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Starfield takes home the Golden Joystick Award for best Xbox Game of the Year 2023

BigLee74

Member
any of the major multiplats alone are far better. starfield is an embarrassment
Your hatred for Starfield is unparalleled! A magnificent achievement. Take a bow!

Conversely, it’s the best game I’ve played this year (although I admit I didn’t give HiFi Rush a fair crack - loved the first level, got sidetracked by another game, forgot the controls and never went back).
 
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IFireflyl

Gold Member
Which is bizarre in itself, SM2 was eligible for 5 categories, including ultimate GoTY, but not eligible for platform specific ones.



Golden Joystick Awards 2023 nominations criteria​

  • The game must have been released between November 23, 2022 and September 29, 2023 (when core 2023 voting begins).
  • Ongoing / online games which launched before this period are eligible for the ‘Still Playing’ and ‘Best Game Expansion’ categories.
  • Games set for release after November 10 (the day of our show), 2023 will be eligible for the Most Wanted award.
  • Games released between September 29, 2023 (when public voting opens) and November 10, 2023 (the day of the awards) will be considered for our critically selected categories, plus the voted categories Ultimate Game of the Year, Best Lead Performer and Best Supporting Performer.



Ah, so certain categories could have games nominated that were released after September 29th. That makes more sense, but what a confusing way to handle this.
 

Gavon West

Spread's Cheeks for Intrusive Ads
The game is good, there is no doubt about it. The issue is that the game isn't great. The Elder Scrolls games were better than Skyrim. Starfield deserves kudos, but it does not deserve awards. Nothing it did was amazing. Most of what it did was already done in other games. Bethesda did not release a flop with Starfield, nor can anyone call it a failure. But neither did they release anything extraordinary or groundbreaking.
Gotta hard disagree here. Starfield definitely pushed the open world genre forward a few steps. Nothing like it out there. The feeling of discovery and exploration is top notch.

I personally have never played a game where I was so immersed in the world, I recognized that I was wholly sold on the feeling from a game. I've experienced at least five times the "Halo" effect: when you first land on Halo, step off the ship and are blown away at the world around you. That shit is crazy!

The dog fights with other ships, ship building, gunplay, the visuals, the music! The fucking music is incredible, especially when it kicks up a notch when shit is about to go down. I was rocking SF last night while in a gunfight. While shooting at a couple of enemies, I guess I shot some huge tank. The explosion was massive! Killed near every enemy I was fighting. I was shook for a second, like, "yeah, bitch! Fuck around and find out???" I was still a bit confused as to what the hell I had been shooting at to cause such an explosion. Wild!

I didn't know what the hell I'd just done but that shit was epic AF! Starfield is the most epic open world game I've EVER played - especially this long, exclusively. Most open world games are daunting to me so I usually quit on them. Not this one. Thats is a first in my book.Crazy...
 

IFireflyl

Gold Member
Gotta hard disagree here. Starfield definitely pushed the open world genre forward a few steps. Nothing like it out there. The feeling of discovery and exploration is top notch.

This is subjective, but obviously we differ on our opinion. Discovery and exploration was no better than No Man's Sky.

I personally have never played a game where I was so immersed in the world, I recognized that I was wholly sold on the feeling from a game. I've experienced at least five times the "Halo" effect: when you first land on Halo, step off the ship and are blown away at the world around you. That shit is crazy!

It was cool the first couple of planets, but the planets were mostly lifeless and pointless.

The dog fights with other ships, ship building, gunplay, the visuals, the music! The fucking music is incredible, especially when it kicks up a notch when shit is about to go down. I was rocking SF last night while in a gunfight. While shooting at a couple of enemies, I guess I shot some huge tank. The explosion was massive! Killed near every enemy I was fighting. I was shook for a second, like, "yeah, bitch! Fuck around and find out???" I was still a bit confused as to what the hell I had been shooting at to cause such an explosion. Wild!

The ship battles were fun.

I didn't know what the hell I'd just done but that shit was epic AF! Starfield is the most epic open world game I've EVER played - especially this long, exclusively. Most open world games are daunting to me so I usually quit on them. Not this one. Thats is a first in my book.Crazy...

Starfield had moments of greatness sprinkled through an average game. It's good, but it isn't fantastic. Without mods I would never even play it again. Obviously it's fine that you disagree. This is my opinion after all.
 

LordCBH

Member
This is subjective, but obviously we differ on our opinion. Discovery and exploration was no better than No Man's Sky.

I’d say discover and exploration were no better than FO4 or Skyrim. The only true difference was it was on different maps with a lot of loading screens in Starfield.

Fun game and I really like it, but a solid 80% of the actual exploration is crap with procedurally generated garbage worlds.
 
No one is coping. Lol. Starfield is a huge success on many levels. It will continue to sell and be played long after most games this year. Pretending it isn't just for reasons, is more like coping. Keep it a 1000 bro. Seriously.
Sorry to burst your bubble. But Starfield is a massive disappointment and is growing. Bethesda knows that and that is all that matter.

Regarding its success... of course; it had a massive marketing campaign. Just like the star wars sequel trilogy for example.
 

Fredrik

Member
Just in time for Starfield player numbers to drop below Skyrim on steam. 21.2k on Skyrim/SSE and 20.8k on starfield. We reached the crossover point.
Did you update the page? Starfield is above now (25k) and 24-hour peak too (30k). It always go up during weekends when people have time to play it, was up at 50k last weekend.
But they’re essentially even. And that’s bad. Thought it would take until december to go down to 20k.
Not sure if the beta drags the numbers down, I got a title update in my library, might be treated as a new app in the stats.
 

Gavon West

Spread's Cheeks for Intrusive Ads
This is subjective, but obviously we differ on our opinion. Discovery and exploration was no better than No Man's Sky.



It was cool the first couple of planets, but the planets were mostly lifeless and pointless.



The ship battles were fun.



Starfield had moments of greatness sprinkled through an average game. It's good, but it isn't fantastic. Without mods I would never even play it again. Obviously it's fine that you disagree. This is my opinion after all.
The planets arent all pointless and lifeless. The exploration and the unknown is what drives you to explore and see what you find. If nothing heavy or super interesting is happening, I usually gather resources or build an outpost. There's so much you can do, I'm surprised anyone finds the game boring.

9 times out of ten, if I was visiting some strange planet, another ship would break through the sound barrier and land. Id go start some shit and jack the ship of nothing else.

Granted, not all the planets are interesting. Some of them are essentially spinning, empty rocks. That said though, I'll gaze off in the distance and see a moon or another planet not far from where I currently am, get back on my ship and travel there. That's pretty wild to experience as well. For me, at least.

I'm sure it doesn't vibe with everyone but, the game is so massive, with so many systems and gameplay loops you can do, no two people will experience the same game. That used to be something you'd only hear of in a game on one planet or one city. This happens in space on many planets. For me, that's epic science fiction.
 
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Gavon West

Spread's Cheeks for Intrusive Ads
Sorry to burst your bubble. But Starfield is a massive disappointment and is growing. Bethesda knows that and that is all that matter.

Regarding its success... of course; it had a massive marketing campaign. Just like the star wars sequel trilogy for example.
You're trying waaaaay too hard. I can almost smell the wood burning. Relax my guy...lol
 
Rush sounded like the better game but whatever. I didn't play Redfall but I honestly think I'd rather play the updated version of that over Starfield. I think Starfield is probably the most disappointing game I've ever played.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
It’s mediocre at best.

Nobody is going to be talking about it next year.

Skyrim it ain’t.
Never said it was Skyrim. But people will still be talking about it. Like every other game these days, it will be patched and improved. It will get better over time. And people will still bring up how they think it's mediocre when Microsoft has some successful buzz, just like folks are doing in this thread.
 
Starfield absolutely does not solve that.

I’d say discover and exploration were no better than FO4 or Skyrim. The only true difference was it was on different maps with a lot of loading screens in Starfield.

Fun game and I really like it, but a solid 80% of the actual exploration is crap with procedurally generated garbage worlds.

Skyrim is TES V. Bethesda formula perfected over multiple installments.

Same goes for Fallout games.

Starfield needs quests on planet surface. That encourages exploration of a planet for a hour or so. No question about that.

That seems simple task compared to what they have already built.

So, it takes genre forward.

The Witcher 3, Breath Of the Wild, God of war 2018, Elden Ring. They actually pushed Open World design forward. Starfield comes across as amateurish in this regard.

Witcher 3 at its release probably did it.

Downside of it is it's a simple enough design for every other developer to copy it. Such games are dime a dozen now.

God of War is more like a Darksiders 1 & 2 copy. No idea why you included that here.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Starfield didn't try hard enough, my dude. That's for sure.

This GOTY awards was just a consolation award.

I'm just glad Baldur's Gate 3 and Larian won Studio of the year.

"this award was a consolation"
"but not the other one, i'm glad about that one"


200w.gif
 

Gavon West

Spread's Cheeks for Intrusive Ads
lol talk about trying hard,
reply to each and every steam review next, im sure you can convince the world its a "phenomenal goty"
You hurtin, buddy? Is it painful? Jfc.

It's funny how haters are always trying to tell you how to feel about a game. If you don't vibe with it, that's cool. Not sure why my speaking positively about it erks you so much. Go vibe with whatever game you vibe with and let it be, broski. Acting like a Mark on a gaming enthusiast forum ain't it though...
 
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midnightAI

Member
Ah, so certain categories could have games nominated that were released after September 29th. That makes more sense, but what a confusing way to handle this.
I hate game of the year awards before the year ends anyway, why not just hold them in January
 
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ReBurn

Gold Member
Your hatred for Starfield is unparalleled! A magnificent achievement. Take a bow!

Conversely, it’s the best game I’ve played this year (although I admit I didn’t give HiFi Rush a fair crack - loved the first level, got sidetracked by another game, forgot the controls and never went back).
He's really embarrassing himself in this thread. Seems legitimately upset that some people like something he doesn't. Vehement disagreement with everyone doesn't make the award go away.

Starfield isn't the best game I've ever played. It doesn't redefine its genre. But I think it's a good game and it's the most fun I've personally had on Xbox this year. I'm sure it won't win any top awards, but an award in its category isn't totally unwarranted.
 

damidu

Member
You hurtin, buddy? Is it painful? Jfc.

It's funny how haters are always trying to tell you how to feel about a game. If you don't vibe with it, that's cool. Not sure why my speaking positively about it erks you so much. Go vibe with whatever game you vibe with and let it be, broski. Acting like a Mark on a gaming enthusiast forum ain't it though...
lol touch some grass, or better yet run around some empty planets on your goty. broski
 
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Fredrik

Member
So RE4 was good enough to win the Playstation game of the year, but not good enough to even be nominated for Xbox.
Confused Thinking GIF
As always, with all these awards. It’s a PR jippo and they want engagement. Goes for all of them. Geoff’s too which will cause a bunch of carefully crafted noise next week. Those coordinating it want to drive people to the website.

Look:

PlayStation Game of the Year​

  • Final Fantasy 16
  • Resident Evil 4 (winner)
  • Street Fighter 6
  • Humanity
  • Armored Core 6: Fires Of Rubicon
  • Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

Xbox Game of the Year​

  • Starfield (winner)
  • Chants of Sennaar
  • Hi-Fi Rush
  • Planet of Lana
  • Dead Space
  • Pentiment
Genius. Look at the number of multiplats and there is not one game nominated on both platforms. Brilliant of course. Having the same multiplats on two platforms nominated will drive less people to the website than having different games on both so fans of 12 games clicks on links compared to just 6. It’s about money.💰
 

Drizzlehell

Banned
I haven't even played Hi-Fi Rush and I still feel like it was more deserving. If only for that one video that I saw of that game where you fought a boss to Nine Inch Nails' 1,000,000.

Fuck, this reminds me that I really need to play this game.

Anyway, it goes without saying, but Starfield was massively overhyped.
 

Jigsaah

Gold Member
In a year without games like like Baldur's Gate 3 and Phantom Liberty, Starfield would be considered a great game. I still consider it a good game. I gave it an 8/10 I think. Just like Skyrim though, it's gonna take the modding community to really bring out the best in the game. Same as Fallout 3 and 4 and pretty much any Bethesda game that's not Dishonored.

That being said, Bethesda needed to shed that Creation engine a decade ago. The formula has stayed well beyond it's welcome. Congrats on the dub, but I hope they don't take this as "we're doin' it right". I'm sure they've seen all the criticism. They just need to sift through what's constructive and what's blatant fanboy logic, and improve things for Elder Scrolls VI. Jesus Christ creation engine for Elder Scrolls VI would be...depressing.
 

TheSHEEEP

Gold Member
In a year without games like like Baldur's Gate 3 and Phantom Liberty, Starfield would be considered a great game. I still consider it a good game. I gave it an 8/10 I think. Just like Skyrim though, it's gonna take the modding community to really bring out the best in the game. Same as Fallout 3 and 4 and pretty much any Bethesda game that's not Dishonored.
Modders cannot fix the loading screen simulator.
Modders cannot fix the lamest story ever in the lamest setting ever to grace the scifi genre. Space cowboys, come the fuck on! 'Murica, fuyaeeaa... except I'm not 12 anymore...
Modders cannot fix the abnormally terrible dialogue.
Modders cannot fix the horrible mission design (especially in the main story).

Modders can possibly fix the combat, the skill trees (get these five useless skills to get that that one you actually want...), some parts of the graphics and maybe some parts of the worst procedural generation since Daggerfall (funny enough, old Bethesda couldn't do that well, either, though at least it was technically impressive back then).

I don't know, man.
Even modded to "perfection", this would barely scratch a 7/10.
 
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Jigsaah

Gold Member
Modders cannot fix the loading screen simulator.
Modders cannot fix the lamest story ever in the lamest setting ever (space cowboys, come the fuck on! 'Murica, fuyaeeaa... ) to grace the scifi genre.
Modders cannot fix the abnormally terrible dialogue.
Modders cannot fix the horrible mission design (especially in the main story).

Modders can possibly fix the combat, the skill trees (get these five useless skills to get that that one you actually want...), some parts of the graphics and maybe some parts of the worst procedural generation since Daggerfall (funny enough, old Bethesda couldn't do that well, either, though at least it was technically impressive back then).

I don't know, man.
Even modded to "perfection", this would barely scratch a 7/10.
Eh...loading screens don't bother me much. Depends on whether you're just trying to blow through the game or take your time. I was taking my time, admittedly.
I don't really play Starfield for the story either. I play it for the other features of the game. Mainly ship building, base building...side quests. I got to level 27 before I even touched the main quest. When I did start the mainstory though...have to agree, the writing was terrible and I made sure Same Coe died twice.
I found at least 2 to 3 skills that were useful for my playthrough and maxing them out allowed me access to the skills that I was aiming for. So I don't really mind the skill tree too much.
My Starfield is heavily modded even now. I get highframes, the color LUTs are gone, Inventory is beautiful. Women walk around in yoga pants, I have Mjolnir Armor. I also recreated the constellation NPCs in the character creator and copied my preset to those character to make them look better. Modding is half the fun in the game for me.

Sorry you couldn't find enjoyment with it.
 
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CatLady

Selfishly plays on Xbox Purr-ies X
Starfield being considered the best Xbox game on 2023 says a lot about that platform

Sony not even having a single Sony first party game considered for best PlayStation game says a lot about that platform.

Starfield is my choice for GotY so I'm glad it won, although I'm kind of surprised Forza MS wasn't considered, but maybe it didn't make the cutoff or something.
 
Not surprised, it's a solid game, just not something you can be casual about. You have to go into the game and it has to be focused on and dedicated to. Not that many people are willing to do that right now with so many amazing games floating around.

Those saying it's a "bad game" without even playing it are exposing their own biases here.
 
In some cases, absolutely, different taste and all that. But when it’s said to be some 5/10 worst AAA release in recent times or whatever as some kind of fact I just roll my eyes and keep scrolling down to read opinions from people not attempting to troll or start time-wasting discussions.

If you look at all the major releases this year, it is by far the worst.

Let's not forget Edge, Eurogamer gave it a 6/10. IGN and GameSpot both gave it a 7/10. These are major publications that get tons of visibility. And the Steam reviews are not good. Are all these people just trolling?

The fact is, there are people that generally do not like the game at all and wouldn't have it come anywhere close to a GOTY in even the lightest of release years, let alone 2023 where there have been tons of spectacular game. That's not trolling, it's just reality. You disagree. That's fine. But let's not pretend this is a defacto masterpiece of genius that's universally praised. It is not.
 
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Dane

Member
There's a significant amount of people that disagree with you. That doesn't make it peer pressuring or bullying to have a disagreement with your stance. The user scores are not good for this game. And the metacritic is far below the accolades you are lavishing upon it. Objectively, these aspects show that you are an outlier in your opinion (which you are entitled to)

My personal opinion is that it's one of the worst big budget AAA games I've ever played, and given that it was a big reason why I purchased an Xbox Series X, I am extremely disappointed with how it turned out (thankfully, GamePass has been quite good recently otherwise). The writing is atrocious, the characters are infantile one note caricatures, the quest design is extremely basic, tedious, and uninteresting, the combat is merely serviceable (but horribly balanced), and the infrastructure of the game's systems are so awfully designed that it's an absolute chore to play this game. A myriad of awful, poorly planed and integrated systems wrapped in some of the worst UI I've witnessed. And to top it all off, there's zero meaningful exploration and design for 99% of this game. It's just flatout dull, pedestrian, outdated, and would be easily forgotten about had it not received an enormous amount of hype and graphical polish.

The only positives I can list for it are that the soundtrack at times is good and the art design (at times, for the interiors) is fantastic. But everything gameplay or story related is an enormous blunder. Many people agree with me on this.
Not saying on his case, but definetely i've seen cases where someone who talks anything good about this game will get shat on as if the person commited the greatest sin on the earth, even very strict reviewers like ACG who gave a positive review had comments swarmed just like the opposite for the 7/10 by IGN and Gamespot. It also doesn't help that there's a major revisionism "Fallout 3 and BGS always sucked, New Vegas GOAT" being fueled for years, as if nobody ever liked F3 at all.
 
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Not saying on his case, but definetely i've seen cases where someone who talks anything good about this game will get shat on as if the person commited the greatest sin on the earth, even very strict reviewers like ACG who gave a positive review had comments swarmed just like the opposite for the 7/10 by IGN and Gamespot.

I think this is a very divisive game. You either enjoy the outdated types of game Bethesda makes or you have grown past them and can no longer enjoy them for what they are. I'm decidedly in this camp. I thought Starfield was going to be a major improvement to the style of games they make, but it's clearly not and in many ways Starfield is a regression (exploration, etc).

That being said, everything about it....works. It's not completely broken. But for many people it's just not worth the time investment and isn't very compelling to play, especially when there's so many better alternatives this year.
 

RickMasters

Member
Starfield is my GOTY, currently at more than 250 hours into it, but what is up with these nomination lists? Are they going with exclusives only? If so where is Forza Motorsport, and why the heck would Chants of Sennaar or Dead Space Remake be on this list? If it includes all third party games then why choose the ones they did? Neither Chants of Sennaar or Dead Space Remake should legitimately be anywhere near a GOTY list with so many other amazing games out this year. So weird. I feel exactly the same about the best Playstation game nomination list and winner as well. Weirdest nonsensical nomination list ever.
for me it’s between hi fi rush, forza and star field. Penitent was a nice diversion from my normal stuff but not GOTY levels to be honest. I’m just glad I got four descent exclusives out of MS this year. It’s a damn shame redfall wasn’t descent too…. Could have been a nice game had they delayed it by another 6-8 months. But all the same. Not a bad year at all. Was rounded off with cyber punk becoming what it’s supposed to be, no man’s skys sentinel update, lies of P, Alan wake 2, cocoon, robocop, armoured core six , two new yakuza games that are really good ( ishin and the man who erased his name, make gamepass worth it alone right now even before All the other good stuff)as far as good 3p games. And fuck!…… halo is great again!


Next year we should have hellblade 2, avowed, stalker 2 and some others to debate about which is the best Xbox exclusive for 2024. Fingers crossed they set a new bar for Xbox first party and raise expectations going forward, for all the right reasons….But this year has certainly been a sign of things getting better for us Xbox owners. Sure they ain’t knocked it out the park yet but I’m liking the way things are looking.



Don’t really care for all this game of the year stuff but yo…… it’s been a good year with a lot of good games no matter what system you are rockin with.


On a side note… ready to add a switch 2 in the new year when that comes out! Woohoo!
 

RickMasters

Member
As always, with all these awards. It’s a PR jippo and they want engagement. Goes for all of them. Geoff’s too which will cause a bunch of carefully crafted noise next week. Those coordinating it want to drive people to the website.

Look:

PlayStation Game of the Year​

  • Final Fantasy 16
  • Resident Evil 4 (winner)
  • Street Fighter 6
  • Humanity
  • Armored Core 6: Fires Of Rubicon
  • Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

Xbox Game of the Year​

  • Starfield (winner)
  • Chants of Sennaar
  • Hi-Fi Rush
  • Planet of Lana
  • Dead Space
  • Pentiment
Genius. Look at the number of multiplats and there is not one game nominated on both platforms. Brilliant of course. Having the same multiplats on two platforms nominated will drive less people to the website than having different games on both so fans of 12 games clicks on links compared to just 6. It’s about money.💰


What’s even more bizzare is I own pretty much all the PS nominees on my Xbox. Why were no sf6, RE4, AC6 or star wars on the Xbox side? I’m sure they would have had a shot. I’m voting AC6 as my personal fave game of the year personally. Then forza. One has mechs, the other has cars. But if I’m talking XB exclusives then yeah it’s gotta be between hi fi Rush, forza and starfield.

You think they would have Atleast put ballers gate 3 on the list if that’s what they were gonna do. And Not even A mention of Spider-Man! Pretty poorly thought out award show. How do you leave Spider-Man and balders gate 3 off the PS5 list?
 
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