This year's Game Awards ceremony garnered a lot of justified criticism for the way it rushed winning developers off stage in favour of adverts, rambling conversations with Hideo Kojima, and celebrity cameos from the likes of Timothée Chalamet.

Obsidian's Josh Sawyer was right when he called it an "embarrassing indictment of a segment of the industry desperate for validation via star power". Yet I still can't help but also see the Game Awards as something else: a sign of progress. That's because I remember the Spike Video Game Awards from 2007, which remains the nadir of both the games industry specifically and popular culture in general.

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Nintendo published the Japanese Nintendo Switch yearly download ranking for 2023, revealing that Suika Game was in first place. The viral game managed to overtake even Nintendo's blockbusters like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Pikmin 4 to get the top spot.

Nintendo combined the download numbers for each title from both individual and bundle purchases made from January 1, 2023, to December 20, 2023. However, it only considered titles with a CERO rating in Japan, so games with only an IARC rating were not included here.

Here is the complete top 30 list from the Japanese Nintendo Switch 2023 download ranking:

1. Suika Game
2. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
3. Pikmin 4
4. Super Mario Bros. Wonder
5. Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince

The last few years have been full of amazing RPGs, but 2023 took things to a whole new level. It was the year we got Final Fantasy XVI, Diablo 4, and Bethesda’s long awaited Starfield. It was also the year Baldur’s Gate 3 appeared and blew them all out of the water. Fans of stat-based combat, meandering side-quests,…

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Cor, there's been a lot of games this year, haven't there? While I've only slapped one Bestest Best badge down in 2023 (woe is me), our lovely freelancers, current RPSers, and former RPSers have done a whole lot more badge-slapping. A grand total of 26 Bestest Bests have graced our monitors this year, which makes it three more than last year's Bestest Best round-up. And I'd say it's a nice mixture of big budget open worlders, puzzle gems, and indie delights that make up our roster for 2023, too.

So yeah, I'd encourage you to have a flick through the list below and see if there's anything you can add to the wishlist. Even as the person with "Reviews" in their job title, I can confirm I literally have loads of these Bestest Bests in my backlog. I will endeavour to play a handful over this Christmas break on my Steam Deck, maybe combining the experience with a nibble on a mince pie. Anyway, enjoy! And Merry Reviewsmas!

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The quality of video game releases in 2023 has been discussed in detail by many, and it will absolutely go down as one of the best years the medium has experienced, strictly in terms of the excellent games that were released. The larger industry and its members will always look back on 2023 with justified frustration.

Patterns in any year are always a given. Trends inspire entire genres to be prevalent, and we also have events like 2009, where there were two high-profile open-world games about super-powered humans: Infamous and Prototype. This year will certainly be remembered for games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Baldur’s Gate 3, among others, but I can’t help but notice that RPGs citing a specific era of the genre were also, inexplicably, hugely popular.

Earlier this week, I shared a story about my favorite Christmas gift. It was an Xbox 360 I had begged my late grandma for, which she bought alongside a copy of Gears of War and a second controller for my bestie and I. This gift would set the course for my life’s current trajectory, one neither I nor my family thought…

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In this week's episode of The Game Informer Show we discuss our game and games of the year, the best and brightest feature (currently in the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth issue of the magazine), and just generally recap all the discussions that went it how that annual feature comes together.

The Game Informer Show #687 Podcast:

Follow us on social media: Marcus Stewart (@MarcusStewart7), Kyle Hilliard (@KyleMHilliard), Wesley LeBlanc (@LeBlancWes)

The Game Informer Show is a weekly gaming podcast covering the latest video game news, industry topics, exclusive reveals, and reviews. Join host Alex Van Aken every Thursday to chat about your favorite games – past and present – with Game Informer staff, developers, and special guests from around the industry. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.

The Nintendo Switch has an impressive array of exclusive titles, but its immense success also means it is home to countless ports of retro games and titles from other platforms. These five best Switch ports are must-plays for owners.

Best Switch Port for Action Fans: Nier: Automata The End of YoRHa Edition

When it comes to action games, the best Switch port players should check out is Nier: Automata The End of YoRHa Edition. You don’t need to play the original to enjoy this thrilling hack-and-slash RPG adventure about two androids on a quest to save humanity. This port works and looks so much better than it should. It offers excellent gameplay and a surprising story with numerous endings.

2024 is right around the corner, and what better way to kick it off than to get some complimentary games from your PlayStation Plus subscription? As announced in the PS Blog, this month's selection of games is headlined by A Plague Tale: Requiem, Asobo Studio's 2022 tale of sickness and siblings. While he thought it dragged on a bit in the second half, our reviewer said, "Calling Requiem a standard sequel is a disservice; Asobo has created a Plague Tale epic." You can read that full review here and take a look at the other two offerings below.

Incredible gaming was not limited to the screen this year. A wealth of fantastic board, card, and miniature games found their way to tables, bringing friends and families together for evenings of strategy, imagination, and fun. From simple party games to sprawling quest-driven adventures, these are some of the year’s best new projects for your gaming group.

‘Tis the season to promote indie games with AI-generated junk, apparently. A Microsoft Twitter account recently posted low-effort, energy-intensive art promoting indie games on Xbox before later deleting it after getting roundly mocked by fans and developers alike.

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2023 was yet another solid year for fans of shooty-shooty-bang-bang video games. While the Golden Era of shooters might be slowing down as the year wraps up, we still got some dang good ones, both in first-person and third-person variants, over these past 12 months.

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As 2023 winds down, it’s time to take a look back at the year and revisit all of the great video games that have released so far. It’s been a pretty solid year for Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch fans, as all three consoles got some strong exclusive games, but it’s time to determine who the winner is. Here are the best console exclusive titles of 2023.

2nd Runner-Up: Starfield

Writer Stephanie Watel: This year, Bethesda took us to the stars in more ways than one with Starfield, their biggest and most technologically ambitious IP so far that put them back on the map of groundbreaking RPGs for the first time in nearly a decade.

2023 was a veritable feast for RPG fans. From adventures spanning space and time to epic fantasy adventures that’d make any DnD diehard weep, the games on offer were all gunning to be the best fans had ever seen come out of the genre.

But when all is said and done, only one can be our best RPG of 2023. So join us as we take a look at our picks for the most memorable, noteworthy, and otherwise exceptional games that allowed players to role play like no other.

The Pokemon series experienced a decent, but modest, year in 2023 with Scarlet and Violet and their DLC, some events, Pokemon Sleep, Detective Pikachu Returns, and updates for existing titles. As we look ahead to the future, here are the Pokemon games from new titles to ports to remakes we hope to see this year in 2024.

Pokemon Games We Want in 2024: Gens 1-3

With the Game Boy and Game Boy Advance Nintendo Switch Online libraries available, it is high time for the first three generations of Pokemon games to be available on Switch. The first two generations came out on 3DS, so it is time for their arrival on Switch alongside Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald.

I didn't have much time to play new games this year, honestly. Prior to joining the RPS Treehouse in late October, I spent much of the year organising a massive international move with my family from the US to the UK, which meant that many of 2023's fresh releases - aside from the few that I've highlighted in this year's advent calendar - remained in the unplayed depths of my Steam list. Now that it's December and life has settled somewhat, I had to wrack my brain to come up with three entries for this Selection Box. After much deliberation, I realised that there were a few indie gems that I managed to crack open amidst all the chaos of arranging 60+ boxes for shipment across the Atlantic.

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When Don’t Nod Entertainment first launched its adventure game, Life Is Strange, back in 2015, it took the gaming world by storm. So, if you’re searching for more titles that are akin to that gameplay style but don’t want to play the sequel, here are games like Life Is Strange.

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 d'you call it when you need the loo, but incorrectly assume you can hold it?

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You've probably already seen Eurogamer's top 50 games of 2023, but we didn't leave our end of year thoughts there. Big lists can sometimes feel impersonal, and as you know, individual tastes in games are anything but. So, we wanted to cobble together our collected thoughts on the games we felt shaped 2023.

This brief series of articles will, then, collect the top fives of a handful of different Eurogamer writers each day, and run for four days. The top fives aren't ordered because ordering is not what's important here - it's seeing which games were special to people this year, and hearing about why. And please, feel free to share yours.

Baldur's Gate 3 is a phenomenon, and my nerdy RPG-loving heart is all the more fuller when I see just how passionately other people have taken to it - and how could they not? It feels like so many games have promised us deep choice consequences over the years, but then inevitably trick us with the illusion of choice, whereas Baldur's Gate 3 is choice - it's D&D. Romance, story, playstyle, personality, looks, morality - it's all up to you. It's also incredibly funny and charming, and just a complete delight to immerse yourself in. Baldur's Gate 3 is a forever game.

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In the ever-expanding realm of gaming, where triple-A titles often dominate headlines, there exists a hidden trove of gems waiting to be discovered! As we embark on a journey through the gaming landscape of 2023, it becomes increasingly evident that greatness isn’t solely reserved for the most hyped-up releases.

This article delves into 2023’s many underrated releases, shining a spotlight on the hidden treasures that may have slipped under the radar of mainstream attention. From innovative indie creations to overlooked masterpieces, read on to discover all of the greatest underrated games of 2023!

In an interview with 4Gamer about video game developers' 2024 aspirations, Yosuke Saito and Mariko Sato of Square Enix have announced that they are working on new, unannounced games for the company. It’s likely that they are two separate projects. [Thanks, 4Gamer!]

For reference, Saito is the producer of the NieR and Voice of Cards series. He also worked on Gems Company, along with Monaca, which is the music production studio that NieR and Drakengard composer Keiichi Okabe founded in 2004. Meanwhile, Sato produced Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion.

There is not a lot of information about the games, whether it’s announcement window, genre, or platform. Saito states that he’s going to work hard in 2024 and that he may or may not announce something new. In Sato’s message, she first thanks fans for the reception towards Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion, as well as talks about Zack’s brief appearance in the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth trailer. She then also says that she’s working hard so that she can announce a new title, and wants fans to look forward to the day when she can reveal it.

I have a lot of feelings about video games in 2023. A lot of feelings about the state of the industry and the treatment of the people making the games we love to play. I’m hopeful that the industry will pull together and unionize and collectively fight to not be wildly exploited by the companies they make profitable through their talent, creativity, and tremendous work. We see you and we see what’s being done to you and it sucks fucking ass.

I played a lot of games this year and it’s been a good ass year for gamers. There are games that are supposedly amazing that I haven’t even had time to touch. There are also a number of games I’ve started, that I want to get back to, that I haven’t had the chance to finish yet. Out of all the games I’ve had the pleasure of playing, these are the games I enjoyed playing through the most this year:

In an interview with 4Gamer about his plans for 2024, Eiji Ishida of Atlus teased an unannounced game that is still in development. However, he did not mention if Atlus will be able to reveal it in 2024. [Thanks, 4Gamer!]

The interview that 4Gamer conducted was with a large number of video game developers, asking them to look back on the year and give an idea of their aspirations for the next. In Ishida’s case, he stated that he is working on an unannounced title.

Though he does not know when they will be able to announce it, he and the director are working hard to complete it. So he hopes that people will look forward to when they can reveal it to the world. Ishida is the director for Soul Hackers 2, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, and Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey. He also worked as a designer for the Kuzunoha Raidou series and Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne.

Meghna Jayanth is a writer and narrative designer for games such as Thirsty Suitors, 80 Days, Horizon Zero Dawn, Sable, and Boyfriend Dungeon.

In the Version 1.6 update of Honkai: Star Rail, HoYoVerse has adjusted the AI for Pela when you use auto-battle. While the information sheet on HoYoLab did not provide specific details, the adjustment seems to be that Pela will no longer use her Skill.

The auto-battle in Honkai: Star Rail will prioritize having characters use their Skill whenever possible. In Pela’s case, her Skill, Frostbite, deals Ice DMG and removes a buff from an enemy. However, prior to this update, she would use her Skill even if the enemy did not have a buff on them.

While Skills help a character regain their Ultimate faster—and in Pela’s case, her Ultimate is the meat of her utility—her using her Skill means that she is taking away Skill Points from characters who might need it more.

Version 1.6 is the latest update for Honkai: Star Rail, adding in new events such as Critter Pick and characters such as Ruan Mei. There is also a new Echo of War that you can challenge every week so long as you complete the Trailblaze Continuance “The Blue—When the Stars of Ingenuity Shine,” which drops materials that you need for new characters such as Xueyi.

Godiva will release chocolates based on popular Sanrio characters starting on January 11, 2024. You’ll be able to buy them in Sanrio stores (both online and offline) and in the Sanrio corners of department stores. [Thanks, Denfaminico!]

As per usual, Hello Kitty and My Melody are two of the stars. Cinnamoroll, who debuted as a Godiva mascot in 2023, will also be available. The new Sanrio mascot for this year will be Kuromi, making for a total of four variations of the Sanrio Godiva chocolates. Each gift set will come with a plush of the Sanrio mascot, as well as a box of chocolate bonbons.

You can check out more pictures of the Sanrio gift sets from Godiva here:

Leon Chang is a New York-based musician whose work you can find on Bandcamp. He's @leyawn on Twitter and can be found on Twitch several times a week.

Before we start I have to preface that I have not yet played Star Ocean: The Second Story R, the remake of Star Ocean: The Second Story. So don’t get mad that I did not put Star Ocean: The Second Story R, the remake of Star Ocean: The Second Story on my games of the year list. Now we can proceed.

Several prominent game creators from Bandai Namco shared their plans and aspirations for 2024 in 4Gamer's end-of-year compilation. The producers for the Tales Of and Ace Combat series are particularly preparing for the 30th anniversary, both of which will fall in 2025. [Thanks, 4Gamer!]

One of the biggest teasers by the company comes from Yusuke Tomizawa. The producer has been mostly preoccupied with the Tales Of series as he recently released the Tales of Arise: Beyond the Dawn expansion in November 2023.

While Tomizawa is preparing for the Tales Of series' 30th anniversary in 2025, he also revealed his involvement in several other titles. However, he did not specify whether these titles will be related to Tales Of or other franchises he previously worked on, such as God Eater.

Hey! I'm one of the newer faces around these parts, but Jeff reached out and asked if I wanted to regale the Giant Bomb audience with my favorite games of the year. Thanks Grubb, you're a real one.

A quick caveat: If there's a game missing from this list, it is most likely because I simply haven't been able to play it yet. Apologies, for example, to Baldur's Gate 3 fans; it's not you, it's me.

Now, on with my Alphabetical Top 10 Games Of 2023!

Alan Wake II

Let's start by calling myself out: I don't do horror well. Call it being a sissy, call it a fear fueled by a knowledge of my family history combined with my, uh, above-average stature, but horror games and I don't mix. As such, while Alan Wake 2 figures to feature on a lot of GOTY lists, its appearance here honestly surprises me.

James Sunderland is not going to survive this.

By the end of his journey through Silent Hill, everything will be chaos – his mind and even the world around him, a violent cacophony of anguish.

But in the beginning, it’s silent. The kind of quiet that’s deafening, where you hear your pulse in your ears, and every tiny sound becomes the worst thing you can imagine.

Includes spoilers for Silent Hill 2

The opening hour of Silent Hill 2 is – without question – the scariest thing I have ever played. Which, taken at face value, might seem a bit ridiculous. Your goal is simply to navigate James through a dilapidated apartment building. At most, you’ll face 10 enemies throughout the building’s three floors, but they hardly pose a threat; they’re easily avoided or killed. Gameplay primarily consists of walking up to each door in the building and trying to enter; more often than not, they’re locked. There’s a boss battle at the end, but it’s on a timer; you can just run around until it ends. It’s tedious by design.

And yet, it’s that damn silence that wears on you as a player. The vacuum of sound leaves enough room that you start to imagine hearing things – or worse, the game has random sound effects that mess with you, such as whispers in rooms that may or may not play, depending on your playthrough.

A new month is nearly here, as well as a new year, and that means updates to the PlayStation Plus catalog. January kicks off 2024 with three new games available for Premium, Extra, and Essential members to download starting on January 2, as well as some goodies if you happen to be a space ninja.

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Hi. I'm Excalibur. I played A LOT of EA FC 24 this year. More than I should have. I didn't play Alan Wake II or Street Fighter VI this year. That's on me, I'm sorry.

Circling back, I'm Excalibur. I am a play-by-play commentator for All Elite Wrestling (AEW), appearing weekly on our DYNAMITE and RAMPAGE professional wrestling broadcasts that air on various networks and streaming services around the world. I also just started Against the Storm, which seems really cool, and, in full transparency, worked on AEW: Fight Forever, the first-ever video game launched by All Elite Wrestling, which at the end of the day (or year) is a really cool thing to be able to say.

2023 has been a year of massive fights and deep stories. Series have ended and premiered, but they all brought something new to the medium. However, a common thread between all of them is awesome female characters. These ladies lead the pack when it comes to anime, and all absolutely earn the label of waifu.

I didn’t think it was still possible, but Twitter just served up my favorite crossover of the year: Lord of the Rings Moneyball. You see, you take the plot of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and then talk about it using Moneyball quotes. It’s simple, stupid, and so satisfying I can’t believe nobody thought of it before.

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Valve has released its annual "Best Of" list highlighting the top-performing games on Steam measured by gross revenue and player engagement.

The categories are top sellers, best-selling new releases, most-played games on PC, most-played games on Steam Deck, highest-grossing early access games, most-played using a controller, and best-selling VR titles. The top 12 games in each category earn Platinum status, while everything below them is grouped into a descending ranking of Gold, Silver, and Bronze. It's a fun snapshot of the games Steam users dug into most this year and a reminder that games seemingly on the downtrend or long in the tooth (like, say, Destiny 2) clearly have a lot of players still logging in to play.  

You can view the complete list here, but we’ve listed the Platinum-ranked games alphabetically in each category (Valve does not rank these games).

Baldur’s Gate 3, Larian Studios’ award-winning role-playing game (which you’ll find ranked rather high on Kotaku’s Game of The Year list), is known for its incredibly immersive world, its fantastic characters, and the tough choices you’ll have to make during its 50 to 100 hours of gameplay. But it’s also garnered…

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The 10 Best Games of 2023 (Based on How Much I Want to Hang Out With the Characters, and What We Would Do)

By Bailey Meyers

10. Hi-Fi Rush

When I played Hi-Fi Rush, I became certain of one thing: I don’t think I know how to listen to music correctly. Though the devs did create tools that would allow beat-challenged losers like myself and several of the people reading this (you know who you are) to play their game, I think I’m better off just going to a concert or something with Chai, Peppermint, CNMN, et al. We’ll have fun, and I’ll finally learn how to clap along to a beat correctly.

2023 is nearly over, finally, but at least there were some great games to get us through it, right? This year was full of great releases, but marred by myriad layoffs across sectors (including the games industry), and larger, global issues that made it hard to find the light in the dark. But video games, with their…

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The Switch is going out with a bang. Ahead of the likely reveal of the Nintendo handheld hybrid’s successor next year, the aging hardware continued receiving an amazing slate of new games in 2023, including The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, one of the best entries to date in the long-running fantasy adventure…

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Key staff members from Koei Tecmo's Omega Force, Gust, and Ruby Party will have new reveals in 2024. The teasers came from the year-end messages they sent annually to Japanese media outlets. [Thanks, 4Gamer!]

Tomohiko Sho, the head of Omega Force, is preparing to release new DLC packs for Fate/Samurai Remnant in 2024. However, he also teased an important game announcement in the same year:

"I perceive 2024 as a year as an important year for us to deliver the best games to everyone in the next few years. And I want to make it a year where we get to announce such a game, so I hope you will anticipate it . . ."

Tomohiko Sho