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.

Diablo IV

We liked because it actually uses its brain. There’s a mild contradiction built into the idea of a “smart Diablo”; Blizzard’s long-running demon-killing franchise is designed to let you tear through the legions of hell with mostly mindless abandon. But the newest installment in the series bucks that trend, inviting players to think about their strategies—and especially their builds—with each of the game’s five character classes, which each have interesting quirks to keep the monotony at bay. All of this in addition to the incredibly smooth gameplay the series is known for, and even a few twists and turns in its story of the eternal battle between good and evil. [William Hughes]