Feature: Predict The Game Awards 2025 with Our 20 Question Quiz

It’s 2011 all over again. Skyrim somehow inexplicably beat out Dark Souls for GotY, and now Expedition 33 will beat out the more viable contenders. It’s good (I do love my turn based RPG’s) but not that good, not GotY good.

@Balaam_ Whats your Goty?

My personal game of the year is either Pokémon Legends Z-A or Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 1 🤣. I think I got a decent amount of these questions correct though.

Where's the "E33 everything" button? Still only played about an hour of the game myself. So I don't really get the fascination, but it is nice to see the industry rally behind an admiration for something for once.

Hell, at the risk of sounding like a reductive arse, what exactly does make French Mario & Luigi w/ a good story so special? The only praise I really see articulated is: OST good, story powerful, art looks nice, and you press buttons during turn-based combat. Is there more to this? Genius level design? Combat that can rival the greatest TB-RPGs of all time (removed from its active attribute)? Medium defining interactive storytelling?

@Balaam_ What was better than Claire Obscure this year, and why?

@RoomWithaMoose I'm about 67% of the way through, and in my time playing the game, I absolutely see why it's being highly praised. Keep playing, and I promise you, it won't disappoint.

Question 20 not being 100% yes-

Don't quite understand people saying Clair Obscur is overrated recently in the comments; the game was exceptional and a true work of art. We get games like that so rarely, delighted for the team and all involved to get their flowers at the show (pun intended!!)!

I don't feel like E33 was goty good, but after looking at the other nominees again I feel like it has to win. I'd go with Bananza personally but it is what it is, even with all the "great" games this year none of them have really hit for me.

@Balaam_ I agree. But if the comments on that Cyberpunk article prove anything, it's that a game's quality doesn't matter as much as the narrative around it.

@ZeesGaming94 Sure, that's possible. But I'm genuinely asking: Can someone articulate what's so great about the game?

I know the story is great — I don't doubt that. But every appraisal I see of the game is along the lines of, "The story will stick with you. Also, look pretty, sound pretty, and, though I won't elaborate upon what actually makes its combat good, it's so fun to press the buttons! Also, it's a relatively small AA game — and that's cool."

I'm really not trying to say it's not good. But I understand what makes Blue Prince praiseworthy despite having not played it. And I can articulate what's really good about DK Bananza. But E33 feels like it just has this 'trust me, bro' status.

I haven't laughed this hard in a while playing a game - KCDII. The different stories in there, the graphics, UI design, immersive gameplay, content, again I feel overall it is the true GOTY. But hey Clair is just so different and special, can't be upset if it takes it.

There’s so much hype behind Clair Obscur. Has to be a shoe-in for like every award possible

Would be great to see Donkey Kong win GOTY. I haven't played E33 yet so I can't comment on it's quality but I've seen some gameplay videos and the amount of QTEs is off putting, I don't play turn based games expecting to still time dodges and parries, there's a reason I suck at souls games lol so maybe it isn't for me anyway.

I still believe Bloodborne remastered or Bloodborne 2 will be announced eventually

@RoomWithaMoose I'm further in than you but still on my first playthrough, so take this for what it's worth: it's not just the QTEs during combat, though having legitimately hard parrying does make combat much more dynamic. It's the insane depth of systems that start to interact and overlap when it comes to combat - every character has a completely different playstyle, and you can vary builds dramatically depending on attributes, skills, pictos, luminas, party members, weapons, all of it. You end up with something almost like Soulslike builds in a turn-based JRPG with 3 member parties. The variety of builds and playstyles are incredible, and it's such a rewarding system to interact with. And when people talk about the story being great, it's not just the literal narrative - the depth and creativity within the world, NPC interactions, side quests, collectibles, secrets, all of it goes a long way towards realizing a fantastic narrative experience. It's not flawless - the constant invisible walls drive me nuts when exploring - but you can tell an insane amount of love and care went into the game, and you get that back the further you go.

I hope we see the secret game that media molecule has been working on. That and a new look at persona 4 revival.

@SeanOhOgain
It's the endless cycle. Thing gets popular. People don't like thing that is popular being more popular than thing they like. Say it's overrated to show their distaste for thing that is popular.

I get everyone has opinions but I don't understand the need people have to drag things down. I wasn't nearly as hot on BG3 as most people but I congratulate Larian on their work for the game. I can respect the craftsmanship even if I'm not the target audience. I don't know how anyone can look at E33 and just say "meh, who would want to play something like this? Overrated." Game was awesome.

@Balaam_ In fairness, Skyrim was a very important game at the time, much more so than Dark Souls (Dark Souls’ importance would be more noteworthy in later years) so you can’t blame for believing it was GOTY

Don’t hope for much and don’t lose any sleep. The trailers will be on YouTube when you wake up.

We all know PushSquare's GOTY is without the T. They have no choice. 🤣🤣

Would love to see the god of war 2d revealed and also the first two god of war game will be Shadow dropped

Clair Obscur might win the most awards ever not just tomorrow

@77dreams Thank you for the thoughtful articulation.

CO is goty based on what I’ve played. I’m still trying to finish DS1 to get to on the beach.

I'm still holding out that hopium for Bloodborne.

Anyways, I feel Expedition 33 will definitely win GotY and a majority of the awards it's nominated for. I've been playing it and the game is really good.

Clair obscur expedition 33 for the win.word up son

I personally think E33 should win GOTY but I don't need it to sweep EVERY category. Let other games have their time in the spotlight.

@Balaam_ So what's GoTY in your opinion? Genuinely curious.

For me it's Kingdom Come Deliverance II, but I knew it had no chance of winning.