(video game chirping) - [Narrator] It's a well-documented fact that 2023 was a great year for games. The PC was no exception. Hi folks, it's Falcon
and today on Gameranx, the top 30 best PC games of 2023. Starting off with number
30, it's Resident Evil 4, how else would we start this off? It's a remake, so it's a new game and it does a lot to spin
the original Resident Evil 4, but it's built on top of an
incredibly stable foundation that changed games forever back
when the original came out. The Resi 4 remake is
just a perfect example of how you can kind of remix without losing what made the game incredible
in the first place, even building on it and maybe making it a little
better, at least in some ways. And number 29 is Lethal Company. A co-op horror game where you and several friends jobs is to collect some scrap from
some abandoned moons that used to be factorial in nature. I don't know how to put it. They had resource operations going on these moons and they
don't have 'em going anymore and it's 'cause this nasty
stuff living on these moons. This game isn't like the
most realistic looking game of all time, but what
it's got is atmosphere. There's a lot of different
ways to experience it, but it's always thick
enough to cut with a knife. And number 28 is Octopath Traveler 2. If you're anything like me,
you really like Old JRPGs and Octopath Traveler is, I
mean the premier version of that in 2023, right? 2024 too, I guess, now. Square didn't screw us
over on this one though. Ported it to the PC and
it looks incredible. I was a huge fan of the
original Octopath Traveler and I think Octopath Traveler
2 even goes further in achieving the goals of the project. Like, I hope eventually
all old JRPGs are remade in this style. It's amazing. And number 27, it's The Finals. I have wasted so much
time playing The Finals. When I am done recording
this list, I will continue to waste time playing The Finals because I haven't played
The Finals yet today. This game is kind of a weird competition game show first person
shooter where the idea is to cash out various vaults and doing so enough times
to either win the match or having time run out
with the most points. Sounds pretty simple but it's incredible. If you want to talk about
a first person multiplayer shooter done right, it's this one. There's nothing else like the finals. They've taken so many other ideas and turned them into a
cohesive streamlined thing and put it in destructible
environments that ensure that every single match is different. It's incredible, play The Finals. And number 26 is the System
Shock remake, which does way more than the Resident
Evil 4 remake does to make System Shock into
a modern playable game because if you go back to
the original System Shock, while it does have its charm, its systems are archaic as hell. It came out before first
person control schemes were standardized on either
keyboard and mouse or Game Pad and it's not really a
first person shooter, but it also is. This game basically inspired
an entire sub genre. The immersive sim and the
remake makes it something that you can actually go back to and play without being
incredibly frustrated because nothing works like how anything else works in any other game. I love System Shock and I love the remake because I don't like going
back to System Shock. I just have all these fond memories of it. But the remake makes it so that
it feels like a game again. And number 25 is
Blasphemous 2: Metroidvania that really expands upon all
of the ideas of the first. There are some people who
think it maybe deserved a more original story because it's kind of more of the same from the first one. But I maintain that if
you like the first one, you'll probably really like the second one unless you really hate the idea that the story is gonna
be more of the same. I don't really play
Metroidvania for the story. Sometimes they do, I'm
not gonna say I never do, but as long as the story is serviceable and the gameplay is great, I think a Metroidvania
has basically accomplished what it's set out to do. In that way, I think Blasphemous 2 is better than Blasphemous 1 and I would highly
recommend giving it a shot. And number 24 is Remnant 2,
the soulslike with guns 2. Is it bigger? Is it better? Is it badder than the first? Absolutely. Remnant 2 is a fantastic sequel. If not maybe a little
demanding on the machine. I have a pretty good PC and this game really makes
use of it, let's say. It probably could be better optimized and that would probably be a good thing, but that's really the only complaint. 'cause on every other possible metric, this game is fantastic. Soulslike with guns, what
else are you gonna say? They did it. They did it right. The bosses are good, some
of them are incredible. And aside from the frame
rate, it's one of those games that always feels incredibly fluid. Remnant 2 is a must if you like soulslikes and shooting, period. And number 23, it's Trepang 2. Hey did you want more fear? 'Cause it's here in the form of Trepang 2, or I guess Trepang Squared or something. I don't know. It doesn't matter, if you like the crazy lunatic shooting of fear
with all the bullet time and the gore, Trepang 2, or Squared, is the closest thing to it that you can possibly get right now. It is phenomenal. And number 22 is Amnesia The Bunker, set in World War I in,
you guessed it, a bunker. Amnesia adds some elements. For instance a gun, but don't think that this
is a first person shooter. Ammo is not easy to come by at all. It's very much a successor to Amnesia. You are not going to feel like
you're playing a game called Amnesia, but actually a first person shooter or anything like that. It does also feature what
they call the semi-open world and some immersive sim elements,
which I think really suits what they're trying to do with this game. I'm not a hundred percent
sure I would call it as scary as previous games if that's
why you're playing it. But I don't play these
games 'cause they're scary. I play 'em 'cause they
have interesting stories and the setting is very strange and this one lives up to that in spades. And number 21 is Avatar
Frontiers of Pandora. I have made it very clear that Avatar is not a
thing I even kind of like and I like Avatar Frontiers of Pandora. So in my opinion it accomplishes so much as a Ubisoft open world game. Now this isn't to say it's somehow shockingly different
from their other games, but for whatever reason it
came together really well. I think it's in no small part due to Pandora being a very good location for this type of a game. Am I gonna call it the best
Ubisoft open world game? Eh, probably not. But considering I just want nothing to do with Avatar ever and I enjoyed this game, I think it's saying a lot. And number 20 is the Crew Motorfest. It's been a while since
we got a Crew game. 2018 was the last one. And Motorfest really takes the franchise in a great new direction. Where the Crew 2 gave us
a very scaled down map of the contiguous United States, The Crew Motorfest gives
us a much more dense recreation of Oahu. In terms of structure, it's clearly inspired by Forza Horizon. And also keeping in mind
that several developers from Ubisoft Ivory Tower, the crew developers also worked
on the Test Drive Unlimited games and Test Drive Unlimited
2 took place on Oahu. Now this is obviously a much
more advanced pretty version of that, but it's a great
revisit to the place and I'm sure the developers put a lot of thought into the fact that there would be some
expectations attached to that. I think they nailed it. The Crew Motorfest is a great game. And number 19 is Cocoon
from the developer of Limbo and Inside, this is a puzzle
adventure where you can leap between worlds with this
very strange mechanic where you carry worlds
on your back with an orb. I know that probably
sounds like total nonsense. It's not. It's actually pretty intuitive. And the point is jumping
between all these worlds, rearranging 'em and
progressing via the various changes you're able to make. It's a great game. It's also something that I
would never have expected from the developer of Limbo and Inside. But it also retains some
of those stylistic ideas and I think really comes together well. At number 18 is Sea of
Stars a spiritual successor to Chrono Trigger and wow,
a game that really nails it in terms of that. Every single aspect of Sea
of Stars really calls to mind Chrono Trigger and really all of those super Nintendo JRPG
is like Final Fantasy VI, et cetera. Obviously most tied to Chrono Trigger. I'm not gonna say the story
is as good as Chrono trigger, nor are the characters. But they certainly weave
together an interesting tale that maybe doesn't go out
of its way to make itself as relatable as Chrono Trigger can be. But that's okay. I mean, you're comparing
a game to Chrono Trigger, which many people consider to be the best game of all time. Certainly the best JRPG. It's still a very worthy
spiritual successor and in a very enjoyable
game with an incredibly well mapped out battle system
that doesn't just copy. It also adds and creates
something worthwhile. And number 17 is the Dead Space Remake, which takes a different
path than Resident Evil 4 and System Shock by keeping
it basically the same but adding little things for coherence and also makes the ship
one continuous experience. Beyond that, it's basically identical. Visually, big upgrade. Even some of the gameplay
systems get a big upgrade in terms of how they work. But ultimately it feels
like playing Dead Space 1 with some Dead Space 2 gameplay stuff thrown in alongside some
little additions in the story and the fact that Isaac talks
in it that sort of unifies it with Dead Space 2, in my
opinion, in a very good way. It's great, play it. And number 16 is Mortal Kombat 1. Mortal Kombat is a series that seems to revel in confusing you in
terms of its story and time and setting and it doesn't matter at all. It likes to do that. But it probably likes to do that because it knows the reason
you keep coming back is 'cause it's a stellar fighter with a bunch of insane crap in it. I'm not even gonna try to outline what's going on in the story. I'm not even sure if I
get it and I don't care. I play every one of these games
'cause they keep refining it and making it better and better. And I love Mortal Kombat. And number 15 is Street Fighter 6, which I absolutely
learned from the mistakes of Street Fighter 5 and
launched Ready to Go. Street Fighter 5, if you remember, launched with a great fighting engine, great graphics, but almost no content and a lot of modes missing. Street Fighter 6 remedies all of that. This is the full package that everybody should
get when they buy a game. And on top of that, in
terms of the online, wow, does it work good. Almost no online games at all
work this well on launch day. Certainly not incredibly
timing based games like Street Fighter, but they really nailed it. On top of that, they gave
you a character creator that's insane. And if you like Street Fighter or fighting games at all,
Street Fighter 6 is a must. And number 14 is Dead
Island 2, a game that, I'll be honest with you, I had
no idea would ever come out. It's one of those games that's
changed hands so many times. You just kind of like,
ah, can it even be good? And it turns out to be
not just good, but great. Dead Island 2 is incredible. Dambuster made not only a worthy sequel but expanded on the ideas of
the original in such a way that although there are other
zombie games out there that do similar things, feels
like a cohesive, real sequel to a game that a lot of people like. I remember talking about
this game in like 2015, 2016, and I would've never guessed that in 2023, a solid perhaps better sequel
would come out that again, it didn't light the world
on fire or anything, but I thought really solid game. And number 13 is Dave the Diver. A game that combines a lot of genres into one weird
thing, to be frank. So you do two things primarily. Firstly, you're a diver, duh. But you also manage a sushi restaurant. And you probably understand
the motivation for diving now, but now that just sounds like a collection loop and that ain't it either 'cause there's boss
fights, weapons crafting, there's some soulslike elements. It's just a fricking crazy game. How it manages to be this lunatic mishmash of tons of ideas to the point where it's almost hard to describe and being fairly complicated, it's also just nice to play. It's also got a really
good sense of humor. It's one of those things where there is so much more going on than what your initial look is
going to tell you about it. And number 12 is Pizza Tower. Hey, would you like Wario
combined with Sonic? There you go. That's Pizza Tower. Pizza Tower is crazy. This game feels like
everything that the 90s wanted to be without the
self-consciousness of the 1990s. It's just willing to go
everywhere and anywhere. It's manic, it's crazy. It's very well designed, and yes, it is every bit as
fun as the footage implies. And number 11 is Diablo 4. Yes, Diablo 4. Yes, this game got a ton
of hate when it came out for obvious reasons, but that doesn't mean the
game itself isn't fantastic. It actually is. I'm not going to pretend for even a second that is acceptable to have
micro-transactions up the wazoo and a battle pass in a $70 game. But hey, that doesn't stop
the game from being good. I think a lot of people ended up saying that they hate aspects of the game that are actually pretty good just because of the anger that other aspects of the game generated. I mean, this is classic
Diablo at its best. It's very well designed, got a
huge open world, great co-op. There's really no reason
to say the fundamentals of Diablo 4 are bad. I'm not gonna say that there
aren't legitimate reasons to not want to play the game. Yes, always online is
gonna irritate some people. And I don't think that these
things are just hand-waveable, but that doesn't mean
that the fundamentals aren't really good. I mean, Diablo 4, if you can get past all the
crap is a really good game. I know somebody's gonna say, well, you can't let them get away with it. You have to stand against it. Otherwise they're never gonna change. And I'm gonna say this,
they're never gonna change. Blizzard has gotten all the negative press that any other developer
would ever need to change. So I think it's kind of
like, do you enjoy the stuff that works and do you ignore
the stuff that doesn't? Or do you just hate the game? That's kind of Sophie's choice here, if you know what I mean. And number 10 is Sons of the Forest. I don't know what better to
say than it's The Forest, but much bigger and much better. It is a beautiful game.
It is an atmospheric game. It is a game with many
possibilities for building and a crazy weird story that may not shock you if you've been through the original Forest. I mean, this game is
still in early access. It's not necessarily a complete game yet. And it is beloved by pretty
much everybody that plays it. And number nine is The Outlast Trials. This is basically a
prequel that takes place during the Cold War where Murkoff
is doing some experiments. If you know anything about that, it's a very different
setting from the first two. But the game itself actually,
I mean builds on a lot of the great ideas from Outlast. Essentially you have quests or tasks or whatever you want to call 'em. You gotta complete 'em
while not getting killed. You don't really have any
offensive weaponry of any kind. You do have some passive
defense like mines, but it's a pretty unique series and it's a pretty good entry into it. And number eight is Dredge, a fishing game that somehow manages to be unsettling. I mean, look at the art
style. It's cartoony. It's a little bit
whimsical except the color palette is a little bit dingy. It's a game that kind of feels
like several different types of games but brings them
together pretty well. It also manages to instill
this sense of dread that this type of game you
wouldn't think would be able to. I really enjoy Dredge. It's a very different experience
from what it looks like and a very good one. And number seven is Starfield. Yes, there are a lot
of people who, I mean, do everything they can
to discredit Starfield. And I know that there are
more than enough people that will remember me
saying a million times, wow, Bethesda needs to move to Unreal already. I'm so tired of the problems
of the Creation Engine. But that doesn't mean Starfield
is somehow absent of merit. It's actually a very good game with a lot of interesting stuff if you're willing to go into
the Bethesda-verse for it. I saw an article on Forbes
talking about Starfield wanting to attempt a Cyberpunk
2077 reputation repair. And I don't really
understand why it has to, I think it's gotten extreme hate in areas where maybe it should get mild hate. That isn't to say that
Bethesda doesn't need to change and do better, but I mean
it's a Bethesda game. Do I have problems with
it due to the nature of it being a Bethesda game? Absolutely. And I think that a Bethesda game needs to be something more going
forward from Starfield. But I don't really consider Starfield an unmitigated disaster. Just, I mean it's a lot
of interesting content built in a pretty stagnant engine. As much as people hate it, there's actually a lot of great
things to see in this game and I will stand by that
statement at very least. And number six is Armored
Core VI: Fires of Rubicon. A game that does everything
that it needs to do and does it incredibly well. You got customization, you
got a crazy futuristic story, you got the nonsense, but not quite the Kojima
level of the nonsense. Armored Core VI is
really just a great game. I love, I love this game. It also doesn't wear out its
welcome, it's 20 hour game. It's worth every cent because it packs those
20 hours with everything. And number five is Robocop Rogue City, a game that I don't think
that anybody expected would be among the best of the year. Even with a cool demo. I know a lot of people, myself included, played that demo and were
like, this is really fun, but if it doesn't have some
kind of progression in it, it's not gonna be enjoyable. And it does have progression in it. It kind of defied expectation
in certain ways being a fresh experience the whole way through. I love Robocop Rogue City. It is invincible tank man action. I mean, you're not actually
invincible, you can die, but it's definitely a power simulator. And man, is it ever fun? It's also the follow up to Robocop that probably should have
happened and never did. And number four is Lies of
P, the Pinocchio soulslike. Yep. When you hear those words in 2022, you're kind of like, what? What the hell are we talking about here? But it is fantastic and lying actually figures
into the narrative. It's so weird that you
could make a Pinocchio soulslike that uses the
source material in a way that compliments the soulslike elements. And it's just an all
around fantastic game. That's what this is though. And number three is Alan Wake 2. This is, in my opinion,
the best game of the year. Yes, I'm going to mention
two that are perhaps bigger and have merit for others to say maybe are the
best games of the year. For me it's number three
though, Alan Wake 2. This is absolutely the height of what Remedy has decided a game should be. Control, fantastic. Introduces so many of
the things that they take to extremes here, but they also take all of the stuff that they did on Alan Wake
so well, like it's a game that crystallizes the experience and style of Remedy into
an incredible experience that bursts out of every boundary
you attempt to put it in. It's scary, but it's a really
good story that's complex and interesting and takes
characterization to a new level. A lot of people say Saga
Anderson is a Mary Sue. Well, she's the most
interesting Mary Sue I have ever played in a game, if so. And also in my opinion has
interesting implications in terms of Alan Wake's writing. If she is indeed a Mary Sue, it's a game where a statement like that actually makes sense to talk about. I dunno, I love Alan Wake 2. What a game. And number two is Hogwarts Legacy, open world game and a franchise, again, I don't care for
but doesn't very well. It's a very competent,
very enjoyable open world. Hogwarts, I don't love
the wizarding world. I don't really enjoy Harry Potter, but I did really enjoy
exploring Hogwarts in this game. And really a lot of the world
here is very cool to see. Just like Avatar Frontiers of Pandora. I actually think it is a game that whether or not you are a fan of the
IP is a worthy game to play because it's not gonna
set the world on fire or anything with its content, but it just is a really
competent open world game. And if you like open world games, the ones that really do it well, even if they don't
necessarily do anything new, are still a little few and far between. Like there's a lot of
open world games that just throw a bunch of at
the wall to see what sticks. And Hogwarts legacy is not one of those, it's a well curated,
well-paced, interesting story that makes good use of the open world. And finally, at number
one, it's Baldur's Gate 3. I don't know how you talk
about Baldur's Gate 3 in an abbreviated manner. It is perhaps the most detailed, varied, and granular AAA game ever made. And it is a AAA game. There is some debate as
to whether or not it is. It is, it's huge. It's insane. There's so much scale, it cost over $100 million dollars to make. It's really a worthy follow up
to the original BioWare RPGs, but Larian also makes it their own by making it turn based. And I think it really works. I actually think it might be my favorite of the three Baldur's Gate games. I also have a couple
of bonus games for you. Firstly with Assassin's Creed Mirage, depending on your
expectations for this one, I think is really what is key in going in. I had expectations that this was going to be a triumphant return to the old school
Assassin's Creed formula. And in a lot of ways it is,
but in a lot of ways it isn't. It does retain a lot
from Valhalla in terms of baked in aspects of it, but it also feels a lot
more like the original Assassin's Creed games, giving you a lot of
frankly welcome changes that do remind you that it
is an Assassin's Creed game, an old school Assassin's Creed game. Very good if you're not rigidly
expecting one thing from it. And finally, and to wrap things up. It's Barotrauma, which is a 2D underwater survival horror submarine
simulator with RPG elements. Yeah, they threw a lot at the wall there, but it actually comes
together pretty well. In some ways, it reminds
me of Fallout Shelter and in others, it
reminds me of Frost Punk, except you actually play
as like a character. It's got a little bit more of a sense of humor than Frost Punk, but it is a very interesting game that I'd highly recommend checking out. That's all for today. Leave us a comment, let
us know what you think. If you like this video, click like, if you're not subscribed,
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