Game of the Year: Push Square Readers' Top 10 PS5, PS4 Games of 2023

The article seems to state that hogwarts legacy got more votes than Alan wake 2, I assume that's a typo

Spiderman 2 was great probably the best traversal of all time. Re4 was my Gory. 2023 will go down as one of the goats. 2024 is looking great, but hoping for some big PlayStation announcements and releases.

10 awesome games right there, the order is pretty irrelevant to be fair, I would have Robocop in my top 10 plus maybe Dredge but a very good list all the same!

Seen my error, should have read the article more thoroughly. My bad

It's because Baldur's Gate had rubbish puddles

Super fun game. Deserves to be top of any gaming list. Quality year for gaming, not the best ever, that belongs to 1998 personally

By the way thanks Push for all the gaming news I read on this site last year, some good reads in there

@Gremio108 but the puddles in S-M2 don't apply "Wet" so it's swings and roundabouts.

@Gremio108 and don’t even get me started on their pigeons

Whilst I feel that Baldur's Gate 3 is by far the better game in my opinion, more people probably played Spiderman 2 and everyone has their own tastes don't they.

Glad we all had such great games to play this year.

You and I agree entirely, @GuttyYZ. What I would love to know, is, in say 12 months, just how many people who voted for Spiderman 2 without having first played Baldur's Gate 3, who then go on to play BG3, would they now vote differently in the poll?

As good as Spiderman 2 is, it is not a game to define a genre or a generation, and is not spoken of in terms of being a masterpiece. Enjoyable? Yes! Masterpiece? No.

To my mind, BG3 is the best game ever made. Hands down. For the most part, only those that have not played BG3, would have voted for anything else. It is a game that will quite literally be spoken of for decades to come...

@Fiendish-Beaver not my type of game, tried it and turned it off after half an hour. I like the idea of it, but everything about it was sadly eh for me. Spider-Man 2 for me was fantastic as was RE4 Remake and Dead Space. Have yet to play Alan Wake 2.

Well, I guess Push Square and Pure Xbox readers have something in common. The first party exclusive is the winner no matter what. At least Spider-Man is a more reasonable choice than Starfield...

@Fiendish-Beaver I stopped playing Baldur's Gate 3 before Spider-Man 2 launched and I have yet to go back and finish it, I'm still in Act 2 and I don't even have the urge to boot it up yet whereas with Spider-Man 2 it was a case of only playing it until I beat it whereas with Baldur's Gate 3, I could only play it in doses.

Baldur's Gate 3 is a great game, I wouldn't call it a masterpiece because of all the technical issues and the gameplay isn't perfect. Masterpieces should be flawless in all regards otherwise there's nothing masterful about it.

Not worried about what came first; this is an astounding top five to come out in one year! I can't wait to play them all at some point.

I firmly believe that to play that entire top 10 and then put spiderman 2 at number 1 is craaazy

@Fiendish-Beaver in total agreement, BG3 pushes the goal posts so far back that I don't think it will be bettered in decades. Spiderman 2 is a good game but not the paradigm shift Baldur's Gate 3 is.

Fantastic to see Sea of Stars in the top 10.

In any other years without heavy hitters like in 2023, Hogwarts Legacy would have easily been top 3 material. It is, imo, as good as SM2 is in what both games are trying to achieve : wonderful world, superb ambiance, good enough story and characters, and very fun gameplay mechanics.

Personally, BG3 is my GOTY : an incredible milestone for gaming that achieves enough to make you forget about the technical issues. I know it's a game I will be coming back again and again (already done 2 playthroughs) to see all the possibilities. This is the kind of experience I got with Dark Souls and Elden Ring : any other game feels less interesting than another run at BG3 right now.

SM2 is a great game for sure. It is everything a safe sequel should be : bigger world, more refined gameplay. But it's too safe : no gameplay mechanic was really game changing (except the gliding), the story, while well constructed, didn't include anything suprising, and the ideologically charged moments and side content made it cringe too often. But still a fantastic game to play and platinum in a few days.

Like A Dragon Gaiden getting no love then. Ah well

Ha haha ha ha.

All those people commenting - no way Spider-Man 3 be GOTY, PS employees be cray cray - and now we get the readership with Spider-Man 3 at number 1. 😂

@Olmaz I'm ways curious what people would change to make Spider-Man 2 "less safe".

So what would do it? Go side scroller? Make it an FPS? Give Spider-Man a gun and have Gears of War style of cover-shooting gameplay, give him mystical powers?

Everyone keeps saying Spider-Man 2 was too safe but has no suggestions on what to change about it.

Resi 4 remake in VR is the best game I’ve played since Astro Bot rescue Mission released in 2018. May well end up being game of the decade for me.

@themightyant bro why do you keep calling Baldur’s Gate fans furries it’s so weird

@Fiendish-Beaver In your opinion BG3 the greatest game ever made. You are displaying a certain lack of "understanding that everyone else isn't you".

@Deoxyr1bose There is a fairly obvious reason why furries may be attracted to this game to be fair.

@themightyant the physical release is coming April-ish iirc

@Llamageddon It means it's been on more players' lists but in lower positions (so fewer points per vote)

@themightyant For clarification, there’s no anthropomorphic races(unless I’m forgetting something) but the standard DnD class Druid allows you to shift into animal forms. For some reason one of the relationships gives you the option to do it with the Druid in their shifted form. Larian are quite famous for being fun and ridiculous(i actually find the divinity games are not serious enough and find them quite silly at times) and i think this is mainly intended as a goofball joke. Im fairly sure some players are really into it though…

@CharlieChooChoo Good question. Here are some suggestions (beware spoilers for SM2) :

1-the location : while it was fun to have more of New-York in it, one can argue it got repetitive at some point. Maybe a story based in two cities, or in two timelines with drastically different New York could have made it more surprising

2-the story : at least one major and real death should have happen at some point, either Peter or Miles, or at least MJ... the passing of the torch from Peter to Miles was handled in such a weird and fake way, killing Peter would have been the less safe but ultimately better way to go

3-the playable characters : everybody was expecting Peter and Miles to be playable but they really had to add Venom as fully playable for the third act, this would have also brought diversity to the gameplay

4-the story structure : while I applaud Insomniacs for how they managed to include so many characters in the same story like in SM1, I don't think "the real villain is only going to get revealed at the end of Act2" is good storytelling, especially when we all know who it's going to be, like in SM1. And at leat in SM1, we saw the villain's origin story, and even participated in it

5-the moral choices : Spider-Man's stories are all about the difficult moral choices between Peter's/Miles' personal life and the responsibility of a superhero. I would have loved to give the player this choice this time : let us choose the end of the game by making a choice, maybe between who is going to live, Peter or Miles, or between letting MJ or Harry die, or, as Miles, saving Peter or his mother... a lot of options, but a choice would have been great to have

I have a lot of other ideas, but for now what do you think about these?

@Olmaz yeah I don't care for any of those suggestions.

Alan Wake 2 is best, screw the rest.

Bet if EA published the game but the game was the exactly the same it wouldn't even scratch the top 5.

@themightyant There's a race with a tail, but they're descendants of Devils. Some of the races have some animal like features I guess you could say, but they're fairly typical high fantasy style races, not like FF Viera or something.

Happy to see Sea of Stars and FFXVI

@CharlieChooChoo Fair enough, but at least now you know what people may mean when they say SM2 was "safe".

@RicebinBernacky it's the games that people play more that win. People aren't going to not vote just because they've only played half the games on the list. So they vote the game they've played as game of the year.

There's only one indie game on the list even though there were probably 5+ indie games this year that deserved it more than any of the games in 6 to 10

Guess millions of flies can't be wrong after all.

@themightyant

Yes. This points per vote average that you provided shows a very different story (pasted below again so folks don't need to go hunting). And look at the size of that gap between #1 and #2.

Which also makes me wonder why this wasn't pointed out in the article itself. I'm gonna hold off on the conspiracy theory about PS exclusive bias, but as far as best journalistic practices go omitting these important details in the article itself feels like a big fail. Especially in light of the discrepancy between this list and scores and author assessments of these games from Push Square reviews.

1. Baldurs gate 3 - 4.07 points (was #2)
2. Spider-man 3 - 3.79 points (was #1)
3. Alan Wake 2 - 3.43 points (was #5)
4. Final Fantasy 16 - 3.36 points (was #3)
5. Resident Evil 4 - 3.18 points (was #4)

@Kiryu-Chan I mean it is really a DLC and it shows with the amount of chapters it has. Although the thing that really ruined it for me was the combat system and the AI itself since half the time I was going into my menu to use consumables more than I was fighting. Reason why that is is because of how tanky the enemies are and them just phasing through your attacks(Not to mention it doesnt have parry???).

So little love for Remnant 2 💔

@Olmaz I guess I was only looking at it from a gameplay perspective. To me, gameplay wise, Spider-Man 2 did what a sequel should, take what worked and only improve if necessary, take what didn't and rework it and I felt they did.

I dunno, I enjoy a good story as well (gameplay will always trump narrative) and to me Spider-Man 2 was great in the regard.

N.i.c.e. 🕷 spiderman 2 and Baldur's gate 3.are 2 of the best games ever made.word up son

So spidey takes both Pushsquares staff and readers GOTY huh. Not a terrible choice to be honest, it wouldn't be my personal pick but there are certainly worse games to choose for game of the year. Spider-man 2 while incredibly safe is also a very high quality, and well made game that ticks all the right boxes. I think anyone with any sense of gaming literacy can see that

No love for TLOU Pt1?!!

.... /Blood pressure rises/Vein on forehead throbs. 😂

@Nepp67 I didn't really notice any issues with the combat system but to each their own. You're also entitled to your opinion, of course, but don't call it DLC when it wasn't. Yes it's shorter than previous Yakuza/Like A Dragon/Judgement games but whilst it may have started life as DLC (as RGG advised) it grew beyond that and I managed to get 60hours of playtime out of it.

@Kiryu-Chan I noticed pretty quickly and especially after playing 0, Kiwami 1 and 2, 6, Judgment, and Lost Judgement. Never had that much of an issue with the combat until this one. It is a shame because I thought that this would be the game where it was going to be the best combat experience for Kiryu. Also it started out as a DLC because it really is a DLC. It literally has less than half of the amount of chapters compared to every other title.

I voted Resi 4 having not played Alan Wake 2 at that point. Now 8hrs into Alan Wake I'm thinking it's very much a rival for Resi 4

Spider-Man 2 didn't deserve to win in my opinion. Basically the same game we've already had twice in the last few years.

All I will say is Tchia should have been in this list

Spiderman should be like 7th. You guys are so biased

Glad Spider-man 2 won - it was so good. Also glad to see Hogwarts Legacy get a mention too - definitely one of the best game I played this year. I think Avatar released too late to get a mention but I would put it in my top five - probably the best looking open world game on PS5.

Yes, @LifeGirl, it is my opinion. What else could it be? There is no scientific formula that can state as a matter of fact that a particular game is better than all others. Just opinions. Just as it is your opinion that it is not the best game ever made. I fail to understand your point...

I made the same point yesterday, @themightyant. The only reason that Spiderman won out is because more people will have played it (and some will have voted for the game without having played it just to show support for a first party game. Probably not many, but doubtless some will have).

As you say, the poll is basically irrelevant. I stand by my comment in saying that BG3 is the best game ever made, and that were we to be able to hold a poll where only people that had played both games were able to vote, I have little doubt that BG3 would win hands down. If it were not for the sheer quantity of people that had played Spiderman, as opposed to BG3, then the title would not have won. Indeed, if you were to go by this sites reviewers lists, then Spiderman would have struggled to make the top 3. BG3 would have taken the top spot, and Alan Wake 2 the second.

Regardless, it is what it is, and it was a popularity contest, rather than a true determination of which game was the best one out in 2023...

The Mona Lisa is regarded as a masterpiece, @CharlieChooChoo. Whereas I look at it and think it's a good painting of a miserable woman! The point I make there is that nothing is ever flawless, just close to it. To my mind BG3 is a masterpiece, even though it does have some technical issues. It is a game that pushes boundaries is many directions, and is one that many future games will aspire to be like. That Larian were able to construct such a game is a technical marvel in and of itself.

In 20 years time, people will not be playing Spiderman 2. They will not remember the story, or much about it at all. They will only know that Spiderman 2 exists because by then we'll be on Spiderman 10! However, people will still be playing BG3 (as people are to this day playing BG1 and 2), and people will have have memories of playing it now. That is testament to it's quality...

Wow, I guess the Push Square audience somehow didn't care much for SF6. But hey I guess most people don't want to bother learning them so I guess that's how people say Hogwarts Legacy is better 🤡. At least its cool to see Sea of Stars get the Number 10 spot! Didn't expect that to make it into the top 10 here

@QualityGeezer 100% agree

@Gigawatt-Kapow seems like they only cover what suits them, if you can't have a subjective view and only play big games then get more staff and cover everything

@Fighting_Game_Loser - Going by what I’ve read of the comments sections on most SF6 articles here, that sounds about right. That said, MK1 isn’t here either, which tells me it’s more a fighting game problem than a SF one specifically.
But hey, at least it made it on the main list, so that’s something.

@Olmaz to see 'all the possibilities ' would take around a few hundred playthroughs. No way you did it all in just 2 runs. Literally impossible.

@Fighting_Game_Loser I think people have got SF fatigue tbh. Same ol same ol. Personally I think they hit the pinnacle of the series with SF2 turbo edition.

@Fiendish-Beaver 😀 very true. I just started a fresh run of BG1 a few weeks ago after not playing it for at least 10years. Man it's janky lol but daym it still holds up. Had totally forgot about Minsc and his hamster Boo 😆.

@Fiendish-Beaver a game doesn't have to define a genre. I don't play games to see how they define a genre. I play them to have fun. And I can't think of a more fun game to play than Spider-man. Ok, maybe God of War, but that's it.

@QualityGeezer If only things were that simple. It is a shame that certain beautifully crafted and unique games slip through the net just because they're not AAA titles, but there are so many smaller releases, it must be hard to cover everything.

I can honestly say a enjoyed Spider-man 2 and Starfield significantly more than BG3. The readers have good taste! Glad to see 2023's best selling game Hogwarts Legacy in the top 10 also.

@jedinite I neved said that! : )
I said I would be coming back to the game again and again to see all the possibilities, and I added I already played the game twice. Of course I haven't seen all the possibilities yet!

@fiendish-beaver 'The only reason that Spiderman won out is because more people will have played it (and some will have voted for the game without having played it just to show support for a first party game. Probably not many, but doubtless some will have)',

Your passion for a game you clearly love is great but this assumes that if every gamer had played both games, they would have preferred BG3. I don't know how you can realistically state this when BG3 is a CRPG based on DnD rules and therefore far less likely to appeal to a wider audience and far less accessible. I know tons of people who like Spider-Man, I know one who likes CRPGs/DnD and expressed excitement for this game. Whilst I'm not necessarily representative of any wider gaming group, I'm far more interested in Spider-Man 2 than BG3 (and I spent most of the year playing Final Fantasy games), and I would suspect a number of people feel the same.

The comment about people voting for it without playing it is baseless and sounds like sour grapes that 'your' game didn't win a pointless internet poll.

Besides, does it really matter? You think it's the best game ever...isn't that enough?

@Olmaz aah I c lol my bad. Tbf was in the middle of a 12hr nite shift (just finished) so I may have been a little offhand. Apologies. Glad you're enjoying the game. Can't wait to continue my adventures too, but am waiting till they fix the save issue.
Ok off to bed.

@ThomasHL this is a great point. One I try to make every year.

Looking at the eurogamer readers top 50 I played a rather feeble 8 of them. I will use the list to choose my upcoming purchases though so it's not all in vain.

@themightyant @Kiryu-Chan I think Fiendish Beaver is disappointed that a game as indepth and unique as BG3 has been displaced via a by the numbers sequel. I understand that stance as hardly anyone played chained echoes and that was my favourite game last year. Significantly more rewarding than vampire survivors which won a Bafta and now the dust has settled, is viewed less favourably.

Sorry Sony. Still won't play spiderman because they changed the actor. Didn't care about the puddles lol but completely face swapping the main character just ruined it for me. Shame too because I preferred the first game to Arkham.

@QualityGeezer Fully agree on Tchia, and I'd add Humanity as well. Don't get me wrong, this is a great list, full of fantastic games, but there's a distinct lack of new IPs and original ideas on it, sadly. Not Push Square's fault, just a symptom of the industry at large I reckon

@themightyant Does BG3 really have anything to do with Furries? I mean, there's orcs, and devil looking people, lizardmen and whatever the hell githyanki are, but... I don't actually think there's a single 'furry' race in the game?

As someone who has also never really cared particularly for DnD, beyond the 80's kid's show, I'd say I still enjoy the gane immensely, more for the wonderful job Larian did with world building than anything else, aside from the versatility of what you can do with character classes. Played through about 3 times now, and I'm still finding new things, or finding new ways to get through the game. The replayability is incredible- but no furries in sight, I assure you! 😉

@Olmaz
I am playing through TLOU part 1, prepping for TLOU2 remaster. This made me wonder about SM2 and the dialogue around being too safe.
For all the hate it received, did TLOU2 not do exactly that - playing as ‘unsafe’ as one possibly can. And what was the result (it did win PS game of the year for 2020). But man, the hate and negativity around it was insane. Is it an experience sony wants to relive? Will Marvel allow such plot points? I dont know.

This reminds me so much of music, my love for death metal; a genre that is not made for mass consumption, but it gives me what I need. Unless you are vintage Opeth, not gonna please the diehards.

The poll is nothing more than a talking point, @themightyant. It is, as you said, a popularity poll rather than anything scientific. It is, therefore, large irrelevant. Insomniac don't get any reward for the result of this poll (and indeed, even they, for the most part, would probably agree that they were not the best game in 2023).

Also, I wasn't looking for validation in expressing my opinion. If we have to have a reason for passing a comment beyond saying what you are thinking, then these pages would largely be bereft of comments. People, including myself, are just giving an opinion, which some will agree with, and others won't. That is all there is too it. Just because I post something, it doesn't make it right, it is simply me passing comment...

@themightyant An easy mistake! I'd say, while the initial hour or so might feel like a bit of a steep learning curve and slightly limited, for anyone new (or remotely new) to the genre, it's not as impossible to get into as some others (try pathfinder for obtuse explanations and rule sets!), and once you get the swing of it, I'd say it's very enjoyable. Half the time, you don't even have to fight- so many conflicts you can talk your way out of, or find ways to exploit the game, as with Divinity OS 2.

In my case, it was Divinity that made me fall for the genre, and after BG3, I can't wait to see what they do next.

To your last point, @Kiryu-Chan, no, it does not matter in the slightest.

I know, and have said elsewhere, that the two games are likely to appeal to two completely different sets of gamers, and that the crossover between the two will be relatively small. My point was, regardless of that fact, I would be particularly interested in a the results of a poll in which only people that had played both games were able to pass a view, and just how many would then switch their votes from Spiderman 2 to BG3. It isn't possible, and thus won't happen. I would be interested nonetheless.

I did say that only a few would have voted for Spiderman 2 without having played it. I know that the vast majority will have played it and thoroughly enjoyed it. My point was that there are some in the PlayStation community that are such ardent fans of their ugly plastic box that they will vote for a PlayStation made game regardless of having played it. In all honesty, I imagine that the number would be very few in this poll, but would have been bigger on something like the Golden Joysticks Awards, for example, where the PS community is often exceptionally keen to get the validation that the PlayStation is the the best console (and that isn't to say it isn't, just making the point that some people verge on fanaticism when it comes to the console and its games).

Sour grapes? No. Not in the slightest. I have an opinion, yes, but that is all it is. Ultimately I think the wrong game won the poll. If others think otherwise, that is up to them, but in reality I don't give a toss. Unless, of course, I'm not allowed to dare to suggest that a game any game could possibly be better than one that is a first-party game...? 😉

No of course a game does not have to define a genre, @naruball, and that wasn't what I was suggesting. I play games to enjoy them to the fullest. Life is too short to play games that do not entertain. My point was that BG3 is a game that defines genres. That does not make Spiderman 2 any less enjoyable, nor for that matter does BG3 lack in enjoyment, though one is a quick, adrenaline filled burst, and the other is one to be savoured over potentially 100s of hours. They are two entirely different games, and for the most part will be enjoyed by two sets of entirely different gamers...

As expected.
Like many here, im an old DnD player and BG3 is therefore my choice.
However, BG3 will definately not be for all, and this is a players choice. A rip roaring game of quality like Spiderman 2 is clearly more appealing to many more PS players so its quite right its the players pick.
I dont really care about the order - but just look at the fantastic games we got in 2023 on that list. An exceptional year!

I'm offended, @themightyant! No, wait! I'm not! Do you dare question my divine wisdom?😉 No harm, no foul, matey. All is good. We were all extremely lucky last year to have had so many true quality games. We can only hope to enjoy the same this year...

@thefourfoldroot1 though, there are few things village does better (and worse), but I guess village would not count for this year ... . Anyway, village and re4 are both incredible in vr. The flat screen versions absolutely pale in comparison.

@gaston
Indeed they do. I wasn’t very interested in resi flat, but VR is transformative.

@jedinite I mean the fact you just say its just "more of the same" just kinda shows that you don't really learn them that much either. Like all of the new mechanics every SF adds makes each game pretty different from the last, especially in SF6's case. Also no disrespect to what type of fighters you enjoy and Super Turbo, but its so old and archaic compared to so many modern fighters that its crazy how people think the series's peak was just 4 years after the series hit it big, especially compared to all fo the following final versions of following SF games, and especially in comparison to just the current version of SF6

@FullMetalWesker Yeah I guess that's true on both fronts. I guess I am kinda biased since I've been stanning this game ever since release and even got even more of my friends into fighters because of this game and how fun it is to play (only game I think I put 100+ hours into this year lmao) but hey, at least the staff of Push Square did enjoy it as much as I did