GOTY 2023 Speculation:

[robertmac43]

With the the year coming to a close, speculation on Game of the Year is ramping up.

2023 is one of the best years we have had in a long while with huge releases across all platforms.

I'm curious to hear people's GOTY thoughts as well as general thoughts on the year of gaming.

What's your GOTY? Best Indie? Disappointment of the year? Underrated game of the year? Best story? ETC.

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[93LEAFS]

Who's actually gonna win most of them? It's Tears of the Kingdom or Baldur's Gate 3. I'd be very shocked to see someone other than those 2 win GOTY at The Game Awards.

My personal game I looked forward to the most and lived up to the hype Spiderman 2. But, I plan to get around to some of the others (Alan Wake 2, Tears of the Kingdom, Mario Wonder, Starfield). Street Fighter 6 was also great. I enjoyed Jedi:Survivor but it def had issues when it came to PC performance that holds it back.

Biggest disappointment? How many games for PC launched in a questionable state (Jedi: Survivor, Starfield, Last of Us Remastered, could go on forever?)

 

[ArGarBarGar]

AC6 deserves best action game and I will not be taking any questions.

 

[Unholy Diver]

From what I've played this year

Top Games -

Tears of the Kingdom - would get my GOTY vote

Dead Space Remake
Starfield - probably not GOTY worthy but still very enjoyable and I personally had very few bugs for a open world Bethesda game
Pikmin 4 - same as Starfield, not GOTY great, but a very good fun game

Pleasant Surprises -

Dead Island 2


Disappointments -

Atomic Heart - it wasn't bad, but I just hoped for more

Highly regarded games that I expect to be very good but haven't gotten to yet -

Resident Evil 4 Remake
Hogwarts Legacy
Spiderman 2
Mario Wonder

 

[x Tame Impala]

It's probably between BG3 and TOTK. I never played BG3 but definitely appreciate the excellence that was TOTK.

 

[Sad People]

Its pretty easily between TotK and BG3, but I think BG3 gets it. When BG3 was released i heard from everyone of how its going to win GOTY and i pushed back a bit saying "dont forget about TotK" or "i bet TotK will give it a run for its money" but as time goes on i think it will be BG3 at the end, just seems like their year.

Also at first i was kinda surprised to see Hogwarts Legacy get completely snubbed but after i slept on it for a day or 2 i shouldnt of been surprised given the political issues that come with JK Rowling. Even if i think it deserves some nominations because it is a good game and highly successful (a billion dollar game for goodness sake). Which kinda stinks for Avalanche Games and Portkey Games because they did a really good job with it.

 

[93LEAFS]

Its pretty easily between TotK and BG3, but I think BG3 gets it. When BG3 was released i heard from everyone of how its going to win GOTY and i pushed back a bit saying "dont forget about TotK" or "i bet TotK will give it a run for its money" but as time goes on i think it will be BG3 at the end, just seems like their year.

Also at first i was kinda surprised to see Hogwarts Legacy get completely snubbed but after i slept on it for a day or 2 i shouldnt of been surprised given the political issues that come with JK Rowling. Even if i think it deserves some nominations because it is a good game and highly successful (a billion dollar game for goodness sake). Which kinda stinks for Avalanche Games and Portkey Games because they did a really good job with it.

I'm sort of surprised to see it not get nominated at all for anything at The Game Awards. But, I never thought it was a clear GOTY candidate. It was a pretty stacked year overall, with 2 games that were obviously getting noms (TOTK and BG3). The awards are pretty much voted on by critics, and pretty much every game that was nominated scored higher on Metacritic than Hogwarts Legacy. It was just a pretty deep year of games scoring 90 or higher. Like, there is a strong argument for a few games that got left off, for example Street Fighter 6 was reviewed insanely well but didn't get a GOTY nomination. Same with stuff like Hi-Fi Rush, Jedi: Survivor and Final Fantasy XVI.

 

[Commander Clueless]

It's probably between BG3 and TOTK. I never played BG3 but definitely appreciate the excellence that was TOTK.

I'm this, but the opposite.

BG3 for me, but I will totally understand if (when) TOTK wins it.


Best Indie: Dave the Diver

Biggest Disappointment: Starfield (not that it was bad by any stretch of the imagination, but I was hoping to have my socks blown off. Disclaimer: Not even close to beating it yet)

Underrated Game(s) of the Year: Dredge and Terra Nil. Both kind of short but really fun.

 

[robertmac43]

Underrated Game(s) of the Year: Dredge and Terra Nil. Both kind of short but really fun.

I missed Terra Nil, putting this on my radar for sure.

 

[x Tame Impala]

I'm this, but the opposite.

BG3 for me, but I will totally understand if (when) TOTK wins it.


Best Indie: Dave the Diver

Biggest Disappointment: Starfield (not that it was bad by any stretch of the imagination, but I was hoping to have my socks blown off. Disclaimer: Not even close to beating it yet)

Underrated Game(s) of the Year: Dredge and Terra Nil. Both kind of short but really fun.

I’d bet BG3 takes it, personally. Wouldn’t be surprised to see TOTK win either

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

I played RE4 for the first time, and as good as it was, It's a remake, remakes shouldn't be up for game of the year, Final Fantasy 16 should have taken the spot of RE4 remake.

It's not a huge regardless, I just find it odd that a 2005 game is up for 2023 game of the year

 

[JaegerDice]

I think Baldur’s Gate 3 will win it, but Zelda is my personal GOTY.

My most played games this year are definitely Diablo 4 and Street Fighter 6

 

[93LEAFS]

I played RE4 for the first time, and as good as it was, It's a remake, remakes shouldn't be up for game of the year, Final Fantasy 16 should have taken the spot of RE4 remake.

It's not a huge regardless, I just find it odd that a 2005 game is up for 2023 game of the year

I'd say a ground up remake should have consideration compared to something like a remaster. FF VII Remake got a nom, and I think there is a very strong chance next year FF VII Rebirth is one of the leading contenders. And, that's a 1997 game that is being split up into 3 parts.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

I'd say a ground up remake should have consideration compared to something like a remaster. FF VII Remake got a nom, and I think there is a very strong chance next year FF VII Rebirth is one of the leading contenders. And, that's a 1997 game that is being split up into 3 parts.

I agree FF7 rebirth will probably get a Nom for 2024 I fully expect that and again while FF7 remake part 1 was very good I enjoyed it a lot it was a remake it shouldn't have been nominated.

I'm all for remakes having their own category we certainly have enough of them.

But not Game of the year, especially not over the likes of not just FF16, but Liesof P, Hogwarts Legacy, and yes know why Hogwarts is being ignored but that is a quality game and the people that made it should be nominated for SOMETHING they deserve SOME recognition.

This year was LOADED with what I like to call elite gaming experiences that could have replaced RE4 Remake.

Not that it matters because there are only 2 games that can realistically win.

Those being BG3 and Tears of the Kingdom, nobody else has a shot.

 

[Jussi]

Alan Wake 2 or it's rigged.America PTHYI! UK PTHYI! Canada PTHYI! Japan PTHYI! Finland #1!

 

[Shareefruck]

Personally, only Street Fighter 6 impressed me and/or really drew my attention this year. I'm really not feeling this whole "greatest year in videogames" thing at all (I genuinely liked last year and maybe even each of the past 6 years aside from 2021 WAY more). There's an impressively high quantity of crowd-pleasing titles (a lot of them being big sequels of things that I didn't like in the first place), but nothing's really striking me as an outright creative masterpiece to fall in love with or anything like other years, personally. Even a lot of the things I was looking forward to have ended up disappointing me (Sea of Stars and Mario Wonder). Haven't tried BG3, but it doesn't really feel like my kind of thing either.

With the benefit of hindsight, of the recent years, 2019 probably impressed me the most. Sekiro, Disco Elysium, and Outer Wilds are all timelessly brilliant and insane to have in the same year, IMO, and then you also had a solid stable blockbusters (many of which felt more atypical and novel than usual) and other great indies on top of that.

 

[kingsholygrail]

Super Mario RPG.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

I'm a giant Zelda fanboy, and while I absolutely love Tears of the Kingdom. Baldur's Gate 3 Deserves GOTY.

 

[PeteWorrell]

Baldur's Gate 3 for me for pushing the boundaries of the genre that even upset some bigger developers.

Tears of the Kingdom is a fantastic game but it's less impressive after Breath of the Wild. It's basically a big DLC which Nintendo themselves admitted and it became it's own game after having just too many new ideas.

 

[Jussi]

No other game this year has something like this:

 

[Smoke]

My personal GOTY is Lies of P. I figured I'd hate it, because souls games never clicked for me, but this one was special to me.

 

[JaegerDice]

Super Mario RPG.

Stop it, god damn you, Ive spent so much money on games this year and Im trying to hold off…

 

[kingsholygrail]

Stop it, god damn you, Ive spent so much money on games this year and Im trying to hold off…

As an all time fan of the original, it's a really good remaster.

 

[S E P H]

Baldur's Gate 3 is just too nerdy for me to ever get into it. Anything that reminds me of Skyrim or WoW is just a huge turn-off.

Now I haven't played every single game that is worthy of GOTY potential mentioned here, but Hogwarts Legacy was one of the most fun I've had in a video game in a very long time. Most games normally have a fun feature that becomes either repetitive or because you are so far into it, you're sort of stuck in a phase where you want to finish it regardless of it becoming bland (Cyberpunk suffered a bit from this, but TLoU suffered from this aspect so much). Hogwarts was just the definition of fun throughout and even when it suffered from some repetitive and bland moments, building your Room of Requirement added so much depth to it and gave purpose to the side quests in the game to get loot for your room. Brilliant stuff and currently my GOTY.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Baldur's Gate 3 is just too nerdy for me to ever get into it. Anything that reminds me of Skyrim or WoW is just a huge turn-off.

Now I haven't played every single game that is worthy of GOTY potential mentioned here, but Hogwarts Legacy was one of the most fun I've had in a video game in a very long time. Most games normally have a fun feature that becomes either repetitive or because you are so far into it, you're sort of stuck in a phase where you want to finish it regardless of it becoming bland (Cyberpunk suffered a bit from this, but TLoU suffered from this aspect so much). Hogwarts was just the definition of fun throughout and even when it suffered from some repetitive and bland moments, building your Room of Requirement added so much depth to it and gave purpose to the side quests in the game to get loot for your room. Brilliant stuff and currently my GOTY.

Yeah that’s a good point. I think you really do have to be a Harry Potter fan to be in love with the game otherwise the allure gets lost. Loving the books and/or movies the game is just incredible, felt like the books came alive in a AAA RPG. If you play on hard mode the combat ramps up nicely too.