Topic: PushSquare Forums Game of The Year 2023 (Multiplatform)- Semi Finals

Seasons Greetings Everyone!

With the year coming to a close it’s time for one last poll- The PushSquare Forums Game of the Year poll!

It’s been a cracking year for games with something for everyone across all platforms & keeping to the festive fun I have opened this poll up to all platforms.

So how will it work?
We will be begin with nominations.
Vote for your 5 favourite games of the year. Late ports do count, but please specify the system.
Rank them 1-5, with your favourite game getting 5 points & your ‘least’ favourite getting 1 point.
You don’t have to nominate 5 games, but the more the merrier at this stage.

GAAS games (Fortnite, GT7, Sea of Thieves,…) are eligible, but should’ve had at least one major update this year.

‘Hopefully’ we’ll end nominations with a top 16. At which point based on the points accumulated the games will be seeded.
Seed 1- Rank 1-4
Seed 2- Rank 5-8
Seed 3- Rank 9-12
Seed 4- Rank 13-16

We will come up with 4 randomized groups, with each game from a seed making up one group.
The top 2 will then advance with the winners facing the runners up of the next group (WINNER GROUP A vs RUNNER UP GROUP B).
However the 4 games finishing in 3rd place will have an opportunity to rejoin the fray as a Wildcard (more on that later).

If you have voted I will tag you moving forwards, but feel free to let me know if you no longer wish to participate.

With that being said let the voting begin!

Semi Final 1
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
vs
Final Fantasy XVI

Semi Final 2
Resident Evil 4 Remake
vs
Baldur’s Gate 3

Apologies for the lateness everyone!
Also anyone that hasn’t been tagged but wishes to be let me know.
Pick your favourite from the 2 semi finals. It’s head-to-head & in case of a tie I’ll remove my own vote.

Voting for the Semi Final closes on 02/01/2024, 10PM GMT.

I will update the OP as we go along.

@Fight_Teza_Fight Thanks for starting this poll! I was wondering when a forum GOTY might pop up. You’ve got a really nice layout of voting and poll structure outlined.

So I specifically had a goal to try to play some current releases for this year so I could have some informed opinion about GOTY. Despite my efforts, too many good games came out this year and so unfortunately I haven’t played some of the highlights yet (like RE4, Dead Space, BG3, or SM2). But I’ve watched gameplay on some of them and even played a few moments, but I won’t initially nominate anything I haven’t played substantially. There’s a small possibility I’ll squeeze in some time with either Spider-Man or Baldur’s Gate before years end, but it’s not looking promising for me, time-wise.

This will be a tough year to judge because I’m sure very few of us have actually played all the main nominees to completion.

——————

With that said, it appears that I have played 5 total 2023 releases and so that makes it easy to come up with my top 5 😅. Ranking them will be the tough part. Here goes:

1) Hogwarts Legacy (PS5)
This was early in the year and so it’s easy to forget just how enjoyable it was, but whenever I look back it just makes me smile. Just a fantastic love letter to the franchise and was really fun to boot. It didn’t trailblaze much regarding gameplay, but the sheer variety of activities to engage in and the wonderfully crafted world at Hogwarts and surrounding areas made it my number 1 for 2023.

2) Final Fantasy XVI (PS5)
Although I still haven’t completed the game (partly because I’m trying to savor it for all it’s worth) it’s really well done and oozes with production value. The characters are great and Clive will probably end up as a top FF protagonist for me. The combat is kinetic and fun, and the music is excellent. And the daring new direction for the series is what ultimately edges out the next game to make FF16 my second favorite game of 2023.

3) Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (PS5)
I had a blast with this game. The criticism that is just ‘more of the same’ as a sequel is valid, but there really is enough evolution in the gameplay with the added stances and large open areas to make it feel unique. As a fan of the franchise, I probably give it a little boost and subconsciously have forgiven some of the oft complained about technical issues, but I really felt like any frame rate hiccups or rare crashes did not affect my enjoyment. The patched version now should be especially good, and so this is a wonderful game for fans of Souls-likes and/or Star Wars

4) Tchia (PS5)
A lovely indie game that won me over with its charm, fantastic music, and addcitive gameplay. There’s a few small issues that the developer will surely iron out in their next project, but I ended up really liking this one.

5) Humanity (PS5)
I’m not a huge fan of puzzle games but every so often they scratch a certain itch. Humanity has an enjoyable loop and concept, with an enchanting backdrop, especially for dog lovers. I have some issues with the difficulty spikes and I haven’t completed the whole game, but I have left it on my PS5 as a game I can jump back into at any time for a quick level.

I'll do it shortly:
1. Final Fantasy XVI (PS5).
2. Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse (PS4).
3. Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (PS5).
4. Atomic Heart (PS4, PS5).
5. The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie (PS4).

5 points - TOTK
4 points - Dead Space Remake

I’m afraid I didn’t play any other new PlayStation games this year! It was very good, though.

Edit: sorry just read this properly, and it’s multi-platform, so Tears goes on the list!

On PS5 -
1) Baldur's Gate - 5 points
2) Hogwart's - 4 points
3) RE4 - 3 points
4) Robocop - 2 points
5) Dead Space - 1 point
I'd probably put the newly patched/updated Cyberpunk in there if I could and I'm getting Spider-Man 2 (which I expect I'll love) for Christmas.

5 - Spider man 2 - PS5

4 - Assassin’s Creed Mirage - PS5

3 - Hogwarts Legacy - PS5

2 - Dead Space Remake - PS5

1- Robocop - PS5

1) Final Fantasy XVI - 5 points
2) Dead Space Remake - 4 points
3) Cocoon - 3 points
4) Marvel's Spider-Man 2 - 2 points
5) Assassin's Creed Mirage - 1 point

FF16 was simply brilliant, there's nothing in my list that comes close to it. Dead Space was pure fun playing through and Cocoon was an exceptional experience. Spider-Man and AC were fun but nothing special. I would've replaced one of them with Tears of the Kingdom if I had actually finished it or at least played more of it. But sadly it lost my attention after a few weeks. Even though it's just more BotW, I still enjoyed it a lot.

@Fight_Teza_Fight thanks for doing this and great idea to open it up to being multi-platform.
1) - Tears of the Kingdom 5 points
For all the chat about it being the same map and a conversion mod for botw, totk was so much more than that for me. It might be my favourite game of all time. Yes the story is a bit weak but the sense of exploration, the way puzzles, shrines, stables, koroks, building all come together was so good. Every play session was "then I found..., then I saw..., then I solved x by building y".
2) Resident evil 4 remake 4 points I liked RE2 remake but adding more enemies and giving you more options to deal with them with more action focus, takes RE4 to another level. Perfect pacing, great bosses and German suplexes. Awesome!
3) Blasphemous 2 3 points fantastic gothic art style, amazing combat, crazy boss battles. It's not a revolutionary metroidvania, but it's a bloody good one
4) Humanity 2 points fantastic puzzles, great use of the PS5 tips features, genuine commentary on the human condition. And it's got a cute doggo
5) Dead Space Remake 1 points there is truly nowt scarier than organised religion, fake or otherwise.

Dead Space remake - 5 points. EA didn't skimp on the remake, they did the whole thing...made it whole again if you will.
Witcher 3 PS5 - 4 points. Does this count? It was released in the GotY slightly misaligned window.
Tchia - 1 point. Enjoyed this more than I was expecting.

Haven't played any other 2023 games, I do have Sea of Stars and Teardown ready to go in the backlog.

@Kidfried @Th3solution @R1spam No problem! Keeping it multi-platform should differentiate it from the poll on the main page. @CaptD Witcher 3 PS5 makes it in! Jan 2023 physical release. Had to double check.

Worth mentioning I’m not counting votes until the deadline passes. So feel free to edit.

My points will be:

5 points - Final Fantasy XVI
4 points - Like a Dragon Gaiden
3 points - HiFi Rush
2 points - Star ocean the 2nd story R
1 point - Hogwarts Legacy

5 points: Metroid Prime Remastered
4 points: Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened
3 points: Trails to Azure
2 points: Super Mario Bros Wonder
1 point: Sea of Stars

I didn’t really play many 2023 releases to be honest. Sherlock Holmes was a banger though. I feel stupid putting Metroid Prime top but it’s both one of the best games ever and also a much much bigger leap forwards than you’d expect at first glance with the modern control scheme and graphical leap.

I not played many games that released this year but all 3 were great.

5 points - Baldur's Gate 3
4 points - Spider-Man 2
3 points - Resident Evil 4 R

I'd love to give some points to Aliens:Dark Descent as I brought it and think it will be good, but I haven't got around to starting yet so wouldn't be fair to judge.

I didn't play nearly enough new games this year lol

One Steam game, and the rest on Switch cuz resident Nintendo fan

5 Points - Fire Emblem Engage (Yes, the writing is cringy and a gigantic step down from Three Houses, but it's still incredibly fun in nearly every way, looks great on the Switch, and brought back the sort of tactical balance I was missing in the last game)

4 Points - Advance Wars 1 + 2: Re-Boot Camp (A polished, fun remake of the first two GBA Advance Wars games that only fails in terms of its online multiplayer implementation. I still have so much more to do with this. WayForward did a great job with the new soundtracks!)

3 Points - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Look, it's not a classic like its predecessor was, but there's so much to find and do in this gigantic world that it's difficult not to get sucked in for hours during any given play session)

2 Points - Class of '09: The Re-Up (I debated even putting this zero budget indie visual novel on here, but the truth is that any game that can make me feel almost sick because of how hard it made me laugh probably deserves a spot)

1 Point - Super Mario Wonder (It's Mario. It's good. If you like 2D Mario, you'll like this. Not much else to say)

My personal choice.

5 points = Paleo Pines PS5

4 points = Paw Patrol World PS5

3 points = Rabbids Party of Legends PS4

2 points = Hokko Life PS4

1 point = Justice League Cosmic Chaos PS5

1. Final Fantasy XVI (PS5) - 5 Points
2. Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch) - 4 Points
3. Spider-Man 2 (PS5) - 3 Points
4. Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch) - 2 Points
5. Like A Dragon Gaiden: the Man Who Lost His Name (PC) - 1 Point

This was really tough & even now I'm not quite sure about current placements, lol (& I kinda feel bad for leaving Star Wars Jedi Survivor & Metroid Prime Remastered out).

Tchia or ff16 for me. Tchia blew me away thought it was outstanding enjoyed every single minute I put into that game and it's easily OST of the year for me. I loved FF16 as well, Clive and Jill are great characters

@Fight_Teza_Fight

Great idea...! Please do tag me for future voting/developments as this progresses. My top 5 below:

1) Baldurs Gate 3 (5 points)
2) Lies of P (4 points)
3) TOTK (3 points)
4) Blasphemous 2 (2 points)
5) Hi-Fi Rush (1 point)

**EDIT: Completely forgot about Hi-Fi Rush! Deleted AC6 from spot #5 and replaced with Hi-Fi**

BG3 really really surprised me, wasn't hyped at all... but am loving it so much. Similar to Lies, my expectations were rock bottom - but the devs did a fine job.

TOTK and AC6 underwhelmed me a bit personally, and at the start of the year I would have expected both to have ranked higher (and likely they would have, if it wasn't for BG3 and Lies)

@QualityGeezer Would you rank Tchia above FFXVI (points allocation).

Thanks for voting everyone! Keep them coming! Nice mix of games so far.

I was hoping to get further along in Alan Wake II as it could very well break into my top five but it’s not looking like that’s going to happen in time. As it stands:

5 points: Final Fantasy XVI
This is not a perfect game, nor do I believe it’s a masterpiece but no game this year moved me the way this one did. It challenged me in surprising ways. It overwhelmed my senses with its stunning imagery and arresting soundtrack, at times unexpectedly moving me to tears. I took great joy in learning about the rich world of Valisthea, drawing enlightening parallels with reality the way good fantasy does. I feel the combat system is just fantastic, striking a difficult but brilliant balance between being simple and accessible while still offering depth to those looking for it. A true spectacle that truly champions the human experience.

4 points: Spider-Man 2
While nothing groundbreaking, the quality on display here is beyond impressive. It also manages to tell a deeply layered story of what it means to be a hero, which is what Spider-Man is all about.

3 points: The Talos Principle 2

This is an utterly brilliant sequel. It builds off of the first in all the right ways, combining incredible puzzles, beautiful environments full of secrets to explore and a surprisingly thoughtful rpg experience steeped in philosophy. The soundtrack is also wonderful.

2 points: Cocoon

Conceptually, no game I played this year touches the mechanical genius that drives this experience. Hard to explain but easy to understand in practice, this ocean deep simplicity is its strength and its beating heart.

1 point: Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty

While it rarely reaches the highs of Nioh II, I came to appreciate the more focused combat system and felt its experimental flourishes, such as the flag system, were a huge success and injected valuable new life into a genre that can really go either way for me, despite my love for it. Just a top tier action game.

Might be worth noting that, for my money, I only played one 10/10 game this year and I can’t bring myself to vote for it 😂 Resident Evil 4 Remake is a masterpiece. Thanks for doing this, @Fight_Teza_Fight !