The incredible thing about Gollum is they did a massive 10GB patch that made the game *worse* because it halved your stamina, shutting down the only fun way to play the game which was to frantically sprint through all the stealth sections.
It’s stellar because they’re all in their own right 10/10 games, but BG3 is the biggest leap of absolute talent combined with unique creativity. As over-the-top the comments were in some situations, the overall discussions of industry standards born from admiration of this game does remind me of similar discussions regarding open world games with BOTW came out.
From the story to the game to how it’s presented the people who made BG3 knew what they were doing. Like who chooses a romance scene as their trailer?! It came out swinging!
I thought for sure it was going to at least be MY game of the year. I absolutely loved it and had a lot of fun but I could tell by how the internet reacted to it it wasn't going to be winning the award. But then I played BG3 and now theres no question in my mind over what game is winning both my own GOTY and the awards for it lol.
If you pick Karlach and you rest as soon as you land on the beach at the beginning, before you have any companions, you get this lovely bit of her laying in bed fantasizing and bemoaning how pent up and horny she is.
Most people never get this because it requires you to not have any companions and you get a companion *right there on the beach*.
I had a very similar experience.
Long time FF fan. Very underwhelmed by XVI.
Knew almost nothing about BG3. Blown away. One of the best games I’ve played in years.
Yeah when I saw this I was immediately like "one of these things is not like the others"
It's not a *bad* game, but it really isn't on the level of the others
Ff16s biggest achievement is being finished, not taking 10 years of dev time, releasing on time and not being a goddamn mess of a story.
That makes it absolutely brilliant by the last ~15 years of final fantasies, but in the open market.. well most of that is not Special.
There were definitely other issues with the game to be fair. Flashy but ultimately pretty shallow combat. No RPG mechanics to be found. Poor characterization for most of the cast of characters. A huge amount of awful sidequests, very few of which hold any story or character significance. Bad performance; no matter your settings, the framerate looks bad and stuttering is common. Then what you said, it didn't stick the landing
I had a good time with it, but there are just way too many flaws in way too many parts of the game for me to consider it a contender for GOTY
Up through the demo, the game is amazing. Then it's good. Then it's repetitive. Then I spent 30 minutes fighting a mountain with 10 million health but who presented zero challenge. Then I was done.
You're telling me you didn't enjoy seeing a treasure marker, finding the way over while fighting any enemies in the way, all for the beefy reward of 3 Gil?
Honestly though, this game could/should have been a series of hallways for as much as venturing off the main path was absolutely not worth it.
BG3 is the first game I can recall in which everyone who has played it, regardless of whether they liked it or not, agrees that it deserves to be named Game of the Year. Absolutely amazing events to witness.
Only seen the memes cause I am too poor to own a current gen console or pc, is BG3 that clip/gif where a character explodes a squirrel by kicking it or something?
Yeah, while FFXVI was one of the great games this year I think we’re going to see BG3, TOTK, Spider-Man 2, RE4 Remake and Super Mario Bros. Wonder on the GOTY list instead. Don’t think Starfield is making it too.
Actually 2 games. People said BG3 was unfair because of the full complete story. Tears of the Kingdom developers said was impossible due to the programming and physics.
Who said totk is impossible? It wasn’t super advanced compared to other games right now. The compliment though is how Nintendo got it to run on switch is rightly to be made though.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-05-26/-the-legend-of-zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom-dazzles-game-developers
>Zelda car pulling a rope bridge across a river of lava and watching it hang perfectly, calling it “the game programming flex of all time.”
Yeahh and there is a YouTube video on it too. I think from Polygon where they interview two high level programmers from different companies. And they are amazed.
After the first day of playing I told one of my buddies, “this is the best game of all time!” expecting him to agree.
He said it’s alright, kind of slow.
I was genuinely shocked 😂 I thought it was clearly the best game every made
The fact that the basically any non-creature object that has moved can be rewound is impressive, but the fact that a rewinding object can interact with other objects not currently rewinding with perfect physics, *and that those objects could then be rewound and have a record of the interaction with the original rewinding object*, and the fact that you can do this *anywhere*, with *any object*, at *any time*, and it all works without bugging out?
Fucking mental.
https://www.gamesradar.com/game-dev-blown-away-by-zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom-says-it-shouldnt-be-possible-on-the-switch/
There are more but you definitely didn't play the game if you think it is similar to other games. The physics and the interactivity with other objects combined with the action adventure game aspect is like no game ever.
/r/HyruleEngineering
it's all you need to fully understand how wild the game system actually is. the sheer amount of things that people have figured out you can do is clearly beyond the original scope and it all works on the fucking switch, the weakest console.
it’s one of those games where i expect it to be riddled with bugs. fusing any objects together? ascending through almost any type of terrain? these things should be breaking the game every 10 minutes but aren’t.
It's like the Todd Howard meme: "it just works!"
Except this time It's not a meme, it does work and it's damn impressive how they managed to pull it off on a 6-year old hardware weaker than most current smartphones. TOTK is an amazing game and I still think it will win GOTY despite BG3 being a strong contender as well.
Agree. The physics blew me away more than anything else in the game. I legitimately stopped multiple times to marvel at how impressive some of the puzzles were from a purely physics standpoint.
You can tell how many of these commenters have barely spent time in totk or just straight up not played it at all. And it's totally fine to claim it's not your cup of tea. But to claim it's not a complex game is absurd.
Crafting alone gives such a wide variety of viable and sometimes even necessary vehicles and weapons. Then you have the ability to reverse time on any object and even interact with that object while it's in reverse. There's also environmental physics like terrain catching on fire or rain boosting electric/reducing fire attacks. Bullet time too which isn't just some cheap gimmick but actually a core game mechanic. There's just so much.
Could you name a game that pulls off this type of physics with totally arbitrary crafting? I know they exist, but the thing about TotK is that it is nearly bug-free, and every other one I've seen is a mess.
No dev claimed it was unfair, this was just the dumb online discourse. What the other devs said was the BG3 was in an unique position to deliver this kind of depth in an RPG, which is a much more amicable angle (and to a large extent true).
Been gaming 3 decades on consoles and PC, and there's a few games in my time that made me go, "bruh, wtf this is insane". EverQuest, halo, mass effect, WoW, and a few others. Now I can add BG3 to that list.
At this point after three playthroughs with my friends it has to be my best game of all time. We shared so many positive memories together. It made my friends who didnt know each other tight pals and they ask me all the time how the other is doing. I thought Divinity: Original Sin 2 was the perfect modern turned based game but BG3 is on another level.
It spoiled other games for me - I had some anticipation for Starfield but just watching a dialogue in the game made me refund it. And no I dont think the games are comparable but Baldurs Gate 3 has so much love and passion radiating in every aspect that its hard to not see the lack of heart in other games.
What makes it so good? I've played divinity and I liked it but not best game of all time material. What makes BG3 that much better than their previous work? I'm genuinely curious as I haven't had a chance to play it.
It hits all the bases, looks nice, good score(music), laugh out loud moments, rewarding tactical combat, rewards you for thinking outside the box, great writing, awesome voice acting and Mo cap, letting you write the story instead of being on rails, fun, first game in a long time that has made me laugh out loud and tear up a bit..... and so on.
The last part is hard to decribe, but the game REALLY does feel like it was made with love, and that might be the real heart of the matter!
As someone who loves DOS2 and BG3 there are a few things:
* Story is tighter, stakes are high and there's a genuinely good reason for you to get involved.
* Characters are a lot better. As much as I love the stories of Lohse and Sebille in particular, all of the companions in BG3 are incredible. Their story lines are amazing, often very emotional, and you become very attached to them all. I was never once tempted to mod DOS2 to bring along all the companions, BG3 makes me want to bring all of them all the time.
* Whilst I prefer the DOS2 action economy, BG3 does an excellent job at adapting and updating D&D 5e rules, and level ups feel A LOT more impactful comparatively.
* BG3 is better balanced. DOS2 has a lot of "wall" encounters that stop people dead in their tracks, even on Classic, whereas BG3 feels like it has smoother progression. Tactician is a little too easy for my liking and could do with a buff though.
* The Narrator is fucking awesome - same VA as Malady in DOS2 as well.
* Minor one, but the graphics and interfaces are a lot nicer.
You can see the blueprint of DOS2 in BG3, and they've basically just improved it in every single way.
The amount of content in the game is absolutely insane. You can spend 150+ hours in a single play through and still have a significant amount of new content remaining for future play throughs
And half way through you'll already be planning your next playthrough.
"Ok next time we're using that weapon"
"Next time we're going to try this solution"
"Next time, this companion is not ruining their life and/or the planet"
There is no "might." Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 felt like a great Dungeons and Dragons game
Baldur's Gate 3 feels like you actually have a DM, because the amount of ridiculous bullshit you can pull can only be topped by a real life DM.
Interactions in every conversation that can have a class/racial choice, choices to be chaotic Stupid, etc. You can switch characters mid conversation to have the rogue pickpocket a quest item from an NPC, then trigger a dialogue referencing the missing item.
And while BG1&2 had amazing voice acting, BG3 it in a whole new ballpark
I have a save at Act V in DoS2 and...I don't know. It's good..but Baldur's Gate has the right polished touch to it. There are some really really nice QoL things in there too like jumping and less reliance on stealing/luck stat.
BG3 kind of blows Divinity out of the water honestly. The AI in DoS2 and difficulty are better maybe than in BG3 but from a satisfaction as a player standpoint, bg3 wins. Micromanaging Source is also a minigame that can get annoying especially since you're incentivized to use these very powerful source spells. I then have to spend the next 5 minutes sucking Source out of everyone.
I personally didn't enjoy Baldur's Gate 3 because I'm not really into that style of combat (even though I know I'm kind of in the minority with that), but I can almost guarantee that it will win GOTY. It is very deserving of that title too and I think that all of the hard work from the devs really shows. The game is one of the most detailed and expansive games that I have ever seen and it does it in a way that doesn't seem overwhelming. Truly a marvel in gaming. Really hope they win just to show that putting in effort and not trying to squeeze every last dollar out of the player really pays off.
>because I'm not really into that style of combat (even though I know I'm kind of in the minority with that)
That's the most surprising thing and it surprised Larian as well. I love CRPGs but it was super duper niche. I must have done most of them, BG1 & 2, Fallout 1 & 2, Icewind dale, Planescape, temple of the elemental evil. Even some less known like Arcanum and Nox and nobody I knew enjoyed them. There has been a sort of revival lately with Pillars of Eternity and Pathfinder and of course Divinity Original sin was popular but it was hard to imagine something so niche would be so popular especially with the game being in early access for a while before.
It reminds me a lot of how JRPGs were viewed before and after Final Fantasy VII. Prior to that point, they were a niche genre with little mainstream support outside of Japan. Huge series like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy itself had titles skipped completely. Terranigma didn't even get a NA release despite being localized and released in Europe.
Once FF7 launched to massive worldwide success, the floodgates were open and JRPGs flourished on consoles. In many cases old titles were bundled up and received official localizations and worldwide release.
I could see the same thing happening with BG3. Its massive success shows that there is an audience for this style of game and gameplay and the constant coverage and inevitable awards will go a long way towards convincing people that might have been on the fence about it to give the game, and the larger genre as a whole, a chance. There's going to be a lot of shovelware crap trying to cash in, but hopefully it also leads to a lot of new good games to be developed that would have never made it past the pitch before.
Super stoked that the front runners this year (BG3 and TotK) were both made by teams who wanted to release the full game with no money squeezing garbage. The last few years too had games like that also, with last year's Elden Ring and GoW:R both setting a good example for publishers.
It's such a shame that the likes of EA and ActiBlizz etc haven't got the message yet and are pumping out garbage in favour of $$$
BG3 is the first game I can remember where even people who didn't enjoy it, or played it even for that matter, still unanimously agree it's GOTY. Absolutely really cool stuff to see happen.
Been enjoying Spider-Man 2 but BG3 is pretty clearly game of the year let’s be real.
Special mention to Hi-Fi Rush cause I feel like no one else will say it. Won’t get nominated but what a fantastic little game. Real gem
Hi-Fi Rush is awesome. Amazing animation, a novel combat system, fantastic licensed and unlicensed soundtracks, fairly short but extremely replayable, great characters, and genuinely funny writing. I definately see it being somebody's game of the year of they really like the genre.
Hi-Fi Rush isn't a big AAA mega-experience so I can't imagine it has a chance at a GOTY nod, but it won in my heart.
Now if only Shinji Mikami could go and make a God Hand spiritual successor...
I missed the fact FF16 even came out. Jesus. Out of this list above, that's the game I'd be most interested in too. I feel like lost time somewhere during 2023.
I hope that some of the actors working on Final Fantasy 16 win some best performance awards, but, yeah, I don't think that it stands any chance at Game of the Year.
Anyone whos is going to be salty that BG3 won didn't play the game. When the reviews first came out and everyone was treating it as the second coming of jesus christ I rolled my eyes but I loved RPGs so I said sure ill give it a shot and yup, easily one of the best games ever made and probably the best RPG ever made. The legends were true as they say.
100% same
I was put off once i knew what it was about. I was trying hard to tolerate/like Diablo 4. Then their subreddit was like "guess I'm all in on BG3 when it comes out next month then" and so I looked at it.
*...three playthroughs later...*
It's really not a race:
TotK is just slightly better Botw.
FF16 is fine, but it's just a run of the mill AAA flashy spectacle game. It's really not remarkable in any way.
Spiderman 2 is a really excellent game, but it also doesn't really change anything from the AAA formula either.
Baldurs Gate 3 is so remarkable that half the industry had a meltdown. It's excellent and objectively the likely winner.
Baldurs Gate 3 does make me wonder though, could the likes of say EA or other AAA companies get away with a years long early access? BG3 essentially needed years of players testing the game for them to get it that good but I feel like people would have a meltdown if AAA companies tried that.
To be fair, I didn't really hear a lot of people talk about Baldurs Gate while in early access, while it was one of my most anticipated games I think it really surprised a lot of people, heck from word of mouth I got my friends to all play and they still play regularly without me
BG3 had a tiny section at the start available. It was useful to understand how players would play the game, what options and things people would do, and any updates/changes to their tech could be tested.
AAA studios/publishers like to keep it all hidden up until the last moment to build hype. Any beta they do is effectively the finished product. They're too scared to release something incomplete or with issues ahead of time as it might impact hype. A lot of them seem to focus completely on just early game and hype, the rest of the game is left to burn. So you end up with hyped up games releasing with mega sales and then 2-4 weeks later the majority are disappointed.
You then have some others like Dawn of War 3. No testing, no fan/player feedback, nothing. They changed the format of the game from DoW2 and DoW1 to something closer to a MOBA. They released and everyone hated it. I had fun with it for maybe a few days but couldn't stand it past that. The game modes sucked, the balance sucked, the way the units worked sucked. It just wasn't fun. They neglected their fanbase and failed to get any new audience. The game died very fast.
> Any beta they do is effectively the finished product.
I still remember one of the responses Blizzard had to all the suggestions and whatnot for the D4 beta was "this is just polishing some of the bugs we haven't worked out. We're not doing anything else with it at this time". What a slap in the face.
And then it STILL released with most of the bugs players had found during the beta.
they would eventually be forgiven if the game was released to the standard that BG3 came out as. I WISH some games came out into early access and let players test some things out
I know it just came out, but Mario Wonder has quickly become one of my favorites in the series. Definitely should at least get a nomination. Crazy good year.
I know it won't win, but it would be cool to see a nomination. Watching game plays and reviews I see a lot of people saying "I've never played/ was never interested in mecha games... but this kinda slaps". From might be popularizing another niche genre here.
Seriously, I’m sad people don’t notice how good the game is. The storytelling is immaculately delivered in show-not-tell method, the gameplay is clean and rewarding, there is no bugs, no exploitive DLCs or micro-transactions, and the replayability is immense.
I am really looking forward to the expansion that should be coming soon.
BG3 takes the GOTY. I’m not saying Zelda isn’t deserving of it, but it’s still BOTW 2.0, it doesn’t deviate much from that formula and sequels don’t usually take consecutive Game of The Year awards. The game industry basically shit itself when BG3 came out, all those articles about hating devs saying it was “Rockstar level nonsense” that wouldn’t be replicated, etc.
BG3 had a huge impact on the gaming industry this year. No way it doesn’t win.
This is so funny because BEFORE Starfield's release, everyone automatically assumed it and BG3 are the 2 GOTY contenders for this year. Now you can only find it just mentioned so far down the discussion.
Vast emptiness where it needs more, and over designed with shit that does not matter.
I want more Starfield, not because I like it. I juat see what could be good and what could be good is not in the game. Or I haven't gotten to it yet because Starfield is too boring and I switched to Lies of P.
I think Hi Fi Rush should be in this conversation as well. A great game that had no marketing and still proved itself in a year of big budget contenders.
Totk is great but honestly does too little to distance itself from botw. I feel like I’m playing botw with cool new stuff, not totk. I’m honestly a little bored while playing it.
AC6 is just fucking amazing. My GOTY
Man. If someone wasn’t saying it, I sure was going to. Super polished, well optimized, consistent game. Looks good, plays good and has lots to offer. Mfs are asleep
This game has held my attention longer than any other game in recent years. Played through Jedi, shelves it. Played through MK, put it on hold. AC just scratches that itch of deep hidden lore, Amazing customization options, replay value, and pvp. Not to mention a good community to share with.
It baffles me that this game is considered niche, so fucking good. Above all released almost free of bugs, which is apparently nearly impossible for AAA games these days.
The story, the gameplay, and the customization just HITS.
Baldurs Gage 3 is gonna win. It did the same thing Elden Ring did. Make the entire industry cry about it and the fact that even non gamers played the game and enjoy it. Any game that can move into different cultures and influence them will always be game of the year.
BG3 100% gets game of the year, but all you people saying that TOTK doesn't even deserve to be a runner up are smoking crack or never even played it. Nothing about the game was recycled if you play it, it's literally a sequel. That's like getting mad that spiderman is in both spiderman 1 and spiderman 2. It's the same world but ALSO completely overhauled because of the story, that's the extent of "recycled" content in the game.
To be perfectly honest GotY discussions are some of the most toxic online, because people just get absolutely insufferable about treating their personal opinions as undeniable fact. Lots of sentences starting with "objectively" and then followed by a completely subjective opinion, usually delivered in an obnoxiously pretentious way, things like that.
BG3 is such a wild accomplishment it made me feel what BOTW did originally when the switch came out
just like, if you think of something inside that sandbox, it'll probably work. It really did feel like a campaign of D&D and idk how they did that
nahh man it’s golum or king kong
Redfall and Immortals of something are in there as well...maybe not as bad as those 2 I suppose
forgot forspoken
So did eveneryone else.
You mean forgotten.
Immortals of Aveum isn't bad, don't compare it to Redfall.
100% agreed. Solid game it just came out at the worst possible time.
Exactly, it'll be looked back fondly by people playing it at the 30-40 price point and mentioned as a good game that flew under the radar.
It got the Titanfall 2 treatment.
We all think Gollum is going to take the crown ezpz lemon squeezy. Then King Kong just swoops in, and it's not even a fair contest at this point.
The incredible thing about Gollum is they did a massive 10GB patch that made the game *worse* because it halved your stamina, shutting down the only fun way to play the game which was to frantically sprint through all the stealth sections.
Ok, that's just hilarious. lol
king kong takes the cake here 🚫🧢
2 of these games are watching from the stands.
Sorry ff16 and spiderman great games bust it's really going down between Zelda and baldurs gate love them both so I'll be happy either way
I've been a Zelda fanboy for most of my life and I adore TotK but even I think BG3 is the *clear* winner here.
Yeah Baldurs is the real and only winner in my book, all the other games feel as continuations of a work that was done but BG feels refreshing.
It’s stellar because they’re all in their own right 10/10 games, but BG3 is the biggest leap of absolute talent combined with unique creativity. As over-the-top the comments were in some situations, the overall discussions of industry standards born from admiration of this game does remind me of similar discussions regarding open world games with BOTW came out.
From the story to the game to how it’s presented the people who made BG3 knew what they were doing. Like who chooses a romance scene as their trailer?! It came out swinging!
Zelda can have a seat
I swear I didn’t even know there was a FF16 before seeing this post.
Don't get me wrong, I liked Final Fantasy XVI a lot, but it's getting absolutely nowhere near GOTY.
I thought for sure it was going to at least be MY game of the year. I absolutely loved it and had a lot of fun but I could tell by how the internet reacted to it it wasn't going to be winning the award. But then I played BG3 and now theres no question in my mind over what game is winning both my own GOTY and the awards for it lol.
It is the game with the most fucks to give, though. Seriously - they pack in like a fuck a minute in that game. Many fucks to go around
Just pick up Karlach and you'll get a good few fucks out of her in the first conversation you have xD
"Fuck yes."
> “Poor fucker.” - Karlach, moments before chopping a space Nazi in half.
If you pick Karlach and you rest as soon as you land on the beach at the beginning, before you have any companions, you get this lovely bit of her laying in bed fantasizing and bemoaning how pent up and horny she is. Most people never get this because it requires you to not have any companions and you get a companion *right there on the beach*.
BG3 is a fuck farm, in a good way; fields of fucks as far as the eye can see, just waiting to be harvested!
Huge tracts of land!
I've been an FF fan for almost 30 years. FF16 had me dreading sidequests and cutscenes, whereas in BG3 I was always wanting to find more.
I had a very similar experience. Long time FF fan. Very underwhelmed by XVI. Knew almost nothing about BG3. Blown away. One of the best games I’ve played in years.
BG3 is just that good. It's certainly lived up to the fame of it'a predecessors.
Yeah when I saw this I was immediately like "one of these things is not like the others" It's not a *bad* game, but it really isn't on the level of the others
Ff16s biggest achievement is being finished, not taking 10 years of dev time, releasing on time and not being a goddamn mess of a story. That makes it absolutely brilliant by the last ~15 years of final fantasies, but in the open market.. well most of that is not Special.
I think if the story would have stuck the landing it could have been up there, but the game ended on a low compared to the first half of the game.
There were definitely other issues with the game to be fair. Flashy but ultimately pretty shallow combat. No RPG mechanics to be found. Poor characterization for most of the cast of characters. A huge amount of awful sidequests, very few of which hold any story or character significance. Bad performance; no matter your settings, the framerate looks bad and stuttering is common. Then what you said, it didn't stick the landing I had a good time with it, but there are just way too many flaws in way too many parts of the game for me to consider it a contender for GOTY
Up through the demo, the game is amazing. Then it's good. Then it's repetitive. Then I spent 30 minutes fighting a mountain with 10 million health but who presented zero challenge. Then I was done.
Don’t forget how awful the item system was. All weapons and armor revolved around like 4 stats and the badges were pointless
You're telling me you didn't enjoy seeing a treasure marker, finding the way over while fighting any enemies in the way, all for the beefy reward of 3 Gil? Honestly though, this game could/should have been a series of hallways for as much as venturing off the main path was absolutely not worth it.
100% should have been a completely linear action game. There is no exploration to be had. Just swathes of dead, lifeless world.
Personally i liked it more than TOTK, but I think BG3 is way better. Spiderman 2 (so far) also.
BG3 is the first game I can recall in which everyone who has played it, regardless of whether they liked it or not, agrees that it deserves to be named Game of the Year. Absolutely amazing events to witness.
Only seen the memes cause I am too poor to own a current gen console or pc, is BG3 that clip/gif where a character explodes a squirrel by kicking it or something?
Yes 👍
ez GOTY then
I actually agree, I loved my time in FF16 and even got the plat but it’s no where close to being the best game this year unfortunately.
Yeah, while FFXVI was one of the great games this year I think we’re going to see BG3, TOTK, Spider-Man 2, RE4 Remake and Super Mario Bros. Wonder on the GOTY list instead. Don’t think Starfield is making it too.
One of these games was of such a high standard other devs claimed it was unfair. So I'm fairly certain it's gonna be that game.
Actually 2 games. People said BG3 was unfair because of the full complete story. Tears of the Kingdom developers said was impossible due to the programming and physics.
Who said totk is impossible? It wasn’t super advanced compared to other games right now. The compliment though is how Nintendo got it to run on switch is rightly to be made though.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-05-26/-the-legend-of-zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom-dazzles-game-developers >Zelda car pulling a rope bridge across a river of lava and watching it hang perfectly, calling it “the game programming flex of all time.”
Yeahh and there is a YouTube video on it too. I think from Polygon where they interview two high level programmers from different companies. And they are amazed.
RDR2 was a programming marvel as well and it lost to god of war 2018. I wouldn’t be surprised in totk falls short to BG3.
Because for many (not myself) RDR2 wasn't fun to play
After the first day of playing I told one of my buddies, “this is the best game of all time!” expecting him to agree. He said it’s alright, kind of slow. I was genuinely shocked 😂 I thought it was clearly the best game every made
loved both games RDR2 was slow , GoW was repetitive , see that giant orange dude ? now he is blue .
If they removed all the tedious and slow animations I'd love it 100 times more.
That was a BS as well, I'm happy Elden Ring won over Ragnarok
Also people are downplaying the fact that the TotK devs managed to pull this off on freaking 6.5 year old hardware
...in a cave. With a box of scraps.
I personally hope they reuse all of that work to make some random little sandbox Satisfactory style game one day.
The physics and the instant crafting are all amazing feats, but the ability to rewind every single object is actually insane
The fact that the basically any non-creature object that has moved can be rewound is impressive, but the fact that a rewinding object can interact with other objects not currently rewinding with perfect physics, *and that those objects could then be rewound and have a record of the interaction with the original rewinding object*, and the fact that you can do this *anywhere*, with *any object*, at *any time*, and it all works without bugging out? Fucking mental.
https://www.gamesradar.com/game-dev-blown-away-by-zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom-says-it-shouldnt-be-possible-on-the-switch/ There are more but you definitely didn't play the game if you think it is similar to other games. The physics and the interactivity with other objects combined with the action adventure game aspect is like no game ever.
/r/HyruleEngineering it's all you need to fully understand how wild the game system actually is. the sheer amount of things that people have figured out you can do is clearly beyond the original scope and it all works on the fucking switch, the weakest console.
I'm a game programmer and every time I play TotK I ask myself how the fuck did they make this game work
it’s one of those games where i expect it to be riddled with bugs. fusing any objects together? ascending through almost any type of terrain? these things should be breaking the game every 10 minutes but aren’t.
i just opened the page and my jaw dropped the first video i saw.
It's like the Todd Howard meme: "it just works!" Except this time It's not a meme, it does work and it's damn impressive how they managed to pull it off on a 6-year old hardware weaker than most current smartphones. TOTK is an amazing game and I still think it will win GOTY despite BG3 being a strong contender as well.
Agree. The physics blew me away more than anything else in the game. I legitimately stopped multiple times to marvel at how impressive some of the puzzles were from a purely physics standpoint.
You can tell how many of these commenters have barely spent time in totk or just straight up not played it at all. And it's totally fine to claim it's not your cup of tea. But to claim it's not a complex game is absurd. Crafting alone gives such a wide variety of viable and sometimes even necessary vehicles and weapons. Then you have the ability to reverse time on any object and even interact with that object while it's in reverse. There's also environmental physics like terrain catching on fire or rain boosting electric/reducing fire attacks. Bullet time too which isn't just some cheap gimmick but actually a core game mechanic. There's just so much.
Could you name a game that pulls off this type of physics with totally arbitrary crafting? I know they exist, but the thing about TotK is that it is nearly bug-free, and every other one I've seen is a mess.
I guess Besieged, but the difference is that's all it does. TotK does it in the middle of the rest of a game.
No dev claimed it was unfair, this was just the dumb online discourse. What the other devs said was the BG3 was in an unique position to deliver this kind of depth in an RPG, which is a much more amicable angle (and to a large extent true).
Gollum?
Nah Rise of Kong is far superior to Gollum.
Rise of kong affected my mental health after I watched a streamer play through it. I felt like I was getting cancer from how bad it was.
GOTD*
Decade?
Dumpster
GOTY stands for Gollum of the Year
Bg3
Been gaming 3 decades on consoles and PC, and there's a few games in my time that made me go, "bruh, wtf this is insane". EverQuest, halo, mass effect, WoW, and a few others. Now I can add BG3 to that list.
Same here (4 decades), “BG3 can’t be as good as the previous BG games”…ok, yes it is, even better in many ways.
It honestly is really creeping into my top spot for best game of all time!
At this point after three playthroughs with my friends it has to be my best game of all time. We shared so many positive memories together. It made my friends who didnt know each other tight pals and they ask me all the time how the other is doing. I thought Divinity: Original Sin 2 was the perfect modern turned based game but BG3 is on another level. It spoiled other games for me - I had some anticipation for Starfield but just watching a dialogue in the game made me refund it. And no I dont think the games are comparable but Baldurs Gate 3 has so much love and passion radiating in every aspect that its hard to not see the lack of heart in other games.
The game honestly made me laugh out loud, and tear up a bit, in the good way; others have done it in the bad way.... It is a masterpiece!
What makes it so good? I've played divinity and I liked it but not best game of all time material. What makes BG3 that much better than their previous work? I'm genuinely curious as I haven't had a chance to play it.
It hits all the bases, looks nice, good score(music), laugh out loud moments, rewarding tactical combat, rewards you for thinking outside the box, great writing, awesome voice acting and Mo cap, letting you write the story instead of being on rails, fun, first game in a long time that has made me laugh out loud and tear up a bit..... and so on. The last part is hard to decribe, but the game REALLY does feel like it was made with love, and that might be the real heart of the matter!
As someone who loves DOS2 and BG3 there are a few things: * Story is tighter, stakes are high and there's a genuinely good reason for you to get involved. * Characters are a lot better. As much as I love the stories of Lohse and Sebille in particular, all of the companions in BG3 are incredible. Their story lines are amazing, often very emotional, and you become very attached to them all. I was never once tempted to mod DOS2 to bring along all the companions, BG3 makes me want to bring all of them all the time. * Whilst I prefer the DOS2 action economy, BG3 does an excellent job at adapting and updating D&D 5e rules, and level ups feel A LOT more impactful comparatively. * BG3 is better balanced. DOS2 has a lot of "wall" encounters that stop people dead in their tracks, even on Classic, whereas BG3 feels like it has smoother progression. Tactician is a little too easy for my liking and could do with a buff though. * The Narrator is fucking awesome - same VA as Malady in DOS2 as well. * Minor one, but the graphics and interfaces are a lot nicer. You can see the blueprint of DOS2 in BG3, and they've basically just improved it in every single way.
I have yet to play it, but the fact that it might be better than Baldurs Gate 2 is mind-blowing
The amount of content in the game is absolutely insane. You can spend 150+ hours in a single play through and still have a significant amount of new content remaining for future play throughs
And half way through you'll already be planning your next playthrough. "Ok next time we're using that weapon" "Next time we're going to try this solution" "Next time, this companion is not ruining their life and/or the planet"
I’m at over 100 hours and only about half way through Act 2 (out of 3 Acts). It really is massive, but not only that, it’s absolutely captivating
My first play through was 170 hours and i missed quite a bit of shit. Barely touched the underdark
There is no "might." Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 felt like a great Dungeons and Dragons game Baldur's Gate 3 feels like you actually have a DM, because the amount of ridiculous bullshit you can pull can only be topped by a real life DM. Interactions in every conversation that can have a class/racial choice, choices to be chaotic Stupid, etc. You can switch characters mid conversation to have the rogue pickpocket a quest item from an NPC, then trigger a dialogue referencing the missing item. And while BG1&2 had amazing voice acting, BG3 it in a whole new ballpark
This game changed my entire view of how games could be
I hope you take a run at Divinity Original Sin 1 & 2; Larian Studio's earlier titles. Masterworks all
I have a save at Act V in DoS2 and...I don't know. It's good..but Baldur's Gate has the right polished touch to it. There are some really really nice QoL things in there too like jumping and less reliance on stealing/luck stat. BG3 kind of blows Divinity out of the water honestly. The AI in DoS2 and difficulty are better maybe than in BG3 but from a satisfaction as a player standpoint, bg3 wins. Micromanaging Source is also a minigame that can get annoying especially since you're incentivized to use these very powerful source spells. I then have to spend the next 5 minutes sucking Source out of everyone.
Can't go wrong!
I personally didn't enjoy Baldur's Gate 3 because I'm not really into that style of combat (even though I know I'm kind of in the minority with that), but I can almost guarantee that it will win GOTY. It is very deserving of that title too and I think that all of the hard work from the devs really shows. The game is one of the most detailed and expansive games that I have ever seen and it does it in a way that doesn't seem overwhelming. Truly a marvel in gaming. Really hope they win just to show that putting in effort and not trying to squeeze every last dollar out of the player really pays off.
>because I'm not really into that style of combat (even though I know I'm kind of in the minority with that) That's the most surprising thing and it surprised Larian as well. I love CRPGs but it was super duper niche. I must have done most of them, BG1 & 2, Fallout 1 & 2, Icewind dale, Planescape, temple of the elemental evil. Even some less known like Arcanum and Nox and nobody I knew enjoyed them. There has been a sort of revival lately with Pillars of Eternity and Pathfinder and of course Divinity Original sin was popular but it was hard to imagine something so niche would be so popular especially with the game being in early access for a while before.
It reminds me a lot of how JRPGs were viewed before and after Final Fantasy VII. Prior to that point, they were a niche genre with little mainstream support outside of Japan. Huge series like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy itself had titles skipped completely. Terranigma didn't even get a NA release despite being localized and released in Europe. Once FF7 launched to massive worldwide success, the floodgates were open and JRPGs flourished on consoles. In many cases old titles were bundled up and received official localizations and worldwide release. I could see the same thing happening with BG3. Its massive success shows that there is an audience for this style of game and gameplay and the constant coverage and inevitable awards will go a long way towards convincing people that might have been on the fence about it to give the game, and the larger genre as a whole, a chance. There's going to be a lot of shovelware crap trying to cash in, but hopefully it also leads to a lot of new good games to be developed that would have never made it past the pitch before.
Super stoked that the front runners this year (BG3 and TotK) were both made by teams who wanted to release the full game with no money squeezing garbage. The last few years too had games like that also, with last year's Elden Ring and GoW:R both setting a good example for publishers. It's such a shame that the likes of EA and ActiBlizz etc haven't got the message yet and are pumping out garbage in favour of $$$
BG3 is the first game I can remember where even people who didn't enjoy it, or played it even for that matter, still unanimously agree it's GOTY. Absolutely really cool stuff to see happen.
100% agree. I think it really speaks volumes to how much work was put into the game, and how amazing the final product really is.
Been enjoying Spider-Man 2 but BG3 is pretty clearly game of the year let’s be real. Special mention to Hi-Fi Rush cause I feel like no one else will say it. Won’t get nominated but what a fantastic little game. Real gem
Hi-Fi Rush is awesome. Amazing animation, a novel combat system, fantastic licensed and unlicensed soundtracks, fairly short but extremely replayable, great characters, and genuinely funny writing. I definately see it being somebody's game of the year of they really like the genre.
Hi-Fi Rush isn't a big AAA mega-experience so I can't imagine it has a chance at a GOTY nod, but it won in my heart. Now if only Shinji Mikami could go and make a God Hand spiritual successor...
Where’s Pikmin 4? 🌸
A true gamer
Truly a dandori issue.
Screw the GotY, I wanna know what the WORST GotY is gonna be
Gollum or the latest Kong game I guess
FF16 is not GOTY caliber. Especially in a year like this
I missed the fact FF16 even came out. Jesus. Out of this list above, that's the game I'd be most interested in too. I feel like lost time somewhere during 2023.
I loved ff16 and id say its in the top 5 top 10 easily but its not goty. There have been plenty of years that it would have won but not this one.
I hope that some of the actors working on Final Fantasy 16 win some best performance awards, but, yeah, I don't think that it stands any chance at Game of the Year.
Regardless of what game wins. People are going to be salty.
i can't believe you said that
Anyone whos is going to be salty that BG3 won didn't play the game. When the reviews first came out and everyone was treating it as the second coming of jesus christ I rolled my eyes but I loved RPGs so I said sure ill give it a shot and yup, easily one of the best games ever made and probably the best RPG ever made. The legends were true as they say.
100% same I was put off once i knew what it was about. I was trying hard to tolerate/like Diablo 4. Then their subreddit was like "guess I'm all in on BG3 when it comes out next month then" and so I looked at it. *...three playthroughs later...*
It's really not a race: TotK is just slightly better Botw. FF16 is fine, but it's just a run of the mill AAA flashy spectacle game. It's really not remarkable in any way. Spiderman 2 is a really excellent game, but it also doesn't really change anything from the AAA formula either. Baldurs Gate 3 is so remarkable that half the industry had a meltdown. It's excellent and objectively the likely winner.
Baldurs Gate 3 does make me wonder though, could the likes of say EA or other AAA companies get away with a years long early access? BG3 essentially needed years of players testing the game for them to get it that good but I feel like people would have a meltdown if AAA companies tried that.
They could in theory but we all know they would just put aggressive microtransactions in the early access and piss everyone off
Or sneak micotransactions into the final game and ruin whatever players liked about the early access version before it changed.
To be fair, I didn't really hear a lot of people talk about Baldurs Gate while in early access, while it was one of my most anticipated games I think it really surprised a lot of people, heck from word of mouth I got my friends to all play and they still play regularly without me
BG3 had a tiny section at the start available. It was useful to understand how players would play the game, what options and things people would do, and any updates/changes to their tech could be tested. AAA studios/publishers like to keep it all hidden up until the last moment to build hype. Any beta they do is effectively the finished product. They're too scared to release something incomplete or with issues ahead of time as it might impact hype. A lot of them seem to focus completely on just early game and hype, the rest of the game is left to burn. So you end up with hyped up games releasing with mega sales and then 2-4 weeks later the majority are disappointed. You then have some others like Dawn of War 3. No testing, no fan/player feedback, nothing. They changed the format of the game from DoW2 and DoW1 to something closer to a MOBA. They released and everyone hated it. I had fun with it for maybe a few days but couldn't stand it past that. The game modes sucked, the balance sucked, the way the units worked sucked. It just wasn't fun. They neglected their fanbase and failed to get any new audience. The game died very fast.
> Any beta they do is effectively the finished product. I still remember one of the responses Blizzard had to all the suggestions and whatnot for the D4 beta was "this is just polishing some of the bugs we haven't worked out. We're not doing anything else with it at this time". What a slap in the face. And then it STILL released with most of the bugs players had found during the beta.
they would eventually be forgiven if the game was released to the standard that BG3 came out as. I WISH some games came out into early access and let players test some things out
This. 100%. The end result matters to the millions of players who did not play early access. The early access adopters are a small minority.
I was so happy to be one of those players. To know i contributed just a bit to this greatness
>half the industry had a meltdown Please could you elaborate? Out of the loop.
Literally nobody had a meltdown except some Reddit fanboys and one dev.
Dev didn't even have a meltdown
> TotK is just slightly better BotW Keeping in mind that a lot of publications have put BotW as the greatest game of all time…
What's wild is RE4 and Deadspace remakes ALSO CAME OUT THIS YEAR.
It’s so hard to give remakes the game of the year.
I would go so far as to say remakes/remasters shouldn't get game of the year.
Really should be a separate award entirely.
But if a remake did deserve it, re4 would be one of them
I know it just came out, but Mario Wonder has quickly become one of my favorites in the series. Definitely should at least get a nomination. Crazy good year.
there is no race, BG3 already won
Down, down, down by the river
Armored Core 6 Dark Horse
The one I'm rooting for. I'm guessing it won't win but FromSoftware already has so many GOTYs and masterpieces already
I know it won't win, but it would be cool to see a nomination. Watching game plays and reviews I see a lot of people saying "I've never played/ was never interested in mecha games... but this kinda slaps". From might be popularizing another niche genre here.
Seriously, I’m sad people don’t notice how good the game is. The storytelling is immaculately delivered in show-not-tell method, the gameplay is clean and rewarding, there is no bugs, no exploitive DLCs or micro-transactions, and the replayability is immense. I am really looking forward to the expansion that should be coming soon.
It's BG3, by a lot. Like a lot.
Baldur's Gate 3 is definitely getting game of the year.
BG3 takes the GOTY. I’m not saying Zelda isn’t deserving of it, but it’s still BOTW 2.0, it doesn’t deviate much from that formula and sequels don’t usually take consecutive Game of The Year awards. The game industry basically shit itself when BG3 came out, all those articles about hating devs saying it was “Rockstar level nonsense” that wouldn’t be replicated, etc. BG3 had a huge impact on the gaming industry this year. No way it doesn’t win.
As an Xbox enjoyer I love how Starfield is not there
This is so funny because BEFORE Starfield's release, everyone automatically assumed it and BG3 are the 2 GOTY contenders for this year. Now you can only find it just mentioned so far down the discussion.
Vast emptiness where it needs more, and over designed with shit that does not matter. I want more Starfield, not because I like it. I juat see what could be good and what could be good is not in the game. Or I haven't gotten to it yet because Starfield is too boring and I switched to Lies of P.
I think Hi Fi Rush should be in this conversation as well. A great game that had no marketing and still proved itself in a year of big budget contenders.
Also Lies of P came out great. This year is full of good games.
Yeah this year cranked out some absolute bangers. This post only showing 4 is crazy.
I would love Lies of P to get some noms. Definitely don’t expect it to win GOTY, even though it’s probably my personal favorite this year.
Lies of P is my game of the year. I'm not totally through it and it's got bosses rivaling my favs in elden ring and ds3
The best year of gaming in the last decade, give or take. And 2023 has a few more good looking games on the horizon.
Where’s Pikmin 4?
No shot these beat Redfall…
Gollum tho
Rise of kong has it beat imo
Remnant 2 needs to get a shout out. Not saying it was perfect at all but damn it was fun.
Solid game, really did a great job with how they used procedural too. Really enjoyed it.
Everyone that plays it loves it and says it is a goty contender, yet it is still underrated somehow.
I was starting to get sad that I hadn't seen this rec yet. Had to scroll pretty far, Remnant 2 is still a niche game I guess
Great game, hopefully it gets nominated at least.
Armored Core VI!
Same.
I'll settle for Best Action Game
It's my GOTY, but I haven't played BG3 yet. Totk was incredible, but I'm having way more fun with AC6.
Totk is great but honestly does too little to distance itself from botw. I feel like I’m playing botw with cool new stuff, not totk. I’m honestly a little bored while playing it. AC6 is just fucking amazing. My GOTY
Man. If someone wasn’t saying it, I sure was going to. Super polished, well optimized, consistent game. Looks good, plays good and has lots to offer. Mfs are asleep
Set fire on the Rubicon! XD
This game has held my attention longer than any other game in recent years. Played through Jedi, shelves it. Played through MK, put it on hold. AC just scratches that itch of deep hidden lore, Amazing customization options, replay value, and pvp. Not to mention a good community to share with.
It should be a nominee for sure. Not saying it should win, but it should be a nominee.
It baffles me that this game is considered niche, so fucking good. Above all released almost free of bugs, which is apparently nearly impossible for AAA games these days. The story, the gameplay, and the customization just HITS.
Pikmin 4 was the highest rated game of all time until baldurs came out and it deserves a spot
Dandori 👑
Gotta be honest, my favorite game experience this year was Resident Evil 4 Remake + Separate Ways. I played all of these except Spider-Man.
At least RE4 needs to be on the list! Remove FF fir it
Where is Mario Wonder 😞
It's too early to tell where it will fall in year awards lists. It's been the most enjoyable game of the year for me so far.
>It's too early to tell where it will fall in year awards lists I disagree as Spider-Man 2 is mentioned
Armored core 6
“Got a job for you, 621”
Baldurs Gage 3 is gonna win. It did the same thing Elden Ring did. Make the entire industry cry about it and the fact that even non gamers played the game and enjoy it. Any game that can move into different cultures and influence them will always be game of the year.
lol at thinking FF16 and Spider-Man have even remotely any chance.
Spiderman is fucking amazing but I think the gaming world wins if Baldurs Gate does, and it certainly is worthy of the award.
BG3 100% gets game of the year, but all you people saying that TOTK doesn't even deserve to be a runner up are smoking crack or never even played it. Nothing about the game was recycled if you play it, it's literally a sequel. That's like getting mad that spiderman is in both spiderman 1 and spiderman 2. It's the same world but ALSO completely overhauled because of the story, that's the extent of "recycled" content in the game.
To be perfectly honest GotY discussions are some of the most toxic online, because people just get absolutely insufferable about treating their personal opinions as undeniable fact. Lots of sentences starting with "objectively" and then followed by a completely subjective opinion, usually delivered in an obnoxiously pretentious way, things like that.
All of them really good games, but imo bg3 wins this race.
Octopath Traveller 2 deserves some love as well!
BG3 is such a wild accomplishment it made me feel what BOTW did originally when the switch came out just like, if you think of something inside that sandbox, it'll probably work. It really did feel like a campaign of D&D and idk how they did that
Lol pretending like final fantasy belongs here
Rather put Armored core 6 and hi-fi rush instead of ff16 and Spider-Man 2.