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.
Tag: Hi-Fi Rush
Sometimes it sucks to be a gamer who’s picky about music. Not only do you frequently feel compelled to turn a game’s music off — which can lead to weird moments, like when you go into the bar in Mass Effect and see people dancing to silence — but it can make rhythm games extra annoying unless they have the word “Metallica” in the title. Oddly, though, some rhythm games don’t actually need you to listen to the music. Metal: Hellsinger was like that; it worked just as well (or, in my case, even better) when I turned the music off.
It was with this in mind that I started playing the rhythmic third-person hack & slash action game Hi-Fi Rush (Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC), initially with the music cranked up, but later with it turned off, to see if it was even playable, let alone fun, without the tunes…and, of course, if it was fun in the first place.