Why Baldur's Gate 3 Won Game of the Year (and Spider-Man 2 Didn't)

and the game of the year is Spider-Man 2 come on we all know what it is come on tell me come on lock in bro Spider-Man's Game of the Year talk to me Super Mario Bros or uh Marvel Spider-Man balers Gate [Applause] 3 no [Music] three what dude what is this game bro how does it win like three of the we got robbed Spider-Man got robbed bro Spider-Man 2 is the people's Game of the Year bro bro bro bro bro bro be serious right now be serious right now it's [Applause] Spider-Man bro this [ __ ] rig dog this [ __ ] is [ __ ] rig no how and of course we have this dude in a whole ass suit [Music] bro what's going on guys Min soen here the 2023 game awards have concluded crowning laran studios's balers gate three as the game of the year the winner of this award in past years has been a heated topic of debate for example The Last of Us Part Two winning over ghost of fushima and God of War winning over Red Dead Redemption 2 both brought forth heavy criticism from the community on why one was snubbed but seems like this year in particular I the winner has been scrutinized even more by certain audience that can't comprehend how a turn-based combat computer role playing game could have possibly been crowned at the coveted game of the year over a third person action superhero game so if you are a Spider-Man 2 or any other nominee fan and have gotten this far without clicking dislike I want to walk you through on why I think Boulders Gate 3 won and why it might be the best winner yet to preface for moving forward I will admit I have not played every single game that was nominated for game of the year the two in particular that I did not play were Resident Evil 4 remake and Super Mario Bros wonder I do plan on playing them eventually but with how stacked 2023 was it was near impossible for me to fit them in I fully played and completed the Legend of Zelda tears of the Kingdom Marvel Spider-Man 2 and boulders Gate 3 along with me in the middle of playing Allan Wake 2 but the ladder I don't really feel like giving it a fair assessment yet but what I have played so far I have greatly enjoyed the main point of this video will be comparing Bowers Gate 3 and Spider-Man 2 on their similarities and differences when it comes to gameplay story design Etc with that out of the way let's get into it the main and most obvious difference between the two that anyone can see from one look is is the gameplay Spider-Man 2 is a third person action adventure game putting you in control of Spider-Man one of the most popular superheros in history Boulders Gate 3 is a top-down computer roleplaying game with turn-based combat set inside the fantasy world of Dungeons and Dragons specifically the sword Coast just from these two descriptions alone these games are about as far apart as you can get they target two very different audiences on essentially the the opposite sides of the gaming Spectrum if I were someone who generally stuck to superhero action adventure games it would be pretty adverse to trying something so different and vice versa now just like all the points that I will be making throughout this video they're strictly opinions but straight off the bat there is a much larger range of options in terms of gameplay elements in a game like Boulders Gate 3 compared to a game like Spider-Man 2 a third installment of this Spider-Man series is inevitable will it be the last of the story possibly but a new game will be happening the sales figures were amazing for Marvel and Sony and they teased it for so many different ways it's going to happen but as I continue to play Spider-Man games I feel like we are closer and closer to reaching the peak of the character's possibilities since its Inception each game has improved on its predic cessors some in many more ways than others I still feel like the jump from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in 2014 to Marvel Spider-Man in 2018 was one of the largest leaps forward made in the series but aside from tying in Miles some better traversal mechanics and a larger map there was not that much in terms of significant improvements I'll admit I could be missing some as it's been a while since playing 2018 but I feel like we are inevitable from ing the peak of the series and the characters potential at least in a modern setting Boulders Gate 3 could have an entire hourlong video alone talking about its gameplay but if I could give a quick way to summarize it I would say the game almost never says no want to kill that NPC go for it want to be evil done want to steal everything easy want to romance everyone in your party absolutely the developers of this game have legitimately thought of every possible option a player can make at any point in time I don't think I've ever encountered a time where I've said to myself shoot I thought that would work if you've never played D andd before it's a game of spoken language you can tell your dungeon master which is essentially a real life game engine what you want to do and how you want to do it and just like in game is all a matter of rolling the dice if you come up with it you can probably do it sure there are some limitations you can't destroy every building and you can't level mountains and you can't reach level 20 but who knows in the future it's entirely reasonable that they would allow for those options to happen unlike Spider-Man it seems like we are still at the tip of the iceberg in terms of innovation with this genre Innovation is something I personally put a lot of weight on in new games especially AAA titles how has this game improved upon or done something better or more unique than its predecessors or others alike it is a question I often ask when playing a new AAA title I want to deviate a little bit here and look back at a previous game of the year winner God of War 2018 the series was shown to have gotten pretty formulaic basically doing the same thing over and over again with updated graphics and some new enemies from the GRE Pantheon after the remaster of God of War 3 Santa Monica wanted to completely redefine the series start from scratch and build something brand new and with it we got God of War 2018 a soft series reboot met with critical Acclaim and Universal praise for its updated design and gameplay this is what I mean by Innovation breaking the mold and making it something truly your own 2018 is still today highly praised for being one of the best Story action adventure games and continued with its sequel in 2022 balers Gate 3 innovates in so many different ways it has by far the most advanced and dynamic dialogue system in any game we've ever gotten to this day its direct D and elements are for the first time we've seen this Polished in the game the environmental interactions are Generations ahead of its colleagues and it's a last and branching story arcs are the highest quality possible although Boulders Gate 3 is not a complete reinvention of the crpg genre it is the best attempt and execution we have gotten yet Spider-Man 2 made a lot of improvements on its World from 2018 the map size is basically doubled allowing you to Traverse and explore new districts it's the closest thing we've gotten to a one-on-one Rec creation of New York in a video game and thanks to it I actually know what and where each district is traversal and moving throughout the city is just so fun there really is no other way to describe it it has easily the most polished web swinging of any Spider-Man game and some of the most fun traversal mechanics of any game period now although I think looking at and moving around the world is fun I cannot say the same about interacting with it there are a few Easter egg spots here and there that will reference maybe a comic book a past game or something else in the spider-verse but talking to NPCs trying to enter buildings being in the environment feels very Bland and something that I think has been a problem for the series for a long time I know that there was this one tweet of bro you're Spider-Man why do you want to take the subway and I'm not saying that they need to add a subway system but adding more humanizing elements allowing Spider-Man or Peter Parker or miles for that matter to walk into a a building or talk to random people to do more and reward the player for looking around and finding things to do on their own rather than just following a quest marker on the map if they did something like that it would add an enormous amount of respect for me personally to that game Boulders Gate 3 is essentially a player rewarding simulation there are items and clues scattered in every nook and cranny throughout the entire game it would be impossible to find them all in one playthrough the design of the game and the layout of its world is very hands-off and lets you do everything on your own you can easily get sidetracked and find yourself jaunting down a small cave you thought was only going to take a few minutes to explore after telling yourself no I need to finish this Quest the world takes into account your race and class as well as further emphasizing the immense amount of customization the game has to offer exploring new areas and getting creative in ways to fall jump and fly throughout the land is some of the most enjoyment I've ever had playing a game this is even talking about the hundreds of unique NPCs you'll encounter whom each have the opportunity to add a small long or Mega side quest to your ever expanding Journal each game's world is massive there's no denying that but in terms of rewarding player exploration and interaction Boulders Gate 3 wins by a landslide Spider-Man 2 has a good story I like it I'll call it formulaic but it's not an insult because it's a formula that's been proven to work and it works extremely well with Spider-Man 2 lots of inspiration was taken from the comics and I really enjoyed the cast of characters we got to see I really want to give it praise for its separation yet also combination of Peter and Miles giving them each the spotlight in their own ways but combining them together during certain sections to remind you that they're both on the front of the cover for a reason some of the side quests were enjoyable and I really liked how they showed and emphasized the city of New York I thought they executed that very well there really is not much more to say about the Spider-Man 2 story it's solid it works but it doesn't blow me away the story of balers Gate 3 had me enthralled from the very beginning to the very end the first cut scene directly explains your situation you got a mind flare tadpull in your head and you need to get it out the rest is up to you it sounds cheesy but that's genuinely how the game works you can choose to kill yourself and end the game right there or you can look for help from a druid doctor or an evil Necromancer or even a mind flare itself to ask for help the game is a Sandbox full of possibilities on how you want to approach it one area again I personally feel like Ballers Gate 3 has a major advantage over Spider-Man 2 is simply because of it being an RPG a role playing game is exactly how it sounds you play a certain role in the game the main pull of RPGs comes from the ability for having to choose options on how your story will play out in the Dark Souls series for example you can choose to either help or not help an NPC this Choice can result in which ending the game selects for you it's an oversimplification but you understand the point giving players the freedom and opportunity to make decisions that will affect the future of the game's story makes the game and the characters so much more personal I know that if I didn't save this NPC right now I could come back later and they'd be dead and their mother would be crying and asking why I didn't save them then the mother might hire some assassins to try and randomly take me out later on in the game I know that that can happen which is why I love balers Gate 3 so much the story can change and flip on a dime where a party member might leave your Camp if you choose to do X thing I know when playing Spider-Man 2 if I come across someone burning in a building or a truck is being hijacked it will play no importance to the story if I help them then or go to that Quest marker later they even say if you choose to just keep swinging One Direction after encountering a crime I'm sure the police can take care of that one or something along those lines now really that's just kind of the story of Spider-Man I can't fault them too much it'd be pretty difficult to show a mother and a daughter dying to terrorists in a tated game but I will say I will always prefer a game where the story has a possibility of changing based on my actions compared to one that doesn't Spider-Man 2 has a great cast of characters you can really tell each person enjoys who they're playing and gives an A+ effort when they're voice acting Yuri lenthal in particular is phenomenal in this game if there's one award during the game awards that I think Spider-Man 2 should have won it would have been best performance to Yuri that said nothing really blew me away besides Yuri's performance sure miles MJ Harry and the rest were good but because of how the game is set up it doesn't really give them any option to Showcase anything but what the story allows this is one of the heavy limitations Spider-Man 2 puts on its cast you have so many talented people I just don't feel like I heard enough of what they can do now Boulders Gate 3 on the other hand might have the best voice acting in any game period each party member gives an Oscar worthy performance the game's Poss possibilities and endless choices help with allowing the vas to Showcase their entire range from sadness anger fear joy and everything in between your affinity and personal relationship with each party member or just NPCs and the factions in general will change based on the tone dialogue and how they interact with you I love comparing the difference of talking to a brand new party member from when you first pick them up to when you travel with them for a few days and continue on developing your relationship with them the enhanced dialogue helps immensely with making their responses feel like they real people the back and forth conversations with my party members while I'm in Camp were some of my favorite parts of the game it really made me feel like I was right there with them learning about their stories because of the way they responded the writing is phenomenal I really don't think that the voice actors of this game get enough credit because each one of them individually even down to the last talking squirrel killed it now some people may want me to argue points on Graphics sound score or emotional impact I don't think these are points in my opinion necessarily worth discussing simply because I believe they're too subjective or not worth debating graphics for example will always improve with time I don't really believe the Fidelity and texture of a character's face or surroundings Merit much value When comparing if one game is better than the other obviously there are standards but it's easy to see both games are at the top of the line when it comes to each of the respective graphics for sound and score my opinions can be reiterated the music and environmental noise of a game is pretty subjective and some people really don't pay that much attention to it at all I'd like to think that balers Gate 3 does have a better soundtrack and cooler noises but it's not so far ahead of Spider-Man that I think it's really worth bringing up again very subjective as for emotional impact this one is entirely up to how much tie-in the player has with their character there are tens of millions of Spider-Man fans around the world there is no question of that many of whom have either Peter or miles as their favorite superhero I'm sure that there are tons of people who were moved by the story in performance of both one and two and it had a real impact on them and the same goes with Ballers Gate 3 I came to really enjoy the members of my party and really developed a lot of semi-personal connections after hearing their backstories and playing along with them I'm sure that there are several others who grew far more attached than I ever could for one reason or another and and I find it amazing how such a piece of media can have that much of an impact on someone it's not fair to argue if one means more or is more emotional than the other it's stupid and it's all player preference but I do need Shadow heart in my life I guess one of the final Parts I would like to directly touch on is the gameplay SL replayability now this is something that I'm pretty conflicted with on one hand Spider-Man 2 does deliver a true AAA experience I could not play a game like this from an indie Dev and feel the same amount of quality and polish however I feel like there's about 10 more hours of content missing I platinum trophy the game in one weekend in less than 30 hours I did everything that the game had to offer the only other thing I can go back and do now is try on a harder difficulty I already know what happens in the story I have no desire to read replay it again to do the exact same thing I know not everyone thinks like this but for me it's hard to justify $70 for a less than 30-hour experience you'll most likely play once and never again I believe Spider-Man 2 needed at least 10 more hours of content for me to feel content spending $70 I spent 90 hours on my first balers Gate 3 playthrough that should speak sense to what I'm trying to convey Boulders Gate 3 should have been subtitled you're going to want to play this at least four times because that's how many times I think you probably need to play it to cover most of what the game has to offer the combination of classes races decisions morality and endings is absolutely insane there is so much you can do in this game it would take hundreds maybe even a thousand hours to thoroughly play through it all and to deliver on all of that in 2023 with a $60 price tag it is a big middle finger to a lot of these other AAA Studios I will never say that Spider-Man 2 is a bad game it's not but it's only a good game and with so many good games coming out every day with only so much time and money I think it's important that we showcase the great games bers Gate 3 is not a great game it's a masterpiece of a game with so few great games coming out these days it's even more Paramount that we lift the masterpieces up on a pedestal these are the games that the industry needs to keep an eye out and take inspiration from this is what people like and this is what people want not necessarily in terms of gameplay but content quality and polish games like bers Gate 3 go above and beyond and set the standard to a new difficult but obtainable height for the industry I did not address every point on why I like Boulders Gate 3 in this video there are thousands of others on YouTube who can articulate and describe it better than I ever could but I did want to convey why this game meant so much to myself and others and why it was clearly the best choice for being 2023 is Game of the Year I can't make a Spider-Man fan try the game I can only showcase my thoughts and let them decide for themselves but at the end of the day this is what won and there's a good reason why this is not only an industry defining but generation defining game thank you all for watching I hope you enjoyed my thoughts and feelings on why I loved bder Skate 3 and why I think it was the correct choice for being 2023 is game of the year although it may have come off as harsh and punching down on Spider-Man 2 I can tell you I did like it if you made it this far please make sure to leave a like And subscribe I've been pretty inconsistent for posting in 2023 but I want to do more in 2024 keep an eye out for my top five games movies and albums lists coming out later this year that's it for me but until then I will see you all next time

Channel: MiNiSoTaN

Views: 269,447

Keywords: game awards, baldurs gate 3, spiderman 2, spider-man 2, the game awards, 2023, BG3, game, awards

Id: Si4OzFwwXYc

Length: 23min 30sec (1410 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 10 2023