2023 is likely to go down in history as one of gaming\u2019s greats, and at times it\u2019s been challenging just to keep up. Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 <\/em>brought the 20-year-old PC franchise back with a bang, and smaller releases like Slay the Princess<\/em> were a reminder of the important role PCs still hold for indie games.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Given how cross-platform the vast majority of games are these days, we\u2019re not going to primarily focus on PC exclusives. Instead, the aim is to highlight a great selection of games that show off PC gaming at its best in 2023. So alongside games like Slay the Princess<\/em>, which are only available on computer platforms, there are also titles that work particularly well with a mouse and keyboard (Baldur\u2019s Gate 3<\/em>) or which offer interesting PC-exclusive graphics options (like Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty<\/em> or Alan Wake 2<\/em>\u2019s ray tracing).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Regardless of your definition, the following ten games are a fantastic place to start if you\u2019re looking to add this year\u2019s best releases to your PC library. Whether you\u2019re looking for a game to idly play on a laptop or something that\u2019ll truly push your desktop gaming PC to its limits, you should find something to enjoy in the list below.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Basing video games around the expansive world of Dungeons & Dragons is a tall order. Not only does the beloved tabletop roleplaying game encompass decades\u2019 worth of rules and lore, but its players have also come to expect that the only limit to the experience is their own imagination. Larian Studios hasn\u2019t just managed to create a faithful D&D experience with Baldur\u2019s Gate 3<\/em> \u2014 it\u2019s come damn close to offering as much freedom as the tabletop game itself.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In Baldur\u2019s Gate 3<\/em>, if you can think it, you can probably do it. Want to fling a gnome across a village? Sure thing. Befriend a nest of ravenous giant spiders? You betcha. Take down imposing foes via the power of pure rizz and fart jokes? Hell yeah. And I haven\u2019t even mentioned the bear scene yet. But this isn\u2019t just the turn-based RPG that D&D nerds have spent years dreaming about \u2014 it\u2019s also approachable enough to have sucked in folks who have never rolled a 20-sided die before.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Practically every inch of the game is explorable, and while you can make a fully customizable player character to explore the Sword Coast with, you can unlock oodles more unique content by playing as one of the game\u2019s many romanceable companion characters. It\u2019ll likely take completionists several run-throughs to experience everything that it has to offer. I\u2019m still discovering new locations, items, characters, and secrets with 350-plus hours of gameplay, and I still expect to be playing Baldur\u2019s Gate 3<\/em> well into the new year. If Larian ever releases a DLC, I fear my family will never see me in person again. \u2014 Jess Weatherbed<\/p>\n<\/div>\n At its core Alan Wake 2<\/em> is a survival horror game, but it\u2019s a survival horror game wrapped in a police procedural that integrates live-action elements so seamlessly that more than once I found myself staring at footage of a real actor and marveling at how good video game graphics have gotten in 2023.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n If you played the original game, the core conceit of its sequel is the same. You point your flashlight at enemies to weaken them and follow up with more traditional weapons to take them down. But Alan Wake 2<\/em> builds on this premise in numerous ways. This time around, you\u2019re not just playing as the titular Wake, you also play as FBI agent Saga Anderson investigating the disappearance of the Stephen King-esque writer after the events of the previous game trap him in a horror story of seemingly his own creation. Then, when you are <\/em>playing as Wake, you\u2019re now able to rewrite the story itself, changing the fabric of the world around you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The whole game is an audiovisual delight on PC, where Remedy has pulled out all the stops with support for the latest and greatest ray-tracing technologies<\/a>. Play it with headphones or surround sound speakers if it\u2019s an option \u2014 hearing shadows quietly whisper Alan\u2019s name as I passed by them sent shivers up my spine. \u2014 Jon Porter<\/p>\n<\/div>\n There were a couple of different reasons to revisit Cyberpunk 2077 <\/em>this year. First, the culmination of three years\u2019 worth of updates and patches polished up the core game to what it arguably should have been at launch with its 2.0 update. On top of that, CD Projekt Red has also been remarkably proactive at bringing Nvidia\u2019s latest graphical bells and whistles to the game, whether that\u2019s support for path tracing<\/a>, frame generation<\/a>, or Ray Reconstruction<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But it was Phantom Liberty<\/em> that I thought represented the best of the new additions to the game, adding a meaty side quest complete with new characters and locations to explore. Idris Elba steals the show as Solomon Reed, a sleeper agent whose allegiances and backstory remain in constant flux. But performances are stellar across the board, and there\u2019s a fantastic spread of different mission types contained within its runtime.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The expansion is by no means short, but it feels tight and focused next to the sprawling ambition of the original Cyberpunk 2077<\/em>. If you\u2019re at all tempted to dip your toe back into the neon lights of Night City, Phantom Liberty<\/em> is a great way to experience the best it has to offer. \u2014 Jon Porter<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Dave the Diver<\/em> is such a weird mishmash of different genres that it has no right working as well as it does.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Fundamentally, it\u2019s best described as a roguelike spearfishing exploration game, where you hunt fish and search for treasures underwater. That\u2019s a lot of fun on its own, but there\u2019s a whole other layer to the game where you make use of your finds in a sushi restaurant, which adds a Diner Dash<\/em>-style time management experience on top of the roguelike.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The resulting loop is incredibly fun to dive<\/em> into \u2014 helped by the game\u2019s charming art style and character designs. \u2014 Jay Peters\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Thinking about language and culture is a lot like wondering whether the chicken or the egg came first. The two are tightly wound together:\u00a0the way we talk heavily informs the concepts we can talk about or understand. Translation, as such, isn\u2019t just about being able to match words 1:1 across two languages; it\u2019s about forming cultural connections and understanding how, and why, people using different languages might succeed or fail in connecting with one another.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n That, then, is the core premise of Chants of Sennaar<\/em>. You move through a tower, meeting the different peoples who make it their home, learning their languages, and understanding what makes their culture tick. Of course it seems inspired by games that came before it, and how not? If you look at individual pieces you\u2019ll see bits of Heaven\u2019s Vault<\/em>, Tunic<\/em>, the Myst <\/em>series, Journey<\/em>, and half a dozen others.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Not all of those pieces work perfectly on their own, admittedly; for example, I could have done without some protracted stealth sections and one very frustratingly hidden door. And yet when you put them all together, they make something wholly beautiful and new \u2014 which, honestly, is much the same way language itself works. We have a finite number of letters and words at hand to use, and yet we can make infinitely new combinations of language and communication. And as Chants of Sennaar<\/em> will remind you, communication is what it\u2019s really all about. \u2014 Kate Cox<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I am incensed that people are not talking about Viewfinder<\/em> at all times. The trippy, forced-perspective puzzle game was one of the best short-form gaming experiences I\u2019ve had all year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I felt my mind goo-ify and leak from my ears when I saw a demo on X, and I immediately<\/em> subscribed to the game\u2019s X account (back in the halcyon days of when it was still Twitter) to be notified when Viewfinder<\/em> would be out in full \u2014 a thing I have never done before or since. The game revolves around such a simple yet quickly brain-melting premise: take a photo with a polaroid camera, hold that photo up, and the environment behind it will transform to match its contents.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Throughout the game, that simple premise gets increasingly complicated but never unwieldy. Sometimes the exit will be at unreachable angles, requiring clever positioning of a picture to build an escape route. You can make copies of pictures to duplicate necessary resources. Certain objects in the real world are immune to the effects of a picture imposed upon it. Other objects, when a picture is overlaid, will break, preventing progress by ruining critical machinery or allowing you to reach walled-off areas. Viewfinder <\/em>is much like Portal<\/em>, the building complexity of the game\u2019s puzzles are augmented by an overarching narrative that makes the world more complex than what it seems.\u00a0\u2014 Ash Parrish<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In all of video game history, princesses are the ultimate prize, the ultimate object to obtain and covet. But in this game from the makers of Scarlet Hollow<\/em>, you\u2019ll be presented with an enticing flip of the script: slay the princess, and don\u2019t save her unless you want to risk the end of the world. And though this game purports to violate one of video games\u2019 most sacred tenets, nothing can prepare you for what you\u2019ll actually encounter.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Slay the Princess<\/em> is a visual novel of sorts where the action lies in making decisions, seeing their consequences, and teasing out all the different paths there are for you to walk. And there are a lot<\/em> of paths. They unwind seemingly infinitely, and even when you think you\u2019re treading a familiar road, the game twists on you, presenting new options and new events to see. That\u2019s what I enjoyed most: the finding of all the little differences and unraveling the mystery at the heart of the game. Who are you? Why are you? And why is the voice in your head so hellbent on slaying this princess?\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s a short game. I was able to complete one full playthrough in about three hours. Since there are so many choices offered, each with its own consequence, I suspect, much like Nier Automata<\/em>, that it\u2019ll take a few rolls of the credits to fully understand what this game is. Thankfully the writing, the art, the sound design, and, most importantly, the voice acting keep each new journey fresh and engaging. \u2014 Ash Parrish<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The System Shock<\/em> remake is an impressive, long-delayed achievement. It\u2019s a faithful yet idiosyncratic reimagining of a nearly 30-year-old survival horror classic, capturing the feeling of being stuck in a maze overseen by a not-quite-omnipotent god-machine. Whether or not you\u2019ve played the original, the result is a weird and winning shooter that\u2019s more than worth some frustrating early sections.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The plot of System Shock<\/em> is a familiar one: you\u2019re on a space station where a megalomaniacal being (in this case the artificial intelligence SHODAN) has gone rogue. The remake brings back original SHODAN voice actor Terri Brosius, who will taunt you delightfully through Citadel Station. It preserves its source material\u2019s complex level design and quirky weapons \u2014 you\u2019ll end up fighting your way from elevator to elevator using everything from a lead pipe and pistol to a laser sword and slow-motion drugs. But it revamps the frustrating \u201890s keyboard controls and takes advantage of modern graphics to give Citadel Station a lush, eerie glow that\u2019s neither fully contemporary nor lo-fi retro. And since a planned console launch was delayed, for now it\u2019s an experience you can only have on PC. \u2014 Adi Robertson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n World of Horror<\/em>\u2019s most obvious draw is its monochrome art style, inspired by manga legend Junji Ito. The roleplaying game touches on numerous Ito themes alongside various Japanese urban legends, putting you in the shoes of a young person whose small town is going mad thanks to a supernatural force. But its biggest triumph is a clever fusion of compelling worldbuilding and semi-random gameplay elements. It can suck you into the same set of short mysteries over and over in hopes of discovering new endings, characters, and strategies, slowly filling out its spooky setting while delivering a real sense of achievement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nCyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty<\/em><\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
Dave the Diver<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Chants of Sennaar<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Viewfinder<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Slay the Princess<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
World of Horror<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n