![]() Put all of those special circumstances aside, though, and Hi-Fi Rush would still be a standout. ![]() Plus, unlike most of this year’s greatest games, it was new IP, arriving at a time when, per one recent report, investors’ “interest in original work, as opposed to sequels, is near nil.” In that sense, it was sort of the Pentiment of 2023: a Microsoft-acquired, nontraditional title with a refreshing, distinctive style that made it a gift to Game Pass subscribers. But Hi-Fi Rush was a true rarity: a game announced and released on the same day, like an album dropped without warning. Most games get revealed, officially or otherwise, years before we get our grubby hands on them, with a delay or three almost inevitably lengthening the time between the first teaser, report, or press release and the actual launch. But although we’re dozens of great games removed from its January release, we shouldn’t forget how Hi-Fi Rush set the tone for a year packed with pleasant surprises. No, the way in which the world was introduced to a game shouldn’t factor too heavily into its placement on a list like this. ![]() There’s always something to accomplish next, and with new content coming out every three months or so, it’s a game you can plan on sharing with friends for a long time. Whether you’re working through the campaign with a friend or serendipitously stumbling upon a helpful stranger, the joy of Diablo IV is exponentially amplified as a shared experience. And all of the time and effort you’ve put into your build goes out the window the moment you find an incredible new weapon or piece of armor powerful enough to make you reconsider your entire playing style.ĭiablo IV is an always-online game, and the best way to play it is with other people. Constantly tinkering with your skill/spell loadout feels like slowly whittling a great work of art from a humble block of wood. The combat system is deeper than ever, encouraging and rewarding experimentation. But the refinements are excellent.Īs the end of the year approaches, The Ringer is celebrating the best in movies, TV, music, and more. Diablo IV is more a modern refinement of Diablo than a reinvention. The fundamentals of Diablo haven’t changed since the original game’s release in 1997, because it’s still a winning formula. And you’re going to use weapons and magic to dispel hordes of monsters, score rare loot, and upgrade your gear. You’re going to view that world from an overhead, isometric perspective. ![]() You’re going to navigate a dark, gloomy world threatened by evil forces straight from hell. In the same way that a “Metroidvania” game dependably blends the tried-and-true tenets of Metroid and Castlevania, a new Diablo game gives you exactly what you want and expect. The term “dungeon-crawler” has been synonymous with the Diablo franchise for more than 25 years. (One caveat: With apologies to the likes of Resident Evil 4, Dead Space, System Shock, Metroid Prime Remastered, Super Mario RPG, and Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, we’re excluding remakes, remasters, and DLC from consideration and limiting the list to originals only.) - Ben Lindbergh Our greatest regret about the games of this year is that no one human had time to play every GOTY contender. Later this month, we’ll be breaking down exactly how 2023 stacks up to the medium’s best years ever, but today, we’re agonizingly narrowing down the field to a mere top 10-and, because we can’t help ourselves in a year this stacked, a lengthy list of honorable mentions. Even video game adaptations had a huge year, finally earning the audiences, award nods, and box office figures that had long eluded them. The latter half of the year brought blockbuster after blockbuster, interspersed with indie gems, in a deluge of content that will keep players occupied well into 2024. As Microsoft and Sony finally left the last gen behind, console releases took technological leaps, though Nintendo’s relatively low-powered Switch, which struggled to run many multi-platform titles, had a hell of a last hurrah. The games, though? They were great-possibly better than ever. The aftereffects of post-pandemic contraction and a wave of acquisition and consolidation cost thousands of designers their jobs, even as the industry reckoned with AI’s potentially transformative (and terrifying) impact on game development and voice acting. This was a best-of-times, worst-of-times type of year for video games.
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