Which videogames are worth playing in 2023?

I still play FTL: Faster than Light [0]. It's a rogue like, so if you die, you die. You command a starship that you get to upgrade, crew and fight with. It's one of those "easy to pick up, hard to master" games. Released in 2012, still fun to play. You can play for a minute or for hours, the sound track is good. Wikipedia says game play is realtime [1], but you can pause the game, queue up a set of actions and watch them play out. So this is definitely not a reaction based game and therefore it's low stress/adrenaline...that is until you get a boarder teleporting in, and your oxygen levels are falling precipitously because you had to vent a bunch of compartments to stop a fire, and the oxygen generator has been down since the last fight.

Anyway, one of my favourite games. Recommended.

0: https://subsetgames.com/ftl.html

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FTL:_Faster_Than_Light

> What are some videogames that are absolutely worth playing in 2023?

CrossCode[1], hands down. If you have someone else to play with in couch co-op, Aegis Defenders[2].

> I love strategy games.

Shadow Tactics[3] for stealth RTS, Fae Tactics[4] for turn-based RPG tactics.

[1]: http://www.cross-code.com/en/home

[2]: https://www.humblegames.com/games/aegisdefenders/

[3]: https://www.shadow-tactics.com/

[4]: https://www.humblegames.com/games/aegisdefenders/

You can't go wrong with Tetris, and Tetris Effect is the best version of it. It must be experienced. It's impossible to describe what it feels like to be in the "zone" with this game. It's one of those games you can pick up for a five minute game and then notice that you've been playing it for three hours. Good headphones are a must.

My problem isn't finding games worth playing, it's having the time to do so. Elden Ring, Dark Souls 1/2/3, Bloodborne, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, Dishonored 1/2, Prey.

I'd love to have time to get into the adventure games again, like Grim Fandango or the Monkey Island games. Adventure games have always been some of my favorite experiences on a PC, going back to Sierra and LucasArts games.

I haven't catched up on games after 2016, so sharing some good low to medium-spec titles:

Resident Evil 4: old-school controls but great gameplay with lots of easter eggs. Can easily rack up hundreds of hours.

Battlefield 3: typical US-Russia plot but the greatest storytelling I've ever seen in a videogame

Deus Ex Human Revolution: haven't played the first one, so recommending this instead. Highly flexible gameplay style with the player's choices affecting the outcomes.

Devil May Cry 4: outstanding hack-slash gameplay with way too many combos. Can easily spend hours on it.

God of War (original) trilogy: arguably the greatest storyline ever in a game, much better gameplay mechanics than the Norse reboot imo

The Witcher 3: Absolute beauty of an RPG. Might feel slow for the first 10-15 hours, but picks up the pace. Can stack hundreds of hours in a single gameplay. A plethora of side missions, then two DLCs, each having 20+ hours content. Strong NSFW stuff, so watch out.

For someone mainly into turn based RPGs, here's an unordered list:

Pathfinder: Kingmaker & Wrath of the Righteous (my favorite games of all time)

Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader (same devs as the preceding games, currently in Alpha but looking great)

Vagrus: Text heavy (extremely) grimdark trading sim / RPG

Age of Decadence: The apocalypse was 1000s of years on our future, but far in the past of the game, I call this post-post-apocalyptic and love the genre. Pretty hard as you are not a hero, for once.

Fallout: New Vegas. The last fallout that felt like it was more on the RPG side than shooter, with the great VATS system that optionally makes an action game feel almost turn based.

Solasta: Crown of the Magister. Light in story, but an extremely faithful D&D5 adaption and includes a dungeon builder and there are already cool custom campaigns.

Deus Ex, from the original with all the options (make sure to get the mods) to the newer games that are more stealth shooters.

The Shadowrun trilogy. All of them are great, but for the first I'd play the vox Populi mod that recreated the original campaign in the later games.

Play what you’re interested in. Like I really liked the second HITMAN, so I bought the third one a few days ago and it has been super fun.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Same developer as Dark Souls and Elden Ring.

Challenging combat that is very rewarding to master. Impeccable environments and setting in the Sengoku period of Japan. Masterful storytelling.

It's the perfect video game.

If you like strategy games take a look at: Factorio, Civ6, Stellaris, X-COM 2, Anno 1800, Europa Universalis IV, Crusader Kings 3, FTL, Into the Breach, and Rimworld.

My favs from above are Civ 6, Stellaris, X-COM 2, and FTL.

Some of my favorites of all time:

  - The Witness (puzzles/exploration)
  - The Outer Wilds (puzzles/exploration/narrative)
  - Prey (creative gameplay opportunities in a cool setting; top-tier example of the combined stealth/action FPS RPG)
  - Return of the Obra Dinn: Unique gameplay where you assemble a story from parts
  - Age of Empires 2: Definitive edition: A RTS game with emphasis on multiplayer, that's been a 22-year labor of love; still has an active competitive community + tournaments.

Still hitting up Quake Live on Stream.

There’s a small but regular community still playing. I prefer Freeze Tag mode, usually the Pill Chicago server. Clan Arena mode is too rough for a casual player, in my experience. FFA is OK.

For strategy games, my go to is original StarCraft. Blizzard released a remastered version a few years back. I think it’s usually around ten dollars?

My Steam Deck arrives tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to it as I think it will be a game changer for some of my favorite games. At a certain point I stopped enjoying playing games at my computer. Since then I've mostly stuck to playing games on my Switch. Here is what I plan to play.

* Fallout New Vegas - Explore the post-apocalyptic wasteland of the Mojave. Many ways to play the game. Worth playing and re-playing.

* Keberal Space Program - Build your own rockets and try to get them into space. There is so much you can do with this game via mods. Mechjeb is a must as it makes it much easier to get your ship where you want to go.

* Sim City 4 - There's really no substitute for the classic. Cities Skylines is ok and I might try it again on the Deck. It seems to be broken on the switch (gameplay falls apart at 30k pop).

This year, I finally got back to gaming and boy do I love it. My fav games:

- Shadow Tactics and it's followup Shadow Tactics - Aiko's Choice. Both are really good stealth RTS games. If you liked Commandos style stealth RTS games where you control certain characters and then accomplish a mission. These are basically very similar.

- Age of Empires IV - I was worried they're going to mess up this game again after what they did with Age of Empires III but they did not. It's the best Age of Empires ever. Very well done and very enjoyable.

For whatever reason, I just can't play FPS games as I can easily get motion sickness. Also most modern games have so much needless complexity that it's hard to get into and out of it as your schedule dictates.

There are many reasons why the MARIOs and the ZELDAs have been so popular with mainstream gamers across the decades.

My wife discovered (with my help!) the Mario games - of which there are many, and varied - a couple of years ago, and a few hours play per week has been both fun and mentally helpful for her. Taking her brain in directions it wouldn't normally go.

Be aware that strategy games tend to be time suckers, by their very nature of gradual patient persistence. This is where shallower more arcade-y styles of gaming can be better, to dip in and out without getting obsessed. They can still be surprisingly deep and tactical.

Gran Turismo 7, even if you're not into sim racing atm, can definitely recommend it if you're looking to branch out into a new hobby within gaming. It's a slow grind but really have been quite happy with it to the point where I've gone from 0 interest in driving or racing last year to being fully captivated by the genre, and have in general become much more interested in driving and learning to drive better. Lots of fun to find a car you really like and learn different circuits with it. Entry level setups run a few hundred dollars but has been definitely worth it to me.

If you like hard and interesting puzzles I recommend Stephen's Sausage Roll. It's the most mind expanding game I have played (with the possible exception of chess). From a simple set of puzzle mechanics it produces many deep, surprising, and beautiful ideas. It has the highest density of "eureka" moments in any game that I can think of.

Another brilliant game in the same vein is A Monster's Expedition. If you're not sure whether you like the genre, or unrelenting difficulty isn't your thing, I recommend trying it before SSR.

X4 Foundations: Maybe not worth playing in 2022, but hopefully by 2023 there will be many improvements which would make this _the_ best space economy simulator of all time.

Kenshi: X4 but on foot, and more importantly, with very few game breaking bugs. Reminds me of Mount and Blade but even more of a sandbox.

Caves of Qud: an amazing ASCII roguelike in early access, though it's largely feature-complete now. Come for the story and aesthetic, stay for the addicting RPG elements

Dyson Sphere Program: Factorio, without enemies, in 3 dimensions, in space.

If you haven’t played it yet I recommend Bloodbourne then Elden Ring, I was never into Souls type games until I played Elden Ring and boy do I enjoy them now.

I think it’s the lack of mini map markers the sense of confusion, the absolute brutality of the world (you are not special) is what captivates. Because the feeling of leveling up and owning those enemies that used to wreck you feels amazing.

There is something very cathartic about these games and not the mention the Lovecraftian themes have me super engaged with the stories.

I'm big into exploration and survival games, ideally with friends. My top games this past year were outer wilds, grounded^, valheim, pathfinder kingmaker^, and detroit become human was a fun variant on my usual game. If you have a partner to play with it takes two is great for a couch game.

My top games in recent years were outerwilds, stardew valley^, subnautica.

I'm hopefully steam will refresh the now generally index as I'm waiting for gen 2 to buy & get into vr gaming.

(^Not competed)

Disco Elysium.

Having played literally thousands games this one is my no. 1 recommendation for a long time.

It’s a non-fighting noir RPG where world is the main character. I made three approaches because I was confused by it. Minor spolier - confusion is part of the setting.

I always think of it as of Napoleon Dynamite movie. Reception differs depending on your mood. It can be hilarious. It can be heart breaking. It’s been 2 years and I still am reminiscing the story. True masterpiece.

I’m a big fan of playing FPS with mouse and keyboard to unwind and right now Ultrakill has supplanted Doom Eternal for me. One major reason is that not only am I enjoying the gameplay more, but I can play it on almost any hardware I own (including in Parallels on an M1 Mac on arm64 windows).

I just got back into it and can’t recommend it enough.

Inside

It’s one game in years that I actually completed. It is awesome. I played on PS5, but I think it’s available on numerous platforms.

Find a classic to enjoy. I highly recommend the text based Zork. I found it calming and actually quite fun.

To completely subvert genre and expectations: Frog Fractions 2. Trust me on this.

Team Fortress 2 is still just as fun. The only game I play for the last 5 years.

Anything created by Zachtronics. Opus Magnum is a great one.

EXAPUNKS and Shenzhen I/O are worth trying if you want to spend some time solving puzzles with code, without all the usual software development headaches.

Elden Ring, of course. Jusy too good to not buy, especially now that its $40.

Some games I'm looking for in 2023:

Dead Space remake, Hogwarts Legacy, The Last of Us Part I PC release, Resident Evil 4 remake, Final Fantasy XVI, Baldur's Gate III

Game I'll keep playing in 2023:

Final Fantasy XIV, Fortnite

Braid is a classic and so satisfying. But you may need an old Mac for it.

Chess :)

Quake Champions rules! Adrenaline, technique, mechanics, awesome map art, and just 10 minutes matches are great for no-compromise players.

It really depends on what you like. But a general rule is to stay away from any games where online gaming is a large component.

Dwarf Fortress!

Already available: Sekiro Yakuza: Like a Dragon Death Stranding Elden Ring

Coming out 2023: Armored Core 6 Street Fighter 6

Against the Storm

Fantastic roguelite city builder.

Mario Kart :)

Pentiment