2023 was bittersweet. It was a year so full of great releases, but also saw record industry layoffs. Acknowledging the amazing work and contributions of all these talented teams and people, these are my favourite games of the year (so far). Order is just alphabetical.
Valve have announced the Steam Deck OLED: 7.4-inch 90Hz OLED custom Samsung screen, 1,000-nit HDR peak brightness, 50 watt-hour battery, and a bunch of other little improvements. It’s not the Steam Deck 2, but it looks very nice. The Steam Deck OLED ships November 16th - unless you’re in Australia, in which case we’re still boned.
Ten years after the release of GTA V, and in line with their 25th anniversary, Rockstar have confirmed the first look at the next in the franchise will be dropping early next month. In a series of tweets, Rockstar president Sam Houser reflects on the company’s history and speaks to his excitement for “many more years of sharing these experiences”.
Terrific art direction, ghostly music and atmosphere underpinned by a gripping story (by ’60s Polish sci-fi author Stanisław Lem) make for a tantalising but ultimately underwhelming experience. The characters are likeable and acted well, but they can only do so much to make up for what is so bound by its story that it leaves so little room for compelling gameplay… I’m up for walking simulators, but the walking has to be enjoyable. All that said, the story is the hero, which is enough to drive home an admirable adaptation.
Remedy have provided an interesting (and very impressive) look behind the technical curtain of Alan Wake 2 and its engine Northlight in a new blogpost. AW2 has been universally praised for its visual technical achievements (among other things), so it’s great to be able to read about some of the tools and tech they created or utilised.
Fun little game where your mouse cursor is your character and your weapon - swipe around, kill stuff, choose upgrades. Not heaps of metaprogression, and visibility can become a bit of an issue, but the loop is fun, art well-made and it’s fairly priced. I think if it got a few content updates it’d be a cool game to hop back into every now and then.
Nintendo officially announced a live-action film adaptation of The Legend of Zelda. Wes Ball, known for The Maze Runner, will direct, with Nintendo and Sony Pictures to co-finance. Shigeru Miyamoto and Avi Arad, producer of Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, lead the production. Miyamoto stated, “It will take time until its completion, but I hope you look forward to seeing it.”
Deckbuilding autobattler roguelite with some realtime combat elements - it’s such a genre-mash that it can be a bit hard to get your head around at first, and ultimately hard to decide if it works. Cool concept, art and atmosphere, but the core combat mechanic won’t be for everyone. The mix of autobattle with realtime interactivity sometimes means you spend more time waiting than calculating your next move. Interesting game though, and decently priced.
Microsoft is teaming up with Inworld AI to create AI tools for Xbox game developers. The new partnership features an AI copilot for crafting characters, scripts and dialogue. Hard to ignore the seemingly tonedeaf or just careless timing; proudly announcing this amid thousands of ongoing layoffs in the industry, not to mention the concerns around labour issues and exploitation associated with generative AI.
Since its inception, the Epic Games Store strat was to throw money at developers to secure exclusives, and burn millions to give away free games every week. This being a money sink is not surprising, but revealed today in the Epic v. Google trial was confirmation that it is indeed still not profitable. Epic VP/GM Steve Allison testified on the witness stand that focus is still on growth. Reminder that we learned during Epic v. Apple that Epic’s goal was to secure half of all PC gaming revenue.