It is my third time doing a write-up of my gaming year. The third time’s the charm, right? Before I get into the games I played, I want to reflect on the year and mention and comment on a few subjects that happened throughout it.

First of all, 2023 has been an unbelievable year when looked at just in terms of high-profile releases. There have been so many great titles I cannot possibly remember them all, and as you will see later, I barely even played any of them. Despite that exciting time for game consumers, countless layoffs have shaken the gaming industry. So many people lost their livelihoods because of what often was mismanagement or just greed. This Polygon article summarizes the situation. It is an excellent and somber read.

Another sad topic, although irrelevant compared to layoffs, is the quality of PC ports. Cynical voices may call it business as usual and not any different from other years. Even if that were correct, it does not make it acceptable. This year’s worst offender is most likely Star Wars Jedi Survivor, a highly praised game overall. Although benchmarking generally shows high framerates, the moment-to-moment experience is probably not always flawless. Please note that I cannot speak from experience. I have avoided this title because of its technical issues. From what I have gathered so far, the 30fps mode on consoles might be the most consistent and fluid experience of them all. Sounds wrong now, does it? Just before I published this blog post, Digital Foundry posted their worst PC ports 2023 video summarizing what started as a bad release and was fixed and games that are still bad.

(Guess which game is still in the latter category.)

Adding to the 2023 pile of sad topics, there is no way to get around the current GPU market, and the subpar price-to-performance ratio NVIDIA and AMD have graced us with. NVIDIA is greedy, and AMD does not know how to or does not want to take advantage of the situation. Looked at in isolation, the performance of available GPUs is good to crazy fast. But products do not exist in isolation, and last year’s models in the mid-range are barely slower. Vendors have plenty of stock now, but shopping for graphics cards is still not fun. New system builders are probably better off than upgraders – depending on the hardware age, of course.

Lastly, I need help understanding the buzz around Call of Duty. How can it be that this franchise is a top seller every year? It is a short, bombastic, and action-oriented campaign of less than 10 hours, so people must be interested in the multiplayer component. But how does that warrant 60 to 70 bucks purchases every year when offshoots like CoD Warzone exist that are ongoing service games? In any case, I hope that Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard King positively affects the company’s work culture.

I believe this is the first time that I write an introduction to a review after all has been said and done. I don’t know where to start. It is only my second Final Fantasy game, so my expectations were simple:

• A more fun combat than Final Fantasy VII Remake.
• An equally good story.
• Great visuals and music.

And all of that came to fruition. However, there is a But coming – a very stiff But.

(I better stop this metaphor before it gets out of hand.)

The technical presentation had some issues that could make side content unengaging for you despite the excellent writing. The author’s work was exceptional, and it is a shame that not all received the high-quality presentation it deserved. Did that make it a bad game? No, absolutely not! I liked Final Fantasy XVI a ton and finished it relatively quickly, given its length.

Let’s start the review before I continue beating around the bush.