Game of the Year: #1 - Marvel's Spider-Man 2

One more time: "Push Square's Game of the Year list is primarily decided by an internal staff vote. Our community Game of the Year poll is also taken into account."

Spider-Man 2 ended up with the most votes — it's as simple as that. It was the most prevalent game on staff lists and although Baldur's Gate 3 ran it very close, it was the community vote that pushed Spidey over the edge.

Again, you can disagree with the results, but please be respectful with your comments. Our Game of the Year was not decided by one person or one specific rule, it was voted for through a weighted system.

Ultimately, I think this has been an amazing year for new games, and that's reflected in how passionate people have been over our Game of the Year countdown.

Congrats to Spider-Man 2 and all the games that made the top 10 (and, honestly, all the good ones that didn't, because there were a lot).

I am offended since this does not reflect my opinion.

Also, this is proof that this site is funded by no other than Jim Ryan. Never again Push Square, never again.

Great game, I enjoyed it.

Naturally PS's decision is their decision - alas while good, I honestly wouldn't put it any higher than "decent follow up to the first"....Still just a poor man's Arkham imo 🙂

I disagree in the comments below.

This is a game I'd expect to appear on most players' lists even if often below either BG3 or AW2 (which, while both great, are not for everyone), so the outcome makes sense to me.

For me the Spider-Man games just haven't done enough to really grab me in any aspect besides gameplay. And even then Spider-Man 2 commits the sin of not allowing me to play Venom for more than 10 minutes. Sad!

How dare you disagree with my far superior opinion?
(no, really, I agree. For me it's the most fun game of 2023)

This was the same scenario as last year. A sequel to a Sony first party game that built off of a critically acclaimed original won this site’s GOTY over the general GOTY winner which was a massively critically acclaimed RPG which is seen by a lot as a magnum opus of the genre. However, I feel like history’s gonna be a lot more kind to God of War Ragnarok than Spider-Man 2. The general criticism of both of them is that the story of the original was better, however Ragnarok was trying to do something a lot more fundamentally different with its story than Spider-Man while also fixing and improving the 2018 version dramatically more. I’m not really mad that Spider-Man 2 won this site’s GOTY, I just think these parallels are interesting to analyze.

Well, while I enjoyed it, it was nowhere near #1 for me. From PS, I enjoyed Final Fantasy 16 a lot more. And while Baldur's Gate 3 was not for me, I reckon it is an amazing game and deserved the top spot.
This one does have much broader appeal; I'll give you that.

I just started Spider Man 2 and I like it... except for when that enemy got stuck in a pile of sand and I had to reload the checkpoint. I feel like there's a bit of recency bias going on here since Dead Space came out in January and FF16/SF6 came out in June. Either way, Spidey 2 seems cool but safe. FF16 was a bold adventure.

I strongly disagree, but it is what it is.

For me it's definitely FF XVI ^__^

Look it was good but it wasn't THAT good. I actually feel the previous game was superior in some areas compared to the sequel

I loved every minute of Spiderman 2, especially the last couple of missions. Brilliant fun and I can only wish for more. I went and played the other two and they really don't feel as polished and the old games are definitely more repetitive than sm2. I would love some DLC but I don't think we are going to get any. At least new game + is coming and I can play that.

@Czar_Khastik This was the decision that forced Jim into retirement. The last straw.

The campaign was great but, except for the fire cult missions, the side contents was just bad compared with other open world games and with some really cringe dialogues.
I haven’t even played BG3 but I’ve seen enough of it on streams to know it’s objectively goty 2023.

Congrats 8/10 GoTY.

To me SM2 is a safe, run off the mill crowd pleaser that didn’t take any risks whatsoever and had little to no innovation. I enjoyed the first game way more.

Yes it was a vote, but maybe it shouldn’t have been, since people will probably always vote for their console of choice exclusives. (see Starfield).

I personally hold a review website to a higher standard than just counting votes.

@Chaotic_Goat There is no "objective" game of the year.

I'd say it's one of my personal goty titles

Spider man 2 was the most overrated game I’ve ever played. Good game. But 7/10 at best. Spider man 1 was so much better. Spider man 2 story was so boring

So it got voted through a weighted system where it happened to be on enough people’s list? To saying nothing of artistic merit, advancing the industry forward. Your system begs for safe games that many people like in an 8/10 manner as opposed to giving a meaningful award.
I’m sorry but your system here is broken and makes your GotY list look like a joke.
You guys should be discussing meaningful achievements in gaming what will have influence on the industry. This is really sad and I know you guys can come together to make a more me sinful list. Ever since you started making a ton of lists, I feel the quality has done down.
Like you put out “best co-op games” while taking user ratings and then taking user rankings for any game with co-op regardless of the co-op quality.
This feels like a very low effort list with no serious consideration and was just done with a vote to save time.
I say this not to be rude, but to give constructive criticism because I know this site can do better.

@Kanji-Tatsumi I feel like if you run a professional gaming website you should be able to objectively judge the product your field is based on.

Based on criteria like innovation, technical quality, writing quality.

It’s shouldn’t be all subjective.

@Czar_Khastik we’ll see, we’ll see.

Haha as expected. I mean same with last year, putting GOWR above ER. I guess a PS site has to do PS business.

@species "Based on criteria like innovation, technical quality, writing quality."

But two out of three of those are subjective, again. Who's to say what is "quality" writing? Jim Sterling gave Alan Wake 2 a 4/10, because they didn't like the writing. What about Elden Ring, widely considered the best game of 2022, hardly a technical marvel was it? Where as Horizon Forbidden West looked amazing, but everyone on this site hated it. Anyway, you get the point.

Its an amazing game 🤓 not my number one but top 5 which I guess is the case for a pretty big majority of players here and therefore its the winner.

Yep, agreed. Glad it wasn’t Baldurs Gate 3, that games overhyped and not for everyone. FF16 was another great game but too linear

That’s cap, Cap.
Captain America looking upset

@ShogunRok Thank god, because we would get PS Portal Pro this year if this weren't the last straw.

So to summarize Spider-Man 2 has only received goty from the official PS Blog and PushSquare, Starfield on the other hand has only received goty from PushXbox and probably Phil Spencer. All check out, can't really be too mad if you don't defend your home court who will 🤷

Def the best game that I’ve played this year. Took everything that was great about the 1st game & improved it completely. Also would like to send my prayers out to the people who seemed to be upset with Spiderman 2 being Push Square game of the year😂

It was determined yesterday how Spider Man 2 came to be 1st and how their points scoring system worked so no one can say this is rigged.

Also they will be releasing the results for the community votes soon which will be hilarious if BG3 doesn't even come in top 3 after all this moaning about it missing top spot.

I see people are still hung up on the 8/10 review, how hard is it to understand that only one person does a review and not the whole team, whereas this game of the year vote is done by the whole team, so their opinions on spider man 2 were obviously better than the one person that reviewed it. It's also like people think just because they really liked BG3 then everyone else should vote for it as well.

Would be my number 3, but a perfectly legitimate 1.

I suspect a lot of the people moaning about it being below AW2 and BG3 haven’t even played those games considering neither has sold sensationally on PS5.

Btw Spider-man 2 won the IGN community award, which is the biggest all format gaming site in the world. Think about that guys…

@species its a game matey, not a spaceship. its whatever makes you happy, fave music, fave team, fave film...its just a preference and fgs how boring would it be if we all had the same preferences on everything.

As we mature we relish variety, give it time.

@ShogunRok
According to liam:
"The community results holds the same weight as a single freelancer’s votes. I’ll say a lot of people are going to have egg on their face when they see the poll results from the community vote 🤣 "

"We all submit a top five games, which is what you see in the personal articles. Editors have 10, 8, 6, 4, and 2 points awarded to their top five games, freelancers 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. The community vote is given the freelancer voting points. The games with the most points form our top 10."

Based on the above explanation and the game of the year picks published on the site thus far, here's what we have between bg3 and sm2:

EDITORS
Sammy: no impact
Stephen: sm2 as #2 pick= 8
Robert: bg3 as #1 pick= 10
Liam: sm2 as #3= 6
Aaron(producer) : no impact

Contributors (freelancers)
Simon: no impact on top either game
Ken: bg3 as #1= 5
........Sm2 as as #2= 4
Khayl: bg3 as #1 = 5
Scott: no impact
Jaime: bg3 as #5= 1
............Sm2 as #4= 2
Brett: sm2 as #2= 4
John: Sm2 as #2= 4
Graham: no impact
Jamie oneil: sm2 as #2= 4
Henry: bg3 as #1= 5

This equals out to totals of:

bg3= 26 (10 from one single editor, 16 from cont)
Sm2= 32 (14 from editors, 18 from cont)__

Therefore with your implication that the community majority voted for SM2 as #1, the community's weight which would be a max of just 5 additional points for Sm2 and at best 4 or less points for bg3, had zero Impact on the results and in fact it was the freelancers picks that had the greatest impact on the results.

The community vote would not have had any additional impact on tipping the scales whatsoever.

Never seen a GOTY award go to an 8/10 in a year with so many 10s but obviously certain elements of this site's creation surely must influence that.

"it was the community vote that pushed Spidey over the edge."

Not even blaming you guys. Push Square, Nintendo Life and Pure Xbox game the GOTY to an exclusive from their platform. That's hardly a coincidence, the community is always going to give the edge to a game from their team.

@ChrisDeku They will probably have some excuse like that site favours Sony or some BS. But fair play to Spider-Man 2 on not only beating AW2 and BG3 but other big games from other platforms as well.

It’s the nature of any media, 8/10 is what sells the most.

@PlayStationGamer3919 Euro gamer gave Baldurs Gate 3 an 8/10 so......

And awarded Cocoon game of the year and their community voted Zelda TOTK their game of the year, just shows not everywhere has to favour Baldurs Gate 3.

I enjoyed Spider-man 2, that and FFXVI are the only games in the top 10 I played this year. Neither game was perfect but I enjoyed them all the same. Both day one purchases that I played for around 40 hours a piece and bug free so that's a bonus.

@LN78. They want to be Welsh and on the One Show? 😉

@KundaliniRising333

Thank you for reposting this, as it was my first thought when I saw the first comment. I’m not too bothered who wins but to imply that the community vote tipped it over to SM2 didn’t add up.

@KundaliniRising333 I believe additional votes were cast by staff members who didn't get around to writing their own lists, so that's what's tipping it.

I've got no reason to lie, though. I'm being 100% honest when I say that BG3 and SM2 were neck and neck right until the end. The community vote is added to our voting system last (because the poll stays open as long as possible), and they really were the points that put SM2 on top.

Giving 8/10 to a game you eventually come to appreciate as a GOTY oh well, it happens. Honestly, I would have rated it 9/10, or 10/10. Especially after doing a full first run with a Platinum, it's most fun I had on my PS5 through 2023.
There are some heavy hitters I haven't tried though (Alan Wake 2 and Baldur's Gate 3 among others)

@ShogunRok So basically on the staff side you were pretty much torn between Spider man 2 and Baldurs Gate 3 and the community which at first glance you would think favour BG3 actaully favoured Spider man. So basically those you see complaining are actually the minority and the majority are those that voted for Spider Man 2 but just don't comment enough for us to see it.

Though it certainly can, reaching for the stars and attempting to innovate doesn’t automatically equal a great end product. Spider-Man 2 is a great game because it works as intended, contains hours of well executed fun, looks gorgeous and tells a rock solid story. It’s quality entertainment. Number 1 in this particular year? A bit of a stretch but not like it’s completely undeserving.

No offense to a great game or Insomniac as a studio, but no way this was number one this year. Alan Wake II and Baldur's Gate III actually pushed some boundaries at the very least.

It's a disappointment to be sure, but it was sadly expected considering Starfield won over at Pure Xbox. Frickin' Starfield. Spider-Man 2 at least has a few arguments for the top spot ...lol

Getting the April Fools in early, Push Square? Clever.

Deserved, amazing game.

All the top games these year are flavours of ice cream, and as we know there's no objectively best flavour. Ice cream always wins

Thanks for a wonderful year of coverage Push Square!

@UltimateOtaku91 @themightyant Our community GOTY poll had almost 15,000 votes this year, which, relatively speaking, is an absolutely massive sample size.

The list will be published tomorrow!

As i said yesterday this is just as laughable as Starfield being No 1 on PX. Is Spidey 2 top 10 worthy? Sure it even makes my top 10 but no 1? Hell no.

Spider-Man 2 is a great game, no question. But it's not at all groundbreaking, just a continuation of what's already been done for the most part. Baldur's Gate 3 is the kind of game that comes along once a generation, if we're lucky. I don't care about your voting process, whatever. You still should have changed it. It's an absolute joke.

More people played the safe choice sequel with a large marketing budget, so more people voted for it. Simple. I do find it surprising that they say the community votes decided things though given the very low weighting equivalent to a freelancers’ points apparently, max of 5 I think they said). Must have been very very close amongst the writers and editors.

For me, it was a good game, but it’s definitely not my top game on PS5 this year. Even my youngest who is a HUGE Spider-Man fan liked the game but referred to many of the challenges in the game as “boring.” I think it was a good game, but not my number 1 for the year.

Bloody awful game, stopped by the time he got the black suit.

Between the endless bugs and the horrific writing I couldn't stomach any more of it. Press X to raise your arms on the roller coaster!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess!

Greatest year in gaming ever yet a game Push Square awarded an 8/10 is the GOTY. I really enjoyed it, but BG3 defined what 2023 reached in terms of games.

@TheArt damn I forgot about that, that's crazy 😂

@ShogunRok

"I believe additional votes were cast by staff members who didn't get around to writing their own lists, so that's what's tipping it.

I've got no reason to lie, though. I'm being 100% honest when I say that BG3 and SM2 were neck and neck right until the end. The community vote is added to our voting system last (because the poll stays open as long as possible), and they really were the points that put SM2 on top."

I never suggested lying. Yet again above you are saying it was staff that tipped the scales and then going on to say the community that did.

My tallies suggest that with what was publicly published SM2 had a 6 point edge over bg3 with staff votes alone. The points from the community would not have changed that at all. Even if some other staff members voted but there's no record of it as you say and made that spread closer, the same problems would be evident.

This was a staff based decision it seems that was tallied using a point system that concluded SM2 was the consensus game of the year despite it not being a single staff members #1 choice among their top 5 (and bg3 being selected as number one with 1 editor and 2 freelancers). I suspect the community vote among the 15000 did not even come close to a majority consensus and was all over the place based on personal preference. Even if SM2 was included in their choices enough to get get the middling 5 point contribution, it means little if it was not the top game voted by over 50% of them.

It is what it is and really game of the year is entirely subjective to each individual. However, as a game site it would be nice had you really evaluated these games based on craft and metrics used in reviewing, rather than a point tally system that really showed little consistency among the staff that ultimately decided the result.

I have played some genuinely wonderful games this year, but what an awful year for "Triple A" gaming. Starfield, SM2 and TOTK all winning game of the year on their respective sites says it all; all mediocre games, at best. Personally I'd call them bad, though I know lots of people disagree.

Well, I'd love to sit here and bitch about how ridiculous this result is but I've got a level 8 College of Swords Bard who needs some quality time today.

GOTY for me was a tie bw Wo Long & Lies of P.
Yep, me likely Souls-likes

Push Square reviews in 2023:

Baldur's Gate 3 - 10/10 - "This really does feel like a landmark moment for the genre, setting extremely high standards that everything will inevitably be judged against going forward. [...] Baldur's Gate 3 will rightly go down as a role-playing masterpiece."

Alan Wake 2 - 10/10 - "A rip-roaring horror experience from Remedy Entertainment that innovates in just about every way possible. It's the sequel fans of the series have been waiting over a decade for — but it’s also so much more."

Resident Evil 4 Remake - 10/10 - "This is Resident Evil at its absolute pinnacle; an utterly outstanding experience that will live long in the hearts of longtime fans while inducting a whole new generation of supporters."

Spider-Man 2 - 8/10 - "Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is excellent without pushing the boat out very much."

And the winner of Push Square's Game of the Year 2023 is...

critics are not superior, they are humans, flawed humans ^^

🤦 are you serious PushSquare? Everybody knows No.1 is Baldur's Gate 3.

...what a dirty politics...

I haven't played Spider-Man 2 yet, but this outcome doesn't surprise me. This is a PlayStation site and it doesn't get more PlayStation-y than a first-party exclusive.

I used to write for a gaming site and the staff vote is a good but flawed arrangement. All staff will never play every game, but I'm sure every staff member played Spider-Man 2.

I'm glad people enjoyed it and I hope to enjoy it whenever I get around to it

This is a CON and OUTRAGE. Clearly game of the year was King Kong: Rise of Kong, but PS hasn’t even reviewed it! It’s being CANCELLED for showing Gorillas being Gorillas. This is just Big Spandex bankrolling everything again. Typical.

@UltimateOtaku91 eurogamer is a joke and they didn't even include Hogwarts legacy

Boring and safe choice. Miles Morales already was a bit dull because it was basically the same game as SM1. I feel no urge whatsoever to play the same game for the third time.

Overall well done though! These lists are always fun to follow and the presentation by PushSquare is topnotch as usual.

Who would've guessed it. A Playstation game getting GOTY on a Playstation website. 🤯🙄

@themightyant found the voice of reason once again. Took a while, but thankfully it was here.

@themightyant “The thing I find most crazy is the number of people saying things like ‘I haven’t played BG3 but it’s objectively GOTY’ lmao”

Exactly. I’ve seen a lot of this. And also, BG3 is an enormous game, where I’ve read it kinda falls apart a little at the end. I think patches have fixed Act 3’s technical issues, but some have said there’s major narrative problems. There’s a few readers (@Jaz007 being one) who feel like the ending was botched sufficiently that it takes away a lot of the greatness that it was trying to accomplish. Similar for Alan Wake II where an excellent write up by @Jimmer-jammer recently in the forums outlined some of the game’s significant shortcomings. L

Personally, I don’t know. I’m not saying one way or the other, as I’ve not played any of these, but I do wonder how many people who are championing BG3 actually finished it. I suppose you don’t have to finish a game to feel like it’s a GOTY, but honestly, many people haven’t even played it.

I was looking for the "should have been higher" vote selection but it wasn't there 🤔

The Game Awards said it was Baldur's Gate 3 and you say Spider-Man 2. GOTY is a fact so there can be only one. I have seem elsewhere that Alan Wake 2 takes the prize. This is getting ridiculous. We need consensus and uniformity. Any straying from the correct path shall be punishable by death until everyone is in a agreement. The real GOTY is of course Gollum.

Elden Ring should have won it! Wait, what year is it?!

@Old-Red If the result of a subjective (and, in the grand scheme of things, meaningless) video game top ten list is “depressing” to you, you’re living a pretty good life.

Well, it is a game, and it did come out in 2023…

N.i.c.e. marvel 🕷spiderman 2 is a masterpiece.just like marvel 🕷spiderman for ps4.word up son

@Darude84 "Miles Morales already was a bit dull because it was basically the same game as SM1. I feel no urge whatsoever to play the same game for the third time."

Looking at Insomniac's leaked list of games they are making you we will have to play the same game 6-8 times 😬 that's all they will be making, Marvel superhero games.

It looks like for films and TV superhero fatigue is setting in, I doubt games will be the exception. Insomniac is a very talented studio that's capable of creating new characters and worlds, they shouldn't be relying on low hanging fruit that is superheroes that have everything premade (story, characters, world's, etc.)

“It's not hard to understand why, either.”

I couldn’t disagree more with this line. I didn’t even think this game was as good as the original or Miles Morales, and I wouldn’t put either of those near AW2, BG3, or FFXVI.

Alan Wake 2 for me, and Im not typically in to horror. Such an outstanding, creative work that people will be playing and referencing long after Spider-man 2 is forgotten (which wont be far away).

@UltimateOtaku91 " Euro gamer gave Baldurs Gate 3 an 8/10 so..."

Really? you're searching the Internet for low reviews of BG3 and saying see! not everyone likes it 🙄

Noisy Pixel gave Spider-man 2 a 7/10 so...
You see how that's not an argument for anything?

this game doesn’t deserve it . best spider-man game ? sure , but the flaws are way too big and weighs it down

Man, if in such strong year as 2023 you pick Spider-Man 2 as GOTY i don't know...
I mean not a bad game, but it's one of these ''fast food'' type of AAA experiences that you beat in one day and never think about booting them ever again. There is no replay value, nothing.

Games on PS5 i enjoyed more than Spider-Man 2 last year
Baldur's Gate 3, Alan Wake 2, Lies of P, Resident Evil 4 Remake, Humanity, Sea of Stars, Armored Core VI, SW Jedi Survivor..

Pushsquare gave it 8/10 🫠 make it make sense

@PixelDragon Ahh ok. Fair. I enjoyed it but I think Lies Of P was my goty

@Tecinthebrain Let’s hope the sharp decline in popularity for superhero movies will have its effect on games as well. Spider-Man is the only really popular superhero at the moment I think.

Yeah, I can't get behind this. BG3, Lies of P and even Alien Dark Descent were just better games. Panderverse, indeed.

Jeez, a lot of people really get upset over subjective lists of games these days. I mean, it literally has no effect on the games you can choose to enjoy or, if you wish, skip entirely.

Happy new year folks.

I have a question to those people that say, every brand site gave GOTY to a 1st Party game, but which game but TOTK should have won on Switch?

I found Spider-Man 2, BG3 and FF16 all disappointing this year.

I actually hope insomniac give Spider-Man a rest for a number of years.

I enjoyed Hogwarts Legacy, Dead Island 2 and Starfield a lot more than I was expecting. I presumed it would be the other way around!

The game that really caught me by suprise was AC Mirage. If felt like the best bits of an AC Valhalla game without the extra padding.

I buy a lot of games (around 25 per year) plus I play a lot of PS+ and Gamepass so I'm curious if my 2024 best games will be different to what I expected like 2023.

Happy new year everyone!

@NoHope Tbf with Nintendo one of their exclusives should be top every year as that's the main reason people invest into Nintendo is for their exclusives as they don't get the big third party releases, I mean how many of this year's game of the year lists actually include games that are playable on the Switch, not a lot. But with Playstation it's primarily for the biggest third party games as well as their exclusives. Xbox on the other hand are turning to be like Nintendo by that people mainly buy it just for its exclusives and gamepass.

I wont play this game.

@ironcrow86 It cost nearly $300 million. It's certainly not a poor man's Arkham. I'd say it probably cost a lot more than all of the Arkham games combined.

@UltimateOtaku91 when was the last time anyone bought an Xbox for their exclusives? PS5 is outselling Xbox Series 3 to 1.

My personal top 3 for the year are Alan Wake II, Spider-Man 2, and Final Fantasy XVI in that order.

If I had managed to play Baldur's Gate 3 (something I'm considering remedying this year at some point), maybe things would have been different for me, but I can't exactly argue with the choice as it would probably be my current GotY out of what I have played. Either that or Resident Evil 4 after Separate Ways elevated the game for me.

Final Fantasy XVI would have been that, but the ending absolutely killed the game for me. Phantom Liberty would probably be my content of the year, but I'm trying to be "fair" and only consider full games.

Has a Spider-Man game had the same impact on me that the first one did on PS4 years ago? No, but Spider-Man 2 was still a game I happily played from start to finish. I do hope Spider-Man 3 elevates things though. In the end, I could care less what won GotY here.

It was the deaf side mission that edged it into GOTY

I'm pretty happy with SM2 being PushSquare's 2023 GOTY. I had an absolute blast playing it and didn't have any big issues with it. The way Insomniac handled Harry and Venom is easily my favorite version so props to them.

For me The Ascent was my goty/favourite but this will give me another reason to buy Spiderman 2

@themightyant I'm aware this format is more like a popularity contest, I was just highlighting how odd it looks to pass over multiple "10/10" games to give the GOTY to a PS5 exclusive which, while no doubt a great game, wasn't really in the same league. Perhaps it's time for a different format if the only games capable of winning are safe crowd-pleasers which can be "played and enjoyed by the masses."

People getting big mad for no real reason. When I saw Baldur's Gate pop up I just thought "sucks it's going to Spiderman" and moved on. If I'm being real: this is probably the "best" outcome to the widest variety of people considering the reach of Spiderman vs BG3.

People need to chill out. It's all meaningless anyway.

@playstation1995 this might get deleted as “unconstuctive”, but your “word up son” sign off has not gone unnoticed, and it’s amazing. I might be borrowing it in the future, but only with your blessing.

@KilloWertz
how did the end of final fantasy 16 endings killed you?
it one of the most epic and emotional endings i have seen in a long time.

@starbuck2212 Scrolled through a hundred comments to find the only one with some perspective at the bottom. A voice of reason 👏

Absolutely, I'm right about completing this game. Spiderman 2 is an absolute blast. The visuals are stunning and everything is so awesome about it. Especially the later part of the game.

Brilliant game and deserves top 3 for me, the order at the top is irrelevant IMO, it has been a great year for gaming!

All the best folks 👍

Ah c'mon guys,.don't take this list so serious... It's just a game after all .Let's celebrate an awesome year of great titles. My no. 1 will be BG3 for sure but besides the usual suspects there is also Avatar (which totally flew below the radar I guess) Robocop or some of the great shooter remasters (Quake 2, Rise of Triad). Oh and one release from 2021 but which was/is recently on sale "In Sound Mind" my personal gem this year. Even feel bad just to have spent 4 bucks on it. Truly recommended.

I was surprised to see Spider-Man 2 at number 1, but only because I've rarely seem it elsewhere at number 1. In my opinion, AWII or Armored Core are number 1, but I still agree with this. SM2 is literally better in every way, contrary to what others have said, to its previous games. It is graphically impressive, its use of hardware is phenomenal, it has great accessibility options from what I know, and the story is so much more refined and slick compared to SM1. I think if it came out in a less busy year it would have won a lot more goty awards, so I'm still glad it won some.

@PALversusNTSC
The whole game was basically about the group trying to make the world the best they could for their people, eventually by destroying the crystals. They come up with a plan to try to defeat the main bad guy and discuss multiple times about how they would hope for the best in regards to how the world will be for their people after Clive and his brother hopefully succeeded. Not once did Clive ever give the impression that sacrificing himself and not coming back to Jill as promised was ever remotely part of the plan, but while up there during battle he magically decides to do so to give the game an emotional ending where the main character sacrifices himself for something far beyond their plan.
Honestly, I would have much preferred the game ended the way their plan suggested it would. They still win and they all (outside of Joshua) live happily ever after and make the best of the world they live in after the battle. Nope, the hero has to sacrifice himself for an outcome far overreaching what they were supposed to do just so it can have an emotionally sad ending.

Good for Insomniac. It's a great game. Not my personal favorite of the year but I'm not sad to see it win.

@Dalejrfanfreak The moment you use “leftist propaganda” as a criticism of this game you lose all credibility in my opinion. We live in a world filled with people of different races, religions and sexual orientations and as we become more globalised by the day the entertainment industry is acknowledging that their products are reaching more people and therefore should be more inclusive. Trying to make a wider audience feel more welcome in your game/film/comic is not “leftist propaganda” it’s a positive step forward in a world where these mediums are no longer predominantly consumed by straight white males. It’s insane to be that people can be so upset and offended by the world becoming a more friendly and accepting place.

@themightyant I agree that the Push Square individual GOTY lists were brilliant and showed some great variety, I even bought a few games that weren't on my radar after reading more about them through those articles.

I'm not trying to make Spider-Man 2 out to be some crazy outlier. The fact that it's the 4th highest rated PS5 game of 2023 is exactly my point, shouldn't the Game of the Year award go to the best game that year? It seems as though Spider-Man 2 sneaked into the top spot because it was at least somewhere on everyone's list despite nobody actually thinking it was the best game this year.

As much as I loved the sequel, I believed it played it way too safe. The only way it would be number one would be if there was a venom campaign released with it. But I believe this was cut to be re sold to us later. My game of the year would be Final Fantasy 16

@xeofate maybe shadow of erdtree if it ever releases

I look forward to playing it in about 3 years time. Plenty to keep me occupied til then.

Playing SM2 now, and I have a smile on my face the whole time! I can understand people disagreeing with it being no. 1, but I am absolutely great with it! So, so good! It is what video games should be! This was a year that we gamers were truly blessed, and we will continue to feast well into the future! Cheers all!

Wait, isn't it the same game this journo website gave an 8/10?

@Sarcasmatwork. Haha.its all good.pushsquare use to use it.and other people here did as well.word up son means true that man.or woman.when something is fact or amazing etc its word up son.im a black man from new york.thats how we use to talk.back then.im just bringing it back.im highly influence by old school rap music.nas.wu tang clan.mobb deep.kool g rap and dj polo.public enemy.ll cool j.run dmc.onyx.eric b and rakim.etc.word up son

@playstation1995 I’m a white man from California, but given the references you just dropped, we are of a similar age range. I ONE HUNDRED PERCENT understand the reference. No explanation necessary. Happy New Year, sir. Word up son.

I'm a yellow boy with plastic arms, two fingers and a giant logo on top of my head. I'm only able to smile.

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