The Game Awards 2023 GOTY nominations are sequel dominated
The revenge of the 2s, 3s and 4s (Issue #26)
The Game Awards is a perplexing ceremony that has slowly crept its way into popularity and importance for gamers over the past nine years or so.
Once a bizarrely overproduced Oscars aping television event on Spike TV, the Geoff Keighley-run show has slowly picked apart the still rotting corpse of E3 while keeping all of the previously mentioned corniness. Not only are The Game Awards a time for both crunched and non-crunched developers to get their flowers from the industry, but they’re also a showcase for colossal game teasers for the likes of Mortal Kombat 11 and Hideo Kojima’s last Metal Gear game. It’s arguably the biggest, most watched gaming event every year while Keighley and the gang keep trying to make Summer Games Fest happen.
2023 was packed with so many varieties of games, from remakes of old classics like Resident Evil 4 to brand new IPs looking to make a mark on every gamer who plays it, like Signalis. I’m still trying to catch up on Baldur’s Gate 3, Starfield and the Resident Evil 4 DLC. Still, the dominant franchises and neverending sequels populated most of the nominations for the 2023 Game Awards. While the games may be polished and fun at a surface level, the wonder for most gamers is whether any of these games will stand the test of time. Here are the Game of the Year nominees and a Lazy Desperado take on the main category:
Game of the Year
Alan Wake 2 (Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing)
Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios)
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (Insomniac Games/SIE)
Resident Evil 4 (Capcom)
Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
Lazy’s Take:
I was able to play four out of six of these games and finish most of them, so I have a pretty good grip on what is here. This category is solid, with an even representation of the biggest budget games that were anticipated for the year. Alan Wake 2’s spot is puzzling, albeit I haven’t gotten around to it, considering the game released less than a month before the nominations. The same goes for Super Mario Wonder. Whether the game took that spot because of Alan Wake’s anticipation from its cult followers or Keighley’s heavy coverage of it, I am not sure. I’m sure it deserves the entry, but it’s a bit odd to nominate games regular people have barely had a chance to sink their teeth into. Baldur’s Gate 3 is an anomaly to me, but from what I’ve seen no other game is letting players have this much choice, or have such a robust co-op experience.
I did enjoy almost every game I played on this list thoroughly. Super Mario Wonder is a fantastic follow-up to the “New” series and finally gets 2D Mario to feel fresh and fun after over a decade of stale rereleases and remasters. Levels vary wildly in the way you use the simple platforming controls and power ups and the difficulty is paltry but never so easy that it gets boring. It’s a blast with a friend or two, but can be just as fun alone. Really, the animations and overall aesthetic differences from the “New” series make Wonder stand out. Character expressions pop, animations are zippy and the new enemies leave their mark. This is a new chapter for the 2D Mario games, finally, and it’s a hopeful start.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is equal parts engaging and progressive, improving every little quirk about the previous two games to create a true-to-the-hero story for the player with plenty of challenge and fanservice surrounding it. The world feels lived in and realistic, showing characters with a variety of disabilities and differences more than any other game released this year.The combat scaling is much better than the first entry. While the player may feel overpowered at times if they blast through side objectives to level up, the game always tries to meet you where you are on the higher difficulties.
The story beats are familiar but shocking, with Insomniac taking core Spider-Man lore and making it their own. This game is a joy to play, from its perfected web-swinging and fast-paced missions to the nostalgia baked in by the costumes and references to past Spidey adventures. Both Spider-Man feel like flawed heroes making strides to improves, all while stumbling over and over along the way. Insomniac did a fantastic job at making their own Spider-Man universe. It doesn’t feel like a brand-deal laden licensed game made out of obligation. They made their own Spider-Man experience that will stand the test of time.
I feel extremely conflicted when it comes to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. I have not finished TOTK’s story, but have put in over 100 hours into its open world and know that I enjoyed it up to that point. The open-world Zelda games do not have nearly enough variety in its core gameplay loop to warrant such an overly long questline for the main mission. The combat is almost completely unchanged and stale after the amazement from the building powers, provided by Link’s new Ultrahand, and the new attachable arrow items wear off. Puzzles blend together a lot and outside of side missions, the game begins to feel very empty once you’ve collected a good chunk of the collectibles. Half of the side quests end up being repetitive tasks and the dungeons drag on at times.
I would not say something as egregious as “this game should have been DLC for Breath of the Wild.” This game is a big step up from BOTW, despite it having so many of the same quirks. The first few dozen of hours are filled to the brim with quests and discoveries and wonder. But, I am still confused why development for this game was so overblown considering most of the core controls, player actions and combat are exactly the same as Breath of the Wild. It is a fantastic game overall, but I can’t help but feel like gamers like myself who play more than one console and more than one open world game at a time are much more jaded on this entry in the series. It’s fun and inventive at first, but it personally petered out for me at a certain point. I may still return to Hyrule, but not while other games have my attention. Even considering all of that, I think it may be the best Zelda game of all time with fun dungeon designs, great twists to the previous game’s enemies and map, and a promise of a new discovery around every corner.
Resident Evil 4 is one of my most played games of the year, by far, with my fourth or fifth playthrough underway now. The game just works so well with its mix of original Resident Evil 4 mechanics and the new movement and actions presented in the previous remakes, Resident Evil 2 and 3. It’s still fast-paced, gory, schlocky action like we all remember from 2005 with less ogling of the president’s daughter and somehow more gore. It’s familiar, literally, with original set pieces exploded to an astronomic scale of grandiosity, but it all feels much better.
The mansion section is both elegant and eerie with the new lighting features and the underground Garrador fight is much more intense in close quarters. A timed boss fight was moved to the DLC, which I preferred. The flow of Resident Evil 4 from mission-to-mission, how Leon gets from point A to B, is much easier to follow. One-liners never stop as Leon keeps his scorn but jokey vibe from the original game. Leon is still a tongue-in-cheek action hero, but he shows more emotion and a sense of equality and comradery with Ashley. His decision making is more based in their difficult situation and less on his horniness for the woman he is escorting. As silly as the ever-faithful story is, we see get to Ashley as more of a person than an object without sacrificing the slapstick story with dynamite explosions, cult members swinging maces and mumbling Spanish or the over-the-top run and gun sections.
In every way it is an improvement on the original Resident Evil 4, hands down, and delivered one of the year’s most polished experiences.
Who should win?
I have not played it but I have a sneaking suspicion that Baldur’s Gate 3 will take this one. It’s player driven, non-linear and replayable almost infinitely from what other players have told me.
Personally, I think either Resident Evil 4 or Spider-Man 2 deserve the win. Both are not only a blast to play, with addictive gameplay loops and stellar performance, but showcase that games with previously explored environments can be polished and brought to a new level. Both games have gripping stories and action that only builds on its layers of complexity, in both numbers and how to deal with enemies. Zelda kind of did the same thing, but I enjoyed both of these games more. Resident Evil 4 is the first remake done right in years, with faithful recreations alongside expansions, and Spider-Man 2 honed in on making the previous formula better while making New York likeable AND livable, which is impossible.
That’s it for the GOTY opinions. As we get closer to the Game Awards on Dec. 7, expect another entry on my personal area of expertise - Fighting games.
Thank you for reading, see you soon. Never shut up. Keep organizing. Keep being loud and aggressive. Do not let decency stop you from defending yourself.