2022 Boards GOTY Awards

Zero-Cool

As there doesn't look to be an official Boards GOTY Awards thread for 2022 (apologies Mr. E if you were still planning one) Johnny Ultimate has given the go ahead for a GOTY thread for people to list their favourites and thoughts for 2022. If there isn't an official thread for these, just want to give a shout out to Mr. E for running the awards over the years. Not only was it a great little community event, it gave some great recommendations of games people might have otherwise missed.

So, no nominations, just list your favourite game from the categories below. You can add a brief line why you chose each one if you like. Feel free to add categories or not include them if they don't apply. I've left out the platform specific ones to streamline it a bit.

Fun: Game that deserved to do better/was criminally ignored?

Fun: Best Game Design

Fun: Best Sound

Fun: Best Graphics

Fun: Best Character

Fun: Biggest Disappointment

Fun: Best Story

Fun: Best Level

Fun: Best Music

Fun: WTF Were They Thinking Award

Fun: Best Boss Fight

Fun: Pleasant Surprise

Fun: Most Anticipated Game for 2023

Overall: Best DLC/Add-On Content

Overall: Online Game of the Year

Overall: Best VR Game (any platform)

Overall: Best RPG

Overall: Best Strategy/Puzzle

Overall: Best Action/Adventure

Overall: Best Sports

Overall: Best Racing

Overall: Best Indie/Download Only

Overall: Game of The Year

Retr0gamer

Ace combat 7

Jordan 199

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120054527#Comment_120054527

🤣😄

johnny_ultimate

Some alternate GOTYs, lest the actual boards awards happen. But mostly just lots of cool games I want to mention :P

Best Use of Dice

Citizen Sleeper made immensely smart use of dice to explore its characters and themes, while also setting the pace and stakes consistently.

Best Weird Game For Weirdos

As someone who enjoys the weirder side of gaming, there are few more enjoyable gaming experiences this year than the three hours or so I spent with the gleefully eccentric Betrayal at Club Low. Cosmo D just makes games with the most impeccably strange sense of humour and tone. This could also easily claim the coveted 'Best Use of Dice' award, but there can only be one winner!

The Crack Cocaine Award for Achievements in Video Game Addictiveness

For most of the year, Vampire Survivors would have been the clear winner here. But kudos to champion Marvel Snap for sneaking in there in the last few months and wasting many hours of my life. Stick a health warning on there - it has earned it.

Best Haunted Game

Immortality. If you've figured out the mechanical twist, you know what I'm talking about.

Best (Worst?) Timesink

As someone who bounced hard off two previous entries in the series, I was very pleasantly surprised by Xenoblade Chronicles 3 this year. The game is almost comically massive - literally, in the case of its frankly ludicrously sprawling environments. And yet there's something comforting about the game, picking away collecting items for hours on end. It has the appeal of an MMORPG, just safe in the knowledge that eventually the thing will actually end.

Best Presentation

I've played 30 minutes of Signalis, and it's already the winner. It looks that good.

Best Wii / PS2 Game

Bayonetta 3. A game with ambitions beyond the technical capacity of the Nintendo Switch. Looks like a Wii game on a TV, and - I say this in the nicest way possible - it plays like a lost PS2 game. This is an endorsement, by the way.

Best 'Game Feel'

Every single inch of Neon White has been designed to the most exacting specifications - for you to feel like a god when you chain the right set of moves together in the right order with the right timing. And it's bloody magnificent. No game felt better to play this year... although Rollerdrome is an admirable runner-up.

The 'I Mean, This Kind Of Has To Be Here Right, So Let's Get It Over With' Award

Elden Ring. It's a **** great game, and you already knew that.

Best Written Game

In a year of AAA games with sprawling stories, they didn't stand a chance against an absolute embarrassment of indie riches. It's Norco that emerges triumphant - a game that beautifully walks the line between literature and interactivity, delving into the sort of real-world themes & politics most games wouldn't go near while still daring to be completely off-the-wall wacky at times. A delight.

My Personal Absolute Favourites

For a top three? Nothing played better than Neon White. Nothing scratched the 'figure this all out yourself' itch quite like Strange Horticulture (although Case of the Golden Idol came close). And yes it's obligatory to include Elden Ring here, but you already knew that.

CastorTroy

I'll abstain again since I never played Elden Ring. 😃

Think only games from this year that I've played are Shredder's Revenge and Escape Academy.

Retr0gamer

I played very little games this year from 2022. Kind of been a bit smashed what with buying a house so have had to be fairly frugal.

Best Soundtrack:

I'd recommend people check out the soundtracks to the following 3 games:

Xenoblade 3

Star Ocean: Divine Force

Kirby and the Forgotten Land

Splatoon 3

Absolute bops each of them are.

I should also really get around to playing Lunacid as it's got a Thor HighHeels OST

Best use of a Crank:

Crankin Presents Time Travel Adventure

Best DLC

Don't pass up on Cuphead's Delicious Last Course DLC. It's fantastic

Best Game I played from 2022 that isn't Elden Ring

Kirby and the Forgotten Land is just a joyful blast and really is a reminder that Nintendo make the best games. You might think it's madness but this game is better than GoW and Horizon because it's more fun than them. Unless you can turn into an Aloy/Kratos car.

Best game I played (but I probably should get around to playing Immortality)

Elden Ring of Course

Potential-Monke

I've specific tastes in gaming, so I don't play a lot of what other people consider great games, simply because I don't like turn based, JRPGs, sims, strategy, etc. I've figured I much prefer narrative/story driven action/adventure type games. So like every list, it's completely subjective and totally based on my own opinion and games I've played.

Fun: Best Graphics: God of War Ragnarok. Photorealistic at times, and the only other game that didn't have a single bug or issue. They increased the scale and it was all the better for it. Some scenes will stay with me forever, I must have spent 15 minutes just staring around in the Spark of the World, or looking across the land in Asgard... Stunning game.

Fun: Biggest Disappointment: Ragnarok not winning GOTY... :pac:

Fun: Best Story: GoW Ragnarok. It may have had some slight pacing issues, but it never detracted from me. And while I wasn't a huge fan of the Atreus sections, they served a purpose and only 1 of them overstayed its welcome, but again was needed. Overall, they created an amazing sequel to an already amazing story, and have left many doors open, and I am excite.

Fun: Best Music: Even though I didn't play a lot of it, I'm giving this to Metal: Hellsinger, simply because not enough games have metal! (That Vikingy VR rhythm game Ragnarock looks amazing!)

Fun: Pleasant Surprise: Far - Changing Tides. Didn't know what to expect, but was very surprised at how much I enjoyed this. Didn't realise it was a sequel, but didn't need to have played the first one to get it. Nice short enough little game to have a bit of fun in.

Fun: Most Anticipated Game for 2023: Hogwarts Legacy. I know there's some savage looking games due out this year, but this looks right up my alley. Hope they don't mess it up, and I've avoided everything since they released the house common room videos. And it's soon!!

Overall: Best Action/Adventure: GoW Ragnarok. Nothing comes close in terms of visuals, direction, gameplay, story, acting and quality.

Overall: Best Racing: NFS Unbound. Yes, it may be the only racing game that released that I've played this year, but the fun arcade driving nearly makes the annoying (mostly) characters not matter. The best arcade racing game in years. I even finished it, super/hypercars and all, because they did something to make them actually enjoyable to drive.

Overall: Game of The Year: God of War Ragnarok - It did exactly what it set out to do, and that was create an amazing sequel to an already amazing game. They made it bigger without making it too big, and while other people thought it was a bit too long, I would have liked even more. And such a big AAA game with stunning graphics releasing in a basically perfect state is basically unheard of. These are the games I love.

Elden Ring. I acknowledge its popularity, and I did give it an honest go, but a combination of it basically just being open-world Dark Souls and some apparantly bad luck with a warp chest into a high level area early on didn't help change my mind. I also now appreciate that there is a story in there, but the way you have to figure it out is not for me.

And on that vein:

Fun: "Oh shut the f&%k up about Elden Ring already" award: Elden Ring. :pac:

JimBurnley

Fun: WTF Were They Thinking Award - everyone who likes Elden Ring ;-)

Fun: Best Boss Fight - the main bad guy on the Devil in Me (forget his name), really reminiscent of Mr X in RE2

Fun: Pleasant Surprise - Gotham Knights, significantly better than reviews, even if it didn't bring anything new to the genre.

Fun: Most Anticipated Game for 2023 - I'm gonna go with PSVR2 system here rather than a game, really intrigued to see what levels its improved on PSVR1, which I loved at first but barely touched in 2 years.

Overall: Best Racing - Gran Turismo 7, had a few great nights racing with boardsies on here too

Overall: Game of The Year - Kirby and the Forgotten Land: simply the most fun I had on any game, and that's surely what gaming is all about

Zero-Cool

You see, that's why i like these awards. I had written off Gotham Knights but the above has put it back on my list.

I will eventually get around to posting my list but I've a new born at home that is selfishly taking up a lot of my time and thinking power :)

Jordan 199

Congrats on your new born, Zero.

Retr0gamer

Congrats

Potential-Monke

Congrats on the mini human!

Mr Crispy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120060940#Comment_120060940

Congrats!

Mr E

@Zero-Cool Congrats on the new arrival!

I'm out of commission with COVID right now (and January is going to be busy in work) so I can't run it this year unfortunately!

The Raging Bile Duct

Congratulations, Zero Cool.

johnny_ultimate

Congrats @Zero-Cool!

Get well soon @Mr E - hope the COVID dose isn't too nasty.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120060940#Comment_120060940

Congrats ZC! No wonder you wanted a game less demanding and stressful than dealing with a newborn and downloaded Elden Ring again.

Fun: Best Game Design - Neon White. Only played a bit of it but seems incredibly addictive

Fun: Best Graphics - GOW Ragnarok. Every little bit of design and detail was just perfect, with incredible performance throughout

Fun: Best Character - Kratos. I think with Ragnarok he's elevated himself to one of the greatest video game characters of all time (by which I mean actual character rather than the impact they may have had on gaming like Mario/Sonic etc)

Fun: Biggest Disappointment - Overwatch 2. The gameplay is still great, but they made the game so unrewarding and a lot more bland and unbalanced, all for the sake of battlepass bullsh*t.

Fun: Best Story - GOW Ragnarok again. Apart from one or two slow sections, I just think they nailed it in terms of carrying on from the previous game, drawing a line under the Norse story, and with still focusing on the actual characters. Some fantastic moments and scenes throughout.

Fun: Best Boss Fight - Malenia in Elden Ring. As f*cking horrible as it was (cheap health regen and one attack near impossible to dodge), goddamn what a rush that fight consistently gives.

Fun: Pleasant Surprise - Marvel Midnight Suns. I had basically no expectations going into it as I wasn't hopeful for it at all, but took the chance and it actually really engaged me. The card combat and character variety is just really fun.

Fun: Most Anticipated Game for 2023 - Spiderman 2. It'll probably suffer from diminishing returns and could end up being a bit of a collect-a-thon, but the gameplay was so damn good in the first and in Miles Morales, so I'm hopeful.

Overall: Best DLC/Add-On Content - Cuphead: Delicious Last Course. Really fun boss designs, new weapons and abilities that really changed the gameplay, and just as charming as the main game.

Overall: Best RPG - Elden Ring.

Overall: Best Strategy/Puzzle - Screw it, I'm counting it as this year because it only came out on PS5 this year, but I'm going Inscryption. What an amazing game. The main story part is ingenious and constantly shifts and f*cks you up but in such fun and clever ways. But even then after the main story, you access a bit of a rogue-like card game with various challenges that is just terrific.

Overall: Best Action/Adventure - I'll go with Ragnarok over Elden Ring for this just because I think Ragnarok beats it under the Action/Adventure labels even though ER is a better game overall.

Overall: Game of The Year - Elden Ring. I think every few years, a game comes out that feels like a proper step forward in gaming. God of War 2018 was one of those. Zelda BOTW was probably one (haven't played it myself). To me, Elden Ring is one of those games. It took the Souls formula, but did more than just make it open world. I think they created something truly special with this game. The sheer balance they achieved in this game in terms of the open world map, enemies, weapons, abilities is staggering. The variety of enemies. The variety of different viable builds and weapons (whereas it feels like previous Souls games have had really just 3-5 main builds). The environmental storytelling and sheer detail throughout the world is unreal. Everything feels so particularly and deliberately placed and positioned. And the level design is the best I've ever seen. Not just GOTY, but simply one of the GOATs.

Zero-Cool

@Mr.E

@Mr E feel better soon man!

Thanks all, much appreciated! :)

Zero-Cool

Best game: Elden Ring. Penn summed it up pretty well.

Biggest disappointment: Dying Light 2. Made the parkour better but somehow made the combat, story, level design and characters worse to the point where i quit half way through from lack of enjoyment. They made a balls of it basically.

Pleasant Surprise/Best Indie/criminally underrated: Dysmantle. A post apocalyptic have where you break things and fight zombies turned out to be one of my favourite games this year unreal amount of content and devs nailed the upgrading and equipment to keep things fresh.

Honorary indie mention to Sifu, Jesus what an incredible fighting game.

Most anticipated game 2023: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth & Spiderman 2

WTF were they thinking: The Last of Us pt.1 being 80 euro. I know they were thinking MONEY but still, bollox acting out of Sony/ND. Built from the ground up my hole.

Best Boss fight: toss up between Yang the Leader from Sifu and Starscourge Radahn in Elden Ring. 2 epic battles.

Potential-Monke

Crap, I googled and it said Dysmantle was out in 2020! I even asked when it launched on PS4 and it said the same. Google is crap for googling these days! Adding that to my Pleasant Surprise/Best Indie/criminally underrated winner! Will be starting the DLC tomorrow night.