Divinity: Original Sin 2, The true GOTY of 2017.

Yeah and for the record, I have no doubt in my mind that Breath of the Wild will win GoTY. Just a shame that lesser known games like this really don't have a prayer.

Maybe BOTW, Odyssey, Rabid Kingdom and Samus Returns will split the vote clearing the way for Divinity 2 to win GOTY.

Easily much better than any game from the CRPG revival.

The problem with other new CRPGs are that they are either backwards thinking and cannot capture what made their influences great (Wasteland 2, Pillars of Eternity, and Torment) or botch the execution (like Tyranny and even admittedly the first Divinity when it comes to the cRPG side of things). DOS 2 on the other hand is forward thinking, bringing new elements into the revival of the cRPG.

Zelda BOTW is extremly overrated, but yes it will probably win the most-popular contest AKA goty on most sites. Real gamers know Divinity OS II is the real GOTY base on quality (and quantity).

Big question is when GameSpot is even going to review this game....?

Man, I really should play this one. I'm pretty sure I've had beta access for a while, but...there have been so many releases lately, and I haven't even finished Tides of Numenera yet. Ugh.

@djoffer: Used to be the case that pretty much every online gamesite did not have anyone capable to review Nintendo or PC titles. At least the Nintendo part has been fixed in many cases, but the PC reviewers are still a little hard to find.

They will. Larian has already confirmed that if the game is succesful enough on PC (which it is) they'll port it over to consoles. First they'll patch some issues on PC and have a little vacation.

9.6 IGN

9.2 PC Gamer

True that. Pillars adheres arguably too much to the side of old school.

Still a great game though, rather play it than 90% of the rpgs floating about.

Sounds really good. I have the first game on Xbox One and enjoy what I've played so far but need to get back to it and finish it. I'll wait for the Xbox One version of this game as well.

Another day and still no review of what is looking to be the best pc release of the year... this site is a joke!!

its a big game and I dont think review code went out before release day. if anything, sites that already posted reviews were probably rushing a bit

Zelda BOTW is the best immersive sim ever, mechanically rivaling even Deus Ex when it comes to world reactivity.

PC gamers should respect BOTW, aspects of PC game design make BOTW what it is.

The thing that makes DOS 2 really good is that it fixes the RPG problems of the first DOS. The first game was not a good cRPG. This one is.

I have not posted on here in ages, but I had to for this game.

It is simply amazing! For me it brings the same joy that some modern rpgs like Witcher 3, Dragon Age Origins and Fallout New Vegas brought to me. Nearly everything is improved from the first game. I beat the last Original Sin game and I enjoyed it but it was lacking in the writing of the characters, dialogue and story, those elements are much better in this game! Even the combat somehow is improved, there is much more customization for classes/characters, the voice acting is great, there are so many ways to do the missions,etc.. what a game!

Battlegrounds, Prey and Torment: Tides Of Numenera are the 3 games I enjoyed the most this year up until this game, it is without a doubt my GOTY, simply amazing in so many ways. This is one of those rpgs that comes up once in awhile, very good in all elements. Will gamespot give it GOTY? I doubt it but, it sure is the most fun I have had all year.

@knight-k: out if interest who decides which games are overrated? If this score well, which if Eurogamers ‘Essential’ award is anything to go by it will, will this be overrated.

Pretty good, not as good as Dragon Age 2 tho

@kozzy1234: glad to hear, definitely looking forward to playing it soon!

Out of curiosity, I heard a few people complaining about that all enemies having both magic defense and physical defense, that you have to destroy in order to do actual damage to them. Meaning that one enemy might be a zero physical defense and 2/100 hp but still be at full magic defense so if your mage throw a fireball at him he won't die since it will only do damage to the magic defense? Therefore rendering mixed( melee and magic) parties pointless.....

Ha

Ha

As soon as I finish up Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment, I am playing Divinity 2! It seems right up my street.

If anything, Breath of the Wild is a game that gamers who grew up playing traditional games should enjoy... :P

Or at least that's what I deduced from the phrase 'real gamers'. I don't know what that is supposed to mean.

Real gamers and Chaz gamers

Reviewers have a pro-bias pertaining a few big game franchises. (Zelda, Mario, MGS,...) Some don't even try to hide it anymore.

Let's look at metacritic. Zelda BOTW has a 97 critic score, yet it only has a 84 user score. And yes anyone can put in a user score but at 9000+ user scores, it's safe to say, we see a trend. The critic score is EXTREMELY inflated compared to user scores. Not saying metacritic is the gold standard but it's probably the best thing we have for these things.

Skip to the 4:00 minute to hear Colin Moriarty speak.

And why is their a bias? Nostalgia, money,... who knows?

@howmakewood: Mostly Chaz gamers. Sorry Char, you know I love you.

@knight-k: User scores on Metacritic simply aren't a reliable metric. Nobody has to play the game to share their opinion on it and unless you read every review to determine whether or not these people are being genuine, it's more than likely people overreacting to a game they don't want to be successful being successful. It isn't the gold standard, like you said and it isn't the best metric we have. Engaging in conversation with people who you can trust have actually played the game is the best thing you have. Taking some stranger's word for it in an industry with a community intoxicated by bias? Not a good metric to go by.

That isn't to say The Legend of Zelda series has had favorable reviews in the past that are perhaps underserving, depending on who you ask. For example, I don't feel as enthused by Skyward Sword and Wind Waker as others do. Likewise, people will feel the same way about Breath of the Wild. However, nobody; not me or anyone else has capital on what is overrated and what isn't. I also feel many of Breath of the Wild's issues were not successfully addressed in critic reviews. That's just game critics not being very good. However, overrated? I thought the game was excellent despite its flaws. Many others, even well known game designers and developers also loved the game. Play a game and determine for yourself whether you feel the reception aligns with your tastes.

Don't let people decide for you what is a reasonable score and what isn't. Especially not people who could be flat out lying to you about having played it. (again, not to say there aren't people with genuine concerns and genuinely didn't like it).

I agree with what you say and of course in the end, you decide if you like a game or not. But like Colin said, it's hard not to see a trend here when looking at reviews the Zelda franchise is getting...

Maybe I'll make a thread about the pro-bias in this industry since this is a divinity thread.

@knight-k: It's harder when it comes to a series like The Legend of Zelda which has such a huge legacy and reputation in this industry. I wouldn't fault the franchise for this though. It's not the game's fault. It's the critics. Many critics in this industry just aren't very good.

However, looking at the franchise intimately, entry-by-entry, I'd say Breath of the Wild is one of the best 3D Zelda games. It's a game that I feel deserves to be loved.

I think Divinity is going to be a game I love. I think it will be interesting to see if some of the reasons I enjoy it will align with why I enjoy Breath of the Wild; freedom in terms of options, receptive mechanics and impressive feedback loops that respect and indulge in the great design principals governed by immersive sim games such as Ultima and the Looking Glass library.

" The true GOTY of 2017. "

Stop kiddin' yerself!!!! Not even close.

Sitting at a 94 metacritic, it's looking more real every day.

Everyone knows by now that Zelda BOTW is vastly overrated. Divinity OS II is the king this year.

So stop crying and embrace one of the best games you will experience in your life, Divinity OS II.

@knight-k: Maybe, if you haven't already, you should play Breath of the Wild instead of agreeing with people you don't know?

Of course I played Zelda BOTW, loved it despite its obvious flaws. Good game but not 97 good.

My opinion of the game is more or less the same as Sterling's review.

http://www.thejimquisition.com/the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-review/

(would rate it an 8.5 though)

@knight-k: Oh yeah. I didn't think much of that review. It's not as good as deliberating the flaws in Breath of the Wild as Joseph Anderson's review. https://youtu.be/T15-xfUr8z4.

I find Jim Sterling a bad game critic.

I don't like using scores though. I think they do a bad job explaining how I feel about a game. Breath of the Wild is still one of my favorites games this year. I don't find it overrated in the slightest. Flawed, yeah but it's still excellent. Scores and critics and whatever is like... I don't expect them to be good anyway. :P

What did you like about Breath of the Wild specifically, and why? Any favorite quests?

I am going to play Divinity as soon as I finish up with Specter of Torment. That is also an excellent game.

Tarrey Town, Naydra,...

For me Zelda BOTW felt like Skyrim. Loved the freedom.

And yeah Sterling is a bit provocating in his reviews but I agree with a lot of the points he made in his Zelda review. Flaws that were overlooked by many "professional" critics just because it's a Zelda game.

And haven't played Specter of Torment, I'm gonna look it up.

You'll love Divinity OS II.

@knight-k: Tarrey Town is definitely memorable in a contextual sense but boring in a gameplay sense, to be honest. :P Collecting lots of wood just isn't fun. The end result though? Really beautiful.

It's not Eventide Island, that's for sure. ;)

It's not Jim's provocations I have issues with. The problem is he is a bad writer and hasn't any sense in game design; he has fluctuating standards too. Far better resources for game design on that same platform like Turbo Button or J. Anderson. I don't even know how that Zelda argument aligns. Breath of the Wild is the least Zelda-like Zelda there has been in decades. It was one of Anderson's problems with the game...

It's such a flat bullet-dodging criticism to say a game is only rated well because it belongs in a certain series. :P It's the least articulated description of the quality of an actual piece existing artwork. The flaws in Breath of the Wild come at the cost of being a game. Flaws get over-looked or missed. It happens, particularly when a game is just really fun regardless. Of course, critics being bad at writing about games is no surprise. I wouldn't expect to get a level-headed critique of a game. Sterling certainly didn't deliver it... Chap has such a hard time writing a review that he's not shy from making a follow-up video to compensate for it.

Which is kind of a constant threat against conversation in this medium, really. People don't want to talk about the games they play. They want others to talk for them, regardless of whether those arguments are even all that rich in content to begin with. Game discussion isn't moving forward by slinging scores at one another. :(

Breath of the Wild is among one of my favorite games I played this year with Prey and Specter of Torment. Those are the highlights for me so far. Lots I also really liked too. It's been wonderful this year. Divinity looks to perpetuate that and then Mario Odyssey too. Spoiled so we are. :)

it really is an amazing game, nothing makes you feel like a kid again more than this game.

It's nostalgic, but without the cliche rose-tinted shades because it's fresh and new; it doesn't have you going "Oh, this game is good because it reminds you of this game from 10-20 years ago". It's good because it reminds you of the spirit of gaming from 10-20 years ago, before we prescribed terms like "AAA" and "social experience" and "DLC" to games. When you played games for the game's sake, not because it was cool or for the achievements or because it was "the" game to own cuz all your friends were playing it.

Finally a real RPG this year! (wish I had time to play it atm :P will be after xmas I'm guessing)

@mrbojangles25: That's what I understand really makes this game special. It not only recites classic CRPGs but also invigorates those ideas with new ideas of its own. :)

It's also really funny. Get the trait "pet pal", talking to animals is so much fun! The voice acting is bad, but it's not Bethesda-bad, it's like funny-bad, like Monty Python hamming-it-up bad.

@mrbojangles25: I am definitely going to do that now. It will be refreshing to play a roleplaying game with roleplaying in it. I haven't played many RPGs this year to be fair. Actually, I think this will be my first. I'm excluding Nier Automata which is like... is it a roleplaying game? I don't know.

All the same. Yes, I am going to have as much fun with this game as I can and really just play it the way I want. :)

People seem to think those Persona games are good or something.

Generally speaking I think reviewers did mention the flaws of BotW.

yeah....

P5 soured me on the entire franchise.

True that

@KungfuKitten: Not for me. I felt many things such as the game flow weren't really addressed much at all.

That's okay. I really don't expect much from critics.

94 ain't bad considering there's no shill sites giving it automatic ten like the likes of ms/sony/nintendo has

Well I've read a few reviews now and really can't wait to play it. It sounds like they addressed the biggest issues from the first game (story, dialogue, voice acting) and went to town on making the quests even bigger and better. Really excited to play this game now.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-09-21-divinity-original-sin-2-review

These are the best improvements without a doubt! (writing of the dialogue, characters and story and the wonderful surprise of the great voice acting. I love that the voice work doesn't sound like 5 people doing all the voices in the game like some other rpgs, each sounds pretty unique to me so far. Enjoy the adventures!

There is magic armor yes. I don't have the nitty gritty of all that kind of stuff but, I do notice two kinds of armor on enemies, one magic and one normal armor as I see it. I just go crazy with my attacks from everyone and first there armors go down then the health, I havn't had anything as severe as you mention though as far as rendering your melee party useless. I have a mix of of a party, one offensive wizard, one healing wizard (has some other magic to attack to), A ranger and a melee guy up front. It is not a huge deal overall, just go out and explore a ton, talk to everyone and just open yourself up to enjoy some great adventures! Maybe someone else can speak on the exact way the armors work but thats my take on it, I hit em with everything I got and the two armors go down then goes the health (the armors seem to not take to long for me to take down so far). Sorry for the long post, it is late and I wasn't to sure how to answer this question to be honest as I am not 100% sure, I just know it hasn't been a big issue with me, my party goes to work on enemies no matter how much or what type of armor they have.