Baldur’s Gate
Larian
Earlier this year, I said it was pretty clear to me that with wild, universal acclaim and boundless creativity, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom would likely be a shoe-in for Game of the Year in 2023, even in a year full of strong contenders.
That…may have been a bit premature. I was overlooking the sleeping giant that was Baldur’s Gate 3, Larian’s new hardcore CRPG that has expanded miles beyond what was thought to be a niche, racking up over 800,000 concurrent players yesterday on Steam. The game is being praised as perhaps not just the best of this year, but of the last several years, a return to the glory days of RPGs while adopting modern elements.
The reviews are slowly trickling in. A few outlets do have actual scores out, which seems rushed, given how late review copies are out and how massively long the game is. But of those six scored reviews, Baldur’s Gate 3 has as 95 on Metacritic. There are 33 total reviews, however, counting all the “in-progress” ones, which feature phrases like “I might not be ready to give it a score yet, but if it wasn’t immediately obvious: Baldur’s Gate 3 is utterly brilliant.” (PC Gamer) or “Baldur’s Gate 3 is a masterfully crafted RPG that improves on every aspect of Larian’s past work, and is a worthy successor to the series.” (DualShockers). I would expect a litany of 9.5s and perfect 10s once the scores are finalized.
Tears of the Kingdom
Nintendo
It is a real competitor to Tears of the Kingdom, even if that remains at a 96 with 145 reviews out. Not to say Tears of the Kingdom still may not take the majority of GOTY honors, including big, compiled ones like the main stage at The Game Awards, but it’s very clear that Baldur’s Gate is its biggest rival. At least so far, as I know that many people are waiting for Starfield, Bethesda’s mega-blockbuster, when previously mainline Bethesda games have won plenty of GOTY honors themselves. I always thought if anything, Starfield could be Tears’ chief contender, though that still seemed somewhat unlikely.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is incredibly strong, however, and it’s very, very clearly not niche, given these playercounts. It has mainstream appeal past what anyone thought possible, even developer Larian itself, and it will certainly land as one of the best games of the year, if not the best, depending on who you ask. In another year without Tears it probably would have been far and away the clear frontrunner, but this year, we are about to see some of the most heated competition in the space that I can remember. Now, let’s see what Starfield can do.
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