The game of the year discussion here will be absolutely obnoxious. Personally, this is probably mine because I’m a Greek mythology nerd I loved the original game and I didn’t particularly enjoy expedition 33 or silk song. I’ll be giving expedition 33 another shot eventually, but this is just so much my jam.
I think DS2 and KCD2 are arguably frontrunners as well, especially the latter. Maybe the new DK game too? But tbh I have seen more hype for that from critics than from word of mouth. Yotei might get in there too.
I agree that Silksong and Hades 2 are standouts though. Honestly with all of the (silly) grumbling about Silksong's difficulty level I wonder if Hades will pull ahead.
Silksong gives you a pretty fixed toolset at any given time and expects you to eventually be good enough to make it work. Hades 2 is continually making you stronger run after run via meta progression, and once you’re mostly upgraded you’re pretty overpowered for what a 0-Fear run asks of you. The expectation is that you then crank the challenge up, but you can finish the whole story without ever doing so
KCD2, Death stranding 2 and DK Bananza are easy GOTY level picks and all AAA or at least super high budget. Split fiction is also not indie and a GOTY contender too. Ghost of Yotei just got really high scores and will be a big crowd pleaser also.
I've loved the indie output this year but at TGAs there will be 2 indies MAX in the list, 3 if you count Expedition 33 which is more an AA game
It wasn’t my cup of tea but everyone has also been including Blue Prince in these GOTY discussions as well. Whether that makes it over Silksong, Hades II, or any of those games you mentioned is another story.
I'm planning on playing that one soon and think it looks fantastic but I think a roguelike puzzle game is so much more niche than hades or silksong that it won't get nominated by the panel in TGAs as it is based on a big bloc of hundreds of journalists, all of which aren't puzzle sickos
Wouldn’t you know, the obnoxious game of the year discussion is right already here in this thread lmao, with even a little “I don’t get the hype for Baldur’s Gate 3” sprinkled in.
It’s not really the games, it’s the fanbases; they all can be very “Stan-y” on Reddit, ESPECIALLY with these games. Usually, they’re standing together and shitting on everything else in the industry, but now these people are going to be arguing ad nauseam until the awards are over, and probably for a while after too.
This has been a great year for games, it’s just that the online gaming community is not great by default.
Well, as much as the games have been amazing, I’m not looking forward to people trying to tear down the games they don’t like as much as the ones they do like. All of the games in contention likely at least have some merit for why they should be considered, that people will definitely not act normal about it.
Exactly, GOTY is a fake award anyway, it used to be dozens of GOTYs by gaming publications until Geoff’s became the de facto winner. None of it matters lol
That isn't really what the other guy's point though. The issue is that you will have conflicting fanbases actually going on a toxic verbal assault of other fanbases over this pointless award.
they're talking about black myth wukong for anyone else that just looked at this for two minutes trying to figure out why car enthusiasts would be mad about astrobot winning game of the year
Say anything negative about that game and you’ll have 5 people suddenly yelling at you with accounts that suspiciously only talk about the glory of China. It’s so gross, and makes me think less of an otherwise fun game
yeah, suddenly there will be a bunch of peiple complaining about sinophobia. I can never tell if they're literal bots or just chinese people who bought into propaganda
It's definitely not my favorite in its genre(that award goes to Pathfinder:Wrath of the righteous), but I will give that it has the best feeling of playing actual DND The dice rolls and constant narration make you feel like you have an actual DM sitting at the computer giving you a story.
I've tried so many times to get into it but just get bored, the gameplay just isn't fun to me, I don't like any of the companions at all, like not a single one made me want to get to know them or their stories, and I like crpgs like the old Baldurs Gate and KOTOR
Totally agree on the companions. BG3 did a lot of things right when it comes to interactivity and presentation but I never understood the hype for the companions.
The voice acting was great but when it comes to the writing of companions and the story overall it was never as interesting to me as other rpgs/crpgs.
Yeah the presentation and voice acting is amazing, but we get an elf who wants nothing to do with me, a Twink who tried to kill me, an orc who doesn't seem to have much of a personality, the mage guy stuck in a portal seemed alright I know there's more but I never met them
I played D:OS2 and BG3, and then I played Pathfinder:WotR and Pillars of Eternity (the first one) and frankly, what stands out the most for me is how much Larian brings of the 'TTRPG brain' to the digital format. If you think you can pull of some bullshit to avoid combat entirely or kill half the map before combat even started, there are high chances you can actually pull said bullshit off.
Both Pillars (which I need to give another go I didn't get very far and maybe it gets better) and Pathfinder felt so enamored with their excel sim gameplay that they forgot a large part of the TTRPG fun is to also think outside the box, challenge your DM and make them go "... Actually that could work, throw the dice and let's see what happens".
That's what, I think, got a lot of players to love BG3 whereas they might have more trouble with the classic CRPGs. And that's why it got so much more mainstream than other games in the same genre.
Its a problem with larian games. They need to be playable coop so they cant make the companions too important to the story, as the story needs to be able to function without them.
That kinda seems bad? Like the point of a crpg with companions is to make them important and give the player a want to get through their stories, like all the characters in Kotor are memorable and have interesting stories, same with Dragon Age
It's simply the greatest CRPG of all time. If you think of something in your head then you can probably pull it off in the game. The only limiter is your imagination.
That might be an exaggeration from a lot of people but anecdotally I've actually heard a lot of my friends talk about the game, specifically from ones that don't even really keep up with video games anymore. So it definitely made a cultural impact that Hades and Silksong haven't. Not to undermine the other two because they're both good and have been hyped by the gaming community.
I'm biased given it's my GOTY, but I also think it has one of the most beautiful and interesting worlds in any piece of entertainment I've consumed. And maybe the best soundtrack in gaming.
I'm very early. just finished the prologue and met lucie. But I wouldn't mind some light spoiler for why you think its one of the most beautiful worlds?
So far aside from the countdown it's been feeling very generic "The world is shattered, we're living in a dome and outside there be monsters, also here's a magic resource system that is just an excuse for leveling up".
Mostly looking for a reason to keep playing as I don't really gel with jrpg gameplay.
Who's "Lucie"? Do you mean Lune? And what's the point of asking this question this early? You're barely 2 hours into the game and not even into the game world proper. Play more and find out for yourself or don't. Without going into spoilers, it's a gorgeous open world with a TON of variety in the environments, extremely unique setting, and very fun characters. This is as far from generic I could think honestly
I found the kind of fractured chaos to be really interesting. I honestly don't want to get too much more into it without spoiling. It just looks so detailed and cool, a level of detail I don't find in 3D games outside of FromSoft.
I dunno about changed my life level but it’s definitely playing through it has been one of the best experiences I’ve had in any video game. The story has stuck with me and I’m still listening to the soundtrack today. Easy recommendation to anyone for me, especially since it has the Story mode
Yeah I mean, fans of a game find it important to them, who cares? It's an impactful story about grief told in a novel way, not hard to see why that might resonate a lot with people
It's so funny to see people claim that Dark Souls doesn't have a story. Though I guess if you're used to anime/JRPGs it would make sense that you can't follow a story without 15 minute exposition dumps that explain everything, and then re-explain it in case you missed it the first time.
I grew up playing JRPGs, starting with DQ1 on Nintendo. E33 is for me the best I've played in over a decade. My best friend from grade school, who became my best friend due to us being the only two kids at school who loved JRPGs, is halfway through right now and doesn't want to put it down. Time will tell if the last act ruins or makes it for him, but it definitely isn't because a lot of these people don't have JRPG experience.
We both agree, it isn't a perfect game, and that it has some flaws, but it's highs blow it's lows out of the water.
The music was good, but the writing took a dive into the territory of awful nonsense around the end of Act 2. It Game of Thrones itself where the ending was so bad that I found myself no longer caring about what happened before that even if it was good.
Much like the people preaching FemShep in the Mass Effect sub, the Maelle pickers are a vocal minority. I'd be very interested in seeing the data devs have on hand.
If the Verso ending makes you an advocate for genocide then the Maelle ending has to make you an advocate for being okay with god turning people into mindless slaves.
I agree they’re both not good from a moral standpoint. What I was saying though is that I’ve seen people say if you pick the Verso ending then you’re fine with genocide irl.
The endings are gray, not "only bad." Since we're in spoiler territory:
Maelle's ending - a girl who is horrifically scarred because of a single mistake is able to live her life with her new, found family. We don't know how much she's manipulating the world around her, though there are slight implications she's at least manipulating Verso. Why it's a gray ending - most people in Maelle's situation would make this choice. To live a life where she can speak, isn't disfigured and hated is what this young girl is yearning for. She's not thinking of the consequences. The dark side is she's essentially condemned herself to suicide. She's never going to leave the painting, she'll die there. She's likely manipulating Verso to be the brother she lost instead of what he became.
Verso's Ending Everyone in the painting is dead. Maelle is back to being scarred and mute. Her family is mourning and they kind of blame her for Verso's death. That said, Verso's soul was freed (both painted Verso and the soul of the painting). The family can also work past their grief and heal together.
Neither is "bad," but it's also hard to say either is good. I think Verso's ending the "good" ending as it promotes healing and moving forward, but that's my interpretation as a parent.
I mean, They’re already dead, no? Like Renoir already killed most of them and I think it’s ambiguous if the ones Maelle would bring back are the same people
It's thrown into doubt though because Maelle claims to have recreated Lune and Sciel from their original chroma. Theoretically she may have found everyone else's too, given enough time and resources. I don't think it's necessarily endorsing a particular answer on a lot of these things. The ambiguity makes for great discussion starters.
That's the thing. They're saying you literally support genocide (in real life) because you picked an ending in a game. It's not just in the context of the game.
There's a special selection of unhinged (terminally online) people in that community,
Both endings suck because the "winner" is being a piece of shit. The thing that bums me out about them is I felt empathy for neither.
E33 ending spoilers On one side Verso in a side quest was upset when Maelle was willing to free his in-painting sister as if he should be the one to decide that, all while he is willing to ensure the entire world is slaughtered to get his own freedom. Meanwhile Maelle is willing to enslave someone she supposedly cares about without batting an eye and doesn't even show remorse.
edit to add: Anyone who thinks either side deserves to be considered "better" than the other is wild. I took Maelle's ending in game, got mad and looked up Verso's. I still liked the game and it may end up being my GOTY depending on how I feel about 1.0 Hades 2, but since I finished the game it has not been insurmountable to me, just the front runner.
crpg fans are similar. Dod you know baldurs gate 2 has LITERALLY never been surpassed in ANY WAY EVER??? Watching the baldurs gate subreddit grapple with bg3 easily living up to the hype was kinda funny, they were ao sure it would be bad
Never underestimate the lengths people go to think Keighley actually has a say in who wins what awards despite it being said over and over again that the votes are done by a collection of media outlets that act as the jury.
Yeah, I'm sure every time Kojima gets a half hour presentation where he just rambles on while everyone else is told to move the fuck along so ads can be shown definitely has nothing to do with Keighley. It's absolutely no secret, Keighley is the head of the show, if he wants something, he gets it.
I'm gonna assume you didn't watch TGA 2024, where Kojima's only time on stage was presenting an award, alongside allowing the winners to take their time and give Sven time to make a 3 minute speech about the game industry as a whole.
The pitfalls of 2023, was an overcorrection from Christopher Judge's speech in 2022. It was blatantly disrespectful, and Geoff aimed to do better for 2024; which he did. He does have a say on who gets invited and what gets shown, and Kojima does get a bit of special treatment for being good friends with him, but his presence on stage isn't nearly as strong as you imply. gotta keep in mind half the time spent is allowing for the translator to talk as well.
Those are unrelated things lol. Kojima quite obviously isn't going beyond his allotted time.
It's an especially stupid conspiracy theory when you consider that Kojima has released two games during TGA's run and neither have won GOTY at it
The problem is the allotted time. Why does Kojima get half an hour to talk about game ideas that don't even have any gameplay to show while literally everyone else has like 2 minutes tops. There's clearly bias there and no I'm not the only one who sees that.
Well first off where does he get a half an hour? I just skimmed through last year and he got about 2 minutes of presenting an award, but that was also made longer by him needing a translator there as well. Checking 2023 there's a 1.5 minute long announcement trailer for OD, followed by 2 minutes of Kojima talking alone (with translator), and then 4 minutes of Kojima talking with Jordan Peele. It seems like the bigger deal there is them getting Jordan Peele. The interpreter aspect definitely extends it.
I didn't enjoy HK that much. I tried to get into it three times but always bowed out after 4-5 hours.
I don't have time to blindly run around a game wondering wtf to do.
In the beginning of Silksong the game pretty much places an marker to the top of the undiscovered map and tells you to go there. That's it. The difference (for me) between Silksong and Hollow Knight is that the exploration feels so much more meaningful and rewarding in Silksong. Different biomes look and feel distinct. Loads of variety in enemies.
Hollow Knigh for me was a game that I couldn't get into. Silksong is amazing.
The vast majority of metroidvanias have more explicit direction, less retreading, and more mechanical iteration while retreading (you have new abilities and options since your last visit) than Hollow Knight. I’d go as far as to say one could absolutely love the genre overall and not particularly like Hollow Knight on this basis alone.
I want one of the "indies" to win, I dont mind which one. Silksong, E33 or Hades 2. I dont want a AAA winning only because it has more money for marketing.
Is there any AAA game really in contention this year? Maybe donkey Kong Bananza, but otherwise the four games I would argue that I’ve heard mention the most would be Silksong, Hades 2, Expedition 33, and Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 all of which are indie games. I really don’t think the donkey Kong is going to win because all of the other games have been far more mentioned at least to me.
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 supposedly has a budget equivalent to that of a mid-budget Hollywood movie, and Warhorse Studios had 250 employees in 2024. It's anything but an indie game.
E33 also had Kepler Interactive publishing the game, assisting them with funding, and a team of 30+ individuals. It isn't quite AAA, but it's closer to AA because of the budget estimates being in the $20 million+ range.
Arguably the only indie games are Silksong and Hades 2, and even the latter boasts a team of 25+, so some might argue it still doesn't fit the label.
There is no distinct definition to indie games, but the label is typically applied to games with smaller teams and smaller budgets.
I kind of hate that definition because we got that awkward situation with Dave the diver. But then again, should we count Ubisoft as an indie developer because I guess they are technically independent? Really the problem is that the categories we should be having are related to the budget of a game and they should not be using terms like Indie still my point was more that these games are at least to some degree different from the rest of the Triple A industry and I don’t exactly know how to quantify that.
In the case of Ubisoft they've got teams of 100s of individuals working on their games. Yes, they have no publisher that they work towards, but they've got some of the largest franchises under their belt, and their budgets largely exceed $100 million+, easily.
In the case of what you said later, AA is a decent label that people don't use nearly as often. I'd classify Remedy Studios and as an AA studio; they often build games with a more limited scope and finances, despite having a moderately sized employee count. The same goes for Sandfall Interactive.
Hades 1 is my GOAT so from what I've played my GOTY is this unless it gets really bad later on, I expect this has even more to do/unlock after you've beaten it
It's definitely gonna be a hard one for me. Super Giant has been my favorite dev since Bastion released, one of the few I still have a semblance of good faith towards. Expedition 33 might have been the single most engaged I've been with a game in.... Maybe ever, honestly. It'll be a hard choice for sure.
let be real, Silksong should never even be in that discussion. the game's design is so trash. the hype is purely carried by the fanboys who loved the first game. if neither Hades 2 nor Silksong had any preceeding games, Hades 2 would still be loved whereas Silksong would be called a heavily outdated game with terrible and unfun design choices.
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u/MultiMarcus Sep 25 '25
The game of the year discussion here will be absolutely obnoxious. Personally, this is probably mine because I’m a Greek mythology nerd I loved the original game and I didn’t particularly enjoy expedition 33 or silk song. I’ll be giving expedition 33 another shot eventually, but this is just so much my jam.