After a struggle-filled year plagued with layoffs, 2023 has been a great year for gamers, but a bad year for game developers. Nevertheless, the end of the year must conclude with its typical Game of the Year celebration affairs, and we are always keen to deliver.
Following The Game Awards 2023, the Gfinity Game of the Year Awards admittedly holds far less pizazz. Sure, we don’t have Anthony Mackie and second-place Ken actor Simu Liu to give our trophies, but that does mean we can focus entirely on the games.
Don't forget, if you want a chance to win a prize for voting on your own Game of the Year, we've partnered with CCL for our Reader's Choice 2023 awards right here.
Without further ado, here are the official Gfinity Game of the Year Awards for 2023!
Gfinity Game of the Year 2023 - Baldur’s Gate 3
Winning by a landslide in our internal voting, Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3 is the extremely unsurprising winner of our Game of the Year 2023 awards, and it was 100% expected to win as well.
Larian’s Dungeons & Dragons game is everything you’d ever want from the medium of video games. Alongside gorgeous visuals and a masterfully written story, it perfectly matches the depth of its board game progenitors, offering virtual mechanics that match its players' imaginations.
Not everything in Baldur’s Gate 3 is possible, that can’t be true, but everything we’ve tried is. Every encounter or story moment has dozens of ways to navigate it, and its depth is unmatched by any game that’s ever released. The closest game is Divinity: Original Sin II, also made by Larian.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is a masterful video game that sits atop everything as the reason we love games. Even with this, Larian has made a game without predatory microtransactions, in-game stores, subscription fees and always-online DRM. It’s a game you buy and own, and updates to the title are only making it better. It’s a game that respects its players, and provides one of the best gameplay experiences the medium has ever seen.
Most Improved Game of 2023 - Cyberpunk 2077
CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 launched in a rather sorry state, but the massive 2.0 update this year has revitalized the RPG into a game fitting with the studio’s history of thrilling titles. While its launch state shouldn’t be forgotten, Cyberpunk 2077 has seen a rebirth, rising from the ashes into a game that we can now heartily recommend.
While games like Fallout 76 and Halo Infinite have seen huge improvements to their multiplayer offerings, Cyberpunk 2077’s efforts are much more impressive. CD Projekt Red said it wouldn’t abandon the players it disappointed, and it didn’t. Cyberpunk’s improvements sit along No Man’s Sky as an example of developers righting their wrongs.
Alongside Cyberpunk’s 2.0 update, the brilliant Phantom Liberty expansion was also released. This expansion added a brilliant new area, unforgettable new characters and its own gameplay additions as well. With the improvements made to Cyberpunk’s base gameplay, we can also recommend this expansion as well. Well done, CDPR, you’ve made gamers everywhere proud.
Cosy Game of the Year - Disney Dreamlight Valley
Alongside blockbuster action games like Spider-Man 2 and Hogwarts Legacy, some gamers just want to experience something relaxing. With that in mind, our Cosy Game of the Year award goes to Gameloft Montreal’s Disney Dreamlight Valley.
Just released in its 1.0 state. Disney Dreamlight Valley lets you become a Disney Princess or Prince and hang out with your favourite characters in an Animal Crossing-style village builder.
From cooking with Ratatouille's Remy to exploring frozen wilds with Elsa, Anna and Kristof, Dreamlight Valley is one of the cosiest experiences you can find. After all, who doesn’t want to run around with Stitch catching fish?
Xbox Game of the Year - Hi-Fi Rush
Tango Gameworks’ Hi-Fi Rush isn’t just the best Xbox Game of the Year, but also a complete surprise. Coming from the studio behind The Evil Within and Ghostwire Tokyo, Hi-Fi Rush is a musical-themed action game that’s dripping with style.
As a game that was stealth-dropped by Xbox, Hi-Fi Rush is a game you’d never expect to be as good as it is. A classic-style hack-and-slash game with a musical twist, everything in Hi-Fi Rush is timed to music, from your foes’ attacks to the steam plumes thrusting out of industrial pipes. Even your idle animation is set to music, as player character Chai clicks his fingers to keep you on beat.
Hi-Fi Rush is, well, a rush, and a perfect fit for the Xbox Game Pass service it launched on. Even amongst the heights of Starfield and Forza, Hi-Fi Rush stands tall as the best Xbox exclusive game of 2023. But not as good as Redfall.
Best PlayStation Exclusive of 2023 - Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Nobody does Spider-Man like Insomniac Games, and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 proves that the PlayStation developer understands the universe of Spider-Man better than anyone else. Merging the stories of Peter Parker and Miles Morales into one blockbuster adventure, Insomniac had a lot to do with this recent sequel, and it crushed it.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is the type of blockbuster only PlayStation really does with a strong focus on narrative and flawless visual presentation. Spider-Man 2 is a game that pushes the PlayStation 5 harder than we’ve ever seen, and proves that Insomniac truly is the master of Sony’s hardware.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is the PS5 game of 2023, and with Insomniac’s Wolverine on the way, superhero fans have a lot to look forward to for the future of PlayStation.
Nintendo Game of the Year - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
In 2017, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild reinvented what players thought Nintendo’s adventure series could do. In 2023, Tears of the Kingdom reinvented Breath of the Wild, using new mechanics, the skies and the underground to give gamers a massively expanded toolbox to play in.
As a direct sequel to Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom does something extraordinary. All of the toys are thrown out in favour of all-new ones, adding more ways to manipulate the world around you. Alongside being able to build cars, mechs, carpet-bombing airplanes, working beyblades, and all manner of contraptions, Tears of the Kingdom is by far the deepest game Nintendo has ever released.
What’s most impressive about Tears of the Kingdom is that it’s running on the Nintendo Switch. While Breath of the Wild felt like a miracle in 2017, the aging tablet proved it still had the gusto to provide an even bigger experience this time around, and Zelda’s engineers should be celebrated for this fact alone.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has mastered the open world in a way that no other game has. It’s a truly unique experience that’s only playable on Nintendo Switch.
Honourable Mentions
While not every game can win an award-fitting category, 2023 has been an amazing year for video games in general. With this in mind, here are the Gfinity staff's honourable mentions for Game of the Year 2023.
Star Wars Jedi Survivor
The second part of Cal Kestis’ video game Star Wars trilogy, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor builds upon everything that made Fallen Order great. With a more mature narrative, endlessly satisfying combat and a story that isn’t afraid to delve into all eras of Star Wars’ canon, Jedi: Survivor is one of the best games the iconic sci-fi franchise has ever produced.
Amnesia: The Bunker
Horror isn’t always known for pushing its genre forward - for every well-designed experience like Amnesia: The Bunker, there’s five Garten of Banban sequels. Still, it’s a huge step forward from Rebirth and shows that Frictional are still the masters of horror. If you’re looking for a fairly short yet wonderful pants-wetting experience (and can stomach playing as a Frenchman), it’s a damn good time.
Mediterranea Inferno
Diving deep into the languid Italian decadence of Federico Fellini and Paolo Sorrentino, Mediterranea Inferno is one of the most thought-provoking visual novels of the year. It strikes a perfect balance between happiness and desperation, carefree steamy sex and the regret of the next day, the beauty of young bodies and the horror of the insecurities originating from the constant exposition of flesh on social media. Santa Ragione confirms its place as one of the most daring indie studios around.
Lies of P
2023 was one of the strongest lineups for GOTY we’ve ever seen, which meant that a few other incredible titles, unfortunately, didn’t quite get the recognition they deserved. In any other year, Lies of P could’ve been a serious contender for the best game for the year, if not for the masterpieces that were in the running this year. Taking the classic fairytale and putting a beautifully twisted spin on it, Lies of P captured the hearts of Soulslike fans in a year that was rife with games for the genre’s enthusiasts. With an incredible soundtrack, gorgeous visuals and a deceptively unforgiving combat system, Lies of P made us hate how much we loved it.
EA Sports WRC
Codemasters made a resounding return to its roots of rally games after obtaining the WRC license. EA Sports WRC delivers a smooth driving experience thanks to moving away from its in-house EGO engine to Unreal along with a plethora of stages where one wrong move is a recipe for disaster. With plenty of cars from the past and present to choose from along with an engaging career mode, EA Sports WRC is one of the best racing games to release in 2023.
Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons
The beat-em-up renaissance continues with Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons. Like TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge, Double Dragon Gaiden offers fans satisfying combat and gorgeous pixel visuals, as fans get reacquainted with Billy and Jimmy. It’s not just Billy and Jimmy either, as the game has a ton of unlockable characters that can bring the pain, all of whom can be earned by simply playing the game. Keeping things fresh is Gaiden’s unique progression system, where the first level you choose is always the easiest, while the others get substantially harder the later you choose them, adding a ton of replayability. Just an excellent beat-em-up all around.