Our 25 best games of 2023 end-of-year rundown illustrates a busy year in the world of video games. It's a well-worn cliche, but there really was something for everyone across all genres, platforms, and areas of intrigue – from the Dead Space remake in January to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in May, Baldur's Gate 3 in September, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and Alan Wake 2 in October, and everything else in between – it's hard to pinpoint a moment were something wasn't happening over the last 12 months.
Which is great for the world of video games, or at least it's great for video games themselves. Beyond our screens, 2023 brought so many games industry layoffs despite many areas of the same industry posting record profits. Away from games altogether, war has devastated pockets of the world, upending entire communities and bringing so many things that so many of us take for granted into sharp focus. Through all of this, it's been a strange and conflicting year through the lens of the hobby we spend so much of our time singing the praises of. And yet, without trivializing the awful realities real people are struggling with right now, the last 12 months make the transformative power of video games, not least its scope for suspending reality, more important than ever.
A huge part of this, for me, is having something to look forward to. And again speaking personally, nothing excited me more in 2023 than the GTA 6 trailer.
Worth the wait
Welcome to Grand Theft Advent – a month-long celebration of Rockstar's enduring crime sim series. Be sure to check in on our GTA 6 coverage hub for more every day throughout December.
Admittedly, I'd have bitten your hand off for a 2024 release window – and not 2025 as confirmed – but that's just me being greedy. I'm a firm believer in game developers taking as long as they need behind the scenes to deliver the best end product possible, and a company of Rockstar's stature (and resources) understands that more than most.
And the longer-than-expected wait definitely became easier to process when reflecting on the GTA 6 trailer as a whole. Between its busy beaches, fancy cars, bustling night clubs, inexplicable hair physics, and a seemingly Bonnie and Clyde-inspired love story, just about everything looked amazing. The trailer's tongue-in-cheek pops at real-world USA were a slow burn too, with eagle-eyed viewers picking up on each reference in turn hours, and even days, after that first airing.
I totally understand why people were disappointed with the nature of the trailer reveal – a leak forced Rockstar's hand to make it live 15 hours early – not least the devs themselves working ever-so-hard behind the scenes. Being robbed of putting the trailer out together in-person is a rotten outcome for all of those involved, but from a very selfish perspective, the drama of that late-night drop (it landed at around 11.30pm during UK hours) that saw us scrambling to push out coverage, only intensified my desire to play what is easily my most-anticipated video game in well over 10 years.
"I take none of this for granted, and I definitely don't say this lightly, but even against all of that, the GTA 6 trailer was still my favorite thing about video games in 2023"
This year, I reviewed some truly brilliant video games for 12DOVE – from the Dead Space remake to Viewfinder, Blasphemous 2, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and The Talos Principle 2. I was fortunate enough to visit Nintendo's headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany to preview my personal Game of the Year, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom; I played and previewed a host of top games at Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles; and I interviewed a number of actors and community figures across a wide range of games and genres – including Baldur's Gate 3's Neil Newbon, Final Fantasy 16's Ben Starr, and Spider-Man 2's Yuri Lowenthall.
I take none of this for granted, and I definitely don't say this lightly, but even against all of that, the GTA 6 trailer was still my favorite thing about video games in 2023. Despite the in-development leaks last year, and despite the earlier-than-scheduled launch of the trailer, GTA 6 looks as much of a tone-setter as its forerunner (if not more) that I'm certain will dominate the video game landscape for the foreseeable future.
Granted, I'm a self-confessed, dyed-in-the-wool Grand Theft Auto devotee who's been messing around in its virtual crimescapes since its top-down inception in '97 – but I do think the next installment will set the pace and standards moving forward. Whether GTA 6 has the same generation-spanning staying power as its forerunner remains to be seen, but if 2023's trailer launch was about floating that idea, then for Rockstar, 2024 will be about cementing it.
The best games like GTA live here
