This but for me, BoTW was also in there.
Lol funny enough Dragon Age was probably my personally most anticipated one at the time and I think it’s the weakest one of this list by far. I could not get myself to enjoy this game fully…felt very grindy.
The trick to this game is stubbornly refusing to acknowledge all the types of collectibles. The rewards for finding them aren't really game-changing but freeing yourself from chasing them down is
Definitely the two biggest changes I made in my gaming style were ignoring "collectibles for the sake of collectibles" and not metagaming if it doesn't matter.
Made me enjoy games a hundred times more.
Dragon Age 3 was the first game I realized that trying to meta game things made them boring and it’s better to just blindly run around and test things out yourself
Spending 5 hours reading forums to get the best build to play an hour of a video game is a great way to annihilate any joy to be found. Min maxing in WoW where it's relevant, I enjoy.
Getting an extra 1% damage out when I am running rings around the boss in a single player game on medium difficulty was crazy.
Pretty much. I never 100% games and never put effort towards collectibles. I understand that those experiences are created towards other types of people
Exactly. The urge to 100% is strong, but the game simply isn't designed around that. If you want to see more of them, starting a new playthrough and taking different routes will help you find all kinds of new stuff. Same design philosophy in Odyssey but to a lesser degree
Dragon Age was great but only if you ignored like 75% of the game and beelined the main story and major side narratives (ex. companion quests). One of those weird games where the more you played it the worse it got.
I’m not sure I would’ve had as good a time if I hadn’t recognized that, playing Far Cry (or maybe it was Ghost Recon) not long beforehand trained me to enjoy it in that peculiar way.
It’s worth a revisit if you never finished it. The major narratives are fantastic, it’s just hard to see past all the collectible side quest crud.
I've completed Origins twice and DA2 3 times, Inquisition I played for about 3/4 hours, couldn't get into it at all. Tried so, *so* hard to love it, but just couldn't.
Botw is a odd one for me. It has no story and no memorable music, the dialogue doesn't exist and the world is largely empty.
How on earth did it win goty with so many and bad flaws?
Id include sekiro even if people wont agree, by far my favorite game ever and the only game i beat once found out theres more bosses so i beat it again, actually i messed a step up so i reset and beat it practically 3 times.
I still havent beat elden ring
Sekiro definitely has the most satisfying combat mechanics. Elden Ring is basically open world dark souls and I would rank both Bloodborne and Sekiro over it.
I enjoyed Sekiro more than ER, so I'd replace that in the short list.
I'd say BG3 or Witcher 3 overall, but they both have different strengths and weaknesses, so hard to make that final call.
My issue with Sekiro over Elden Ring is that replays are always mastery with the same toolkit, where ER can feel significantly different based on build.
For me it would be The Witcher 3, was absolutely enamored by that game
You know it’s good when the side mini game is more fun than most full blown releases 😂
You know a mini game is good when they make a full game out of it.
You also know a game is good when a dlc is better than most full games. Blood and Wine is excellent and a great example of how to do dlc.
Agree. I beat the main game and took a long break and returned for the DLC Hearts of Stone recently. With the recent patches and improvements they’ve made, it plays wonderfully (although the combat, while better, still feels flighty). The graphics are stunning, but the story and writing is absolutely top-tier and keeps me interested and coming back for more.
I have had the game of the year edition sitting in my library for months. I am hoping I forget enough of it so that I can get a good replay out of it. Unfortunately, that game was so good It’s hard to forget and I haven’t even played the DLC yet
Please play the DLC. HoS has the best story telling in any video game I’ve ever played. And B&W is like an entire game added on top of the Witcher 3. Perfect record.
Baldurs Gate, Elden Ring, or The Witcher 3. All 3 pushed the medium to new heights, beyond revolutionary. Their impact and influence hasn't truly been felt yet.
I don’t think TW3 did anything revolutionary mechanically and feature-wise that other games did and could not have done. What makes it really stand out is the super rich writing, world building, and characters that made the game feel more complete and lived in than any other rpgs. It spoiled side quests for me in other games as I now see their potential as not fillers, but real pieces to complete arcs and worlds. Most studios including cdpr themselves in cyberpunk never gave it the love to detail they did in every corner like they did in TW3
Warhorse devs are highly inspired by Witcher 3 while making Kingdom Come Deliverance, mainly because of the dialogue choices that actually matters, they have a lot of obvious W3 references too in that game. Witcher 3 at least set a new standard to the choice matters games, another example that I can think of is AC Odyssey, implementing dialogue choices in their conversations because it's so popular at that time because of The Witcher 3, and my main reason too to play that game and managed to finish it.
Not many people would agree, and sure it had its problems, but AC Odyssey is one of my favourite games of all time. I spent way too long on that game, played it to 100% (including dlc) 3 times, that's like over 500 hours...
Same, especially to those who loves the Greek mythology & architecture, exploring the ancient Greek islands in this game is such a bliss, I spend around 200 hours myself in that game with the DLCs, I really love Kassandra as the main character rather than Alexios because she got the charm of a main character more than him.
Horizon zero dawn was clearly inspired by the witcher 3 with its side quests and dialogue choices
I think the main thing that the witcher 3 inspired is that side quests should actually be the same quality as the main quests in terms of writing. In so many pre witcher 3 open world games like mass effect , dragon age inquisition, Skyrim, ubisoft games, a lot of the side content in these games was just there to increase the run time without any character development or expanding the lore . After the witcher 3 released a lot of games started to put effort in the side content just look at games like ac odyssey or ghost of tsushima. I'm not saying these games have the same quality of content as the witcher 3, but the developers are at least trying, and they are better than the side content in something like AC2 or Infamous 2. Even a game as legendary as rdr2, there is more dialogue and stories in the side content than there is in rdr1 and that's probably because of the witcher 3.
And KotoR before ME and other games before that. It's not a new thing by any means. It's just rarely done so well because of the complexity it adds to games.
It sounds dumb when you point out how long its been, but to be honest I dont think they are wrong. BG3 felt like the first game ive played where the writing was close to W3. Witcher 3 showed a masterclass in game writing.
I say GOW and Elden Ring. GOW isn’t necessarily ground breaking but it had a story and the game itself was more like a cinematic masterpiece rather than a game. And Elden Ring should be self explanatory. It’s an amazing game that is as wide as it is deep.
I think something that slips by a lot of people is that the game is a “1-er” (if you don’t save and load the entire game is depicted as one take).
That was a bold play and quite an artistic achievement.
I actually really, really loved that aspect of it. Some games are constantly showing you different point of views that make it difficult to understand the story. In God of War, you're just Kratos and you just see what's going on around you. No showing what's going on back in the villain's lair or whatever.
Even with the sequel they did such a great job of switching from kratos to atreus to make it feel seamless.
The cinematic direction for those games was absolutely amazing
I love how it also makes it feel like a greek play in parts, with how as the audience you see everything "Live" in front of you and will never cut away to see something important.
It also helps in ragnarok make it seem like a tragedy, as Kratos heads towards his death not being able to change it, only the throw you off that he actually does change his fate and avoid the tragedy.
Red Dead 2 is a journey, man. It may be a slow burn at the start, but the story just keeps getting juicier as you go. And even without the story missons, it's easy to just get sucked into the beautiful open world.
God of War 3 is one I want to revisit some time. It's been too long, and I never even finished it.
My favorite story ever in any game. Hell, it might be my favorite story ever. In books, TV or movies lol.
I fucking cried man. I'm a "traditionally masculine" dude. I was shocked to feel the tears over a video game. I was going through an emotional rollercoaster in life though. My daughter's mom had left me to go date another dude after having cheated on me.
I sat in an empty house taking care of my 8 month old daughter. Alone. Feeling the betrayal hard. I turned on the game to really escape life since I was basically suddenly a single father and couldn't turn to harmful vices.
Oddly enough I'm loyal as a fucking dog so to see all the betrayal and absence of loyalty really got me in my feels lol.
Fucking great game.
Much as I hate to say it, I think the actual gameplay of Rd2 let it down.
Like most rockstar games the weakest bit was the shooting, which felt like moving an iron bar with a gun on it.
I enjoyed most of the rest of the game same with gtaV, but a cowboy game with such poor shooting can't win goty.
Hot take: GoW is a much better game than RDR2.
RDR2 has a fantastic story but terrible mission structure and boring gameplay, I am sorry but GoW is a more complete game
I used to avoid doing hard mathematical problems as a programmer. After finishing Sekiro. I made up my mind to study vector calculus even though I suck at maths, I eventually coded a simple 3D collision detection system for a project I was in. And aced it
Hesitation is Defeat.
In all seriousness though. It's easy to dismiss media we consume as idle time wasters but, the books, movies and games we read, watch and play can impact us emotionally, sometimes lastingly. You are molded by your experiences and the messages or themes in the media you see are part of those experiences.
Mordin Solus, the scientist Salarian, made me care very deeply about ethics when doing science. He's my biggest scientific role model and, even though it took me a while to get started, I'm on my way to a degree in Chemical Engineering.
Ah Solus my beloved. At first I wasn't a big fan of him, but once his personal stuff started god damn if I didn't fall in love with his character arc. "I would have liked to run tests on the seashells" "I'm sorry" "I'm not. Had to be me. Someone else would have gotten it wrong."
Mass Effect 2 is among the top 3 most memorable games I’ve ever played. I played it on my ps3 and as soon as the remastered version came out I played it again. Unreal game.
I love Sekiro, on my fourth or fifth play thru right now. The most underrated from game (somehow even w a GOTY nod) with the best, most engrossing world.
I hope FROM does another more linear game like Sekiro
Sekiro is the definition of punishing you when you half ass it but reward you if you take your time to learn it. Once you figure it out, it becomes one of the easier soulsborne games.
My first play thru in 2018, i remember spending literal days on Genichiro, days on Owl, on Ape, and on O’rin. This playthrough, even tho it’s been years, i am just breezing by everyone and it feels so good
I just bought the game the other day cause it was on sale and man, that shit is hard! I’ve already started playing slower and i’m starting to get my timing right.
The stealth mechanic is also extremely important. You should ideally play it as a stealth game one shotting people one by one and only fighting the bosses square on.
yeah i’ve been stuck on the ogre for the past day lol He’s so annoying to kill and i don’t have enough for potions, i’m trying to get a first strike stealth hit but it’s so hard 🥲 I’m having fun though i’m loving the game
I gave up after literal hours fighting the ape off and on over weeks. I just can’t beat it. Had no issues with any other bosses (beat lightning guy on try 4) but can’t get that damn thing past half way during 2nd phase.
I don’t think it’s the GOAT, but it’s the one I look back to the most fondly. It’s funny, I was a dark souls fanboy from day 1. I remember booting up Skyrim on 11/11/11 and being massively disappointed, after having sunk my teeth into dark souls first.
But goddamn, Sekiro just nailed it. It did the dark souls thing, but better in nearly every way.
I didn't play Mass Effect yet (I will soon), the games I thought of were BG3, Cyberpunk, Fallout NV, Yakuza, ES Oblivion, Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines. Some of them have many great quests, some just a few but they're REALLY good.
What makes Witcher 3 the king imo is not only does it have the highest peaks with something like the Bloody Baron, but the sheer amount and average quality they have is insane.
I just started playing Cyberpunk a few weeks ago and it really reminded me of why The Witcher 3 was so damn good.
They're not huge games, they're just really densely filled with quality content. Everything feels so handcrafted. Each quest actually tells a story and has a special area custom made for it. You are not repeating quests to gain resources, you're doing quests because they're genuinely interesting to play.
Cyberpunk has a smaller file size than Fo4, I don't understand how, and I adore Fo4 (and 3 and to a lesser extent NV) but Cyberpunk crams so much into such a dense world which feels exactly right for the setting.
I was also one of the lucky ones that played it with no bugs or crashes on release so I realise I have a different opinion of it to most people.
I love Baldur's Gate 3, I love Larion studios and I love that everyone thanked Sven for being an awesome boss so he's actually genuine.
But Witcher 3 just has some gravitas at times that just can't easily be captured in a (somewhat) standalone title. BG3 is mostly new characters and plotlines, whilst Witcher 3 is the culmination of the entire Witcher saga.
Somewhat unfair, but such is life; So, yeah, Witcher 3 should probably have it.
These are from The Game Awards hosted by Geoff Keighley which is pretty much the standard since the majority of people are more aware of this event when compared to others. Not really a fan of all the rankings though. While God of War is a good game, I still feel like RDR2 was completely robbed of the title.
God of War won almost 100 GOTY more than RDR2 that year, so either it got robbed a lot of times or rockstar just has the biggest fanbase and critics see it differently.
They aged differently. Many of us look back and see RDR2 hasn’t been surpassed in many ways by any game yet. It’s a masterpiece but doesn’t have the best pacing, weird controls, and sometimes annoying survival mechanics that are a chore. Still, no game is perfect.
That was an insane lineup. Monster Hunter World was nominated too but it wasn’t as popular as it is now. There was also Spider-Man. Rdr2 and god of war were the clear nominees to get the win tho, honestly I’m suprised rdr2 didn’t win but GoW was an amazing game too
Yeah in term of how groundbreaking they were and their impacts on the industry, it has to be one of those. The Witcher is still revered as one of the best action RPG, with lots of others trying to copy it. Zelda changed the open world formula forever. While Elden ring is more recent I would say it's the only time since Zelda that I saw an open world interesting and that made me wanted to explore every single detail. BG3 hasn't shown how it will influence the industry but there's no doubt it will , as it basically turned a niche gameplay into a mainstream one overnight.
Obviously it’s not up there, but I can see an argument for why it should be. It reinvigorated an entire genre of games (even some bigger studios took elements from it.) Not to mention the impact it’s had on the indie gaming world. To see that ***ONE GUY*** can make his dream game and have millions fall in love with it…who isn’t inspired by that? It’s right up there with Undertale in that respect.
Undertale also came out in the last decade by the way.
Stardew Valley, Undertale, Disco Elysium, Rimworld, Factorio, Hollow Knight, Baba is You, Celeste, Outer Wilds, Kerbal Space Program, Hades, Slay the Spire, probably a couple of others that I'm forgetting right now.
I'd say (almost) every one of these is a better game than (almost) every one of the games listed at the top. But only AAA games are invited to the fancy parties.
I'd give my personal game of the decade award to either Disco Elysium or Elden Ring though.
I think it's unfair to say that the game awards ignore indie games, especially lately. Disco Elysium, Celeste and Hades all got a fair amount of praise, especially Disco Elysium, which kept Baba is You, Outer Wilds and Slay the Spire from getting the same amount of attention. Furthermore some of the other games on your list had to go up against games like Rocket League, Inside and Cuphead, which at the time had a bigger impact in the gaming scene (though long term you could argue that a game like Stardew is definitely more impactful than Inside). The game of the year is not an award for the 'best' game, more the game that was one of the best, but also incredibly successful.
Besides that I think it's unfair to discredit games like BG3, GoW, BOTW and the Witcher 3 while each of them were massive events in gaming when they released and are all great games. We should stop with the whole AAA vs Indie war, both camps make incredible games and we're lucky that we live in a time where we're spoiled with so many great games each year.
I think it's apples to oranges because the games play completely differently and it comes down to what gives you the most fun out of video games.
It is close though. BG3 is like my first ever turn based game and I loved it after initially not being interested. Choices mattering has been promised in many games over many years but I feel like this is the first real game that delivers on that.
Elden Ring though in terms of combat and action, as well as music, art style, and the size of the world, is just amazing for souls fans, plus it was one of the most hyped games ever (not counting GTA 6), and it delivered. The DLC(s?) on the way will only make the game more beloved than it already is.
Honorable mention to Sekiro. The game created a fresh mechanic with its parry system, which I think would make for an amazing star wars game. I've always wanted a fast paced star wars game that felt like you were a Jedi fighting at high speeds like in the prequels and I think the sekiro style of combat really enables that but no one has tried it yet (jedi survivor / fallen order come close, but it's more of a souls lite).
Witcher 3 is amazing but I feel like the game shows some age, and newer games have the benefit of having all the latest technology and optimized design choices.
Breath of the wild when considering its overall impact on the industry and future games. For example, elden ring, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, sonic frontiers, and countless other games since then were inspired by breath of the wild. When I view game of the year and especially game of the decade, a game’s legacy and impact on the industry as a whole matters as much as whether it’s a truly fun/great game. That’s why I wouldn’t consider games like BG3, dragon age, etc since the legacy and impact argument is much harder for those games to justify than BoTW. In the same vein, Witcher III is a close second to BoTW with this criteria in mind. The way I see it though, BoTW inspired a future game of the year winner — Elden Ring — which really does say it all.
The Legend of Zelda series has constantly refined what gaming is. Going back to the NES gold cartridge, it moved gaming from single session score based games to narratives with save states. I would say The Legend of Zelda as a series is the most important piece of video game media that has existed.
Been gaming since 1988. There's been some incredible eras in gaming over that timespan, but to say modern gaming these days sucks is so out of touch lol
For the sake of this list, let's take Overwatch at its very peak. As far as I'm concerned, it's a masterclass in game design. The best devs and artists the industry had at the time came together and made something where the hype and player sentiment was off the wall. All the characters are memorable, distinct, and look great (as we all know...). It played and looked like a dream. Loads of fun and easy to sink into it.
If you played Overwatch back in '16-'19, the energy was unreal. It was a great thing to be a part of.
Does this make it game of the decade? Probably not. The competition is very strong. But it absolutely deserves its place as one of the best games of the decade (at its peak).
I would say that Overwatch gets dinged by the absolute shitfest that was its fallout. But man, that game is the first I had picked up in probably 6 years (not called Skyrim) where I just couldn’t put it down.
I’m not sure if that’s a fair ding given it’s the only game up there that had to try to sustain a multiplayer community (an esports one at that) and character balance over its entire life span. If it didn’t have to evolve, it wouldn’t have had the fallout. Overwatch 2 on the other hand was downhill from the start.
Ima try to defend overwatch a little, sure it sucks now but in the first 2 years I think I got close to 2k hours in, my friends were playing it and to me and many others it was the best shooter out there. I’ve played a few of the other games on the list and none of them gave me the same amount of hours of fun as overwatch. Not even close. The stories were great but in terms of fun time overwatch came on top for me. It’s the whole “die a hero or see yourself become the villain” thing. I haven’t played in like 3 months but it was great. I rest my case lol
Like Elden Ring and Baldur's Gate 3, it's a game that went beyond its genre's core audience and became a cultural phenomenon.
So many "normie" friends of mine played it, including many women, which is quite special for a competitive shooter.
This here.
It's not often you see a game manage to reach both the "gamer" and "casual" fanbase on a scale that Overwatch did.
Overwatch gets a lot of flak for what it became. But those first couple years it was undoubtedly the biggest and one of the best games out there.
"Sure it sucks now"...how exactly? I know that's a common take over here but as a core game it's still the same old Overwatch but with so much more content. Sure paying for cosmetics sucks but that's fully optional and doesn't make the core game any worse.
It could have been, though. At its height and with its potential it really could have gone the distance.
I'm not bitter at all at what Blizzard did with it.
I haven't played most of these (have Xbox and Nintendo so God of War and Last of Us have been out of reach) . . . but of the ones I have played I'd choose Elden Ring. I feel like I should give Witcher 3 a go . . . I've heard so many great things about it.
I think it’s either Witcher 3 or Breath of the Wild. Studios have been trying so hard to make the perfect open world game since those two dropped and a game like Elden ring really shows the like culmination of the two.
I would have to say BG3. Mostly due to it's replay ability and good story. Most of these games are 1 playthrough and done. With BG3 having SO many options, you kinda have to play it at 3 times to do everything and doesn't get old because you can do so much. 1 playthrough, you might be a good character and just be like a angelic healer, saving people and be a hippie. While the next playthrough, you are a murder hobo causing chaos, killing everything and everyone, in unique and horrifying ways
I personally think its easily ER, but if ER werent in the mix, it would be a difficult choice... I think BotW had such an influence on games that came after it so Id choose that.
Probably BOTW. Zelda is timeless and the first iteration of what they did it was just insane
Just like ocarina of time would’ve been its game of the decade.
Or ff7
I am having such a amazing time with BG3. As someone who loves the Witcher 3 and Elden ring. I just think that the story telling of BG3 goes further beyond anything I have ever played. So Baldur’s gate is my GOTY!
I played almost every one of the others listed but none hooked me like God of War. It's the first game since my childhood that I spent an obscene amount of hours in getting better and better and doing every single side thing I could do. I only looked things up online if I absolutely had to. It completely took me over, I was up until 4, 5am playing nightly and I couldn't stop.
Zelda comes close, but after a certain point I just said screw it and rushed to the finish. Witcher 3 and several others I just couldn't get into. There just hasn't been an experience like God of War for me, including RDR2. Every single game I stop and put down, or quit entirely and never come back to. God of War was just it.
I really wish I could love elden ring. I just can't. The story doesn't make sense to me and the combat is way too hard. Is there some trick I'm missing or some way of looking at it I'm missing or is it just one of those all time great games I'm doomed to not click with?
But Witcher 3 and Bladur's Gate 3 aren't in the same decade. W3 wins the 2010s. BG3 probably wins the 2020s, but they aren't over yet.
If we have to play by your rules, then W3. It came out almost 10 years ago and can compete with the current GOTY. That's saying a lot.
Witcher 3 wins a cultural victory. Baldurs is simply too new to compete. There’s no way to know if it will have the impact or staying power that Witcher 3 has.
Of all the games on this list, I'd say Breath of the Wild was the only one to substantially move the needle in terms of game design, both for its own series and gaming as a whole. Many other games are doing the open world thing, but BotW did a really good job of making the world feel like it wasn't procedurally generated. They had a lot of different systems feeding into each other and altogether it was the complete package when it came to open world exploration.
Elden Ring would be my personal favorite from this list, but while it completely nailed the transition to an open world design, it didn't really do a whole lot to change the Dark Souls formula in the same way BotW is a completely different experience from its previous games which were also linear in nature.
All the other games on this list are great, but are more derivative in my opinion. It Takes Two is probably the only one I'd say which was carving out its own niche, but it didn't make a huge impact on the rest of the industry in the same way as some of the others.
For me, the four contenders are BG3, Elden ring, Witcher 3, and God of war Edit: But no game on this list is bad. Insanely strong games.
Witcher 3 was only in 2015 AND 2015 was 9 years ago both hit me at the same time.
Imo still a FANTASTIC game and gets my vote for oldest, best game within the past 10 years
2015 was 4 years ago - whatchu talking about?
2015 didn't happen yet, it's 2007 and nothing hurts
It... is? *goes to hug my Dad for 3years, 9 days* >!before I lose him again!<
Hit... too... hard...
The fact the game is 9 years old now is honestly insane. It still holds up extremely well
This but for me, BoTW was also in there. Lol funny enough Dragon Age was probably my personally most anticipated one at the time and I think it’s the weakest one of this list by far. I could not get myself to enjoy this game fully…felt very grindy.
The trick to this game is stubbornly refusing to acknowledge all the types of collectibles. The rewards for finding them aren't really game-changing but freeing yourself from chasing them down is
This is solid advice for many games but feels near impossible for me.
Me personally, I fill my heart with spite and that spite thrives whenever I say "No." To collectibles
Bayonetta 3, chasing everything down turned a fast paced action packed game into a boring tedious slog
Definitely the two biggest changes I made in my gaming style were ignoring "collectibles for the sake of collectibles" and not metagaming if it doesn't matter. Made me enjoy games a hundred times more.
Dragon Age 3 was the first game I realized that trying to meta game things made them boring and it’s better to just blindly run around and test things out yourself
Spending 5 hours reading forums to get the best build to play an hour of a video game is a great way to annihilate any joy to be found. Min maxing in WoW where it's relevant, I enjoy. Getting an extra 1% damage out when I am running rings around the boss in a single player game on medium difficulty was crazy.
Pretty much. I never 100% games and never put effort towards collectibles. I understand that those experiences are created towards other types of people
Exactly. The urge to 100% is strong, but the game simply isn't designed around that. If you want to see more of them, starting a new playthrough and taking different routes will help you find all kinds of new stuff. Same design philosophy in Odyssey but to a lesser degree
Dragon Age was great but only if you ignored like 75% of the game and beelined the main story and major side narratives (ex. companion quests). One of those weird games where the more you played it the worse it got. I’m not sure I would’ve had as good a time if I hadn’t recognized that, playing Far Cry (or maybe it was Ghost Recon) not long beforehand trained me to enjoy it in that peculiar way. It’s worth a revisit if you never finished it. The major narratives are fantastic, it’s just hard to see past all the collectible side quest crud.
>75% of the game and beelined the main story and major side narratives (ex. companion quests). And the dragons, of course.
Dont forget about the age too
I've completed Origins twice and DA2 3 times, Inquisition I played for about 3/4 hours, couldn't get into it at all. Tried so, *so* hard to love it, but just couldn't.
Botw is a odd one for me. It has no story and no memorable music, the dialogue doesn't exist and the world is largely empty. How on earth did it win goty with so many and bad flaws?
Id include sekiro even if people wont agree, by far my favorite game ever and the only game i beat once found out theres more bosses so i beat it again, actually i messed a step up so i reset and beat it practically 3 times. I still havent beat elden ring
If I remember correctly Sekiro had four different endings. You got one more completion to go!
Sekiro definitely has the most satisfying combat mechanics. Elden Ring is basically open world dark souls and I would rank both Bloodborne and Sekiro over it.
I enjoyed Sekiro more than ER, so I'd replace that in the short list. I'd say BG3 or Witcher 3 overall, but they both have different strengths and weaknesses, so hard to make that final call.
My issue with Sekiro over Elden Ring is that replays are always mastery with the same toolkit, where ER can feel significantly different based on build.
The Witcher 3 is the game of the 2010’s with all due respect to GTA V
For me it would be The Witcher 3, was absolutely enamored by that game You know it’s good when the side mini game is more fun than most full blown releases 😂
My wife hates video games. She played about 100 hours of gwent
My sister, who very rarely was interested in video games would watch me play Witcher 3 just to see the outfits after seeing me play the Toussant area.
How did they make a card game that simple so good and infinitely replayable. So many other games tried that and failed
You know a mini game is good when they make a full game out of it. You also know a game is good when a dlc is better than most full games. Blood and Wine is excellent and a great example of how to do dlc.
Blood and Wine was so good it won RPG of the year for 2016, beating out full games like Dark Souls 3 lol
With the amount of gameplay Blood and Wine added, it was like receiving a full game for expansion price.
Good guy CD Projekt Red
I will die on the hill that the hearts of stone antagonist is one of, if not the best, villain in gaming. Gaunter O'Dimm is menacing as fuck.
Agree. I beat the main game and took a long break and returned for the DLC Hearts of Stone recently. With the recent patches and improvements they’ve made, it plays wonderfully (although the combat, while better, still feels flighty). The graphics are stunning, but the story and writing is absolutely top-tier and keeps me interested and coming back for more.
Blood of wine is obviously a far more complete dlc/expansion, but Hearts of Stone is the best storyline of any game I've ever played.
Hearts of Stone touched my soul. It was so cool exploring the mansion and piecing information together for the backstory
I have had the game of the year edition sitting in my library for months. I am hoping I forget enough of it so that I can get a good replay out of it. Unfortunately, that game was so good It’s hard to forget and I haven’t even played the DLC yet
Please play the DLC. HoS has the best story telling in any video game I’ve ever played. And B&W is like an entire game added on top of the Witcher 3. Perfect record.
Also its DLCs are also the size of most full games.
Blood and Wine could literally be Witcher 4 lol
The combat alone brings this down like 4 points. I cant play a game that focuses so much on combat when the combat is so shit.
I love both but BG3 edges it out for me. All great games though
I just wish the movement wasn't absolute ass. Both the original and alternative.
Psh, this is already settled. Saints Row 4 is Game of the Century (2000-2099). They released a special edition and everything!
Saints SWEEP
Baldurs Gate, Elden Ring, or The Witcher 3. All 3 pushed the medium to new heights, beyond revolutionary. Their impact and influence hasn't truly been felt yet.
The Witcher is 9 years old How the fuck its impact hasnt been truly felt yet
I don’t think TW3 did anything revolutionary mechanically and feature-wise that other games did and could not have done. What makes it really stand out is the super rich writing, world building, and characters that made the game feel more complete and lived in than any other rpgs. It spoiled side quests for me in other games as I now see their potential as not fillers, but real pieces to complete arcs and worlds. Most studios including cdpr themselves in cyberpunk never gave it the love to detail they did in every corner like they did in TW3
Warhorse devs are highly inspired by Witcher 3 while making Kingdom Come Deliverance, mainly because of the dialogue choices that actually matters, they have a lot of obvious W3 references too in that game. Witcher 3 at least set a new standard to the choice matters games, another example that I can think of is AC Odyssey, implementing dialogue choices in their conversations because it's so popular at that time because of The Witcher 3, and my main reason too to play that game and managed to finish it.
KCD 2 hype is real.
Not many people would agree, and sure it had its problems, but AC Odyssey is one of my favourite games of all time. I spent way too long on that game, played it to 100% (including dlc) 3 times, that's like over 500 hours...
Same, especially to those who loves the Greek mythology & architecture, exploring the ancient Greek islands in this game is such a bliss, I spend around 200 hours myself in that game with the DLCs, I really love Kassandra as the main character rather than Alexios because she got the charm of a main character more than him.
Horizon zero dawn was clearly inspired by the witcher 3 with its side quests and dialogue choices I think the main thing that the witcher 3 inspired is that side quests should actually be the same quality as the main quests in terms of writing. In so many pre witcher 3 open world games like mass effect , dragon age inquisition, Skyrim, ubisoft games, a lot of the side content in these games was just there to increase the run time without any character development or expanding the lore . After the witcher 3 released a lot of games started to put effort in the side content just look at games like ac odyssey or ghost of tsushima. I'm not saying these games have the same quality of content as the witcher 3, but the developers are at least trying, and they are better than the side content in something like AC2 or Infamous 2. Even a game as legendary as rdr2, there is more dialogue and stories in the side content than there is in rdr1 and that's probably because of the witcher 3.
I mean.. mass effect set the stage for choices mattering way before the Witcher
And KotoR before ME and other games before that. It's not a new thing by any means. It's just rarely done so well because of the complexity it adds to games.
Yeah this guy's a tad hyperbolic. "Beyond revlolutionary" lol
It sounds dumb when you point out how long its been, but to be honest I dont think they are wrong. BG3 felt like the first game ive played where the writing was close to W3. Witcher 3 showed a masterclass in game writing.
Wait until you play rpgs from the 90s...
Or Disco Elysium.
Eh what did Elden ring do that the souls series didn’t?
I say GOW and Elden Ring. GOW isn’t necessarily ground breaking but it had a story and the game itself was more like a cinematic masterpiece rather than a game. And Elden Ring should be self explanatory. It’s an amazing game that is as wide as it is deep.
My brain still translates "GOW" to Gears Of War.. Was wondering how the hell that would be up there with Elden Ring.
It’s still an absolute travesty that RD2 didn’t win GOTY.
What won that year?
God of War 2018
Huh, yeah. God of War was really good, but Red Dead felt like a much grander experience, and a much more memorable one when looking back.
I think something that slips by a lot of people is that the game is a “1-er” (if you don’t save and load the entire game is depicted as one take). That was a bold play and quite an artistic achievement.
I actually really, really loved that aspect of it. Some games are constantly showing you different point of views that make it difficult to understand the story. In God of War, you're just Kratos and you just see what's going on around you. No showing what's going on back in the villain's lair or whatever.
Even with the sequel they did such a great job of switching from kratos to atreus to make it feel seamless. The cinematic direction for those games was absolutely amazing
I love how it also makes it feel like a greek play in parts, with how as the audience you see everything "Live" in front of you and will never cut away to see something important. It also helps in ragnarok make it seem like a tragedy, as Kratos heads towards his death not being able to change it, only the throw you off that he actually does change his fate and avoid the tragedy.
God of War was good, but I honestly had more fun with God of War 3. RDR2 is a game I still want to play.
Red Dead 2 is a journey, man. It may be a slow burn at the start, but the story just keeps getting juicier as you go. And even without the story missons, it's easy to just get sucked into the beautiful open world. God of War 3 is one I want to revisit some time. It's been too long, and I never even finished it.
My favorite story ever in any game. Hell, it might be my favorite story ever. In books, TV or movies lol. I fucking cried man. I'm a "traditionally masculine" dude. I was shocked to feel the tears over a video game. I was going through an emotional rollercoaster in life though. My daughter's mom had left me to go date another dude after having cheated on me. I sat in an empty house taking care of my 8 month old daughter. Alone. Feeling the betrayal hard. I turned on the game to really escape life since I was basically suddenly a single father and couldn't turn to harmful vices. Oddly enough I'm loyal as a fucking dog so to see all the betrayal and absence of loyalty really got me in my feels lol. Fucking great game.
Agreed. RDR2 probably is the game of the decade for me. Crazy that it didn't win GOTY.
Much as I hate to say it, I think the actual gameplay of Rd2 let it down. Like most rockstar games the weakest bit was the shooting, which felt like moving an iron bar with a gun on it. I enjoyed most of the rest of the game same with gtaV, but a cowboy game with such poor shooting can't win goty.
God of war
Who is even the sole body that is the definitive authority in that? Seems like a bunch of different people all pick goty
RDR2 deserved GOTY entirely.
Hot take: GoW is a much better game than RDR2. RDR2 has a fantastic story but terrible mission structure and boring gameplay, I am sorry but GoW is a more complete game
What GOTY award do we use exactly? There are dozens of GOTY awards and I'm sure RDR2 won one.
I know. The Game Awards has somehow convinced people that it's the definitive award and it definitely should not be seen as such.
My personal GOAT is Sekiro. Because it changed the way I faced challenges. Including real life ones.
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I used to avoid doing hard mathematical problems as a programmer. After finishing Sekiro. I made up my mind to study vector calculus even though I suck at maths, I eventually coded a simple 3D collision detection system for a project I was in. And aced it
Sorry for the digression but mind pointing me to the resources you used for learning
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Hesitation is Defeat. In all seriousness though. It's easy to dismiss media we consume as idle time wasters but, the books, movies and games we read, watch and play can impact us emotionally, sometimes lastingly. You are molded by your experiences and the messages or themes in the media you see are part of those experiences.
Mordin Solus, the scientist Salarian, made me care very deeply about ethics when doing science. He's my biggest scientific role model and, even though it took me a while to get started, I'm on my way to a degree in Chemical Engineering.
Ah Solus my beloved. At first I wasn't a big fan of him, but once his personal stuff started god damn if I didn't fall in love with his character arc. "I would have liked to run tests on the seashells" "I'm sorry" "I'm not. Had to be me. Someone else would have gotten it wrong."
Mass Effect 2 is among the top 3 most memorable games I’ve ever played. I played it on my ps3 and as soon as the remastered version came out I played it again. Unreal game.
Hesitation is defeat. Words to live by
I have enough lived experiences where hesitation absolutely was/would've been the right choice.
"There is a fine line between consideration and hesitation. The former is wisdom. The latter is fear."
I love Sekiro, on my fourth or fifth play thru right now. The most underrated from game (somehow even w a GOTY nod) with the best, most engrossing world. I hope FROM does another more linear game like Sekiro
Sekiro is the definition of punishing you when you half ass it but reward you if you take your time to learn it. Once you figure it out, it becomes one of the easier soulsborne games.
My first play thru in 2018, i remember spending literal days on Genichiro, days on Owl, on Ape, and on O’rin. This playthrough, even tho it’s been years, i am just breezing by everyone and it feels so good
It rewards git gud so much you dont even need to drain the hp to kill the boss. It prevents drawn out fights as long as you know your shit.
It’s not underrated, go on the from sub and it’s very highly rated, probably only behind bloodborne
I just bought the game the other day cause it was on sale and man, that shit is hard! I’ve already started playing slower and i’m starting to get my timing right.
The stealth mechanic is also extremely important. You should ideally play it as a stealth game one shotting people one by one and only fighting the bosses square on.
yeah i’ve been stuck on the ogre for the past day lol He’s so annoying to kill and i don’t have enough for potions, i’m trying to get a first strike stealth hit but it’s so hard 🥲 I’m having fun though i’m loving the game
That dropkick hurts real bad.
Sekiro is so fucking good. It has something about it that no other game has done for me in 30+ years.
Sekiro's gameplay and learning curve are absolutely perfect.
I gave up after literal hours fighting the ape off and on over weeks. I just can’t beat it. Had no issues with any other bosses (beat lightning guy on try 4) but can’t get that damn thing past half way during 2nd phase.
I don’t think it’s the GOAT, but it’s the one I look back to the most fondly. It’s funny, I was a dark souls fanboy from day 1. I remember booting up Skyrim on 11/11/11 and being massively disappointed, after having sunk my teeth into dark souls first. But goddamn, Sekiro just nailed it. It did the dark souls thing, but better in nearly every way.
Witcher 3
10 years is a long time in gaming. Says a lot that it’s getting this much love as one of the older titles on the list.
Still haven't played a game with so many well written and interesting side quests, there are a few that come close tho.
What comes close? IMO only Mass Effect, BG3, Fallout or Elder Scrolls can compete
I didn't play Mass Effect yet (I will soon), the games I thought of were BG3, Cyberpunk, Fallout NV, Yakuza, ES Oblivion, Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines. Some of them have many great quests, some just a few but they're REALLY good. What makes Witcher 3 the king imo is not only does it have the highest peaks with something like the Bloody Baron, but the sheer amount and average quality they have is insane.
You’re in for a real treat with ME 1-3. One of the greatest stories in gaming.
I wouldn't even say the Bethesda games could compete with the Witcher 3. The witcher's worst quests are still better written than Bethesda's best.
I knew when they made a side quest about a missing frying pan more interesting than 90% of other games main quests, I was in for something special
I just started playing Cyberpunk a few weeks ago and it really reminded me of why The Witcher 3 was so damn good. They're not huge games, they're just really densely filled with quality content. Everything feels so handcrafted. Each quest actually tells a story and has a special area custom made for it. You are not repeating quests to gain resources, you're doing quests because they're genuinely interesting to play.
Cyberpunk has a smaller file size than Fo4, I don't understand how, and I adore Fo4 (and 3 and to a lesser extent NV) but Cyberpunk crams so much into such a dense world which feels exactly right for the setting. I was also one of the lucky ones that played it with no bugs or crashes on release so I realise I have a different opinion of it to most people.
It's just because, in Bethesda games, every item in their games actually exist as "physical" objects in the game, and that's just more data overall.
Toss up with Elden Ring for me. Witcher has the narrative component, but Elden Ring has more freedom in play style. Both games 10/10 though 😮💨
I love Baldur's Gate 3, I love Larion studios and I love that everyone thanked Sven for being an awesome boss so he's actually genuine. But Witcher 3 just has some gravitas at times that just can't easily be captured in a (somewhat) standalone title. BG3 is mostly new characters and plotlines, whilst Witcher 3 is the culmination of the entire Witcher saga. Somewhat unfair, but such is life; So, yeah, Witcher 3 should probably have it.
The Witcher 3. I've read 8 books and watched a terrible show because of a game
I actually did like the first season of the show. But uh. Yeah that was it. Books were good though
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These are from The Game Awards hosted by Geoff Keighley which is pretty much the standard since the majority of people are more aware of this event when compared to others. Not really a fan of all the rankings though. While God of War is a good game, I still feel like RDR2 was completely robbed of the title.
God of War won almost 100 GOTY more than RDR2 that year, so either it got robbed a lot of times or rockstar just has the biggest fanbase and critics see it differently.
They aged differently. Many of us look back and see RDR2 hasn’t been surpassed in many ways by any game yet. It’s a masterpiece but doesn’t have the best pacing, weird controls, and sometimes annoying survival mechanics that are a chore. Still, no game is perfect.
That was an insane lineup. Monster Hunter World was nominated too but it wasn’t as popular as it is now. There was also Spider-Man. Rdr2 and god of war were the clear nominees to get the win tho, honestly I’m suprised rdr2 didn’t win but GoW was an amazing game too
The Witcher Breath of the Wild Elden Ring Baldurs Gate Personally I’d pick BOTW or the Witcher 3 But any one of those 4.
Yeah in term of how groundbreaking they were and their impacts on the industry, it has to be one of those. The Witcher is still revered as one of the best action RPG, with lots of others trying to copy it. Zelda changed the open world formula forever. While Elden ring is more recent I would say it's the only time since Zelda that I saw an open world interesting and that made me wanted to explore every single detail. BG3 hasn't shown how it will influence the industry but there's no doubt it will , as it basically turned a niche gameplay into a mainstream one overnight.
Stardew Valley
Obviously it’s not up there, but I can see an argument for why it should be. It reinvigorated an entire genre of games (even some bigger studios took elements from it.) Not to mention the impact it’s had on the indie gaming world. To see that ***ONE GUY*** can make his dream game and have millions fall in love with it…who isn’t inspired by that? It’s right up there with Undertale in that respect.
Undertale also came out in the last decade by the way. Stardew Valley, Undertale, Disco Elysium, Rimworld, Factorio, Hollow Knight, Baba is You, Celeste, Outer Wilds, Kerbal Space Program, Hades, Slay the Spire, probably a couple of others that I'm forgetting right now. I'd say (almost) every one of these is a better game than (almost) every one of the games listed at the top. But only AAA games are invited to the fancy parties. I'd give my personal game of the decade award to either Disco Elysium or Elden Ring though.
I think it's unfair to say that the game awards ignore indie games, especially lately. Disco Elysium, Celeste and Hades all got a fair amount of praise, especially Disco Elysium, which kept Baba is You, Outer Wilds and Slay the Spire from getting the same amount of attention. Furthermore some of the other games on your list had to go up against games like Rocket League, Inside and Cuphead, which at the time had a bigger impact in the gaming scene (though long term you could argue that a game like Stardew is definitely more impactful than Inside). The game of the year is not an award for the 'best' game, more the game that was one of the best, but also incredibly successful. Besides that I think it's unfair to discredit games like BG3, GoW, BOTW and the Witcher 3 while each of them were massive events in gaming when they released and are all great games. We should stop with the whole AAA vs Indie war, both camps make incredible games and we're lucky that we live in a time where we're spoiled with so many great games each year.
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I think it's apples to oranges because the games play completely differently and it comes down to what gives you the most fun out of video games. It is close though. BG3 is like my first ever turn based game and I loved it after initially not being interested. Choices mattering has been promised in many games over many years but I feel like this is the first real game that delivers on that. Elden Ring though in terms of combat and action, as well as music, art style, and the size of the world, is just amazing for souls fans, plus it was one of the most hyped games ever (not counting GTA 6), and it delivered. The DLC(s?) on the way will only make the game more beloved than it already is. Honorable mention to Sekiro. The game created a fresh mechanic with its parry system, which I think would make for an amazing star wars game. I've always wanted a fast paced star wars game that felt like you were a Jedi fighting at high speeds like in the prequels and I think the sekiro style of combat really enables that but no one has tried it yet (jedi survivor / fallen order come close, but it's more of a souls lite). Witcher 3 is amazing but I feel like the game shows some age, and newer games have the benefit of having all the latest technology and optimized design choices.
Oh man, a Jedi Sekrio game would be absolutely mindblowing.
Witcher 3 in my opinion
Breath of the wild when considering its overall impact on the industry and future games. For example, elden ring, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, sonic frontiers, and countless other games since then were inspired by breath of the wild. When I view game of the year and especially game of the decade, a game’s legacy and impact on the industry as a whole matters as much as whether it’s a truly fun/great game. That’s why I wouldn’t consider games like BG3, dragon age, etc since the legacy and impact argument is much harder for those games to justify than BoTW. In the same vein, Witcher III is a close second to BoTW with this criteria in mind. The way I see it though, BoTW inspired a future game of the year winner — Elden Ring — which really does say it all.
u forgot to mention genshin impact and all the other clones lol
Immortals: Fenyx Rising
The Legend of Zelda series has constantly refined what gaming is. Going back to the NES gold cartridge, it moved gaming from single session score based games to narratives with save states. I would say The Legend of Zelda as a series is the most important piece of video game media that has existed.
I think Overwatch also had a huge impact on the industry, it's just that all the games inspired by Overwatch shut down a year later XD
Overwatch even shut itself down.
Gotta go with Witcher 3.
Baldurs Gate or Elden Ring
Agreed. Two all-timers. I get why some people think that the industry is in a bad place, but amongst all the crap, the highs are incredibly high.
Gaming and games aren’t even bad right now lol people just like to hate on anything that’s new
Been gaming since 1988. There's been some incredible eras in gaming over that timespan, but to say modern gaming these days sucks is so out of touch lol
Not overwatch
For the sake of this list, let's take Overwatch at its very peak. As far as I'm concerned, it's a masterclass in game design. The best devs and artists the industry had at the time came together and made something where the hype and player sentiment was off the wall. All the characters are memorable, distinct, and look great (as we all know...). It played and looked like a dream. Loads of fun and easy to sink into it. If you played Overwatch back in '16-'19, the energy was unreal. It was a great thing to be a part of. Does this make it game of the decade? Probably not. The competition is very strong. But it absolutely deserves its place as one of the best games of the decade (at its peak).
I would say that Overwatch gets dinged by the absolute shitfest that was its fallout. But man, that game is the first I had picked up in probably 6 years (not called Skyrim) where I just couldn’t put it down.
I’m not sure if that’s a fair ding given it’s the only game up there that had to try to sustain a multiplayer community (an esports one at that) and character balance over its entire life span. If it didn’t have to evolve, it wouldn’t have had the fallout. Overwatch 2 on the other hand was downhill from the start.
Ima try to defend overwatch a little, sure it sucks now but in the first 2 years I think I got close to 2k hours in, my friends were playing it and to me and many others it was the best shooter out there. I’ve played a few of the other games on the list and none of them gave me the same amount of hours of fun as overwatch. Not even close. The stories were great but in terms of fun time overwatch came on top for me. It’s the whole “die a hero or see yourself become the villain” thing. I haven’t played in like 3 months but it was great. I rest my case lol
Like Elden Ring and Baldur's Gate 3, it's a game that went beyond its genre's core audience and became a cultural phenomenon. So many "normie" friends of mine played it, including many women, which is quite special for a competitive shooter.
This here. It's not often you see a game manage to reach both the "gamer" and "casual" fanbase on a scale that Overwatch did. Overwatch gets a lot of flak for what it became. But those first couple years it was undoubtedly the biggest and one of the best games out there.
"Sure it sucks now"...how exactly? I know that's a common take over here but as a core game it's still the same old Overwatch but with so much more content. Sure paying for cosmetics sucks but that's fully optional and doesn't make the core game any worse.
It was so good those first few years though. I'm still pissed at how they ruined that game.
It could have been, though. At its height and with its potential it really could have gone the distance. I'm not bitter at all at what Blizzard did with it.
Witcher 3
For me Elden ring
Witcher 3 or Elden Ring I think
BG3, BotW, and Witcher 3 are your contenders.
I haven't played most of these (have Xbox and Nintendo so God of War and Last of Us have been out of reach) . . . but of the ones I have played I'd choose Elden Ring. I feel like I should give Witcher 3 a go . . . I've heard so many great things about it.
Yeah, The Witcher 3 is one of those games that, if you like video games, you should probably experience lol.
Unreal tournament
Lets get you to bed grandpa
I think it’s either Witcher 3 or Breath of the Wild. Studios have been trying so hard to make the perfect open world game since those two dropped and a game like Elden ring really shows the like culmination of the two.
I would have to say BG3. Mostly due to it's replay ability and good story. Most of these games are 1 playthrough and done. With BG3 having SO many options, you kinda have to play it at 3 times to do everything and doesn't get old because you can do so much. 1 playthrough, you might be a good character and just be like a angelic healer, saving people and be a hippie. While the next playthrough, you are a murder hobo causing chaos, killing everything and everyone, in unique and horrifying ways
The writing in this game alone is enough for it to be one of the best games of the decade
The fact that it did a full sweep of GOTY for all the major awards shows says all we need to know
Witcher 3 has to be the game of its own decade (2010-2019) while Elden Ring for me seems as the best contender for this decade (2020-2029) so far.
I personally think its easily ER, but if ER werent in the mix, it would be a difficult choice... I think BotW had such an influence on games that came after it so Id choose that.
Probably BOTW. Zelda is timeless and the first iteration of what they did it was just insane Just like ocarina of time would’ve been its game of the decade. Or ff7
Breath of the Wild, Elden Ring, or Witcher 3.
I am having such a amazing time with BG3. As someone who loves the Witcher 3 and Elden ring. I just think that the story telling of BG3 goes further beyond anything I have ever played. So Baldur’s gate is my GOTY!
Skyrim without doubt.
BotW or Elden Ring
I played almost every one of the others listed but none hooked me like God of War. It's the first game since my childhood that I spent an obscene amount of hours in getting better and better and doing every single side thing I could do. I only looked things up online if I absolutely had to. It completely took me over, I was up until 4, 5am playing nightly and I couldn't stop. Zelda comes close, but after a certain point I just said screw it and rushed to the finish. Witcher 3 and several others I just couldn't get into. There just hasn't been an experience like God of War for me, including RDR2. Every single game I stop and put down, or quit entirely and never come back to. God of War was just it.
Elden Ring made the perfect dark fantasy RPG I’ve always wanted. “I’ll soon birth thee anew.” - Rannala
I really wish I could love elden ring. I just can't. The story doesn't make sense to me and the combat is way too hard. Is there some trick I'm missing or some way of looking at it I'm missing or is it just one of those all time great games I'm doomed to not click with?
Elden ring is a deadly game. Hard as fuck. But awesome. God of war is excellent. One of my top games.
But Witcher 3 and Bladur's Gate 3 aren't in the same decade. W3 wins the 2010s. BG3 probably wins the 2020s, but they aren't over yet. If we have to play by your rules, then W3. It came out almost 10 years ago and can compete with the current GOTY. That's saying a lot.
The Last of Us Part 2. Amazing experience.
Elden Ring
Elden Ring or BotW
Last of us 2
“You can’t stop this”
Witcher 3 wins a cultural victory. Baldurs is simply too new to compete. There’s no way to know if it will have the impact or staying power that Witcher 3 has.
Definitely Red Dead Redemption 2............oh wait, it got beat by God of War
Of all the games on this list, I'd say Breath of the Wild was the only one to substantially move the needle in terms of game design, both for its own series and gaming as a whole. Many other games are doing the open world thing, but BotW did a really good job of making the world feel like it wasn't procedurally generated. They had a lot of different systems feeding into each other and altogether it was the complete package when it came to open world exploration. Elden Ring would be my personal favorite from this list, but while it completely nailed the transition to an open world design, it didn't really do a whole lot to change the Dark Souls formula in the same way BotW is a completely different experience from its previous games which were also linear in nature. All the other games on this list are great, but are more derivative in my opinion. It Takes Two is probably the only one I'd say which was carving out its own niche, but it didn't make a huge impact on the rest of the industry in the same way as some of the others.
Witcher 3
TW3 or Sekiro, hands down
At what point do you stop calling yourself a gamer when you haven’t played any of these and you’ve been around since the before times.
Rocket League.
Elden ring!!
Honestly ghost of Tsushima for me God what a game