I mean, good for them and all. But… I hate when these award shows do this shit. Narrowing the universe of “award winning” games down to “One Title Wins Everything” feels so hack.
That’s a fair assessment for the most part. I think a lot of the time it’s all just hype for one title, but this game is actually fantastic, and I think it deserves everything it won. I can’t think of anything else this year that would surpass Clair Obscur in any of those categories.
It’s a downside of the award show template. If the “best game” is, say, an RPG, then there’s no logic that should say it would win “best game” but not “best RPG”, right? If it wasn’t an award show you could go from the top down instead of building up to GOTY and it’d be spread out more. Expedition 33 is GOTY, so “best RPG” is now de facto “best RPG not named Expedition 33”. But even that collides with awards like best soundtrack or best performance by a VA.
If anything, Golden Joystick “sandbagged” E33 by not including it in “best indie” - Sandfall is absolutely an indie studio by every meaningful definition of the term.
I mean, good for them and all. But… I hate when these award shows do this shit. Narrowing the universe of “award winning” games down to “One Title Wins Everything” feels so hack.
That’s a fair assessment for the most part. I think a lot of the time it’s all just hype for one title, but this game is actually fantastic, and I think it deserves everything it won. I can’t think of anything else this year that would surpass Clair Obscur in any of those categories.
Without a doubt. It’s on my list.
Silksong, Outer Worlds 2, and Eldin Ring: Nightsong leap to mind.
I haven’t played Outer Worlds 2, but the other two, while both great, just didn’t have what it takes to beat it IMO.
That’s not to say my opinion is objectively right, it’s really a subjective question to begin with.
It’s a downside of the award show template. If the “best game” is, say, an RPG, then there’s no logic that should say it would win “best game” but not “best RPG”, right? If it wasn’t an award show you could go from the top down instead of building up to GOTY and it’d be spread out more. Expedition 33 is GOTY, so “best RPG” is now de facto “best RPG not named Expedition 33”. But even that collides with awards like best soundtrack or best performance by a VA.
If anything, Golden Joystick “sandbagged” E33 by not including it in “best indie” - Sandfall is absolutely an indie studio by every meaningful definition of the term.