2021 GOTY contenders vs. The Test of Time

https://www.gameawards.net/

Yawn, game critics and gamers never learn. How many times do GOTY winners simply not stand the test of time and how many games that were not awarded heavily dominate the gaming landscape? For example, in 2014, how does Dragon Age Inquisition, a game now emblematic of Bioware's fall, win over Mario Kart 8, which became a classic and is one of the best selling games today? And how did critics miss Minecraft in 2011? The signs of its longevity were there.

Its actually pretty easy to find out which games stand the test of time. They are either, the best or most unique game in the series if it is a series game. Too many games on this list are series games that really don't meet this. Is RE Village the classic that 2 or 4 were? Is Metroid Dread on the same level or as important as Super Metroid or Metroid Prime? Is Halo Infinite not just another Halo game in the long run? Does Rift Apart truly break away from other Ratchet and Clank games? Even Forza 5, is it not just another Forza game in the long run? The true answer is no. Really the only series games that fit this criteria this year are Tales of Arise and Life is Strange True Colors.

Or you have a unique game in any aspect that is universally praised and could be important for gaming. Here is where both Deathloop and Returnal have problems. They are simply too divisive. However, It Takes Two, which may be the overall winner this year, may actually stand the test of time and really be a classic. The Forgotten City also will stand the test of time and has so already when it was a mod. I think Inscryption and Wildermyth have a chance as well.

Another sign is a game that simply takes off, like Valheim did this year, or how what is looking like the actually GOTY last year did, which is Animal Crossing New Horizons.

I think THE GAME that will overall win my Test of Time award for 2021 is Psychonauts 2. I have already seen signs that it will be talked about for years, like how the first game was. It really is just like the first game, underappreciated at its launch year but is now seen as a classic. The new game not only is great in its own right, but it seems to make the original even better. Yet here are game reviewers, too clueless to get that is has every ingredient to stand the test of time, ignorant of his high acclaim rate by gamers, and really do not get why their choices may not hold up. And Psychonauts 2 simply does not have the sales of the player base to win Gamer's Choice Awards. Mark my words, we will still be talking about this game in 5 years as its own thing and not as a comparison.

Lets stop lying to ourselves. 2021 had no goty. Nothing was so much better than the rest that it deserved a GOTY award.

It's all paid marketing mate. U honestly think if that guy that does the awards get a 10m paycheck he won't goty you. think again.

It Takes Two and Psychonauts 2 are legitimate classics and will be talked about for years.

2019 seemed like a year like this with Death Stranding winning the most GOTYs, but now Disco Elysium is considered to be one of the greatest games of all time.

It's pretty hard to tell what stands the test of time when it first comes out. It's only after a certain amount of time has passed that it becomes evident what stands the test of time. So many GOAT classics didn't win GOTY awards in their own time.

Same could he said for films. Citizen Kane didn't win the Best Film Oscar in its own year, yet ended up topping GOAT critics polls for decades.

Who's game of the year list are you using? Just for funsies you should list ever goty winner to see if they do hold up.

When I pick my GotY I pick whatever game that I enjoyed the most for that year. It may or may not ”stand the test of time” but that’s not really a prediction that I’ll try to factor in heavily. GotY is exactly for that time period. Games that stand the test of time is more something that I’ll use when coming up with The Greatest games of All Time kind of lists.

Almost universally disregard game journalist opinions now.

Sure not just me trying to be a special edgy snowflake, pretty sure alot of folk do it now.

Awards are very much who gives a shit.

From the link I just used.

KOTOR in 2003, Half Life 2 in 2004, and Resident Evil 4 in 2005 hold up (But 2005's Shadow of the Colossus is also seen as a classic).

While Oblivion in 2006 was a good well known game, there was also Gears of War and Okami, which is now seen as a better game than Twilight Princess. Bioshock of 2007 holds up, Fallout 3 in 2008 does not, but the games that were also GOTY contenders, GTA IV and MGS 4, didn't hold up well either, hard to argue against Uncharted 2 in 2009. 2010 is tough between Mass Effect 2 and Red Dead Redemption, however, Fallout New Vegas is now seen as a classic RPG.

2011 had Skyrim win, but Dark Souls also is hailed as a all time game, but Minecraft should have won 2011. The Walking Dead of 2012 was a extreme reach, which that game's legacy led to the closure of the company, and Mass Effect 3 was the most talked about game that year. Last of Us was a good winner in 2013, but GTA V is historic.

The 2014 pick, Dragon Age Inquisition, was a terrible pick, Mario Kart 8 should have won. History smiles on The Witcher 3 and Breath of the Wild choices in 2015 and 2017, and perhaps God of War in 2018 (much better pick than Red Dead Redemption 2), but Uncharted 4 in 2016 was a reach with Overwatch being the cultural milestone of that year.

2019 should have gone to Disco Elysium, not Death Stranding and 2020, Animal Crossing New Horizons is the real GOTY, not the pretentious and divisive The Last of Us Part II.

Gaming journalism is a joke. Reviews are usually written by children and companies are smart enough to know they can just send a 'free copy' and some swag to the reviewer to get a better score. Just play the games you like and move one. It's not worth taking these awards seriously. There's way too much subjectivity, genres, and preferences to really say that one game is the best for that year.

@texasgoldrush: It seems like you're trying to impose your personal idea of what kind of games deserve goty. What about Roblox, Fortnite, Five Nights at Freedy's, etc.? Should they have won GOTY in their respective year? People continue playing, talking and making content about them like they are the only games in existence.

I don't think I've ever felt like it was unfair that a game got goty, even if it wasn't the game I thought deserved it the most (which rarely happens). In many cases, gamers are completely oblivious as to what makes a game worthy of being goty.

Fortnite runs into Breath of the Wild however.

But no, I am looking at legacy. I am not a fan of Ken Levine whatsoever, found Bioshock a tad overrated and preferred Mario Galaxy that year, but I cannot say Bioshock doesn't hold up.

I can confirm, you aren't the only one.

@texasgoldrush: haha, I'm a dumb dumb. I didn't even notice the link. I was hoping it would go further back than 2003 though. Crazy part is that I haven't played most of those; and a few of those winners are ones I can't stand...like RDR2.

Most of those "awards" are worthless, from random journalists on random websites. The only awards that count are a few major award ceremonies, e.g. The Game Awards, BAFTA, Golden Joystick, VGA, Famitsu, Japan Game Awards, etc. In recent years, The Game Awards is the most prestigious one, probably the closest thing to the Oscars in the video game industry.

The Game Awards winners:

• 2014 - Dragon Age: Inquisition
• 2015 - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
• 2016 - Overwatch
• 2017 - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• 2018 - God of War
• 2019 - Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
• 2020 - The Last of Us Part II
• 2021 - It Takes Two

While some of these picks are also problematic, these picks are still better than the list you linked to.

So how is DAI, a game ridiculed now, better than Mario Kart 8, which is a best seller now on Switch?

Sekiro is one of the most divisive Soulsborne games, and rarely is talked about as an all time great, unlike Disco Elysium. How is TLOU P2 more culturally significant than Animal Crossing New Horizons?

Really, "The Game Awards" is widely mocked and rightfully so.

In order to be GOTY, companies gotta campaign ($$$) to have them on the ballet at all. No monocle-wearing prestigious gaming judge sifts through the thousands and thousands of games every year on Steam or any other platform, just to find the hidden gems to reward them kindly. Nope, if anyone thinks that way, they thought wrong. Why even popular games miss the ballet: because companies don't just campaign ($$$) for them. Imagine being a company releasing 5 games in a year, and all 5 of them can be "GOTY" status; well, that company might campaign ($$$) for less than 5 of them. This is either because: money matters, they don't have confidence in all of them to make the journey, or they don't want their games to compete amongst themselves.

@texasgoldrush: 2019 was a superb year of gaming. Death Stranding was an absolute masterpiece, Disco Elysium, and then of course Sekiro.

2021 has been nothing but shit. They should have annulled the 2021 GOTY and just given The Last of Us 2 a second GOTY prize for being so much better than everything else out there.

@texasgoldrush:

Sekiro is a masterpiece and heralded as having the best combat system of any video game ever. The Last of Us 2 is superior to animal crossing in literally every way. The former is pretty much the Mona Lisa of gaming, or a fine Wagyu beef, while the latter is a mcdonalds cheeseburger

Halo: Infinite, is legit and with constant updating and additions will continue to more than relevant at least 10 year from now whilst most others will just be distant memories. :P

@texasgoldrush: Dude, I'm not criticising your choices. I'm criticising the link you posted. The link you posted is trash. The Game Awards are also problematic like I said, but they're still better than a blog with a bunch of random websites no one has heard of.

Sekiro is a great pick for 2019. Some Soulsborne fans criticized it, but most loved it. Either way, the real GOTY for 2019 should've been given to Capcom for either RE2 or DMC5. 2019 was a very competitive year.

The Last of Us Part II is highly polarizing and a lot of fans of the first game simply do not like it. It was being compared to The Last Jedi and the final season of Game of Thrones, which also stupidly won the top Emmy. It will go down in history as a divisive, not as loved sequel to a beloved classic.

Animal Crossing is now a cultural iconic game, and actually isn't divisive. It will forever be known as the pandemic game. It also outsold TLOU Part II.

And Sekiro isn't on the same plane as Dark Souls or Bloodborne are in legacy. In fact Elden Ring is going the opposite direction.

Death Stranding is also pretty divisive, and got some mixed reactions.

And no, 2021, was actually a great year for games. No absolute big blockbusters, but a solid year.

That link isn't trash. Smaller sites and foreign sites do have a voice here.

But for 2019, Disco Elysium stands the test of time the most. It is now considered one of the greatest games of all time, one of the best RPGs ever, and one of the best written games ever.

Can Sekiro say that? Can RE2 Remake say that? No

Halo Infinite was 2021 goty.

@texasgoldrush:

But the link is trash according to your own OP. The selections these smaller sites made is worse than what the mainstream Game Awards made.

You're comparing different genres here. Sekiro is one of the best Soulslike games. RE2 is one of the best survival horror games. And DMC5 is one if the best hack & slash games. Any of these games would've been worthy picks for 2019. It was a competitive year.

BotW is the game of the year every year.

The mainstream GameAwards has the exact same problem that these game sites have, these sites are no worse.

Sekiro is just not on the level of legacy as Dark Souls and Bloodborne. RE2 is simply a remake, and DMC5 has the legacy of its forbearers.

The worthy winner is simply Disco Elysium, which simply put, stands above its genre.

@texasgoldrush: But they are worse. For 2016, they picked Uncharted 4, whereas TGA picked Overwatch. For 2019, they picked Death Stranding, whereas TGA picked Sekiro. Overwatch and Sekiro are better picks than UC4 and DS.

Sekiro is better than Soulsborne in certain ways, and not as good in other ways. DMC5 is the best hack & slash in a decade. The original RE2 already stands the test of time, and the remake updated it for the modern day. These are all worthy winners. And so is Disco Elysium. You can't just say one is worthy and the others aren't. 2019 was just a great year, like 2017.

@texasgoldrush: The fans were butthurt that Joel died and people were upset over it being SWJ-fest. politics aside The Last of Us 2 is an utter masterpiece and is the videogame equivalent of The Godfather: Part II.

It is better than the original in some ways but overall a little bit worse than its predecessor.

But does it really matter which of the two is best or worst when they are both top 5 greatest of all time in their respective medium.

Comparing TLOU2 to season 8 or that garbage non-Star Wars movies is an insult to a great work of art.

Yes, I too hated Abby and how Joel was treated but that was the exact emotional response they desired and that's what makes it so good. Just like Joffrey or Cersei Lannister in Game of Thrones. We hate those character more than anyone else in TV history and that is precisely what make GoT so good. Those are good characters.

Abby being a monkey roid freak mangirl and Joel dying horribly is good character design / story telling. It just hurts. And fans still didn't get over it. Just like it took forever to get over Joffrey executing Ned Stark. Developers/writers able to invoke such emotions and reactions is genre defining.

And 2021 is literally the worst year in gaming since 2014.

Along side 2014 and 2012 it makes for the three worst years of the last 20-25 years in gaming. It will forever go down as a year without a single GOTY worthy title.

Never understood why Dragon age Inquisition got so much hate. I played it all the threw plus the expansions and dlc. Absolutely loved that game.

Christ, it's sad to see opinions that are wrong across the board. Are you really going to sit here and say DAI is ridiculed while you spent years defending Dragon Age 2? At least have some consistency. Animal Crossing might as well be the SIMs light, minus all the fun sandbox features that make for fun moments.

I will give you Overwatch over Uncharted 4, but 2016 was a weak year in gaming. However neither Sekiro or Death Stranding are the classic that Disco Elysium is. Disco Elysium is literally considered to be the greatest PC Game of all time with PC Gamer, and IGN ranked it top 10 of their best games of all time list.

Once again, do the RE2 remake or Sekiro go down as one of the best games of all time? No

No, just, no.

TLOU Part II was poorly paced, poorly themed, and poorly directed, and simply put, the game divided the fan base. It will always be known as a divisive game. That is its legacy. People love the first game overall, in contrast.

And no, people actually have legitimate criticism over how the game handled its story. It wasn't just because Joe died. Its that he died because of a poorly written moment. Its that Abby simply put, did not connect with many gamers, no matter how much the directors wanted her too, as she simply comes off as too unlikable, and not in a good villain way. And really the main problem with TLOU Part II, in comparison to the first game......in the second game, everything in the narrative is pretty much forced. It was one of the most forced narratives I have ever seen. The ending simply proves my point.

And once again, It Takes Two is legitimately great and Psychonauts 2 will go down as a classic. Both games have very high gamer acclaim/playerbase.

DA2, which I liked, simply wasn't a GOTY. And really, I liked DAI less than DA2.

Disco Elysium is basically a visual novel, just like your other favourite game Life is Strange. Sure, they both have well-written stories, but it's strange to be comparing them to gameplay-oriented action games, which are a whole different ball park. Also, that recent IGN list is trash, like I said in that other thread about it, as it suffers from a heavy dose of recency bias.

The answer is yes, of course they would. DMC5, Sekiro and RE2 are some of the best action games of the last decade. In terms of gameplay, each one of them trumps the leading GOTY winners for almost every other year in the last decade. Which only goes to show just how strong 2019 was.

Sekiro sucks. Easily Miyazaki's worst battle system and a pretty good example to use to highlight the problem with making a parry your dominant defensive mechanic. It had no business winning over the likes of 2 Remake, DMC5, or Baba is You in 2019.

It's absolutely in the category with the shallow games.

No, Disco Elysium is basically a pen and paper RPG. It is a full blown RPG where character build matters and your chacter is open based on your choices. This is different from Life is Strange where Max Caulfield, or Sean Diaz, or Alex Chen have set personalities, and have no stat point gameplay. And even with recency bias, Disco Elysium is good enough to be considered an all time great.

And we have not talked about Outer Wilds, another 2019 classic that is considered a GOAT status game, which critics at launch, underrated.

DMC5, Sekiro, and RE2 remake are simply not GOAT status games. They are great games, but we are not talking about them as a pinnacle of gaming.

@jg4xchamp: Miyazaki's combat at his worst is still better than most other AAA developers at their best. Whatever faults it may have, Sekiro is still a solid Soulslike and more GOTY worthy than Death Stranding. But like I said, the real winner of 2019 should've been Capcom with DMC5 or RE2.

@texasgoldrush: In the IGN list thread, I argued that any game released this gen or last gen shouldn't be included on GOAT lists. Whenever Sight & Sound hold GOAT film critic polls, they never include films released in the last decade or two. You wouldn't know if something is truly GOAT until some time has passed and they've been subjected to the test of time.

You don't seem like a fan of action games. If you prefer cinematic or text-driven games, good for you. But when it comes to action games, Capcom is at the top of their class with DMC and RE2. And so is Sekiro up there among the top Soulslike games.

I really don't give a shit. Most review scores that we see are being decided by ad money and people who don't really play games.

If you care about gaming, but still care about the game awards, you're a masochist.

This is why opinions are great- you get to have your own!

DAI got really high scores everywhere when it was released. It doesn't have to stand as a legendary example of RPG's for the rest of time to deserve GOTY when it came out.

Also, it has become cool and hip to hate EA and Bioware over the years so people who claimed to love it when it came out want to appear cool and with it and pretend to hate it now.

Also also, judges probably felt it would be ridiculous to award Yet Another Mario Kart 8 GOTY as it is the same game under a very slightly different name. You may as well give GOTY to FIFA.

Also also also, I don't think someone who rates pig-ugly Telltale clones that play themselves at the very top of the adventure genre is in any position to contribute to a discussion about which games are or aren't worthy of GOTY.

Same here, it's still one of my favourite games of all time.

I thoroughly enjoyed Dragon Age Inquisition. I didn't know there was hate boner for the game.😂

May as well throw my hat in to the “I enjoyed Dragon Age Inquisition” pot also. 😁

Lets see what is wrong with Dragon Age Inquisition.

The game plays it safe, overcorrects from DA2, has a very weak plot, the cast is a step down from DA2 outside the returning characters and Solas, the exploration doesn't mesh well with its story, the side quests are a bunch of fetch quests with little narrative, the pacing is terrible, the combat is slow with enemies with too much health while trying to be both tactical and action based.

DAI is seen as a disappointment and for good reason. The Witcher 3 came right after and clearly showed how superior it was.

And really, I think DA2 is a better game, with better storytelling, better characters, and better story driven sidequests. It just was too rushed out.

@blueinheaven: Mario Kart 8 is now widely seen as the best game in the series. It is a classic.

@texasgoldrush: I remember inquiring years back about how Dragon Age Inquisition got such praise in its time (because I thought it was super "meh") and the general consensus was something like "it was a slow year".

The Witcher 3, Breath of the Wild, and Disco Elysium are definitely GOATs.

And really, no. The RE2 remake is basically basking in the glory of the first RE2, and the latest DMC is no where near as important and influential as the first game was.

Sekiro is just not talked about the way the original Dark Souls and Bloodborne are.

And this is the theme of this year too. Too many series games that simply don't stand out in their series to stand the test of time as a classic.

And here you are again trying to rewrite history to fit in with your own personal opinion.

DAI was seen as a triumph not a disappointment. Read the f***ing reviews from when it released and also player reaction.

How hilarious that you cite Witcher 3 as a better game. ONE main character. ONE class. OMG is this really masquerading as an RPG? That's fine if you want to be Geralt, and totally useless if you don't.

No sub classes, horrible combat (very well documented), awful excuse for a magic system (basically a couple of buffs thrown out here and there throughout the ENTIRE game).

I can see why you like Witcher 3 it's all about narrative and plot setting and gameplay is but a secondary notion to the devs. AT least it has more gameplay than the dross you usually champion on here. And I liked W3 in places but felt detached the whole time as though I was just pressing buttons to get through Geralt's story.

Mario Kart 8 as a classic: like I said it's the same game on a new system. I was under the impression a classic should display at least a faint glimmer of originality. Not a requirement for you, clearly. Do you like football? EA release a new FIFA classic literally every year. Hey, don't miss out!

Disco Elysium. As someone else pointed out it's a VN masquerading as an RPG. That's fine if you love VN's. I don't. It doesn't matter that you can shape your character so the tone of conversation changes in the VN, it's still a VN, not an RPG. RPG's require gameplay, ya know, actual gameplay.

So we come to the crux of it. Someone who loves adventure games that aren't 'any' kind of game and champions an RPG without any semblance of recognised gameplay whatsoever and eulogises over a AAA RPG with awful combat, no classes, forced main character, dire character progression, yeah, I think we have established you are easily the worst individual on this entire forum to get involved in what does or doesn't qualify as GOTY material.

Okay, Ghost is a close second, it might even be a tie, I'll give you that.

@blueinheaven: The Witcher 3 is widely viewed as a better game than Dragon Age Inquisition, so much so that it caused DAI to be viewed far more poorly in retrospect, and in turn, Bioware. That is the real history here.

TW3 does storytelling better, it does exploration better, and it manages to bind the exploration and world design with questing and storytelling far better than DAI does. In fact that aspect, Mass Effect Andromeda does better than DAI.

Mario Kart 8 actually adds to the mix like anti-grav. And it has a legacy, despite it being a 2014 Wii U game, it is the best selling Switch game ever. So it stands the test of time with flying colors.

Disco Elysium is closer to an RPG than any other RPG as it is the closest to matching the pen and paper roots of the genre. Disco Elysium also has one of the genre's best leveling and stat/skill/perk systems, all without having a combat system. You do not have to have a combat system to have RPG gameplay and Disco Elysium shows this.