I feel like Nintendo gets a consolation slot with whatever the best game was in their closed ecosystem, but it's not going to be competitive with the other candidates.

I also think they'll give GOTY to an indie given what an unbelievable year it was for indie titles. Probably COE33, just based on the quality and production value they accomplished with a relatively small team and budget. But Silksong and Hades are also outstanding.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 completely dominated the spring and summer. Nobody would shut up about it. This year's Baldur's Gate.

First time I’ve heard of this game. Wild to see the deluxe edition cost less than the base game Itself though.

Welp, made the purchase, now I know what I’m doing after work.

Have tissues ready, and I'm not talking about wanking. Well, maybe that too, but mostly because they're really good at hitting emotional beats. It's one of two games this year that had me in tears.

The other is Goodnight Universe, which is very new and also very good, and it has a neat face tracking gimmick where some things require you to close your eyes or emote. It also works without and is still good (and you can obviously do the accompanied actions even without a cam to observe it).

Every award show ever: "Just give most of the prizes to whatever sold the most, with the odd curveball choice to make sure everyone comments to tell us that we are wrong to drive up those engagement metrics"

These awards are fascinating to me. As a child i thought how great it is when a movie won an oscar. You would see a dvd with 5 oscars on it and you go whoooooo.

And then you learn that a lot of these judges don't even watch the movies, you need to give them gifts and lick their asses to even be considered.

It's just one of those years. There were a lot of great games that came out this year.

I can ignore the RNG fest that is drawing the rooms but for the love of god there so many interactions that have no business being as long as they are (for example anything related to computer terminals). If the game can clearly be better than it currently is then in my books it cannot be a GOTY nomination. In case of Blue Prince the game could absolutely waste less of the players time. It's the reason I gave up on it because there's no reason to play if I feel like the time I spend playing is just wasted time.

Having played a fair bit of it, I can see why it isn't.

I dunno. It's a very well-made game, but also kinda... understandable not on the same level as Hades 2, Silksong of Clair Obscur.

Plus it got a GOTY nomination or two, I bet. Which just doesn't put it high enough though.

Kojima

Through brand recognition.

Then the inevitable yotube mashup with Geoff proudly proclaiming GOTY to Clair Beach 33: Expedition Death!

Its an incredible game but not for everyone. I've been saying for a while that a game for everyone is a game for no one. These guys picked a specific genre and set out to tell an interesting/artistic story with a very specific vision and IMO they hit a grand slam/it is executed very well. If you bounced off it thats completely fine, not everyone is looking for what this game has to offer. It just happened to really click with me.

It depends on how much you like QTE gameplay and turn based JRPGs. If neither appeals to you, then the refund was a great idea. If one or the other appeals to you, then I think it's worth sitting through because both gameplay mechanics are executed well enough and the narrative is good. If both appeal to you then you've missed out in getting a refund.

I really enjoyed this game. The gameplay is intuitive, but challenging; the narrative is engaging; the soundtrack is incredible.

You're not alone. The visuals are nice, the voice acting is good, and the music is gorgeous, but the gameplay is very repetitive JRPG combat with a minor twist.

As art, I could see it winning awards. As a game, I think others are more deserving.

Assuming you play on PC I'd near-universally recommend it. This is because if the dodging/parrying mechanics do annoy you, your only option is to change to Easy, which also reduces enemy damage by a ton and makes the game boringly simply. Mods allow you to have the slightly more lenient timings of Easy but the HP/damage numbers of Normal, which for me personally was a nice combination as I got frustrated parrying the later bosses.

Hands down, my favorite rpg in years. It has also been one of the super rare games that I kept playing past the end of the main story just so I could stay in the world a bit longer. It will also be one of the only games I've bought after playing it on Game Pass too.

I don't blame you at all. It's styled after the old final fantasy games, meaning very fiddly with a lot of different abilities, and with the added twist of having to dodge stuff fairly precisely which involves a lot of learning. There is a "story" difficulty which makes the game much less punishing, but I still didn't feel like playing it.

I did watch my girlfriend play though, and soon I was the one telling her to play so I could watch because the story and soundtrack are that fucking amazing. Just watch a playthrough of at least all the major fights and cutscenes and you'll understand.

Like you I could not get into it, but I gave it the old college try. Got about eight hours in and can't get a refund now.