A total list, not sure what's actually coming out in 2023:
ESPIOCRACY
Cold War grand strategy in which you play as an intelligence agency, not a government. If you read the dev diaries on Steam, they're evasive about how the game actually plays (in a mechanical sense), but the devs show an extensive knowledge of obscure Cold War espionage lore and a commitment to realistic content. The premise of playing an intelligence agency is interesting, because while I want a Cold War state game, they explain that it allows for representing the personalities of heads of state like Stalin in a meaningful way ("if you play as the KGB, Stalin is your boss") and interesting principal-agent problems where the intelligence agency uses gayops against its own government, or otherwise acts corrupt for its interests. You have to be the grey eminence, and do so with the limited abilities you have (essentially acting as an advisor). The game tries to steer far away from mana, things like intel are discrete facts, not an abstract resource.
ATOMIC HEART
Really cool Bioshock-looking game with a retro Soviet aesthetic, looks and sounds fantastic by the debut trailer. (Will be a massive disappointment.)
SIX DAYS IN FALLUJAH
I was interested in this way back when the original was announced, and intend fully to play it on principle alone. Warfare is incredibly unpleasant. I have an interest in an idea I think of as military horror, treating warfare as explicitly a horror setting. Six Days is supposed to be sort of like a survival horror feeling. I also think America's triumph over Iraq was glorious and deserves recognition, and not just in some lame generic made-up Middle East country way like games like Battlefield do.
COWBOY LIFE SIMULATOR
What I get more than anything out of Red Dead Redemption is playing frontiersman, but I wish there was a game with decent (at least AA) graphics and detail that caters specifically to frontiersman, pioneer, or similar themes. Something where you live out life in an old American setting. This game will have at least some of that, breaking horses, herding cattle, gambling in saloons. Would like to see things like hunting, fishing, square dancing or line dancing added, but one can hope. By itself, the ranch management stuff sounds like it would be worth it.
MANOR LORDS
Pretty cool idea to have a game where you roleplay a minor feudal lord just managing your own tiny settlement while fighting small-scale, private wars. Like Kingdom Come vibes, but if you were the lord instead of the knight. Sounds more appealing to me than Mount and Blade.
THE GREAT WAR: WESTERN FRONT
Mentioned before, I'm interested in seeing Total War-like (strategic gameplay on one map, tactical gameplay on another) in more modern settings; Total War itself isn't suitable to it. This has turn-based strategic gameplay of the Western Front, but tactically you get a tower-defense (which I suppose is as sensible a way as any to do WW1 trench combat) like thing where you as defender lay out a trench network to try to resist attacks. I suspect I'll enjoy it a fair bit, although I don't like tower defense. Would like to see them implement Gallipoli and Italy at some point (both of those are cooler than the French/Belgian front).
COMPANY OF HEROES 3
I liked Company of Heroes 2 pretty well. I especially liked that the lack of economy-building meant that gameplay was really tight (you were never too far from losing the advantage, had to fight tactically instead of boom) and the retreat button encouraged actively trying to save my soldiers' lives (something that was impractical in playing AoE games). I really like Ardennes Assault including strategic map management, something shared with games like Rise of Nation's Conquer the World scenarios. This seems to extend the strategic aspect of it in a huge way, fight an entire campaign (conquer Italy) at the strategic scale instead of one battle at an operational scale.
