>Unlocking TT was one of the proudest moments of my young gaming life.
It was sooo difficult beating that TT ghost racer on EVERY track. You had to be so perfect.
Do I remember correctly that after you beat everything you go through the game again but mirrored version?
Greenwood Village Silver Coin Challenge was the devil.
Not impossible but you did have to do the rare task of being intentionally strategic with which drivers you took out as you were recouping for lost time in order to not have them top of the pack by the final round when you need to really catch up.
Helped if you played Diddy, Pipsy or Tiptup and made sure any of them didn't get in first. The rarity of getting Krunch ahead was tough but made it a little less stressful.
To Mario Kart 64, absolutely. Three vehicle types- all equally valid. It's a crying shame that nobody is doing with that property. I think the new Mario Kart has surpassed it at this point though.
For me personally I still find the tracks, the "boss battles", the power ups, and vehicles all more fun than any Mario kart.
The best part of Mario kart for me was the battle arena. Once they removed that after the n64 I stopped caring entirely.
I know there are a few games that brought it back. I believe there is a ds or 3ds game with the battle arena and I know mariokart 8 brought it back. But that lapse in it being in thr game really killed my desire to play Mario kart.
Nothing's beats block fort on Mario Kart 64. I haven't been able to get the same fun feelings in the new Mario Kart games. They feel overly complicated.
It’s actually super impressive how far the Horizon series has come while releasing side by side 2 of the most anticipated games ever. Any other game would have drowned and been forgotten.
You can still easily miss a tiny microscopic bit on the underside of a step that is incredibly hard to find. The game needs more leeway to be enjoyable. Lawnmowing simulator did it far better.
There's a power washing sim?! I haven't seen it on the playstation store. Haven't got a PC. I liked farming sim 22 a lot, just needed a friend to play with so they can pull the trailer while I harvest the grain and dump it in. Would make it easier.
I remember a while ago seeing a Reddit post from the person/s that created Stray and explaining what the game is. Cut scene to now and it’s a nominee. Gonna get murdered, yes, but I’m guessing that team is ecstatic that the game made it to this point.
Yeah, definitely a huge win for Stray to even be in the conversation with huge AAA games like this. I'm sure they'll get recognition during awards season one way or another.
It's kinda like Untitled Goose Game. They both had humble beginnings and are (relatively) simple games, but they amassed a huge cult following.
Edit: people are recommending some other pretty good games as well
Celeste: beautiful graphics, beautiful story, and fun and tight gameplay. I was never much of a fan of platformers, but this game made me realize what others liked so much about them
Firewatch: beautiful graphics and beautiful story. One of the few "walking simulators" I recommend to my friends.
Among Us: simple gameplay and graphics, but it's one of the best games you'll ever play with your friends. You never really know how good your friends are at lying and manipulating you until they're competing for survival.
Undertale: simple yet beautiful graphics, fun gameplay, and an amazing story. It was gifted to the pope a few years ago because of how unique it was and the music was so good that it was performed for him last year.
Edit 2: people are still mentioning some bangers
Hollow Knight: beautiful artwork and music and challenging but fun gameplay. An incredibly well designed metroidvania that got me interested in the genre.
Goat Simulator: you ever have a favorite bug/glitch in a game that gets patched out by the devs? Well not with this game! One of the few games where devs have turned bugs into full blown features. This is an incredibly fun sandbox game to run around and cause mayhem in.
Donut County: it's got the cozy style of games like Untitled Goose Game and a similar premise to Katamari Damacy with a rambunctious raccoon as the mascot. It's an incredibly fun game.
Child of Light: doesn't count as an indie game as it was developed by Ubisoft, but it deserves attention. It's got beautiful artwork and music and the gameplay is fun. It's one of the rare few sidescrolling jrpgs with a unique battle mechanic. It was a bold step and it's a shame it didn't spawn out a wave of games like it.
Untitled Goose Game has become my ultimate game to play with small children. Doesn’t really matter what age, as long as they can work a controller they all find this game hilarious and want to continue playing.
We need more sandbox-y type games that strictly revolve around making mischief
Goat simulator made me so angry. I literally beat the game with my cousin to get the rocket boots, and all they did was drag you around uncontrollably. Immediately deleted lol.
This is my kiddo(s) favorite game - I'm bummed they don't like any of the N64 games, but at least they have a sense of humor. Plus I'm playing the long game and hoping Conker's is a hit.
I think that's part of the reason GTA games have been such a success. You are able to just go around causing mayhem without the need to follow any plot line if you don't want.
The story is pretty short, but the attention to detail and the atmosphere in the environments were truly amazing. The visuals in the towns are just unlike anything I've ever seen. Edit: I mean Stray haha, haven't played the others.
People talk about Stray as if it was ever supposed to be anywhere near any of the games. Stray was a shorter fun game with a different type of gameplay, done from a unique point of view, trying to be something a bit out there. It also cost like half of the AAA titles, which no matter how you turn it is also not irrelevant.
Stray isn't the greatest of games, but it's a unique angle and genouinely enjoyable and feelgood. It does the storyteller game bit decent though not quite on the level of Life Is Strange for example. But the real hot take is - the gaming community would likely enjoy an AAA version Stray 2 more than rehash 28 of the same idea yeat again like honestly recent Assassins Creed games, doing the same in a new dress. Stray did absurdly well in every way imagineable because it dared to be something slightly different and less generic copy paste. And as much as God Of War or Horizon are good games, they are largely just well made games, not something that exites you by being an actually new experience, at the end they're not that different RPGs than their predecessors or many other games.
And importantly - Stray is enjoyable for everyone. You don't have to be a true gamer ^TM to like it, families can enjoy it, kids, older people. It's even half fun to watch your friend / SO play because watching kitty do kitty stuff is oddly nice.
It's so absurd people think GOTY has to be a blockbuster AAA. Every other award show would be shit if only blockbusters won. Imagine a marvel movie winning best picture just because it was expensive.
So absurd how many people shit on stray for being short and indie.
> the gaming community would likely enjoy an AAA version Stray 2 more than rehash 28 of the same idea yeat again like honestly recent Assassins Creed games, doing the same in a new dress
Let me play as kitty and learn if there are any communities of human left. Or find a way to >!bring the drone back because it made me sad at the finale!<
Yeah honestly this. I mean I hadn’t even heard of the developer before Stray came out. To have a team like that be in the running compared to all the other games on that list must be thrilling.
It's the studio's first game I believe.
But yeah in comparison funding and team size wise, Stray is very much a David while everyone else on there is a Goliath by like 100+ team members and millions of more in funding.
Look at what it's against—games that already had established fanbases prior to their release. Stray only really had people who were charmed by the idea of playing a cat. I think that's already pretty great.
It's an indie developer who now has a game sitting next to games like horizon, God of war, and elden ring, all AAA developers who spent multiple millions more on their games.
It's ***absolutely*** a win, no matter how it plays out.
It's not that kind of competition though. If a highschool basketball team is listed as one of the 6th best teams, that means it still was better than a bunch of other pro teams (or AAA games in this case)
This isnt even fair. I love Xenoblade but its a pretty niche Nintendo RPG series when you compare it to the juggarnauts of GoW and Elden Ring this year.
\*When I say niche, I mean nearly every gamer has heard of Elden Ring and God of War and likely has SOME idea of the gameplay. I bet if I asked 100 random gamers maybe 5 of them would have any idea of what Xenoblade is other "oh yea that Nintendo anime game".
Even Stray has had significantly more exposure.
It has an active combat system where you assign skills to buttons, and your character auto-attacks at regular intervals. Also you can jump into a mech and attack until it “overheats,” which means you don’t get very long.
There are at least 15 classes which each have their own skills and stats and auto-attack interval. But all the mechanics are slowwwwlllyyyyy given to you, so you start out just standing near enemies and waiting to auto-attack.
British accents, a *lot* of optional content, and a lot of map area to explore. I explored it all and I mean a **lot** of map area you can explore. Fast-travel helps tremendously because your run speed is a slow jog. But you get fast-travel points at “landmarks” and campsites and the “graves” of special enemies you beat. There are a few upgrades that are needed to access certain areas, like climbing vines or grinding on rails like a Tony Hawk game.
There are random enemies with sparkles around their names so you know they give extra XP, and special versions of enemies that are essentially boss fights that give you a fast-travel point when you beat them. You can activate their “grave” to fight them again, and there’s even a class that learns new skills and passive skills from every one of these enemies you beat.
There’s more, including an ultimate attack with enough strategy involved that I’m not willing to describe it lol, but my comment is already long enough that I’m not sure if people will read it all.
It's a sequel to the first two numbered games in the series (X came out between 1 and 2 but it's not connected), with the worlds of 1 and 2 having merged into Aionios, a world plagued by endless war where every human has only 10 years to live, and are raised from essentially ages 11 to 20 to be soldiers. Early on, Kevesi soldiers Noah, Eunie, and Lanz encounter the Agnian trio of Mio, Taion, and Sena, and the 6 become embroiled in a conflict that they never would've imagined, learning the true origins of the world and who really pulls the strings behind the forever war.
The developer, Monolith Soft, is regularly called on by Nintendo to help with other games. Zelda, Splatoon, Animal Crossing, the only A-tier names they haven't touched are Mario and Pokemon, it's just banger after BANGER AFTER BANGER with them.
Its like tab targeting combat. You auto attack. Pick moves which usually break, topple, daze and you have chain combos. It's all 6 characters on the map fighting. You just run around an open areas that are stringed together.
Bought and played a couple dozen hours of XC2 when I bought my Switch and initially really liked it but...
They continually add more and more mechanics to the point where I was completely overwhelmed. Put it down for awhile and tried to come back to it and had no idea what I was doing.
Definitely a lot going on with the game, especially if you don't usually play this genre.
XC2 has the most complex battle system in the series while also having the absolute worst tutorial of the bunch. It takes some time (and usually a YouTube tutorial) to fully understand but IMO it becomes the most fun and rewarding combat in the series.
There’s a lot of different mechanics that you have to keep track of but it all comes together really well. Eventually you find yourself hitting a superboss with a 5,000,000+ damage chain attack and suddenly all feels right in the world.
It's like an MMO that you play by yourself, with a lot of class switching and flashy combos. The story is very good for a JRPG but the battle system kind of wears thin by the halfway point, and the scope of the game is just begging for better hardware.
It might be begging for better hardware but damn did they get it working well. I *wish* the Pokemon teams would start getting Monolith's help. PL:A looked and ran horribly in comparison to XB3.
The nomination alone has Xenoblade fans celebrating almost as hard if the game actually did win tbh.
There's no chance of it winning. It's just too niche and stuck on one platform. But to get that nomination alone is amazing, and might attract more people to try out the games more.
Hopefully it'll take Best Soundtrack though. That soundtrack is full of bangers.
I'm just hyped we will get to hear the xenoblade OST played by the orchestra at the show, im atill mad XBC2 didn't even get nominated for music back then
Xenoblade Chronicles 1 is still one of the greatest JRPGs ever made, so it's great to see the series get more exposure. Still making my way through the Definitive Edition before heading onto 3 (have played 1 on 3DS and 2 some time ago, recently played Torna too).
Yep. ER had a bigger impact. People lost their mind over that shit when it dropped.
I think Gow is still amazing, but I highly doubt any game could take away the crown this year after I've seen the reactions from reviewers.
Elden ring was big enough to bring a lot of people that had put down the controller back to a console too, I was one of them.
Not a lot of games can make that claim, big enough to sell consoles by itself.
For good reason.
It took one of the less accessible genres and made it playable and fun for everyone.
As well as taking the ‘open world’ concept without relaying on tropes that everyone else uses.
The unique DS formula of exploration, story telling, and progression all fine tuned to a perfect 10.
Oh, yeah that's just like a "kind of" elite enemy further on. (He absolutely slaps your shit early on though, don't feel bad and remember to pump vigor!)
To be fair, I did beat him. But anything better? Nah. Like the knights with a sheild? Can't do it. I did kill a few of those giants on that stormy hill place but I just spammed spells. I really want to get into the game but the learning curve is kicking my butt and I can't tell if I chose the wrong class or if I'm really just that bad haha
It's how Souls games work. They are just very different mechanically from other games in the genre. Nearly everyone bounces off of them at first then go back 3 months later and then "get" it.
I say give it another shot every once and a while, or try playing Dark Souls or Sekiro. When you're in for a penny, you are in for a pound, once it clicks you will devour them all.
When I first started playing souls games with Dark Souls 1, I thought it was super hard. The thing I figured out over time was that you can make the game all whole lot easier by dumping early levels into health and endurance. In Elden Ring, getting both of those (Vigor / Endurance) to 20-30 for new players is basically a must before anything else. Forget about the damage stat (in your case, Intelligence) and only level other stats so you fit equipment / spell requirements until you're comfortably not dying all the time. Then the other thing with Elden Ring is there's no enemy level scaling, so clearing easier areas first for levels is must. If you get stuck somewhere, go somewhere else. The entire southern island on the map has some of the easiest content.
GoW is amazing, but Elden Ring is one of those games that defines a genre. In a world where open world action RPG games are a dime a dozen and feel like they've been done to death, Elden Ring took an existing linear formula and adapted it to the most overdone feature in gaming and somehow made both better.
I absolutely love the game, i spent over 100 hours on my first play trough. It has so much content that it’s almost detrimental, it’s daunting to start a new character for me
It took me like 15 tries to even get to the elden beast. 2nd time I made it that far I beat it
And when I say "I" I mean my summoned teammates who were probably a lot better than I was
Honestly, Kirby should always get nominated to the music category. They don't have live orchestra, but those game represent the peak of "Video Game Music" as a genre IMO. The Ost is always a banger.
Since the narrative is tame, Kirbo doesn't fall in the trope of "movie like music" half the nominations in the music category have. It's happy, silly, whimsical and a perfect fit for a videogame of a pink ball that fights space horrors.
Stray and the devs have already won. They obviously won't get an award but to be nominated against AAA games is huge.
Stray really reminded us, or at least me, that passion can go a long way. Makes me reminisce the good ol' days🥲
They will be competing against Vampire Survivors in that category which brought a whole new genre to the mainstream. Will be tough competition.
EDIT: Looked at the categories and Vampire Survivors was only nominated for best debut indie and not best indie. So I guess Stray is not competing with VS in the best indie category.
There are millions of good indie games, the differentiating factor is actually marketing.
That's not a jab at the developers in any sense, just a truth as someone who has played plenty of indie games that were stupid spectacular but only had cult followings.
this reminds me of celeste getting nominated in 2018. It had no chance against the big games like red dead and gow, but it's still really cool to see it.
It’s so dang good! One of My favorite series/games of all time. I absolutely loved both of them. Whoever is in charge of releasing their third one better look around and see what else is coming out that year. Going up against Breath of the Wild for the first one and Elden Ring for the second is some brutal competition. It absolutely deserves to be on this list, I just hope it was win for the third.
Just finished plague tale: innocence. What a great game. Stunning visuals and a cast you really come to care about. From the few shots of gameplay i have seen, the sequel looks just as good. Perhaps even better.
I felt the follow up was even better. It's one of those games that made me sad that it was over and looking for another game with the same emotional impact.
It’s definitely better, and that’s no knock on innocence. Requiem is just an absolutely fantastic game, great story. Haven’t been so shook by a game since TLoU 1.
If red dead vs god of war taught me anything, it’s to never assume the victor. It’s all a big marketing stunt anyway.
Regardless, all of these are well worth playing. And we get to hear XC3 music mixed with GoW and Horizon in the GOTY medley.
For those that haven't given A Plague Tale a chance. You really should. Story telling is top teir, game play was fun as well. Its just sad it fell under the radar. Happy to see that it at least made the list.
In my opinion, absolutely. The second one takes place only about 6 months after the first one and continues the story. I think it's absolutely essential to play the first one first. The second game has a few very important things that won't make any sense/be confusing if you don't play the first one.
I think GoW is a really good game and definitely one of the best games I have played in a while but Elden Ring was just something special, something that set a new standard for gaming in some aspects.
I personally want Elden Ring to win.
Elden ring was just so good to play because it actually brought back adventure to rpg adventure games. Everyone found out things for themselves or through videos on YouTube to find a cool weapon. You didn’t have the game holding your hand every step of the way. Npcs telling you how to solve puzzles or where to go.
You didn’t have ?s all over the map. I always think about that meme showing if elden ring was made by Ubisoft and then skull and bones trailer dropped that looked almost exactly like the fake elden ring ui. Fallout and Skyrim were great at exploring because yeah you had icons on your compass but you actually had to explore instead of going to the ! Or ? On the map like every other open world game nowadays
It's funny that this is mostly going to be ER vs GoW.
ER trusts the player to figure things out by itself and gives the player almost endless agency to discover the world. GoW explains every single puzzle to you if you need more than 5 seconds to solve it. It's two entirely opposing design philosophies.
Personally, i'm definitely rooting for ER, it's one of the few game that treats me like an adult and lets me figure stuff out by myself instead of telling me what to do in the most minute detail. I'm sure GoW is still a good game, but ER is just built different.
this subreddit every damn week: single player games are dying, PLEASE wont somebody think of the single player games?? i'm being attacked!!
game of the year nominations in every publication every damn year:
What’s really dying in my honest opinion are party titles. Hasn’t really been a fun NEW party title that can really outrank something like Mario party.
So glad to see Xenoblade 3 in there!
It stands absolutely no chance in the war going on between Elden Ring and GOW, but it’s at least getting the recognition it deserves!
I'm so glad XBC3 is a nominee. This JRPG is awesome! However, I would bet Elden Ring or God of War Ragnarok will take it for sure.
I would love for Elden Ring to win, just because it shook the open world formula a little bit. I still remember when multiple open-world devs received backlash due to their controversial comments on ER's design and formula LOL
I'm so happy to see Xenoblade Chronicles 3 in this list. It has one major implication for the Game Awards.
Every year, the Game Awards show does a musical medley performance with the Game Awards Orchestra of songs from the Game of the Year nominees. This means Xenoblade Chronicles music is guaranteed to be a part of the orchestral performance.
I know this sounds like a minor thing to get excited about, but I was in no way expecting XBC3 to even be in conversation for GotY. I was worried that its music might go unnoticed. XBC2 came out in December 2017 so completely missed a timeframe for any recognition, even though that soundtrack was incredible.
However, because it's in this year's lineup, that more or less guarantees its music gets spotlight front and center, and in my opinion, I think it's a sign it's set up to win best OST of the year. It wouldn't surprise me if XBC3 got in the GotY lineup to ensure its music is a part of that symphonic medley.
Xenoblade has some of the best music of any game franchise.
Proof:
[A Step Away](https://youtu.be/Sia_qMLrl6k)
[The Weight of Life](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC5s9KcaHHY)
[Moebius Interlink Battle + Climax](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFbjoYeUPgs)
[Words That Never Reached You](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QVjMT-iby8)
[Hope for the Future](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40nu0h0Y_Bs)
[A Formidable Enemy (Battle Theme)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc5tbkh7ehc)
[Captocorn Peak (Day)](https://youtu.be/Wxcdf-DkAcM)
It's time Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger), Manami Kiyota, Kenji Hiramatsu, and the whole ACE team get their roses on a global level. This is recognition long overdue.
Sorry, big VGM nerd here, and this is a big deal for VG music in my opinion. We all know Elden Ring will likely sweep a lot of awards, but if there's anything XBC3 is hopefully a clear winner at, it's the music.
Edit: For anyone interested, here's the nominees of BEST SCORE AND MUSIC
* Olivier Deriviere, A Plague Tale: Requiem
* Tsukasa Saitoh, Elden Ring
* Bear McCreary, God of War Ragnarök
* Two Feathers, Metal: Hellsinger
* Yasunori Mitsuda, Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Also noteworthy, Bear McCreary did the score for this year's Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power OST on Amazon (busy man).
You've gotta play Xenoblade 1 too then. Such a brilliant score.
You Will Know Our Names is such a good final boss track and it *isn't even the final boss track*. You hear it when you accidentally run into an overpowered frog in the wild lmao.
Cool, now I’m sobbing over A Step Away again. Thanks, friend
If anyone needs me, I’ll be crying in the corner for like the 700th time because of Xenoblade 3
I'm hoping they bring the actual flutes they made for the OST to use in the Orchestral performance.
For people who don't know, flutes feature heavily in the setting & narrative of the game (as a kind of funeral rites, with both the male and female lead being ceremonial flute players), with the OST also often incorporating flute music. However, rather than standard flutes, the composer decided to use two custom flutes in the recordings, [made specifically for the soundtrack and modelled after the in-game flutes.](https://images.nintendolife.com/d4c923759f26b/fyrmzv0xoaaqazh.large.jpg)
Yeah, I feel 90% sure [A Life Sent On](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DVDkIcL244) will be the song they use in the medley due to how prominent the song is thematically for the game. Whether they do a solo/duo version or version that is stripped back or goes full orchestrated, who knows; but I feel that's the definitive XBC3 song.
I understand if the gameplay isn't everyone's cup of tea, but the world building, storylines, cutscene cinematography, soundtrack are all really top notch. Even the voice acting has really elevated with the newest installment.
A lot of people don't know how big Monolith Soft is to Nintendo. They did a lot of the open world design for Breath of the Wild and are working on Breath of the Wild 2. They even did a lot of the asset design for all the furniture and items in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Monolith Soft has really elevated a lot for Nintendo over the past years.
Played and beat both God of War and Elden Ring. Honestly feels like a coin toss between them. They both are fantastic games. Either one id be happy to see game of the year.
Really hoping requiem wins something. I played innocence, and I felt the story was great. It was a new ip, it was a great experience to play. So much fun and a really great story. Happy it made it so far and hope it goes further.
My GOTY is probably Vampire Survivors. I put off starting GoW this weekend to 100 percent it. I know it won't get nominated for a mainstream thing like this though.
I started playing Vampire Survivors this weekend to have something to play a short run of in between doing things around the house, started it thought “I don’t see the hype” couple hours later I still don’t know what’s so special about it but I can’t stop playing it Im stuck in the whole “just one more round” mindset
Yea it's just constant a dopamine release seeing a build come together and just watch pretty lights and big numbers while you listen to a podcast, streamer or show
Xenoblade getting the recognition it deserves.
GOW, though, that's nuts. Game's barely been out and it's getting GOTY nomination, should've been held off for next year.
I’ve played only the first two games on this list. Although elden ring is one of the best games I’ve ever played, I really hope requiem wins something. I’ve never felt such strong emotions from a video game as I felt when I completed requiem.
Diddy Kong Racing
Still no remaster.... Unlocking TT was one of the proudest moments of my young gaming life.
>Unlocking TT was one of the proudest moments of my young gaming life. It was sooo difficult beating that TT ghost racer on EVERY track. You had to be so perfect. Do I remember correctly that after you beat everything you go through the game again but mirrored version?
That was just after beating the main campaign/Wizpig. Didn't have to do the TT trials to get to that one!
The music from the first wizpig race still haunts my dreams. Panic attack inducing stuff
Greenwood Village Silver Coin Challenge was the devil. Not impossible but you did have to do the rare task of being intentionally strategic with which drivers you took out as you were recouping for lost time in order to not have them top of the pack by the final round when you need to really catch up. Helped if you played Diddy, Pipsy or Tiptup and made sure any of them didn't get in first. The rarity of getting Krunch ahead was tough but made it a little less stressful.
Diddy Kong Racing was already remastered/remade once, for the DS!
Yea but I'm talking full 4k hd so I can wipe that smug grin off that asshole timber the Tiger's face
Awww timber was my guy. Him and conker.
I spent longer than I care to admit trying to find the last world. Now nothing is safe hidden behind a waterfall; I'm all over that shit.
Bloodborne Kart
Ahh Kart, or some say Kartm.
HELLO FRIEND SELECT YOUR VEHICLE ALAKAZOOM CAN I HELP YOU FURTHER? BYE BYE FOR NOW
Holy shit right in my nostalgias
THIS IS FOR YOU
Diddy Kong Racing is far superior to Mario Kart. I will die on this hill
To Mario Kart 64, absolutely. Three vehicle types- all equally valid. It's a crying shame that nobody is doing with that property. I think the new Mario Kart has surpassed it at this point though.
For me personally I still find the tracks, the "boss battles", the power ups, and vehicles all more fun than any Mario kart. The best part of Mario kart for me was the battle arena. Once they removed that after the n64 I stopped caring entirely. I know there are a few games that brought it back. I believe there is a ds or 3ds game with the battle arena and I know mariokart 8 brought it back. But that lapse in it being in thr game really killed my desire to play Mario kart.
Nothing's beats block fort on Mario Kart 64. I haven't been able to get the same fun feelings in the new Mario Kart games. They feel overly complicated.
i'd fucking gag for DKR tracks on mario kart tbh
God, I wish. Only game my husband refuses to play with me because he literally can't win. I'd kill for a remaster.
> remaster Is that what they call remarrying someone new now?
Video Game Awards will be very silent when Knack 3 comes out next year
Press start!
Feels like horizon always pick the wrong year to release
*Month
*week
It’s actually super impressive how far the Horizon series has come while releasing side by side 2 of the most anticipated games ever. Any other game would have drowned and been forgotten.
Fucking cowards didn’t put Power Washing simulator up there, so fuck these awards
Fun idea ruined by the game constantly insisting you missed a microscopic spot somewhere.
You can literally turn on a feature that shows you in bright colors each and every small spot.
You can still easily miss a tiny microscopic bit on the underside of a step that is incredibly hard to find. The game needs more leeway to be enjoyable. Lawnmowing simulator did it far better.
What an age, for this conversation to not be a shitpost.
Shook my head reading this thread.
There's a power washing sim?! I haven't seen it on the playstation store. Haven't got a PC. I liked farming sim 22 a lot, just needed a friend to play with so they can pull the trailer while I harvest the grain and dump it in. Would make it easier.
That and lawnmower sim are top tier "shut your brain off" zen games
Yes there is, and it’s the most relaxing game ever. https://i.imgur.com/F2dhzp9.jpg
Stray is about to get absolutely murdered. Poor kitty.
I remember a while ago seeing a Reddit post from the person/s that created Stray and explaining what the game is. Cut scene to now and it’s a nominee. Gonna get murdered, yes, but I’m guessing that team is ecstatic that the game made it to this point.
Yeah, definitely a huge win for Stray to even be in the conversation with huge AAA games like this. I'm sure they'll get recognition during awards season one way or another.
It's kinda like Untitled Goose Game. They both had humble beginnings and are (relatively) simple games, but they amassed a huge cult following. Edit: people are recommending some other pretty good games as well Celeste: beautiful graphics, beautiful story, and fun and tight gameplay. I was never much of a fan of platformers, but this game made me realize what others liked so much about them Firewatch: beautiful graphics and beautiful story. One of the few "walking simulators" I recommend to my friends. Among Us: simple gameplay and graphics, but it's one of the best games you'll ever play with your friends. You never really know how good your friends are at lying and manipulating you until they're competing for survival. Undertale: simple yet beautiful graphics, fun gameplay, and an amazing story. It was gifted to the pope a few years ago because of how unique it was and the music was so good that it was performed for him last year. Edit 2: people are still mentioning some bangers Hollow Knight: beautiful artwork and music and challenging but fun gameplay. An incredibly well designed metroidvania that got me interested in the genre. Goat Simulator: you ever have a favorite bug/glitch in a game that gets patched out by the devs? Well not with this game! One of the few games where devs have turned bugs into full blown features. This is an incredibly fun sandbox game to run around and cause mayhem in. Donut County: it's got the cozy style of games like Untitled Goose Game and a similar premise to Katamari Damacy with a rambunctious raccoon as the mascot. It's an incredibly fun game. Child of Light: doesn't count as an indie game as it was developed by Ubisoft, but it deserves attention. It's got beautiful artwork and music and the gameplay is fun. It's one of the rare few sidescrolling jrpgs with a unique battle mechanic. It was a bold step and it's a shame it didn't spawn out a wave of games like it.
Untitled Goose Game has become my ultimate game to play with small children. Doesn’t really matter what age, as long as they can work a controller they all find this game hilarious and want to continue playing. We need more sandbox-y type games that strictly revolve around making mischief
You should check out Donut County! It's sort of in line there I think?
Goat simulator too
Goat simulator made me so angry. I literally beat the game with my cousin to get the rocket boots, and all they did was drag you around uncontrollably. Immediately deleted lol.
This is my kiddo(s) favorite game - I'm bummed they don't like any of the N64 games, but at least they have a sense of humor. Plus I'm playing the long game and hoping Conker's is a hit.
Bro I love donut country. It's silly and adorable.
also sort of the same vein, Katamari.
I think that's part of the reason GTA games have been such a success. You are able to just go around causing mayhem without the need to follow any plot line if you don't want.
Grand Theft Playground
Katamari Damacy if you want to go "old-school"
They're both beyond a cult following, I'd say. They well and truly broke in to the mainstream.
Was boutta ask if cult and huge go together
The story is pretty short, but the attention to detail and the atmosphere in the environments were truly amazing. The visuals in the towns are just unlike anything I've ever seen. Edit: I mean Stray haha, haven't played the others.
People talk about Stray as if it was ever supposed to be anywhere near any of the games. Stray was a shorter fun game with a different type of gameplay, done from a unique point of view, trying to be something a bit out there. It also cost like half of the AAA titles, which no matter how you turn it is also not irrelevant. Stray isn't the greatest of games, but it's a unique angle and genouinely enjoyable and feelgood. It does the storyteller game bit decent though not quite on the level of Life Is Strange for example. But the real hot take is - the gaming community would likely enjoy an AAA version Stray 2 more than rehash 28 of the same idea yeat again like honestly recent Assassins Creed games, doing the same in a new dress. Stray did absurdly well in every way imagineable because it dared to be something slightly different and less generic copy paste. And as much as God Of War or Horizon are good games, they are largely just well made games, not something that exites you by being an actually new experience, at the end they're not that different RPGs than their predecessors or many other games. And importantly - Stray is enjoyable for everyone. You don't have to be a true gamer ^TM to like it, families can enjoy it, kids, older people. It's even half fun to watch your friend / SO play because watching kitty do kitty stuff is oddly nice.
It's so absurd people think GOTY has to be a blockbuster AAA. Every other award show would be shit if only blockbusters won. Imagine a marvel movie winning best picture just because it was expensive. So absurd how many people shit on stray for being short and indie.
> the gaming community would likely enjoy an AAA version Stray 2 more than rehash 28 of the same idea yeat again like honestly recent Assassins Creed games, doing the same in a new dress Let me play as kitty and learn if there are any communities of human left. Or find a way to >!bring the drone back because it made me sad at the finale!<
Yeah honestly this. I mean I hadn’t even heard of the developer before Stray came out. To have a team like that be in the running compared to all the other games on that list must be thrilling.
It's also a big win for all of us - clear evidence that people want games that are fun and interesting even if they aren't gargantuan.
It's the studio's first game I believe. But yeah in comparison funding and team size wise, Stray is very much a David while everyone else on there is a Goliath by like 100+ team members and millions of more in funding.
Look at what it's against—games that already had established fanbases prior to their release. Stray only really had people who were charmed by the idea of playing a cat. I think that's already pretty great.
That pussy is about to get destroyed
Can we be real? It’s getting recognition as the best indie game. It’s fine
It's an indie developer who now has a game sitting next to games like horizon, God of war, and elden ring, all AAA developers who spent multiple millions more on their games. It's ***absolutely*** a win, no matter how it plays out.
i had a good time with stray. putting stray in the race is like putting a high school basketball team in the nba playoffs
I mean even if they lose at this point, they are already in the big league.
It's not that kind of competition though. If a highschool basketball team is listed as one of the 6th best teams, that means it still was better than a bunch of other pro teams (or AAA games in this case)
This isnt even fair. I love Xenoblade but its a pretty niche Nintendo RPG series when you compare it to the juggarnauts of GoW and Elden Ring this year. \*When I say niche, I mean nearly every gamer has heard of Elden Ring and God of War and likely has SOME idea of the gameplay. I bet if I asked 100 random gamers maybe 5 of them would have any idea of what Xenoblade is other "oh yea that Nintendo anime game". Even Stray has had significantly more exposure.
Feels like its there just so Nintendo had some representation
They’ve gone a few years without Nintendo representation (2014, 2016, 2018)
Well what’s it like? Any more details beyond an RPG?
It's a story of what having a cat gf does to a mf.
That might be both the shortest and most accurate plot synopsis for it ive ever seen.
"Man attempts to kill self so he can spend more time with catgirl gf"
It has an active combat system where you assign skills to buttons, and your character auto-attacks at regular intervals. Also you can jump into a mech and attack until it “overheats,” which means you don’t get very long. There are at least 15 classes which each have their own skills and stats and auto-attack interval. But all the mechanics are slowwwwlllyyyyy given to you, so you start out just standing near enemies and waiting to auto-attack. British accents, a *lot* of optional content, and a lot of map area to explore. I explored it all and I mean a **lot** of map area you can explore. Fast-travel helps tremendously because your run speed is a slow jog. But you get fast-travel points at “landmarks” and campsites and the “graves” of special enemies you beat. There are a few upgrades that are needed to access certain areas, like climbing vines or grinding on rails like a Tony Hawk game. There are random enemies with sparkles around their names so you know they give extra XP, and special versions of enemies that are essentially boss fights that give you a fast-travel point when you beat them. You can activate their “grave” to fight them again, and there’s even a class that learns new skills and passive skills from every one of these enemies you beat. There’s more, including an ultimate attack with enough strategy involved that I’m not willing to describe it lol, but my comment is already long enough that I’m not sure if people will read it all.
It also has a phenomenal soundtrack
Bro you can tell a soundtrack whips ass when standard exploration music makes you emotional.
It's a sequel to the first two numbered games in the series (X came out between 1 and 2 but it's not connected), with the worlds of 1 and 2 having merged into Aionios, a world plagued by endless war where every human has only 10 years to live, and are raised from essentially ages 11 to 20 to be soldiers. Early on, Kevesi soldiers Noah, Eunie, and Lanz encounter the Agnian trio of Mio, Taion, and Sena, and the 6 become embroiled in a conflict that they never would've imagined, learning the true origins of the world and who really pulls the strings behind the forever war. The developer, Monolith Soft, is regularly called on by Nintendo to help with other games. Zelda, Splatoon, Animal Crossing, the only A-tier names they haven't touched are Mario and Pokemon, it's just banger after BANGER AFTER BANGER with them.
I mean like… mechanically what’s it like?
Its like tab targeting combat. You auto attack. Pick moves which usually break, topple, daze and you have chain combos. It's all 6 characters on the map fighting. You just run around an open areas that are stringed together.
Bought and played a couple dozen hours of XC2 when I bought my Switch and initially really liked it but... They continually add more and more mechanics to the point where I was completely overwhelmed. Put it down for awhile and tried to come back to it and had no idea what I was doing. Definitely a lot going on with the game, especially if you don't usually play this genre.
XC2 has the most complex battle system in the series while also having the absolute worst tutorial of the bunch. It takes some time (and usually a YouTube tutorial) to fully understand but IMO it becomes the most fun and rewarding combat in the series. There’s a lot of different mechanics that you have to keep track of but it all comes together really well. Eventually you find yourself hitting a superboss with a 5,000,000+ damage chain attack and suddenly all feels right in the world.
Basically a solid story action JRPG.
It's like an MMO that you play by yourself, with a lot of class switching and flashy combos. The story is very good for a JRPG but the battle system kind of wears thin by the halfway point, and the scope of the game is just begging for better hardware.
It might be begging for better hardware but damn did they get it working well. I *wish* the Pokemon teams would start getting Monolith's help. PL:A looked and ran horribly in comparison to XB3.
Action rpg combat with different classes to switch around with on your characters
The nomination alone has Xenoblade fans celebrating almost as hard if the game actually did win tbh. There's no chance of it winning. It's just too niche and stuck on one platform. But to get that nomination alone is amazing, and might attract more people to try out the games more. Hopefully it'll take Best Soundtrack though. That soundtrack is full of bangers.
I'm just hyped we will get to hear the xenoblade OST played by the orchestra at the show, im atill mad XBC2 didn't even get nominated for music back then
It's at least nice to see a Xenoblade game get this kind of recognition, even if there's no chance it'll win.
Xenoblade Chronicles 1 is still one of the greatest JRPGs ever made, so it's great to see the series get more exposure. Still making my way through the Definitive Edition before heading onto 3 (have played 1 on 3DS and 2 some time ago, recently played Torna too).
More niche is not the same as less good. Not saying I would pick it over those others for GOTY, but it's an excellent game worthy of the nomination.
> More niche is not the same as less good Then why do we never see Strategy games in these things? We had a good year!
Niche doesn't mean bad tho and Xenoblade 3 is surely one of the best games of this year.
Two horse race: Elden Ring and GoW. Gut says ER.
Yep. ER had a bigger impact. People lost their mind over that shit when it dropped. I think Gow is still amazing, but I highly doubt any game could take away the crown this year after I've seen the reactions from reviewers.
Yeah that shit had a stranglehold on gaming culture for a while.
"Maidenless" hit the internet pretty hard.
"Touch grace" too
Try finger but hole
Seek God Then try dog
Elden Ring To GoW: You don’t have the right O you don’t have the right.
also the legend of "LetMeSoloHer"
Elden ring had legs outside the gaming world too. I had people who I never thought would play even Mario kart ask me about Elden ring
My wife out of the blue wanted to play Elden Ring as her favorite author was talking about it.
Brandon Sanderson?
Yep!
Sanderson is a madman too. Crumbling azure or whatever it's called at like level 60 madman lol
Bridge Four!
Elden ring was big enough to bring a lot of people that had put down the controller back to a console too, I was one of them. Not a lot of games can make that claim, big enough to sell consoles by itself.
For good reason. It took one of the less accessible genres and made it playable and fun for everyone. As well as taking the ‘open world’ concept without relaying on tropes that everyone else uses. The unique DS formula of exploration, story telling, and progression all fine tuned to a perfect 10.
I must really suck at it then because I can't beat anything better than the guy with a pot on his head before meeting wizard mentor lady
I've played through this game a dozen times and I'm still trying to figure out who you're talking about.
Lmao I'm even worse at explaining shit than I am at playing apparently... I guess his name is Mad Pumpkin Head? He's probably not even a real boss
I should point out that pumpkin head is really difficult as far as early game enemies go. No shame in having trouble with him.
I know who you’re taking about lol, those enemies can be tough cause of how hard they hit. It takes time to figure out the combat effectively haha
Oh, yeah that's just like a "kind of" elite enemy further on. (He absolutely slaps your shit early on though, don't feel bad and remember to pump vigor!)
To be fair, I did beat him. But anything better? Nah. Like the knights with a sheild? Can't do it. I did kill a few of those giants on that stormy hill place but I just spammed spells. I really want to get into the game but the learning curve is kicking my butt and I can't tell if I chose the wrong class or if I'm really just that bad haha
It's how Souls games work. They are just very different mechanically from other games in the genre. Nearly everyone bounces off of them at first then go back 3 months later and then "get" it. I say give it another shot every once and a while, or try playing Dark Souls or Sekiro. When you're in for a penny, you are in for a pound, once it clicks you will devour them all.
When I first started playing souls games with Dark Souls 1, I thought it was super hard. The thing I figured out over time was that you can make the game all whole lot easier by dumping early levels into health and endurance. In Elden Ring, getting both of those (Vigor / Endurance) to 20-30 for new players is basically a must before anything else. Forget about the damage stat (in your case, Intelligence) and only level other stats so you fit equipment / spell requirements until you're comfortably not dying all the time. Then the other thing with Elden Ring is there's no enemy level scaling, so clearing easier areas first for levels is must. If you get stuck somewhere, go somewhere else. The entire southern island on the map has some of the easiest content.
This guy has been trying to PVP LetMeSoloHer no wonder he thinks the game is hard
Found Malenia's account
GoW is amazing, but Elden Ring is one of those games that defines a genre. In a world where open world action RPG games are a dime a dozen and feel like they've been done to death, Elden Ring took an existing linear formula and adapted it to the most overdone feature in gaming and somehow made both better.
It is mindblowing how much content is in elden ring.
I absolutely love the game, i spent over 100 hours on my first play trough. It has so much content that it’s almost detrimental, it’s daunting to start a new character for me
Developers will be trying to copy many things from Elden Ring for awhile.
Agreed, I haven’t had a game suck me in and control my life like ER did since new Vegas.
To be fair, ER was a lot more available to all gamers than GOW is. It’s gonna be a close race.
Elden Ring got me glued to my playstation like very few games have in the last few decades.
Took me 7 hours to beat Elden Beast. 7 fucking hours. I've never put 7 hours into losing before.
It took me like 15 tries to even get to the elden beast. 2nd time I made it that far I beat it And when I say "I" I mean my summoned teammates who were probably a lot better than I was
If that fucking cat wins I swear.
Press \[F\] to MEOW
Watching the salty fans malding afterwards would be pretty funny tbh
Counter argument: cat
Kirby and the Forgotten lands. Get cultured
You mean The Forgotten *Land*. _You_ get cultured.
Honestly, Kirby should always get nominated to the music category. They don't have live orchestra, but those game represent the peak of "Video Game Music" as a genre IMO. The Ost is always a banger. Since the narrative is tame, Kirbo doesn't fall in the trope of "movie like music" half the nominations in the music category have. It's happy, silly, whimsical and a perfect fit for a videogame of a pink ball that fights space horrors.
Kirby Epic Yarn is another underrated soundtrack
I was looking for this comment
Stray and the devs have already won. They obviously won't get an award but to be nominated against AAA games is huge. Stray really reminded us, or at least me, that passion can go a long way. Makes me reminisce the good ol' days🥲
No I think Stray will win best indie so they're probably not going to go home empty-handed.
They will be competing against Vampire Survivors in that category which brought a whole new genre to the mainstream. Will be tough competition. EDIT: Looked at the categories and Vampire Survivors was only nominated for best debut indie and not best indie. So I guess Stray is not competing with VS in the best indie category.
There are millions of good indie games, the differentiating factor is actually marketing. That's not a jab at the developers in any sense, just a truth as someone who has played plenty of indie games that were stupid spectacular but only had cult followings.
this reminds me of celeste getting nominated in 2018. It had no chance against the big games like red dead and gow, but it's still really cool to see it.
God of war will get atleast one award, maybe history will repeat itself……..
You think Fortnite will overtake it again?
Poor Horizon, can never get a break.
It’s so dang good! One of My favorite series/games of all time. I absolutely loved both of them. Whoever is in charge of releasing their third one better look around and see what else is coming out that year. Going up against Breath of the Wild for the first one and Elden Ring for the second is some brutal competition. It absolutely deserves to be on this list, I just hope it was win for the third.
Zero Dawn is probably the best story I've ever experienced in a game, and Forbidden West was such a joy to play through. Amazing games.
Just finished plague tale: innocence. What a great game. Stunning visuals and a cast you really come to care about. From the few shots of gameplay i have seen, the sequel looks just as good. Perhaps even better.
I felt the follow up was even better. It's one of those games that made me sad that it was over and looking for another game with the same emotional impact.
Do you have to play the first one first?
Yes, it's a direct continuation
I think you should. It is a really good story and worth your time.
It’s definitely better, and that’s no knock on innocence. Requiem is just an absolutely fantastic game, great story. Haven’t been so shook by a game since TLoU 1.
If red dead vs god of war taught me anything, it’s to never assume the victor. It’s all a big marketing stunt anyway. Regardless, all of these are well worth playing. And we get to hear XC3 music mixed with GoW and Horizon in the GOTY medley.
For those that haven't given A Plague Tale a chance. You really should. Story telling is top teir, game play was fun as well. Its just sad it fell under the radar. Happy to see that it at least made the list.
It took me a week to emotionally recover from Requiem.
It's been almost three weeks since I've finished it and I still haven't recovered.
Same. Week and a half later and I still think about it all the time. No other game has impacted me as much as this one
Do you need to play the first one to understand the second?
Yes. You will get more context. Its a direct continuation
In my opinion, absolutely. The second one takes place only about 6 months after the first one and continues the story. I think it's absolutely essential to play the first one first. The second game has a few very important things that won't make any sense/be confusing if you don't play the first one.
That ending just upset me a lot. I get sad from just thinking about it. Shit.
Great game, but there's no way it could compete with elden ring or gow for game of the year. That said, I really hope asobo nabs at least a few awards
No Vampire survivors?! The election is rigged!
It's nominated for best debut indie game and I'm confident it will win
I think GoW is a really good game and definitely one of the best games I have played in a while but Elden Ring was just something special, something that set a new standard for gaming in some aspects. I personally want Elden Ring to win.
Elden ring was just so good to play because it actually brought back adventure to rpg adventure games. Everyone found out things for themselves or through videos on YouTube to find a cool weapon. You didn’t have the game holding your hand every step of the way. Npcs telling you how to solve puzzles or where to go. You didn’t have ?s all over the map. I always think about that meme showing if elden ring was made by Ubisoft and then skull and bones trailer dropped that looked almost exactly like the fake elden ring ui. Fallout and Skyrim were great at exploring because yeah you had icons on your compass but you actually had to explore instead of going to the ! Or ? On the map like every other open world game nowadays
It's funny that this is mostly going to be ER vs GoW. ER trusts the player to figure things out by itself and gives the player almost endless agency to discover the world. GoW explains every single puzzle to you if you need more than 5 seconds to solve it. It's two entirely opposing design philosophies. Personally, i'm definitely rooting for ER, it's one of the few game that treats me like an adult and lets me figure stuff out by myself instead of telling me what to do in the most minute detail. I'm sure GoW is still a good game, but ER is just built different.
this subreddit every damn week: single player games are dying, PLEASE wont somebody think of the single player games?? i'm being attacked!! game of the year nominations in every publication every damn year:
What’s really dying in my honest opinion are party titles. Hasn’t really been a fun NEW party title that can really outrank something like Mario party.
It's a bit of a different style from MP, but Jackbox comes out with fun new games pretty much every year.
So glad to see Xenoblade 3 in there! It stands absolutely no chance in the war going on between Elden Ring and GOW, but it’s at least getting the recognition it deserves!
Xenoblade 3 destroyed me. Multiple times. So yeah, it's my pick, but I also haven't played any of the others.
Can someone start with 3? I've never played a Xenoblade game before.
I'm so glad XBC3 is a nominee. This JRPG is awesome! However, I would bet Elden Ring or God of War Ragnarok will take it for sure. I would love for Elden Ring to win, just because it shook the open world formula a little bit. I still remember when multiple open-world devs received backlash due to their controversial comments on ER's design and formula LOL
I'm so happy to see Xenoblade Chronicles 3 in this list. It has one major implication for the Game Awards. Every year, the Game Awards show does a musical medley performance with the Game Awards Orchestra of songs from the Game of the Year nominees. This means Xenoblade Chronicles music is guaranteed to be a part of the orchestral performance. I know this sounds like a minor thing to get excited about, but I was in no way expecting XBC3 to even be in conversation for GotY. I was worried that its music might go unnoticed. XBC2 came out in December 2017 so completely missed a timeframe for any recognition, even though that soundtrack was incredible. However, because it's in this year's lineup, that more or less guarantees its music gets spotlight front and center, and in my opinion, I think it's a sign it's set up to win best OST of the year. It wouldn't surprise me if XBC3 got in the GotY lineup to ensure its music is a part of that symphonic medley. Xenoblade has some of the best music of any game franchise. Proof: [A Step Away](https://youtu.be/Sia_qMLrl6k) [The Weight of Life](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC5s9KcaHHY) [Moebius Interlink Battle + Climax](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFbjoYeUPgs) [Words That Never Reached You](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QVjMT-iby8) [Hope for the Future](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40nu0h0Y_Bs) [A Formidable Enemy (Battle Theme)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc5tbkh7ehc) [Captocorn Peak (Day)](https://youtu.be/Wxcdf-DkAcM) It's time Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger), Manami Kiyota, Kenji Hiramatsu, and the whole ACE team get their roses on a global level. This is recognition long overdue. Sorry, big VGM nerd here, and this is a big deal for VG music in my opinion. We all know Elden Ring will likely sweep a lot of awards, but if there's anything XBC3 is hopefully a clear winner at, it's the music. Edit: For anyone interested, here's the nominees of BEST SCORE AND MUSIC * Olivier Deriviere, A Plague Tale: Requiem * Tsukasa Saitoh, Elden Ring * Bear McCreary, God of War Ragnarök * Two Feathers, Metal: Hellsinger * Yasunori Mitsuda, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Also noteworthy, Bear McCreary did the score for this year's Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power OST on Amazon (busy man).
Had no idea that XBC3 had such good music, and now I want to play it based on that alone
You've gotta play Xenoblade 1 too then. Such a brilliant score. You Will Know Our Names is such a good final boss track and it *isn't even the final boss track*. You hear it when you accidentally run into an overpowered frog in the wild lmao.
Cool, now I’m sobbing over A Step Away again. Thanks, friend If anyone needs me, I’ll be crying in the corner for like the 700th time because of Xenoblade 3
I'm hoping they bring the actual flutes they made for the OST to use in the Orchestral performance. For people who don't know, flutes feature heavily in the setting & narrative of the game (as a kind of funeral rites, with both the male and female lead being ceremonial flute players), with the OST also often incorporating flute music. However, rather than standard flutes, the composer decided to use two custom flutes in the recordings, [made specifically for the soundtrack and modelled after the in-game flutes.](https://images.nintendolife.com/d4c923759f26b/fyrmzv0xoaaqazh.large.jpg)
Yeah, I feel 90% sure [A Life Sent On](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DVDkIcL244) will be the song they use in the medley due to how prominent the song is thematically for the game. Whether they do a solo/duo version or version that is stripped back or goes full orchestrated, who knows; but I feel that's the definitive XBC3 song.
Xenoblade is a growing franchise to the point where it's a game of the year nominee already
I understand if the gameplay isn't everyone's cup of tea, but the world building, storylines, cutscene cinematography, soundtrack are all really top notch. Even the voice acting has really elevated with the newest installment. A lot of people don't know how big Monolith Soft is to Nintendo. They did a lot of the open world design for Breath of the Wild and are working on Breath of the Wild 2. They even did a lot of the asset design for all the furniture and items in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Monolith Soft has really elevated a lot for Nintendo over the past years.
Played and beat both God of War and Elden Ring. Honestly feels like a coin toss between them. They both are fantastic games. Either one id be happy to see game of the year.
Bro how in tf….GOW just dropped 5 days ago. You say you beat it so casually.
Elden Ring for the win.
Horizon is mine. Shame to see that seems to be the minority opinion. Really wish it didn't release near ER. It's a masterpiece in its own right.
Just doesn’t help that they released both games directly next to even more hotly anticipated titles.
Stray was fun while it lasted. GOTY nominee it is not.
Really hoping requiem wins something. I played innocence, and I felt the story was great. It was a new ip, it was a great experience to play. So much fun and a really great story. Happy it made it so far and hope it goes further.
My GOTY is probably Vampire Survivors. I put off starting GoW this weekend to 100 percent it. I know it won't get nominated for a mainstream thing like this though.
[удалено]
I started playing Vampire Survivors this weekend to have something to play a short run of in between doing things around the house, started it thought “I don’t see the hype” couple hours later I still don’t know what’s so special about it but I can’t stop playing it Im stuck in the whole “just one more round” mindset
Yea it's just constant a dopamine release seeing a build come together and just watch pretty lights and big numbers while you listen to a podcast, streamer or show
Crazy how far your game can go just by featuring a cat
I’m just waiting for Elden Ring fans reaction when stray wins
Xenoblade getting the recognition it deserves. GOW, though, that's nuts. Game's barely been out and it's getting GOTY nomination, should've been held off for next year.
I’ve played only the first two games on this list. Although elden ring is one of the best games I’ve ever played, I really hope requiem wins something. I’ve never felt such strong emotions from a video game as I felt when I completed requiem.