Community MetaCouncil's Games of the Year Awards 2023 Results

[Le Pertti]

Welcome to our annual games of the year awards! Thank you all for voting!

Let's get directly into the fun!

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Top 10 Games of the Year

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Trails into Reverie represents the swan song of the merry band of characters we've been following for almost 20 years in the best way possible, but while it ends on a high note, the series is still far from over. Taking its cues from Trails in the Sky 3rd, Reverie has done its best to honour the characters in the best way it could, although it unfortunately still missing some key characters for one reason or another. Nevertheless, the secret ending certainly will get long time fans of the series real excited, including yours truly.

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I know no one else will name Starfield as their game of the year so I might as well. I acknowledge the game's issues regarding exploration and the truth is that I can't even recommend it to Bethesda fans without adding a couple of caveats. That said, it is also a fact that no other game can provide the experience that Starfield does.

No Man's Sky is very thin on story content, Elite Dangerous is focused on multiplayer, Mass Effect is too limited. For all its faults, Starfield is the only game out there that lets you roleplay as a space adventurer to such a degree.

BGS delivers again with a gameplay loop that is uniquely their own, this time with a brand new setting & IP.

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The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom takes the foundation from Breath of the Wild and vastly improves upon it with more intricate mechanics and engaging gameplay. The ability to build contraptions and new areas breathe new life into the world which has been greatly expanded. The best part about Tears of the Kingdom is the sense of exploration and wondering what is over the hill.

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Just a great story with great characters in a great world. The conclusion to the Crossbell duology absolutely delivers.

I've played it three years ago lol, sorry!

Falcom's absolute peak. They've always been great at building their stories up to glorious anime bullshit, and this takes it to 11, and mostly without the character and pacing issues that plague later Trails entries.

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From Software at its best, my 2nd favorite game of theirs after Bloodborne:

• great combat, fast, fluid and fun but enough depth to stay entertaining for a long time
• visuals and soundtrack create a dense atmosphere that's up there with the best
• the story starts a little slow but once you see how it is all connected and carries forward into ng+ and how much environmental storytelling there was you just didn't know what to look for... the attention to detail in world building From Software is known for is all there

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A joy from start to finish. Playing RE4R is the most fun I've had gaming in 2023.

RE4 is an excellent game and a stellar remake - its simply more of Resident Evil perfection, and I just really, really enjoy playing it this series.

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Baldur's Gate 3 is clearly a labour of love, and is the closest I've seen a game come to capturing the feeling of table-top RPGs. The reactivity, the number of options to handle scenarios, the unforgettable cast of companions, and the stirring soundtrack all combine to make the best CRPG ever made.

Baldur's Gate 3 felt like the kind of game that appears once and takes everyone by surprise. While the DnDD 5E is simplier than the previous editions, it doesn't make the feel shallow. There are a lot of possibilities when we talk about choices and the way the world reacts to you.

The game as a whole is just the complete package. Great story with decision making, fun gameplay, good soundtrack, great voice acting

No game has quite captured DnD as well as BG3 has it takes all the amazing nuances and choice of a tabletop RPG and makes into an incredibly compelling game that was a treat to spend 200+ hours in, you can just see the amount of work, care and love that went into making this game it really is something special that doesn't come around very often.

Great Game, lots of options, good story, looks nice. Just a very good game all round.

BG3 is a genre-defining masterpiece and the culmination of a decade of evolution and innovation from Larian. It's a game that lives on the edge between accessibility and overwhelming complexity, that respects the player and gives him agency over what, when and how they want to tackle a problem. It is, perhaps, the truest Role Playing game ever made, where choices, consequences and world reactivity live hand-in-hand to offer unparalleled immersion and enjoyment. It catapulted the cRPG subgenre to the masses thanks to it's state-of-the-art presentation, writing, acting and directing, it evolved the genre and moved it forward without compromising the pillars and complexity that make it great and enjoyed by many for almost 40 years. It's and absolute must-play and I'm super happy that Larian was the one that managed to do it.
PS: It will be interesting seeing how the games industry will change following BG3's critical, popular and commercial success and what lessons they learned from it.

Larian's magnus opum. BG3 takes everything that Larian learned from their many years of making great CRPGs, in particular the duology of Divinity: Original Sin (D:OS) and Divinity: Original Sin 2 and bringing it to the setting of Forgotten Realms, using the latest Dungeon's and Dragons ruleset as the basis for the amazing combat and game mechanics. I add "game mechanics", because the same abilities that are used in combat can be used throughout the game to do all sorts of crazy things. As a fan of immersive sims, I would have no issue if someone claims BG3 is, at its heart, an ImmSim.
Beyond the sheer mechanics, it is also the amazing writing that sets BG3 apart from many other role playing games. Larian has come very far, from D:OS, which had barely a functioning story, to a BG3 which is better written than most commercial movies (arguably not a very hard task these days) and many fantasy novels. I loved the time I spend with Lae`zel and Shadowheart in this game, two characters I'm not soon to forget. Larian is already swimming in GOTY awards this year, and it couldn't be more earned. I loved this game.

There is only one game this year that I have played that has consumed so many hours, and that is Baldurs Gate 3. This has rekindled an interest in CRPG's and in table top games. When played in Co-Op it's about the closest you can find to the table top experience. The soundtrack is sublime and the voice cast is difficult to fault. Yes it has it's faults, the bugs become more apparent as you get further and further into the game. However it just made me understand why Fromsoft fans love their games.

An important step for CRPGs. It pushed the envelope on what matters, choices and consequences, to the point of evoking the ImSim genre.
Graphics, dub and length are added bonuses, but very secondary.

Baldur's Gate 3 is on of those rare games that comes along once in great while that feels fully formed and timeless and yet very clearly took many thousands of hours to create with tons of intentional decisions. It will be remembered as an all time classic for good reason.

The only long game I could be arsed to actually finish this year.

The game must be both one of the most entertaining and one of the most damaging titles to play if you want to outmaneuver every enemy and NPC, fully explore everything and miss out on nothing. I have had to replay hours of content several times due to missing out on great items, such as the conundrum of choosing the negotiated gift or the loot from the hag (solvable by buying the loot at an earlier stage when she was available as a merchant and choosing the negotiated gift later). Another highlight was optimizing trading, stealing, fast talking and killing in the goblin camp. I can't remember having this much fun save scumming a game since Deus Ex: Mankind Divided!

It seems like the most novel aspect of the game is how it reinvents 3d exploration in this type of CRPG. Critical paths and interactions are rarely highlighted, unless you roll difficult perception checks. Teleportation spells and jumping abilities that would be useless in a conventional CRPG can be some of the most useful and interesting abilities in this game. Environments don't come off as checklists, but as detailed 3d spaces with big rewards for noticing details.

My only major point of criticism would be that while ACT I and II were well designed for my chosen playstyle of power gaming, save scumming and leaving no stone untouched, ACT III in comparison had too many densely packed stones and too few offshoots into adventures and dungeons. The huge dips in frame rate despite overpowered hardware in ACT III made a kind of bad impression as well. The game is my clear GOTY, but it does not seem like the huge effort from the developer to create complex city environments in Rivington and Baldur's Gate paid off to make the game better.

It really couldn't have been any other game. I was really expecting Tears of the Kingdom to clean up, at least with regards to my own personal list. But BG3 just left no doubt, its just overflowing with quality content and would have won in most any year it released in.

A penomenal CRPG.

The only bad thing I can say about Baldur's Gate 3 is that it would have been even better in RtwP.

Larian have made a massive RPG here with loads of ways to play and replay.

Nothing to add that has not been said by countless others who are better at summarizing their thoughts, but just an absolute gem of a game.

The game consumes you with all the choices, outcomes, writing and storytelling. The turn based combat was so fun and so tactical. All the characters were amazing. The production values and multiplayer component elevate this game to being a true next gen experience. And it will be a special for many years to come.

Yeah I know, Baldur's Gate, how original but I feel it was the "perfect storm" of a game and it actually remind me of my times playing the originals and other games I loved like dragon age origins, neverwinter nights, etc. Just great game, great story, great acting. I'll let others be more eloquent than me

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Early Access Game of the Year

Best Ongoing Game

Best Soundtrack

Best Old Game

Turd of the Year

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Platform of Choice (lol)

Thank you all for voting!

 

[C-Dub]

Thanks for putting this together, as always.

Was never gonna be anything else but Baldur’s Gate 3 this year.

Sad that my personal GOTY, Octopath Traveler II, never got a look-in.

 

[Panda Pedinte]

Thank you for doing this!

BG3 in the first position was expected but I'm surprised by the 2 Trails games!

 

[lashman]

what? Starfield didn't win "most innovative"?!

 

[Li Kao]

Hmm, I'm both relieved and disappointed that Dredge didn't win 'Turd of the year'

 

[Alexandros]

Le Pertti Wonderful work putting the thread together!

 

[kio]

Thanks for all your hard work with this Le Pertti

 

[QFNS]

Amazing thread Le Pertti

Great choices everyone. Once again proving Meta Council has the best taste.

 

[C-Dub]

Gollum was a deserving turd of the year, but that’s an easy target. Everyone knows that game was gonna suck the second it was announced.

Starfield had promise and hype. Its fall from grace was why I put it as my turd of the year.

 

[MegaApple]

Best community of the year = Metacouncil

 

[Dandy]

Thanks Le Pertti for doing this!

BG3 was the obvious winner, but also the most deserving.

 

[Li Kao]

Ah no no no, lashman I can accept that I may be biased, I may have missed the point, was not in a good mood, plenty of things. But right now Dredge is my bitch eating crackers, what if you had uninteresting game mechanics and relied on mood ? Now what if you couldn’t write for shit and the mood was non existent ?
You get Dredge.

I’m so triggered when I see it on goty lists that I may give it another try.
Some day.

 

[Parsnip]

None of the games I voted for made it it to top 10.

 

[thekeats1999]

Thanks for the thread Le Pertti

 

[Joe Spangle]

Thanks Le Pertti

Just one game in the top ten for me! Luckily it was the best one.

 

[Aaron D.]

Thanks for your efforts, Le Pertti!

Fun to see everyone's choices.

But right now Dredge is my bitch eating crackers, what if you had uninteresting game mechanics and relied on mood ? Now what if you couldn’t write for shit and the mood was non existent ?
You get Dredge.

Have you considered Sunless Skies?

Very similar in many regards yet masterfully executed.

Top-notch writing with creative art direction.

 

[Derrick01]

Thank you for putting this together. Sadly because of how far behind I got due to health reasons I didn't feel comfortable participating as I like to get through everything I wanted to play in a given year before making my goty list. I haven't even begun to think about ordering the ones I did play lol.

That being said I'm glad to see BG3 run away with everything this year. While I haven't gotten to it yet I'm a long time fan of Crpgs and I can't help but feel good seeing a Crpg at the top of the industry, something I never thought I'd ever live to see. Now we need to get these BG3 players to try pathfinder wotr.

 

[Li Kao]

Have you considered Sunless Skies?

Very similar in many regards yet masterfully executed.

Top-notch writing with creative art direction.

I don't know what it is but I'm very intimidated by the Sunless series.

 

[Durante]

Thanks for doing this!

Out of the top 10, I voted for BG3 and The Talos Principle 2.

It's nice to see 2 games on the list that we worked on the ports for, even though I've completed neither of them yet (and so didn't vote for them either, obviously).