If your usual answer to the question, what video game should I play? is to boot up the same old, tired game you’ve played hundreds of times before, it may be time for a change.
With plenty of new video games out or on the horizon in 2023, there has never been a better time to get a little adventurous with your choices. With these recommendations, you’ll soon explore the Milky Way, unravel mysteries, and run your own sushi shop (it’s more exciting than it sounds)! Discover the world of gaming entertainment that awaits you in 2023.
Starfield
After eight years of development, Bethesda’s Starfield has finally reached liftoff in 2023. Starfield takes open-world RPG elements established in Skyrim and Fallout and expands them in every direction out into the vast cosmos.
Starfield features gameplay that will have you complete many side quests, explore hundreds of planets, interact with a rotating cast of characters, and solve a mystery involving alien technology. Set against the backdrop of a beautiful, often horrifying vision of outer space that feels familiar and tantalisingly full of surprises.
Starfield predominantly sticks to the script of past Bethesda titles, but once again, you’ll find yourself slowly sucked into the limitless reaches of its galaxy. The magic still works, so Bethesda keeps returning to the well.
Mortal Kombat 1
Guts, gore, and pure brutality are back on the menu in 2023 with Mortal Kombat 1. The latest instalment in the franchise is bringing 30 years of chaos and carnage to bear with a reimaging of the storyline and characters.
Get ready for a martial arts epic straight out of the 70s with a deliriously over-the-top campaign and a fighting system that’s as whacky as it is ruthless. In a year of amazing fighter franchise releases, Mortal Kombat 1 makes a strong case for the best new video game in a competitive field.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder
Bowie, Netflix, Mario. They’re all masters of reinvention, and the latest bonkers outing from the Mario franchise is just another example of its adaptability. Super Mario Bros. Wonder has completely uprooted the Art Deco style of recent instalments in favour of something straight out of the psychedelic hippy era.
Playing this new game will see you traversing the bizarre and unstable Flower Kingdom, where chaos seeds will often completely alter the levels you play and the characters you control. Strap in and get ready for a Mario experience like no other!
Hollow Knight: Silksong
The product of a tiny team of three, Hollow Knight is a Metroidvania indie darling that has risen to cult status since its release in 2017. So, unsurprisingly, we are fair fizzing for its much-anticipated follow-up Silksong.
Set in a haunting world of bugs and boogies but visualised in a gorgeous hand-drawn style, foe becomes friend as you play as Hornet, the previously deadly antagonist. You’ll face all-new enemies and challenges as you try to scale your way to the top of this haunted kingdom where you’ve been imprisoned.
Dave the Diver
Dave the Diver isn’t just one of the best new video games out; it encompasses damn near every new video game available! It’s an ocean exploration game, a restaurant management simulator, a visual novel, and a 2-D shooter rendered in a cute pixel art form.
You’ll play as the titular Dave, a rather rotund scuba expert who needs to catch stock for his sushi bar. You’ll snare bluefin tuna by day and concoct mouth-watering maki rolls by night! Along the way, you’ll get wrapped up in a mysterious seafaring conspiracy that grows all the more fantastical as you dive deeper.
Dave the Diver really shouldn’t work with so many different ideas at play, yet it does! Each seemingly unrelated feature comes together to create a compelling narrative that puts you into a “one more hour” eager to dive back into the ocean for one more go.
Alan Wake 2
Imagine a supernatural murder mystery straight out of the pages of a Stephen King novel, add an element of network procedurals like Criminal Minds, and then throw them into a third-person action horror reminiscent of Resident Evil. What you’ll get is Alan Wake 2, one of the most anticipated new video games of 2023.
Set 13 years after the original, you follow Wake after he’s been imprisoned in an alternate dimension. Your mission? Help Wake escape his prison by unravelling the horror story before you. With gameplay reminiscent of the original that hits all the right nostalgia notes while offering something new, you’ll experience an ambitious reimagining of this beloved franchise.
Load up Something a Little Different in 2023
The next time you wonder what video game you should play, avoid the comfort of something familiar. With so many exciting new video games in 2023, there has never been a better time to broaden your gaming horizons!
