One of this year's best open-world RPGs is also the biggest VR hit since Half-Life Alyx

Apple may have crossed the $3 trillion valuation mark this year, making it the most valuable company in the world, but that does not mean the California-based firm had the most successful run in 2023 because other technology giants outperformed it by quite a fair margin. In fact, according to the latest report, Apple suffered its longest revenue slide in 22 years, with several challenges expected to make attempts at its growth in 2024.

There's a Cantonese saying I've been looking for an excuse to use in one of these columns for months, and with the year drawing to a close, I'm going to drop it here as a little present to myself.

Few works of historical fiction have been so imaginative in premise, yet so dull and lackluster in execution. Freud’s Last Session puts a powerhouse pair of actors, Anthony Hopkins and Matthew Goode, in the shoes of two renowned real-life figures, Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis, as they engage in theological debate. But the resultant conversation, based on the play of the same name by Mark St. Germain (who co-wrote the screenplay with director Matthew Brown), would be laughed out of a high school philosophy club. Despite the caliber of its performers — especially Hopkins, who’s in the most fascinating phase of his career with works like The Father and One Life — Brown’s film is an utter dud.

Do y’all remember Twilight and its death grip on what felt like every bookstore, movie theater, and mall in America in the early 2000s? At the time, critics regarded it poorly — like so much other entertainment aimed at young women. Now, in 2023, Twilight is having a pop culture resurgence as fans embrace it unironically and otherwise, with a sort of joyous abandon usually reserved for Disney adults and Christmas people.

What have you spent your time playing in 2023, and which new release would you say has been the game of the year? That's the main topic of this week's One More Life gaming podcast episode.

For those who have ever wondered what they have accomplished in the Steam gaming world, players are now able to get the rundown on their achievements, hours played, and much more using the Steam’s Year in Review feature. 

Unforetold: Witchstone was maybe the biggest surprise for me at our PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted showcase. The Spearhead Games CRPG almost evokes Larian's first Divinity: Original Sin game in its presentation, but instead of pursuing cinematic RPG production values, Witchstone is like an alternate evolutionary path emphasizing the construction of an open-ended, RPG sandbox.

Sea of Stars has sailed past four million players in as many months.

It's been a while since I dove headfirst into a milsim, but Offworld Industries' bid to revitalize its WW2 spinoff of Squad makes me want to clear my calendar. Post Scriptum (2018) has been fully acquired by publisher and Squad developer Offworld Industries, who's slapped on a new label that better reflects what you're getting: Squad, but set in 1944.

We gave everyone a gentle nudge at the start of December to remind them that the clock on the Bluetooth upgrade option for the Stadia controller was ticking down: Google had given Stadia owners until the end of 2023 to convert their controllers to wireless functionality, or be stuck with wires forever. But someone, somewhere, decided the deadline was too tight, because now that deadline has been pushed to the end of 2024.

Today, Cloud Imperium Games released Alpha update 3.22 (dubbed 'Wrecks to Riches') for Star Citizen. This is the fourth major update launched this year for the slowly but surely growing MMO space simulation game.

Might & Magic is one of those classic RPG series that has sadly faded into near-oblivion. Originally created by New World Computing, the series' rights were eventually purchased by Ubisoft twenty years ago for around $1.3 million.