2023 in Review

Favorite Games

For a game that I have been playing for 3 years in Early Access, even I was caught by surprised with how important Baldur's Gate 3 turned out to be for me. The theme of the last few years has been rediscovering my love of roleplaying and expanding on not only my characters Aethmal and Seralin, but the whole family. Baldur's Gate 3 is the perfect singleplayer game for this, as it is the first CRPG that allows multiple player-made characters to interact with each other, having discussions and making comments to each other as the game is played. This combined with everything else that the game does well turned it into such a grand experience that I had to play it all the way through back-to-back. Very few games make me want to do that, let alone games that can easily last up to 100 hours on a single campaign.

Up until its release, I was worried that Diablo IV would be a disappointment. Diablo II remains one of the more influential games for me, but Diablo III is also one of the most disappointing games I have played. Whlie Diablo IV does not reach the heights of II, it holds its own in a way that made me love it. The campaign is a great return to form for the series, particularly with providing a memorable antagonist in Lilith. The post-campaign gameplay is currently a huge step back from II, but has improved over the year. I am hopeful it will turn into a game that I replay regularly, much as I did with Diablo II every year since its original release.

To put it bluntly, The Talos Principle 2 is the best first-person puzzle game I have played. The first game quickly surpassed other entries in the genre, but the sequel manages to take it even further. The puzzle design has been improved upon from the original, although unfortunately made a little easier. The story builds on the philosophical foundation of the original but takes it in a more forward-looking direction. The voice acting and music adds even more on top to make it an experience unlike any other.

While the fighting genre is one I have always enjoyed, Street Fighter VI has the honor of being only the second game to capture my attention for more than a few months. What separates this game from many others is its willingness to make changes both for a modern audience and one that desires a little more accessibility. The modern control scheme Capcom introduced into this has made the gameplay a lot more enjoyable and easier to grasp. It remains controversial, but for players like me, it is the difference between being able to enjoy the game for longer periods of time and dropping it after only a few matches online.

Favorite Albums

• 1977, by Sirenia
• A Dark Euphony, by Blackbriar
• Baldur's Gate 3, by Borislav Slavov
• Bring Out Your Dead, by Elysion
• Electric Sun, by VNV Nation
• Mr. Robot Volume 8, by Mac Quayle
• Starfield, by Inon Zur
• Stars & Embers, by Ison

Back to Azeroth

In 2022, I began to play World of Warcraft again. At first, it was just playing World of Warcraft Classic, experiencing anew the game I had enjoyed when I was in college. After playing Classic for a significant amount of time, the retail version of the game began to interest me again. It had been 6 years since I last played it for more than a few minutes, but the changes made in that time since piqued my interest. In particular, the new allied race of the Void Elves looked like the type of elf I'd always wanted to play in a fantasy setting like this. As I read their lore, saw that their leader was Alleria Windrunner, I knew I had to at least give it a shot.

As I write this, it has now been 20 months since I reopened my World of Warcraft account. I have not regretted this decision in the slightest. Since 1999, I have always had an MMORPG that was central to my gaming life, but with Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker's disappointing ending, I had been missing that in my life. I jumped around to many different MMOs during the first 6 months of 2022, but nothing stuck past a week of playing. I even went back to old classics like EverQuest and EVE Online, but it never worked out. It wasn't until I created a Blood Elf Paladin on The Burning Crusade Classic that something clicked. I felt like I was at home again. For about 4 months, this was what I played nearly every day, and loved it.

After jumping back into retail, the story has remained the same. World of Warcraft, despite being nearly 20 years old, feels fresh and new again. Blizzard, for all of its troubles elsewhere, has done a lot to revitalize the game with the Dragonflight expansion. In the back of my mind, I know the game can always change directions again and push me out, as it did back during Cataclysm. But for now, I am enjoying the prospect of this being the next game I play for years, maybe even a decade long.

updated: 2024-02-09