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Hi, hello, and welcome to a new edition of the overkill digest newsletter.
Today's newsletter is the last of the year, as Chris and I will take a little break over the holidays. We will still publish content on the website, but there won't be a new email until January!
I had a lot of fun writing these emails nearly every Sunday for the last year, and I hope you had as much fun reading them. We have big plans for next year to create even better content for you, the reader. I won't spoil too much, but let's say we started talking to a designer and a developer.
But enough teasing. Let's get to this week's email.
2023 has been one hell of a year
As a fun way to end the year, I asked the overkill staff (Chris and I, along with our freelancers Timo and Jason) to sit down and write each of their top five games for 2023.
Kevin Wammer
Not every game on the list here was released in 2023, but most were, and there are some surprises on this list – some I hadn't even heard of!
Though, to be honest, that list made me realize how many fantastic games were released this year – and how little time I had to enjoy all of them thoroughly. 2023 might have been the year I started the most games but finished the least of them.
Just to name a few, this year we got Baldur's Gate 3, Assassin's Creed Mirage, Hi-Fi Rush, Dead Space, Hogwarts Legacy, Atomic Heart, Like a Dragon: Ishin!, Metroid Prime Remake, PSVR2, the PC port of The Last of Us Part I, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Tears of the Kingdom, Diablo 4, Final Fantasy 16, Starfield, Lies of P, Spider-Man 2, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Alan Wake 2, The Talos Principle 2, and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. ...and I had to cut many titles from this list.
This year was insane. And 2024 might continue that trend, with titles like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Nightingale, Pacific Drive, Dragon's Dogma 2, Alone in the Dark, and Princess Peach: Showtime all dropping in the first three months!
I certainly know what I'll be doing the two weeks I am off of work: catch up on this year's backlog. Wish me luck!
In other news:
- A nifty developer released a native PC port of Nintendo's Link's Awakening on Itch.io, which took the internet by storm (Timo wrote a great guide on how to get the PC port running on the Steam Deck). However, it was only a question of time before the Nintendo lawyers were on the case. It's unsure if the game will be back in some form, but one way the developer could have gotten around Big N's ninjas was to ask people to supply their own ROM for the Port to work. So, if we're to see Link's Awakening DX HD again, this might be one such way it can come back.
- E3 is dead, like for good this time.
- The Last of Us Online is dead, too!
Chris Brandrick
- Chris wrote about the imperfect art of limited editions in gaming, how difficult it is to get a limited edition version of anything, and why it will only become more frustrating in the age of scalpers and bots. ▶️ There's a video version here if you'd prefer.
- If you like free stuff and inexpensive stuff, Epic Games is hosting their Christmas Sale. There will be seven free games in total. Currently, it's Destiny 2: Legacy Edition, and the next game will unlock in three days.
- Talking of Epic: they won against Google in their monopoly (not the game) trial!
- Starfield will get city maps and new ways of travelling in 2024.
- Valve will host one last sale at the end of the year, during which we can vote for the Steam Awards 2023 winners. You can see the nominees on Steam.
- If among your Christmas gifts is a Lenovo Legion Go, we published FanTheDeck's starter guide.
- Fntastic's The Day Before was available for just five days before the publisher took it off of Steam and the dev team closed its doors.
- Retroid started teasing the Retroid Pocket 4 and Pocket 4 Pro. They look like great emulation devices at $149 and $199, respectively.
...and that's all folks.
Again, thank you very much for taking some time to read through my words every week. I appreciate you all incredibly, and I can't wait to be back next year.
Happy holidays, whichever you celebrate, and see you on the other side.
Kevin