Game of the Year: Blockbuster edition: Video Games Industry Memo, 14/12/2023
Baldur’s Gate 3! Tears of the Kingdom! Alan Wake 2! Other games!
Baldur’s Gate 3, Tears of the Kingdom and Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty lead our Game of the Year selection
Epic Games defeats Google in anti-trust court case
E3 is officially over, says ESA
Ok everybody. There is so much content in this week’s VGIM that I don’t have room for my usual hilarious intro. Please amuse yourself in some other way while you enjoy the penultimate VGIM of the year.
Video Games Industry Memo’s Game of the Year: Blockbuster edition
Welcome to the first ever Video Games Industry Memo Game of the Year awards; a celebration of the best games released across the course of the calendar year
Rather than dictate to you the top games of the year, I asked the VGIM community to submit their favourite video games from 2023 for consideration. And fortunately, they’ve delivered so hard we’re doing two editions - blockbusters and everything else - to round off the year in style.
Before you tuck in to some tasty games, it is worth noting there are some titles missing such as Diablo IV and Spider-Man 2 missing. Whereas most publications have to find a reason to justify omissions, I can blame my readers for not submitting copy - which is exactly what’s happening here.
So without further ado here are this year’s biggest games as described by avid VGIM-ers and, in many cases, better writers than I am. Onwards!
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Matt Honeycombe-Foster, UK News Editor for Politico and one-time games fanzine editor
Love Breath of the Wild, one of the greatest games ever made? Well, what if we put a whole new world underneath it? Oh and let you soar up into the sky too?
What if we gave you magic building hands to make mad little boats with? Want to smoosh an eyeball onto an arrow and let it chase after various numpties? Sure you do!
Keen to attach an explosive barrel to an impromptu hover-bike, crash it into some bad dudes simply enjoying a roast dinner and then run away - on fire - before teleporting vertically *through* a mountain? In here, that's okay.
In fact, what if we took the emergent, solve-it-your-way genius of Breath of the Wild’s shrines - already videogaming's purest pockets of puzzling joy since Portal - and let that approach spill out into the entire world?
So that the whole thing becomes an invitation to spend your scant free time doing the thing you actually got into videogames for in the first place: playing.
…oh, go on then, just another 40 hours.
Baldur’s Gate 3
Alex Humphreys - BBC presenter, author of Playing with Reality and weather host with the most
Once in a while a game comes along that reawakens a feeling of magic that you never realised you'd lost. A game that draws you in so much that when you're not playing it, you're thinking about playing it, plotting your next moves. That game is Baldur's Gate 3. I've not had this feeling since first discovering World of Warcraft back in 2004. I'm not playing it, I'm living it.
I'd never played a Baldur's Gate game, nor Dungeons and Dragons, and this game is not without its faults: I had to watch countless videos before understanding how to play - something that has deterred some friends from persevering. The sheer scale is both thrilling and daunting. At 63 hours in, I'd completed just 25%, but I embrace the slow ritual of assessing my surroundings before battle, studying enemies, choosing spells and the characters which form my group. The countless options for how the dialogue progresses remind me fondly of '90s choose-your-own-adventure books. The complexity of the world, character backstory and ingenious side-quests that Larian has carefully crafted are so intricate that I feel great responsibility for each decision made. I don't want to mess it up, or miss a thing.
Despite the world of Faerûn being visually stunning, the camera can be tricky to manage. But it doesn't take away from the enchantment I get from Baldur's Gate 3. With a stunning score that lingers long beyond the Forgotten Realms, the music and standard of the voice acting alone puts this into GOTY territory (special mention goes to the mysterious actor of Withers), but all elements have been woven beautifully. I was not expecting to like this game, but Larian Studios has raised the bar for future RPGs and this, without a doubt, is my game of the year.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
Carl Anka - Journalist, author, podcaster and Poorly Drawn Lines enthusiast
I love Blade Runner. I love Ghost in the Shell. I love Akira. I love Deus Ex. I love Neuromancer. I’ve spent more than one Friday night commute home listening to Vangelis as I stare at all of the skyscrapers in London, wondering how much modern life is its own cyberpunk dystopia.
Cyberpunk 2077 was always going to push some of my pleasure buttons but it was only this year, with the release of Phantom Liberty and the comprehensive overhaul 2.0 patch, that it finally clicked for me.
Phantom Liberty gave CD Projekt Red a cleaner slate to tell stories. The sprawling mess of Night City and the Badlands is replaced by a taunt singular district of Dogtown. Johnny Silverhand, played by Keanu Reeves, is less of a wanglord in Phantom Liberty. Idris Elba puts in a great performance as Solomon Reed. And the Escape from New York meets Apocalypse Now early plotting of the DLC much more enjoyable than the weird knotted intro to the base game.
There were a number of missions in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty that absolutely floored me with their narrative depth and strength of dialogue. The way it forces you into difficult decisions, and then bisects the story based on what you think is jaw-dropping.
The first time I finished the base game, I went for an ending that made the most narrative sense for all the decisions I made up to that point. The next day I rebooted an old checkpoint to redo the final mission to get another ending. And another. And another. Few games have ever pushed me to watch to see every single possible ending, but few games have told such a meaty story.
Phantom Liberty is the game we thought we were getting in 2020. It’s a small pity it took so long to get us here, but the turnaround this game has had in the past three years is nothing short of remarkable.
Super Mario Wonder
Matthew Sutton - Head of UK Public Affairs at Kreab, charity fundraiser and Honorary Hatter
As a long time Nintendo fan, a new Mario game for me was always a big event. That being said, I hadn’t really followed much coverage for Super Mario Wonder and - in truth - my Switch hadn’t been used much all year.
However as soon as I started, the old Mario magic was there straight away: a reminder of why I’ve played video games for over 30 years and why Nintendo just does them better than anyone else.
This year I’ve played a mixture of remakes and re-releases, but Super Mario Wonder was the first time this year I had FUN playing a video game. And surely that’s the point right?
The creativity and personality displayed across the Flower Kingdom reminded me a lot of Super Mario World, which makes sense given that Nintendo have retained some of the old Mario team in its development.
It’s a little easier than I remember Dinosaur Land to be, but Elephant Mario easily sits alongside the flower and the cape as one of the best power-ups in a Mario game. I devoured the game over a couple of days, and each level reminded me that little bit more of why I’ve played Mario since I was a kid.
Alan Wake 2
Max Harvey Daniels - Big Games Machine PR person, backlink achiever
Alan Wake 2 is my standout game of 2023. Remedy produced a compelling continuation of Alan’s story and created a gratifying gameplay experience to boot.
Some may call it pretentious or edgy but the meta-narrative, the mix of live-action scenes and the altering of the world around you was incredible.
Without providing any spoilers, those who have played the game - and particularly that Alan level - will know how effectively Remedy uses music and scenery to draw the player in.
Additionally, Saga’s Mind Place and Alan’s Writer’s Room some of the most innovative mechanics I’ve seen in gaming. It truly felt like I was playing a ‘new’ game. Even the pause menus were a standout.
Ok, I know I’m biased; I’ve been a diehard fan of Alan Wake since 2010. But to have a sequel this good after such a long wait makes Alan Wake 2 my game of the year.
Marvel Snap
Jared Shurin - Strat Comms for London, Raptor Velocity for the world
Marvel Snap was released in October 2022. As last year’s Game of the Year (according to multiple awards), it is a strange inclusion in 2023, but also a merited one. First, as a mobile game that’s still hoovering up new players a year after release, it is already a notable achievement. Second, it had a successful Steam release this year, demonstrating a platform hop that many aspire to and few achieve. Third, the game is built on a routine, monthly programme of content drops. It is less a ‘2022’ or ‘2023’ game than a ‘continuous’ one.
The regular sequence of new content is one of the many mechanics that makes it such a notable game. It is less a ‘great’ game than a masterpiece of behavioural design: the steady supply of new content, the gentle competitive mechanic, the stream of aesthetic rewards, the quirky animations and haptics, the multiple forms of currency, and the regular flow of just-achievable missions. There’s zero attempt at a narrative, but that’s offset by the loving and imaginative use of existing Marvel properties. All built around a dead-easy mechanic and three minute gameplay.
A modern commitment to gaming seemingly involves subsuming one’s life into 100+ hour, immersive narrative - or steeling yourself for a level of competitive play that requires Olympic-level training. You can do that in Snap, if you so desire. If you want to spend (literally) thousands of hours to get all Ink Infinity splits (these are real words, I promise), you can. Go nuts. Or... you can aimlessly spaff out a few matches while your pasta boils. In a world where casual play for time-strapped adults is limited to word puzzles or farm-building, this is a free, fun and quality competitive game, and it deserves its success. ‘Nuff said.
Resident Evil 4 (Mercenaries Mode)
Gareth Dutton - Headshots personally and professionally
It’s 2005 and I’m in my mate’s room in his shared student house. We’re drinking what we have dubbed “the ultimate cocktail”: European lager, mango juice and prosecco.
At this moment I am Albert Wesker, a superhuman special forces soldier secretly working for the Umbrella corporation. Slicked back hair, dark sunglasses, ice cold demeanour.
I’m playing the castle level of Resident Evil 4’s Mercenaries mode - a score attack game which unlocks after completing the main mission. Simply put, it’s video game crack. I’ve played and loved a thousand computer games since age five, but nothing quite compares to the feeling you get when you hit a perfect run on Mercs.
It’s 2023 and I’m in the front room of my home in Extremely West London; a home I share with my wonderful wife and two beautiful children.
A low, sharp sun filters through the curtains as the last gasps of Autumn play out, giving way to the cold bite of winter. The light falls silently on the Christmas robin decoration my youngest daughter has insisted on putting up; it plays across the twinkling sequins of her favourite dress atop the pile of clothes I still need to put away.
My glowing fists tear apart a genetically altered freak wearing a bull gimp mask and brandishing a sledgehammer. I use my slick, silver magnum to splatter the grotesque parasitic insect that bursts out of his unliving skull. I have a 148 kill combo, my eyes are watering. It’s 2023 and I am still Albert Wesker, I’m battering through the undead hordes in the 2023 version of Resident Evil 4 Remake’s Mercenaries mode.
Later, my 11 year old daughter will return from school, give me a warm cuddle and tell me about her day, when mere hours before I was teleport punching the face off an undead Spaniard.
I won’t mention it, nor will I admit that the reason I wear sunglasses and slicked back hair on the school run is because Albert Wesker does it.
He is very cool.
Next week - the ‘not blockbusters’ come out to play…
News in brief
Fort-right: Epic Games has won its anti-trust case against Google’s Play store in California, defeating it on all nine counts. While Google is appealing against it, it’s a stunning defeat and opens up questions about the chances of Epic appealing a similar case it mostly lost against Apple in 2021.
E3 goes to the glue factory: The Entertainment Software Association has confirmed that legendary games event E3 is officially over. It comes after years of troubles for the conference including the impact of Covid, competition and its major partners buggering off to promote games at their own events on their own terms.
Baldur’s Great: Baldur’s Gate 3 was one of the big winners at this year’s The Game Awards, emerging with the coveted Game of the Year title and five other awards at last week’s show in LA. No mention of the 10,000+ job losses in the show though…
I’ve cut the events, jobs and games sections this week due to space constraints BUT they will be back in the New Year. You can also read last week’s VGIM if you’re really missing them.
Before you go…
Playing for the Planet’s Green Game Jam is back next year and looking for games companies to join its effort to inspire a million people across the world to take action on climate change.
Do make sure you don’t COP out of your responsibilities to the climate by expressing interest in joining the jam via this link.