God of War, Sony Exclusives Dominate The Game Awards Nominees

I feel like Elden Ring made the biggest splash this year.

Considering it was the only game on the GOTY list that I played, I'm hoping for Stray 100%

Stray sure is a choice.

GOW:R & EldenRing are going to clean up.
No idea which will come out on top for goty though.

Stray?!?! No way it should be in the GoTY category.

Stray is a good indie game, it didn't do anything so amazingly well that it should be nominated for GOTY, same with Horizon for me. The other games I agree with but it's probably between Ragnarok and Elden Ring.

If god of war Ragnarok win the game of year award this year Twitter gonna be fun for a day .

God of War Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West and A Plague Tale: Requiem. Can't go wrong with any of those games winning GotY in my opinion.

Being held at Microsoft stadium ... Isn't that abit of a conflict of interest lol

It's strange. I don't watch the game awards and I'm very indifferent about who wins but I always vote...
Elden Ring was my goty (about 6 votes from me altogether) with Neon White, Splatoon 3 and Ragnarok getting I believe 2 each from me as well.
It's hit me this year though why these awards aren't more geared towards games? Like what about best Weapon, or Boss battle, or level design, or game balance or motion capture artist. They really do feel closer to what you'd expect in a awards show for movies.
Also kind of tired of voting for best ongoing game when they the same nominees every year (it's Monday and I'm tired! I'm in the mood to complain!) But I suppose it can't be helped. Those games are still going for a reason.

@Would_you_kindly Microsoft don't have any games so it doesn't matter.

Plague Tale and Stray were good but they weren't game of the year good. Haven't played Ragnarok yet so can't comment on that one yet, but I have played HFW, Elden Ring and Xenoblade chronicles 3, and all 3 of them are amazing games but my vote has to go to xenoblade chronicles 3, best jrpg I've played in a very long time.

Neon White isn't a debut game!

TGA actually decided to not ignore Xenoblade Chronicles 3? Am I dreaming?

Bayonetta 3 better than at least 3 of those games listed for game of the year off tops. The game of year list is embarrassing.

Plague? Lmao.

Bayonetta 3 should have been there

@jrt87

Horizon 3 is def happening.

I want Xenoblade 3 to win but already know it will be Elden Ring or GOW Ragnarok. Not that either of those are bad games, I just liked Xenoblade 3 more

Haven't finished gowr yet, but I think hzd and gow2018 were better games at their moment compared to the sequels. Still half way done in gowr, so things could change, but so far... er wins it.

@jrt87 I thought I was the only one. I quite enjoyed Zero Dawn but after playing Forbidden West I've lost a lot of interest in the series.

Elden Ring for me personally. The game blew up at the time and the critical praise was huge.

They act like they are giving us a choice, we all know ER is going to win because of how it was praised (by journalists) for months

1. A Plague Tale: Requiem
2. Elden Ring
3. God of War Ragnarok
4. Horizon Forbidden West
5. STRAY
6. Xenoblade Chronicles 3

You can play 5 out of the 6 GOTY nominated games on PlayStation. Access to the top games - what sells PlayStation.

It was Elden Ring for me. But After playing GOW over the weekend, I will hold off judgement until I finish it. Tough choice.

@SamMR I agree. There should be no video game reviews because they influence people. It's not fair.

Elden Ring’s the best game I’ve played in the last few generations to be honest, so I’d go for that. Don’t know when the cutoff was but Vampire Survivors and Pentiment have been absolutely snubbed considering that Stray is there, as well as the wholly unremarkable Horizon Forbidden West.

I'm honestly surprised Xenoblade 3 is getting GOTY nominations. I mean I would want a Xenoblade game to get nominated and even win as impossible as that is but just not that one. I don't believe 1 got nominated goty for any awards show and that game is way more deserving of it

I feel bad because there hasn't been one single second where I understood the hype for Elden Ring. I really want to enjoy what so many are enjoying but I don't get it at all and it's kind of a bummer.

I generally don't care who gets nominated or not but I gotta say Sonic Frontiers got disrespected. Not even a nomination for soundtrack? Come on man!

Cool to see Plague Tale get nominated multiple times though. Game is a masterpiece. So far my GOTY is Elden Ring though.

2022 was a real sleeper year. Can't wait to see the list for 2023. THAT one will be difficult to decide who wins what.

Yeah God Of War gets my GOTY easily

@bozz I liked it but it's definitely my least favourite Soulsborne game if you don't like it that's perfectly ok don't let anyone tell you otherwise (Again we all know what From Soft stans can be like 😅)

Harry McEntire not being nominated for Best Performance in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is total robbery honestly. None of the nominees did what Harry did in Chapters 5 and 6

Acting like HFW is one of the worst games of this year is one of the funniest things I've read all year, absolutely ridiculous. Be really surprised if it wasn't either ER or Ragnarok getting the actual goty this year

I voted for God of war Ragnarok, no other game even comes close to it's quality.

Great to see Plague Tale there, it's up in there in the top 2 GOTYs for me. Surprised to see Stray.

Oh and I REALLY hope Sunny wins best performance he deserves it so much he was phenomenal in God Of War IV but in Ragnarok he was 10X better his performance was nothing short of sensational I think it'll be kinda bull if he doesn't win

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 deserves the win here in my opinion, but there's no universe where it comes close to winning because it isn't "cool" enough, kinda hate gaming culture sometimes.

Yo, Xenoblade Chronicles 3! Probably won't win in any category, but still nice to see it there. Absolutely my favorite game released this year.

@uptownsoul As opposed to the widespread movement to make TLOU2 out to be a bad game? Or Elden Ring? Those games have way more hatred centred around them to be honest. I just didn’t really find myself enjoying Horizon much at any point, plus the story was a bit wank at times. The Frozen Wilds was great but I mostly slogged through the first one too unfortunately.

The awards seem an afterthought for an awards show. Ah well, I won't lie and say I don't actually tune in for all the game trailers.

@Hindenburg I only got through 10 hours of Elden Ring before realizing the grind may not be for me however, I've got absolutely no issue with it winning game of the year. It's brought From Software games to the masses and clearly does a very specific type of game incredibly well, so much so that many developers are imitating the formula. I might continue with it when my backlog is somewhat cleared (probably impossible as an adult!). I'm yet to play Ragnarok but I know it'll be bloody tops.

lol I feel like I'm the only person that actually hated Elden Ring maybe not hate but bored to the point I just refused to finish it.

I find it odd Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart didn’t get any nominees in any categories is baffling

@TJ81 I play souls games on PC so I can cheatengine my health up a little bit and enjoy exploring with only a fraction of the deaths. 15 year old me was willing to grind or collect stuff, but 25 year old me has no time for bs.

God of goats 🐐 👑 of war for the win.word up son

@Beerheadgamer82 Don't exactly know what happened to the commenters on here. It's just awful to read, acting like HFW is the baddest thing ever meanwhile this is a game sitting at 88 on Metacritic. I'll be glad if Guerrilla start going the MP Live Service direction since supposed SP PS fans don't appreciate the work, so they can depend on Ubisoft for their fix.

I'm just over 10 hours into GOW ragnarok and the game is just immense. Obviously still got a long way to go, but no game I've played this year has given me a better experience. So probably my goty.
Pleased to see stray there, was such a lovely experience and very relaxing. Also i loved my 60 hours in HFW, maybe not the best game ever but certainly better than most released this year.

@bozz It's the whole style. It's the long arms. It's the walk. It's the silence. It's the simple art. It's unique combat. It's the respect every encounter. It's the no direction. It's the outfits. It's the weapons. It's the several styles you can play as. It's the sense of discovery - I mean just started a 2nd playthrough and realized I missed a place just right at the beginning when I thought I'd seen everything in that area. It's the when you hear names like "General RADAAAAHHNNN!"

A decent mix of titles for sure. I can’t see anything but Elden Ring getting the crown but I’m glad to Xenoblade and Stray get the nod.

@uptownsoul as a open honest gamer that owns all 4 platforms and could care less about the console war non sense. I admit all the time i only own a PS4 and now PS5 for sony exclusives, playing almost everything else on Xbox and PC. Sony has had a amazing year for me, Last of us part 1, yes i paid $70 for it and without getting into the buzzsaw of love or hate that the title has seen online, i really enjoyed it, HFW is just outstanding and is my second favorite IP on PS at the moment, then the knockout punch to the year is God of War. I am more a Forza guy than GT fan, but if you want to throw that game into the mix then i am not sure how anyone couldn’t say Sony owned 2022. Maybe they will be a little lighter in 2023 but if they aren’t i am getting way more than my $400 dollar worth for a sony exclusive console. I also picked up the M9 headset from Sony and it is a touch overpriced but once you get past that they are beyond solid and fun to use at night when the household is asleep and i can’t crank the surround system.

@TheArt they don’t want to look bias in favor of PlayStation so they got to bash one of Sony games. they can’t bash god of war Ragnarok because it review to high or gt7 because it’s the best simulator racer that get free updates constantly. so horizon forbidden west will happen to be the sacrificial lamb.

As much as i luv Elden Ring. GOW is by far my GOTY just totally epic the story, raw emotions, combat, and substance just the interactions alone between the characters was awesome

@4kgk2 OR HFW is just yet another generic open world game and people feel like it doesn't do anything well while getting 9s.

Really happy to see A Plague Tale R get nominated in so many categories. It really deserves it.

@CapGod man can’t agree with that at all. HFW makes Zero Dawn look like a proof of concept game and Ragnorok is better than 2018 in every way which was already a goat. Ragnorok is def my goty and I think that if it doesn’t win tgas award it will still win the most this year.

@get2sammyb that’s because it is the hate for it on resetera and here is really weird and a lot of it comes from fromsoft fanboys which is just weird

@somnambulance imagine having the most nominated game in rangorok not win one award that’s just lol

@nessisonett i would guess most don’t agree that HFW isn’t remarkable considering it keeps showing up on goty lists

Right now i'm sticking with Elden Ring though GoW could beat it by the time i've finished it. Either way though both are incredible games and worthy of all the awards they get. Judge though 100% deserves best performance as he's amazing and gives it everything. As for best film? Sonic 2 by far as Uncharted was trash.

@Would_you_kindly It would if MS had anything to offer this year haha

@Americansamurai1 agree what puts Ragnarok as my goty is it’s consistently great throughout the whole game whereas Elden ring my third favorite game this year is kind of a technical mess,the back half is kind of bad,the world is filled with entirely too much filler,the story and sidequests are mostly mediocre,the combat isn’t deep enough for a game it’s length and it has the worst bosses in a fromsoft game yet.

@AdamNovice @dark_knightmare2 People like to forget so soon. I'm finding it hard to go back to HZD after HFW because of the massive improvements, don't know what people are on.

@4kgk2 Sacrificial lamb huh and that's what worries me. Motivation can go a long way, Guerrilla can only take so much playing second fiddle at PS Studios. Here's hoping they don't lose focus with all this rubbish talk going on.

@Hindenburg those people could have that opinion which I feel is wrong but whatever that’s how opinions work. I mean there’s a reason it keeps showing up on goty lists it’s not some conspiracy the majority think the game is great because it is.

@-Sigma- Bayo 3 is massive step down for the series though and relies heavily on awful gimmicks every 10 seconds plus the game sh*ts all over Bayonetta so they can big up the brat called Viola. Only awards it deserves is biggest disappointment and best music.

@dark_knightmare2 It's not weird at all. People love Elden Ring because it's not made for babies. Horizon, AC, Far Cry etc are all games made for babies.

I mean Elden Ring is game of the Year. But GoW:R will probably be my personal game of the year for 2023 as that's when I'm likely to play it, and who knows it's probably going to be better than Elden Ring in a lot of ways too, but Elden Ring was like this big event where you just didn't care how broken some quests were or how hard it is to follow an actual story, because it was just Elden Ring and that is a point in gaming where you can mark as the start of an era where games have to really double down on and step up what they do well to match it, because Elden Ring gave you soooo much of what it does well. Almost insane amounts of it.

So, If GoW:R does what it does well, but then pushes even further to keep giving you what it does well for hours and hours, then it's definitely a worthy contender. (the timing is just awkward as not enough people should have experienced enough of it by the time they have to vote for it to beat ER fairly)

Can we coin the term/era 'Post Elden Ring' here at Push Square?

And a very good year for Sony, and games if not as spectacular as it could have been.

@dark_knightmare2 PUBG and Hearthstone were up for The Game Awards’ GOTY. I don’t think anybody would suggest they were close to being the best games their respective years. There’s no such thing as objectivity beyond a certain technical level when it comes to reviews, and there’s an undeniable correlation between games developed by AAA corporations and awards. It’s no different from the Oscars, Grammies and such. I love Sony games for the most part but a lot of the time their quality comes from having a certain sized budget. You’ll always get a polished game but sometimes there are more interesting and daring games coming from devs outside of the media darlings.

@4kgk2 People aren't bashing Horizon they're calling it dissapointing what for many it was. You and the other guy are just making up a false narrative about the comments because they aren't screaming GOTY for Horizon.

@TheArt forbidden West left me feeling disappointed. I enjoyed my time with it but The ending felt off like it needed more, which might happen with dlc. I will say for the 3rd game I hope they make the map smaller. Also here's hoping they release it away from any big games.

God of War for me. Then Horizon Forbidden West in second place and A Plague Tale in third.

For the movies, as much as I enjoyed Uncharted, I need to go for Sonic for exceeding my expectations

I'm a bit confused with the narrative section. Never played Elden Ring but last I heard it's a full open world freedom but didn't hear it having much of a story so why is it even there. Odd choice when there are other story games that could be more worthy. For that category God of War and A Plague Tale is the two main competitors

While I personally don't think it deserves it, I gotta say I'm really happy to see Stray up for Game of the Year. It's nice to see a game that doesn't take itself too seriously be nominated for the highest honor. I feel like gamers latley are far too dismissive of anything that isn't dark, gritty, or serious. So many people scoffed at Animal Crossing being nominated for GOTY in 2020 and I just can't seem to wrap my mind around the rational behind that. Can a game that's cartoony or cute not be of a high quality? I just hope people are more open minded in the GOTY discussion going forward and it's nice to see Stray get the nod

@somnambulance yeah just felt it was crazy because Ragnarok imo is just one of those games that don’t come around very often

@Hindenburg yeah you sound dumb as hell saying that and need to grow up. I got the plat for both Elden ring and HFW and preferred HFW more

Santa Monica's "sophomore effort" is poor wording for saying a sequel. That implies Ragnarök is just their second game rather than their eighth.

@dark_knightmare2 I am just stating the obvious. Horizon and AC are made for babies. It's impossible to enjoy them if you care about the quality of content you are consuming.

I'd love to see Stray honoured with GOTY but there's some strong contenders. I think GOW:R is too new to have sunk in for people, so it will win some awards, but not GOTY.

Horizon Forbidden West was great to play but the story, the antagonists, the way it felt bloated at times and even Aloy herself being a little dislikable were why it was disappointing for me. Much preferred Zero Dawn.

Oh, and best performance award to Charlotte McBurney as Amicia. 👍

@Hindenburg People love Elden Ring because it's not made for babies

Yet you admitted on another post that you played elden ring on pc so you could use the cheat engine to give you more health.

Aren't cheat engines for babies?

@Hindenburg It's impossible to enjoy them if you care about the quality of content you are consuming.

Yet there are also countless people who don't enjoy souls games because of its difficulty and keep dying over and over.

You want that from HFW then put it on the highest difficulty.

People have different tastes in games, some like a hard challenge and some don't, doesn't mean they are babies.

@UltimateOtaku91 The quest design and world design of Horizon and AC are infuriatingly dumbed down and the narratives are Milquetoast at best. 10 years ago AC 2 was revolutionary, but now the franchise has turned into a symbol of what happens when people settle for mediocrity. And Horizon is just a carbon copy of that.

@Hindenburg nah horizon isn’t like that but you’re obviously a troll so enjoy a life so sad and boring that you do things like this on the internet

@dark_knightmare2 What? How are they different?

@jrt87 I've read all the comments and no was hating, critiquing something isn't hating its pointing out flaws they had with it. I agree it is bloated and the game does get boring at times as it drags itself on to a non ending, i still think its a solid 8/10 though.

@jrt87 Abby was a great character and i really liked her so i guess "failure of writing" is nothing more then a subjective take based entirely around how you think about Abby.

I think this could be the first time I've played all six nominees for GOTY. Enjoyed them all but Elden Ring or GOW deserve it the most!

@dark_knightmare2

As long as it isn't stray or plague tale, I'm ok with it.

@Hindenburg let’s see Ubisoft open worlds are gigantic 100 plus hour games with repetitive activities that repeat like 50 or more times with tons of useless collectibles ,they have mediocre sidequests,mediocre main stories with forgettable characters mostly except Origins which was pretty good,average combat and average graphics and level design. HFW has the best sidequests since Witcher 3 in a open world game,great graphics,great combat,good to great stories with memorable characters, an open world that is just big enough but not too big,level design like the cauldrons and plainsong which is more unique and better designed than anything in the last few ac games,great soundtrack,super unique enemies and filler that is absolutely kept to the bare minimum and a plat that can be achieved in like 50 hours.

@dark_knightmare2 The people who dislike HFW disagree with you completely. The story gameplay and everything else is mind-numbingly terrible imo. Carbon copy of AC.

BTW Origins was disguising too. Absolutely unplayable. Worst UI in gaming history. And Why can't I kill someone with an arrow to the head? Whoever came up with mmo bullet sponges in SP games should never be allowed to work on a game again.

@AdamNovice

The story, overwhelming dialogue options and her not letting you think in puzzles was the worse things out of the game. Everything else. Better.

It's almost like Sony has the best exclusives...

Elden Ring is not my cup of tea, but i think it deserves GOTY. Edgerunner was the best adaptation although it was adaptation of the P&P RPG not Cyberpunk 2077

@Hindenburg that’s fine people disagree they are the minority though going by sales,reviews and player reception. I’m ok with that so you need to grow up and be okay with people liking games you don’t and not calling them babies.

@CapGod yeah I liked those games but they def aren’t goty material. Plague tale gameplay is one note and mediocre as hell and stray the same thing. Both had gorgeous graphics and art design but fall short in most other categories I think of for goty.

@dark_knightmare2 And you need to grow up and stop playing games for babies

@dimi Edgerunners had music, vehicles, weapons, locations, lingo and some character appearances all taken from the Cyberpunk 2077 game. Of course, the game itself is an adaptation from the P&P games.

Not finished God of War R yet but so far so amazing. Absolutly loved Elden ring, has to be one of those 2 for GOTY

Looking back over the year I would say I enjoyed Triangle Strategy just as much as I did Elden Ring, Horizen and GoWR. Actually more then Horizon I'd say. Really underrated game IMO.

@uptownsoul ff7 remake cant be goty for 2022 as it was launched in 2020.