I end the gaming year of 2023 with the verdict that my MMO times may be over. This is mostly because of a lack of gaming time as it always feels that I would need a lot more time to get progress in MMOs. At the same time, there is good old Lord of the Rings Online. An MMO that does add new content and new levels regularly, but I never feel pressured to get to max level. I just enjoy the trip and smell the flowers (not literally in this case as I did not activate the skill of the same name that decreases amount of XP gain).
Having said that, I spent a lot of my game time this year playing 4X, grand strategy games and colony sim games. Thankfully, the Steam review page tells me so, so I do not have to think about it much (except for the games I’m playing that I don’t own on Steam). My main game that I am playing off-Steam is still Old World (which I own on Epic). I also played a zillion game demos during Steam’s Next Fests and the like, but these are not counted on the Steam year review page.
On Steam, my main games were Crusader Kings III, Chef: A Restaurant Tycoon Game and Casino Resort Tower. I mainly played Chef: A Restaurant Tycoon Game because I love games with such a setting, but unfortunately, “Recipe for Disaster” which I liked more, was not getting any more updates. It was disappointing, so I lost interest in playing the game. I know this is silly! And oddly enough, they just did release a patch and announced that something more would come. I’ve gone back to playing this game now. Still, Chef is a cute game to play and fun as well, obviously.
But let’s get on to my rankings…
Best games I played this year
9) Potion Tycoon (Relase Date: 13 Mar, 2023)
I really like this game!When I first played the demo back in 2022, I was on the fence whether I would buy it or not, but I don’t regret having done so! The graphics are cute and I think the goblins are adorable. I do get confused about the production chains sometimes when the shop gets bigger (do I produce the best potion available and where do I store the ingredients? And so on…). But so far, I was always making a profit, so it’s all good!
8) Randoville (Released into Early Access on 28 Sep, 2023)
This is a fun and very harmless game in Early Access. It is nice to randomly build my village, but I am waiting for more patches now to see the game progress. I still think it’s got charme, which is why I bought it. There are no goals, so it’s basically just trying to get lucky with your dice throws, so the buildings are more productive. The houses also look much nicer then.
7) The Inheritance of Crimson Manor (Relase Date: 5 May, 2022)
The game was released last year, but I still list it here as I only bought it at the end of October. I am not finished with this game yet. It feels a bit tedious at times, but I am curious to see the story develop further. I quite like snooping around in huge empty or abandoned buildings trying to infer what happened there (like in The Painscreek Killings). This is also the kind of “first person game” that I can actually play, since it’s very slow!
6) Fly Corp (Release Date: 18 May, 2023)
This is a game with very minimalistic graphics but the gameplay is still very interesting and it can get quite stressful very fast! The game is getting another game mode next year, so there’s still active development. It also sounds less stressful than the mode I’ve been playing because you don’t lose when an airport overloads (and apparently, Free Mode doesn’t do that either).
5) Microcivilization (Released into Early Access on 13 Nov, 2023)
Microcivilization is a non-idling “idle clicker” game. So basically, it is the opposite of an idle game as it requires your attention and while resources are gathering passively, you also have to click a lot to earn more resouces and make decisions. Thankfully, the clicking can be bound to keys on your keyboard.
4) FIND ALL 4: Magic (Release Date: 27 Sep, 2023)
If you like Hidden Object games and don’t care about any surrounding story, then this game is for you! I had been waiting impatiently for this game’s release since I had played the demo. It is such a cute game! Considering its price (1,99 € when it’s not on sale), this is a true gem!
3) Star Trek Infinite (Release Date: 12 Oct, 2023)
Having never gotten into Stellaris, I don’t and can’t compare it with that game. Apparently, it’s not a Stellaris! … I haven’t played it as much as I would have wanted yet. This is partly because I feel that I’m “playing it wrong” and should read up on strategies first. And partly, because there are other games that caught my attention recently… But overall, I really like it and get an adequate “Star Trek” feeling from it.
2) Pro Basketball Manager 2023 (Release Date: 10 Nov, 2022)
Fun fact: I played basketball as a teenager. I was in the first girls team that our local sports club had. I absolutely love this game, even though I haven’t played it in so many years! Neither have I been actively following any games. But that doesn’t change my fascination with it when I actually can watch a game!
I never understood the appeal of the NBA games, though. But this management game is right up my alley. And there is even a mod that adds the real club names and images and names of the players!
1) Casino Resort Tower (Released into Early Access on 22 Jun, 2023)
I did not want to get this game at first because I dislike the graphics style for the humans! But I am glad I gave in to my own curiosity because I find the game is SO good. As you can see, it made the top of my list and it is not even out of Early Access yet. It took me a bit to get used to some features (like having to figure out where and how to run the different wires and tubes for water, electricity, internet, etc.). But I do get back to playing the game at least every couple of days since I got it.
Special Mention:
Recipe for Disaster (released on 5 Aug, 2022). I love this game and it already was on my list of Top Games in 2022. However, it was sadly declared “finished” with no more updates coming along shortly after its release, because the game hadn’t been sold often enough. But as a surprise, there was an update and a promise of more to come. I decided to play the game again and got hooked to it once more instantly.
Nerdy Bookahs 