Ok please don’t even try to tell me you are surprised. I mean, who was going to beat it? Against the Storm? No. Diablo IV? It’s actually interesting to see two massive franchise juggernauts go up against each other and have the outcome be so lopsided. It’s like, if the 1975 Steelers had gone up against the 1989 49ers, who do you think would have won? Yes, you’re right: DITKA.
Last year saw a pretty big blowout, with Elden Ring garnering fully 35% of the total vote points cast for the top ten games. That was by far the largest proportion of this point total that had been amassed in, uh, ever. So what did Terry Bradshaw and company do this year? They got 37%. I mean, Baldur’s Gate 3 did. That’s the team. They scored 215 points total, which was 124 more than the next team, the Against the Storm with 91. That was well ahead of third place, taken by Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty who managed 67 points. Spellforce: Conquest of Eo came in fourth with 45, but after that we’re scraping for field goals. The fifth-place finisher, took it by 1 point, with 31 points over two challengers with 30. Who was that in fifth? Jagged Alliance 3.
Sorry for the delay in getting the rest of the list posted, especially since places 6-10 were actually kind of interesting. Starfield tied with … Dredge? Hilarious. Remnant 2 was the only game in the top ten to receive NO first-place votes. Everyone knew it was good but … not THAT good! Star Trek: Resurgence got just as many first-place votes as any other finisher except the winner. Er, Against the Storm got 9, which was more than Star Trek. D’oh! And how about the fact that the 5th-place and 10th-place games were separated by just six points?
But in the end, it truly was no contest. Congrats to Baldur and his gates!
If you go to last year’s results, you can see the proportions of total votes for the winner, going back to 2018. Oh, for the epic days of Battletech vs Subnautica!
Thanks for running things and doing the tally yourself, Bruce! Not a surprise that BG3 took top prize, and well-deserved, too. But I’m super pleased at how many folks have played and enjoyed Against the Storm. It’s a weird take on a niche genre, and certainly not guaranteed to have worked at all, much less been one of the best games of the year!
Thanks much Bruce for putting this all together and running the contest once again! It’s always fun to see the predictions and preferences of fellow aging gamers. Congrats to BG3!
2023 ended up being called one of the strongest overall years in gaming for a decade or two in the mainstream press. There were a whole lotta great games this year - so many that even if 2 or 3 didn’t meet someone’s expectations, there were still plenty of good choices left.
Though admittedly Qt3’s tastes are always a bit different than the mainstream, which is why we love it so. Happy to see Against the Storm in the #2 position, it is well deserved!
Gah, I can’t believe those silly games† beat Brotato. And I left my vote post in a draft, which surely would have been the tipping point to inspire a turnout flood. Thank you @Kyrios and @ledshok for fighting the good fight, and half thanks to @anonymgeist for voting for it but ranking BG3 higher.
†Just kidding. So many great games this year! Thanks for running and compiling this.
Totally :) My tastes are maybe a bit eclectic; I didn’t really enjoy any of the major releases this year, so it felt like a weak year to me. But I’m glad so many people had a great time with BG3 and all the other games that came out! And it’s not like there wasn’t anything I didn’t like (Slay the Princess ftw :) There are more games every year than a person could play in a lifetime. Truly an embarrassment of riches.
I played 2.5, uh, cycles of Slay the Princess on my flight the other day and it won as far as getting me to buy it and enjoy it when I’d never have given it a look most likely otherwise.
Elden Ring would likely have not been refunded on two different platforms if the nature of Soulslikes included story modes. I’m liking Lies of P right now but I know from the “it took me 12 deaths to beat this boss” posts that it soon will gain my ire and my Delete key.
