With Just Two Months Left, These Are The 10 Highest-Rated Xbox Games Of 2023

Only 1 xbox exclusive on this list not great is it I'd put forza in this list not starfield though doesn't deserve be anyone near this list

critics reviews i find i dont tend to agree with they either underrate or rate rate

some games i like critics dont like and some they love im baffled as to whats so amazing about it

critics seem more and more disconnected from what the gaming public like

It’s unfortunate only one Xbox exclusive is on this list, and it released in January.

5 on that list are not exactly 'new' either - Some remakes and/or first time on Xbox games aren't really what I think of when I think of 2023 games.

RE4, Quake 2 and Dead Space wouldn't even register as modern games - even if they have more modern aesthetics and tweaks. To me, they are and forever will be associated with their Original release hardware/eras as that's when I played and experienced the Story, game-play loop etc.

Persona 3 and 4 too aren't what I consider 2023 games - just because they came to Xbox this year, I don't really think they should count.

Not saying these games aren't worth playing or not deserving of their Metacritic score, but I'd be concerned if 'old' games end up winning Game of the Year. It basically seems like 'new' Games aren't actually better than they were 10yrs ago - other than iterative Graphical/performance improvements enabled by 'modern' Hardware. It seems like the Stories, the Game-play, the writing etc etc hasn't really improved if games from over 10yrs ago are the 'best' games to play today...

A great year but it shows an Indie game will get better reviews … I don’t think that list is what the people playing would come up with …

Fully agree with previous sentiments. It seems like 10 year old games are still capable of standing tall against modern games. This would always happen eventually, but i feel sad that it has been accelerated by the lack of polish from the games industry overall. Games are more and more focused on being ‘profitable’ instead of ‘fun’

It says it all when the only first party studio game is it number 10.
Then as I say don’t always blame the developers.
Sony and Nintendo developers have one console to make a game for.
Xbox developers have series s and x, pc and cloud things I guess, that takes more resource and time and knowledge, then again the other games in the top 10 are multi platform, so the potential reason I have given is a little bit cheeky but some what true.

Sea of Stars and Hi Fi Rush are the 2 I've played. I'll get to RE4R and Dead Space soon. Same with Diablo 4 when it hits gamepass..

There will be one game to rule them all this year, and that will be Baldur's Gate 3. That game will win every single Game of the Year award that it is eligible for. It's a real shame that it was not on Microsoft's radar until it released elsewhere to stellar reviews, and that the PlayStation was effectively able to claim it as a 'console exclusive'. Whichever numpty overlooked that game as something worthy of the Xbox really should be looking for another job. Cannot wait to buy it once again, this time on the Xbox...

I have been highly satisfied with all the games on XB this year overall. This is the first year in a long time that I felt glad for what shipped and am looking forward to hopefully another solid year next year.

I know the exclusives never got super high scores, but they were almost all good games. Redfall is the only game I think they should've did more with before releasing.

Cocoon is genius!

It's a real shame that "Hogwarts Legacy" isn't on the list. That really was a nice all rounder and looked great. It also made a nice change not to be going around killing everything that you meet.

Hogwarts Legacy. The stupid sh#t about J.K is what screwed with the scores.

Thanks to review bombing of starfield it didn't get to the list.

This year is so great for games I completely forgot about Hi-Fi Rush & the GoldenEye port.

Metacritic has zero meaning for me and I hoped this list would be about exclusives, so I could check if I missed any crucial GP releases.

For me it’s not even close this year. Starfield is a solid 10/10 while I couldn’t even tell which game is my number 2. I’m 140 hours in and not even touching the main campagne because I don’t want to end this journey.

We know Baldurs Gate 3 is going to top that lost when it releases next month on Xbox. But if I had to make a list of my highest rated games:

1. Diablo 4
2. Starfield
3. Remnant 2
4. Hi-Fi Rush
5. Phantom Liberty
6. Dead Space
7. Hogwarts Legacy
8. Resident Evil 4
9. Sea of Stars
10. Atomic Heart

@trev666 Right, reviews and scores are meaningless these days. Starfield is more 10 than Tears of the Kingdom.

The problem with Diablo 4 is after the campaign the game just becomes kind of boring.

@Banjo- ye ok 😆 zelda totk is one of the best games ever made. starfield wasn't the best game released in September that was sea of stars

@Dan1283 that is subjective. I know people that wouldn’t look at TotK because of the lack of depth to the game. I personally enjoyed TotK but I can understand people not liking it as well.

Its unfortunate that neither Starfield or Motorsport were strong enough to make this list and a seperate list of exclisives would be a nice additional list so we could make sure we were not passing by a gem weve missed this year.
I see people saying those titles are descriminated against, but that view doesnt withstand scruitiny in my opinion. Both titles are really good 8/10 titles, but its quite clear that MS need better producers working to a set quality bar to push these titles to being undoubted masterpieces. Tie up the loose bits, ensure a full suite of accesability options (Starfield is like regresing a decade for accessability), have an external test team with unfiltered feedback, and most importantly fix bugs earlier, dont leave all the bugs to fix before shipping. Starfield in particular could have become a true 10/10 if people other than Todd had been able to get in there and influence the last couple of years dev.
Microsoft now own some of the worlds top developers. Their games should and could be as polished as any others and fighting for GOTY. I hope these teams will have the kind of consistent support and feedback that stop all these 'little dissapointments' from holding them back from universal acclaim in the future.

@MasterTanookiChief Thanks for the good sense. It took me a while to play Tears of the Kingdom because Breath of the Wild disappointed me so much. The thing that disappointed me the most were actually the four "temples", after having read and heared that this time they would be proper dungeons/temples. None of the poor things about the first game were improved either. The only thing they did was add much more content, but it's not rewarding and most of the gameplay still focuses on physics puzzles, this time with worse controls. I'm glad that you enjoyed it, though.

@Banjo- I don't dislike xbox games I love forza horizon gears of war and halo I just know they aren't as good as nintendo or Sony exclusives and everyone knows that especially starfield though its a bug and crashfest I'm not a fanboy i just tell the truth thsts all forza horizon and the original halo are 2 if my favourite ever games so its not xbox games I don't like but that's my opinion and that's yours and its good everyone has different opinions.

@Dan1283 Exactly, it's completely subjective. They are opinions, but most reviews and scores are completely biased, too. They used to be more objective years ago. I and anyone else can agree or disagree with a 10/10 review, so 10/10 is ultimately meaningless. Same thing for game(s) of the year. If you ask me, Sony's games are too samey, while Microsoft has improved a lot over the years. Nintendo, well, it's Nintendo, they have some of my favourite games but also some of the biggest disappointments in my gaming life (and the worst hardware since the Wii generation). None are perfect, but some are overrated, e.g., Starfield and Tears of the Kingdom.

@Banjo- all 3 have there faults like you say I think I need keep my opinion I check because its just an opinion we all have different ones gamepass is the jewel in Microsofts crown at the minute and the future of gaming in my eyes

@Dan1283 Then, it seems that we agree. I can also criticise many things about Xbox, just ask me, but Xbox already gets a lot of hate even on an Xbox site! Sometimes, I think that most Xbox fans don't care about these sites and only Sony and Nintendo fans care to post, because the numbers for Game Pass players and Xbox software sales are high, yet most comments on every thread are full of negativity.

Nintendo and Sony fans are more vocal than Xbox players and they post on all the gaming sites. This is the only site of the three where you post something positive about the brand and you get 99% of negative replies. Only 1% of the users here seem to enjoy Xbox and interact with each other positively. I don't understand that because this is an Xbox site that was dead and then resurrected, it should be a place to celebrate the success of Xbox after Xbox One's troubled launch. Don't get me started on the army of PS users that come here just to bash Microsoft.

I'm not even a long-time Xbox fan, my first Xbox was the Xbox One and I got a PS4 before it, not to mention I am a life-long Nintendo fan.

@Banjoyes spot on I fully agree I can be to negative at times to negative myself I am no nintendo or Sony fanboy myself they are just a business at the end of the day I don't care about any one of them 3 to be honest I care about the gamer though xbox is on the right path that's for sure and the futures looking great for Microsoft

@Dan1283 No problem with being critical if you're being honest. I am, too. The only ones I find not worth reading are those that are unkind and discouraging other users, pretending to be unbiased and right and that are always repeating negative things about Xbox on every thread, when those things don't even affect them or are not even true. If you just don't like certain games or studios, that's perfectly fine and you have the right to say so.

@Banjo- The only reason I ever think of Zelda is because certain people online (game sites) go on & on about TotK. Before that, they would not shut up about BoTW. ToTK is released and suddenly they can admit flaws in BotK. TotK is destined for Keighley GotY (although, Baldur's Gate has a slim chance). It was preordained. Too many have a hard-on for anything Mario or Zelda.

@theduckofdeath That's right! I have read fans and articles explaining with rock solid arguments why Breath of the Wild is overrated and/or why is not a good The Legend of Zelda game, so it's not just you or me. Same thing will happen to Tears of the Kingdom. Some games are just meant to get positive reviews because of the IP or the publisher, but I've read some that are hilariously sweet-talker and don't describe the game I played at all.

@Dan1283 What bugs and crashes are plaguing you in Starfield? I'm playing on PC and Xbox (90/10 split at this point) and have had no crashes. I encountered one or two bugs or "odd" things.

@theduckofdeath a lot of bugs and crashes every hour or so on the series s

@Banjo- I thought metal gears sold phantom pain gta 4 and deathloop were overrated both got perfect 10s across the board

Deathloop has a 87/88/89 Metacritic score (depending on the platform), not as much as the others. What about those indie games like Gone Home, one of the worst "games" I have ever played, 86 on Metacritic Oxenfree is not very good and has an 80 score.

@Banjo- I've never played them games I always remember mario 64 getting perfect scores and I always thought banjo kazooie was the better game and the best platformer ever made for me I know you'll like this comment 😊

@Dan1283 Love this comment? Love you! 😁

@Banjo- that is my genuine opinion 👍 well followed closely by super mario world as well

With so many remakes I must admit this list was pretty uninteresting no matter how good the games on the list are.

@themightyant this list is way more interesting! A shame Starfield still dont crack the top 10. I personally really enjoyed it.

I loved that it was shadow dropped out of nowhere, but part of me wishes Hi-Fi Rush had dropped in May or something like that. Just so it was more in people's consciousness for GOTY discussions.

Not a bad list though!

@themightyant I know talk about a love hate relationship same as me I couldn't put the game down no matter how many times it was crashing or the bugs It has nearly had 150 hours on it before I finished the game i still couldn't stop playing it

In comparison Switch highest rated list contains at least 4 Switch exclusives.

@themightyant I can't take the Metacritic score for Starfield seriously, with reviewers actively trying to tank it. Just give it a 20 and be done with it. 😄 Their rating is lacking credibility and thus irrelevant, IMO.

RE 4 is definitely my GOTY. Dead Space was very good as well. Diablo 4 and Starfield didn't do it for me, but I know I'm in the minority.

@Romans12 I upgrade my monitor to an OLED last week and RE4make look fantastic.

@themightyant Looks like a great list of exclusives there.

I'd say being in the 80's for all first-party titles is a good year (even if they aren't the highest scored games on Metacritic).

@theduckofdeath OLED TVs are awesome, but when it comes to dark games like Resident Evil, they are absolutely incredible.

@Dan1283 Super Mario World is Mario's best game, I agree 😊.

@theduckofdeath you shouldnt take the metacritic score for any xbox game seriously.

street fighter is dead on xbox not even top 50 most played games even in its release month . kinda bizarre seeing it so high with so little support

I started playing Hi Fi Rush on Saturday and couldn't stop playing all weekend. What an absolute blast of a game it is, loving every minute of it. I'd say it's my favourite game this year.

@Dan1283
Starfield deserves to be on anyone's list who enjoyed it. Not everyone enjoys the same things.

@nomither6
Street Fighter 6 killed itself with it's lame tie ins like TMNT, that was a huge amount of money for what was basically rubber suits and stickers

Starfield should clearly be on this list and I don't even really like it that much and the fact two remakes are tells its own story

@themightyant Yeah, I know. There are biases and agendas influencing these scores, be it penalizing a title or over-praising one.

@PixelDragon ...In your opinion.

@ebony-shabba not really ,it starts off great ,then the cracks start to show ,ign was spot with its 7

@ZuneTattooGuy I enjoyed it very much ,then I was annoyed as its so very basic and couldve been so much more ,its a solid 7 nothing more,step back from skyrim in my opinion

@PixelDragon I enjoyed my time with it ,but you're right its their worse rpg ,it doesn't have that sense of wonder or exploration ,the main story is poo,and only a couple of memorable side quests,the stealth is broken ,the companions are garbage ,the pc mod community will sort it out in a few years ,I suppose.

@themightyant Over on Metacritic you had the one 40 review and several 60 and below. The IGN threatened that there would be repercussions for exclusivity. Xbox did not grant several know negative reviewers early review codes. These people are small and petty. Attention and clicks translates to validation and profit to them.

As for my GotY, I don't know. It's not like anyone has to pick. I'm having a great time with Starfield, though I still early in the main story. People had rather unrealistic expectations like planets with the entirely of Oblivion or Skyrim on them. Of course, more locations/civilizations can be added over time with DLC and mods. One has to be realistic about planetary and interplanetary scope versus a small fraction of a small state (or even city) in a medieval fantasy world.

Then there's Lies of P (fantastic, just beat the King of Puppets), Hi-Fi Rush (completed) and RE4Make (ascending the mountain to the end). There's Baldur's Gate and Diablo 4 I have yet to start. Alan Wake II comes out this week.

Keighley's GoTY will likely be TotK. I remain largely uninterested in it. Judging by industry reaction, the race is between TotK and Baldur's Gate, with TotK being written in pen on the ballot two years ago. The only way Baldur's Gate wins is if the voters decide to truly promote the best interest of the industry by recognizing Larian's achievement.

@ZuneTattooGuy I enjoyed it as well funnily enough just kept crashing on me I'm going play it again in the future once it's all patched up don't really matter though there's plenty of other games on gamepass and playstation abd the switch there's not enough time in the day play every game at the minute 😀 it's a good problem have

@Mephisto2869 I taught the opposite starts off boring and gets good not as good as Skyrim or fallout 4 but better than a 7 out of 10 more a 8 or 8.5 got more hate than it deserved over being Xbox exclusive nobody can deny that

@Mephisto2869
Tell me all the extra stuff you could do in Skyrim in the base game with no DLC. I'm waiting

I don't think there is a "mass conspiracy" against Starfield nor do I think it is "perfect." There is a trend of bias and double standards afflicting MS/Xbox. These sites don't employ true journalist and the Youtubers certainly are not.

Not only do they lash back however they can at perceived slights, but they are also driven by clicks for profit. These people are not remotely below having an ax to grind nor being heavily traffic/profit driven. Negativity drives clicks and Xbox is an easier target than Sony and certainly Nintendo.

Tom's Guide has an article today about "bouncing hard off of Starfield" versus other Bethesda games. It's anecdotal and attention-seeking. The game has been out a month, no official mod support/tools and no DLC. Here's my experience of Bethesda RPG games in the last 20 years:

• Morrowind (Xbox, quit because ugly and non-performant)
• Oblivion (X360, over 100 hours, completed once, eventually. Never played the DLC campaign(s).)
• Skyrim (PC, dozens of hours, never completed)
• Starfield (PC & Series X, 50 hours according to game clock, not complete)
• Fallout 3 (PC, completed once at a steady pace)
• Fallout NV (PC, never started)
• Fallout 4 (PC, struggled to raise frame rate on PC above 60, less than 11 hours, haven't played in years)

I would rate Starfield an 8-8.5 (for the record, I am not done with the game). There is room for some reasonable improvement. Some of those things won't change. The bitching about the opening, for example, I don't get. How long was it, 5 minutes? You walk through a mine, get KO'ed and revived, get into a firefight, then are handed a ship and go to space.

I agree that review scores don't matter ultimately and that Starfield has done and continues to do very well. My contention is that review scores are unreliable and at times given to ulterior motives, positive and negative. The conceit of the article was "Top Ten rated Xbox games" and someone mentioned that Starfield is not in the top 40 on Xbox for 2023.

If BG3 is already out on other devices wouldn't we already know where it's going to fall? There also isn't much point of mentioning a DLC for a game that made the list.

@ZuneTattooGuy oh youre waiting are you 😂😂 better quests ,better companions ,better factions ,stealth, actual lore ,better houses ,an actual way to decorated those houses that isn't annoying ,taking items off a dead npc actual has a visual difference ,a world full of things to see and not 90 percent nothingness ......I could go on

@ebony-shabba don't think it has anything to so with xbox ,ive seen the reviews of 6 and 7s and they make valid points after over 150hrs ,and completing the game multiple times,after such a long development period,its just disappointing.

@Blinx Hi-Fi Rush is a great game, a real surprise, but they would never select it for GoTY. There will always be some excuse to disqualify it. I would be surprised if it got a nomination this year. There has been a lot of studio output.

@themightyant Regarding "The Last Case of Benedict Fox"

This one is for people that really are OK with figuring things out on their own. Also, there were some (inexplicable?) performance and input issues early on. There was a patch this summer after I had already completed the game and uninstalled it.

@ZuneTattooGuy yea that sucked , & i gotta say that the roster blows too .

@Mephisto2869 haven't read that many reviews to be honest but for me it's definitely better than 7 out of 10 for me anyways

@ebony-shabba and thats fair enough,ive just played better games so its a 7 for me,love bethesda rpgs but this just falls short

@Mephisto2869 yeah it is disappointing compared to what has come before more to do with the setting of the story I think and constant need to fast travel you can't really stumble across something great in the open world like fallout or elder scrolls in starfield

@ebony-shabba I explored loads of planets hoping to find the start of some epic quest ,it never came ,or some cool one of a kind ship ,and the starborn mini game light thing is probably the most pointless thing ever in a video game

@Mephisto2869 yeah that light mini game for powers is truly terrible stop convincing me you are right and I am wrong please haha

@ebony-shabba 😂 its still a good game ,a solid 7 in my opinion, I had fun with it,oh and one final point,stealth doesn't exist its either broken ,or its really really poor.

Very true but at least it's a start a new IP that everyone is crying out for not another remaster or sequel but in saying that I would of rather they just made a new elder scrolls it's been to long since the rim of the sky

@themightyant Agreed, but specifically Xbox which has paid a review tax since its inception.