted from the experience. Plus gave reasons, including losing hours of progress due to a lack of polish on release. I do hope they refine and make the game less, well buggy and full of glitches, but with a game at this scope it's unlikely to be all wrapped up that simply till at the very least mid-2024.

I've loved the variety, build experimentation, multiplayer (which I play quite a lot), and just everything in between. Is the game perfect? absolutely not, still hate how stealing and how economy works in these games. But I do think it's the best game Larian has done to date, work paid off and in a year with hits it stands out for me, look forward to what they have next; whether it be D:OSIII, BG3 expansion, or the hinted Dragon Lance game.

Yeah, my plan is to wait until their Definitive Edition, then come back.

Larian's heart is in the right place. That is why I keep buying their games even in early access. Despite being disappointed once I reach act 2 every single time. They got heart. If they improve the AI and QoL, I might be able to forgive the weak encounter design. Monk being stupidly OP can be ignored by just not using them. Larian's got heart. And in a year tragically marked by Diablo 4. Larian really stands out.

As for Disgaea, I heard 7 was a massive step up from 6. Or am I missing something?

@Maroxad: Disgaea 7 is very much we'll do Disgaea 5 again, but less of everything. If D6 was a 3/10 D7 is a 6.5/10.

Issue with 6 is it got rid of all the strategy and focused on the grind and levelling. That's why it has an auto play feature. Missed a ton of basic features, classes, map design wasn't even a consideration, and only end-game is Bāru. That's not taking into consideration the shift to 3D was poorly handled, character models bleed into the environments making movement and attacks jarring.

Disgaea always had a level of grind for endgame in the case of Item World and hunting Pirates, but was a focus throughout for D6 from the very first campaign level.

D6 was designed to be a streamlined dopamine rush for mobile only gamers. And for fans of the series it was looked at as the most embarrassing mis-communication of its audience and series appeal.

On a note of story I haven't felt many games capture the magic of the original but many are big fans of the fourth games story (I can take or leave it, it's fine).

Not going to pick a GOTY but I'll just throw out a list of my favorites, in no particular order:

• Starfield
• Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty/2.0 Update
• Sea of Stars
• Jedi Survivor
• Shadow Gambit: Cursed Crew
• Baldur's Gate 3
• Dredge
• Showgunners

Honorable mentions: these are either good but rough games that shouldn't get GOTY nods, or games that are in early access and continually being worked on, or games that were new to me this year but might just a bit too old for 2023:

• Sons of the Forest
• Farthest Frontier
• Xenonauts 2
• Battlebit Remastered
• Aliens: Dark Descent
• Dune: Spice Wars

Oooh, you liked it that much? Been saying I must play it ever since I saw it, but haven't got around to it yet. Now I'm even more interested.

@Litchie: Free on gamepass :)

One of the best surprises out there.

Ahh. I know some Disgaea fans, and the opinions seem to range from a 7 to 8 range, with someone giving it a 9. On one hand, people bemoan the translation, the fact that the game still has less content than 5, the DLC. But people do praise the increased difficulty and better overall quality on content.

The only 2023 game I played is MH Rise, FF16 & Sea of Stars so automatically it goes to FF16. MH Rise is obviously garbage tier MH game and quitted once I got to MR100 and beat Scorned Magnamalo. Can't be assed to grind the curios or whatever game sucked. I haven't finished Sea of Stars.

I will clear all of my backlog. so far I finished Witcher 3 which honestly why didn't do it earlier it was amazing. others: Trails to Azure, Ghostwire Tokyo, Death Stranding (incredible), Star Ocean 6, Ass Creed Syndicate and Chain of Echoes (incredible).

@sakaixx: Couldn't get into Ghostwire, usually have nothing but praise for Tango Gameworks as a huge The Evil Within fan.

Rise is comparable to the X/ Generations game, you either in for that style of MH experience or better off waiting for what the main team releases. I was also a little let down from Rise and Sunbreak but I much preferred them over XX.

Sea of Stars I've read a lot of hype around being heavily inspired by Chrono Trigger, will have to give it a look at somepoint.

@mrbojangles25: I am glad to eat humble pie in this case for Bethesda Studios and that Star Field.

After Blades and 76 just seemed they didn't have it anymore.

Seems a lot of fans of past glories from the developer are pretty happy with the game. Even if from what I've been told or read it's a very safe retread of what made Fall Out 3 & Skyrim enjoyable.

Swore off Bethesda Studios after FO76 but glad they've turned things around for those who got hyped for SF.

Personally still more interested in The Wayward Realms and willing to wait and see how it plays out.

BG3... but only because it's the only game from 2023 that I am playing right now.That being said... it's far from GOTY.