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IGN GOTY 2025 Nominees

Arsic said:
No KCD2 is a crime.
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5mPQjR9.gif



My sympathies for the fans. They might as well just announce the win for Expedition 33 right now.
 
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MiB getting murdered outta nowhere

Arsic said:
No KCD2 is a crime.
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high quality GIF


E33 will win.

Silksong and Hades 2 are the safest runner-ups.

DKB and DS2 are there as window dressing.

Blue Prince is on there because someone at IGN wanted to remind people it existed.
 
Death Stranding 2 is the only game I enjoyed on that list. I don't have hades 2 yet, as I did somewhat enjoy the first. I might enjoy donkey Kong, but I ain't buying a switch 2 for that.
 
I'm guessing Trails of the Sky 1st Chapter is not on the list, seems most of them actively ignoring that game.

For my taste I like trials more than E33.
 
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Arsic said:
Donkey Kong
Hades 2
Blue Prince
Death stranding 2
Clair 33

Idk if anything else was on there. Who gives a shit.gif
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I'm planning to play Blue Prince before the end of the year, have already played e33. It's a good game maybe even goty 2025, but not GOAT contender as the hype surrounding it makes it out.
 
Arsic said:
Donkey Kong
Hades 2
Blue Prince
Death stranding 2
Clair 33

Idk if anything else was on there. Who gives a shit.gif
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If it was just this 5, Seems like a perfectly fine list.
Every title there had a 10/10 or 9/10 review score from IGN. Either higher than or on par with the 9/10 they gave KCD2.
 
The nominees are:

Blue Prince
Claire Obscure: Expedition 33
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
Donkey Kong Bananza
Hades 2
Hollow Knight: Silksong

Excellent list.
 
L*][*N*K said:
I think you should get that checked out man, you don't want to findout too late that the game rocks and you have brain cancer
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I made the OT hype thread for all the beta rounds. I wanted to like this game.

It just gives me a headache to play and the controls just feel so counterintuitive to play

TivnhovFvGYuuWWD.jpeg
 
DK is the winner for me this year, by quite a large margin - although Hades 2 was fantastic as well. And so was Silksong for that matter.

I think I might really enjoy Blue Prince too, need to get around to that one.

Surprisingly solid list imo.
 
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Blue Prince is a terrible game. Puzzles should be deterministic, I hate RNG driven puzzles. "Rogue" like/lite simply doesn't work for puzzles.

One of my quickest refunds.

This game is good for game journalists who didn't have anything hardcore in college so now can cope and pat themselves that they solved an irritating puzzle game.

If you want a good puzzle game check Elechead, Ă–oo or an extremely hardcore one called Recursed or a really cool one called Opus Magnum. Or just get a good chess puzzle book or practice tactics online.

A good puzzler has only logical solutions. Guesswork and trial are terrible. It doesn't work in mathematics.
 
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Rocinante618 said:
Blue Prince is a terrible game. Puzzles should be deterministic, I hate RNG driven puzzles. "Rogue" like/lite simply doesn't work for puzzles.
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There is actual roguelike element in puzzle game? WTF indie devs obsession with that gameplay style? Do they really need shove roguelike to every game?

This my biggest reason why I'm not fan of most indie games.
 
i don't see a problem here. there will be a lot of people even here that will put all those games above kcd 2
 
Danjin44 said:
This my biggest reason why I'm not fan of most indie games.
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I agree.

Most indie games nowadays. Everything is RNG/roguelite/like now, play again and again and again, it's padding, it's boring to do it again and again.

Very rarely you have games that are roguelikes but actually good, eg. Hades (VA & Story), Nuclear Throne (old school score chaser disguised as a roguelike), Dead Cells (meaty, fast combat), VS/Megabonk (secrets and achievement hunting and just fun), Gunfire reborn (great shooting & broken builds) or Deadlink (incredibly satisfying combat and movement), Balatro (teaches you Poker and evolves it naturally), Amnesia The Bunker (near perfect blend of horror, action and RNG for subsequent runs), etc
 
So it's not really the repetition that's inherently a problem, but whether you are enjoying what you are repeating.

I think the RNG aspect of Blue Prince is severely overblown, but it does depend on the mindset the player is bringing to the game.

I wouldn't describe the roguelike nature to be padding in this case. These systems don't exist to slow access to the 'real' part of the game; they are themselves a real part of the game. The experience of playing the game evolves significantly as your mastery over those systems evolves, both in the sense of your own understanding of the systems and in the sense that the protagonist's tools and the world state evolve over time.
 
calico said:
So it's not really the repetition that's inherently a problem, but whether you are enjoying what you are repeating.

I think the RNG aspect of Blue Prince is severely overblown, but it does depend on the mindset the player is bringing to the game.

I wouldn't describe the roguelike nature to be padding in this case. These systems don't exist to slow access to the 'real' part of the game; they are themselves a real part of the game. The experience of playing the game evolves significantly as your mastery over those systems evolves, both in the sense of your own understanding of the systems and in the sense that the protagonist's tools and the world state evolve over time.
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Hot take but i see all soulslike games as a form of rogue like
 
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I'm glad they have Death Stranding in the list.

DS2 and KCD2 both seems into high concept category while most prefer traditional but better. One got selected.
 
If ARC Raiders is McDonald's then the IGN list would be bird droppings, 60 year old basement gasoline, asbestos laden floor tiles, and Fentanyl drug boats.

The analogy still paints ARC Raiders as GOTY/G.
 
"GOTY" is one of the worst thing to come out of the video game scene. This is just an urinalist and their subjective shitty opinion. ...Yet we keep getting riled up about it anyways.

...But I'm not on a high horse here, I can easily admit that I find shitty and utterly useless videogame rankings as oddly hard to ignore as everyone else.

No KCD2 is reprehensible.
 
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Men_in_Boxes said:
If ARC Raiders is McDonald's then the IGN list would be bird droppings, 60 year old basement gasoline, asbestos laden floor tiles, and Fentanyl drug boats.

The analogy still paints ARC Raiders as GOTY/G.
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Yeah, if we're measuring by sales, then sure, ARC Raiders is McDonald's

But we both know that doesn't make it gourmet

You're basically telling us that popularity is enough, and that's a pretty low bar to set for what's supposed to be 'game of the year'
 
HRK69 said:
Yeah, if we're measuring by sales, then sure, ARC Raiders is McDonald's
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The analogy doesn't work because McDonald's gets its sales advantage by having more locations throughout the world.

ARC Raiders and every game on that IGN list are competing on equal footing.

Chick Fil A generates over 2x more sales than McDonald's per location. Chick Fil A is a better fast food restaurant than McDonald's.

The people choose. Nerdy gate keepers don't.
 
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