Halfway through the year, how are your most anticipated games of 2023 looking?

Game development and release is fluid and change is frequent — some games release on time, some are delayed for various reasons, and others are cancelled (or at least parts of them) outright. At the end of 2022 I wrote about what gaming content I was looking forward to this year and, since it’s now halfway through 2023 and thanks to the recent PlayStation Showcase, I got to see more details about the Alan Wake 2 and Spider-Man 2 while I will have to wait just a few more weeks to get a better look at Starfield.

Speaking of Starfield, it will finally arrive on September 6, 2023 after delays from its initial release on November 11, 2022 and then again from the first half of 2023. It’s still highly anticipated by myself and many others, and I personally would rather a game be delayed for more time to polish things up than it be pushed out of the door half-baked. Starfield is going to be a part of the Xbox Games Showcase on June 11 and I’m so very curious to see what Bethesda will show us this time.

Remedy Interactive first unveiled Alan Wake 2 at the Games Awards in 2021 and then teased me with some concept art but they finally announced Alan Wake 2 will release October 17, 2023. The gameplay trailer introduces us to a new protagonist, Saga Anderson, alongside Alan and really hits on a blend of The Evil Within/Resident Evil type survival horror, which is perfect for a game releasing just before Halloween.

Last but not least in the slightest, Miles Morales and Peter Parker swung on to the scene with a nearly 11-minute gameplay trailer for Spider-Man 2. Still slated for a Fall 2023 release but with no date confirmed, the trailer hit on some of the narrative the game had to offer but mainly showed off the combat variability of Miles and Peter, player movement, and environment. Some of the critique I saw about the reveal was a bit petty — I don’t think the Black Suit looks terrible, I don’t need Spider-Man 2 to have Ultra5KHD-Matrix-esque graphics, and I also expect there to be a lot of crossover from the previous games combat system, it’s a freaking sequel. I’d rather the story be on point and the gameplay be fun, which is the point of games. Obviously I’m still pretty hyped about this game and that hype will intensify once a release date is announced.

How about the games you’re looking forward to? Have they already released or are they still on track for this year? Were they part of a showcase and if they were, did anything about it get you excited or make you second-guess your thoughts?