Hello! Welcome humans to this AI-generated space beep boop beep. Not really. Almost had you going for a minute there. This is, however, a highly anticipated (survey of 1 agrees with this statement) Bits & Pieces games of the year that may or may not have come out this year.

Gav

The format for this appears to be to get the excuses in (Nevi’s is pretty good, as it happens). I moved house this year, so that’s mine on the record as well, though it’s not as convincing. I’ve barely played any new games this year – surprise, two of the ones I did play are fighting games. (note: in the process of writing this I realised I had actually played quite a few)

Video Games: fighters, robots and indies

Street Fighter 6 came out in June and I spent a while playing it, but I wasn’t really in the frame of mind at the time for a new fighting game, so it fell by the wayside a bit. I intend to pick it up again in 2024 (if I don’t get too distracted by Tekken 8). However, Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising has taken up much of my attention since it was released last month. I think a full review is forthcoming for this one, but it’s a much-appreciated update to the original game, full of new mechanics and quality-of-life improvements (rollback netcode, crossplay, revamped lobbies, and a Fall Guys mode for some reason). It’s genuinely a blast, especially with friends; and it has a free version, too. Go check it out.

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon takes my pick for action game. I bought this one to play while house-sitting partway through the year and happily spent hours customising my robot to take on other, increasingly bizarre and terrifying, robots. I still need to come back to it as I’ve not delved into the game’s multiple New Game+ pathways yet. AC6 really is a special game, combining the esoteric depths of the other Armored Core games with the presentation and verve that’s made Fromsoft’s Souls/Borne/Ring-y games so popular, alongside the developer’s trademark approach to challenge. If I were to nominate one Game of the GOTY of the Year it’d likely be this one (because I’ve not played Baldur’s Gate 3, owing to a complex network of guilt about not finishing various games, including Divinity: Original Sin 2, yet).

On the indie end, though it’s not from this year I played Citizen Sleeper, which I can’t recommend highly enough. Exciting, intriguing, and genuinely touching; this dice-based RPG slash visual novel has it all. There was also Chained Echoes, also a 2022 release, from a solo developer at that – really impressive. I put more than a few hours into Boneraiser Minions, a fun little Vampire Survivors-y game. A very late addition to this list is Sea of Stars – I’m just a few hours deep into this one on Game Pass but having an absolute blast with the combat, music and gorgeous pixel art. Definitely my indie GOTGOTYOTY.

I also played Starfield this year, as it is on Game Pass as well. End paragraph.

Board Games

I’ve not really played that many board games this year. George convinced me to give Undaunted: Stalingrad a shot, and we’re a few rounds into a campaign of that, which has been pretty fun (insofar as it can be fun to watch your men slowly suffer attrition in the brutal warfare of history’s bloodiest battle).

I’ve once again determined to host a D&D game this year (even as IP owners Hasbro make it more and more difficult to support them in good conscience), so that is theoretically nice, anyway.

Nevi

2023 was my first full year of being a Dad. So as you can imagine my time to play games was limited. However, between naps and the constant laundry, I managed to find a little bit of time here and there.

Video Games: 3DS ramble and anime nonsense

Firstly, I need to say that I haven’t played any of the big hitters that came out this year. I’m not even sure I played any games that came out this year. So my picks are going to reflect that to the extent that the first games I’ll talk about came out many moons ago – The Legacy of Goku series.

For me, a big part of the year was small handheld gaming where I could squeeze in a short burst here and there. I modded my 3DS after the eShop closed as there was no longer any moral quandary. I’ve yet to try any 3DS games on it and have loved exploring the GBA catalogue instead. And nothing quite beats a sequential game series that follows a story that you’ve loved since you were a child. So wrapped myself in my nostalgia blanket and tucked myself into some of the best Dragon Ball Z games ever made (yes even the first one).

My brief sales pitch of the Legacy of Goku series is that they are Dragon Ball Z pixel action games that follow each major saga of the series with each game iterating on the one before. While I think everyone can agree that they peaked in Legacy of Goku 2, the others have merit. The first game is very rough and requires a lot of patience but it is far from the worst game I’ve ever played and if you approach it with a “Dark Souls” mentality, you’ll be fine. My issue with Buu’s Fury is that it overcomplicates everything and by doing so makes the game far too easy. However, it is still a lot of fun and rounds the serious out nicely. In case anyone is listening, do a remaster on a modern console; please.

Anyway, onto my actual “game of the year” – Scarlet Nexus. A reminder that, yes I know it came out in 2021 and no I don’t care. Scarlet Nexus succeeds in playing like a Platinum crossed with Persona‘s cast of characters that you gradually get to know via a weird gift-giving relationship mechanic. It isn’t perfect by any means. By the end of the game, you are an absolute demon and the story is often a confusing mess that comes and goes. However, it does several unique things that meant that it captivated me for most of the year.

The first truly mad and genius move is to split the game into two distinct playthroughs and to really see the full story you should do both. And this isn’t a short game by any means, we are talking 30 hours for the first playthrough and maybe half that for the second assuming you do it on New Game+ to keep all your stats etc. That is a heck of a commitment when you’ll see a lot of very similar story beats just from a different perspective for about half the run time. And yet, that is what sets Scarlet Nexus down the road of brilliance.

This is a very anime story and as such makes basically no sense at all. It has a cast of fairly cliche characters, most of which you’ll come to love in a Stockholm esche way. Knitting it all together is the frenetic combat where you use psychokinesis to move objects around and tap into your teammate’s unique abilities at a button press to summon flames, duplicate yourself or teleport. And while at first, it is a confusing mess, once it clicks you feel like a god. And when you have a tiny human keeping you up half the night and wiping her snotty nose on your neck, sometimes you need to play as a guy or gal with a sword who can pull up their hood and endlessly drop rubble on a monster with mannequin arms, a bulls body and a tree for a head.

While I stand by the fact that only half the story makes no sense, even after reading up on it afterwards, and the fact that Shiden wins the prize for most annoying person with superpowers award; I was swept away to this strange world for two full playthroughs in year where I struggled to get into any other big game experience. So that’s why Scarlet Nexus is my game of the year.

Board Games

This year, playing board games was hard. If you think squeezing in some time for video games with a little one is hard imagine having to organise seeing other humans outside your home on top of that. So basically the only thing I’ve played of this ilk this year is a few games of Warhammer 40,000 10th Edition. And I’ve loved it. They basically fixed all my issues with 9th and I could just enjoy throwing dice and moving tiny toy soldiers around with an easy-to-use and understand ruleset. Thank you Games Workshop.

In all seriousness though, 10th Edition got me really excited to play 40k again. For a lot of 9th Editon, my game of choice was Middle Earth SBG and while I still love that (even despite the main person I played with moved to Cornwall, they are forgiven and I hope they are very happy down there) the grimdark of the 41st millennium is an evocative place to roll dice. And with the added benefit of the new app and not needing to carry around half a library of rules, it makes jumping into a game the easiest it has ever been. If you’ve been on the edge and are not sure about Warhammer, I encourage you to grab a friend or local store and have a go. In a world of screens and expensive eggs; painting and playing Warhammer in its various forms has helped to keep me sane.

George

Video Games

The easy pick for my 2023 was Cyberpunk 2077. I tried Cyberpunk a few months after release and bounced off it after a few hours. Diving back in with the expansion Phantom Liberty and a few quality-of-life mods, I could finally enjoy the stories Night City had to tell

V is a tragic character, they avoid death once but it leaves them damaged and stuck with a chronic case of Keanu Reeves. Their fate looms on the horizon and everything tells you it’s not going to be a happy one. The game’s breadth often means you might spend a lot of time with a character only for the questline to end, and they disappear for hours of game time. Compared to so many other modern RPGs all about gathering a happy band of friends that can overcome any obstacle, Cyberpunk feels decidedly lonely at times. 

I also want to shout out the romance plotlines, which are surprisingly heartfelt and charmingly awkward. Given how much gratuitous sex and violence is present in Night City, I didn’t expect to be cringing over cheesy lines as V tries to express their romantic intentions. The scenes aren’t that long but they’re a nice change of pace from the rest of the game.

Cyberpunk’s stories are definitely its highlight, but the revamped gameplay finally makes the bits in between the narrative good fun as well. By the end, combat becomes a bit trivial but there are enough toys and upgrades to keep you entertained til the credits.

Honourable Mention: Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. Better combat and more enemy variety made Survivor a much more of a playground than Fallen Order. The story is hit-and-miss. The big quest is bland but hanging out with your Mantis crewmates is always a treat. Thankfully the final act knows what’s actually interesting and pulled me back in just as I was beginning to get tired of star MacGuffins.

Board Games

After a dalliance with Warhammer 40k 9th edition in 2022, 2023 was the year I really fell for Star Wars: Legion. It’s been a long time coming, I first tried it in a demo game with Nevi at the UK Games Expo in 2018. Then lockdown I picked up some models (you can spot them in the 2021 Games article) and it slowly grew from there. I didn’t play the full game until 2022 and thanks to some lovely players in a tiny local community the game has hooked me. Despite not trying to approach Legion with the intention of competitive play, I ended up going to two local tournaments in Portsmouth. Seb is a terrain wizard and a fantastic event organiser – you can see some of his amazing tables and find out more about his Padawans in Portsmouth event series here. 

For regular tabletop games, the Benjamin + Thompson design duo had something of a chokehold on my year with their Undaunted series thanks to Stalingrad and Battle of Britain. My pick of the year though was their 2-player worker-placement game General Orders. It’s a lovely little box that concentrates the satisfaction of moving troops around a board in 30 minutes. Even friends who wouldn’t choose to play a wargame have said they’d happily play this one again.

What’s Next?

Nevi: Just as a closing statement and not specifically about games, but I wanted to say to anyone reading that we’ve been gone a while and aren’t really back. There might be posts every now and again but life is busy and all of this takes a lot more time than you might expect. And also the letter p on my keyboard has broken so know that I am cursing every time I have to type (damn it!) one.

George: It’s great to start the year with a sense of getting the band back together and even if the writing is a bit sporadic here, I want to share more games and hobbying on our Instagram as Nevi has been holding that up. I’ve got lots of Kill Team models coming to the hobby table and I’m even organising an event at my local store in February. I’ve also been doing some freelance work for Tabletop Gaming Magazine so you might spot me in there over the year. If I’m feeling particularly brave I might dip into the strange unfinished ideas that exist in our drafts sections, so a declaration of love for Rounds may be in the near future.

Gav: I’m attempting to enter my quantity-over-quality villain arc this year, having finally come to the realisation that quantity that actually exists is better practice than quantity that remains purely theoretical. Watch this space for a regular to eventually emerge out of my New Year resolutioner attitude (source: dude trust me). In all seriousness though I’m hoping to approach writing more systematically, along with trying to enjoy games in a more directed way. Like George, I have many half-done drafts that I might spit out at you – send us an email if you can tell which ones were written before 2023 and I’ll send you a prize.

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You can check out our previous Game of the Year articles for 2020, 2018 and 2017.

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