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Which dominant GOTY winner is your favorite?

Which dominant GOTY winner is your favorite?

  • The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

  • God of War

  • Elden Ring

  • Baldur’s Gate 3

  • Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Results are only viewable after voting.
LakeOf9

LakeOf9

Member
In the entire history of The Game Awards, there have been six winners that were overwhelmingly dominant. Those are all also generational games that are considered among the best ever.

Which of these dominant winners is your favorite, and why?

P.S. God of War is the least deserving GOTY winner in history. RDR2 should have won that year, and it calls the entire process into question for me that it didn't
 
How are you defining "dominant" at The Game Awards?

God of War didn't win the most awards at the 2018 The Game Awards.



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God of War just cause it's more my style of game.
Not a big fan of any of these dominate winners tbh. But they are great in general.
 
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The Last of Us Part 2...which was the biggest winner of number of GOTY awards until Elden Ring came out. Missing from the OP but if all others are there, this one should as well.
 
God of War

No contest
 
Probably BOTW. Despite the obvious faults, I loved how handcrafted the world felt and traversing it was a blast as were the intertwining systems that played off of one another.
 
Witcher 3 including expansions and mods vs Exp33 is tough for me, but base game vs base game I have to give it to Exp33.
 
GoW steamrolled Rdr2. As it should.
GoW2018 is a masterpiece.

For the Best one of the dominant ones… probably BG3.

Elden Ring is Great but Bloodborne is just better. So i can give it this title.

Also Tlou2 is missing, lol
 
RDR2 being denied is a travesty. I think looking back RDR2 stands as a seminal moment in gaming just like BotW and Mario 64.


1. BotW
2. Elden Ring
3. BG 3
4. Witcher 3
5. Exp 33
6. God of War
 
Of those six, I've played three: Breath of the Wild, Elden Ring, and Expedition 33. My answer is, easily: Breath of the Wild.

For all of Elden Ring's grandiose, it never stopped feeling like 'bigger Dark Souls' but with way worse balance. Not to undersell its size - it's an impressive selling point, and shit like literally delving deeper into the game world, unsure where it could end, or opening up the game map after a chest warp to be shocked at how huge the world is are very impressive, but it still felt like Dark Souls.

Same deal with Expedition 33. I liked the story, the music, the combat, the relative freedom given to the player, but it's still ultimately a largely conventional turn-based RPG that wears its heritage proudly on its sleeve.

Breath of the Wild, for all its many flaws, is the only one that felt like a transformative experience. Something all-new and fantastic and unforgettable. A happy, grand adventure where seemingly only your imagination was the limit.

I know I kinda focused on 'all-new' as my criteria for greatness, but it's not absolutely necessary imo. A more conventional game operating at the peak of its genre can do it too, and unfortunately Elden Ring and Expedition 33 have too many blemishes to be said to have achieved that level of excellence.
 
Im replaying Witcher 3 right now, this will make the 3rd run im making to this game. Thers a reason for that. Its maybe in my top 5 favorite games of all time.
 
Elden Ring
Because it's my all-time favorite game. I stepped over the 100% line this year, all achievements unlocked, over 700 hours played, and I'm still playing it, currently doing a journey 2 magic run.
 
Elden Ring with the Witcher 3 and BOFTW closely behind.

Then BG3 a little behind the first 3 (Awesome game, probably the most ambitious of the bunch).

And GOW and E33 way behind the rest (imho both didn't even deserved the GOTY in their respective year)
 
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Baldur's Gate 3, just the most impressive achievement to me out of the bunch to play.

They somehow made a nerdy ass isometric CRPG filled to the brim with systems, a huge variety of player choice in the narrative, extensive build variety, and complex interface to be one of the best selling hits of that year. After release, they added extensive mod tools, considerable content updates, said they'd stop, and then added more.

So many RPG devs over time have opted for more action-based combat to supposedly stay relevant, and then Larian makes a turn-based game go mainstream. After that, second would be Witcher 3, then Breath of the Wild, Clair Obscur, Elden Ring and lastly God of War.
 
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I honestly didn't like any of those games. The only one I "finished" was BOTW, and that finally happened after the Switch 2 update.
 
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I don't really have a favourite tbh so I'll twist your question a bit, the year I can more easily decide which game was my GOTY was also the year where the game was the most dominant to me personally.

2015 - Although I adore TW3, the award could easily have gone to Bloodborne and it would be deserving as well.
2017 - Nintendo were crazy and launched Mario Odyssey in the same year as BoTW, again, any other year and Mario would've probably gotten the award.
2018 - It was the biggest robbery I've witnessed, God of War was excellent but RDR2 is a once in a generation type of game. Geoff and co fucking lost the plot.
2023 - Baldur's Gate 3 was probably the best of all that year but there were absolute bangers that also deserved it, ToTK, Alan Wake 2, RE4...
2025 - E33 again excellent, KCD2 and Silksong easily deserved it as well.

I really enjoyed Plague Tale Requiem but personally I'd say Elden Ring was easily the one game I was sure it would be GOTY that year and nothing else could be.
 
BG3 barely edged out ER for me. They're both all-timers as far as I'm converned. A lot of the games on that list are. But I had been starved for a big budget CRPG for so many years after Bioware shit themselves over and over again. BG3 scratched an itch on my balls that was bugging me for 10+ years.
 
Breath of the Wild for sure, game of the generation and one of the GOATs. Probably the single most influential game on my gaming life ever.
 
GudOlRub said:
I don't really have a favourite tbh so I'll twist your question a bit, the year I can more easily decide which game was my GOTY was also the year where the game was the most dominant to me personally.

2015 - Although I adore TW3, the award could easily have gone to Bloodborne and it would be deserving as well.
2017 - Nintendo were crazy and launched Mario Odyssey in the same year as BoTW, again, any other year and Mario would've probably gotten the award.
2018 - It was the biggest robbery I've witnessed, God of War was excellent but RDR2 is a once in a generation type of game. Geoff and co fucking lost the plot.
2023 - Baldur's Gate 3 was probably the best of all that year but there were absolute bangers that also deserved it, ToTK, Alan Wake 2, RE4...
2025 - E33 again excellent, KCD2 and Silksong easily deserved it as well.

I really enjoyed Plague Tale Requiem but personally I'd say Elden Ring was easily the one game I was sure it would be GOTY that year and nothing else could be.
Click to expand...

I remember at the time I was happy to see GoW 2018 win, but in hindsight it absolutely should've gone to RDR2. That was fucking crazy.

That said, Geoff doesn't decide who wins. It's 90/10 Critic/Fan voted.
 
the witcher 3 of course

1) witcher 3
2) elden ring
3) baldur's gate 3
4) breath of the wild
5) expedition 33
6) god of war
 
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On this list, Witcher 3 and nothing on that list comes close (although BG3 is closest).

Off this list, RDR2 and KCD2 match Witcher 3 for me.

1) Witcher 3
2) BG3
3) GoW (not deserving of goty)
4) Exp33 (not deserving of goty)

Did not play Zelda and Elden Ring. Zelda because it is too unimmersive for me, and Elden Ring because I am fed up with Soulslikes (last one I played was Bloodborne and it's not like Fromsoft ever made a better game)
 
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1. Elden Ring
2. Witcher 3
3. Breath of the Wild
4. Baldur's Gate 3
5. God of War
6. Expedition 33

Ironically, the most dominant GOTY winner is also the weakest title on this list.
 
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Witcher 3, probably my favorite game of all time besides maybe classic WoW back in the day.

Then Elden Ring, then BG3.
 
LakeOf9 said:
It's the most immersive game of that entire list, the only game more immersive than it (RDR2) isn't on the list
Click to expand...
I prefer realistic visual style, the cartoon style of BotW is inherently unimmersive for me. Plus it lacks the kind of storytelling I enjoy.
I do respect its gameplay simulation aspects though.
 
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