Our individual Game of the Year articles allow our lovely team of writers to share their own personal PS5 and PS4 picks for 2023. Today, it’s the turn of assistant editor Liam Croft.
5. Cocoon
I’d been raving about Cocoon since I played it at Summer Game Fest earlier in the year, and the final product did not disappoint. A stylish puzzler where you can carry entire worlds on your back, its exquisite execution propels the experience to heights only the likes of Inside can match. New interactions and mechanics keep the loop interesting, helping to create one of the best indie games I’ve played in years.
4. Lies of P
Would I believe you if you told me Lies of P was developed in-house at FromSoftware? Probably not, but the Souls-like out of Round8 Studio is the closest any developer has come to genuinely replicating a Dark Souls experience. A dark take on the Pinnochio story, it takes huge strides in combat customisation by letting you customise your animatronic arm with lethal gizmos and then detaching sword hilts from their blades to mix and match new weapons. It’s packed full of neat, new ideas and the campaign they reside in matches them with excellent environments and memorable boss fights. It seems nobody will ever match FromSoftware, but Lies of P is the next best thing.
3. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is a very safe open-world game, but it’s also an incredibly enjoyable one. Insomniac Games, in its efforts to never bore you by introducing new gameplay features and elements at a rapid pace, excels once more with two playable Spider-Men and an even bigger and better open world. Will I remember it beat for beat in six months? Almost certainly not — it just isn’t ambitious enough for that — but what I will look back on so fondly is its commitment to putting a smile across my face at all times. A safe but oh-so-solid follow-up.
2. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
Why does it feel like everyone has just kind of forgot Star Wars Jedi: Survivor came out this year? Easily one of the best action-adventure experiences of 2023, this game is amazing! From scouring all its vast planets to the satisfying blend of Lightsaber stances in combat, Respawn Entertainment improves upon everything it achieved in Jedi: Fallen Order to create one of the best Star Wars games ever. Only facing competition from the Knights of the Old Republic RPGs, this is video games from a galaxy far, far away at their peak.
1. Resident Evil 4
If a new Resident Evil game releases in any given year, chances are it’ll rank highly in my list of favourite games. 2023 is no different with a remake of one of the greatest games of all time: Resident Evil 4. Capcom has faithfully brought back everything beloved about the Nintendo Gamecube original and given it the most significant of paint coatings, allowing it to shine once again for the modern era. With new story elements, more content, and improved combat, Resident Evil 4 is my Game of the Year with a bullet. I can’t think of another series so intricately tuned to suit my tastes, so long may it continue. Resident Evil 4 is yet another Capcom masterclass.
What do you think of Liam’s personal Game of the Year picks? Feel free to agree wholeheartedly, or berate relentlessly in the comments section below.
