The 12 best video games of 2023 (so far)

If there’s a theme to our favorite video games of 2023 to date, it comes down to two conflicting ideas. On the one hand, refinement: As the steady tide of video game remakes continues, apparently unabated, we can at least take some solace in the fact that developers seem to be getting better at the form. Two of the best games of the last few months have been remakes of old classics that manage to preserve what was good, while making room for what was new, both managing to justify their existences both new and old.

Meanwhile, a streak of wild creativity continues to bubble up from both the margins and, unexpectedly, smack dab in the center of the industry. This is, after all, the year when Nintendo released one of the most creatively ambitious titles in its entire history, while other developers bent the power (and trap goblin mentalities) of their own players to the dark aims of pushing the medium to its creative limits.

Here, then, in a spirit of, let’s call it, refined creativity, are the 12 best games of the first half of 2023, listed in alphabetical order, as chosen by A.V. Club staffers.

The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom

We liked because every element of it is a distinct masterpiece. The art direction and weapon durability (which forces you to focus on fun rather than strategy) return from Breath Of The Wild and are still perfect. But TOTK adds the shockingly versatile Ultrahand mechanic that lets you build tools and vehicles, thrilling new sky and underground areas, a world with more personality that reacts to the way you’re playing in subtle ways, and a story that feels like the classic Zelda formula right up until it very much does not. Nintendo is on a completely different level here. [Sam Barsanti]