2023 Wrap Up

Each year, thanks to some cool websites and communities, I keep track of what books I’ve read and which games I’ve played. I tried to do movies as well, but I just found that I wasn’t an enguaged with it, and the community on the one movie-tracking site I’ve found is rather…let’s just say “up tight.” 

Anyway, at the end of each year I find it really interesting to look back at these stats to see how I spent a good chunk of my free time. The data below is not all encompasing – for example Steam stops counting games as being played in a certain year after December 14th – but it’s a still a pretty good indication of things.

Books

I use StoryGraph to track my reading. For those who may not know, StoryGraph is an independant answer to Amazon’s GoodReads. It does the same thing; lets you track the books you’re reading, find new ones, add reviews, etc, all without the evil overlords. It’s great stuff. Unlike GoodReads, though, it also gives you a whole heap of stats on what you’ve read.

According to my 2023 reading wrap up, I read 21 books in 2023, totallying 3,960 pages. To the surprise of no one, the vast majority of these – 14 in fact – were comic graphic novels/ collected editions. My average rating of these books was 3.5/5, with only three being rated under 3/5. Not too bad for a whole year.

Of these 23, my favorite read of 2023 was X-Men collection House of X/Powers of X by Jonathan Hickman and Pepe Larraz . This is comics at its best; high drama, high stakes and huge ideas. Loved it!

Video Games

I completed 31 games in 2023 across X-Box Seriesd X, PC/Steam and retro/Retroid.

My most “meh” game is a tie between Moons of Madness and Vanishing of Ethan Carter. Both did nothing of interest gameplay or story wise. Thankfully both were short.

Most disappointing game was easily Hollow Knight. After hearing for so long how great it’s supposed to be, and being a fan of other Metroidvanias, I was really lookin forward to it. In the end I found it a frustrating slog of a game that I’ve no interest in ever revising. The worst game was Asterix on the NES. Terrible graphics, horrible controls, boring gameplay; it was just a complete mess.

Most surprising game was Leisure Suite Larry: Wet Dreams Don’t Dry. I was surprised just how much I enjoyed this. It’s genuinely funny and really well written. Despite some obtuse puzzles I had a great time and straight away bought the sequel.

The best game I played in 2023, buy a wide margin, was Marvel’s Midnight Suns. I adored everything about this game, from the representation of the characters to the amazing gameplay to the brilliant Marvel Comics lore deep cuts (no MCU retcons here!) to the brilliant writing and friendship activities. Absolutely loved it and I’ll certainly be playing through again!

TTFN