Game of the Year Awards 2023

"Stasis: Bone Totem is worth playing by just about any point-and-click adventure fan, but especially those who like when horror permeates every facet. It is visually appealing, both in its 2D isometric form and with the 3D cinematics that occasionally feature cool deaths. Puzzles are challenging, logical and satisfying, with multiple steps and a good indication of what is required." - Ben Thomas

Runners-up: Counter-Strike 2, Last Train Home, Storyteller

"With familiar but still great gameplay that has a few new moves, strong presentation, and a mostly engaging story which gets better in the second half, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is a crowd-pleasing blockbuster sequel that's worth playing for any superhero fan. It's a great looking game, of course, and swinging around New York City continues to be fun all on its own, now with more varied optional content." - Alex V

Runners-up: Final Fantasy XVI, Viewfinder, Season: A Letter to the Future

"Starfield is almost the perfect merger of a Bethesda experience with space exploration. It smartly creates a sense of scale while keeping all activities within arm’s reach. With fantastic hand-crafted destinations, packed with diverse and interesting quests, it offers a lot of great content, even if it is clumped together." - Ben Thomas

Runners-up: Forza Motorsport, Hi-Fi Rush, Planet of Lana

"Super Mario Bros. Wonder is exactly what the series needed after all these years. It's filled to the brim with creativity, and offers up a ton of variety. It still plays just as good as you would expect it to, as nothing has been sacrificed from the platforming to fit the various gimmicks of the Wonder Flowers. The tight, precise platforming has been mixed with the wild creativity seen in the 3D exploits of Nintendo's iconic plumber to create one of the best titles of the year." - Eric Hall

Runners-up: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Pikmin 4, Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon

"The Crew Motorfest makes significant changes to its formula and borrows many ideas, and though there's still room for much improvement, these alterations finally make it competitive within the genre. The handling for all vehicles feels much improved – the arcade driving style is still the core, but controls have been fine-tuned and feel better than in previous games. There are some original ideas and unique design choices, along with plenty of issues and unwillingness to change, but there is finally a glimpse of potential for the series." - Alex V

Runners-up: Street Fighter 6, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

"The Flower Kingdom is filled with great level designs bursting with personality. This includes both when a Wonder Flower is activated, and when you are running through the stage normally. The staggering amount of creativity that went into making sure every Wonder Flower power feels different from the previous is a major boon for the game." - Eric Hall

Runners-up: Viewfinder, Cocoon, Hi-Fi Rush

"The Dead Space remake takes the original third-person action game from 2008 and recreates it with improved presentation, as expected. But it also makes changes to gameplay and story. The result brings enough surprises while preserving what made it whole. Finding the right balance between what to change and what to keep is the tricky part, but developers Motive got it right." - Ben Thomas

Runners-up: Resident Evil 4 (2023), Metroid Prime Remastered, Counter-Strike 2

"From ancient mysteries, to local civil strife and contracts with devils, there is plenty for a hero to do, and all roads seem to lead to the city of Baldur's Gate. The various quests and narratives are by far one of the game's strongest points, with hundreds of hours of dialogue mostly excellently written and voice acted. The world feels fairly alive, with a decent amount of NPCs around, and a nice teleportation system lets you travel between discovered waypoints, providing a nice sense of progress to the exploration without backtracking." - Alex V

Runners-up: Final Fantasy XVI, The Talos Principle 2, Hi-Fi Rush

"Multiplayer builds on last year’s game and throws a variety of great maps from when the franchise was near its peak. This nostalgic combination works better than expected. The competitive multiplayer is energetic and the remastered MW2 maps are still varied and brilliant combat arenas, even with the modern player movement. And MWZ is actually a decent open-world zombie template that is super replayable." - Ben Thomas

Runners-up: Diablo IV, Company of Heroes 3, Street Fighter 6