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The most unfortunate part of my job as US Managing Editor at GamesRadar+ is that I don't actually get the chance to play a lot of games. There's a lot of writing, a lot of editing, and a lot of administrative work, and as it turns out, managing people eats up a bunch of time. That means that anything that easily showcases cool and exciting titles is immensely helpful, which is why my favorite game of 2023 is actually… Steam Next Fest.
No, Steam Next Fest is not a singular game, but it might as well be for how it enters my life at predetermined dates, before exiting and reentering down the line. It strongly reminds me of lining up in the cold for a midnight video game release, but now the "lining up" is me queuing a dozen or so downloads while I make coffee in the morning. It's easily a much-anticipated highlight of the month when I know it's on the way.
Full Steam ahead
If you are somehow unfamiliar, Steam Next Fest is (as the name implies) a celebration of PC games on Valve's digital storefront Steam that generally runs for a week or so at a time. While a relatively new endeavor, there are now typically three per year featuring a whole mess of demos for upcoming games, livestreams with developers, and more.
While the announcements and general sale that are often attached to Steam Next Fest are always appreciated, it's the demos that are most exciting. There's historically been a bit of a discoverability problem with Steam as it hosts massive numbers of previously published titles in addition to a variety of upcoming releases. Sorting the wheat from the chaff, algorithmically or otherwise, can be difficult.
With such a huge number of demos available, a large number of people are suddenly able to actually give the vast array of titles set to release in the future an actual taste test. It's a bit like an actual virtual gaming convention of sorts with various "booths" trying to get your attention, but using genre tags and snazzy trailers. What would be a gathering crowd in a physical location is instead both people I trust and Steam itself raising the cream of the crop to the forefront of the store.
Next best, actually
All of this said, it can be a bit of a great clown Pagliacci problem, though. Who recommends to the recommenders, right? But it's become an invaluable part of how I recognize what I'm personally excited about in the near future, and every single announcement of the next Steam Next Fest inspires the same reaction that, say, a new Halo did back in grade school. The first one in 2024 is set to run February 5 through February 12, and if I didn't think my boss would frown upon it (hi, Sam), there's a distinct possibility that I'd request the week off just to play as many demos as I can.
Having taken the time to really reflect this past year, there are, of course, certain individual games that have spoken to me. I do play games, after all, just not as many as I might like. Baldur's Gate 3 absolutely devoured me for a month or so, and it might yet do it again thanks to all of the quality-of-life changes and updates since. But when I am entirely honest with myself, none of those experiences really compare to realizing a Steam Next Fest was happening, downloading as many demos as my poor computer's overloaded hard drive could handle, and playing through as much as I desired.
And yet, somehow, I look forward to doing it all over again when the next one rolls around. I've been doing this kind of job for 15 years, and each Steam Next Fest manages to surface at least one or two titles that make me feel as excited as I've ever been about the medium. And with that, I don't know what higher praise I could possibly give.
Check out comprehensive round-up of the best games of 2023
