Last post of 2023! What have you all been playing?
Bonus question, what was your favorite game of the year?
I just picked up Again the Storm a few days ago and have been enjoying that. I like that the settlement building isn’t drawn out like other strategy games, and I don’t really feel bad about it when I lose since I can still earn perks and bonuses that persist throughout the campaign.
GOTY for me is definitely Balder’s Gate 3. Enjoyed it start to finish, and there was enough content that my second playthrough didn’t feel like a rehash of the first.
Remaining glued to Baldurs Gate 3. Enjoying a playthrough as a battle bard.
Did fire up Foxhole again to get into some trench combat. Had a ton of fun doing mortar support.
Favorite game of the year? BG3, hands down.
I finished (again) God of War 2018. I thought it was going to sour on me, just like how my 2nd playthrough of Horizon Zero Dawn did (and subsequently my 1st playthrough of Forbidden West). But no, it’s still a very good game. Combat is simple but still satisfying, side quests aren’t excessive like Forbidden West, story is still good but less intense than TLoU. My only complaint is that the fast travel is just way too slow. I’m looking forward to Ragnarök now.
Here are some games that I really enjoyed playing/replaying last year
- FINAL FANTASY XVI
- Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon
- Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - Reunion
- Live A Live
- PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo
- Tactics Ogre: Reborn
- The Case of the Golden Idol
- Voodoo Detective
- Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising
- Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge
- Shin Megami Tensei: Persona
- Sword of the Vagrant
- Tail Concerto
- The Bizarre Adventures of Woodruff and the Schnibble
- Wild Arms
- Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana
- Ys: Memories of Celceta
- Zero Escape Trilogy
- God of War
My top is probably FF16, I have soft spot for this type of siblings story, also loving the Asura’s Wrath section.
- Alan Wake 2 (PS5)
- Red Dead Redemption 2 (PS5)
- The Division 2 (PC)
I heard the fixed the crashing issues on Division 2, so will try it again.
On a bit of a side-scrolling trip these past few weeks: Mario Wonder, Metroid Dread, Yooka-Laylee, etc.
The two big(ger) games I’ve played this year are Street Fighter 6 and Mario Wonder which are both fantastic. I haven’t played BG3 or the latest Zelda or any other major releases, but my partner and I were all in on SF6 for weeks. Wonder, though, is a great throwback to what made us both start gaming: very easy to pick up and play, things to collect, and a tiny bit of grinding.
Snowrunner (still)! Only a few missions left on Island Lake, then I can explore Drummond Island 🚚
I also played Pavlov VR a bit on PC to see if there were many more players from Christmas. Ran into a few new PS5 users that were fun. I hope the servers don’t die out, PC players are already a minority in the crossplay maps!
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Kerbal Space Program 2 and Dark Souls 3.
KSP2 released their science patch this month that adds missions and a progression path to work through. It’s a lot more fun now that there are goals to work towards, and the missions are much better than what KSP1’s career mode offered.
I’ve been co-op’ing through DS3 with a buddy, which has been a fun way to tide us over until Elden Ring’s DLC comes out. I just wish there was a similar seamless co-op mod for DS3. Neither of us are interested in PvP, and it’s a little tedious to have to go through everything twice.
I’m with you on the KSP2 missions. Randomly generated missions may have endless possibilities, but handcrafted ones make much more sense and don’t have their quality determined by RNGesus. I remember once seeing a screenshot of a mission with the goal of testing launch clamps on the surface of the sun.
I’m playing Far Cry 6. Finally finished the Paint the Town side quest! It turned out to be one of those that took way to long to finish. My wife and I are also playing It Takes Two.
@chloyster I started playing Verdun this week. I wanted to attend to their Christmas event. It’s basically a mode after that incident in 1916 when some units of the armies fighting on the Western front began approaching each other. In the game you can play football (and the winning team wins the game basically), but you can also throw snowballs at other players and if they’re hit, they freeze for a while. You can also send postcards via email to others if you go to the mailmen. Or via Facebook or Xitter (if I remember correctly). It would be great to be able to send these here on the fediverse, but eh…
I’ve been playing a bit of CS2 for the past weeks. It takes me way back (I played with high-school friends 20 years ago till 1.6) and I definitely suck, but I’m having fun. It still lacks fun community servers imo, but I hope to see more of them soon.
My favorite game of 2023 was Outer Wilds. I got completely immersed inside and spent a lot of quality time uncovering the storyline. I tried playing the DLC but I did not enjoy it very much, text made more sense than images for me.
The game I spent most hours on in 2023 was probably DOS2, doing both solo and coop playthroughs. Will probably be replaced by BG3 in 2024 :)
One of my children got me The Coffin of Andy and Lelyey for Christmas, so that’s in progress. Finally downloaded Alan Wake 2 (which I’ve been eagerly anticipating forever) since it was on sale, so that’s on deck.
I think the only game I played last year that actually came out in 2023 was Diablo 4 and I refuse to call that my favorite. (I did play most of the old Shadowrun games though and enjoyed them immensely.)
