It was a bittersweet experience slowly finishing Baldur's Gate 3 over the course of several months, regularly watching Larian release game-changing features and quality-of-life tweaks. Imagine eating your way through a three Michelin Star buffet and every now and then a waiter comes out to add another banger dish to the spread. And then the fifth extra dish turns out to be something you really wanted – let's call it Inventory Management Soufflé – except now you're already full and can't eat much of it. You know, that was really good, but if I'd waited a little bit longer before chowing down, I might've enjoyed this a lot more.
I've had this thought – or a less metaphorical version of this thought – a lot this year. 2023 was an amazing year for playing games, and maybe an even better year for waiting to play games. The comeback-cementing release of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty and its accompanying 2.0 update is probably the most extreme example of waiting for improvements. But even for games that were initially released this year, waiting even a month or two could lead to a dramatically improved first impression.
