This year was a relatively big year for gaming all around, from RPGs to action games to horror and everything in between. There were a lot of brand new titles, as well as some absolutely phenomenal remakes and remasters.
In January, the “Dead Space” remake was released to phenomenal acclaim. “Dead Space” is a horror action title about crashing a spaceship and having to survive the new horrors of the USG Ishimura. The remake was a large graphical upgrade compared to the original on the Xbox 360, and was at the top of the sales charts during its debut month.
March saw the launch of the “Resident Evil 4” remake. This remake changed a lot about “Resident Evil 4”, such as the graphics, gameplay, music, and voices, while keeping the story and fear of the original. In the first two days of its release it sold over 3 million units across Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. In “Resident Evil 4”, gamers play as Leon Kennedy and are tasked with saving the president’s daughter Ashley.
May brought “The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom” with it, which not only rated well but sold extremely well too. Being the sequel to “The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild”, fans had long been awaiting it and it stayed extremely faithful as a sequel. It takes place in an expanded version of Hyrule, the kingdom where “Breath Of The Wild” took place, and built upon lots of the mechanics and appeal of the original.
In June, “Street Fighter 6” launched to high acclaim. The game features beautiful graphics, new characters, a new story, and a full character creator interface, while keeping a lot of classic Street Fighter elements such as the combat system, classic fighters, and the general competitive spirit of the game.
August saw the launch of “Baldur’s Gate 3”, and it blew up incredibly quickly. It hit the top of the charts on Steam and stayed there for a few weeks. Being a fantasy role playing game, it went much further than many had anticipated, and numerous big developers actually criticized the game for being too good and setting a high bar for future development of games.
“Starfield” launched in September, and was a lot of people’s most anticipated game of 2023. “Starfield” is an open-world space role playing game by Bethesda, featuring large areas to explore, hours and hours of side content, and a beautiful soundtrack. However, the game was criticized at launch for being a bit buggy, a pattern seen with numerous Bethesda launches like “Fallout 76” and “Skyrim”.
The long awaited “Spider-Man 2” launched in October on the PlayStation 5 and people absolutely loved it. The game was highly anticipated after the previous games “Spider-Man” and “Spider-Man: Miles Morales” did well and were fun experiences for fans. The game takes place after the first two Spider-Man games as a direct sequel, expanding on the story and gameplay of the series.
Rounding out the year was “Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 3”. “Modern Warfare 3” had fans excited, however after launch, many were fairly disappointed. It has very similar gameplay to “Modern Warfare 2”, and only has a different story. On top of that, fans were confused by the massive install size of 213 GB.