(and honestly for good measure you can talk about your least favourite games of the year here too if you feel like it but I didn't want to put that in the title)
I'll post mine later because I'm too tired to write about them now, but I figured I'd get the ball rolling
I don't have a definitive favourite, but I gotta give praise to Shadows of Doubt for being one of the most innovative and unique games I played in 2023. It's immersive, it's tough, and it really makes you feel like a nior detective. I'm pumped to see where it goes, and I love just generating a new world and solving cases, or commiting simple larceny to save up enough coin for a coffee at the diner.
i've been playing less videogames in general recently but playing cs2 was nice. i genuinely really like the visual upgrades and it's nice to not be good enough at a game to care about any gameplay changes
Armored Core VI is probably my favorite overall for the year. Plays like a dream and reaches new heights of spectacle for the series without losing the fiddly stat-riddled made-for-sickos core of the old games. Love it.
Mosa Lina is also great. A puzzle platformer that leans so heavily into randomization that any solution you come up with is truly yours and not just intuited from the designer's intentions. Not a lot of longevity but still tons of fun and I'm very happy to see such a designer-y game successful.
Also it didn't release this year but I played a bunch more Invisible Inc and finally finished an extended campaign on Expert difficulty. Absolutely adore this game and will continue to play it throughout the new year.
my GOTY is Pizza Tower. Everything about it is so specifically directed at the things I like that I couldn't possibly choose anything else. The animation is incredible, level design is super fun, soundtrack is nonstop bangers. The way it subtly pushes you to go from casual play to full on speedrunner mode without you even realizing it had me putting in a lot of time to master the game. If you've ever enjoyed a platformer I can't recommend it enough
Other things I liked a lot this year were Tears of the Kingdom, the last 3 waves of Mario Kart DLC, Cavern of Dreams, Chants of Sennaar, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2, Hi-Fi Rush, Rusted Moss, Gravity Circuit, Mario Wonder, WarioWare Move It, Returnal (PC release) & Spin Rhythm XD (1.0 release)
Also I didn't get around to actually playing Pikmin 4 yet but I am prepared to violate the geneva conventions for Oatchi
