Another year has come to an end. As we all celebrate that the Earth has spun around the Sun once more and, somehow, we’re still alive, it’s time to come with our lists of favourite stuff from 2023.
And, as I personally haven’t been playing tons of games lately, I’ve decided to go outside my field and do some Top-3-thingy of different media I’ve enjoyed last year. So, with the same authority as USA anything-winners declare themselves World Champions, it’s with pride that I present to you…
The MOTY OF THE WORLD AWARDS 2023.
Some titles might be from late 2022, but don’t mind me. Just go with the flow.
🎮 GOTY OF THE WORLD 2023
The best video games I’ve played in 2023.
- 🥇 Baldur’s Gate III. Brilliant storytelling; excellent character development; constant feeling of curiosity, well-rewarded each time; critical roll failures and successes that seem taken out of the craziest role campaigns at your best friend’s place; emergent gameplay at the level of the greatest immersive sims of all time. This game is a fucking masterpiece. Just mind, you’ll probably need something around 100 hours. Not a big deal.
- 🥈 Jusant. I love simple games, as they are usually the smartest ones. In the full meaning of the word. Clever and elegant design of one single mechanic, and taking it to its very limits, can produce a Game of the Year contender. Jusant is one of those games. Without any words and no more than one mechanic, it presents itself as one of the best games of 2023. The art direction and sound are great, the pacing of the game scratches perfection, and it gets to the deepest parts of your soul with its rare ability to let you alone with yourself. A must-play, without any glimpse of doubt.
- 🥉 Need for Speed Unbound. I was starting to dislike the NFS games. Being Most Wanted the last game in the family I’ve played -the later ones, didn’t bother trying them-, my thought was to treasure those memories of exciting chase scenes and top-speed urban racing, as I would never jump back into this series. But Unbound proved me wrong. This entry is a sucker punch to the reset button, trying to get back to the essentials of Need for Speed. The races are fun; the story mode is well-structured -with a nice risk/reward mechanic, if you try to run that extra race; and it gives you a much different perspective on the cars themselves, as personalization is of paramount importance. Bring your best racing on, my pink Subaru will give you hell.
- 💐 Honorable mentions: Viewfinder, Terra Nil, Wartales, Mosa Lina.
💽 AOTY OF THE WORLD 2023
The best music albums I’ve listened to in 2023.
- 🥇 Lil Yatchy - Let’s Start Here. Well. Where the hell did this come from? When Let’s Start Here dropped, I was bored as hell, waiting for a delayed flight at the Brussels airport. One of my best buddies messaged me: “Lil Yatchy has released an album. And whatever you expect, it’s not”. Oh boy, if that’s right. Lil Yatchy has presented something completely different from any music he’s done before, and with a more than impressive level of quality. It’s an album that needs to be listened from start to end, and has no skips at all: after you press play on this psychedelic rock/soul mix, trust me, you will not be able to hit the stop button. Favourite song: sAy sOMETHINg.
- 🥈 Post Malone - AUSTIN. Hollywood’s Bleeding changed the way I enjoy music, and Twelve Carat Toothache profoundly disappointed me. Fortunately, Posty has jumped back to the top-class-banger level with his latest release. The album is the one with most variety, and has Post Malone singing a lot. Personal lyrics that make you feel he’s just having a chat with you: reflecting, complaining, celebrating, or simply talking about whatever happened today. Incredible work with an indie feel coming from a gosh-darn rockstar. Favourite song: Enough is Enough.
- 🥉 Caroline Polachek - Desire, I Want to Turn Into You. I discovered this album with a video of a YouTube channel I love, called turning the tables. Right after listening to the first song, I knew it was gonna hit hard. From head to tails, every single title in the album has exceptional production quality. Caroline effortlessly -or at least that’s what she makes it look like-, brings it home in every song with his vocals, and the whole work embraces you in an almost tangible way, with its unique aesthetic and atmosphere. Easily the album with most personality I’ve listened to in the whole year. Favourite song: Sunset.
- 💐 Honorable mentions: Cruz Cafuné - Me Muevo con Dios. Al·lèrgiques al pol·len - Cants, crits, baralles. Aminé & KAYTRANDA - KAYTRAMINÉ.
🎞️ FOTY OF THE WORLD 2023
The best films and series I’ve watched in 2023.
- 🥇 The Bear (season 2). A brilliant show written around one of my favourite topics: pressure. Self-imposed; coming from the outside; shared among colleagues. Pressure is able to take you and squeeze every last drop of the greatest creative quality you ever imagined your body might hide. But it can also fucking destroy your life. So watch this masterpiece and see how people use pressure to cook omelettes and stuff.
- 🥈 Asteroid City. There exist few things better than Wes Anderson being extra self-aware, and Asteroid City is a product of that. In this film, as always, he’s counting with an outstanding cast, who visibly enjoy playing every second of their roles. The visual language and pace is an improvement from The French Dispatch. The dialogues are great and some of the silly jokes made me laugh so hard you could hear me from outside the cinema -to the guy that was seating in front of me: I’m sorry. Sort of.
- 🥉 The Last of Us. I mean, what can I say? I love these characters. I love The Last of Us. It’s one of the main reasons why I make video games, so this show needed to be on the list. Besides that, kudos to the whole team in this series, as they’ve flawlessly adapted the game to a brand-new format. They have changed things with great care and respect, and they deserve all the good stuff that might come out of this tremendous job.
- 💐 Honorable mentions: The Menu. Invincible (season 2). AIR. Oppenheimer.
