Our Most Wanted Games of 2023 – #40 to #36

We’re racing through our most wanted games for 2023, with another five games coming out in the next twelve months to highlight.

Truth be told, we’re cheating a bit with a double game entry, but then they’re remasters of some legendary JRPGs. From that to hard sci-fi adventuring, dystopian law enforcement shootering, and zombified city survival… -ing, there’s another broad spectrum of genres that might tickle your gaming fancy.

40. Blue Protocol

PS5, XSX|S, PC | Second half of 2023

Bandai Namco are looking to dig into fresh and fertile soil with Blue Protocol. This isn’t just an anime-styled action RPG, as we’re so familiar with from the company, but an MMO and free-to-play to boot.

Blue Protocol will see players venturing into the sci-fi fantasy world of Regnas, going on a quest to discover their origins and perhaps save the planet in the process. At the heart of it will be a new combat system with customisable class-based characters working together, and the ability to adventure with your friends, tackling quests, fighting boss battles and engaging in raids. You can play it solo if you like, but this is sure to be best played with friends, or matchmaking with other players.

39. Persona 3 Portable & Persona 4 Golden

PS5, XSX|S, PS4, XBO, NSW, PC | 19th January 2023

Video game preservation is an increasingly important topic for the games industry to address in the coming decades, as we look to avoid games big and small being lost to the sands of time and data decay. However, games don’t just belong in a museum, they belong in the hands of gamers. Given the success of Persona 5, it’s a no-brainer for Sega and Atlus to bring fresh ports of Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden to current machines.

Both games see you take on the role of a high-school student who has to delve into the mystical goings on surrounding their school and city or town. There’s many sides to these games, from the narrative drive that sees you engaging in Persona battles, to the need to stick to the day-to-day of high school life and make friends. Persona 3 has plenty of fans, but it’s Persona 4 that was widely regarded as being one of the finest JRPGs ever made… up until it was somewhat superseded by Persona 5.

38. The Expanse: A Telltale Series

PS5, XSX|S, PS4, XBO, PC | Q2/Q3 2023

The Expanse is easily one of the best sci-fi series of the last few decades. Starting off as a series of novels based on an RPG by its two writers, who go by the shared pen name James S.A. Corey, it garnered a much broader audience thanks to the TV show that (after a few years on network TV) ended up as a tentpole Amazon Prime series.

While the TV show has reached its end point, there’s plenty of appetite for more stories within this rather believable sci-fi universe. Enter Telltale, who are telling a story from the past of fan-favourite character Camina Drummer (Cara Gee), taking elements that will be familiar to fans of the old Telltale games and expanding it with more action and direct control

37. RoboCop: Rogue City

PS5, XSX|S, NSW, PC | June 2023

There’s a somewhat tentative place for RoboCop: Rogue City on our Most Wanted list. Coming from Terminator: Resistance developer Teyon, there’s not the greatest expectations being heaped upon this game, but a curiosity to see how this iconic police cyborg and his quest to retain his humanity while doling out justice at the end of a trusty leg-holstered Auto-9 sidearm!

The message of RoboCop is often forgotten behind the hyper-violent action of the original films, much like The Punisher being idolised unironically by law enforcement. No in the 2020s, I think we can see some of the same anti-corporate and anti-materialism themes still hold true, and I hope Teyon don’t lost those elements.

36. The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners – Chapter 2: Retribution

PSVR 2, PSVR, Meta Quest 2, SteamVR | 21st March 2023

An early front runner for 2023’s “Most Ridiculously Long Video Game Name” award, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners – Chapter 2: Retribution should be high on the wish lists of pretty much every VR owner. The original came out in 2020, a game that showed the full potential of VR gaming to present an immersive world to navigate (and then fill it with zombies to avoid and outlast). It was only overshadowed by the even more excellent Half-Life: Alyx.

Chapter 2 will see players return to zombie-infested New Orleans, given new weapons and tools, new enemies to defeat and a new story to survive that will take 15-20 hours to complete.

Technically this one’s already out, having arrived for Meta Quest 2 at the start of this month, but for the rest of us, we’ll have to wait until 21st March.

That’s it for this selection of five (six!). Anything that you’re going to be picking up next year?