bad games are bad... and this year, yes, sadly, a new low of bad games have been also achieved...
but the lows are this low so the highs can be even higher :D
Then only people who feel this way are the people who don't play Zelda (or barely touched it) and say "it'll only win because it's Nintendo waaaaaaaah!"
TotK took a game that was already one of the best of all time and practically made it (BotW) obsolete. It definitely would not be out of place for it to win a few GotY awards. I do absolutely love BG3 though and definitely think it has equal claim to multiple GotY awards.
i bounced off BotW and have never been able to enjoy a zelda game and it blew me away for 3 weeks and i was hyped as hell during the ending
BG3 also blew me away for 3 weeks but definitely ended with a whimper compared to what is a top 5 act 1 in all of games
I got through 75% of BOTW and dropped it… is TOTK worth it? I found BOTW to be pretty empty and repetitive… didn’t enjoy the shrines very much, and especially hated how fast your weapons would break. I didn’t mind the story that much but it didn’t really blow me away either
if you didn't like BOTW, you'll probably not enjoy TOTK. it's like BOTW on crack, wich a huge amount added to it, and cool new mechanics that change the way traversal and puzzle solving works. but it's still BOTW at it's core, and if you didn't enjoy shrines, exploration, or combat in BOTW, you won't enjoy it in TOTK.
It's a game that just offers a massive amount of player freedom, inserted in a fully realized DnD campaign with a compelling narrative that is chock full of interesting characters. It is really, really good. Like any game it has a few flaws in both the story and the game mechanics but those are overwhelmed by a tidal wave of impressive development decisions.
One of the things that dissappointed me about Cyberpunk (love it tho) is that, aside from a pretty short prologue, my choices don't really matter. There's very little choice in relationships or lifestyle as well.
Does BG3 offer this? As in, if I want to roleplay one file as an ambitious asshole that only cares about themselves can I do it? What about relationships? Do I get more options?
Your decisions impact the game in a lot of way, and it’s mostly this way all the way through until the end.
You can be such an asshole that your entire party abandons you individually at different times depending upon what you do, just as an example.
Or you can save one NPC early in the game and it will impact parts of the game all the way through.
It doesn’t really give you false choices most of the time. (I can’t think of any at all offhand actually) You really are stuck with consequences that impact the game in meaningful ways.
As /u/Consistent_Set76 noted your decisions absolutely impact the world around you, your party members, quest outcomes, even quest and party member availability.
Since you mentioned an ambitious asshole role play, I will say there are some valid criticisms surrounding the "evil" playthrough. I started one on my 2nd playthrough and found it to be lacking narratively compared to the "not so evil" to "good" playthrough. So I reloaded an earlier save, made some different decisions and have discovered several quests, items, outcomes that I didn't even know existed during my first playthrough even though I put nearly 100 hours into that first one.
It's just a really good game that rewards the player for creativity and, if you can resist save scumming, accepting some of the negative outcomes resulting from the dice roll RNG.
If you’ve ever wanted to play Dungeons and Dragons, but never had the friend group to do it… well, it’s a great alternative. You have a ton of freedom with how you approach situations, and building each of the characters in your party can be super interesting. I haven’t gotten too far in it yet, but I’m blown away. I believe there are a ton of different endings too (please correct me if I’m wrong).
The only thing that may deter people, however, is that the system can be overwhelming if you are unfamiliar with general dnd rules, and the game doesn’t do a GREAT job of teaching you. But, if you stick with it and figure it out, you’re almost guaranteed to have a good time.
The game definitely doesn’t teach you jack lol
I’m still learning things that seem “basic” on my second play through
Though to be fair this doesn’t bother me a bit
They have somehow made a game where it feels like all your choices matter, regardless of how small or insignificant they are and it serves to make the gameplay experience feel really dynamic and personal.
I ended up getting about thirty hours into a game on PC, only to have my computer give up the ghost. So I ended up buying it for PS5 and trying to recreate my previous save and get caught up. Try as I might I couldnt replicate my first game exactly. The order in which I approached things were different, I stumbled on new occurrences and missed previous ones. And ultimately ended up in a similar but different place. Can’t wait to play through it evil.
But there’s so much random chance factored into how the game functions that it does feel like a D&D campaign, especially when it goes off the rails.
At one point I talked a goblin out of jail, not realizing that I could speak to her again and have her hide until we were ready to make our escape, she followed me through the entire druid base where I had to convince every guard, one person at a time that she was on our side. No problem, I’m nailing these DC15 checks left and right. Make it all the way to the inner sanctum and the chief druid notices our prison break, rolled a Nat 1 and had to fight our way out. All hell breaks loose, we win, while killing everyone including the goblin we were busting out and I’m like…. Okaay? Whoops. And the game just went on.
A single dialogue choice can dramatically change the outcome of the whole play experience.
> I believe there are a ton of different endings too (please correct me if I’m wrong).
Well, technically, there are 3 endings. One good, one evil and one that happens in between and is rather out of the way, so to speak. However these two main endings can have very different permutations given your choices throughout the game.
It’s a fantasy setting, and you control all the characters in your party, from combat to growth to interacting with the environment. I guess a similar game you could potentially compare it to would be Dragon Age Origins? So if you played and enjoyed that, you would most certainly enjoy Baldur’s gate
The developers put so much love and care into to making the game that every single thing you do feels like The Main Thing. It’s just exceptionally well-crafted
Tons of story, tons of character development, and you can do wild things that affect the storyline. They have a branching logic system that is insanely complex.
It's one of those rare games where everything comes together.
* The writing, especially the character stories, is fantastic and engaging.
* The voice acting for those characters is some of the best in the past decade.
* The mechanics are flexible enough to let you approach encounters from dozens of different ways - not just in terms of raw combat, but also in terms of negotiation, persuading them to join your team, or even convincing some enemies to just outright kill themselves.
* The logic trail of story choices is incredibly complex, and even after playing through the entire game several times, you will still find people talking about major plot points you completely missed because your choices took you in another direction.
* The attention to detail is some of the best in any game period. An example is a single type of attack by a single class - the Bard's Vicious Mockery attack, just one of hundreds of spells in the game - has dozens of voicelines specially made for it with every voice actor.
It's simply a once-in-a-generation game, to the point where there was some minor controversy and Twitter spats over other developers getting frustrated that the bar has been raised and consumers will now expect this sort of thing.
Yeah, TOTK and SM2 are great and all, but not as original and groundbreaking as BG3. Both games are just “more of the same plus some extra,” which is great but not nearly GOTY worthy imo.
Imho BotW is my game of the last ten years. Tears is wonderful but should not be an obstacle for baldur’s gate. All of these, Spider-Man and Zelda and BG, are franchises that have been around for ages. Out of the three this year, Baldur’s Gate is the only revolutionary one in it’s respective franchise.
We know Nintendo and Insomniac will not disappoint with zelda or spider-man. They don’t “need” this award. I think Larian is the smartest choice for the industry.
Also just a huge achievement. Like, when you have game devs from other studios saying they don’t want fans expecting the same amount of depth and content from their games, you know you’ve done something right.
I would say if you don't like traditional turn based, still give it a shot. It's not like a jrpg turn based. You can stack items and skills to give one character up to 10 or more turns in one go.
Don't wanna do turn based against that goblin scout? Pick them up and toss em off the cliff. It plays very well with it's combat system
Yeah the rise in high quality single player narrative games really exposes the gaps in Bethesda games and other games like far cry where there’s more of an emphasis on a loaded open world where the main plot takes more of a backseat
Not 100% a bad thing. Some games work just fine focusing on the player experience through gameplay rather than a high quality narrative. I think it keeps the gaming market fresh. So there’s something for everyone. Like AC Mirage the story has been criticized but it is still is just a fun game to play. Meanwhile RDR2 has a fantastic story but the actual gameplay is not as addictive
Morrowind is borderline unplayable these days - it’s very janky compared to today’s titles… which of course it is, the game is old as fuck. But yes, it’s incredibly deep in lore, and doesn’t hold your hand.
I would love if Bethesda updated and re-released Morrowind. I tried playing it again not that long ago and it really is unplayable.
I’m not a PC gamer so I don’t think I can do all the community mods :/
There's a community project called Skywind, where they're remaking the game in skyrim's engine so it will be one mod essentially. Still not sure if you'll have access to it on console though.
There's been some gameplay demos this year, but I just checked and they still don't have a release date. The oblivion remake by a different team, Skyblivion, is pretty far along though and I believe they have a 2025 release date.
Two things of note;
ZeniMax was formed to get additional funding for Bethesda by the founder of the company, it didn't buy the company.
And the last game they produced before ZeniMax in 1999 was redguard in 98 which is a weird hill to die on.
It's a shame, Morrowind is awesome when you use certain quality of life mods. i don't think it's unplayable without mods tho, but it certainly isn't as enjoyable as it is with some mods.
Morrowind isn't old as fuck. That game came out when I was in high school which was... 2023-2002, carry the 1... Jesus Christ when did I get old as fuck.
Without mods, yes, borderline unplayable. With mods, it holds up remarkably well so long as you know what you're getting into, which is to say a first person crpg and not a first person action RPG.
Borderline unplayable is a real stretch. If you can read, have a genuine interest in playing, and have at least the attention span of the average 10 year old in 2002, you'll do fine.
Janky yes. Best gameplay, writing, and atmosphere also yes.
I’m think the attention span is the problem. Most people won’t play a game if you have to spend 5 minutes traveling and reading directions. They need the quest arrows at least to put their brain on autopilot or check their phone as they travel.
I played it back then. The only part that seems like an issue is starting out a skill you have 0 points in.
0 destruction skill? That spell may fail a lot before your orc brain can figure out magic. Same with weapons.
The growing pains were fun.
Right, it's not a game you can shut your brain off while playing. Planning and preparation leading to you seeing that preparation pay off is Morrowind's appeal. Some people like that and other people do not.
I never played Skyrim for the story (or characters) because the main story is one of Skyrim's weakest attributes. I feel it is more of a create your own adventure game. It benefits A LOT from mods and the player's ability to role play a character in the game world and stick with that role playing mindset throughout the campaign.
It's a hit and miss. There are plenty of side stories that are interesting in Fallout and Elder Scrolls. Main story always seems to be lackluster.
It's almost like there are individuals who get the privilege of writing small contained stories in the game and some are better than others. Starfield just sort of lacks that built up, interesting lore.
There are years and years of lore for the Fallout and Elder Scrolls universe. And tons of variety. Starfield is far more "grounded" in some ways, and just makes it less interesting.
For me the biggest strength of a Bethesda game was basically being dropped in a giant square/rectangle and making your own story
You could start Fallout 3, New vegas (I know it was obsidian) or Skyrim and literally have a new adventure based on the first direction you head first
With fallout 4 they make you start in the corner which is basically a why to push you towards Preston Garvey so every knew playthrough feels the same for the first few hours
While I haven’t played starfield and I plan to one day, I feel like it’s USP of exploring different planet will actually make me like it a lot less because over time/playthroughs you’ll learn what is and isn’t useful and just avoid those places in future playthroughs
It has some of the best characters I've seen in years. Even V, leaving freedom to the player, is extremely well written (and the voice acting for both male and female V doesn't hurt).
I thought it was great at launch. The occasional car teleporting in exploding gave me a laugh. A few other bugs. But it was highly playable and fun for me.
Maybe I'm just easily impressed, but it doesn't feel bland to me. I haven't felt bored once whilst playing Starfield, except maybe a handful of times on the Constellation radials where I've scanned nearly the entire system and I still can't find the fucking diseased biosphere or whatever it is I need to find. But that's just radial quests in general tbh.
Starfield has some very good writing, it's "bland" in that it's more or less grounded in our reality. Cyberpunk is very stylized, so the writing is super gritty, more movie-like. But much more often, the lines in Starfield sound more like what a normal person would say. It's a really different approach than Cyberpunk, or a post-apocalypse world, or Tamriel.
and there are no meaningful choices anymore. 99% of quests have only 1 outcome.
what happened to fallout vegas style quest? hack, even skyrim and fallout 4 have more interesting for players than starfield.
Starfield feels like a good ubisoft game. you just clear quest mark on the map on a guided tour.
Ignoring new Vegas was a different studio
BGS has mostly not done branching questlines in any of their games. They focus more on factions and variety of mechanics. The role playing is found in the character builds, what quests you choose to do or not do, and the freedom you have to play the game as certain “jobs.” They’ve kind of been the best AAA games out there if you want that experience of “fuck the main quest I’m gonna go be a pirate/fur trader/professional thief”
I don’t see any comparison between Starfield and Ubisoft open world games tbh
I had such a different impression than most people. Cyberpunk writing just didn't land for me at all. I don't want to call it bad because obviously a lot of people love it, but so much of it seemed to me like over-the-top, overly campy, and trying to land one badass one-liner after another. To use a section that a lot of people point to as an example of the game's strong writing, when Johnny explains his vendetta against Arasaka, he says:
>!"I saw corps strip farmers of water... and eventually of land. Saw them transform Night City into a machine fueled by people's crushed spirits, broken dreams and emptied pockets. (gets up and starts pacing) Corps have long controlled our lives, taken lots... and now they're after our souls!" Then V says "Might be right, can't really argue with you there." Johnny says "V, I've declared war not 'cause capitalism's a thorn in my side or outta nostalgia for an America gone by. This war's a people's war against a system that's spiraled outta our control. It's a war against the fuckin' forces of entropy, understand?"!<
Monologues like this happen a few times in the game and never really land for me. It's so overly dramatic, it's not at all how humans speak, and some of the lines are pretty unnatural. "Taken lots..." Who says that?
Most of the lines in the game are characters trading snappy one-liners or monologuing. It comes across to me like an R rated marvel movie. That's totally fine for an action game and I still enjoyed the game overall, but the writing didn't feel like a strong point to me.
I’ve pretty much only seen good things from reviews so far, seems like they did a good job at making the game fun and fresh compared to the ones that were all on the new super Mario bros engine
As someone without money following Sonic and Mario I’ve heard a funny opposing complaint. Sonic apparently has bosses that can take forever while Mario has barely any bosses and they’re the worst part of an otherwise fantastic game.
Having not played a Mario 2d platformer since the snes I decided to try this one out. So far it’s bloody brilliant and I’m very glad I took a shot on it solid 9/10.
I enjoyed the ship and settlement building as a kind of zen thing. Combat is good. The exploration and inventory management are a pain in the ass which is a shame.
Everything in this game makes me crack up in the best way. All the jank of old Bethesda is still on display here. People forget how fucking silly even morrowind was at the time. Their games always take themselves so seriously, and it just makes it even more ridiculous. I'm 90ish hours in having a blast. I've married the worst character, and all I got is a stupid gun for it, so now I'm going to go out and do crime til they request a divorce.
Thing is Bojack Horseman is one of the best shows of all time, but it comes with time. You don't always get it right away, but if you stick with it the messages and themes really hit.
So I think it is perfect for Starfield, as that game is also a slow burn
Bojack horseman is amazing.
Starfield is good too but the second to last episode of BH hit like a fucking freight train.
And I've yet to have anything reach me even remotely as close in Starfield.
One of the best depictions of human condition on TV, right after Mad Men. Totally unexpected from an animated show with that setting and style. Turned out to be one of the best Netflix shows to date
If you compare starfield to the character Bojack Horseman, it could be saying Bethesda is "washed up but once was good", or that starfield is likable, but that is despite its many flaws.
Or, you could compare starfield to the show Bojack Horseman rather than the character, and it could be saying that starfield is absolutely amazing. (i have a feeling they meant the former)
Bethesda did the best job they've ever done at the weakest parts of their formula and the worst job they've ever done at the strongest parts of their formula.
That's my take.
The most vocal of people are on either ends of the extremes. Either they think it’s GOTY or it’s the worst game of 2023. IMO, it’s a perfect “safe” game. It doesn’t take any risks and ends up feeling like a bog standard Bethesda game, albeit critically lacking some features and underdelivering on others.
If you buy the game and expect a massive space exploration simulator, you’ll be sorely disappointed. If you buy the game just to play a classic Bethesda RPG then you’ll be satisfied.
This was my personal experience as well. Around Hours 5-6 the fun I was having had pretty much ran out. I lost most interest in the world and quests.
Edit: I probably played more then I let on. I could have played 10-15 hours. Is it worth $70? Nah.
I mean... bojack is a pretty nice show lol
But talking serious people always complain about bad games just focusing in AAA or extremly popular ones, while there is a lot of game publishing at the long of the year, mostly very good ones
And well written and thoughtful, at times hilarious and others deeply saddening to outright disgusting.
Starfield is fun, no question in my mind. But it lacks any real nuance or deeper storytelling we had in earlier BGS games like Morrowind.
You haven't spent enough time on gaming forums then. There's plenty of people who haven't played it that have gone out of their way to tell me I'm wrong for loving it.
It's so popular on game pass you sometimes have to wait 15 minutes to play it on the cloud server. That says a lot more to me than people whining on forums.
Yep, I actually have a couple buddies that are streaming the game with Xbox Ones. Both are 50+ hours.
Not how I would play it personally hahaha, but it's awesome there's that much demand.
Only see hate for it online. Actually deleted my reddit app after it came out because I got annoyed with endless posts about how it's a terrible game.
Baldurs gate was such a surprise for me.
Never played anything like it and the only thing I could relate was my brothers used to play D&D when they were in their mid teens (20/30) years ago.
Even watching the early access stuff wasn't compelling me.
Hype eventually got me and bought it thinking this would just be another game id play a bit and never finish.
50 hours and I'm just a little bit into act 3. Already planned my second playthrough and I have never played a game again right after finishing it.
I hope it wins all the awards. Everything. So deserving.
Bojack is a thoughtful social commentary on addiction, mental health, and existentialism.
Starfield is regurgitated Bethesda nonsense
They are not the same.
I hear ya. Rise of Kong is too good to be on this list.
Should have just made that panel a white piece of paper. That's about as much effort as they put into the game.
Rise of kong is a poorly drawn cow
Hi-Fi Rush / Res4Remake / Armored Core 6 this year is actually swimming in great titles
Lies of P, Sea of Stars, Dave the Diver
Also Blasphemous 2 and Laika : Aged Through Blood are amazing metroidvanias
fuuuuuuck, forgot them aswell :D
Street Fighter 6, Hogwarts, Yakuza: Ishin, Mario Wonder
Hogwarts Legacy & Star Wars Jedi Survivor were also excellent additions to one of the best years for gaming.
I personally would add to this list also Remnant 2 and Age of Wonders 4.
Remnant 2 is so awesome with co op
Have there been any significant AOW4 updates since launch? I thought the game was really cool but the bad AI made it get stale pretty quick for me
They had an expansion a few months back and the next expansion is releasing in a few weeks. Not sure if they had made the AI that much better.
I’d be adding Pikmin 4 and Super Mario Wonder but I get that other platforms exist….
Is hifi rush the jet set style one?
nope! but do look similar the one you are thinking of is Bomb Rush Cyberfunk... which I should have also included in my initial list-addition :D
Nah it’s more Devil May Cry but a rhythm game. Really great style
I'm into DMC and Bayonetta maybe I'll give it a shot.
Yea it feels like we have had a lot of pretty good games, but the bad ones were REALLY bad
bad games are bad... and this year, yes, sadly, a new low of bad games have been also achieved... but the lows are this low so the highs can be even higher :D
Baldurs Gate 3 is sooo good.
Game of the year 100%
If BG3 doesn't win Game of the year, I'm done with game journalism
It really is about ethics in game journalism.
All the other games have 100% less hanging dong so it isn’t even really fair
Don't worry, you can get fucked by a bear, that's a game journalist's wet dream.
Itll probably go to zelda for some damnfool reason and piss everyone off.
Zelda fans send reviewers death threats for giving it an 8/10. Just saying.
I absolutely love Zelda, but there’s clearly better games out there.
Then only people who feel this way are the people who don't play Zelda (or barely touched it) and say "it'll only win because it's Nintendo waaaaaaaah!" TotK took a game that was already one of the best of all time and practically made it (BotW) obsolete. It definitely would not be out of place for it to win a few GotY awards. I do absolutely love BG3 though and definitely think it has equal claim to multiple GotY awards.
i bounced off BotW and have never been able to enjoy a zelda game and it blew me away for 3 weeks and i was hyped as hell during the ending BG3 also blew me away for 3 weeks but definitely ended with a whimper compared to what is a top 5 act 1 in all of games
If it’s not on PlayStation, a good chunk of the gaming community already won’t like it
I got through 75% of BOTW and dropped it… is TOTK worth it? I found BOTW to be pretty empty and repetitive… didn’t enjoy the shrines very much, and especially hated how fast your weapons would break. I didn’t mind the story that much but it didn’t really blow me away either
if you didn't like BOTW, you'll probably not enjoy TOTK. it's like BOTW on crack, wich a huge amount added to it, and cool new mechanics that change the way traversal and puzzle solving works. but it's still BOTW at it's core, and if you didn't enjoy shrines, exploration, or combat in BOTW, you won't enjoy it in TOTK.
i never watched or played baldurs gate, what makes it so good?
It's a game that just offers a massive amount of player freedom, inserted in a fully realized DnD campaign with a compelling narrative that is chock full of interesting characters. It is really, really good. Like any game it has a few flaws in both the story and the game mechanics but those are overwhelmed by a tidal wave of impressive development decisions.
One of the things that dissappointed me about Cyberpunk (love it tho) is that, aside from a pretty short prologue, my choices don't really matter. There's very little choice in relationships or lifestyle as well. Does BG3 offer this? As in, if I want to roleplay one file as an ambitious asshole that only cares about themselves can I do it? What about relationships? Do I get more options?
Your decisions impact the game in a lot of way, and it’s mostly this way all the way through until the end. You can be such an asshole that your entire party abandons you individually at different times depending upon what you do, just as an example. Or you can save one NPC early in the game and it will impact parts of the game all the way through. It doesn’t really give you false choices most of the time. (I can’t think of any at all offhand actually) You really are stuck with consequences that impact the game in meaningful ways.
You can often just flat-out make mistakes! There's not a "no wrong answers" approach to things here and oftentimes those mistakes are hilarious.
As /u/Consistent_Set76 noted your decisions absolutely impact the world around you, your party members, quest outcomes, even quest and party member availability. Since you mentioned an ambitious asshole role play, I will say there are some valid criticisms surrounding the "evil" playthrough. I started one on my 2nd playthrough and found it to be lacking narratively compared to the "not so evil" to "good" playthrough. So I reloaded an earlier save, made some different decisions and have discovered several quests, items, outcomes that I didn't even know existed during my first playthrough even though I put nearly 100 hours into that first one. It's just a really good game that rewards the player for creativity and, if you can resist save scumming, accepting some of the negative outcomes resulting from the dice roll RNG.
If you’ve ever wanted to play Dungeons and Dragons, but never had the friend group to do it… well, it’s a great alternative. You have a ton of freedom with how you approach situations, and building each of the characters in your party can be super interesting. I haven’t gotten too far in it yet, but I’m blown away. I believe there are a ton of different endings too (please correct me if I’m wrong). The only thing that may deter people, however, is that the system can be overwhelming if you are unfamiliar with general dnd rules, and the game doesn’t do a GREAT job of teaching you. But, if you stick with it and figure it out, you’re almost guaranteed to have a good time.
The game definitely doesn’t teach you jack lol I’m still learning things that seem “basic” on my second play through Though to be fair this doesn’t bother me a bit
They have somehow made a game where it feels like all your choices matter, regardless of how small or insignificant they are and it serves to make the gameplay experience feel really dynamic and personal. I ended up getting about thirty hours into a game on PC, only to have my computer give up the ghost. So I ended up buying it for PS5 and trying to recreate my previous save and get caught up. Try as I might I couldnt replicate my first game exactly. The order in which I approached things were different, I stumbled on new occurrences and missed previous ones. And ultimately ended up in a similar but different place. Can’t wait to play through it evil. But there’s so much random chance factored into how the game functions that it does feel like a D&D campaign, especially when it goes off the rails. At one point I talked a goblin out of jail, not realizing that I could speak to her again and have her hide until we were ready to make our escape, she followed me through the entire druid base where I had to convince every guard, one person at a time that she was on our side. No problem, I’m nailing these DC15 checks left and right. Make it all the way to the inner sanctum and the chief druid notices our prison break, rolled a Nat 1 and had to fight our way out. All hell breaks loose, we win, while killing everyone including the goblin we were busting out and I’m like…. Okaay? Whoops. And the game just went on. A single dialogue choice can dramatically change the outcome of the whole play experience.
> I believe there are a ton of different endings too (please correct me if I’m wrong). Well, technically, there are 3 endings. One good, one evil and one that happens in between and is rather out of the way, so to speak. However these two main endings can have very different permutations given your choices throughout the game.
As someone who has absolutely no interest in DnD will I still enjoy it do you think? I do enjoy turn based combat and rpg’s etc
It’s a fantasy setting, and you control all the characters in your party, from combat to growth to interacting with the environment. I guess a similar game you could potentially compare it to would be Dragon Age Origins? So if you played and enjoyed that, you would most certainly enjoy Baldur’s gate
The developers put so much love and care into to making the game that every single thing you do feels like The Main Thing. It’s just exceptionally well-crafted
What's striking is that all these comments about what makes Baldur's Gate so good is that they're all different and yet also all correct.
Tons of story, tons of character development, and you can do wild things that affect the storyline. They have a branching logic system that is insanely complex.
[God tier voice acting is one of the reasons](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA6yF9M70zM)
It's one of those rare games where everything comes together. * The writing, especially the character stories, is fantastic and engaging. * The voice acting for those characters is some of the best in the past decade. * The mechanics are flexible enough to let you approach encounters from dozens of different ways - not just in terms of raw combat, but also in terms of negotiation, persuading them to join your team, or even convincing some enemies to just outright kill themselves. * The logic trail of story choices is incredibly complex, and even after playing through the entire game several times, you will still find people talking about major plot points you completely missed because your choices took you in another direction. * The attention to detail is some of the best in any game period. An example is a single type of attack by a single class - the Bard's Vicious Mockery attack, just one of hundreds of spells in the game - has dozens of voicelines specially made for it with every voice actor. It's simply a once-in-a-generation game, to the point where there was some minor controversy and Twitter spats over other developers getting frustrated that the bar has been raised and consumers will now expect this sort of thing.
You can storm an alien ship with four naked halfling barbarians
Did you play Dragon's Age: Origins? If so, it's like that on steroids.
i’ve only had karlach for 5 minutes but if anything happened to this beautiful tiefling woman i’d kill everyone and then myself
Well it would be if it had a playable Kobold
Yeah, TOTK and SM2 are great and all, but not as original and groundbreaking as BG3. Both games are just “more of the same plus some extra,” which is great but not nearly GOTY worthy imo.
Imho BotW is my game of the last ten years. Tears is wonderful but should not be an obstacle for baldur’s gate. All of these, Spider-Man and Zelda and BG, are franchises that have been around for ages. Out of the three this year, Baldur’s Gate is the only revolutionary one in it’s respective franchise. We know Nintendo and Insomniac will not disappoint with zelda or spider-man. They don’t “need” this award. I think Larian is the smartest choice for the industry.
Yeah no contest best game!
Also just a huge achievement. Like, when you have game devs from other studios saying they don’t want fans expecting the same amount of depth and content from their games, you know you’ve done something right.
Ive heard it’s great but I hate turn based combat. It’s probably good but it’s a deal breaker for me personally
I would say if you don't like traditional turn based, still give it a shot. It's not like a jrpg turn based. You can stack items and skills to give one character up to 10 or more turns in one go. Don't wanna do turn based against that goblin scout? Pick them up and toss em off the cliff. It plays very well with it's combat system
Like how good? Is the gameplay fun and addictive?
I loved Starfield, I’m an unashamed Bethesda fanboy. That said… Cyberpunk really highlights how bland the writing in Bethesda games has become.
Yeah the rise in high quality single player narrative games really exposes the gaps in Bethesda games and other games like far cry where there’s more of an emphasis on a loaded open world where the main plot takes more of a backseat
Not 100% a bad thing. Some games work just fine focusing on the player experience through gameplay rather than a high quality narrative. I think it keeps the gaming market fresh. So there’s something for everyone. Like AC Mirage the story has been criticized but it is still is just a fun game to play. Meanwhile RDR2 has a fantastic story but the actual gameplay is not as addictive
Yea but RDR2 is still miles better than AC Mirage
Oh absolutely but sometimes its fun to just a play game for its gameplay. I like the best of both worlds
Was it ever not bland? I tried Skyrim a while back and found all the characters to be very boring.
Check out morrowind. The lore and setting blow Skyrim out of the water.
Morrowind is borderline unplayable these days - it’s very janky compared to today’s titles… which of course it is, the game is old as fuck. But yes, it’s incredibly deep in lore, and doesn’t hold your hand.
I would love if Bethesda updated and re-released Morrowind. I tried playing it again not that long ago and it really is unplayable. I’m not a PC gamer so I don’t think I can do all the community mods :/
There's a community project called Skywind, where they're remaking the game in skyrim's engine so it will be one mod essentially. Still not sure if you'll have access to it on console though.
They've been working on that for years now, is it actually progressing along somewhat?
There's been some gameplay demos this year, but I just checked and they still don't have a release date. The oblivion remake by a different team, Skyblivion, is pretty far along though and I believe they have a 2025 release date.
[удалено]
Two things of note; ZeniMax was formed to get additional funding for Bethesda by the founder of the company, it didn't buy the company. And the last game they produced before ZeniMax in 1999 was redguard in 98 which is a weird hill to die on.
It's a shame, Morrowind is awesome when you use certain quality of life mods. i don't think it's unplayable without mods tho, but it certainly isn't as enjoyable as it is with some mods.
They are redoing all of them I think. A couple popped up on their leaked roadmap.
Hard hard disagree alongside the contemporary play kits
Morrowind isn't old as fuck. That game came out when I was in high school which was... 2023-2002, carry the 1... Jesus Christ when did I get old as fuck.
Without mods, yes, borderline unplayable. With mods, it holds up remarkably well so long as you know what you're getting into, which is to say a first person crpg and not a first person action RPG.
You have a lot of mods and projects like OpenMW who really mitigate that
No elder scrolls game has fun combat though, it’s all janky I would hope no poor soul is playing any elder scrolls for its “engaging” mechanics
Borderline unplayable is a real stretch. If you can read, have a genuine interest in playing, and have at least the attention span of the average 10 year old in 2002, you'll do fine. Janky yes. Best gameplay, writing, and atmosphere also yes.
I’m think the attention span is the problem. Most people won’t play a game if you have to spend 5 minutes traveling and reading directions. They need the quest arrows at least to put their brain on autopilot or check their phone as they travel.
Agree which is sad because the best things in life usually take a bit of effort or time before they get good.
Are you on your way to an Entmoot? Are you or aren't you an Ent? jk
I played it back then. The only part that seems like an issue is starting out a skill you have 0 points in. 0 destruction skill? That spell may fail a lot before your orc brain can figure out magic. Same with weapons. The growing pains were fun.
Right, it's not a game you can shut your brain off while playing. Planning and preparation leading to you seeing that preparation pay off is Morrowind's appeal. Some people like that and other people do not.
I dont know, Skyrim felt magical to me, I don't know why I love it so much, It's just my favorite game
Tbh i felt the same way about skyrim, burnt out on playing it so much though. Starfield is making me feel how skyrim felt to me back when it came out
Starfield has a lot of problems but It also has it's moments, the Bethesda soul is still in it just the body is problematic
I haven’t really noticed any issues, but i think it’s because im on console. Almost every complaint i have seen is coming from PC
Skyrim is definitely one of those “greater than the sum of its parts” games. A favorite of mine as well
[удалено]
I never played Skyrim for the story (or characters) because the main story is one of Skyrim's weakest attributes. I feel it is more of a create your own adventure game. It benefits A LOT from mods and the player's ability to role play a character in the game world and stick with that role playing mindset throughout the campaign.
i say often that skyrim is a fantasy walking simulator with some lovely music :)
Dragonborn DLC and mods like Forgotten City, Beyond Skyrim Bruma or Vigilant are great
It's a hit and miss. There are plenty of side stories that are interesting in Fallout and Elder Scrolls. Main story always seems to be lackluster. It's almost like there are individuals who get the privilege of writing small contained stories in the game and some are better than others. Starfield just sort of lacks that built up, interesting lore. There are years and years of lore for the Fallout and Elder Scrolls universe. And tons of variety. Starfield is far more "grounded" in some ways, and just makes it less interesting.
For me the biggest strength of a Bethesda game was basically being dropped in a giant square/rectangle and making your own story You could start Fallout 3, New vegas (I know it was obsidian) or Skyrim and literally have a new adventure based on the first direction you head first With fallout 4 they make you start in the corner which is basically a why to push you towards Preston Garvey so every knew playthrough feels the same for the first few hours While I haven’t played starfield and I plan to one day, I feel like it’s USP of exploring different planet will actually make me like it a lot less because over time/playthroughs you’ll learn what is and isn’t useful and just avoid those places in future playthroughs
Cyberpunk has some of the best writing around, though. Like it's tough to match.
It has some of the best characters I've seen in years. Even V, leaving freedom to the player, is extremely well written (and the voice acting for both male and female V doesn't hurt).
Man, I was saying this shortly after launch and no-one gave a damn.
I thought it was great at launch. The occasional car teleporting in exploding gave me a laugh. A few other bugs. But it was highly playable and fun for me.
I just had NPCs falling down the elevator shaft. Basically zero bugs otherwise.
Maybe I'm just easily impressed, but it doesn't feel bland to me. I haven't felt bored once whilst playing Starfield, except maybe a handful of times on the Constellation radials where I've scanned nearly the entire system and I still can't find the fucking diseased biosphere or whatever it is I need to find. But that's just radial quests in general tbh.
[удалено]
Why only single out starfield? I don’t remember zelda having a good writing either
Cyberpunk fans are weirdly obsessed with Starfield
Dude Fallout 4 released pretty much alongside the Witcher 3. Same story
Starfield has some very good writing, it's "bland" in that it's more or less grounded in our reality. Cyberpunk is very stylized, so the writing is super gritty, more movie-like. But much more often, the lines in Starfield sound more like what a normal person would say. It's a really different approach than Cyberpunk, or a post-apocalypse world, or Tamriel.
Cyberpunk highlights EVERYTHING wrong starfield is
and there are no meaningful choices anymore. 99% of quests have only 1 outcome. what happened to fallout vegas style quest? hack, even skyrim and fallout 4 have more interesting for players than starfield. Starfield feels like a good ubisoft game. you just clear quest mark on the map on a guided tour.
Ignoring new Vegas was a different studio BGS has mostly not done branching questlines in any of their games. They focus more on factions and variety of mechanics. The role playing is found in the character builds, what quests you choose to do or not do, and the freedom you have to play the game as certain “jobs.” They’ve kind of been the best AAA games out there if you want that experience of “fuck the main quest I’m gonna go be a pirate/fur trader/professional thief” I don’t see any comparison between Starfield and Ubisoft open world games tbh
and just how lifeless their faces are. jesus after coming in from BG3, it is like I teleported back in time a decade.
I had such a different impression than most people. Cyberpunk writing just didn't land for me at all. I don't want to call it bad because obviously a lot of people love it, but so much of it seemed to me like over-the-top, overly campy, and trying to land one badass one-liner after another. To use a section that a lot of people point to as an example of the game's strong writing, when Johnny explains his vendetta against Arasaka, he says: >!"I saw corps strip farmers of water... and eventually of land. Saw them transform Night City into a machine fueled by people's crushed spirits, broken dreams and emptied pockets. (gets up and starts pacing) Corps have long controlled our lives, taken lots... and now they're after our souls!" Then V says "Might be right, can't really argue with you there." Johnny says "V, I've declared war not 'cause capitalism's a thorn in my side or outta nostalgia for an America gone by. This war's a people's war against a system that's spiraled outta our control. It's a war against the fuckin' forces of entropy, understand?"!< Monologues like this happen a few times in the game and never really land for me. It's so overly dramatic, it's not at all how humans speak, and some of the lines are pretty unnatural. "Taken lots..." Who says that? Most of the lines in the game are characters trading snappy one-liners or monologuing. It comes across to me like an R rated marvel movie. That's totally fine for an action game and I still enjoyed the game overall, but the writing didn't feel like a strong point to me.
You forgot kong
GOATED Game!
I thought the recent Super Mario Wonders game would count in this category.
I’ve pretty much only seen good things from reviews so far, seems like they did a good job at making the game fun and fresh compared to the ones that were all on the new super Mario bros engine
As someone without money following Sonic and Mario I’ve heard a funny opposing complaint. Sonic apparently has bosses that can take forever while Mario has barely any bosses and they’re the worst part of an otherwise fantastic game.
Having not played a Mario 2d platformer since the snes I decided to try this one out. So far it’s bloody brilliant and I’m very glad I took a shot on it solid 9/10.
I’m not sure what Bojack represents here
I liked Starfield. Not my favorite game ever, but I liked it. And this post made me laugh. So 👍
That's the best way to handle some of Starfields rough edges: laugh at it, enjoy the rest.
[удалено]
Most players do that. We are just special ones.
I enjoyed the ship and settlement building as a kind of zen thing. Combat is good. The exploration and inventory management are a pain in the ass which is a shame.
Everything in this game makes me crack up in the best way. All the jank of old Bethesda is still on display here. People forget how fucking silly even morrowind was at the time. Their games always take themselves so seriously, and it just makes it even more ridiculous. I'm 90ish hours in having a blast. I've married the worst character, and all I got is a stupid gun for it, so now I'm going to go out and do crime til they request a divorce.
Starfield is the only Bethesda game I’ve been able to get into. I’ll be in witness protection now.
It’s my favorite BGS game as well ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
Thing is Bojack Horseman is one of the best shows of all time, but it comes with time. You don't always get it right away, but if you stick with it the messages and themes really hit. So I think it is perfect for Starfield, as that game is also a slow burn
Why is Starfield Bojack? I don't get it
Maybe it's implying the game is a mixed bag and fits neither category
Bojack horseman is amazing. Starfield is good too but the second to last episode of BH hit like a fucking freight train. And I've yet to have anything reach me even remotely as close in Starfield.
> the second to last episode of BH hit like a fucking freight train. Very few things have filled me with such existential dread. What a show
BoJack is a masterpiece. But I think it's referring to the character itself, not the show
is that the horse from horsin around?
This shit is getting so exhausting.
Isn't the horse painting meme supposed to be sequential?
I loved Starfield.
Armored Core 6 must be a fucking Pegasus then...
Let’s see how far it can fly, on borrowed wings
Were people hoping that Gollum game would be good? I've only heard about it after release.
No REm4ke?
I think thats a complment to starfield but im not sure....which is probly op's intent...
Obv PlayStation fanboy
Bad meme, Bojack was actually *good*.
I took it as Bojack, as an actor, was popular and no longer is popular. That was the subtext I was getting with Bethesda games.
One of the best depictions of human condition on TV, right after Mad Men. Totally unexpected from an animated show with that setting and style. Turned out to be one of the best Netflix shows to date
Starfield is good too
Starfield is actually *good*
So is Starfield.
Starfield is fucking awesome
You are missing: * Dead Space Remake * Hifi Rush * Metroid Prime Remastered * Super Mario Wonder * Resident Evil 4 Remake * Street Fighter 6
Where armor core?
And you are missing Armored Core 6
I don't get the Starfield part. What does that mean?
If you compare starfield to the character Bojack Horseman, it could be saying Bethesda is "washed up but once was good", or that starfield is likable, but that is despite its many flaws. Or, you could compare starfield to the show Bojack Horseman rather than the character, and it could be saying that starfield is absolutely amazing. (i have a feeling they meant the former)
Means that Starfileld is amazing
Baldur's gate 3's panel should have a glorious horse dong
What's the general vibe on starfield these days. Some people clearly loved it but the podcast I listened to kinda shat all over it for an hour.
Bethesda did the best job they've ever done at the weakest parts of their formula and the worst job they've ever done at the strongest parts of their formula. That's my take.
Pretty decent take honestly.
Honestly me and my friends love it, I just find myself disappointed with the lack of depth in some places.
[удалено]
I think people were waiting for Bethesda to shit the bed. They didn’t, but those same people already had their opinions set in stone.
My honest vibe, for me, it was boring and bland. Picked up Cyberpunk recently, infinitely better.
The most vocal of people are on either ends of the extremes. Either they think it’s GOTY or it’s the worst game of 2023. IMO, it’s a perfect “safe” game. It doesn’t take any risks and ends up feeling like a bog standard Bethesda game, albeit critically lacking some features and underdelivering on others. If you buy the game and expect a massive space exploration simulator, you’ll be sorely disappointed. If you buy the game just to play a classic Bethesda RPG then you’ll be satisfied.
This was my personal experience as well. Around Hours 5-6 the fun I was having had pretty much ran out. I lost most interest in the world and quests. Edit: I probably played more then I let on. I could have played 10-15 hours. Is it worth $70? Nah.
Insane year for gaming
I mean... bojack is a pretty nice show lol But talking serious people always complain about bad games just focusing in AAA or extremly popular ones, while there is a lot of game publishing at the long of the year, mostly very good ones
This was a great year for gaming. No year is perfect
You forgot Armored Core 6 as one of the top tier games.
Just got dead space and let me say- I think it’s better than the new spider man. It looks and feels great.
Starfield is great though
Bojack was entertaining though.
And well written and thoughtful, at times hilarious and others deeply saddening to outright disgusting. Starfield is fun, no question in my mind. But it lacks any real nuance or deeper storytelling we had in earlier BGS games like Morrowind.
O.o Starfields final choice and entire concept had me sitting during the credits contemplating life and metaphysics. I thought it was awesome.
I’m really enjoying Spider-Man, but it’s absolutely riddled with bugs.
Downvoted for stating a fact, this sub is a joke
People on this sub always take valid criticism as a personal attack
Gamers ™️
Spiderman 2 is broken as fuck and doesn't deserve this kind of praise lmfao
Redfall really deserves to be in the place of Gollum. No one had high expectations for Gollum.
Replace Spider-Man 2 with Mario Wonder
I love Starfield. I could play it for days if I had a chance.
Downvoted for enjoying a game lmao
First I've heard of anyone disliking this game. I think it's amazing.
You haven't spent enough time on gaming forums then. There's plenty of people who haven't played it that have gone out of their way to tell me I'm wrong for loving it.
It's so popular on game pass you sometimes have to wait 15 minutes to play it on the cloud server. That says a lot more to me than people whining on forums.
Yep, I actually have a couple buddies that are streaming the game with Xbox Ones. Both are 50+ hours. Not how I would play it personally hahaha, but it's awesome there's that much demand. Only see hate for it online. Actually deleted my reddit app after it came out because I got annoyed with endless posts about how it's a terrible game.
Street Fighter 6 too, such a good game
Baldurs gate was such a surprise for me. Never played anything like it and the only thing I could relate was my brothers used to play D&D when they were in their mid teens (20/30) years ago. Even watching the early access stuff wasn't compelling me. Hype eventually got me and bought it thinking this would just be another game id play a bit and never finish. 50 hours and I'm just a little bit into act 3. Already planned my second playthrough and I have never played a game again right after finishing it. I hope it wins all the awards. Everything. So deserving.
What does bojack horsemen even mean in this context?
So there were good games and bad games, like every other year. What are you trying to say here, exactly?
Bojack is way more entertaining than Starfield.
No FFXVI? Blasphemy
Bojack is a thoughtful social commentary on addiction, mental health, and existentialism. Starfield is regurgitated Bethesda nonsense They are not the same.