God of War Ragnarok Gets Its First Game of the Year Award from TIME Magazine

God of war 2018 and Ragnarok are the greatest games of all time

Considering 2022 was another year that wasn’t exactly packed with bangers like 23 is shaping up to be, we should be thrilled we got GoW and Elden Ring months apart.

Who cares who wins, we all won.

@Colour i wonder if it's possible for them to tie.

I finished the main story (and about 90% of the game overall) last night. All the awards it gets will be well deserved, it's that good (I'm sure the same is true for Elden Ring, which I haven't played - not my kinda game).

I just finished it last night. Great game overall but I'd actually put Elden Ring, Plague Tale, Sonic Frontiers and Sifu above it personally. Congratulations to the team though.

Yes, it is GOTY for me. Spectacular game, a true masterpiece. 🙂

Elden Ring who? What is an Elden ring? Long live King Sony and the global PlayStation empire!!!

@Colour I'm going to stay VERY sceptical on this front until the end of 2023. At the end of 2021, everyone was saying how meh 2021 was but how wonderful 2022 looks, and now we're at the end of 2022, people are repeating that cycle for next year.

The best proof of this is that pushsquare published an article at the very beginning of this year saying exactly that! https://www.pushsquare.com/features/most-anticipated-ps5-ps4-games-of-2022?fbclid=IwAR1VHVX7sTvDzJeJlzxiPfPxeVCdTW49nYfefUi7Ih4oMbCtbqlsMRbgDFM

I'm sure 2023 will be good, but I'm just keeping my expectations in check.

@BranJ0 Very true, hopefully a lot of the stuff slated for 23 will actually come out. So I’ll say how great 23 should THEORETICALLY be lol

In other news, TIME magazine is still a thing! And they ranked The Quarry above Elden Ring. So, grain of salt, y'all.

This list is busted.

I feel like something is really wrong with me that I didn't connect with this game AT ALL. It's a quality AAA experience, that I felt nothing for. No like or dislike. Absolutely nothing, and after 20 hours uninstalled it and moved on. Again, the game has incredible production values, but I found the pacing to be all over the place and the level design very restricted and unimaginative compared to GOW 2018. Again, I get the reason the game is getting so much praise but I've never had a game like this just simply not do it for me. And I am sad and baffled about it.

@Americansamurai1 Loved 2018. Don't like Ragnarok.

The Quarry above Elden Ring. Now I've not played Elden Ring yet just not my cup of tea but holy cow the Quarry higher on a list than ER hilarious

The Quarry and Horizon above Elden Ring makes the list invalid as far as i'm concerned. The Quarry is decent but i mean come on.

God of war game of the year.god of war best games ever made.kratos the g.o.a.t. 🐐 👑.word up son

I can't believe that there are people out there that consider the Quarry to be a good game. It's like someone casually mentioning to you that Friday the 13th is their favorite movie series.

What went wrong?

I beat the game this morning before going to work. It was a fantastic game, and I’m excited to do the post game content and get the elusive platinum trophy. I may take a breather from the game though - I spent a solid 50+ hours overall. Right now, it’s an easy contender for my GOTY.

In no specific order, here are my **personal** current nominees for GOTY: God of War Ragnarok, Elden Ring, Neon White, A Plague Tale Requiem, Sniper Elite 5, Steelrising, and Horizon Forbidden West.

This is silly. Elden Ring is the better game. This game was marketed harder and has recently bias.

@Americansamurai1 Not even the best in the franchise. God of War 2 is the best GoW game.

@JohntheRaptor gow 2 is maybe the 4th or 5th best. Gow 3 is the best in the Greek saga.

@BranJ0 Yep it's the same old story. Just like new year resolutions. People just rinse and repeat. And like I easily predicted people saying they prefer GoW18 to Ragnarok. It's a tale as old as...they forget they're feeling that way because the second can't hit the same way as the first time of basically anything.

God of War Ragnarok is a great game, maybe even a 10/10 game. But it isn't innovative- it's a super polished version of the average video game experience. Elden Ring isn't close to average in any way- it's innovative, epic, and uniquely flavored in terms of art and story. I love Ragnarok, but Elden Ring deserves the Game of the Year award.

@Americansamurai1 I wasn’t blown away by GOW 2018 - it felt like it was holding its punches - but Ragnarok delivered more than I could have hoped. Together, they are incredible games. Took me 45 hours to platinum Ragnarok and I could quite easily have played another 45 hours after that. The game was completely satisfying but left me wanting more, the sign of a true masterpiece.

According to them Quarry is better than Elden ring. They may have smoked something special! 😆

@gipsojo it's only innovative if you haven't played any other From Soft game though to be fair

@ItsBritneyB_tch I feel like they're a big game. Kind of like a big movie that's broken up into two parts. Can't wait to see where they take the next one really hoping Egypt

@2here2there I really enjoyed The Quarry but I haven’t played Elden Ring as it doesn’t really appeal to me. Im just glad we have a good variety of games for everyone to enjoy.

@Americansamurai1 I think we'll see Kratos in old age reminiscing about his lost strength and agility... Bod of Yore.

@Americansamurai1 yeah definitely. I wish I had replayed GOW 2018 before starting Ragnarok. I watched the recap from the main menu but it didn’t go into much detail really. I’ll look forward to playing the remasters back-to-back on the PS6 though.

I really don’t think we’ll get another GOW game (unless they remake the original games). Ragnarok felt like the perfect ending to this story. Similar to how Uncharted 4 felt like a good ending for Nathan Drake.

@ItsBritneyB_tch to think we'll definitely get another one with the amount of money it generates plus the rumored tv series. The main character might not be kratos though.

@nofriendo lol not sure about that don't forget how ripped Zeus was.

I feel like I’m one of the few who is very underwhelmed by gow. The pace just feels so slow and it doesn’t feel as good as the first to me. Still an 8 out of 10 for me, by no means bad, but doesn’t feel game of the year quality to me like Elden ring.

Yes God Of War Ragnarok is my Goty 🐐
BTW if I'm not mistaken, God Of War Ragnarok was not even nominated to the Golden Joystick Awards so ED getting Goty in the GJ is not that impressive since God Of War wasn't there to stand against. Also The Golden Joystick Awards gave Elden Ring Best Multiplayer Award like for real?

@JohntheRaptor which is the better game is subjective Ragnarok is the better game for me because I've absolutely no interest in elden ring , if we go by visuals / performance Ragnarok is better , if we go for story Ragnarok is also better I can't say which is better gameplay wise

@gipsojo what exactly is innovative about elden ring it's literally just dark souls in an open world with no HUD lol

@Would_you_kindly
I would say Elden Ring innovated specifically because it's open world is so well designed it doesn't need a HUD. The world is designed in a way that looks fantastical yet believable. I'd just be walking along and then see something that catches my attention and proceed to investigate and surprise! I'd find a new dungeon or a secret boss or a hidden NPC or who knows what else.

Most open world do not operate like that because it's difficult to achieve. It usually goes...
1. Open map
2. Place waypoint marker on "?" mark
3. Head towards waypoint marker in game

To be clear I like open world games like that too but Elden definitely deserves props for its unique approach imo.

@Korgon I'm playing genshin impact at the moment & I'm always running into stuff like that

@gipsojo see I think the opposite. I don't see zero innovation in Elden. Its an unpolished open world dark souls that doesn't really do anything new. And I platinumed it. That said Ragnarok doesn't really do anything new either. The story is worlds apart though over Elden. But I'd actually put Horizon over both overall tbh

@Would_you_kindly
Hmm I definitely didn't get that from Genshin when I played it but I'm glad to hear you like it.

Completed the main story last night purposefully leaving alot of the side stuff to mop up after. I played a bit of Elden ring but as someone that favours a strong single player driven story in their games GOWR wins hands down for me. It didnt hit the same punches as the 1st one as i had already seen alot of the realms/vistas, characters etc but it was defenately a blast and a very polished blast right out the door. Had 1 bug that made me reload throughout the whole game. The production value is second to none and i really dig the lore too. Deffo my GOTY by a long shot.

Of course it is ,ive played elden ring and video games should be fun ,I didn't find it fun at all ,ive played most souls games and I'm rubbish at most of them, I just don't have the time or patience for them,until from software offer better accessibility options ,unfortunately I don't think ill buy another.

Ragnarok is by far the best game this year for me. Elden ring was fun and had more content and playtime, but that isn’t the decider for GOTY. It’s about quality and GOWR has everything beat in that department, it’s just sublime. That’s not to say elden ring doesn’t have quality content, one game doesn’t have to be bad for another to be great. They are both game of the gen level experiences and of course it comes down to personal preference. But damn… ragnarok just blew me away from start to finish and had me crying multiple times throughout the campaign. I’ve platted it now and it’s been a while since I felt so complete after finishing a game, if that makes sense! I was so hyped for it and it actually exceeded my expectations in every way. And it’s actually a very long game. Most games of this type are 20-30 hours with side content. I did everything in this game (and I mean literally everything - post game spoiler ——

Even the trolls/stone dragon and post game convos with tyr, love it) and it took me over 70 hours to get through. GOTY and I’ll be surprised if it’s not game of the gen. Will take something extremely special to knock it off that throne. But I hope something does! I love great games 🥹

@TeapotBuddha for me it’s ragnarok all the way. I preferred bloodborne and sekiro to elden ring. There were a few too many balancing issues during the game that left a bitter taste in my mouth . Even during the main games obligatory bosses. And the game is frankly too big and empty, yes it’s good to have lots of content, but the game is just too massive. It took 150 hours for my first playthrough to do everything and that is FAR longer than any other souls game took, the pacing just drags towards the last third (that being said, the end game and lead up to it were among the best parts of the game and in all soulsborne games, so it’s definitely still incredible).

And I’ve platted and ng+ every from soft soulsborne game except ds2 so there’s no git gud here lol. It’s still one of the games of the gen, a game doesn’t have to be bad for another to be great. But gowr beats it handily for me as my favourite gaming experience in years.

@Korgon elden is fantastic but as a souls game, sekiro and bloodborne are better imo. Elden is too big, and has a lot of balancing issues and reusing some bosses, feels too large exploring sometimes. I’ve platted and played to death all the games except ds2 and elden just didn’t have the same ultra polished feel for me by the end. Open world design always does this to games and although it’s still incredibly innovative in the open world department, it suffers because of that open world design.

That being said it’s still incredibly polished and is one of the best games of the gen. But ragnarok just beats it hands down for me in every way, incredible game. Need the dust to settle but I have a feeling it will be one of my all time faves now.

@Robinsad best game of the gen for me so far, need the dust to settle but it’ll be up there for a long time. Been a very long time since I was that hyped, then fully platted a game and saw everything it had to offer and felt so fulfilled afterwards with my hype being exceeded. Elden was definitely fantastic too though.

@ItsBritneyB_tch we will my friend - full spoilers for post game content… you have been warned.

In a spoiler cast director Eric Williams said the animations/poses that tyr does in the different animations when you find him around the realms hint at where they may go in the future. He is doing some tai chi poses in some cases, it’s definitely strange! So there’s something to it. But he hasn’t revealed plans as they are still doing just that, planning and so nothings concrete.

Given that atreus is off finding giants, Kratos is the new leader, and the mask leaves so many unanswered questions about what all that is about, couple with the fact that different mythologies have been hinted at since 2018… and I’m sure they had plenty of ideas for other pantheons before they even settled on Norse… the sales of these games is incredible (I don’t like the money angle but I honestly think these guys have a ton of ideas and wouldn’t continue if they knew they couldn’t nail it) there will definitely be another god of war imo.

Personally I can see there being some kind of invasion of Kratos’s realm, he killed the entire Greek pantheon, now he has taken over Asgard, some other pantheons may think they are next. Also atreus’s story is left up in the air and there can be a lot left to explore regarding Kratos’s new path as a leader/general. I mean, also have to bear in mind just how creative these guys are. I think the mask and the knowledge behind it would be interesting to explore from an Egyptian/Chinese/Japanese mythology angle, maybe they already have said knowledge and use it in some way.

Anyway it’s useless to speculate as they will likely go their own way but… the door is definitely still open!

@gipsojo innovation doesn’t dictate what GOTY is. And the innovation and going open world hurt it in some ways. It’s simply not as good a game as sekiro and bloodborne for me. Still absolutely fabulous though.

Whereas gowr is practically perfect and nails every aspect of what makes a game great for me. It’s simply astonishing they managed to top how 2018 to make as close to a perfect game as I’ve seen in a decade or more. GOTY? Probably GOTG for me, but I’ll happily have something else come along to knock it off that throne haha.

@Colour given that basically two game of the gen contenders came out this year, it’s one of the best years in gaming. FW was also great and there were a bunch of other great games. But ragnarok is the clear GOTY for me.

@themightyant nah I don’t think they wanted to move on, I think it was wanting to tell the story right coupled with not wanting fans to wait essentially 10 years since 2018 to get ragnarok. Also there are doors left open at the end of this for it to continue in VERY interesting ways. I’ll leave it at that but you would have to do some pretty vague post game content, and then look it up online and listen to some spoiler casts with the director Eric Williams to see what I mean I don’t think they are done with it yet 👌

@Tomc878
That's fair. I get that balance is an issue for some but considering the sheer amount of build variety available I'd say Elden Ring did pretty good there

Plus I could make a similar argument for Ragnarok in terms of balance as well but I digress. It's mostly the pacing that dragged Ragnarok down a bit for me. Without spoiling I'll just say there are specific "sections" in the main story I found to be just a chore to get through and not fun at all.

Ragnarok and Forbidden West I’d put over Elden Ring. But not The Quarry.

I’m going to admit I was wrong about this game earlier. I finally completed it, and the last half was far better than the first for me. It definitely had more of a wow factor and didn’t feel like just DLC or an expansion, like the first half felt. In particular, I was impressed by some of the boss battles in the latter half of the game, and the big plot twist pretty much blew my mind. I still have issues with some of the acting and the pacing of the game in the first half, which nearly made me put the game down. While I prefer Elden Ring, I definitely can see why this game deserves to be in the conversation for Gane of the Year.