You know, I really liked what I did last year, starting off with a list because I can't think of a better way to convey a lot of information with as few words as possible. The list this year will be of a similar size although along with the New Games I Played and games I Purchased will also include demos I played because I found that I played more this year than in past years (thanks again to the Steam Deck). There were still a lot of games released this year that I have not gotten around to buying yet because as you probably already know by now, that's how we do things here.
But before we get there, I just want to reminisce about several articles/features this year that I am still somewhat proud of. First, there was the Atari Greatest Hits Volume 1 we started back in 2022 and finished up in April. For the entirety of October, we featured gameplay and written commentary for Dead Space (Mobile). Lastly, I cleared out my queue of unwritten articles with a series I unofficially dubbed the "Game EXP Dump" which is something I might likely continue once a year. Because sometimes it's just difficult to either start or finish an article for one reason or another even though I might have really enjoyed a game, or even disliked a game and still want to share that experience.
Now then, it's LIST TIME!
Games & Demos Released in 2023 That I Played
- Onion Assault (January 27)
- Theatrhythm Final Bar Line (February 1)
- Street Fighter Duel (February 28)
- Mighty DOOM (March 21)
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (May 12)
- Honkai: Star Rail (April 26)
- The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth (May 10)
- Diablo IV (June 6)
- F-Zero 99 (September 14)
- Lies of P (September 18) - Demo
- Jusant (October 30) - Demo
- Ebeneezer and the Invisible World (November 3) - Demo
- The Last Faith (November 15) - Demo
Games I Bought in 2023 That I Have Not Played Yet
- Octopath Traveler II (February 24)
- Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened (April 11)
Games Released in 2023 That I Have Not Bought or Played
- Dead Space (January 27)
- Moss: Book II (February 22)
- Gal Guardians: Demon Purge (February 23)
- Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon (March 17)
- Dredge (March 30)
- Dead Island 2 (April 21)
- Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (April 28)
- Darkest Dungeon II (May 8)
- Amnesia: The Bunker (June 6)
- Dordogne (June 13)
- Final Fantasy XVI (June 22)
- Dave the Diver (June 28)
- Oxenfree II: Lost Signals (July 12)
- Yeah! You Want "Those Games," Right? So Here You Go! Now, Let's See You Clear Them! (July 20)
- Baldur's Gate III (August 3)
- Blasphemous II (August 23)
- Chants of Sennaar (September 5)
- Starfield (September 6)
- Mythforce (September 12)
- BIT.TRIP RERUNNER (September 19)
- Lil' Gator Game (October 10)
- The 7th Guest VR (October 19)
- World of Horror (October 19)
- Super Mario Bros. Wonder (October 20)
- Slay the Princess (October 23)
- Alan Wake II (October 27)
- Super Mario RPG (November 17)
As you can see, there was a lot of releases this year that I ended up not getting to, similar to the list from last year. After reviewing last year's list, I apparently didn't play any of those games either, so just tack on another 26 games to that ever-growing list that I continue to whittle down years later as games go on sale for $2-$4.99. A lot of that had to do with cost, as I can't really afford many $69.99 video games right now. Also Tears of the Kingdom ate up most of my Switch time since May 12th, with Final Fantasy XIII being responsible for nearly 80 hours of playtime on the Steam Deck (although that will likely grow as I'm nearly done).
From Nintendo and Steam, I got the breakdown of my playtime this year, so let's get into that for a bit.
It's kind of interesting, but not, that all three of these games I played in the first half of 2023, although I did start Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning last year, but still a little impressed that I managed to log 37 additional hours before I started Tears of the Kingdom. I was a little sad that I did not put in as much time in Theatrhythm Final Bar Line as I did in either of the previous entries on the 3DS especially considering that there are 385 songs in the standard edition. I think a large part of why I slowed on that game was that there was no similar randomized feature like the Chaos Maps in Curtain Call.
For "Gaming Trends," or "Genres" I guess might be a better word, initially I thought wasn't too accurate, but now that I really think about it, it probably is. With Tears of the Kingdom and Kingdoms of Amalur both being action/adventure games probably tipped the scales heavily on that front with LIVE A LIVE maybe being the only straight-up JRPG I played on the Switch this year, although I did put in around 15 hours into Triangle Strategy before May, which I still haven't gotten back to, but would very much like to.
Regrettably, I didn't see a similar chart of top games played across all of Steam like Nintendo's list, and was restrictely solely to the Steam Deck. However, it does specifically list that 68% of my time playing games on Steam was on the Steam Deck. I thought about working backward from there, but I have played maybe 10-15 more hours in Final Fantasy XIII since Steam first generated this data.
Looking at this, I realized that while I played Celeste back in July, I hadn't written about it outside of Twitter when I was actively playing. I was waiting to play through the final stage, The Core, which only unlocks after collecting a certain number of hard-to-find crystals and I still needed one or two more. I told myself that I would write about the game after I completed the 8th and final chapter, but I never did locate any of the other crystals, let alone gain access to the B-Side or C-Side chapters.
The genres of Steam, seem more out of left-field and the only thing I can think of is that it reflects closer to the games that I played on my laptop rather than those on the Steam Deck. Crumble ("Oops We Died") and Celeste would cover the Precision Platformer. Portal 2 ("GlaDOS Game") and Crumble would fit within the 3D Platformer genre. Plants vs. Zombies is pretty much solely the Tower Defense genre, and I think Runner 2 and BIT.TRIP RUNNER I think is what would constitute Rhythm. I was a little surprised that Lovecraftian made a single little blip as I think it would covered by Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition, Dagon: By H.P. Lovecraft, and The Shore. For Souls-like, I'm not really sure what that could have been unless Alan Wake falls under that category as I played fewer than 60 minutes of The Last Faith.
Looking forward to 2024, there are a couple of games, at the moment, that I am looking forward to like, Alone in the Dark and maybe Princess Peach: Showtime. Then there are the frequent rumors that there will be the announcement and/or release of whatever Nintendo has come up with for their sequel to the Switch ("Switch 2," "Switch Advance," "Super Switch," etc). I don't know. I know that a lot of people have speculations and predictions for the following year, but right now I have none. I am just content to play the games that I currently have as well as the games that I haven't picked up yet released in the last five or so years that are compatible with the Switch and the Steam Deck.
I think that's what 2024 is going to be in terms of gaming. The Switch and the Steam Deck, with some punctuations from the 3DS, my laptop (assuming it survives its 4th year), the Oculus/Meta Quest 2, and maybe my PSP and the couple of games I have on the Wii U that haven't made their way to their respective Nintendo Switch Online retro console yet. So really not unlike 2023.
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