It was the obvious choice, but well deserved. It's been a long time since I was completely enthralled with a game like this one or put as many hours into one as I did this game.
I still don't understand why Mario Wonder is considered a GOTY. I think by the third world I was done with it. Maybe I'm just not a big enough Nintendo fan, but I just didn't feel a pull to keep playing. I am also disappointed to see Spider-Man 2 and FFXVI off the list. Both were excellent and among the year's best games. It was a great year for gaming though. So many great releases.
@kaki: I'm unsure how people are convinced it won't be BG3. Unlike a lot of the games that ppl are talking about being GOTY, BG3 surprised a lot of people unfamiliar with the franchise with just how good the game is.
Valhalla was fun for a while, but this series has a serious loss of spark. Ever since they concluded the original story, there just hasn't been anything here to get excited about. It's to the point where this franchise feels like it's barely making a dent this year, especially with all the great games we've had.
It is a truly phenomenal movie and one everyone should see. Nolan does the chapter of American history justice and creates a fascinating portrait of a complicated man. I am not entirely sure if I will see it again when it releases, it is a heavy film and long (it flies by, but it's still long), and not what I would call "enjoyable", but it's important and lives up to the hype.
Pre-ordered this immediately after the demo. Can't wait to get into it, but I have a feeling I am going to blow through the game. The demo was an absolutely fantastic experience and I am really glad to see the rest of the game doesn't disappoint.
You're trying to compare a time when access to gaming was significantly less than it became at every stage. Altered Beast was a great mix of repetition and freshness in a single package. Every stage was essentially the same, but the transformative gameplay aspect felt refreshing and exciting and it was genuinely fun to play. At the time our options were limited. We either had major releases like Sonic, Mario, and a few other big games, but it wasn't like today where we're just inundated by choice. That 'next level' today is vastly different than what that meant 35 years ago. It's hard to give players a new experience because everyone has done it and when companies do, players only occasionally become smitten by it. For every Zelda, you have a dozen games either ignored or ridiculed. Yet, COD sells millions and every iteration is essentially like the last. Or they turn to cheap experiences like Fortnite.
My experience gaming as a kid is vastly different than it is today and that is in part because of the relationship between the industry and the consumer. FF is a good example. Simple graphics and a solid story were once enough, in part, because every iteration of FF was fairly unique and gave us something we couldn't find elsewhere, like you say here. Fast forward decades later and that has changed drastically. Now, something like FF7R is necessary, giving us action packed, cinematic gameplay because that is where SE can accel more than anyone else. Same with FPS games. Wolfenstein and Doom were wholly unique games, but clones came out by the dozens when the FPS was proven to be highly successful. Today, that next level comes almost entirely from production values because it's so challenging to find a way to be unique in the genre. It's almost impossible to compare gaming in a time when there were still vast holes of innovation and the creation of genres to a time when all the innovation left in gaming is a risk with no guarantee of success unless you have a huge brand and can afford to forgo innovation in favor of popular trends. Even a franchise like FF fails at times with it's risks and has to rely on brand name to justify it's continued existence. If FF wasn't FF, FFXIV never would have completely been reinvented into the game it is today and FFXIII would have been the franchises end.
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