Topic: Game of the Year 2022

So it’s always looked like a heavyweight showdown between Elden Ring and God of War: Ragnarok for the gong (well for me at least)… and it’s turned out that way. I absolutely loved Elden Ring, it was amazing how From transposed their formula into an open-world (& what an open world). At the time I actually felt that it had usurped Bloodborne as my favourite game of all time… but for whatever reason, time has seen the latter take the imaginary throne back. Maybe a little recency bias there at the time…

… which brings me to God of War: Ragnarok . I’m now around 20 hours in and… it’s incredible! I initially thought that it was very good but that Elden Ring was still my clear GotY. Then about 10-15 hours in I thought GoWR might actually have a chance… and right now it’s gonna be my number one for 2022. The way Sony Santa Monica combines such a rich narrative, beautiful imagery… and combat that is up there Bloodborne and Nioh (though quite different) as my favourite combat systems in all of gaming. What an experience they have crafted.

Obviously these two aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, so I’d be interested to hear what other peoples GotY has been.

For my it is Xenoblade Chronicles 3, very closely followed by Elden Ring.

For me - Elden Ring without a shadow of doubt. Whilst it wasn't my first FromSoft game, nor is it my overall favorite (#Sekiro), it was the first FS game I played at launch from Day #1.... and what an incredible experience that was.

Playing fresh before all the spoilers came out, discussing with other people what we'd recently discovered, and just feeling utter 'immersion' within an excited/buzzing community was incredible.

So many memories.... thinking I'd never beat Margitt, to then finally winning and going back to help other players beat him also!

I'm not debating the greatness of Ragnarok, which I've not played but understand it to pretty immaculate.... BUT Elden Ring was just 'something else' completely. An absolute experience.

On a separate note - I do wonder how HFW and Ragnarok would have been received if their respective release windows had been swapped. Would Ragnarok have been dwarfed by ER if released same month? And would HFW have received more critical acclaim and applaud if it had landed in this otherwise-empty Q4 window?

Final comment - really hope that TMNT: Shredder's Revenge gets some love, such a fun game and would love to see it scoop at least 1 award!!

@CJD87 That’s an interesting thought experiment. It would be fascinating to see if GoW Ragnarok and HFW swapped release dates how that changes things, including public and critical reception. I think HFW would like get a slight bump in the public conscientious if released by itself. And I wonder if journalists would have felt comfortable giving out two 10/10’s back to back to ER and GoW. Methinks not. Which one would have suffered is hard to say.

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As for the question at hand, I would say my GOTY is Gran Turismo 7. Because guess what— it’s the only 2022 release I played this year! 😅 But that doesn’t detract from its greatness and I believe it’s deserving of some GOTY votes regardless. I’ve had to force myself to pull away from it and move on to other games. And I’m not even a racing enthusiast.

If we include all games I’ve played this year for a “personal GOTY” then it becomes a more difficult question. In that case for me it’s probably The Last of Us Part II. It’s just such an amazing game and although I had my issues with it, the game is one of those that gets under your skin and invaded your thoughts even months after you finish it. Demon’s Souls Remake would be right behind it; followed by GT7, with an honorable mention for Guardians of the Galaxy.

i have no idea man, if were going by just a game i enjoyed the most that released this year..i have no idea man. not saying there werent any games that got my interest , but unfortunately nothing that made me excited playing it or blowing me away. really wanted gotham knights to be my game of the year but, yeah

seems like people here on pushsquare are always excited with a game , i need some of that energy . am i even a gamer ? >_>

These are my GOTY 2022.
No jokes, I really meant it because these games really impressed me much during year 2022.

This photo is directly taken from my PS4 games collection.

@JudgeDredd I'm going with GTA3 for my 2022 GOTY. I played it again recently and was impressed by how much it exceeded my admittedly low expectations.

For me personally it is A Plague Tale Requiem. Loved every minute of it. The graphics, the voice acting, the intense music and atmosphere. Sometimes it was hard to see it was an AA game.

A Plague Tale Requiem gets my vote, but I also loved the Ninja Turtles releases this year.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Triangle Strategy, and Elden Ring would be my top three, in that order. Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak is technically DLC, but I've also had a great time with it.

@kyleforrester87 How fareth XC3, BTW? I recall you were just finishing Ch. 4 last time we spoke.

@Ralizah I’m on chapter 7 collecting the special metals, I’ve had some gaps between playing recently - I am just mainlining the story now or honestly I am never going to get it finished!!

I have Triangle Strategy up next on Switch.

Ghostwire Tokyo there’s something about methodically exploring and collecting that this game really nails. I love a good jumping puzzle and there were so many skyscrapers to work out how to get on top of. I also walked across the area about three years ago and it was really cool recognising places this had been in real life in the game distorted.

@Ryall as a checklist kinda guy, your explanation of Ghostwire Tokyo really appeals to me. I’ll look forward to playing it.

@kyleforrester87 I get that. I burned through the majority of the major content in the game (including nearly all of the hero and ascension quests) in about three weeks or so. Well over a hundred hours in by that point. There was probably 50+ more hours of stuff to do in the post-game, which doesn't even include any of the DLC additions, but at that point, I realized I was ready to just move on to other stuff, regardless of how impressive the experience had been overall.

Still excited for the expansion, though. If it's anything like Torna, it'll be large (30+ hours, at least) and on par with or better than the base release in terms of writing and presentation.

Triangle Strategy is massive if you play it multiple times (there's so much new content on an NG+ run that it practically feels like a new experience), but a single playthrough is on the shorter end of the modern JRPG spectrum; my first run took a little over 40 hours, and that's with doing all of the purely optional side content available on a first playthrough as well. So whether you end up falling in love with it or not, it shouldn't consume your free hours quite as ravenously as a Xenoblade game.

For games that released this year, I'd say Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (Switch), followed by Stray (Steam) & Kirby & the Forgotten Land (Switch) in no particular order, then LEGO Star Wars: the Skywalker Saga (Steam) behind them.

Just got a PS5 about a month ago so haven't had the time to start GoW: Ragnarok, but I definitely plan on getting to it.

Still Shredder's Revenge. It was everything I want in a beat-em-up and TMNT game. Bayonetta 3 and God of War: Ragnarök get honorable mentions. Easily my 3 favorites of the year so far. Maybe The Callisto Protocol will get onto that list as well.

No.
I hate every single rated M games that nominated for Game Award 2022.
My votes only from my GOTY 2022, Epic Chef PS4 and Youtubers Life 2 PS4.
I only play kids games.

Elden Ring is the only 2022 release I’ve played this year so I guess that.

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika, @JudgeDredd, it's no use trying to discuss this with him.

He's much more active on NL where he's explained that he dislikes popular western IP (superheroes, Ninja Turtles, Transformers, Star Wars, etc.) & games with realistic art direction (Gran Turismo, Fifa, Horizon, probably even Stray) just as much as actual "M" rated games, and kinda considers them all sort of the same thing.

Nothing wrong with him liking what he likes, but at this point most people have learned to just let him say what he's going to say without debating it with him. I think he even said he won't play any Final Fantasy past X (or XII) as it's become too "M" rated inspired with their progressively more realistic art direction.

Maybe an obvious pick, but I'd be surprised if anything topples Ragnarok for me this year. I didn't love 2018 GOW, or even particularly like it on a replay and I also think a lot of reviews really oversell Ragnarok.

However, I've probably played only three games this year that made me pop at hype moments, laugh out loud at funny moments and genuinely cry at emotional moments, and Ragnarok is the only one of the three that was released this year.