inconspicuoususernam

I've decided to become a professional Final Fantasy VII Rebirth player.

I've decided to become a professional Balatro player.

I've decided to become a professional Pentiment player.

People who care about trophies should be gently euthanised.

Simply having a female Latina main character isn't enough to qualify as being "woke". There isn't enough information about the game yet to make that judgement.

I've always enjoyed the humour of the GTA games and I hope they don't tone it down for this one. It used to be that EVERYONE was fair game to make fun of, regardless of skin colour, sexual orientation or political affiliation, and I hope that's still the case when GTA 6 releases.

Modern day Disney, Ubisoft open world... Are people actually excited for this?

I don't find any of these games particularly exciting, good thing I still have plenty to play from a pretty incredible 2023!

@themightyant @somnambulance Agreed re the writers individual GOTY lists, thought they were excellent with great variety and more interesting than the "official" countdown. I even bought some games that weren't on my radar thanks to those articles.

I really enjoyed Little Nightmares but this seems a bit pointless to be honest. I suppose it's good for people who haven't played it yet but the game has been out for 6 years now and is constantly on sale for pennies. I'd have thought anyone who was interested would own it by now. Is an Enhanced Edition on PS5 really going to be worth buying again for people who already have it?

@themightyant I agree that the Push Square individual GOTY lists were brilliant and showed some great variety, I even bought a few games that weren't on my radar after reading more about them through those articles.

I'm not trying to make Spider-Man 2 out to be some crazy outlier. The fact that it's the 4th highest rated PS5 game of 2023 is exactly my point, shouldn't the Game of the Year award go to the best game that year? It seems as though Spider-Man 2 sneaked into the top spot because it was at least somewhere on everyone's list despite nobody actually thinking it was the best game this year.

@themightyant I'm aware this format is more like a popularity contest, I was just highlighting how odd it looks to pass over multiple "10/10" games to give the GOTY to a PS5 exclusive which, while no doubt a great game, wasn't really in the same league. Perhaps it's time for a different format if the only games capable of winning are safe crowd-pleasers which can be "played and enjoyed by the masses."

Push Square reviews in 2023:

Baldur's Gate 3 - 10/10 - "This really does feel like a landmark moment for the genre, setting extremely high standards that everything will inevitably be judged against going forward. [...] Baldur's Gate 3 will rightly go down as a role-playing masterpiece."

Alan Wake 2 - 10/10 - "A rip-roaring horror experience from Remedy Entertainment that innovates in just about every way possible. It's the sequel fans of the series have been waiting over a decade for — but it’s also so much more."

Resident Evil 4 Remake - 10/10 - "This is Resident Evil at its absolute pinnacle; an utterly outstanding experience that will live long in the hearts of longtime fans while inducting a whole new generation of supporters."

Spider-Man 2 - 8/10 - "Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is excellent without pushing the boat out very much."

And the winner of Push Square's Game of the Year 2023 is...