Talking Point: Zelda: TOTK Isn't A Shoo-In For GOTY 2023, And That's A Good Thing

I don't see Spider Man getting GOTY, or Baldur's Gate since it has half the reviews of TotK, but gaming sites love narratives. Starfield will be great, but Idk if that would win GOTY either. In any case, nothing is topping TotK for my personal one (of the games mentioned, I'm only playing TotK and Starfield b/c lack of a PS5 and I'm not into isometric RPG's) so I guess it's immaterial since I watch TGA for the meltdowns and the announcements. Plus, even if there was a single body that decided GOTY, why would it really matter? There are so many genres that people leave out of the discussion for various reasons (myself included) you really can't call the awards fair.

Edit: There really is too much to unpack and I don't have that kind of time, so I don't plan on it but the above are my truncated thoughts so...yeah.

Sorry guys, but that Last of Us eShop knockoff is some tough competition. I don't think Zelda will win this one.

Some folk are carrying on like Starfield is game of the year before it's even released! It's nauseating lol. Don't get me wrong, Skyrim in space is probably going to be very popular (clunky and buggy but popular lol.) Erm, I dunno (as usual!) Zelda has a lot going for it gameplay and design. It's ambition. It's execution. It's craftsmanship (the fact it's on older tech! Programmers in awe at how stable it is for what it is doing!) Etc etc. Looking at other games, they may impress with more horse power, more voice acting, more narrative but then I don't think that stuff really moves gaming forward towards gaming. More towards being movies. I think it will win GotY but I also hope it's competition all come to Switch 2 eventually O.<

All the Game Awards GotY winners except Dragon Age Inquisition released in the 1st half of the year so I think TotK is likely to win as that was the huge game in the 1st half of this year.

November 2014 - Dragon Age Inquisition
May 2015 - Witcher 3
May 2016 - Overwatch
March 2017 - BotW
April 2018 - God of War
March 2019 - Sekiro
June 2020 - TLoU 2
March 2021 - It Takes Two
February 2022 - Elden Ring

But if not TotK, I think Silksong would be most likely.

I seriously don't see how Zelda could be topped in 2023. It's gonna win best game just as much as Cilian Murphy is gonna win the best actor Oscar for Oppenheimer

game of the year is determined later on this year and i am sure baldurs gate will be the favorite unless starfield comes in better then expected..

It’s been one of the best years in recent memory. Even if Starfield is crap then we’ve still been eating good.

None of the titles in the article have a chance against TOTK, tbh, they don't really stand out. Most of them are copypaste 7/10s, but there ARE many great titles that can stand up to Zelda (they just weren't mentioned here).

• Theathrythm
• Octopath 2
• Little Witch Nobeta
• Fatal Frame 2
• Marie remake

All in all there are many more, so I wouldnt put much hope in the games like Diablo 4 or Hoghwarts Legacy

Tears of the Kingdom is definitely my game of the year, but there’s a good bit of competition for it, so who knows which game will win?

@GrailUK I'm trying subconsciously forget about Starfield until it comes out and I think that's the best way for me to have a good experience. I'm basically going in blind, all I know is it takes place in space.

If it were a Fallout or Elder Scrolls game, I could pour on all the hype I want and likely still not be disappointed, but Bethesda has historically created several other one-off franchises (Rage and Brink come to mind) that just weren't anywhere near as interesting as the two I mentioned and have already been forgotten.

Still, ToTK is one of those games that is so good, you can't really appreciate all it has to offer the first time around, and it takes time to really soak it all in. Games like Hogwarts Legacy were genuinely fun to play, but I don't keep going back to that game like I do with ToTK because I don't feel like there's much else left to discover, while ToTK still has lots of replayability with the buildable machines and whatnot.

That's what makes a GOTY for me, a game I feel like I could play forever and not get bored. The good news is we have a lot of games this year that match that description.

@Astral-Grain elden ring won game of the year and many people quit playing without even coming close to finishing i guess they got bored..if not being bored if the deciding factor..

Totk is definitely my favourite game of 2023

Hope it doesn’t win so we don’t throw any more beans into Nintendo’s and Fujibayashi’s ego jar so we can get Zelda back into form again.

@johnedwin I plantinumed the game on Xbox, something that I'm actually somewhat proud of, due to the extremely hard nature of the game.

The only game that has a chance is Spider-Man 2, and even then it would have to beat one of the best games ever made in TOTK.

@Grumblevolcano Silksong isn’t coming out this year. Sorry.

TotK: forever. It is now my favorite game of all time and I am only now starting to finish it. I have not played another game on my switch for three months. I love this game!

I don't think a remake will win it, so Resident Evil 4 is out.

RPGs typically don't do well in this category, so Balduer's Gate III is out.

Fighting games are still pretty niche, so Street Fighter 6 is out.

Spider-Man 2 looks like a sequel to a fun action game, so likely it's out.

Starfield maybe has a chance, but we need to see if it lives up to the hype.

Personally my favorite game of this year is Remnant: From the Ashes that released for Switch this april (although it's originally a 2019 game).

The only game that I've bought this that actually released this year is Resident Evil 4 Remake, and I personally think it's quite a bit overrated. It's a pretty good game, but like all the RE remakes I feel it felt somewhat uninspired.

Starfield I at one point considered, but I'm not really an open world RPG fan, so I'll suffice with Elex that I got a very low price in a Steam sale for my Steam Deck lately.

Kind of surprised how good the graphics in the game actually are (I can't really say how well it plays as I've only played less than 1 hour of it, but so far I think it seems quite alright).

@johnedwin Elden Ring seems lovely, but I haven't picked it up yet. I play Dark Souls on Switch now and again and enjoy it. I never thought I'd say this but I think the open world format seems a bit daunting for a game like that, and I prefer the more linear level design, but that's just me.

That's a little sad to hear many people didn't even finish the game, but GOTY is more or less just a popularity contest, for better or for worse.

@Gerald sadly, this is how awards in the industry work nowadays. Otherwise would the games where most money is spent on marketing win?

The media are desperately clinging to it as well, the best marketed games are always getting waaaay to high scores, no matter how repetetive or boring they are

Absolutely disagree with the article related to an easy 2022 win. Elden Ring is better than any of the listed 2023 games by far, as is GOW Ragnarok. I still haven't played Baldur's Gate.
This year has more candidates, but the top 2 in 2022 were all time top tier games.

I don't like most PC games, so TOTK is probably my GOTY.
Yet I know it won't win because PC fanbois are bigger in numbers and Skyrim kids already praise Starfield up to the sky when it isn't even released yet.

As much as I love TotK, once it was over, I still felt like it was more tech demo than fully realized Zelda entry. Felt the same about BotW. I still want more Zelda games like this though, so we can get closer to its ultimate form.

As for awards, TotK will likely take home a few, but if it doesn't, I understand why.

TotK is weird. It's great in spurts, when I'm in the mood for it. But I rarely play it back-to-back days. I still prefer BotW over-all. Even if both are great games. BG3 is probably the heavy favorite currently. Starfield, who knows honestly, it could be fabulous or riddled with bugs. Then there's Lil Ole Spiderman 2 coming out.

@Grumblevolcano I forgot how weird the Game Awards were before Elden Ring. It Takes Two in 2021? Lousy year but...really?

I feel it will be Tears Of The Kingdom or Starfield. So far Tears Of The Kingdom is my favourite.

A great year for gamers, that is for sure.

I think the bear ugh scenes should win GOTY by a landslide.

TotK is my GOTY with Future Redeemed behind it, except TGA hates Xenoblade and gave the best soundtrack to GoW last year instead of 3

As much as I enjoyed both FFXVI and Hogwarts Legacy, neither game is a contender for GOTY for me. I think among the stuff I played Zelda still has it. And looking at just the stuff y'all mentioned in the article, I think it definitely has it. I haven't touched Baldur's Gate 3 myself - with very little interest to do so in the first place - so maybe that game is as great as everyone says it is. But the rest seems like stuff that's good but nothing people talk about after a couple weeks/months. Which is what you want from a GOTY. At least if you ask me.

As for PERSONAL games of the year, and I'm always cheating with these, I'd have to go with TotK, Demon's Souls and Returnal for me as games I played this year 😛 (take a wild guess who bought himself a ps5 this year)

For my personal goty I think totk is almost the guaranteed winner. Granted I haven't played a lot of new games this year, pretty much just that, resi4 and SV6.
I will get around to Armoured core and Baldurs gate at some point and I think they both have a shot but not a big one of dethroning Zelda for me.

I’ve put almost 300 hours into Tears of the Kingdom and I’ve only just beat the game today. The most time I’d ever previously put into any game (other than Animal Crossing at 220 hours) was around the one hundred hour mark. That’s been the case with quite a few games, but even then, that game time was spread out over multiple months, if not years.

What I’m trying to say is for me to average one hundred hours per month, for three consecutive months, with just a single game, and without playing anything else alongside it no less, is completely unprecedented. Especially as it made me completely drop Capcom’s fabulous Resident Evil 4 remake. But that’s just how utterly sublime Tears of the Kingdom is.

It would seem to be a shoe-in for my game of the year, but I haven’t yet played Baldur’s Gate. Now I’ve finally beaten Zelda, I’ll definitely have the time to check it out when it launches on PS5 next month. Though it’ll need to be one hell of a game to pip Link’s latest adventure to the post. Either way, I excitedly look forward to seeing how it all pans out come year end.

Baldur's Gate III is easily the toughest competition Tears of the Kingdom has at the moment. I haven't played it myself, and I haven't watched any. Playthroughs, but apparently that game is so good that companies feel the need to point out that they shouldn't be held to the same standards, which when one of those companies is Activision Blizzard, then yes, they absolutely should.

I don't need TotK to win Game of the Year, but I also don't need people looking down on it if it doesn't.

TotK is flatly not as good as BotW, so that alone makes me feel like it won't win. Currently I think Baldur's Gate will win unless something even more amazing comes along. For those that haven't played it, I could see not understanding how it could win over TotK but believe when I tell you TotK has nothing on BG3.

Does it matter? Anyone who wants to play the game, already knows about it. A GOTY award is not going to make much of a difference. And do we really need confirmation that it's a masterpiece?

For me, it's the game of a lifetime. Exploration and puzzle-solving are the elements I care about the most and it obviously delivers in spades.

BOTW took quite a lot inspiration from other company's games but it always felt incomplete to me. TOTK completes the experience, with major innovations of its own, all based around gameplay.

Aside from that, it's also a technical masterpiece. The draw distance, level of detail, art style, lighting, sky and weather systems make for some beautiful vistas, regardless of the underpowered hardware. You can really feel everything fits together the way it does due to conscious design choices.

Looking at it more objectively, it did take them two games, and reusing the base world map, to get to this level of quality.

Grimaces birthday on the GBC could be a dark horse...

No but my goty is re4 remake, I hadnt played it since the gamecube days so I was all about it. Of course I havent/wont play many of the others, including totk, so my opinion doesnt go very far

I'm not seeing TotK for this year. If the competition is tight, critics will be searching for small excuses and the fact that TotK is so much like BotW is an easy excuse.

I don't think TotK could have beaten Elden Ring either. I love TotK and I've never played Elden Ring but critics were absolutely smitten with Elden Ring. Gaming sites were filled with article after article detailing praise and even opining about how it changed their lives. Nothing else stood a chance.

I’m over 60 hours in in Baldur’s Gate 3. It doesn’t only set new standards for CRPG’s or RPG’s but for gaming as a whole. This game should transcend the usual console vs PC “wars” which don’t make any sense anyway. It has to come to Nintendo Switch when a new, more powerful device will finally getting released.

Also, game of the year is a ridiculous notion in my opinion. There’s no such thing. Nintendo supporters will say a Nintendo exclusive, Sony’s supporters a Sony exclusive and so on. It doesn’t mean anything.

I dunno! There's been a lot of excellent games this year, and there's more to come. For as great as TotK truly is, it still doesn't feel all that fresh in the long run. I think Baldur's Gate 3 has a real chance of being GOTY at a lot of places. Hasn't FF16 been well loved as well?

From playtime it is BG3 for me as I have 61hrs into it and I am just getting to the middle of the first act of 3? I believe. My son likes ToTK and finished it. I haven't even started it. Admittedly, I never got far in BoTW either. Open world is just not my cuppa joe anymore.

But as said above - we have been spoiled with great games this year.

Official Vote for Dave the Diver as the dark horse.

Tiers of the Kingdom is my biggest DISAPPOINTMENT of the year

My guess is that Baldur's Gate will take the crown. The buzz alone is crazy! My current GotY is Zelda, but I've bought maybe 5 games so far this year? So not a whole lot of competition. I anticipate that the Mario RPG remake will end up being mine once all is said and done, though.

I think Baldurs gate does it. Can't see starfish doing it, looks a bit bland and cookie cutter Bethesda but in more empty space.. happy to be wrong.

My GOTY so far is 8-Bit Adventures 1: The Forgotten Journey a delightful classic JRPG style indie game, it goes a bit too heavy on the silly references at few points, and the enemy sprites are amateurish (in spite of the overworld pixel art looking pretty good) but othewise it's a tighly designed game with nice dungeons, simple and functional gameplay, great soundtrack and fun and surprisingly well thoughout writing for an indie game. A great reminder how good this genre can be when done right.

And I hear the sequels even better, can't wait.

I don't really care if it goes to TotK or BG3. I'm glad this year has been so incredible. I'm wondering about how TotK and BG3 will change games of their respective genres going forward. TotK is the ultimate sandbox, and BG3 looks like a legendary CRPG.
Honestly, I am most interested in seeing what kind of light BG3 casts on Starfield. Should be interesting. I think there's real potential for BG3 to change AAA RPGs.

I think it will be Starfield, Baldur's Gate 3 or Tears of the Kingdom. I enjoyed Final Fantasy 16, Diablo IV, Jedi: Survivor and Hogwarts Legacy a lot, but I don't think they are quite at the same level at the others - unlike others, I actually think that Starfield will meet its expectations, we'll see.

I don't think Resident Evil 4, Dead Space, or Metroid Prime have a chance. While the three were great and I also enjoyed them a lot, I don't think they would go with a remake or remaster, as great as the 3 of them were.

@KBuckley27 *Tears.

My GOTY is Fire Emblem Engage, (obviously, but I absolutely adore the game.) but I have high doubts anything is going to snag the official GOTY from Tears of the Kingdom. It's unavoidable, I can't go anywhere without it being brought up. It's a great game deserving of it's praises, so don't misunderstand me, but I'm honestly getting sick of hearing about it.

BG3 could very steal Zelda's thunder and you know what i'm glad this year has at least two games of this level.

I still think TotK will win and I want it to win, but yeah, this has been a great year for games, even outside of the Switch.

Personally, my top three games of year are TotK, Prime Remastered and Pikmin 4.

Everybody 1-2-Switch !!!
GOTY 2023

I think it stands between Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur's Gate III and Starfield (if it turns out great).

Not that it really matters. It has been a great year for gamers.

My personal GotY?
At first I thought it would be TotK, but now I'm leaning more at Pikmin 4.

Baldur's Gate III is great but it's cute to think that anything else stands a chance.

2017, when BOTW launched, was also a huge year with a ton of great games released including Super Mario Odyssey, Persona 5, Divinity II, Hollow Knight, Nier: Automata, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Cuphead to name a few.

That whole list is competition. Plus we have MK12 a month away.

A pretty damned good year for gaming

Baldurs Gate 3 will probably end up being my personal GOTY, but I don’t see it winning over Zelda or Starfield in a popularity contest. Can’t stress enough what a great year its been for games.

''with its only true competitor being FromSoftware’s sublime Elden Ring. Even with that brilliant rival, we feel that Tears of the Kingdom probably would have snatched the crown.''

I don't think ToTK had a chance against Elden Ring.
Don't get me wrong ToTK is great but Elden Ring is on another level.

Agreed. People worried about BG3 can't be serious gamers.

A rising tide lifts all boats.

Baldur's gate is fantastic. But it even being eligible for GOTY 2023 and that it's Metacritic is based on it's 2023 release is ... stupid, insane, backwards, counterintuitive, and sets an incredibly negative president we will make the gaming experience so much worse for everyone for years to come.

The game came out in 2020. There really isn't any way around that, the wiki even calls it "a 2020 roleplaying game". But because of the games state at the time, the publisher chose to release in early access with the standard "don't buy this unless you are okay with trash" declaimer that comes with that. Unlike games that have releasing to early access as part of the plan from day on, that wasn't the case here; it was supposed to release in Sept of 2020.

They used early access to get the best of both worlds. They could charge people money for a game that they were not confident in, and they could deflect any criticism by saying "well, it's early access". In this case, the 3 years of polish worked, and we got a fantastic game for it's second release ... but that's not what happens 99% of the time. Other publisher are already doing this, but most of the time it ends in abandonware, and the people who paid for the early access are just screwed.

It's Kickstarter all over again. You would think we would learn?

What's worse is games like No Man's Sky could really benefit from it's meta critic reflecting how it is now, or how it was 3 years after release, instead of the state it was in when you could first buy it. DOTA's meta critic score is literally based on the beta test. It was up for GOTY the year it released IN BETA, not the year is got a full release.

This is new. We have never before told a game it can win GOTY and have a Metacritic score based on the developer decided to change a label on the Steam page 3 years after they started selling it. And every other publisher is going to follow suit. WHY WOULDN'T YOU.

We are telling EA they can release crap games but pop a "early access" label to them, and not only wont we criticize them, but they can abandon them with no consequence if they don't sell enough to support further developer. Your fault for buying an early access game, after all. If they do develop it further the developer gets to decide when we review them and what year they are eligible for GOTY? Even if it's YEARS after they started charging people for the game?

You would have to be stupid not to do that. So welcome to the new gaming landscape moving forward. If you want to play a game on "release", you have no recourse if it's bad because it's "early access" so buyer beware! You can't even read a review because it's not "out yet", despite absolutely being out. Your only other option is to wait a few years longer for every game you ever play.

Street Fighter 6 is pretty far and away the best game I've played all year but I know it won't win any GOTY's since it's a fighting game. It's sad but true.☹️

My second favorite would probably be Jedi Survivor but I also don't expect that to win because of the launch issues.

Zelda is going to win because it's a new Zelda game I would imagine. I'm not saying it's a bad game, it's a good game for sure, but Zelda always gets a bump over the rest from critics. Baldurs Gate is too intimidating I bet for most people voting to give it a chance. Starfield will probably be too buggy to win it since it's Bethesda.

Regardless though it has indeed been a great year for games! Truly something for everyone. However I think your discounting how much of chance Elden Ring would stand against Zelda. Elden Ring is absolutely fantastic! Also God of War Ragnarok would have been a worthy opponent as well.

Anyway don't take GOTY awards too seriously folks. It's not worth it!

I’m hoping Baldurs Gate 3 will eventually get ported to the next Nintendo console… unless it’s a Wii U size flop :/

@Xbox_Dashboard It Takes Two is incredible and some of the best gameplay I have seen in a video game. It was my GOTY in 2021 as soon as I played it. With Psychonauts 2 as the runner up

Zelda TotK is not enough as a standalone game, it really is- despite its size- just BotW prime plus rewards program. It does a lot of like... kind of new stuff, but not enough like groundbreaking stuff as its direct predecessor. So no, shouldn't be GotY.

FFXVI is the pick for me. First FF I've been excited to play since XII.

@theModestMouse a rare negative take from you! What if my Nintendo Fanboying is really, really loud though?!? Will Zelda win the pointless award then???
Also, since BG3 has been in early access for 3 years, everything outside of Act 1 is DLC. And because so many Yakuza games are in the same area, they are DLC.

Definitely do not care about awards shows

@Gerald
Absolutely whenever a Bethesda game launches it’s like a reality distortion field has been activated that takes a year to wear off but this time oh this time they have Shelf Man and his legion of zealots behind it who will hype it as the second coming………. but would still refuse to buy it if it wasn’t on their subscription service.

Baldur's Gate 3 is the equivalent of something like Parasite or Coda winning Best Picture or an indie artist getting the grammy; it's the feel good story that people hope happens.

I haven't played any of the games on the list so I'm not sure. I know Breath of the Wild is the only Nintendo game to ever win Game of the Year despite the fact that other games were released that year. If Tears of the Kingdom somehow wins this time, I think I will never watch the Game Awards again

I think everything has a pretty good shot. This was a real good year for games and I’m hoping Starfield does enough to warrant its position for nomination.

It'll probably come down to TotK, Baldur's Gate 3, and Starfield (even if it's a broken mess, I'm sure it'll still get a ton of love like Cyberpunk did). Haven't played the first two and I have zero interest in the last one, but they seem to be the games getting all the buzz this year.

Unless there's some big surprise that makes me change my mind, my GOTY will most likely be Final Fantasy XVI. It's an absolutely brilliant entry in a series that hasn't had a mainline game I've loved like this in decades. Between the fun combat and the gripping storyline, it would take a lot for anything to take its place in my eyes. RE4 Remake is a close second. I'd say it's more consistently great than FFXVI, but FFXVI's peaks are definitely higher.

Theres no way Tears of the Kingdom couldve competed with Elden Ring, Fromsoft are on a whole other level.

TOTK will win it. I have almost 300 hours on it (more than BOTW) but I have not booted up TOTK since 7/21..... I just cant put Pikmin 4 down lol

I think it’ll be close between TotK and BG3 unless Starfield absolutely hits it out of the park and isn’t burdened by the sins of it’s forefathers.

For me personally it’s BG3 all the way. BotW/TotK just have too many design decisions that make the game more irritating than fun for me.

I would genuinely laugh if a board game video game beats out every single one of these nominees, especially looking into the action-adventure genre which seems to have repeatedly won Game of the Year.

I loved Divinity: Original Sin 2, and I'm sure I'll like BG3 as well and I hope the game will eventually make its way to Nintendo next-gen console, seeing as BG3 is compatible with the Steam Deck.

But what I'm finding strange are the BG3 reviews, as I find it hard to believe that "everyone" likes this style of game. Where are the reviews from people who "just don't get it"? Strangely absent?

That said I would like it if TotK or BG3 would win GotY. I'd also love it if Hogwarts Legacy (which oddly isn't apart of the poll, considering the impact it made upon release, more so than some of the choices. And it's a Switch title as well com November) would win GotY, for reasons.

But right now, I'm waiting for Space Marine 2 and hoping for a Space Marine remaster on Switch. But yes, this year turned out a lot better than expected.

Baldurs Gate 3 should be very interesting once it drops on PS5. PS5 console warriors are cheering it on for obvious reasons but something tells me many of them may not actually like how the game actually plays.

In any event it's definitely a great year for games no matter what system you have.

Playing Elden Ring for an entire year - I know it is my very subjective opinion -, but I find it a very bold statement that the game should be thankful for TOTK delay….

For me right now it's handily Resident Evil 4, and the only things I'm really thinking have a chance of me loving them as much this year are Spider-Man and Super Mario RPG.

It's gonna be between TotK and BG3. I hope TotK Wins most of them because it does revolutionary things with Link's abilities and world structure, unlike BG 3 which is basically just DOS2 on steroids.

And if you ask me, Divinity OS2 sucked. Bad writing, bad characters and bad story is not a good thing in rpg.

I think Baldur's Gate 3 will probably take it, given the momentum the hype train is building around it at present. Not sure how I feel about a game that's been playable in some form or another for what feels like years at this point taking the award for this particular year, but I'm enough of a fan of the series to overlook that at the end of the day.

I think TotK would have been an absolute lock if it weren't for the fact they recycled so much of the original game in it. It doesn't matter that it's still bonkers creative, I think it's just too easy to dismiss it as copypasta Zelda and use that as an excuse not to give it the top prize.

@moderators
would you care to explain why you thought my comment was trolling?
Also, please tell me who or what group I was trolling?
Also, is a joke now considered to be trolling (if the joke is not targeting a group or individual, and would not be considered to be rude)?

@XboxTheBestBox I would have never guessed you were an Xbox fanboy!

We can’t judge Starfield until it rolls out. Talking that away, I probably give 2:1 odds of TotK to BGIII.

That Baldur’s Gate III is some good stuff.

@johnedwin I’m one of those who got bored with it. 1000s of hours of souls1, but none of the others have grabbed me like that one did. Played all of them, but been less impressed by each one.
However, totk probably ruined most other open world adventure games from now on as well due to its awesomeness:)

It has been the best year for games since 2020.

Woah I haven’t played balders gate but hot damn it’s getting some impressive votes on this poll

For me its still TOTK as a clear cut shoo in for GOTY. It has everything I want an adventure game to be and more - and impressively sets new standards despite being a direct followup to the previous entry (that already redefined the open sandbox) not to mention delivering so much choice and possibility to the player for logic and puzzle solving. That the devs also leant in on the debugs and creativity aspects players discovered in BOTW should be also applauded. Deciding to hand some of your toolkit over to us as a game mechanic to mess around within Hyrule created an unlimited amount of fun with endless possibilities.

That being said I appreciate there are other games out there that have also released to high acclaim. Baulders Gate and CRPG's aren't my sort of thing at all - but it certainly seems to be the hot talking point right now. Larian clearly took some inspiration and cues from BOTW/TOTK when it comes to the players ability to creatively puzzle solve in various manners as well as crafting a realm where real world logic can be applied because almost nothing is constrictive to what you think you can achieve.

Glad there are so many games out there for people to look forward to. For me none of those titles have anything on TOTK or Pikmin 4. But I don’t need my favorite games to win awards. I’ll enjoy them just the same.

Baldur’s Gate feels so incredibly niche to me, like what percentage of people want a dice roll game? But I think Eldin Ring is also incredibly niche and it won (and I think would have an easier time winning over TotK than anything this year)

GOTY = Baldur's Gate 3

For me Baldur´s Gate 3 >>>>>>> Zelda TOTK

by far

@Korgon Agree.

MY PERSONAL GOTY is Street Fighter 6 as well

tears of the kingdom will sweep all game of the year awards especially how good the story it has with the emotional ending even though the only nitpick i have with this game is ganondorf beast form was disappointing along with the fight itself.

2007 was a MASSIVE year for gaming. What a ride, and to have this year compared to it again is fantastic.

I'm kinda conflicted because part of me thinks that they might not give it to TOTK because BOTW won it in 2017 so they might not want to award the same guys twice

BUT

There's only 1 game that I think has actual potential to beat it in public opinion and that's Starfield obviously I know it isn't out yet and part of me is hoping that it goes the way of Cyberpunk just cause it'll be funny to see all these Bethesda shills lose their pre-order money. But if it is good and lets be honest it probably will be then I can see it rocking the boat.

And then there's the curve ball,, Baldurs Gate III, came out of nowhere and then suddenly its everywhere, I have no clue what that game is gonna do to the Game Awards but there's every chance that its just gonna win everything

There haven't been any left field wackies this year like It Takes Two was last year so I think that the front runners are relatively clear, and tbf all deserving of the GOTY (assuming Starfield is decent) so i'll be happy to see it whoever wins.

But imho Zelda is the obvious winner and deserves it more than any game because you know its gonna inspire developers and artists for years to come and its gonna make some other devs think "what are we even doing here?", and if that's not deserving of GOTY then I don't know what is

Nah Elden Ring would have beaten Totk no doubt

Personally, Baldur's Gate and Starfield are more exciting for me this year. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed Tears of the Kingdom, but it's just not exactly what I want from Zelda. Breath of the Wild was a much more special game in my eyes. Obviously helped that it was fresh, while Tears is very derivative. In fact, I would place Pikmin 4 above it.

You're right, this year is being incredible for the videogame industry, but I failed to notice that until now - because surprise, Hogwarts Legacy is the ONLY multiplatform game in the list to be coming to Switch. Next-Gen is truly finally here.
Zelda has definitely tough competition, as these games have very similar levels of hype all around the userbases.
Hear this and be prepared starting now: If The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom wins Game of the Year at the Game Awards, there will be both celebration and backlash.

And to clarify, Starfield is 30fps because it's going to be very, very huge. Maybe a better definition for these kind of games is AAAA.

I have played Zelda literally since I was born, starting with ALttP. My mom went into labor and waited for my dad to get home, and played it until he got there.

And BG3 frankly is the better game. I've played every Zelda except cd-i, with less than a handful completed less than 3x, and only a few more than that never 100%'d. BG3 is just that good.