For me, 2023 is separated into the before and after: Before being run over by a gazillion big-hitting game releases, and after being run over by a gazillion big-hitting game releases.
While there were some certifiable bangers in the early half of the year—some of which you may have forgotten about, considering 2023 feels like it lasted for six months longer than it should’ve—the latter half of the year came out swinging. Diablo 4 really kick-started the never-ending release train, before Baldur’s Gate 3 followed eight weeks later. That sounds like a lot of time, but in GMT (Games Media Time) that’s like, four days. And then, before the dust had even settled on Larian’s RPG, Starfield came barreling down five weeks later to really seal the deal on all of our time and money.
The list of 2024 PC games is looking, uh, pretty damn juicy.
Even between those games we had releases like Dave the Diver, Street Fighter 6, Amnesia: The Bunker, Remnant 2, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, Viewfinder, Oxenfree 2, Aliens: Dark Descent, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, Sea of Stars, Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew, AND Armored Core 6. And that was just on PC! Hahaha, what the fuck?
We’ve been eating good (perhaps too good), but things have mercifully started to wind down as the year comes to a close. Don’t stay too comfortable though, because we’re all about to get smacked with another slew of releases in January and February. What’s that? You thought we were past the pandemonium of top-class game releases? Psych! Open your wallets and think again, nerds.
It goes on and on and on…
The list of 2024 PC games is looking, uh, pretty damn juicy. Especially if you’re a fighting game and RPG goober like myself. Mercifully we are saved in the beginning of January as we all try and remember how to do our jobs after a little too much turkey and eggnog. But then—oh boy and then—it begins. The end of the month sees Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth releasing on January 25, but not before anime fighter Under Night In-Birth 2 does an absolute number on my bank account the previous day.
(Image credit: Bandai Namco)
Then a mere day after Infinite Wealth, Tekken 8 wave dashes its way onto Steam, before yet another game releases on February 1 with Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash. Don’t forget about Granblue Fantasy Relink releasing the same damn day, though. Thought it was over yet? Nope! Persona 3 Reload is out a day later—a game I’m personally super excited for—as well as the long-delayed Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. You’ve got around a week to enjoy those bad boys, and then Helldivers 2—the sequel to one of Morgan Park’s favourite coop shooters—is landing on February 8.
Lemme do some counting real quick. That’s eight whole-ass games that have the potential to be bangers releasing in just 15 days. That’s a game every other day, baby. Now I know not all of y’all are gonna be suffering the same anime brain rot that I’m subject to, but even then there’s the real neat-looking Enshrouded hitting early access on January 24, with the equally interesting Unforetold: Witchstone following up two days later.
When I first saw all of these games and how close they were releasing to each other, an audible “oh no” left my mouth completely involuntarily. That’s a stacked fortnight, if you ask me. While none of them may be quite Baldur’s Gate 3 or Starfield levels of scope and hype, they’re still some incredibly promising games that I’ll no doubt at least attempt to dedicate a little bit of time to. There’s a little bit of everything, too—2D fighters, 3D fighters, JRPGs, open-world action, survivals, CRPGs and shooters.
(Image credit: Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, Sega)
That’s also totally ignoring the fact that just a week later might be the fated release date of Ubisoft’s Skull and Bones, providing it doesn’t somehow get delayed even further into the abyss. Plus Nightingale at the end of that month, a survival game heading into early access that we’ve also been loving the look of on-team.
It’s sort of exciting to go into the new year with a bang, though. As tiring as it’s been having so many fantastic games released over the last several months—a wild thing to complain about, I know—it’s kind of nice knowing that the flood of neat things to play isn’t going to be over anytime soon. I’ll be fighting for my life, sure, but I’ll hopefully be having a whole lot of fun while doing it.
