Baldur's Gate 3 Wins Game of the Year (nytimes.com) 24
The role-playing adventure game Baldur's Gate 3 won game of the year last night at The Game Awards 2023 in Los Angeles. The New York Times reports: It was the crowning achievement for a game based on Dungeons & Dragons that largely stayed under the radar during its six years in development by the Belgian company Larian Studios. But its summer release -- 23 years after its predecessor -- captivated gamers, who celebrated a robust character creator, deep narrative and branching paths that made it seem as though anything was possible in its fictional universe of vampires and elves. Baldur's Gate 3, which is available on the PC, the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X|S, also went home with several other awards, including those for best role-playing game, best performance and best multiplayer.
The other nominees for game of the year were Alan Wake 2, by Remedy Entertainment; Marvel's Spider-Man 2, by Insomniac Games; Resident Evil 4, by Capcom; Super Mario Bros. Wonder, by Nintendo; and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, by Nintendo.
The other nominees for game of the year were Alan Wake 2, by Remedy Entertainment; Marvel's Spider-Man 2, by Insomniac Games; Resident Evil 4, by Capcom; Super Mario Bros. Wonder, by Nintendo; and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, by Nintendo.
In a surprise to no one (Score:4, Insightful)
Gamers have been eating good this year and Baldur's Gate 3 was easily the most amazing part of it.
Re:In a surprise to no one (Score:5, Funny)
nah, just a dude who enjoys having relations with bears apparently.
Re: In a surprise to no one (Score:4, Interesting)
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"You must gather your party before venturing forth" ...
"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
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The originals were groundbreaking, but they were also objectively not that great.
BG3 is everything they wished they could have been.
I've played all of them. BG3 is the ultimate form.
Re:In a surprise to no one (Score:5, Funny)
nah, just a dude who enjoys having relations with bears apparently.
Hardly, I'm far more interested in porking a devil girl who can explode at any moment setting fire to the entire building. Oh wait you think the bear is the only weird sexual encounter you can have in this game? That shit is borderline basic in this game.
Re: (Score:2)
Won't get into the whole culture wars bit here; but initially i was interested in bg3; but as time wore on i realized it's just not for me.
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No. Dude I *wish* I got paid to post on Slashdot. I'm just a happy gamer, satisfied that they aren't being shovelled shit down their throats for a change and happy to be giving credit where very VERY much credit is due.
You owe it to yourself to try this game, fuck refund it if you don't like it.
Re: In a surprise to no one (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Unsurprising (Score:5, Interesting)
A deserved victory, even given the competition. It wasn't a perfect game by any means (honestly one of the worst camera implementations I have ever seen in any game, let alone one of this budget and pedigree), but compared to most of what the industry has been putting out in general and in the rpg space in particular, it was head and shoulders above.
Lots of polish and attention to detail with regards to the story and side quests, and it's a massive gift to the tabletop rpg community; several of my friends' kids have picked up D&D as a result of playing BG3 and wanting more of the same.
Not surprised (Score:1)
There wasn't much competition this year, so it's kind of a no-brainer.
Re: (Score:3)
Zelda TOTK not much competition?
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100 Million or so Switch users versus 1.5B PC gamers. The PC gaming pool is just really large, but also more diverse in hardware capabilities and more spread out in interest in various game genres. With 20 million Baldur's gate sales just on Steam alone, and Zelda TOTK also at 20 million in total, since it is only on Switch, I think it's going to be difficult for Zelda TOTK to gain quite as large of a player base, and for the media outlets that cover mostly multiplatform and PC games to give Switch-only gam
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You really think Yet Another Zelda Game is even worth mentioning here? As a PC gamer, the pickings have been scarce for years. I couldn't care less about Nintendo's endless remakes and sequels.
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So you never played the game but have your opinion all ready? Ok boomer!
Best gameplay? (Score:5, Interesting)
The categories for lesser awards are an odd bunch for games. If I were categorising a set of game awards, things like "best gameplay" or "best difficulty curve" would appear way before stuff like "audio design". "Best narrative", how about "best implemented freedom to do whatever you want and have the world respond appropriately"? They're supposed to be games, not movies.
And I can't help feel it needs some sort of "best non-sequel".
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They're supposed to be games, not movies.
Not all games are mechanics based, some of them are absolutely playable movies and aren't worse for it. Given how heavily some games lead into narrative or sound they absolutely should be awarded for doing so. Try and play Dead Space remastered with the sound muted, it's a borefest. The audio design is core to the gaming experience in that it sets the player in a permanent state of unease. And what would games like Bioshock Infinite be without the narrative? Oh right, every single other first person shooter
Game of the Decade (Score:5, Interesting)
Not surprised this won game of the year, it's amazing - for me game of the decade.
That is to say; it will probably take me ten years to finish, :-)
If you have any kind of OCD around side quests or exploring maps this game has SO MUCH going on.
The only thing I wish they had was a bit more of a tutorial of some kind rather than just pouring you into a very complex rule system, and lots of UI commands possible.
My theory (Score:2)
Any game with a character creation menu that lets you pick the shape of your penis is obviously going to win. It's given people exactly what they want from a roleplaying game.