December 2023

It's December 26, which means Christmas has come and gone, and other seasonal holidays are underway while we all wait for the new year to kick off next week. Everyone knows that the days between your winter holiday and New Year's Eve are for gaming, right? At least, we hope you're doing some gaming today, tomorrow, and the day after! Or maybe you're kicking back with a good book, or watching a new movie?

We don't know what it is you're doing but we want to! In fact, we want to know what video game presents you found under the tree or in a beautifully wrapped gift box this year, too.

Did you get a new console? Did you get some games to add to your never-ending backlog – we're all still catching up on 2023's frankly absurd gauntlet of releases, right? Did you get some cool shirts, some Fortnite V-bucks, or a new coffee cup with Clive from Final Fantasy XVI on it?

5. Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon

2023 was the year Armored Core broke out of the confines of its niche box and showed why so many people love it. Fires of Rubicon leverages years of top-notch work by FromSoftware to invite fans to try something different. And that something different is a mech game that has cinematic combat, a robust customization suite, and a story that is subtly told but interesting nonetheless. Most importantly, however, its kept what people love about From's titles intact and was challenging but satisfying. If you haven't played Armored Core before and want to know if it works for you, this is the one to try.

This year’s Siliconera Switch Game of the Year contest may have been the toughest competition since the console’s 2017 debut, with a lineup of stellar first-party releases accompanied by some surprise third-party entrants. What’s the winner? You can probably guess! But all of our Switch Game of the Year 2023 selections got here by beating out some truly impressive titles.

These awards represent the consensus of the Siliconera staff. For more of the year’s award selections, check out our Game of the Year 2023 archive.

Fire Emblem Engage

Strategy players love to min-max, and it seems developers like that as well sometimes! Following the watered-down gameplay and excellent characters of Three Houses, Engage pushes the slider all the way to “mechanics” and delivers some of the best maps and combat systems in the franchise’s history. Story? Characters? Toothpaste hair? Uh, we don’t need to talk about those. Engage instead offers something more like Fates’ customization-focused tactical playground, and there’s a lot of fun in that approach.

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code

Square Enix has announced that the global version of Dragon Quest Tact will be shutting down. The spin-off mobile game will see the end of active service on February 29, 2024.

Dragon Quest Tact is set to shut down due to a shift in consumer trends that the team claims will create difficulties maintaining the game. This closure only affects the global version of the game, as the Japanese version will continue to be supported. The closure comes almost exactly three years after the game’s global release on January 27, 2021.

While Dragon Quest Tact isn’t shutting down until February, Square Enix has already ended some services within the game. Players can no longer purchase Gems and Metal Cards. They also cannot buy the monthly Passport, and all automatic renewals of the Passport have been canceled. In-game events will continue to be updated until the game’s closure.

Aviot has revealed new earbuds that feature Sword Art Online designs and character voices. The company has also opened pre-orders for the items on its own web store.

People residing outside Japan can also place orders, as the WorldShopping widget supports international deliveries for the branded earbuds. The collectibles will be based on Aviot's existing TE-D01v model, which normally costs ¥11,990 (~$84). The Sword Art Online-branded models have a higher price tag of ¥22,880 (~$160) but will also come with more functions.

Aviot will provide a mobile app where owners can change the system's voice character. The earbuds will also have a button that will play a random quote by the character when pressed for a long time. The Sword Art Online earbuds will be available in two models. The black Hero model will let owners choose between Kirito, Eugeo, or a combination of both. Meanwhile, the white Heroine model will feature voices from Asuna, Leafa, Sinon, Yuuki, and Alice.

You can get a closer look at the SAO earbuds below:

To some, 2023 was one of the best years for video games in a long time. It didn’t quite land that way for me, but that’s okay. Even if I don’t rank the likes of Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Baldur’s Gate 3 among the year’s best, I still admire the impulse they exhibit to try something fresh and new, or to make the…

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Climbing a skyscraper for the 25th time in a day quickly erodes the novelty of virtual reality.

For over three years, Attila Kardos was one of the quality assurance testers at PlayStation Liverpool, one of the testing centers of Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe. During his tenure, he worked on first-party behemoths like God of War, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and Detroit: Become Human. But today, heʼs talking about a different type of testing involving a headset and physically mimicking movements for multiple hours at your office desk.

In games like Blood & Truth, where you take a starring role in action movie-esque setpieces, the fun factor of virtual reality quickly makes itself apparent. However, experiences like this can be taxing. A player can stop at any time. A tester doesnʼt have that luxury. It doesnʼt take long for the monotonous physical effort to take a toll. And then they have to show up at work the next day and do it all again.

“Eventually, you start feeling your shoulders,” Kardos laughs. “You feel the extra muscle pain.”

Mansoor is a pro wrestler and former WWE superstar where he won the only known 51-man battle royal to ever exist. You can often find him on Twitch with his fellow former Maximum Male Model tag team partner.

Everyone told me having a child would change my life. What they didn’t tell me, however, is that it would BE RUINED.

What’s up, gamers! Abby, here! Your former Giant Bomb Content Producer turned current comedy and marketing writer at Jackbox games! You may have also seen my work at G4TV’s Xplay, my web series Abby Dearest, or on my Twitch page.

2023 was a year of high highs and low lows, and like many people, it all went by in a blur. What this year did offer me was a reinvigorated love of video games. After many years of working in games media and having to play every game as it came out, I was burnt out and turned off. As it turns out, turning your hobby into work simply makes it work.

Some time away from that work, and a series of excellent choice-based narratives made it an easy transition getting back to my roots and identifying as a proud Gamer, once again.

HoYoVerse has released a teaser trailer for the Honkai: Star Rail Fan Art Program, taking place during the 2024 New Year HoYoFair. The theme will be “Galactic Grand Prix,” with the trailer featuring characters taking part in an intergalactic space racing contest.

The Honkai: Star Rail Galactic Grand Prix Fan Art Program will be part of the 2024 New Year HoYoFair event, which consists of a special livestream featuring works created by fans of the game. In the teaser trailer, we see several characters gearing up to take part in a futuristic motorsport. Competitors shown in the trailer include Asta and Argenti, while Lynx watches as a spectator. The event will be live-streamed on December 30, 2023, at 8 pm UTC+8 / 12 pm GMT / 7 am ET / 4 am PT.

The teaser trailer also features a snippet of an original song created for the event. “In a Flash” is a jazzy piece composed by inosoo and features the vocals of Lyn Inaizumi, best known for her work in Persona 5 and its spin-offs. The full song will feature during the broadcast. The event’s Program also lists some short films set to premiere during the live stream. These include “Pink Ambience,” “The Kuma Returns,” and “Sparks Yet to Fly.”

Hello?

Anyone?

Uh. I think I've been locked inside the treehouse while the others left on their Christmas holidays, so I guess I may as well continue to write the news. Deathloop is currently free to keep for those with an Amazon Prime membership.

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The Top 10 Games of the Year That Aren’t HUMANITY

Because HUMANITY Is Great. Play HUMANITY.

Hello wonderful Giant Bomb family! Alex Boniello here, excited to be back for another Game of the Year list. As always, endless shout outs to the crew who are not only hard workers, but are just great people. Congrats to you all on another fun year filled with change, transitions, and laughs.

Like most of you reading this, I’ve played a lot of amazing games this year, and I had a tougher time than usual narrowing this list down. I only wish I had more time to cross a few more of the ones I missed off my list.

I like to get a little funky with these lists, because games are just one of the art forms that help me get through the year, and it is always fun to share! So before we get to the games, here are some Not Video Game things that I loved this year.

In the market for a high refresh rate gaming monitor for FPS? Right now you can pick up the Asus ROG Strix XG27AQMR for $499 on Amazon US, a great price for a 1440p 300Hz (!) esports-grade gaming monitor that delivers a silky-smooth experience. The current price is a $100 discount on its normal going rate and quite competitive for a montor with these specs.

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While other god games might have been recently consigned to the scrapheap, the cute, toy-like WorldBox continues to improve. The early access god sim is going to start simulating family trees in its next update.

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Versus Evil, the publisher behind The Banner Saga and Pillars Of Eternity 2, among others, has been closed down and its entire staff laid off. Versus Evil were bought by tinyBuild in November 2021.

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A Steam user on Christmas Eve had a question: How do you earn just one measly little Steam Point? They were at 68,999 points and wanted to hit 69,000 because, you know, it’s a nice number and all that. However, because of how Steam Points are earned, there seemed no simple way to get that one measly point. But then a…

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Greg Sewart is one of the co-hosts of the Player One Podcast and formerly an editor at publications such as Gaming Age, EGM, and Expert Gamer. You can check out his retro gaming channel, Generation 16.

One of the best parts about turning in my Games Media™ membership card was getting a chance to take a breath and only play the games I wanted rather than jumping from new release to new release all year long. The freedom to play whatever I want has crystalized into a tendency to play way more retro games each year in between the major releases I’m most interested in. So with that in mind, here are three retro games I’m glad knocked off the ol’ backlog in 2023!

Webster’s Dictionary defines “Game of the Year” as “The word you've entered isn't in the dictionary. Click on a spelling suggestion below or try again using the search bar above.” That sentiment is especially true in 2023, a year that was chockablock with really quite good video games.

There were so many really quite good video games released this year, in fact, that some really, really quite good video games have kinda fallen out of the “Game of the Year” discussion because other really, really quite good video games came along and hijacked the conversation. Not necessarily a bad thing, mind you. What am I gonna do? Complain about too many good video games?

Anycolor has taken down Selen Tatsuki’s cover of the song “Last Cup of Coffee,” citing that it had not passed the internal verification process. While the video is not on Selen’s channel as of the time of writing, though some of her fans have uploaded it onto other accounts.

Selen apologized to her fans via social media, saying that management privated the video. However, since her fans put so much work and money into the video, she welcomed reuploads. Several fans replying to her post expressing sympathy and outrage, as well as links to people who have reuploaded the song in question.

We can watch one of said reuploads of the Selen cover song below:

Atlus uploaded a new Persona 3 Reload trailer focusing on school life at Gekkoukan High School. There are quite a few differences between the remake version and the original game, which are highlighted in the video.

You can watch the school trailer for Persona 3 Reload here:

For starters, one of the new features in Persona 3 Reload is that you can check out what other people answered for questions in class. This is something that was possible in previous remasters and remakes, such as Persona 4 Golden and Persona 5 so long as you played while connected to the Internet.

HoYoVerse revealed details about the Critter Pick event in Honkai: Star Rail. This time-limited event was initially revealed during the December 2023 Version Special Program that discussed content in the Version 1.6 Update and is live now in-game.

The Critter Pick quest will add a creature collecting game to Honkai: Star Rail. The Herta Space Station has suddenly gained an abundance of little creatures and it’s up to you to look after them.  During the event, players will be able to cultivate their own critter creations and customize them as they wish. Rare critters may also appear during the creation process.

In addition, the preview of the Critter Pick event shown during the Special Program hinted at another aspect of the quest. It seems that players may be able to play as Asta’s dog Peppy, presumably as part of the quest’s main storyline.

You've probably already seen Eurogamer's top 50 games of 2023, but we didn't want to leave our end of year thoughts there. Big lists can sometimes feel impersonal, and as you know, tastes in games can be very personal. So we wanted to put together another kind of list, something that would show you - on a more personal level - the games that we, the people who write for Eurogamer, really enjoyed this year.

This brief series of articles will collect the top fives from a handful of different Eurogamer contributors, and we'll publish a handful of them each day for four days. We're not ordering the top fives because it's not really about that this time - ordering things. It's more important for us, here, to give you a sense of why.

Oh and please feel free - in fact, feel encouraged - to share your top fives below.

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Promise you won't tell the other children, but the RPS staff are actually complex magical spells cast by the Sugar Plum Fairy, as part of an age old pact with the ents of the forest where the RPS treehouse was built hundreds of years ago. Each year the Sugar Plum Fairy has to collect more wishes to power the spells every year (you can help to make the spells more powerful by joining the RPS supporter program). While she's out wish-hunting, here are some Christmas Crackers to distract you.

Time to enjoy your lovely joke!

Q: What did loveable Geordie Dec say to his double act partner after a tough climb?

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A new trailer for the Witch on the Holy Night movie will appear on December 31, 2023. It’ll air after the Fate Project New Year’s TV Special 2023. [Thanks, Famitsu!]

This will be the second piece of new information since ufotable and Aniplex first teased the movie back in December 2021. At the time, we only saw a little bit of main characters Alice and Aoko. This year, we might get more scenes, as well as a release window. 

Since Aniplex and ufotable announced the movie in 2021, an enhanced version of the visual novel came out for the Nintendo Switch and PS4. A Windows PC version recently came out in December 2023. The story of Witch on the Holy Night follows Aoko Aozaki, a mage living in the town of Misaki with Alice Kuonji. Their life together changes when transfer student Sojuro Shizuki walks in on Aoko’s conflict with a mysterious mage, forcing him to live with the two mages in order to protect the secrecy of magic.

This year, I've mostly played smaller games, mostly from small or solo developers. Playing a giant timesink game all day hasn't appealed as I've sought to spend more time in forests and up hills and down rivers, and Destiny 2 burned me out so hard on live service games that I still can't face those. But a year of little games has been great fun, short bursts of play and ideas explored concisely, so here are some of my other favourites.

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Happy New Year! Well, almost. 2023 will soon be behind us, and that means a whole calendar year of new releases to look forward to lies ahead. January might arrive with a brisk selection of titles, but it’s a pretty sweet way to kick off 2024.

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Danganronpa tea sets based on Byakuya Togami and Celestia Ludenberg are readily available to pre-order via Amnibus. Amnibus does offer international shipping with Buyee, so overseas customers will be able to purchase these items.

The items that are available for the tea set are:

• Acrylic coaster: 980 JPY
• Dessert plate: 2480 JPY
• Leather tray: 1980 JPY
• Spray bottle: 980 JPY
• Teacup and saucer: 4500 JPY
• Teapot: 4200 JPY

Here's a gallery showing the full collection of items.

Last year, I said 2022 was an odd year for games, with some feeling that it was largely devoid of great releases and others, myself included, finding them plentiful. But this year was even stranger, as it was better than ever while simultaneously being the worst in a long time.

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Ahead of Penny Blood’s anticipated Spring 2025 launch, we have Penny Blood: Hellbound, which is a roguelike side story focusing on the enemy Hellhounders faction. Though something of a grind, it serves as a fairly fun way to get to know the world and characters of Penny Blood before the main game comes out.

The plot of Penny Blood: Hellbound focuses on Clara, an amnesiac girl with a natural affinity for Malice. After she encounters the Hellhounders, some mysterious mages appear and toss them into the inter-dimensional prison, Mictlan. They can't die in Mictlan, nor can they escape. Nonetheless, they decide to try and break out of it together, which requires defeating the magi who trapped them in it in the first place. On the way, they meet other villains who invite themselves to the Hellhounders’ ranks. These villains can help you out in various ways in the Hellhounders’ hide-out.

Square Enix announced that it will end service for Fullmetal Alchemist Mobile on Friday, March 29, 2024. The company has also immediately ceased all in-app purchases that require real money, such as Diamonds and Premium Battle Passes.

The game's producer Takanori Shiina also published a letter on behalf of his team. He noted that the team had worked hard to improve the game's system and balance following the first anniversary in August 2023. It also held meetings to set up projects leading up to the game's second anniversary.

However, Shiina mentioned the difficulty in maintaining the team structure to provide even more services to the game as the primary reason for its closure. He also apologized on behalf of the team for failing to publish a new original story inside Fullmetal Alchemist Mobile. The team will instead convert the story to a voice drama series. It will start publishing drama episodes on Square Enix's YouTube channel on Friday, January 5, 2024. The drama will run for a total of 12 episodes on a weekly basis.

Now that Tekken 8’s 32-character launch roster has been unveiled, Bandai Namco has been releasing gameplay trailers for the fighters that didn’t get one the first time around. It's Kuma's turn now, and the fighting bear is embearrassing challengers left and right.

Sporting a sweet headband and rugged gi, Kuma looks to be an unbearably challenging opponent. His furious paw swipes show he has no problem bearing arms, even against his perennial crush, Panda. In fact, she could bearly stand up to him! But don’t take my word for it. Bear witness to Kuma’s grizzly carnage by watching the trailer below. 

Tekken 8 launches on January 26 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Check out our recent hands-on preview of the game's story mode here. 

We've already published our staff-wide list of the best games of 2023, but every editor had a few games they wish could have received some praise. This is where we have the opportunity to shout out some of those games. Below, you'll see each individual Game Informer editor's personal top 10 list for 2023. Check out each editor's list and let us know in the comments section which editor you most align with!

I know you all were worried and losing sleep about this, so I’m happy to be the one to bring you this very important news: Kuma the bear will be in Tekken 8.

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Yostar has started delivering its promise to cut off account linkages with X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, for its mobile games. Blue Archive was the first game to see the feature completely removed when it received an update on December 27, 2023. The company had also set up similar plans for Azur Lane, Arknights, and Mahjong Soul in the coming days, as 2023 draws to a close.

After the update, Blue Archive player accounts that were only connected to X/Twitter turned into guest accounts. That will render them unable to sync their accounts on re-installs and transfers to other devices. To help address the issue, Yostar has set up a special webpage that lets such users transfer login data from their existing X account to a new Yostar Account.

Bandai Namco has opened a Digimon Games Questionnaire that primarily asks people about the recent past and future of video games based on the franchise. It also includes optional inputs that will be used to fill up segments at the upcoming Digimon Con 2024 event.

The required personal details in this survey are nickname, region, gender, age, and occupation. The survey also mandates people to mention the recent Digimon games they have played (or lack thereof). The last required-entry appears near the end of the survey, and it will gauge people's interest in purchasing Digimon games in specific genres.

The survey also specifically focuses on the three most recent console games: Digimon Survive, Digimon World: Next Order, and Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth with Hacker's Memory. It includes optional inputs where players can mention their favorite Digimon and scenes from the aforementioned games. Bandai Namco may pick some of these entries and feature them in Digimon Con 2024. The final optional entry lets people write specific requests to Bandai Namco.

This year represented one of the most difficult game of the year discussions we’ve had in some time; 2023 was overflowing with fantastic games. But our opinions are not the only ones (you can read Game Informer's top 2023 10 list right here). For a few weeks, beginning November 17, we ran a poll online, and readers sent their top five favorite games of 2023. We used ranked positional voting – the Borda count method – to gather the results below. If you have opinions on your opinions, leave us a comment below! But you can't be mad at us. This is all you.

Platform: Rift, Quest, Vive
Publisher: Singer Studios
Developer: Singer Studios
Release: 2024

When you think of pirates, history mainstays like Blackbeard might come to mind alongside the fictional Jack Sparrow. An important but often forgotten name, however, is Cheng Shih. Not only is Cheng Shih one of history's most successful pirates, but she's also the woman who took over her late husband Cheng Yat's pirate armada after his death, putting her in indirect control of 40,000-plus pirates for a nearly decade-long stint in Chinese waters in the early 19th Century. While Cheng Shih's story can be found on pages of books and elsewhere, Singer Studios aims to bring her story to life in VR. 

Well well well, here we are again. We made it to the end of the year, folks. Time to relax, unwind, and reflect. It’s been a weird one, hasn’t it?

Giant Bomb’s Game of the Year lists serve to celebrate what we enjoyed the most this year, to talk about the moments that’ll stick with us, the soundtracks we added to our playlists, the games that truly left a mark.

People made those games.

2023 will go down in history for having some of the best games ever made released in quick succession, but also for being relentlessly cruel to the people who make and cover them. Another day, another studio closure, or downsizing, or project cancellation. Opening up Twitter or LinkedIn every morning to see bad news impacting those who simply do not deserve it, while those who made the decisions get off scot free.

Slay The Spire mod Downfall suffered a "security breach" on Christmas day which allowed hackers to distribute malware through Steam, the developers of the mod say. The malware attempts to steal users' passwords from their internet browser, as well as passwords for messaging services Telegram and Discord.

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