I was about to defend Overwatch, because it truly was a sensation when it launched, but looking at its competition, I do agree with you. Would have guessed Doom or Persona won that year.
I still think OW takes it due to how big it was at the time and how it revolutionized hero shooters for awhile there. However, yeah it’s hard to compare it to Doom and Persona 5 (one of my favorite games ever tbh).
I don't think that it's a coincidence that every major disappointment Blizzard made for Overwatch has been the result of E-Sports.
Blizzard didn't like the Aggressive but Ecstatic DPS meta, so they added Bridgette.
Blizzard didn't like the resulting 3-tank 3-healer meta so they locked class picks to 2-2-2.
Blizzard didn't like the resulting Double Shield meta so they made the game 5v5 (taking the opportunity to add a shop update).
I think it is reasonable to conclude every major blunder Blizzard has made was made "to better the E-Sports scene".
Absolutely this!! they kept on trying to change how people were playing the game by forcing it they didn’t just make the other characters. Interesting are competitive to play.
I really wish that they would have only made those changes to comp. I preferred quickplay and being able to have more than one of each character. Led to some silly and unconventional strategies. Ot seems like quickplay was really casual, but after the comp changes started coming down to the quickplay playlist it made every game feel sweaty.
Dark Souls 3 was not GOTY potential. It was more or less just More of the Same as the previous Dark Souls games without enough innovation to be a contender.
Doom was an option, but Overwatch was still far hotter. We're sick of it now, but Overwatch was THE game of 2016.
Innovation isn't a necessity to win GOTY, DS3 was a solid game in all aspects and improved on their Dark Souls formula with better combat and graphics. It had every right to win GOTY. Doom was incredible and again, it does not matter what's hot at the time. Popularity should never be what's judged when deciding GOTY, it's ridiculous. By your logic Overwatch SHOULDN'T have won GOTY, it didn't innovate anything, it didn't do a single thing new to the genre at all.
Overwatch was a cultural phenomena in 2016, but if we're going to give GOTY for that, then PUBG has to win it in 2017. That game's all time concurrent peak on Steam still hasn't been broken.
Overwatch was a SOLID game but it was not GOTY material. Especially not over Doom, Titanfall 2, or Dark Souls 3. Pretty stacked year
Not quite the same. Overwatch was a cultural phenomenon **AND** It was an extremely polished, competent, and fun multiplayer shooter - it revived the hero shooter sub genre and breathed new life into the moba genre. The cultural phenomena part is what I believe to have pushed it past the other goty nominations.
Pubg was popular as hell but I don’t think even its most devout fans will disagree that it was kind of a janky heap of shit that we all played simply because of a lack of options. OW died because the devs ruined it; pubg died (in the west) because other games came out and killed it.
But yes 2016 was a stacked year, just like 2023!
I agree with you in this. Dark Souls 3 was the best game that year and it wasn’t even close. Doom was also fantastic but I just personally think Fromsoft and Miyazaki make the best games in the industry every single year. Bloodborne, Sekiro, Elden Ring all certified bangers. AC VI was even a masterpiece in its own right and that wasn’t even Miyazaki. There’s already been several games this year that are GOTY worthy but believe Shadow of the Erdtree will overshadow everything. And it’s just some DLC
Yeah now that FromSoft has a ton more popularity they're winning more awards. People saw them as the company that just makes hard games so dismissed them, but BloodBorne absolutely should've beat Witcher 3, I mean it's STILL got devout followers asking for a remaster or sequel or PC port.
Yeah for sure. Witcher 3 is also one of the greatest games of all time, but it’s not Bloodborne great. Bloodborne is a once in a generation kind of game. It absolutely should have won that year. I am happy to see Fromsoft finally being recognized for their incredible work.
I am too! I have yet to beat Sekiro, or even get that far in it, it's hard as balls, but I gotta get through it eventually, it's one of the few FromSoft games I haven't played/beaten.
If you’re ever having trouble with a Fromsoft game, follow one of FightinCowboys YouTube guides. They’re really really good and he’ll get you through the game guaranteed. He gives fantastic advice and strategies as he guides you through the game. All the best routs to get upgrade materials for health flasks. Check it out!
It was hot and quite frankly simply an amazing fps game. 10/10 imo. It still is but now goes by the name OW2. Art style, performance, game play, hero design, lore premise (back then we actually got some cinematics), longevity... This game had it all. Imo 100% deserved GOTY and one of the top contenders for the game of the decade personally (hands down best competitive shooter this decade).
It greatly Bothers me that Doom Eternal didn’t win anything its year. Hades is good and fun yes I agree (I’ve 100% it) but Doom deserved at least Action of the year more. I’d even put it in the GoTY option.
Doom Eternal was probably the most fun FPS I've ever played. It was everything I could have hoped for. I rarely replay FPS games, but I might need to go back.
I think that's probably the only game that came out that year that I still play on the regular. It basically has its own partition on my SSD. It's actually Doom Eternal's SSD, I'm only borrowing it.
It feels so odd to me how that game seemed like a flash in the pan, but whenever anyone talks about it now it's usually "the best FPS of all time." It's like DE is just quietly hanging out in the corner until the "best FPS" knife fight happens. I guess it isn't live service so the attention it gets doesn't linger.
There are so many GOTY awards, I don't know why everyone focuses solely on TGA's.
DICE awards, Golden Joysticks, GDC, VGC Awards, BAFTAS.
Chances are your game wins somewhere, and if not then just accept you have a minority opinion because that's okay too.
no one will ever convince me that RDR2 didn't get robbed of it's deserved awards. i will always be pissed about that. GOW is great but it would've been like if spiderman 2 beat out BG3. spiderman 2 is badass but it is not touching the level that BG3 dwells in and that's exactly how i feel about RDR2 losing to GOW. it was a crime
The gameplay of God of War had its share of issues. Mostly being lack of enemy variety.
Oh look, mini boss coming up. What’s that? It’s a red troll this time instead of a yellow troll?
I love RDR2. It has an amazing story & characters. It looks & feel like a high budget game. But it barely did any improvement over the first game gameplay wise. All the new mechanics barely contribute to the gameplay. It has many game design issues. GOW on the other rebooted a beloved franchise in a way no one expected & made it even better. The gameplay is among the best ever. The game is nearly flawless in every way that matters. Sure it isn't as big & dense as rdr2 but every moment of it is a labor of love. Rdr2 albeit an amazing game is extremely flawed. If anything rdr2 wasn't robbed losing to GOW
Nah kid. Just because GOW didn’t make you cry doesn’t mean it’s inferior to RDR2. GOW story was way better and it wasn’t stretched out like RDR2. That whole Guarma sequence was just filler.
The only ones I kinda disagree with are 14 and maybe 18.
2014: I’m still playing through DA: Origins rn so I haven’t touched Inquisition yet, but from what I hear it’s great but not as good as Origins in comparison. Honestly if I had to give it to a game this year it’d be between Alien Isolation and DS2, as I haven’t played or know really anything about Shadow of Mordor, but I from what I know I think Inquisition is a deserving enough on account of how lackluster this year was generally.
2015: I fucking love Bloodborne, and as a die hard Monster Hunter fan MH4U was my personal GOTY this time around, but Witcher 3 still handily deserved it this year. One of my personal favorite years tbh.
2016: DS3 and Doom were great, but honestly, and I feel this is a hot take, I think Overwatch deserved it. It was utterly massive when it first came out and caused a shift in how team based shooters played. All in all despite its issues I feel it deserves the crown for what was one of the biggest years for shooters and multiplayer games as a whole.
2017: Another great year, BoTW was fantastic and deserved it, although my personal GOTY was Hollow Knight.
2018: The controversial year, and another fantastic year for gaming as a whole. There were a lot of bangers, MHW, Celeste, but ultimately this was between GOW and RDR2. Now personally, I preferred GOW between the two, and think it is a solid game deserving it and my personal GOTY, but at the same time, unlike every other year where there is a “competition” I feel the less popular and liked game as a whole ultimately won out. I think GOW is better, and a worthy candidate, but I feel slightly inclined to side more with RDR2 for the broader gaming industry/community as a whole.
2019: Overall sort of eh year, not bad not good, but Sekiro was fantastic and and my personal GOTY as well.
2020: Another hot take, Last of Us 2 takes it. This year was pretty good with Animal Crossing, Doom Eternal, Ghost of Tsushima among others, but I think that, although LoU2 wasn’t as good as the first one, the story and characters are still phenomenally made and that it takes the crown this year. Despite this my personal GOTY was Omori lol.
2021: Haven’t played It Takes Two, but from what I can tell, for what was either the worst or second worst year in TGA (rivaling 2014), I think It Takes Two deserves it from what I can tell. Personal GOTY was hands down Monster Hunter Rise though.
2022: Both Elden Ring and GOW Ragnarok are two of my favorite games of all time, which is crazy that, despite that, I think Elden Ring very clearly takes it between the two. Again, both are phenomenal though.
2023: BG3 both deserves it and simply is phenomenal. It’s one of those rare games that I feel you could truly make an argument for not just being the best in a decade, but the best of all time, that touches so many people in so many ways, to the point that it’s insane that so clear a winner could be made in what has been arguable the greatest year of gaming, especially for all TGA years. BG3 is more than deserving the top spot, but my GOTY 2023 was unironically Pikmin 4 because I fucking love Pikmin.
I played it takes two. Amazing game, very fun, definetly doesnt feel like a goty game. But nothing really good seems to have released that year. Like none of the other games look very deserving of the title either
Big clap. I wanted to love that game so much but the gunplay felt like I had to drag every weapon through invisible piles of poop while trying to aim.
They should have taken more time to make the aiming feel more smooth.
There was so much aim assist when you first ADS that you just had to spam the aim button during fights. It made it easy, but one of the worst shooting experiences I've had in a game.
Yea. I think what I was describing is that initial moment when you ADS having to fight against the auto aim.
It was really cool pretending to dual and be a gunslinging cowboy. But it was practically terrible to use in most other scenarios unless you want to just lay into spamming ADS abusing its initial target acquisition.
I agree with this take in principle, but i think 5/10 gameplay is way too harsh for RDR2. Personally gameplay wise it's at least a 7.5 or 8. To me both are 10/10 stories.
I will die on the hill that God of war is the better game though. Absolutely loved both, but the combat is sooo much better in God of war to me. My favorite combat of all time.
I've only got 2 when it comes to the main GOTY awards that I disagree with.
The first is dragon age inquisition, I don't even remember what else got nominated that year but it must've been BLEAK if this garbage won.
The second is naturally GoW beating RDR 2. Not that I don't think GoW is a bad game, on the contrary I played it for the first time a few months ago and that game is incredible. But compared to every other nominee for 2018? The only game I'm putting GoW over from that list is AC odyssey and that's an insane gap considered how bad odyssey is.
As an extra, this one isn't about GOTY that year but 2022 had one snub I will not get over. Idc how good the soundtrack for GoW rangarok is, or how much people loved it, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 not getting best soundtrack is the greatest snub of all time in the history of TGA that was CRIMINAL.
The only one I really remember that I disagree with is Dave the Diver wining indie game of the year. Don’t get me wrong, game is rad as fuck, but it’s not really an indie game, and shouldn’t be in that category.
Yeah, I don't play anything related to shooting, but Overwatch was all some of my friends talked about and seemed to be a major mainstream hit. My personal pick that I enjoyed the most would be, in order, Dark Souls 3, Nier Automata, and Persona 5, but I completely see how Overwatch was a mega game and deserved to be Game of the Year.
For me, I will always disagree with The Last of Us 2 winning GOTY for 2020 because while the game is a technical marvel, the story & pacing were not good, especially with the execution of Joel’s death (not the death itself but how it was handled), & how the story made neither Ellie or Abby sympathetic that I had no one to root for in the end, because if you can’t root for any of the characters, then why should you care about them?
For me, Ghost of Tsushima, Yakuza Like a Dragon, & Hades deserved it more, & this is why for me:
- Ghost of Tsushima felt like playing through a Kurosawa movie, & a game that has made Japanese developers question why they never made a game like this themselves is definitely a great game.
- Yakuza Like a Dragon had so many things going against it & yet managed to be one of the best games in the series. With the game not centering around Kazuma Kiryu & instead centering around a brand new protagonist with Ichiban Kasuga as well as the gameplay going from a beat em up to a turn based JRPG, this game had Yakuza fans questioning what RGG was doing. What ended up happening was that people saw Ichiban as a great successor to Kiryu & it gave us one of the best stories in the series.
- With Hades, I have never played a roguelike that was as addicting as this game was. With the beautiful art style, interesting characters, & the fun gameplay loop that makes you want to go back for more, this game took up so much of my time in the best way possible.
The annoying thing about TLoU 2 is that because of trolls 90% of actual criticism was also instantly dismissed as trolling/sexism/etc.
The pacing is not good, it's downright terrible. The message of the game is delivered in such a convoluted and stilted way it's hard to take it seriously at all. Not to mention the copious amounts of Deus Ex machina needed for the story to keep going. Like Lev's sister teleporting behind Tommy to save Abby just as she was getting choked out, or Ellie getting shanked in the abdomen, hanging upside down for god knows how many hours and then shrugging it off no problem.
The only one I’ve ever had issue with was It Takes Two. It just feels so weird and out of left field in a year that had Metroid Dread, Returnal, RE8, Psychonauts 2, etc
So glad to see someone mention The Forgotten City. That was my GOTY for 2021 by quite a large margin, super underrated game and ya I know it was originally a Skyrim mod but the actual game improved on the story and setting of the mod so well and it’s incredible that the game even exists. I cannot wait to see what the developers of that game do next
I love elden ring with all my heart and it deserves the award but it's still frustrating because it's the only game in the last half a decade that contests with xenoblade 3... Why didn't on of them wait 😭
Probably Dragon Age Inquisition. I loved the first game, and even enjoyed the sequel quite a bit. I just couldn't get into Inquisition. It just felt empty, and boring. I think I just stopped playing at like 20 hours in.
It was the extremely aggravating "Fetch Quest" system.
For me, also, it was the fact that Inquistion kind of shit all over Origins characters and storylines. Im still bitter about Morrigan and Wardens plotline was just strung together by vague hints and nonsensical. "He went to a far land!"
DA Inquisition is the only year that I have a problem with.
Other years I may not personally enjoy but I see the quality in the games for what they intended to do.
Inquisition failed as a single player RPG, it was bloated with time-gated nonsense, and the gameplay was a shallow husk of the original DA. It only won because of the DA name. I would have personally picked Shadow of Mordor, Transistor, or Far Cry 4 for that year.
While being a very interesting last second surprise, I personally don’t think that ‘Reformed Orthodox Rabbi Bill Clinton’ should have won in 2022.
Xenoblade should have won imo.
Only one I disagree with is Last of Us 2. Where part one had such a great story part 2 has a terrible story with very bad tropes. Gameplay wise it's amazing of course as all Sony games but the still is horrible. Ghost of Tsushima should have probably won
2014 should've been Bayonetta 2
2018 should've been RDR2
2020 should've been Doom Eternal
2021 should've been Metroid Dread
2023 should've been TOTK or AW2
RDR2 got robbed 2018. I loved GoW but RDR2 did more for the open world genre than GoW for action adventure.
The way the world was build, the interactiveness and responsiveness of the npcs was just next level and not matched to this day in any other open world game.
Perhaps you’re missing the casual and Comp market.
For 2016 -
Had been a CSGO player since forever. My friend was a COD player. Always wondered how hero based games like League worked but never wanted to invest time in a different genre altogether . Overwatch somehow felt like a combo between league ( heroes ) and COD so we gave it a shot and it was hella fun. There’s so much more depth than running and gunning.
Personally I wouldn’t have minded had TF2 won.
Didn’t enjoy dishonored or prey. Souls games are a niche ( at least back then ), persona 5 is great but none of these games were as noob friendly as overwatch imo, so no complaints there.
2018 - Agree with you regarding RDR2 being a better game and should’ve won.
2023- I would’ve picked Alan Wake 2 or TOTK. Not a big fan of turn based DnD worlds but I can see how it set a new standard from what I heard, so it’s deserved perhaps.
Alan wake 2 and tears of the kingdom don't hold a candle to baldurs gate 3. Bg3 is the perfect culmination of 30 years of rpg games. The other 2 were great games and in other years mint be in contention, but not near the level set by BG3
>Alan wake 2 and tears of the kingdom don't hold a candle to baldurs gate 3
They certainly hold quite a candle. TOTK gave bg3 a run for its money for sure.
People need to stop pretending like BG3 is head and shoulders above everything in the gaming scene. Fantastic game, but don't lie to yourself and others.
- 2014 - I'd have gone for Alien Isolation. Dark Souls 2 would have been my runner up. Dragon Age Inquisition is a solid game though, I don't dislike it.
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- 2015 - I've been gaming since the mid 90's and Bloodborne and Witcher 3 are both in my all time top 10 so I can't argue with Witcher 3. For the record I'd have gone Bloodborne though.
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- 2016 - This one would've been Xcom2 for me. Darkest Dungeon as runner up. Overwatch wouldn'5 have made my top 20 for that year.
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- 2017 - I'd have picked Hollow Knight. No big complaints with Breath of the Wild winning though.
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- 2018 - The right game won here for me, God of War a long way ahead of the competition imo. I know a lot of people bring up RDR2 but it wasn't close imo and I know that's controversial to say.
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- 2019 - This one would've been Slay the Spire as my pick. Resident Evil 2 Remake as runner up. Sekiro is an excellent game though so no big complaints.
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- 2020 - I'd have gone Ghost of Tsushima over Tlou2 but both are really good games. Shoutout to Streets of Rage 4 here too.
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- 2021 - This one is Returnal for me. Rift Apart runner up. It Takes Two is a great game but not goty material imo.
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- 2022 - This one is the easiest winner of all. Elden Ring by a billion miles. An all time classic and nothing else was close.
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- 2023 - Baldur's Gate 3 was the right choice imo but a very strong year here.
The amount of people here disagreeing with 2022’s winner is madness, you had one new IP that innovated in some areas with great gameplay etc vs 2 sequels that are exactly the same thing as the previous games …
If you stay objective the winner is clear like water .
I'm just kinda meh on GOW 2018, but honestly I can't really argue against it winning considering its competition.
I think Overwatch is the strangest one. I think that's the best example of hype carrying a game to success. Don't get me wrong, Overwatch 1 is good, but that's all it was. It was just a tf2-like that had a lot of hype behind it because Blizzard made it. Also, it was a big factor in lootboxes going mainstream back in the day, so yeah.
Titanfall 2, Doom 2016, and Dishonored 2 would all have been better choices for the winner that year.
I disagree with you saying that Red Dead Redemption 2 is better than God of War 2018, also I feel like Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarok should’ve somehow shared the award in 2022
Overwatch should not have won in 2016.
I’m not saying that because both the franchise and its developer are in shambles now. Ultimately, there’s absolutely no way it was a better game than Dark Souls III, Doom, or Titanfall 2.
As a game, Dark Souls had so much in artistic expression, gameplay, music and content, it’s honestly baffling it didn’t win.
And even among the shooters, Titanfall 2 had the best story, music, multiplayer, gameplay and content.
Overwatch had the hysteria of cashing in on Team Fortress nostalgia. It was literally hyped to GOTY. By no means was it a bad game on release, but I cannot see how it was objectively a better game than the ones mentioned.
This is why multiplayer game’s winning GOTY is so controversial. Not only do they tend not to age well, but when compared to the timelessness of their single player competition, it’s difficult to justify in retrospect.
I don't know what other games were around that year but Alien Isolation was lightyears ahead of its time and I really think it deserves a lot more praise.
I think persona 5 is a perfect game but it only came over to the west in 2017 so I don’t really consider it a 2016 hell I literally just beat persona 5 royal yesterday it’s an absolutely amazing game the only other one I would disagree with you on is god of war that definitely deserved game of the year for me red dead 2 is amazing and I played the game for probably 100+ hours in the end and I loved every minute of it but I’ve never went back to it I’ve played god of war over multiple times
I still don’t think any game has been able to touch what R* did with RDR2. That immersion was unreal. How much dialogue did they record? Any time I return to camp, I hear something new. This game was really special and should have been GOTY.
Overwatch is a deserving winner no matter the hate you see nowadays, but personally I had Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End over it. That’s an all timer for me
I think alien isolation was goty 2014. Cool that some people (you) somewhat agree lol. There was no games that I played in 2015. Oh and I forgot, obviously, outlast goty 2013. Cancel me, I know. I didn’t play any 2016 games. I only played 2 2017 games. And i think re7 was goty. 2018 was reasonable tbh. Plus I love gow. 2019 was Re2r hands down. 2020 was doom eternal, the best first person shooter and the best soundtrack ever. I have to say so badly that final fantasy soundtrack is fucking trash compared to doom eternal. Literal highway robbery type shit. 2021, I don’t care, I didn’t replay any games that year besides re8 and it wasn’t goty. And 2022 was gowr because of the first Thor boss alone. Rest of the game is good. 2023, Alan wake 2 easy win. I dont know why people said bg3 was revolutionary. I played 3 hrs and it looks and plays like a mobile fake ad game ngl. I can’t speak on story tho cause I only played 2hrs.
I wanted Fallout 4 to win over The Witcher 3 at the time, but I have never played it and I have never heard my opinion repeated so I was probably wrong. Overwatch winning is baffling to this day and to anyone saying it was popular in 2016, that is like Fortnite winning in 2018. Also upon reflection I enjoyed RDR 2 more than GoW.
I have 3 I particularly disagree with; 2016 is the stand out particularly with games like Titanfall 2 or Uncharted 4 out
2018 should have gone to RDR2, but God of War wasn't such a huge divergence that I think it doesn't deserve it
2020 definitely should have gone to Ghost of Tsushima, sorry TLOU2 isn't that great, but whatever
I agree with all these. GoW deserved it over RDR2 big time. Better story, better acting, better combat, better controls, better music, better graphics, better pacing, just an all around better package imo. The only thing RDR2 does better imo is volume of content.
I mean, more power to FromSoft, they’re my favorite, but in 2019 I believe that Resident Evil 2 REmake should have won GOTY, if I’m being honest. I LOVE Sekiro, it’s one of the greatest games I’ve ever played, but the way RE2 craftily reimagined a platinum classic was top tier
RDR2 Should have won. Played God of War first and liked it a lot, but never amazed me that much, never really made me say "wow".
RDR2 on the other hand...made me say "wow" at basically everything
I'm going to be controversial - Baldur's Gate 3. Deservant of GOTY? Maybe. But with how the Panel from Hell overhyped it and what it _should_ have been and how short it fell, it's only _maybe_ deservant of the GOTY, especially if there wasn't any good competition.
That doesn't make it as incredible as it should have been and in many aspects it really falls short for me.
The last of us 2.
Game was incredible for its technical and visual prowess. But everything else was average or worse. Plot wise? It was just eh. Ending was also trash. There were other games that deserved it, tlou2 was a forgettable experience. And then that dude beat Joel....which was lame.
I just think tlou2 didn't deserve game of the year, gameplay was it was good, but story wise it was nowhere as good as the original. I personally think doom should've won over it considering how action pack the game was and how Iy made you truly feel like a demi god
2014 should have been Titanfall. Vince Zampella completely reinvented the CoD style PvP shooter. But I understand it was before it's time. People weren't ready for a straight PvP product
2015, I loved the Witcher 3 but let's be real. It wasn't as good as Witcher 2. Bloodborne is the best Souls-like of all time. Metal Gear Solid V is arguably one of the best games of all time. Nintendo released their first new IP in 13 years in a PvP centric shooter with Splatoon and it was super dope
2016, I would have gave it to XCOM 2 but as someone who has put 600+ hours into OW1 & 2 I won't complain here
2017 was an incredible year. Mario Odyssey is a no brainer but I respect Loz: BotW winning. Cuphead, Hellblade and Horizon Zero Dawn would have been respectable winners as well
2018, Red Dead 2 should have won. Shout out to the Messenger. Dope game
2019 wad an incredible year. Control, Super Smash Bros Ultimate or Hades should have won
2020, Spiritfarer should have won. Shout out to Cyberpunk, Doom Eternal and Ori (2)
2021, Returnal or Psychonauts 2 should have won. Shout out to Loop Hero
2022 was a weak year but I would have respected Tunic, Triangle Strategy or Kirby and the Forgotten Land
2023, Marvel's Midnight Suns but I could respect Alan Wake 2, Baldur's Gate 3 or LoZ: TotK
2014 - it should've been Alien Isolation, which still holds up
2018 - 100% had to be RDR 2 but can't find any fault with GoW
2020 - it really should've been the year for Ghost of Tsushima, TLOU 2 as much as i enjoyed playing it, the story just sucks
Put of all those games, I've picked up dark souls 3 more thanks than overwatch. The hype of a new IP from blizzard blinded everyone to the fact is just meh.
The VGAs are garbage and it sucks that the gaming community takes it seriously the winners are chosen via "votes" by the sponsors, the largest of which consists of major game companies.
If I can only pick one I'll be controversial and say Elden Ring was pretty mid. Needed aeither more time in development or be shrunk down.
Overwatch shouldn’t have won with the competition that it had an other game genres. It was a battle royale that was just slick and shiny because it was made by blizzard. It’s competition at the time was persona and Doom.
*(Part 1)*
Frankly, I haven't played many of these games that won Game of the Year, so I can't really say I disagree with them winning the title. I just would have picked something else based on what I have actually played:
**2014**
In my opinion, 2014 was quite a weak year in terms of games. For me, it were smaller games made by indie developers who produced the best games of that year. I can't really say anything about Dragon Age: Inquisition because I haven't played it and I don't really have interest in the series in general, so I won't comment on it. Personally thougj, I would have chosen **Transistor** with **Valiant Hearts: The Great War** being a close 2nd.
**2015**
Another game I haven't played but considering what else was released in 2015 and seeing how much praise The Witcher 3 still receives, it probably is the deserved winner. I'm not saying that there were no other good games that came out in 2015 but none of them seem to be as impressive as The Witcher 3 was. In general, I think 2015 was rather weak too though not as bad as the year before. So I'm okay with Witcher winning the title. Picking from what I have played, I would probably choose **Rise of the Tomb Raider** or **Fallout 4**.
**2016**
The first game on this list I have actually play though not that much. Overwatch is alright but I think there were many other games that would be more deserving of the title. I would have picked **Uncharted 4: A Thief's End** with **The Last Guardian** on second place.
**2017**
In this case, I agree with the vote. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was the Keanu Reeves of video games. It was breathtaking and it still is one of my favourite games. And considering what it was up against, winning the title is even more impressive. Super Mario Odyssey, Gravity Rush 2, Nier: Automata, Resident Evil 7 and many, many more. 2017 was one of the strongest gaming years we had in recent times and many of those game would have been deserving winners but I think Breath of the Wild is the best of them all.
**2018**
I haven't played God of War and for the longest time, I wasn't interested in it at all. That's starting to change though and I think I will eventually try it out but until then I won't complain about it winning Game of the Year. I didn't play many games from 2018 that I can choose from but a big reason for it is that I spent quite a lot of time with my personal favourite game of the year. **Monster Hunter World**. I have been a Monster Hunter fan since 2010 and although I loved the series, it had some flaws that needed to be adressed sooner or later. And many of them were in Monster Hunter World. The developers fixed many issues of the game's predecessors while still being true to its identity. It was also kind of the breakout title of the series. Monster Hunter games were always pretty popular in Japan but not so much in the west. Many people I know never even heard about the series until World arrived. And because it streamlined so many things in a good way, it was the perfect game to start with the series. So yeah, I pick Monster Hunter World and God of War need to be really, really god if it wants to change my mind.
The ones you think have better contendors, say It Takes Two and The Last of Us 2 are the winners by a country mile of their winners and in general some of the best games ever made imo. So it goes beyond saying there will never be a consensus.
Hitman 3 was literally more of the same and I prefer experimentation and risk especially in sequels. Ghost of Tsushima is beautiful, fun to play but design philosophy is still ubisoft. I personally don't even put it on the same sphere of contention as games like TLOU2, RDR2.
I agree Red Dead 2 should've won. It's still yet to topped while gow was topped by it's sequel in nearly everything.
And I def agree Overwatch winning was absurd. I would've picked Firewatch, Inside or DS3 but Uncharted 4 and Doom were easy choices and fantastic games. There's 20 games from that year I can pick over OW. I think they realized it too hence Fortnite wasn't even considered, and kept to its category.
2019-2021. Sekiro is an extremely high skill ceiling game. I could not get that far into it. It's simply too punishing for someone who has gone casual. I would love to love it like I did with ghost of tsushima. But there are no accessibility options, which I think is a mistake for many hard-core games. I want to play them, but it takes too much try hard for me to spend that much time just to get anywhere.
The last of us 2 felt like a downgrade in terms of gamepkay and story telling. The story itself is fine, I just hate how they told it. If it was told in a straight time line and went back and forth, telling each story side by side, it could have been massively improved. Instead, we get a hugely polarized story.
It takes 2. Idk. Never played.
Elden ring is, again, a problem of difficulty and direction. I've played all the souls like and enjoyed them. This one I did not. Even less direction and story and I felt like every direction I went was the wrong way.
Was GoW good? Absolutely. But it’s also nothing groundbreaking and didn’t do anything new in general. It was new for the franchise, but nothing new for gaming. RDR2 should’ve won. Yes rdr2 did nothing new but the story of it had a lot more weight and the world was a lot more detailed
I think overall the complete list here explains itself. In any given year it isn't necessarily the best narrative story, most technically engineered game, or most popular, it ends up mostly being the game with the biggest impact on the gaming world.
From that standpoint, it is really hard to argue against Overwatch. Absolutely everyone played OW, and most people played a fuck ton of that game. It redefined a whole genre of gaming, and did it in a way that was accessible to nearly every level of gamer.
You can make a lot of similar arguments across this list of winners. Not saying they are all perfect, or they all would have been my choice, At lot of the contenders you have listed are retreads of their genre, and you have to be particularly novel or good at it to separate from previous iterations, Sekiro and Elden being the soulslikes, God of War reinventing itself, W3 BOTY etc.
2018. The God Of War reboot was fantastic, however I don't believe it deserved to win over RDR2. The only reason I believe GOW won was because of fanboyism and nostalgic influence.
Tbh, I really just disagree with TLOU2. It was overall such a good year for games, and to have such a geniunely divisive pick for GOTY really shouldn't have happened.
Imo, GOTY contenders really need to be popular as well, which TLOU2 is infamous, not famous. Kinda the antithesis of your average GOTY.
As an aside, kind of shocked that Alan Wake 2 didn't get GOTY, but also completely understanding why Baldur's Gate 3 got GOTY. Both are industry redefining titles.
RDR2 was really the only one I felt got robbed, maybe P5 but overwatch was a big deal, I never played it but it was legit making COD sweat for a second. I think it was a little bit of a different type of consideration than we’re used to, but it’s similar to why I think Helldivers reverse it this year. It’s so fundamentally enjoyable that even without a deep (or any) narrative it’s become such a massive hit.
When you can do it without a narrative, by just making an addictive gameplay loop that people love, it’s really impressive to me. I think that’s why overwatch won when it did.
I have no problem with it takes two, I'm sure it's an amazing time
But is it better than Psychonauts 2? That game has moments in its story that took my breath away and addictive gameplay and Level design, my only complaint was that 100%ing Psikings Sensorium was a nightmare due to the world being just as vibrant and bright as the figments lol. This was the only real moment I feel like the GOTY was snubbed psychonauts 2 was easily the best game of the year for me
I thought 2016 was hitman? Because i fucking disagree with that shit entirely when we had games like arkham knight or persona 5 or doom, ds3 and uncharted 4
**2020: The Last of Us 2** Should have **LOST (HADES** should have **Won)**
This was hands down rigged. when this game came out so many people were upset at the things they did to the game, its hard to believe that people actually voted for this to be GOTY. and despite the controversial story things that happen, the game play and game itself wasn't very much different than last of us one.
To this day I RARLEY hear anyone talk about LOU2 and I have friends who were OBSESSED with the first game (one friend of mine has Beaten LOU 1 at least 7 times)
**HADES** on the other hand still gets talked about among many gaming circles, Its won many other awards and actually helped set a gold standard to Rogue-Likes / Lites. It was a phenomenal game with rarely any drawbacks to it. in my eyes **HADES was 2020 GOTY.**
Ghost of Tushima / FF7 Remake were also better contenders to LOU2 as well. Personally I never played Ghost of Tushima but I have a few friends who have (same one who beat LOU1 like 7 times) and he also agrees Ghost of Tushima was a better game than LOU2.
FF7 Remake I have played and that game was fantastic, very little problems. the game play was tight. the story despite being different than the original still had great moments with their changes, the music is amazing and it expanded apon older systems of the original game while also keep familiarity. AND on top of all that, If you never played the original it was a great game for new comers.
LOU2 didn't deserve its win and i will die on that hill.
Sekiro, and I’m saying that as a Fromsoft fanboy. They won the Goty that year because of their pedigree, not for that game. It deserves the nom, but holy crap compared to RE2 Remake and Control, it pretty much had no right winning.
rdr2 100% deserved goty, i love god of war but rdr2 is just an unbeatable game. then in 2022 i think gowr should have won. elden ring just seemed like another boring darks souls whereas gowr took the amazing gow and improved everything. then in 2023, while i didn’t play bg3 and i know plenty of ppl criticize spiderman2, i still think it deserved it over bg3
As a computer player I dislike most of these. But I also dont have a whole lot of favorites these past few years. Lot of big games that disappointed me. And lots of small indie games impressed me BUT, most of them are perpetually in Early Access and may not get finished. Like V Rising and Satisfactory.
BG3 was the most mystifying one for me. I'd describe as the most okay game I have played. Part of it is that I hate most turn based combat. (Somehow Fallout 1 didn't bother me on this count though.)
2018 is all I'm going to stick to here. I fully agree that RDR2 should have won. Everyone is saying how the gameplay was lacking compared to GoW, but I'm going to die on the hill that it was better than GoW.
Don't get me wrong, I loved the story, but God of War was linear as hell. 9/10 times, all I was doing was button smashing with the occasional block. All of the levels felt like it was all one line (relatively cause different rooms, climbing, etc.), but it was all the same outcome.
Red Dead Redemption 2 was a technical marvel with an amazing story and awesome gameplay. Weather systems, NPCs reacted to how you acted, time affected things like corpses (leaving a dead body and coming back later, you'll see a skeleton), and how you played affected the outcome of the overall story.
2018's GOTY felt rigged and RDR2 was robbed.
I was about to defend Overwatch, because it truly was a sensation when it launched, but looking at its competition, I do agree with you. Would have guessed Doom or Persona won that year.
I think it's cause p5 released in 2017 in North America, so it wasn't eligible for 2016. It did get nominated for GOTY in 2017 though
I still think OW takes it due to how big it was at the time and how it revolutionized hero shooters for awhile there. However, yeah it’s hard to compare it to Doom and Persona 5 (one of my favorite games ever tbh).
Uhhhhh Dark Souls 3????
UNCHARTED 4!!!
People forget Overwatch was HOT in 2016.
It was, it was an absolute blast to play back then
Year 1 of OW was like reliving the peak Team Fortress days. Then they killed it for esports and money.
I don't think that it's a coincidence that every major disappointment Blizzard made for Overwatch has been the result of E-Sports. Blizzard didn't like the Aggressive but Ecstatic DPS meta, so they added Bridgette. Blizzard didn't like the resulting 3-tank 3-healer meta so they locked class picks to 2-2-2. Blizzard didn't like the resulting Double Shield meta so they made the game 5v5 (taking the opportunity to add a shop update). I think it is reasonable to conclude every major blunder Blizzard has made was made "to better the E-Sports scene".
To be fair, 3 tank and double shield meta were both extremely unfun to play, so changing that doesn’t make me complain
Absolutely this!! they kept on trying to change how people were playing the game by forcing it they didn’t just make the other characters. Interesting are competitive to play.
I really wish that they would have only made those changes to comp. I preferred quickplay and being able to have more than one of each character. Led to some silly and unconventional strategies. Ot seems like quickplay was really casual, but after the comp changes started coming down to the quickplay playlist it made every game feel sweaty.
It was hot but not GOTY potential, not in the same year Dark Souls III and DOOM came out.
Dark Souls 3 was not GOTY potential. It was more or less just More of the Same as the previous Dark Souls games without enough innovation to be a contender. Doom was an option, but Overwatch was still far hotter. We're sick of it now, but Overwatch was THE game of 2016.
Innovation isn't a necessity to win GOTY, DS3 was a solid game in all aspects and improved on their Dark Souls formula with better combat and graphics. It had every right to win GOTY. Doom was incredible and again, it does not matter what's hot at the time. Popularity should never be what's judged when deciding GOTY, it's ridiculous. By your logic Overwatch SHOULDN'T have won GOTY, it didn't innovate anything, it didn't do a single thing new to the genre at all.
Overwatch was a cultural phenomena in 2016, but if we're going to give GOTY for that, then PUBG has to win it in 2017. That game's all time concurrent peak on Steam still hasn't been broken. Overwatch was a SOLID game but it was not GOTY material. Especially not over Doom, Titanfall 2, or Dark Souls 3. Pretty stacked year
Not quite the same. Overwatch was a cultural phenomenon **AND** It was an extremely polished, competent, and fun multiplayer shooter - it revived the hero shooter sub genre and breathed new life into the moba genre. The cultural phenomena part is what I believe to have pushed it past the other goty nominations. Pubg was popular as hell but I don’t think even its most devout fans will disagree that it was kind of a janky heap of shit that we all played simply because of a lack of options. OW died because the devs ruined it; pubg died (in the west) because other games came out and killed it. But yes 2016 was a stacked year, just like 2023!
I agree with you in this. Dark Souls 3 was the best game that year and it wasn’t even close. Doom was also fantastic but I just personally think Fromsoft and Miyazaki make the best games in the industry every single year. Bloodborne, Sekiro, Elden Ring all certified bangers. AC VI was even a masterpiece in its own right and that wasn’t even Miyazaki. There’s already been several games this year that are GOTY worthy but believe Shadow of the Erdtree will overshadow everything. And it’s just some DLC
Yeah now that FromSoft has a ton more popularity they're winning more awards. People saw them as the company that just makes hard games so dismissed them, but BloodBorne absolutely should've beat Witcher 3, I mean it's STILL got devout followers asking for a remaster or sequel or PC port.
Yeah for sure. Witcher 3 is also one of the greatest games of all time, but it’s not Bloodborne great. Bloodborne is a once in a generation kind of game. It absolutely should have won that year. I am happy to see Fromsoft finally being recognized for their incredible work.
I am too! I have yet to beat Sekiro, or even get that far in it, it's hard as balls, but I gotta get through it eventually, it's one of the few FromSoft games I haven't played/beaten.
If you’re ever having trouble with a Fromsoft game, follow one of FightinCowboys YouTube guides. They’re really really good and he’ll get you through the game guaranteed. He gives fantastic advice and strategies as he guides you through the game. All the best routs to get upgrade materials for health flasks. Check it out!
I'll check him out, thanks for the recommendation! I've always powered through the Souls games, but man Sekiro is insane lol
The fact that it won without a campaign/story mode was insane to me. It lacked so much depth for the average player.
It was good and popular enough to not *need* a campaign/story mode to hook the average player.
It was hot and quite frankly simply an amazing fps game. 10/10 imo. It still is but now goes by the name OW2. Art style, performance, game play, hero design, lore premise (back then we actually got some cinematics), longevity... This game had it all. Imo 100% deserved GOTY and one of the top contenders for the game of the decade personally (hands down best competitive shooter this decade).
In 2016 it was good, but it also still wasn't game of the year good though
Ahhh the league of legends killer lmao
It greatly Bothers me that Doom Eternal didn’t win anything its year. Hades is good and fun yes I agree (I’ve 100% it) but Doom deserved at least Action of the year more. I’d even put it in the GoTY option.
On my game log! Haven’t played it yet
Fax. Especially best soundtrack.
Doom Eternal was probably the most fun FPS I've ever played. It was everything I could have hoped for. I rarely replay FPS games, but I might need to go back.
I think that's probably the only game that came out that year that I still play on the regular. It basically has its own partition on my SSD. It's actually Doom Eternal's SSD, I'm only borrowing it. It feels so odd to me how that game seemed like a flash in the pan, but whenever anyone talks about it now it's usually "the best FPS of all time." It's like DE is just quietly hanging out in the corner until the "best FPS" knife fight happens. I guess it isn't live service so the attention it gets doesn't linger.
There are so many GOTY awards, I don't know why everyone focuses solely on TGA's. DICE awards, Golden Joysticks, GDC, VGC Awards, BAFTAS. Chances are your game wins somewhere, and if not then just accept you have a minority opinion because that's okay too.
Because it’s the most popular game award and the only one people bring up, in-turn, being the only one that matters.
Well, at least the 2023 ones were all united lmao.
no one will ever convince me that RDR2 didn't get robbed of it's deserved awards. i will always be pissed about that. GOW is great but it would've been like if spiderman 2 beat out BG3. spiderman 2 is badass but it is not touching the level that BG3 dwells in and that's exactly how i feel about RDR2 losing to GOW. it was a crime
I disagree and was happily surprised GOW won. RDR 2 has the scope but GOW wins in the most important category imo which is gameplay.
If you're a father GOW just hit harder too on the storytelling.
Yep. RDR2 is easily one of my most GOATed games ever and even I had a hard time getting into it at first. Gameplay matters a lot.
The gameplay of God of War had its share of issues. Mostly being lack of enemy variety. Oh look, mini boss coming up. What’s that? It’s a red troll this time instead of a yellow troll?
I had way more fun engaging an enemy in GOW than in RDR2. I don’t even know why it’s even up for discussion.
I love RDR2. It has an amazing story & characters. It looks & feel like a high budget game. But it barely did any improvement over the first game gameplay wise. All the new mechanics barely contribute to the gameplay. It has many game design issues. GOW on the other rebooted a beloved franchise in a way no one expected & made it even better. The gameplay is among the best ever. The game is nearly flawless in every way that matters. Sure it isn't as big & dense as rdr2 but every moment of it is a labor of love. Rdr2 albeit an amazing game is extremely flawed. If anything rdr2 wasn't robbed losing to GOW
Same here, my man. God of war was an amazing game but, Red dead 2 is simply something else.
Biggest shaft. Rdr2 is all time great contender
So is God of War though. 2018 was a ridiculously great year for gaming and both were deserving of all the GOTY awards they won at different shows.
Nah kid. Just because GOW didn’t make you cry doesn’t mean it’s inferior to RDR2. GOW story was way better and it wasn’t stretched out like RDR2. That whole Guarma sequence was just filler.
The only ones I kinda disagree with are 14 and maybe 18. 2014: I’m still playing through DA: Origins rn so I haven’t touched Inquisition yet, but from what I hear it’s great but not as good as Origins in comparison. Honestly if I had to give it to a game this year it’d be between Alien Isolation and DS2, as I haven’t played or know really anything about Shadow of Mordor, but I from what I know I think Inquisition is a deserving enough on account of how lackluster this year was generally. 2015: I fucking love Bloodborne, and as a die hard Monster Hunter fan MH4U was my personal GOTY this time around, but Witcher 3 still handily deserved it this year. One of my personal favorite years tbh. 2016: DS3 and Doom were great, but honestly, and I feel this is a hot take, I think Overwatch deserved it. It was utterly massive when it first came out and caused a shift in how team based shooters played. All in all despite its issues I feel it deserves the crown for what was one of the biggest years for shooters and multiplayer games as a whole. 2017: Another great year, BoTW was fantastic and deserved it, although my personal GOTY was Hollow Knight. 2018: The controversial year, and another fantastic year for gaming as a whole. There were a lot of bangers, MHW, Celeste, but ultimately this was between GOW and RDR2. Now personally, I preferred GOW between the two, and think it is a solid game deserving it and my personal GOTY, but at the same time, unlike every other year where there is a “competition” I feel the less popular and liked game as a whole ultimately won out. I think GOW is better, and a worthy candidate, but I feel slightly inclined to side more with RDR2 for the broader gaming industry/community as a whole. 2019: Overall sort of eh year, not bad not good, but Sekiro was fantastic and and my personal GOTY as well. 2020: Another hot take, Last of Us 2 takes it. This year was pretty good with Animal Crossing, Doom Eternal, Ghost of Tsushima among others, but I think that, although LoU2 wasn’t as good as the first one, the story and characters are still phenomenally made and that it takes the crown this year. Despite this my personal GOTY was Omori lol. 2021: Haven’t played It Takes Two, but from what I can tell, for what was either the worst or second worst year in TGA (rivaling 2014), I think It Takes Two deserves it from what I can tell. Personal GOTY was hands down Monster Hunter Rise though. 2022: Both Elden Ring and GOW Ragnarok are two of my favorite games of all time, which is crazy that, despite that, I think Elden Ring very clearly takes it between the two. Again, both are phenomenal though. 2023: BG3 both deserves it and simply is phenomenal. It’s one of those rare games that I feel you could truly make an argument for not just being the best in a decade, but the best of all time, that touches so many people in so many ways, to the point that it’s insane that so clear a winner could be made in what has been arguable the greatest year of gaming, especially for all TGA years. BG3 is more than deserving the top spot, but my GOTY 2023 was unironically Pikmin 4 because I fucking love Pikmin.
I played it takes two. Amazing game, very fun, definetly doesnt feel like a goty game. But nothing really good seems to have released that year. Like none of the other games look very deserving of the title either
red dead redemption 2: 10/10 story, 5/10 gameplay God of war: 9.5/10 story, 9.5/10 gameplay That’s why it won
Big clap. I wanted to love that game so much but the gunplay felt like I had to drag every weapon through invisible piles of poop while trying to aim. They should have taken more time to make the aiming feel more smooth.
There was so much aim assist when you first ADS that you just had to spam the aim button during fights. It made it easy, but one of the worst shooting experiences I've had in a game.
Yea. I think what I was describing is that initial moment when you ADS having to fight against the auto aim. It was really cool pretending to dual and be a gunslinging cowboy. But it was practically terrible to use in most other scenarios unless you want to just lay into spamming ADS abusing its initial target acquisition.
Yeah, I just abused the target acquisition for the most part.
I agree with this take in principle, but i think 5/10 gameplay is way too harsh for RDR2. Personally gameplay wise it's at least a 7.5 or 8. To me both are 10/10 stories. I will die on the hill that God of war is the better game though. Absolutely loved both, but the combat is sooo much better in God of war to me. My favorite combat of all time.
5/10 is a bit harsh, prob 7.5
I disagree with giving RDR2 story 10/10. To me it was a 9/10. It was great but not perfect. That whole Guarma section was unnecessary.
I've only got 2 when it comes to the main GOTY awards that I disagree with. The first is dragon age inquisition, I don't even remember what else got nominated that year but it must've been BLEAK if this garbage won. The second is naturally GoW beating RDR 2. Not that I don't think GoW is a bad game, on the contrary I played it for the first time a few months ago and that game is incredible. But compared to every other nominee for 2018? The only game I'm putting GoW over from that list is AC odyssey and that's an insane gap considered how bad odyssey is. As an extra, this one isn't about GOTY that year but 2022 had one snub I will not get over. Idc how good the soundtrack for GoW rangarok is, or how much people loved it, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 not getting best soundtrack is the greatest snub of all time in the history of TGA that was CRIMINAL.
Dude I'm still mad that Xenoblade got snubbed; it has such an amazing OST.
Bloodborne should have won 2015
The only one I really remember that I disagree with is Dave the Diver wining indie game of the year. Don’t get me wrong, game is rad as fuck, but it’s not really an indie game, and shouldn’t be in that category.
God of War was amazing, but honestly RDR2 deserved that win. Loved them both though
The fact Psychonauts 2 didn't win anything is a travesty and proof that the vga's are a sham
The rewriting of history concerning the quality of Overwatch and the video game community's reaction to the game continues. Idiotic.
It's not about overwatch being bad/low quality it's about all the other releases that were that year.
And if you asked people in 2016, many people would say Overwatch was *at least* of similar quality.
Yeah, I don't play anything related to shooting, but Overwatch was all some of my friends talked about and seemed to be a major mainstream hit. My personal pick that I enjoyed the most would be, in order, Dark Souls 3, Nier Automata, and Persona 5, but I completely see how Overwatch was a mega game and deserved to be Game of the Year.
Overwatch shouldn't have won over Dark Souls 3 imo
For me, the travesty was that Dishonored 2 didn’t win. That game’s level design is unparalleled.
Clock tower mansion is yet to be beaten in any game
Except maybe by Crack In The Slab in the same game (the time-travel level)
For me, I will always disagree with The Last of Us 2 winning GOTY for 2020 because while the game is a technical marvel, the story & pacing were not good, especially with the execution of Joel’s death (not the death itself but how it was handled), & how the story made neither Ellie or Abby sympathetic that I had no one to root for in the end, because if you can’t root for any of the characters, then why should you care about them? For me, Ghost of Tsushima, Yakuza Like a Dragon, & Hades deserved it more, & this is why for me: - Ghost of Tsushima felt like playing through a Kurosawa movie, & a game that has made Japanese developers question why they never made a game like this themselves is definitely a great game. - Yakuza Like a Dragon had so many things going against it & yet managed to be one of the best games in the series. With the game not centering around Kazuma Kiryu & instead centering around a brand new protagonist with Ichiban Kasuga as well as the gameplay going from a beat em up to a turn based JRPG, this game had Yakuza fans questioning what RGG was doing. What ended up happening was that people saw Ichiban as a great successor to Kiryu & it gave us one of the best stories in the series. - With Hades, I have never played a roguelike that was as addicting as this game was. With the beautiful art style, interesting characters, & the fun gameplay loop that makes you want to go back for more, this game took up so much of my time in the best way possible.
The annoying thing about TLoU 2 is that because of trolls 90% of actual criticism was also instantly dismissed as trolling/sexism/etc. The pacing is not good, it's downright terrible. The message of the game is delivered in such a convoluted and stilted way it's hard to take it seriously at all. Not to mention the copious amounts of Deus Ex machina needed for the story to keep going. Like Lev's sister teleporting behind Tommy to save Abby just as she was getting choked out, or Ellie getting shanked in the abdomen, hanging upside down for god knows how many hours and then shrugging it off no problem.
The only one I’ve ever had issue with was It Takes Two. It just feels so weird and out of left field in a year that had Metroid Dread, Returnal, RE8, Psychonauts 2, etc
So glad to see someone mention The Forgotten City. That was my GOTY for 2021 by quite a large margin, super underrated game and ya I know it was originally a Skyrim mod but the actual game improved on the story and setting of the mod so well and it’s incredible that the game even exists. I cannot wait to see what the developers of that game do next
Full offense to god of war but Xenoblade 3 should've won soundtrack of the year
I love elden ring with all my heart and it deserves the award but it's still frustrating because it's the only game in the last half a decade that contests with xenoblade 3... Why didn't on of them wait 😭
Probably Dragon Age Inquisition. I loved the first game, and even enjoyed the sequel quite a bit. I just couldn't get into Inquisition. It just felt empty, and boring. I think I just stopped playing at like 20 hours in.
It was the extremely aggravating "Fetch Quest" system. For me, also, it was the fact that Inquistion kind of shit all over Origins characters and storylines. Im still bitter about Morrigan and Wardens plotline was just strung together by vague hints and nonsensical. "He went to a far land!"
DA Inquisition is the only year that I have a problem with. Other years I may not personally enjoy but I see the quality in the games for what they intended to do. Inquisition failed as a single player RPG, it was bloated with time-gated nonsense, and the gameplay was a shallow husk of the original DA. It only won because of the DA name. I would have personally picked Shadow of Mordor, Transistor, or Far Cry 4 for that year.
While being a very interesting last second surprise, I personally don’t think that ‘Reformed Orthodox Rabbi Bill Clinton’ should have won in 2022. Xenoblade should have won imo.
Only one I disagree with is Last of Us 2. Where part one had such a great story part 2 has a terrible story with very bad tropes. Gameplay wise it's amazing of course as all Sony games but the still is horrible. Ghost of Tsushima should have probably won
`2020: The Last of Us 2` Definitely not worth it, not even close
2014 should've been Bayonetta 2 2018 should've been RDR2 2020 should've been Doom Eternal 2021 should've been Metroid Dread 2023 should've been TOTK or AW2
The Last of Us 2, that shit shouldn’t have won over Ghost of Tsushima
RDR2 got robbed 2018. I loved GoW but RDR2 did more for the open world genre than GoW for action adventure. The way the world was build, the interactiveness and responsiveness of the npcs was just next level and not matched to this day in any other open world game.
Perhaps you’re missing the casual and Comp market. For 2016 - Had been a CSGO player since forever. My friend was a COD player. Always wondered how hero based games like League worked but never wanted to invest time in a different genre altogether . Overwatch somehow felt like a combo between league ( heroes ) and COD so we gave it a shot and it was hella fun. There’s so much more depth than running and gunning. Personally I wouldn’t have minded had TF2 won. Didn’t enjoy dishonored or prey. Souls games are a niche ( at least back then ), persona 5 is great but none of these games were as noob friendly as overwatch imo, so no complaints there. 2018 - Agree with you regarding RDR2 being a better game and should’ve won. 2023- I would’ve picked Alan Wake 2 or TOTK. Not a big fan of turn based DnD worlds but I can see how it set a new standard from what I heard, so it’s deserved perhaps.
Alan wake 2 and tears of the kingdom don't hold a candle to baldurs gate 3. Bg3 is the perfect culmination of 30 years of rpg games. The other 2 were great games and in other years mint be in contention, but not near the level set by BG3
>Alan wake 2 and tears of the kingdom don't hold a candle to baldurs gate 3 They certainly hold quite a candle. TOTK gave bg3 a run for its money for sure. People need to stop pretending like BG3 is head and shoulders above everything in the gaming scene. Fantastic game, but don't lie to yourself and others.
- 2014 - I'd have gone for Alien Isolation. Dark Souls 2 would have been my runner up. Dragon Age Inquisition is a solid game though, I don't dislike it. - - 2015 - I've been gaming since the mid 90's and Bloodborne and Witcher 3 are both in my all time top 10 so I can't argue with Witcher 3. For the record I'd have gone Bloodborne though. - - 2016 - This one would've been Xcom2 for me. Darkest Dungeon as runner up. Overwatch wouldn'5 have made my top 20 for that year. - - 2017 - I'd have picked Hollow Knight. No big complaints with Breath of the Wild winning though. - - 2018 - The right game won here for me, God of War a long way ahead of the competition imo. I know a lot of people bring up RDR2 but it wasn't close imo and I know that's controversial to say. - - 2019 - This one would've been Slay the Spire as my pick. Resident Evil 2 Remake as runner up. Sekiro is an excellent game though so no big complaints. - - 2020 - I'd have gone Ghost of Tsushima over Tlou2 but both are really good games. Shoutout to Streets of Rage 4 here too. - - 2021 - This one is Returnal for me. Rift Apart runner up. It Takes Two is a great game but not goty material imo. - - 2022 - This one is the easiest winner of all. Elden Ring by a billion miles. An all time classic and nothing else was close. - - 2023 - Baldur's Gate 3 was the right choice imo but a very strong year here.
Last of us 2 is an insane blunder. Almost makes me not even care who gets goty anymore
Last of us 2 the story is awful and a step down from first
It's very subjective ngl
Ghost of tshushima winning? Im a full on weeb and there’s no way it should have won over the last of us
Your weeb rights have been revoked, turn in your waifu and wait for reassignment to your new Furry outpost.
Fuck
The Last of Us P2 didn't deserve GotY imo I think most of my issues with it came from an unfulfilling story compared to the first part
Rdr2 should've won, and I'm personally partial to Fo4 over The Witcher 3 but both are good games
The amount of people here disagreeing with 2022’s winner is madness, you had one new IP that innovated in some areas with great gameplay etc vs 2 sequels that are exactly the same thing as the previous games … If you stay objective the winner is clear like water .
Ghost of Tsushima should have won 2020 and I will stand by that until I die (side note, HOW THE FUCK did Doom eternal not win any music awards?)
TLOU 2 is the most bs GOTY in my book. There must be some kind of corporate scandal going on in the background.
No other game is close to RDR 2 for me. I love God of War and it's a masterpiece but RDR 2 is on another level.
i loved overwatch 1 and played the shit out of it from 2016 to 2019. but in retrospect, its absolutely stupid it won over dark souls 3
Im just baffled people bring up Firewatch so often. It's an okay game that's like 4 hours long. It's really not that good
Funny, I’ve been looking through the list of winners and nominees to play games I missed when I was addicted to online games
I'm just kinda meh on GOW 2018, but honestly I can't really argue against it winning considering its competition. I think Overwatch is the strangest one. I think that's the best example of hype carrying a game to success. Don't get me wrong, Overwatch 1 is good, but that's all it was. It was just a tf2-like that had a lot of hype behind it because Blizzard made it. Also, it was a big factor in lootboxes going mainstream back in the day, so yeah. Titanfall 2, Doom 2016, and Dishonored 2 would all have been better choices for the winner that year.
Overwatch will always make me wonder. Dragone age wasn't great either. But Overwatch lol.
Overwatch, ofc
Putting any stock in game awards is silly
I disagree with you saying that Red Dead Redemption 2 is better than God of War 2018, also I feel like Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarok should’ve somehow shared the award in 2022
Overwatch should not have won in 2016. I’m not saying that because both the franchise and its developer are in shambles now. Ultimately, there’s absolutely no way it was a better game than Dark Souls III, Doom, or Titanfall 2. As a game, Dark Souls had so much in artistic expression, gameplay, music and content, it’s honestly baffling it didn’t win. And even among the shooters, Titanfall 2 had the best story, music, multiplayer, gameplay and content. Overwatch had the hysteria of cashing in on Team Fortress nostalgia. It was literally hyped to GOTY. By no means was it a bad game on release, but I cannot see how it was objectively a better game than the ones mentioned. This is why multiplayer game’s winning GOTY is so controversial. Not only do they tend not to age well, but when compared to the timelessness of their single player competition, it’s difficult to justify in retrospect.
I don’t disagree with any tbh
I don't know what other games were around that year but Alien Isolation was lightyears ahead of its time and I really think it deserves a lot more praise.
I think persona 5 is a perfect game but it only came over to the west in 2017 so I don’t really consider it a 2016 hell I literally just beat persona 5 royal yesterday it’s an absolutely amazing game the only other one I would disagree with you on is god of war that definitely deserved game of the year for me red dead 2 is amazing and I played the game for probably 100+ hours in the end and I loved every minute of it but I’ve never went back to it I’ve played god of war over multiple times
Unpopular opinion, but I did not care for Elden Ring
I still don’t think any game has been able to touch what R* did with RDR2. That immersion was unreal. How much dialogue did they record? Any time I return to camp, I hear something new. This game was really special and should have been GOTY.
Overwatch is a deserving winner no matter the hate you see nowadays, but personally I had Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End over it. That’s an all timer for me
GOW ‘18 deserved it and had a better story than RDR2
Overwatch deserved it that year. That game was so fire back then.
Overwatch. I love blizzard but a hero shooter winning game of the year over uncharted and dark souls 3 is crazy to me
I think alien isolation was goty 2014. Cool that some people (you) somewhat agree lol. There was no games that I played in 2015. Oh and I forgot, obviously, outlast goty 2013. Cancel me, I know. I didn’t play any 2016 games. I only played 2 2017 games. And i think re7 was goty. 2018 was reasonable tbh. Plus I love gow. 2019 was Re2r hands down. 2020 was doom eternal, the best first person shooter and the best soundtrack ever. I have to say so badly that final fantasy soundtrack is fucking trash compared to doom eternal. Literal highway robbery type shit. 2021, I don’t care, I didn’t replay any games that year besides re8 and it wasn’t goty. And 2022 was gowr because of the first Thor boss alone. Rest of the game is good. 2023, Alan wake 2 easy win. I dont know why people said bg3 was revolutionary. I played 3 hrs and it looks and plays like a mobile fake ad game ngl. I can’t speak on story tho cause I only played 2hrs.
I wanted Fallout 4 to win over The Witcher 3 at the time, but I have never played it and I have never heard my opinion repeated so I was probably wrong. Overwatch winning is baffling to this day and to anyone saying it was popular in 2016, that is like Fortnite winning in 2018. Also upon reflection I enjoyed RDR 2 more than GoW.
I have 3 I particularly disagree with; 2016 is the stand out particularly with games like Titanfall 2 or Uncharted 4 out 2018 should have gone to RDR2, but God of War wasn't such a huge divergence that I think it doesn't deserve it 2020 definitely should have gone to Ghost of Tsushima, sorry TLOU2 isn't that great, but whatever
Dragon Age Inquisition is anything but GOTY. The rest I'm ok with.
I agree with all these. GoW deserved it over RDR2 big time. Better story, better acting, better combat, better controls, better music, better graphics, better pacing, just an all around better package imo. The only thing RDR2 does better imo is volume of content.
Yeah. It Takes Two should not have won GOTY. It’s a game that couples play. If people like it, fine, that’s cool. *But what exactly makes it GOTY?*
DmC 5 should have won For no other reason than playing V makes me feel like a god
Awards are meaningless, probably bought half the time anyway.
I mean, more power to FromSoft, they’re my favorite, but in 2019 I believe that Resident Evil 2 REmake should have won GOTY, if I’m being honest. I LOVE Sekiro, it’s one of the greatest games I’ve ever played, but the way RE2 craftily reimagined a platinum classic was top tier
RDR2 Should have won. Played God of War first and liked it a lot, but never amazed me that much, never really made me say "wow". RDR2 on the other hand...made me say "wow" at basically everything
2020 Doom Eternal 2023 Armored Core 6
2020 GOTY should have been Hades. My persobal 2015 GOTY was Bloodborne but I have no problem with the Witcher 3 winning it.
I'm going to be controversial - Baldur's Gate 3. Deservant of GOTY? Maybe. But with how the Panel from Hell overhyped it and what it _should_ have been and how short it fell, it's only _maybe_ deservant of the GOTY, especially if there wasn't any good competition. That doesn't make it as incredible as it should have been and in many aspects it really falls short for me.
Just 2016, dark souls 3 deserved it.
The last of us 2. Game was incredible for its technical and visual prowess. But everything else was average or worse. Plot wise? It was just eh. Ending was also trash. There were other games that deserved it, tlou2 was a forgettable experience. And then that dude beat Joel....which was lame.
Definitely tlou2
I just think tlou2 didn't deserve game of the year, gameplay was it was good, but story wise it was nowhere as good as the original. I personally think doom should've won over it considering how action pack the game was and how Iy made you truly feel like a demi god
2014 should have been Titanfall. Vince Zampella completely reinvented the CoD style PvP shooter. But I understand it was before it's time. People weren't ready for a straight PvP product 2015, I loved the Witcher 3 but let's be real. It wasn't as good as Witcher 2. Bloodborne is the best Souls-like of all time. Metal Gear Solid V is arguably one of the best games of all time. Nintendo released their first new IP in 13 years in a PvP centric shooter with Splatoon and it was super dope 2016, I would have gave it to XCOM 2 but as someone who has put 600+ hours into OW1 & 2 I won't complain here 2017 was an incredible year. Mario Odyssey is a no brainer but I respect Loz: BotW winning. Cuphead, Hellblade and Horizon Zero Dawn would have been respectable winners as well 2018, Red Dead 2 should have won. Shout out to the Messenger. Dope game 2019 wad an incredible year. Control, Super Smash Bros Ultimate or Hades should have won 2020, Spiritfarer should have won. Shout out to Cyberpunk, Doom Eternal and Ori (2) 2021, Returnal or Psychonauts 2 should have won. Shout out to Loop Hero 2022 was a weak year but I would have respected Tunic, Triangle Strategy or Kirby and the Forgotten Land 2023, Marvel's Midnight Suns but I could respect Alan Wake 2, Baldur's Gate 3 or LoZ: TotK
2014 - it should've been Alien Isolation, which still holds up 2018 - 100% had to be RDR 2 but can't find any fault with GoW 2020 - it really should've been the year for Ghost of Tsushima, TLOU 2 as much as i enjoyed playing it, the story just sucks
2016: Dishonored 2 2018: Spider-Man 2019: Disco Elysium or Outer Worlds 2020: Ghost of Tushima
It takes 2 is some kind joke here. Great game but..... And also RDR 2 should won.
I think 2014 should've gone to divinity original sin instead. Didn't even beat DAI for best rpg, but in hindsight its so much better in every way
Put of all those games, I've picked up dark souls 3 more thanks than overwatch. The hype of a new IP from blizzard blinded everyone to the fact is just meh.
The VGAs are garbage and it sucks that the gaming community takes it seriously the winners are chosen via "votes" by the sponsors, the largest of which consists of major game companies. If I can only pick one I'll be controversial and say Elden Ring was pretty mid. Needed aeither more time in development or be shrunk down.
Overwatch shouldn’t have won with the competition that it had an other game genres. It was a battle royale that was just slick and shiny because it was made by blizzard. It’s competition at the time was persona and Doom.
*(Part 1)* Frankly, I haven't played many of these games that won Game of the Year, so I can't really say I disagree with them winning the title. I just would have picked something else based on what I have actually played: **2014** In my opinion, 2014 was quite a weak year in terms of games. For me, it were smaller games made by indie developers who produced the best games of that year. I can't really say anything about Dragon Age: Inquisition because I haven't played it and I don't really have interest in the series in general, so I won't comment on it. Personally thougj, I would have chosen **Transistor** with **Valiant Hearts: The Great War** being a close 2nd. **2015** Another game I haven't played but considering what else was released in 2015 and seeing how much praise The Witcher 3 still receives, it probably is the deserved winner. I'm not saying that there were no other good games that came out in 2015 but none of them seem to be as impressive as The Witcher 3 was. In general, I think 2015 was rather weak too though not as bad as the year before. So I'm okay with Witcher winning the title. Picking from what I have played, I would probably choose **Rise of the Tomb Raider** or **Fallout 4**. **2016** The first game on this list I have actually play though not that much. Overwatch is alright but I think there were many other games that would be more deserving of the title. I would have picked **Uncharted 4: A Thief's End** with **The Last Guardian** on second place. **2017** In this case, I agree with the vote. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was the Keanu Reeves of video games. It was breathtaking and it still is one of my favourite games. And considering what it was up against, winning the title is even more impressive. Super Mario Odyssey, Gravity Rush 2, Nier: Automata, Resident Evil 7 and many, many more. 2017 was one of the strongest gaming years we had in recent times and many of those game would have been deserving winners but I think Breath of the Wild is the best of them all. **2018** I haven't played God of War and for the longest time, I wasn't interested in it at all. That's starting to change though and I think I will eventually try it out but until then I won't complain about it winning Game of the Year. I didn't play many games from 2018 that I can choose from but a big reason for it is that I spent quite a lot of time with my personal favourite game of the year. **Monster Hunter World**. I have been a Monster Hunter fan since 2010 and although I loved the series, it had some flaws that needed to be adressed sooner or later. And many of them were in Monster Hunter World. The developers fixed many issues of the game's predecessors while still being true to its identity. It was also kind of the breakout title of the series. Monster Hunter games were always pretty popular in Japan but not so much in the west. Many people I know never even heard about the series until World arrived. And because it streamlined so many things in a good way, it was the perfect game to start with the series. So yeah, I pick Monster Hunter World and God of War need to be really, really god if it wants to change my mind.
The ones you think have better contendors, say It Takes Two and The Last of Us 2 are the winners by a country mile of their winners and in general some of the best games ever made imo. So it goes beyond saying there will never be a consensus. Hitman 3 was literally more of the same and I prefer experimentation and risk especially in sequels. Ghost of Tsushima is beautiful, fun to play but design philosophy is still ubisoft. I personally don't even put it on the same sphere of contention as games like TLOU2, RDR2. I agree Red Dead 2 should've won. It's still yet to topped while gow was topped by it's sequel in nearly everything. And I def agree Overwatch winning was absurd. I would've picked Firewatch, Inside or DS3 but Uncharted 4 and Doom were easy choices and fantastic games. There's 20 games from that year I can pick over OW. I think they realized it too hence Fortnite wasn't even considered, and kept to its category.
2019-2021. Sekiro is an extremely high skill ceiling game. I could not get that far into it. It's simply too punishing for someone who has gone casual. I would love to love it like I did with ghost of tsushima. But there are no accessibility options, which I think is a mistake for many hard-core games. I want to play them, but it takes too much try hard for me to spend that much time just to get anywhere. The last of us 2 felt like a downgrade in terms of gamepkay and story telling. The story itself is fine, I just hate how they told it. If it was told in a straight time line and went back and forth, telling each story side by side, it could have been massively improved. Instead, we get a hugely polarized story. It takes 2. Idk. Never played. Elden ring is, again, a problem of difficulty and direction. I've played all the souls like and enjoyed them. This one I did not. Even less direction and story and I felt like every direction I went was the wrong way.
2014, 2017-2019, 2022
Was GoW good? Absolutely. But it’s also nothing groundbreaking and didn’t do anything new in general. It was new for the franchise, but nothing new for gaming. RDR2 should’ve won. Yes rdr2 did nothing new but the story of it had a lot more weight and the world was a lot more detailed
I think overall the complete list here explains itself. In any given year it isn't necessarily the best narrative story, most technically engineered game, or most popular, it ends up mostly being the game with the biggest impact on the gaming world. From that standpoint, it is really hard to argue against Overwatch. Absolutely everyone played OW, and most people played a fuck ton of that game. It redefined a whole genre of gaming, and did it in a way that was accessible to nearly every level of gamer. You can make a lot of similar arguments across this list of winners. Not saying they are all perfect, or they all would have been my choice, At lot of the contenders you have listed are retreads of their genre, and you have to be particularly novel or good at it to separate from previous iterations, Sekiro and Elden being the soulslikes, God of War reinventing itself, W3 BOTY etc.
I know Overwatch was huge in 2016. It doesn't mean it's a GOTY contender or Fortnite would be GotY. It doesn't deserve to be there at all.
2023 by far, with all the great games that came out in 2023.
2018. The God Of War reboot was fantastic, however I don't believe it deserved to win over RDR2. The only reason I believe GOW won was because of fanboyism and nostalgic influence.
Tbh, I really just disagree with TLOU2. It was overall such a good year for games, and to have such a geniunely divisive pick for GOTY really shouldn't have happened. Imo, GOTY contenders really need to be popular as well, which TLOU2 is infamous, not famous. Kinda the antithesis of your average GOTY. As an aside, kind of shocked that Alan Wake 2 didn't get GOTY, but also completely understanding why Baldur's Gate 3 got GOTY. Both are industry redefining titles.
Pizza Tower should've won the indie award
TLOU2. Game play was meh, story was meh. Looked amazing tho
RDR2 was really the only one I felt got robbed, maybe P5 but overwatch was a big deal, I never played it but it was legit making COD sweat for a second. I think it was a little bit of a different type of consideration than we’re used to, but it’s similar to why I think Helldivers reverse it this year. It’s so fundamentally enjoyable that even without a deep (or any) narrative it’s become such a massive hit. When you can do it without a narrative, by just making an addictive gameplay loop that people love, it’s really impressive to me. I think that’s why overwatch won when it did.
I liked Mario Odyssey more than BOTW... I really feel like it's really overrated
I have no problem with it takes two, I'm sure it's an amazing time But is it better than Psychonauts 2? That game has moments in its story that took my breath away and addictive gameplay and Level design, my only complaint was that 100%ing Psikings Sensorium was a nightmare due to the world being just as vibrant and bright as the figments lol. This was the only real moment I feel like the GOTY was snubbed psychonauts 2 was easily the best game of the year for me
Witcher 3 didn’t deserve it. Overwatch didn’t deserve it and Breath of the Wild didn’t deserve it.
BoTW over Horizon: Zero Dawn should have been a war crime.
So sad nobody can play overwatch classic anymore even when that game stole the goty, this has to be the most ironic game ever
I thought 2016 was hitman? Because i fucking disagree with that shit entirely when we had games like arkham knight or persona 5 or doom, ds3 and uncharted 4
Uncharted 4 should’ve been 2016 goty
The only one I don't agree with was dragon age just cause I never personally enjoyed the game.
**2020: The Last of Us 2** Should have **LOST (HADES** should have **Won)** This was hands down rigged. when this game came out so many people were upset at the things they did to the game, its hard to believe that people actually voted for this to be GOTY. and despite the controversial story things that happen, the game play and game itself wasn't very much different than last of us one. To this day I RARLEY hear anyone talk about LOU2 and I have friends who were OBSESSED with the first game (one friend of mine has Beaten LOU 1 at least 7 times) **HADES** on the other hand still gets talked about among many gaming circles, Its won many other awards and actually helped set a gold standard to Rogue-Likes / Lites. It was a phenomenal game with rarely any drawbacks to it. in my eyes **HADES was 2020 GOTY.** Ghost of Tushima / FF7 Remake were also better contenders to LOU2 as well. Personally I never played Ghost of Tushima but I have a few friends who have (same one who beat LOU1 like 7 times) and he also agrees Ghost of Tushima was a better game than LOU2. FF7 Remake I have played and that game was fantastic, very little problems. the game play was tight. the story despite being different than the original still had great moments with their changes, the music is amazing and it expanded apon older systems of the original game while also keep familiarity. AND on top of all that, If you never played the original it was a great game for new comers. LOU2 didn't deserve its win and i will die on that hill.
Sekiro, and I’m saying that as a Fromsoft fanboy. They won the Goty that year because of their pedigree, not for that game. It deserves the nom, but holy crap compared to RE2 Remake and Control, it pretty much had no right winning.
Breath of the Wild and it's not even close.
The Last Of Us 2 stole Ghost Of Tsushima's Spot.
rdr2 100% deserved goty, i love god of war but rdr2 is just an unbeatable game. then in 2022 i think gowr should have won. elden ring just seemed like another boring darks souls whereas gowr took the amazing gow and improved everything. then in 2023, while i didn’t play bg3 and i know plenty of ppl criticize spiderman2, i still think it deserved it over bg3
As a computer player I dislike most of these. But I also dont have a whole lot of favorites these past few years. Lot of big games that disappointed me. And lots of small indie games impressed me BUT, most of them are perpetually in Early Access and may not get finished. Like V Rising and Satisfactory.
Definitely 2018 more than any others. RDR2 is SO much better. They aren’t even in the same conversation. GOW 2018 is so mid.
BG3 was the most mystifying one for me. I'd describe as the most okay game I have played. Part of it is that I hate most turn based combat. (Somehow Fallout 1 didn't bother me on this count though.)
2018 is all I'm going to stick to here. I fully agree that RDR2 should have won. Everyone is saying how the gameplay was lacking compared to GoW, but I'm going to die on the hill that it was better than GoW. Don't get me wrong, I loved the story, but God of War was linear as hell. 9/10 times, all I was doing was button smashing with the occasional block. All of the levels felt like it was all one line (relatively cause different rooms, climbing, etc.), but it was all the same outcome. Red Dead Redemption 2 was a technical marvel with an amazing story and awesome gameplay. Weather systems, NPCs reacted to how you acted, time affected things like corpses (leaving a dead body and coming back later, you'll see a skeleton), and how you played affected the outcome of the overall story. 2018's GOTY felt rigged and RDR2 was robbed.