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[SlimySnake]

This year has had one GOTY contender release one after another. Now Baldur's Gate 3 has come out of nowhere to threaten to crash Zelda and Starfield's party. With Starfield and Spiderman still to come, we have a pretty decent GOTY lineup to choose from already. Everything from HiFi Rush to Star Wars to FF16 and RE4 have generated GOTY buzz this year.

Just wanted to do a quick check in half way through the year to see where GAF is leaning.

P.S Let me know if I missed a game you'd like added to the poll.

P.P.S Zelda is my GOTY so far. Phenomenal levels of freedom, a true sandbox game. FF16 couldve been it, but blew it with poor pacing and mmo quest design.

 

[KungFucius]

Zelda, at least until I play BG3 and Starfield. I have yet to finish FF16. I need to, but the game kind of lost me. It really needed better exploration.

 

[amigastar]

Where's Baldur's Gate 3? IMO it deserves to be on that list, for sure.

 

[SlimySnake]

Where's Baldur's Gate 3?

Its there. I just forgot to add 3.

 

[EviLore]

Its there. I just forgot to add 3.

Fixed.

 

[Danjin44]

As of now its FFXVI but that could change once Armoured Core VI comes out.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Final Fantasy 16. I understand the flaws, but I really enjoyed the cast, story, production values, music and gameplay. It felt uniquely old school in a lot of ways, but was very charming to me. It's not a perfect game, but it was the game I was most excited to come back to this year so far.

Runner up for me is probably RE4:R. I never fully played the original, but this game is pitched perfectly and is easily one of my favorite RE titles of all time. Great action/adventure title. Was on the edge of my seat the whole time with nary an issue of pacing.

Hogwarts is probably third for me. It's a safe open world game, but man it has a lot of charm and ends up feeling quite unique in the end.

Zelda TOTK is a good game but it didn't do much for me. It felt like BOTW reskinned. I wanted better dungeons and character/item progression, and did not get that. It's just more of BOTW on steroids with expanded locations and things to do everywhere that really seem like an unnecessary time sink. Still enjoyable, but I have no desire to do everything the game has to offer. It's simply not rewarding. I don't get any enjoyment out of the vehicle building and the Depths section was boring padding. Series needs to go back to its roots.

Pikmin 4 - really enjoying this so far, having never played a Pikmin game. Doubtful it ends up on my GOTY list because it's a quirky kinda game, but it's really well done and unique.

Hi Fi Rush - another quirky game, won't end up on my GOTY list but it was enjoyable, if a bit simple. But it does ooze a lot of charm.

 

[mrmustard]

Easily Zelda.

 

[adamsapple]

RE4 Remake.

 

[Nankatsu]

Personally, for me, Resident Evil 4.

 

[R6Rider]

I choose GT7 VR.
Otherwise of the few I've played, Dead Space Remake.

 

[SlimySnake]

Final Fantasy 16. I understand the flaws, but I really enjoyed the cast, story, production values, music and gameplay. It felt uniquely old school in a lot of ways, but was very charming to me. It's not a perfect game, but it was the game I was most excited to come back to this year so far.

I loved that it was old school almost PS2 levels of straight forward action but then the first act ended and it turned into PS4 Ubisoft levels of open world padding. Perhaps they shouldve just released this as a 15 hour single player game like RE4 with no open world levels whatsoever.

 

[Giallo Corsa]

Exoprimal and the soon to be released Armored core 6.

 

[Musashipan]

Zelda
No contest

 

[Captain Toad]

Redfall
No contest

 

[JusticeForAll]

For me it's BG3. Second place for Zelda. But this is shaping up to be a really strong year, all in all.

FF16 started out strong, but by the end of it, I was immensely bored, sad to say.

 

[Yoshichan]

imagine voting d4 hahahahahh

 

[Laieon]

For me:

1. Hogwarts Legacy
2. Diablo IV
3. Resident Evil 4
.
.
.
.
.
4. Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Everything else I've played this year came out before 2023.

I expect that once Cities Skylines 2 comes out, that'll end up as either 1 or 2.

Zelda TOTK is a good game but it didn't do much for me. It felt like BOTW reskinned. I wanted better dungeons and character/item progression, and did not get that. It's just more of BOTW on steroids with expanded locations and things to do everywhere that really seem like an unnecessary time sink. Still enjoyable, but I have no desire to do everything the game has to offer. It's simply not rewarding. I don't get any enjoyment out of the vehicle building and the Depths section was boring padding. Series needs to go back to its roots.

This is pretty much how I feel about it too. I miss the traditional 3D Zelda formula so, so much and it sucks that there really isn't anything out there to replace it with. TOTK is a good game, but just not what I want out of a Zelda game.

 

[Topher]

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

TOTK. That's also the only one in the list I'll play this year unless RE4 has a substantial price drop before Christmas, but I don't see anything beating Zelda for me anyway.

 

[bender]

Prisoner of the moment, but unless things change a lot, it's Pikmin 4. I had Hi-Fi Rush and Tears of the Kingdom at the top of my list previously. The only challengers I see coming are Armored Core and Baldur's Gate 3 (might play some of this today to see how Deck performance is).

Diablo IV is easily my biggest disappointment.

 

[analog_future]

1. Resident Evil 4
2. Dead Space
3. Hogwarts Legacy
4. Hi-Fi Rush
5. Star Wars Jedi Survivor

I expect this list to look quite different by the end of the year with Starfield, Forza Motorsport, Alan Wake 2, Phantom Liberty, Spider-Man 2, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and others still on the way.

 

[ReBurn]

Prisoner of the moment, but unless things change a lot, it's Pikmin 4. I had Hi-Fi Rush and Tears of the Kingdom at the top of my list previously. The only challengers I see coming are Armored Core and Baldur's Gate 3 (might play some of this today to see how Deck performance is).

It's also Pikmin 4 for me and I would have never thought that would happen.

 

[jshackles]

Regardless of which is your favorite, I think we can all agree that 2023 has had some crazy good games.

 

[Mr Hyde]

My current top 3 right now

Zelda Tears of the Kingdom
Resident Evil 4
HiFi Rush

Halfway through Dead Space and it is excellent but I don't think I'll put it on a GOTY list. Got FF 16 and Forspoken on the back burner but probably won't be able to finish them on time.

 

[kunonabi]

I've only bought totk so I guess my answer has to be Tekken 8 since I played the CNT and enjoyed my time with that way more. Had I been able to buy Wantedead that probably would have been my answer.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

I loved that it was old school almost PS2 levels of straight forward action but then the first act ended and it turned into PS4 Ubisoft levels of open world padding. Perhaps they shouldve just released this as a 15 hour single player game like RE4 with no open world levels whatsoever.

Probably would have been for the better if it were a 20 hour non-stop action linear adventure game. But the open world stuff could have been better. Truthfully, many of the side missions actually do have really great writing, but they are worse off due to very lengthy cuts and pretty basic structure. They could have condenscened many of them and made the production values more like SP missions, similar to what Horizon FW did

 

[Vox Machina]

imagine voting d4 hahahahahh

The campaign was engaging and high-quality. That's about all I can say for the game in it's current form. PoE still absolutely windmill dunks on it in terms of A RPG mechanics.

I voted BG3. Before that it was Hi-Fi Rush. I expect Starfield will edge out BG3 after I play that.

 

[Laieon]

imagine voting d4 hahahahahh

D4 is a ton of fun. If it weren't for Hogwarts, it easily would have been my number 1 at this point in the year. It's exactly what I'm looking for in an ARPG (the first 20-30 hours anyway, but 20-30 hours is my ideal length for a game anyway). It's the best ARPG I've ever played (slightly beats Last Epoch, I've never enjoyed PoE), but I'll agree that 50+ definitely needs some work. Thankfully, the genre doesn't punish you for stopping and moving on to something else.

Perhaps they shouldve just released this as a 15 hour single player game

The industry would be a lot better if everyone took this advice.

 

[Wunray]

For the time being it's Zelda, might change when I play BG3.

 

[touchfuzzy]

Very GAF to be slinging votes at BG3 like two days after it’s come out

 

[ManaByte]

Very GAF to be slinging votes at BG3 like two days after it’s come out

 

[AV]

Very GAF to be slinging votes at BG3 like two days after it’s come out

That's half my completed TOTK playtime in 3 days.

It's a once in a generation title.

 

[kvltus lvlzvs]

I'll be back when ac6 comes out

 

[yamaci17]

zelda so far
played jedi survivor, hog legacy and re4

hog legacy is bland boring game. aged like curdled milk. its now a solid 80/100 for me
jedi survivor story went nowhere. it was a decent cool experience but solid 85/100
re4 now that I liked it a lot. comes very close to totk because I adored the combat. my first time playing a RE game btw. a solid 91/100
totk however is a solid 94/100 for me, hence my goty so far

baldur gate 3 might change that. or not. depends on whether the story in bg3 will invest me or not. gameplay combat and stuff could be fantastic but I need some decent story out of it too.
then comes starfield ofc.

amount of freedom and sandboxing in zelda games is crazy high. and they added so much new stuff over Botw that I did not even think it would be possible. I also liked how they spiced up things with map being the same. I was invested in the story more than the botw too. a big plus actually.

 

[DaleinCalgary]

imagine voting d4 hahahahahh

Thats my vote, really enjoyed it.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Only saying what I've played a good chunk of or completed. I'm still too early in Zelda to put it at number 1 even though it probs will be by the end.

So far my top ten is looking like...

1. Resident evil 4 remake
2. Star wars jedi survivor
3. Hi Fi Rush.
4. Hogwarts legacy
5. Metroid prime remastered.
6. Diablo IV
7. Battlebit remastered.
8. Dave the diver
9. Exoprimal
10. Final dantasy xvi

I need to play piking 4 asap! And more zelda...and BG3....

Too many games man!

 

[bender]

Too many games man!

We Love Katamari REROLL.

 

[Schmendrick]

I hoped it would be D4 but damn did they fuck up the endgame...

 

[M.W.]

Dead Island 2

 

[FinalBossWithTheMostPower]

Without a doubt, it's fantastic, but given that BG3 was only released 3 days ago, who really has had enough time with it to justify calling it their GOTY?

I voted TOTK, today, but a few more weeks might change my view.

 

[Topher]

I voted Hogwarts. Great game.

 

[touchfuzzy]

That's half my completed TOTK playtime in 3 days.

It's a once in a generation title.

Yeah man everyone was falling all over themselves for Diablo 4 in the first week it was out too and now it has 1 vote here for GOTY and everyone else hates it. Whatever big game that just came out is always people’s favorites. We’ll see.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

Resident Evil 4, but I haven't played Baldur's Gate 3 yet. Looking forward to it!

Also: LMAO at the Rofif callout in the poll

Edit: reading some of the talk about BG3 in this thread is getting me hyped. Can't WAIT to play it now.

 

[VideoGameEnjoyer]

Zelda was fantastic but I hope it doesn’t end up winning everything. So many great games this year, would love to see the love get spread around. Very early into BG3, but it definitely feels like the most ‘impressive’ game so far.

 

[LazyParrot]

I thought it was going to be BG3, but at this point I'm enjoying it less than Original Sin 2. The longer I play the more I dislike the dice roll mechanic. It's not even the mechanic itself as much as the fact that it feels like an interruption. I know you can skip most of the animation, but it's still annoying. There should be an option to have the game take care of that shit in the background.

 

[ShadyAcshuns]

Tiers of the Kangdom!

 

[Ginzeen]

BG3 has so much more going for it. It's BG3 for me, for now.

 

[gow3isben]

From what I’m seeing should be Baldurs Gate. This looks to be the Mass Effect 2/Witcher 3 moment of this generation.

Of those I’ve played Star Wars followed by RE4.

The more removed I am from it the more soured I am on FF16 such magnificent highs marred by such tedium.

 

[GetInTheRobot]

BD3 is a miracle of a game, it shouldn't exist but some how it does.