My personal 2023 Game of the Year, Alan Wake II combines a gorgeous, cinematic survival horror experience with a meta narrative that has to be experienced to be believed. Like Hideo Kojima, Remedy understands the unique power of the medium to present stories in ways that only video games can. In this way, it succeeds where other games trying to replicate a cinematic experience fall short. It also contains a moment of such surprising absurdity and joy that I still think of to this day. A must play.