Starfield looks very mediocre. FF XVI seems to be getting slated ...

Otherwise, as others mentioned, mostly tired franchise sequels. Doesn't seem hugely impressive to me.

So..basically you haven't even played these games. I think I get it now.

How long have you been playing games? "Some years have more titles that interest me more than others" is nothing new. It's always been a thing going back decades and is naturally very subjective. As someone said above, there were some years in the 90's where new releases of really good games were coming so thick & fast we just couldn't keep up. Eg, I spent so much time Doom / Quake scene then Diablos, Half Lifes, System Shocks, etc, then onto the RTS scene (Age of Empires, C&C, etc) that I didn't even play games Icewind Dale, Planescape Torment, Unreal 1, broken Swords, etc, until well into the late 2000's because of the huge 90s backlog I was catching up on. In fact I'm still catching up today. Metacritic User Scores:-
- Styx Master of Shadows = 7.2/10
- Betrayer = 7.2/10
- Diablo IV = 2.0/10

Again I'll repeat - your own idea of what "Good Games" is entirely subjective even by popular opinion standards... ;-)

I haven't played Starfield either, though you hardly need to have played it to ask "difficult" questions like "If Starfield is the new Epic Awesome Must Have from Bethesda, then why is it rated far lower (6.6 Metacritic / Mostly Positive on Steam) vs 83-96 Metacritic / Very to Overwhelming Positive of Morrowind / Oblivion / Skyrim"? I mean, even Fallout 3 has higher (8.6 Metacritic / "Very Positive") recent reviews than Starfield's 6.6 / "Mostly Positive" does. Looks like "Starfield is the best game ever and 2023 is the best year for gaming ever" is as subjective as for any other game / year...

Likewise, I suspect many of us are "trapped" inside a "PC bubble" are uninterested in consoles is the fact we're kinda burned out about hearing endless sequels of flogging the same old console IP to death. I remember playing half the franchises (Mario, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, etc) you listed on a SNES / my friend's Sega Mega-Drive, but my God I wouldn't want to keep playing the same remade games over & over 30 years later. Way past time Nintendo, etc, came up with some new ideas.

Since the mid 1980s. I forget exactly when I started. But I had the original NES with the ROB robot.

I said they were significant and major releases. I did not say you'd think they were good.

So what exactly ARE we talking about here? Just sales figures and hype?

Ok, but that's not really a measure of anything most people here are likely to care about. If we're not talking about quality, or lasting relevance to the medium, then the fact that lots of offended asshats generated buzz around Hogwarts Legacy or how very well Blizzard's new milking machine is doing won't get much enhusiasm from a gamers with half a brain, especially not around here, where most people have rather... old-school sensibilities.

No, but I've seen enough video reviews of several of them and haven't been particularly impressed by what I saw.

Besides, another very important consideration: most of those games you listed are DRMed. Therefore, they may as well not exist to me. Even less reason to get excited than there already was ...

Playing games is overrated. The true keyboard warrior bases their opinion on screenshots, videos, hearsay, social media and review scores. Otherwise you can't shit on things. LOL.

Have you played all those games?

Fair enough :)
I haven't played Spiderman 2 or Mortal Kombat 1 yet.

It's a pretty nice year, but I don't think anything will ever top 1998.

At some point in the future I'd like to play Hogwarts and Baldur's Gate 3, but...

... I'm not finding much else from the 2023 AAA sphere interesting.

The indie space has a flood of releases that I can't seem to keep up with, but...

... I tend to take my time looking at indies anyway.

So my takeaway so far for 2023 is... it gets the...

... "it's ok I guess" award.

Now, if Dragon's Dogma II releases in 2023, that may change my mind. ;)

:D

You are right. Some of the best review scored games entered the fray in 2023. But.... as a PC gamer i fear for what the future might bring. AMD seems to have the upper hand as best choice for gaming hardware atm leaving Nvidia and Intel in its wake.
The ever rising costs in countries worldwide also seems to indicate a new level of elitism. 'only the upper middle and rich classes will be able to enjoy a healthy live in a responsible way'.
That said. This year i found a lot of joy in revisiting older titles with my new hardware. 2015 - 2018 games work marvelous, both green, stable and very pretty to the eye.
Did i dip into 2023 you might ask then and i would answer 'yes i did'. Mostly indie titles, still in the works, such as Xenonauts 2 and the new ol' Wizardry... High Rise City (maybe this one will save me from cities 2 for the time being) and i've also ventured in the Aliens : Dark Descent.
You wanna know what I discovered....?

I still hate Aliens the way i did like when i was a kid. Never been so tense in any game as in this one.

Except for Baldur's Gate 3, none of those games are DRM-free I believe, so they are dead to me on arrival (haven't played them, won't play them) and I can't comment on your claim.

But I'm glad you're enjoying those titles. Hopefully, Gabe and his heir(s), or whoever your chosen lords are if you shop elsewhere, will be benevolent in giving you continued access to those games in the future.