Dead Space remake: As of making this comment it's actually releasing tomorrow but yeah I'm pretty hyped for it. It looks like Motive managed to create a remake similar in style to the Resident Evil remakes, by staying true to what people liked about the originals while still adding enough new to surprise long time fans (like Isaac's voice actor from Dead Space 2 and 3 returns so we get to hear him interact with the cast and environment of the first game more overtly [he was a silent protag in the original 2008 version], and experiencing memorable scenes in new ways like the introduction of the Infector necromorph in the morgue feels like a "call forward" to the opening of Dead Space 2 with how it plays out in the remake).
Hogwarts Legacy: Yeah I may not care for JK Rowling herself nowadays but she has no involvement in this game anyway. Basically looks like the Harry Potter game I always wanted, getting to role play as my own OC in Hogwarts, attending classes, getting assigned to a house and helping earn points for them, learn spells, and go on the kind of magical adventures Harry and co went on in the books and movies. Some of the earlier HP games did have these sorts of elements too, but this time your character is your own creation so it feels like it'll be a more personal narrative in a familiar universe.
Atomic Heart: Looks like it's basically "Soviet Bioshock" and that's fine by me. Action looks like it plays well, the visual style is neat, and hey it'll be good to hear another Mick Gordon soundtrack after he infamously got screwed over by Marty Stratton. It's coming to GamePass day 1 so I'll be able to play it that way too.
Like a Dragon: Ishin!: I always hoped both or at least one of the "historical fiction" Yakuza spinoffs would come to the West one day, and finally it's happening. It'd be cool if we got "Kenzan!" as well eventually, but from what I've heard from people who imported Ishin's original release (and could read Japanese) it sounds like I'll be in for a great time with just this one.
Clive 'n Wrench: Basically a new 3D platformer that harkens back to Banjo-Kazooie, and as someone who still loves old fashioned 3D platformers of course I'm excited for this one.
Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe: Confession time: I actually missed out on the original Wii release of this game and by the time I could buy it back then the prices it was selling for new became a bit absurd (this was back when I was still in college and didn't have a job). Now with a shiny new remake I'll get to experience one of the Kirby games I unintentionally missed out on a decade ago.
Octopath Traveler 2: It's sort of a given at this point I'll buy anything from Square's Team Asano, they're really helping to keep the "AAA old school big budget JRPG" alive.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty: Newest game from Team Ninja, more specifically the team that did the Nioh series. It's basically "Nioh 3" in all but name as one major change is rather than being set in feudal Japan it's set in ancient China during the Three Kingdoms era. Team Ninja has really been doing a great job carving their own niche into the "soulsbourne" formula (going for a heavier emphasis on action), and plus this one is also coming to GamePass on day 1.
Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse: You don't know how damn excited I got to see this game is FINALLY being localized to the West (and remastered too) after a decade and a half of waiting. This is the entry that Suda51 helped work on and it always annoyed me that Nintendo of America didn't bother touching this entry specifically (supposedly it was due to disputes over bugs in the game that NoA demanded be fixed before starting localization and who would pony up the cash to pay for the bug fixes, with neither Nintendo nor Koei-Tecmo budging), so to see I can finally play an official release of this game I've been wanting to play since I was 18 is a dream come true.
I'll stop there for now as I really could go on, and probably will later, but this is just covering Q1, and the fact it's already got this many games I'm hyped for really speaks volumes for 2023 to be a good year.
