Its my annual GOTY thread time ! 2025 edition

Europa Universalis V - only game that's hooked me this year - (20+ hours and still haven't a clue what I'm doing but enjoying it)
 
Last edited:
KCD2 for me, without a shadow of a doubt. The gameplay, scale, story, and innovation in that game was amazing, it's utterly ridiculous that it didn't win some of the awards it was up for this year.
 
CHokKA said:
KCD2 for me, without a shadow of a doubt. The gameplay, scale, story, and innovation in that game was amazing, it's utterly ridiculous that it didn't win some of the awards it was up for this year.
Click to expand...

Like what? And what made it more innovative than the competition
 
Arc Raiders is an easy win for me this year.

I don't know the longevity it could have but straight out of the gate it has been a lot of fun
 
Last edited:
I loved First Bezerker Khazan an absolute banger.

Honorable mentions to the path of exile 1 and 2 updates recently both are excellent with the druid dlc coming to poe2 soon for even more wasted hours.
 
Last edited:
Noxia said:
Like what? And what made it more innovative than the competition
Click to expand...
Stealing items from people has consequences. If you take all their clothes from them, they'd be wandering around town the next day without clothes on. If you equip stolen gear and the person you stole it from sees you, they'd recognise it, run off and get a guard, and you'd be in trouble with the guards. Enemies react properly to you during combat or stealth scenarios, not on a wire or some standard pre-planned route, they actually look for you intelligently and call for help first before searching for you. The open world was absolutely huge and stunningly realised and rendered. The NPCs in towns are living and go about their daily lives around you, and they notice things that you do or things that have occurred in the world, mostly influenced by you, are discussed all around you.

In one situation, I stole some special dice from a dice player NPC whilst she slept. The next day when I went to play dice with her, she told me she couldn't play because she didn't have any dice. So I then went back to her the next night and dropped some other dice into her pouch using pickpocketing, and the next day played her at dice and she used those instead. It's one of the first games I've ever played where things that you do are actually properly tracked and cause consequences all around you.
 
CHokKA said:
Stealing items from people has consequences. If you take all their clothes from them, they'd be wandering around town the next day without clothes on. If you equip stolen gear and the person you stole it from sees you, they'd recognise it, run off and get a guard, and you'd be in trouble with the guards. Enemies react properly to you during combat or stealth scenarios, not on a wire or some standard pre-planned route, they actually look for you intelligently and call for help first before searching for you. The open world was absolutely huge and stunningly realised and rendered. The NPCs in towns are living and go about their daily lives around you, and they notice things that you do or things that have occurred in the world, mostly influenced by you, are discussed all around you.

In one situation, I stole some special dice from a dice player NPC whilst she slept. The next day when I went to play dice with her, she told me she couldn't play because she didn't have any dice. So I then went back to her the next night and dropped some other dice into her pouch using pickpocketing, and the next day played her at dice and she used those instead. It's one of the first games I've ever played where things that you do are actually properly tracked and cause consequences all around you.
Click to expand...

Things like that are good for immersion definitely. However, when I look at the categories for the Golden Joysticks, I don't really see where that would have been enough to win any of its nominated categories.

Maybe TGA will be different as it seems to have a lot more categories.

Edit: scrap that, I just looked at the categories and it appears in 2, GOTY and Best RPG.
GOTY specifically says:
Recognizing a game that delivers the absolute best experience across all creative and technical fields.
Click to expand...

And it's up against E33 and some other bangers.
 
Last edited:
Assassin's Creed: Shadows. Its new engine made appreciate my shiny new GPU, it's a beautiful stealth game. It will never get my vote in the video game GOAT thread, but it's better than the rest of the mediocre 2025 releases.

EDIT: Scratch the above, The Last of Us Part 2 was released on the PC in 2025. This is definitely the PC game of the year for me, especially since I've never played the console version and TLOU1+2 would get consideration from me in the hypothetical GOAT thread. Video game art at it's finest - the mechanics, the idea, the graphics, the overall package.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom