Zelda wins IGN's Best Game of 2023

This one was no surprise. I remember fanboys when FFVI came out thinking it would win GotY, boy what a disappointment that game was. This has been the best year of gaming ever, but as always Nintendo makes the best games ever.

A dlc won over what could be the best rpg ever made? Good joke, IGN did what they do best.

lol you know TC is really insecure about Switch when he brings up Final Fantasy 16.

Congrats to ToTk!

@hardwenzen: Nintendo just dominated the awards. Just about every game they released this year got an award. Truly amazing.

Congrats to Tears of the Kingdom.

TotK was my GOTY with Street Fighter 6 and Pizza Tower being second and third.

Congrats to Nintendo and Tears of the Kingdom. Absolutely fantastic game and is still my GotY 2023 so far.

Let the battle of opinions begin.

PS, the actually game of the year is one that sold the most.😮🪄

Meh, couldn't care less about what other people say.

That being said, Zelda is my GotY.

I feel like these earlier in the year release dates work against these games come award season. TotK would get more GotY love if it launched in August-October imo. Then again, big software releases during the summer drought are probably better for hardware/software sales.

The only game I miss from Nintendo is Zelda. Might have to borrow one to play!

Excellent choice.

It wouldn't have. A quality, fresh experience gets people talking for a long time. Totk is a rehash of botw in the same vein as Nioh 2.

2024 goty can't run on your system, nor could it run on your so called next gen system. Let that sink in.

Someone’s pretty salty. 😂

You missed out on breath of the wild dude.... That's a mortal sin!

I was done with Nintendo after WiiU, cant believe I bought that..lol

BOTW wasn't my 2017 game of the year and by extension TOTK is not either. Most of the balance and main story content is surprisingly shit in TOTK, like they saw they were problems in BOTW and tripled down anyway. Not to mention the grinding, terrible UI, and jank controls.

Still, it's a fair pick. TOTK and BG3 are the only 2 games that should really be competing this year so as long as it's one of them then that's fine.

Good take.

I didn't like Baldur's Gate 3, but I think it deserved the GOTY awards it got. Being able to see past my own biases is what a healthy mind should be able to do :)

@Vaasman: I think BG3 could have won if it weren’t so buggy. It’s an amazing game otherwise.

@mesome713: Considering how complex the game is. BG3 is surprisingly bug-free and polished. Outside of a few quests breaking here and there, I didnt really run into any bugs.

@Maroxad: I’m mainly talking about the one IGN covered. Where the more you play and the more decisions you make, the game remembering it all would cause the game to bog down and become unplayable. I believe they finally fixed it, but was a big issue.

Ahh, I think that bug was added in a patch.

I uninstalled the game before I got that far though. Bored out of my mind.

How come you didn't like BG3? I remember you were hyping up that game before release.

This was an issue for around a month but has been resolved and only affected a very small portion of the community (it was triggered by regularly stealing or breaking the law through the entire campaign).

It's fair to say technical issues were the game's weakest aspect but by now at Patch 5 and xbox release that's pretty much all squashed and they're actively, aggressively listening to feedback to keep the game updated and add content like additional epilogues and midgame options.

4 things

1. Balance was atrocious. I went monk because of Street Fighter 6 leaving such an impression on me. I ended up making a character so overpowered that he would make Seth from Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones look balanced.

2. Encounter design was absolute dogwater. Virtually every encounter played the same. Same old mage, melee, archer combo every encounter. Baldur's Gate 2 had much better encounter design than this. Virtually the only thing that separated one fight from the other was the aesthetics. In one fight I might fight goblins, next time I might fight kobolds, or duergar. But the fight still plays the exact same.

3. Enemy AI doesnt even pose a challenge.

4. The game is too round one heavy. Fights are effectively over turn one. As that is all my street fighter (monk) and warlock eliminated the threats on turn 1. And the remaining turns we are just finishing off stragglers with little threat.

awfully brave of IGN to give it the wrong game. Imagine not giving BG3 goty in 2023.

Oh well.

Tight race this year, but TotK is well deserving of the praise.

Good job, it wasn't for me but I hear of a lot of people having fun with it

Legit. My goty as well. Say what you want about IGN, but at least they are about games, not copying Hollyweird.

Mine as well, but I didn't play that many games released this year. Mostly just catching up on older games or replaying stuff.

Other 2023 games that I enjoyed: Blasphemous 2, SMB Wonder and RE4R. Neither of which are TotK level.

Lmao, all the salty cows.

Nintendo keeps dominating 🤣🤣

Your game is a dlc to a 2017 game, bro. Why did they charge $70 for it?

@hrt_rulz01: Indeed. It’s always a joy to see. 😅

Meh great game no doubt, but imo bg3 was the only real choice!

This one's a good choice, the game isn't my cup of tea, but I loved and enjoyed the hours I spent playing this game, I don't remember the last time I played game encompassing puzzles that switched the players brain and creativity, hunting in this game is almost comparable to RDR2.

Definitely a better pick than BG3.

To this day I still cant see whats the fuss about BotW or TotK. What they do that hasnt been done before? Good games but not the 10/10s everyone seems to praise. Fun mechanics but boring quests/side content

Didnt played BG3 or RE4R yet so TotK probably wins for me by default. Its the only 2023 game I played this year :p

Had it released last year and competed against the vastly superior Elden Ring and it wouldnt stand a chance for me

@vatususreturns: Elden Ring…the game with the most boring quests/side content known to gaming?

Of course all the love went Nintendo's way, Sony was a disappointment this year, and nobody would say anything good about Xbox even if they cured cancer and AIDS. Plus Nintendo did have a stellar line-up this year. New LoZ and Pikmin 4 was extremely well received. Even that new Mario looks great.

The same game you purchased a Series X for, yea🤡🤡🤡

Remember when they gave Skyward Sword a 10?

I haven’t forgotten

I bought another switch for this game and was massively disappointed. It feels so tedious to do any exploration because the game and combat itself is so easy. And i loved botw but i couldnt get into this game.

IGN is known to have heavy bias for Nintendo.

40 odd year old men lit cry like bitches and record themselves for clout when a new Zelda is released, it's disgusting.

@uninspiredcup: That’s better than the 40 year old men who cry about it.

Sadly, Baldur's Gate 3 completely eclipsed Zelda. No one saw it coming, but that's the reality.

It should be noted Baldurs Gate fans do not cry like woman or run around E3 booths hyperventilating with creepy soyjak face. Far more dignified affair.

Both TotK and BG3 are the peak of their respective genres.

I am glad games that emphasize emergent gameplay are getting rewarded for it. I just hope for the next game, Larian makes a game that doesn't feel like an absolute chore to play. I got past act 1, and upon realizing I had to endure 2 more acts of this... I just uninstalled.