Sure, 2023 wasn’t as good a year for video games as 2022 (few years are, especially lately). But there were a bunch of really fun games, as you can see from my “Best Video Games Of 2023” list.
But it was just as bad, as you can see from the following list of my least favorite games of the year (which I present in the order I played them).
Though not as good as the year before (few years are), 2023 was still a really good year for video games. Or at least for the kind of games I like to play.
Here, in the order I played them, are my favorite games of 2023.
Over the years, there’s been a lot of great games based on movies…and a lot of terrible ones, too. But while most require you to be a fan of the movie to enjoy, there’s been some exceptions, including 1997’s GoldenEye 007, 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and 2019’s Zombieland: Double Tap: Road Trip.
Which is why I was hopeful, and curious, about Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora (Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, PC), a first-person action / adventure game based on, set during, and cannon to James Cameron’s Avatar movies…movies I do not like.
Halloween may be over, but the scary season doesn’t have to end if you don’t want it to. Or if you really hate your relatives.
Either way, it’s a good time for Zen Studios to release Pinball M, a new collection of horror-inspired pinball tables for Pinball FX, which are available individually or together as the Death Save Bundle.
And while one of the tables doesn’t really fit the horror theme — unless you’re super scared of pig people — all five are fun in their own ways.
One of the many highlights of The Marvels was getting to spend more time with Monica Rambeau, the grown-up version of “Lieutenant Trouble” from Captain Marvel. But it wasn’t the first time we had the pleasure, as the adult Monica was actually introduced in the Disney+ show WandaVision.
Newly available on 4K and Blu-ray, WandaVision: The Complete Series presents all 9 episodes of this engaging and inventive show, as well as some cool extras. Which makes it as good for people who loved it on Disney+ as those who haven’t had the pleasure.
Back in the days when every big action movie got a corresponding video game, one of the unspoken rules was that even if it was a bad game, fans of the film might still enjoy it if it’s true to the movie.
Which is where we find the dystopian sci-fi first-person RoboCop: Rogue City (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC), which is set up as a sequel to the iconic movie series. While shooter fans will quickly quit in frustration, people who loved the movies — and who can be forgiving where certain aspects of the titular character are concerned — will enjoy this as mindless fun.
It’s always risky when the hero of a video game series hands the reigns to someone else. For every time it’s worked (Marvel’s Spider-Man 2), there are just as many when it didn’t (Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty).
Thankfully, the third-person survival horror game Alan Wake II (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC.) falls squarely in the former category by being just as much fun when Mr. Wake is missing as it is when he’s around.
Four years after being released for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, Mac, and Stadia, and three since it came to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, the sci-fi first-person shooter / action role-playing game Borderlands 3 is finally coming to the Switch as the Borderlands 3: Ultimate Edition. And while it doesn’t add anything that would warrant owners of the previous versions to consider buying this edition as well, people who missed it the first time around — and, of course, enjoy deep sci-fi shooters with snarky sensibilities — would be well advised to pick this up.
Since his first appearance in 1962’s Amazing Fantasy #15, Spider-Man has been shot, stabbed, poisoned, punched, kicked, cloned, married, teamed with an alien symbiote, joined nearly every superhero team in the Marvel universe, and had more adventures than anyone could possibly have in sixty-one years unless they were also a fictional character on a monthly schedule.
And yet, the core of the character remains the same. He’s a person, with foibles, failings, and feelings; he swings from a web with the greatest of ease; he’s strong, and he can kick; and he always tries to do the right thing.
It’s why I wasn’t bothered that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (PlayStation 5) isn’t all that different from Spidey’s previous games — 2018’s Marvel’s Spider-Man and 2020’s Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales — since that means it’s just as much fun.