It will be Starfield's award to lose this year. For one reason only.......because it's a new IP. Zelda is a better version of BoTW and FF16 will be viewed as just another great FF game. Starfield and that "new" car smell going on.
I have played Zelda Tears of the Kingdom to completion it is an amazing game. All the way through and addresses almost every issue I had with BotW. Music just hits better, combat feels better and what story is there is good. We have dungeons, competent voice acting and a physics engine that shames the rest of the industry. I am also older and have played every Zelda game ever. The last Zelda game was a masterpiece and this continues that and in my opinion is better than BotW. It is one of the top 3 Zelda games ever up there with Link to the past and breath of the wild.
Final Fantasy has been going through a bit of a late life crisis. VII is good but criminally overrated where as VIII is criminally underrated. IX is an amazing game but gets lost in the shuffle due to VII's popularity and VIII's cult like following. X broke away from the feel of VII and VIII and is probably the last great single player Final Fantasy. XI and XIV are arguably the best in the entire series with XI being the true successor to V and XIV being the greatest redemption story in gaming ever, until now. CBUIII dropped a demo that has quite literally blown me away. I have multiple playthroughs with multiple hours to the point where I had to force myself to stop playing the Eikonic battle and get back to Manon labbing in SF6. For me a person that has played every single Final Fantasy game ever, this is almost a life long dream come true. Like what if Final Fantasy Tactics, the greatest FF ever was remade with today's tech but as an action rpg? That is how this feels. Outside of the combat being a dream, the story is good and very impactful, the graphics look very next gen to me and the music is the best I have heard this year and it isn't close at all. The whole thing could fall off a cliff but if the game keeps this same level of quality throughout it will be my game of the year and will be hard for even Tears of the Kingdom to beat it. It is also resonating with most of the female gamers that I know and a lot of female streamers which is a good sign and is generally a space reserved for Nintendo.
My only gripe is the performance in FFXVI, I do know we are playing on build 1.01 and they are on at least version 1.03. If that is cleaned up then it is going to be hard to beat a complete and polished game with no cutout slices to make DLC, no MTX cash shop, Comes day 1 with NG+, two different hard modes, and a Palace of the dead equivalent. This could be a return to form to when you had to own a main number FF.
Starfield, looks good, is on my most anticipated list, I'm in day 1. I haven't seen enough of it to make me believe that it is a game of the year contender. Everything they have shown has looked very good but I don't know much about the story and they have shown a lot of huge empty spaces. If there is a lot to do besides mining rocks, minerals and picking up sandwiches it could be a contender. They haven't shown me why I should think it is just yet. Everything they have shown is in No mans sky but Starfield looks a lot better. I really need to get a grasp of the story, none of the music they have revealed has done anything for me. The second you hear Fallout 4's intro music you know you are in for something special. I am super excited about the ship building and combat but learned that you cannot pilot your ship from point to point on the planets, it is a cut scene. I don't understand that as NMS allows this right now. That is a huge immersion breaker for me in an open world space game. I can even do that in scam citizen.
Spider Man 2 is in the same boat as starfield. Haven't seen enough to even consider it a goty contender.
Please don't sleep on other games that are already legit contenders.
Age of Wonders 4 has almost no presence on this forum and is absolutely a GOTY contender.
Baldurs Gate III is amazing even the beta deserves consideration.
Street fighter 6 is the best they have done since third strike, CVS 2 and the Alpha games.
RE4 could get considerations as well not sure how they treat remakes when it comes to awards.
Hogwarts legacy was a damn good game and sold gangbusters.
This has been an amazing year to be a gamer. Sorry wall of text.
www.biaslighting.com
hdr if well tuned in my LG c9 makes this game such a pleasure to look at
