Baldur's Gate 3 Dominates Golden Joystick Awards, Wins Game of the Year

Totally deserved and that no man's sky redemption ark is getting better and better.

"Best Multiplayer Game - Mortal Kombat 1" Seriously? Over street fighter 6?

Absolute masterpiece that I have been saying for months will win everything it is nominated for. Fully deserves all the plaudits. I just hope that Larian have invested in a new warehouse in which to house all the awards coming their way...

Really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone lol. It really is a phenomenal game.

Xbox Game of the Year - Starfield

Most controversial pick.

Well deserved and yeah its my GOTY as well.

Is anyone else surprised that RE4 is the PS GOTY?

PlayStation the only one without a first party winner on their own system.

That's a great list and how I'd vote except... how did mk1 win multiplayer game of the year when it is not even the best fighting game of the year :3

Absolutely deserved. Went into Baldurs Gate not knowing anything about it and have been absolutely blown away with it the entire time. I don’t get why Resident Evil 4 won PlayStation game of the year though.

Look Baldur's Gate 3 is my GOTY without any doubt, as it's a phenomenal achievement in gaming, but :

• no way it deserves Visual Design : there is nothing special in itself in the design of the game, it's all about how everything coalesces together.
• no way Neil Newborn as Astarion should get the award, Samantha Béart as Karlach should win. She actually managed to turn my generally neutral playthrough into a lawful good one : what an incredible performance for a fantastic character!

@evan23 Spiderman 2 released too late to me nominated. Playstations nominees were

Star Wars: Jedi Survivor
Final Fantasy XVI
Humanity
Resident Evil 4
Armored Core VI
Street Fighter 6

Basically the most popular title won.

Nice to see a playstation exclusive get most wanted game, and PSVR2 win best new hardware. But the one I'm most pleased with is Ben Starr winning best lead performer, fully deserved.

Happy seeing Ben Starr getting the love he deserves. His audition for Mario is amazing XD

As it should. Easily the best game of the year and one of the greatest games ever made.

@UltimateOtaku91 @AdamNovice @evan23 Yeah Spider-Man 2 was in the running for Ultimate Game of the Year but didn't make the cut for any other award. Probably because of the release date, but still a bit weird.

@ShogunRok Strange it could get nominated for one award but not another.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner RE4 is great, but I don't understand how it beat SM2

Do people actually care about these "awards"? They're nothing more than popularity contests. Who votes and what is their criteria? These arbitrary award shows are an absolute joke and I feel sorry for people who get emotional about them.

Call of the Mountain best VR game?!

It was a mere tech demo, and not a great one given that titles like Red Matter 2 with their cleaner smoother presentation are far superior.

I was hoping it would get awards. It’s superb.
I’ve never played a game like this in my 30 years of gaming and although I don’t get everything and have to look up what things mean etc I’m so glad I stuck with it.
Level 4 and not scratched the surface of the first Act yet but wow.
I’m going to lose hundreds of hours to this beauty of a game.

Excuse me for this (as BG3 is not my type of genre I find to be any fun but that's just me so don't take it personally), there appears to be quite a lot of snobbery going about within the gaming community about BG3. The exact same happened with Elden Ring and quite a lot of Souls games and other Souls type games. All you read is how it's the best and the pinnacle of gaming, well I'm here to say its NOT the best or the pinnacle of gaming. Not saying BG3 or Elden Ring are terrible games, far from it. Just fed up of the snobbery they've created amongst the hardcore. Also a lot of that snobbery goes into review scores and gaming awards

I really want to buy it but wish it had a physical edition as I've never played a game like it and I'm not sure it'll be for me don't want to waste money on it digitally if i end up not liking it.

And they will take everything at the end of the year. "The game of the generation" won't taking anything from them lol

How can Res Evil 4 win Playstation game of year??? So looking at those awards they saying Res Evil 4 is better Spiderman 2. They also say Starfield is better Res Evil 4 as Res Evil 4 is on Xbox too. So Starfield better than Spiderman 2??? Not a chance!!

I think I may finally pull the trigger on BG3. I’ve just finished Cyberpunk Phantom liberty, and close to finishing Spider-Man 2, so want a new game to play.

@Olmaz To be honest there's an argument for any off the cast of BG3 winning best performance, they all gave their A game and gave so much depth to the characters. Personally the Narrator should have won, she's amazing and worked her ass off.

@DennisReynolds I agree, everyone will have their favorite, which makes this cast flawless really.
But still, Karlach is my winner... I'm trying an evil Dark Urge playthrough now, and seeing her go away just broke my heart...

Well done to all the winners!

1. Bg3 obvious winner. Can't argue.

2. It's great to see...

The lead performer...

Award...

go to...

The performer...

Ben Starr...

For his performance...

As...

Clive Rosfield.

Genuinely a really endearing performance, and those who said otherwise are just grumpy 😁

@ShogunRok especially when you take into account Alan Wake 2 winning an award when it released after spidey. You would have thought nomination windows would be the same across the board.

Great. Now release it on disc. Please? The only reason why I haven't bought it is because it's digital only.

@Ravix Ha! It started to do my head in, the way that...

Clive spoke...

his dialogue...

in short sentence...

bursts...

Choom needed to flow a bit more.

@Weebleman

@SgtTruth If you see the nomination list… The best game on there is call of the mountain. They made this nomination list too early as stuff like Asgard Warth 2, Assassin creed nexus, Arizona Sunshine 2, bulletstorm vr, vampire: masquerade-justice came out too late to be counted.

There's a typo
Xbox Game of the Year - Starfield
Should read
The Xbox game this year - Starfield.

Weird choices for awards. I haven’t play BG3 yet. It’s probably stellar. That said, it was a stellar year for gamers. Maybe the best ever. I would expect more slots for all the other excellent games.

@Pimpernel "they saying Res Evil 4 is better Spiderman 2"

It is though that's not even remotely controversial, now the rest of what you said is correct. Re4 should have been Xbox goty too or they should have just picked from PlayStation exclusives

Alan wake came out after Spiderman, how come that qualified? Game awards confuse me.

@evan23 it’s on Xbox aswell. Should have gone to final fantasy or Spider-Man

don't care about Baldur's gate but it's hilarious how Microsoft gave Sony console exclusivity over a GOTY winner for free

@Rangers420

Physical being released in Japan on Dec 28th. Presell on PlayAsia and Amazon.jp. At least the last time I checked.

Glad to see RE4 get some well deserved recognition. Capcom has been on a roll lately, hopefully they keep it up throughout 2024 as well

My personal Game of the Year goes to the incredible Final Fantasy XVI, a game which surprised me in all the best ways.

Really happy that Ben Starr was recognised for his stellar performance as Clive Rosfield, though Ralph Ineson’s portrayal of the enigmatic Cidolfus Telamon was also top drawer. Now if only there was an award for Boss Fight of the Year… FF16 would have scooped up every nomination!

Cool.thats a lot of awards for baldurs gate 3.word up son

RE4 should have won "best remake"
Spidey(s) got robbed.

I'm glad to see 16 taking home a few awards, especially Ben Starr for best performance. I was worried they'd give it to Idris Elba due to him being such a big name, regardless of the fact he already has plenty of major awards and a lot more money.

My personal list goes Starfield, Pikmin 4, Resident Evil 4 but I haven't played spider man 2 or alan wake yet.

Psvr 2 seems like a reach for hardware of the year. ROG Ally or Lenovo Go easily beat it in my opinion.

Oh no! It's becoming the standard now.
What a shame for mediocre developers and publishers.

All fairly predictable except for the PlayStation GOTY winner being RE4. Not that it’s undeserving, but it’s not an exclusive, whereas the Nintendo and Xbox GOTY are. It’s usually the other way around.

Poor Spidey 2

Edit: oops… I did that annoying thing that people do when the post a comment without reading the other comments or the article and they say something ignorant that has been clarified several times above… Spider-Man 2 wasn’t eligible for PS GOTY.

Still… it’s a little egg-on-the-face for FFXVI

I guess Starfailed winning anything was more of a sympathy vote than actually based on any real achievement.

But good on Larian and Baldurs Gate, that game and studio deserve everything they get, and a whole load more too.

If the Xbox GOTY is Starfield then boy do they have problems!

Really happy to see BG3 clean up here.

@Olmaz Agreed. In fact at times the visual design winds me up cos I’m battles it becomes hard to separate things if areas get conglomerated. I think it’s a great game - perhaps not quite as great as many think it is. But visual design??????

Congratulations to Ben Starr 👏 🙌

@Olmaz Astarion deserves it more. His flamboyance is addictive.

@RedRiot193 This was my thought precisely. How could?...What?..Huh?...I just don't get it.

I do need to get round to Baldur’s Gate but the lack of a physical means I rely on a sale on the PS Store. Man, it’s nice to be able to borrow games from friends.

@evan23 Not really. Re4 is really good from beginning to end. Even if spiderman 2 was in the run it'd have lost.

This game continues to blow me away. I feel like just walking around is the best way to play. The side quests are so immersive

@zimbogamer @The_Pixel_King I urge them for myself Are you talking about BG3 or SM2?

@The_Pixel_King I’ve heard mixed things about it which is why I’ve haven’t touched it yet. Then again a lot of the winners here I haven’t touched either but otherwise I have more initiative to experince them (RE4, Baldurs Gate 3, cocoon, Cyberpunk to name a few).

Surprised Armoured Core 6 didn’t get anything.

@Olmaz I loved Karlach as a character so much that, when I realised I missed the chance of romancing her because of how late I found her, I restarted the entire game (still not finished the entire game, lol). That said, the and Newbon's performance was amazing, especially at the end of his quest. It's rare that I actually feel something for a video game character, but *****... his performance was something else.

I haven't seen the end of Karlach's story yet, and I have the feeling it will also be quite emotional, so it might still tie in my head.

@JohntheRaptor His fambloyance is what irked me a lot. I had to do all I could to stop myself leaving him on that beach at the start, that's how annoying and obnoxious he felt to me (which, in fact, shows how good the performance of the actor was!).
But I'll admit he gets to grow on you (even in a playthrough where I almost never took him out the camp) and the end of his storyline was moving.

@Tecinthebrain Res Evil 4 great game but it almost 20 year old!!! Should won best remake of year! On top that it not a Playstation game, it multi platform.

@Rangers420 I'm literally in the same boat. Want to try it but never played a game like this before. I suppose if it does win loads of GOTY awards, they may well do a physical release next year.

Glad Mr Wake got something, such a brilliant game. So many good games this year really, it's really been a fantastic year for us. For me Alan Wake is definitely my personal GOTY. Spidey was great for sure, but like people say I think it will end up forgotten over time. Hopefully BG3 will get a physical

@MikeOrator I read that this version will be censored, no?

So RE4 is the Playstation GOTY... but Baldur's Gate is the ultimate GOTY... even though BG3 is on PS5.

I don't get it, unless the PS5 version is broken and I just haven't heard about it somehow.

@Foxhound

I did not read that. It would be dissapointing if it was considering the AO stuff in some Japanese games.

Why has BG3 managed to stir the mainstream casuals from their EA sports gacha games and call of duty but previous isometric rpgs which are just as good haven't 🤔

Don't agree with the community award that should have definitely gone to deep rock, are people really playing turn based games co-op? Never seen how that could appeal to anyone unless you are someone who just skips dialogue and cutscenes in other games

Yeah, as if there was ever any doubt. I have to say that the game does definitely drop off in the third act. It's not the quality of the writing, environments, interactions, etc., but the technical limitations. There's a specific house in act III where I'm sure the frames actually drop to single digits.

Besides that, though, it's very well deserved. I don't think I've ever really played anything like it. Personalisation, approach, tactics, writing and acting, character development...this is what moving a genre forward looks like.