2023 has been a remarkable year for video game releases. The cadence of great titles has been staggering, as it’s been relatively non-stop since the start of the year. Most years, I feel pretty good about the new games I’ve managed to play — I love to stay on top of the newest, shiniest releases that review well or that simply catch my eye. 2023 is the first year in a long time where due to the sheer volume of incredible releases, I’ve had to pick and choose between amazing games multiple times throughout the year, leaving some reported excellent titles for my backlog. As the year comes to a close, I’m still scrambling to play as many 2023 titles as I can, but some sacrifices had to be made along the way.