The Game Awards this year are full of controversy. The nominees for Game of the Year (GOTY) are Metaphor: ReFantazio, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Astro Bot, Black Myth: Wukong, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, and Balatro. Two games in particular are in hot water, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a remake of an old Final Fantasy game. Some people argue that remakes shouldn’t be allowed, or should have their own category. I have played this game and I think it is a great game. The nomination people are really talking about though, is Shadow of the Erdtree.
People are upset with the Game Awards for nominating Shadow of the Erdtree because it is not a video game. Instead, it is downloadable content (DLC) for the actual game, Elden Ring. That means it is an expansion to the game, and gives more content to the original game. Elden Ring, had already won GOTY in 2022. If Shadow of the Erdtree would win, it would be the first game to win GOTY twice. Some people who are in favor of Shadow of the Erdtree being GOTY would say that it is so big that it deserves the title of a game. This is true, the DLC is massive. It is even bigger than other nominations like Balatro or Astro Bot. The average time it takes to beat Shadow of the Erdtree is about 30 hours while Astro Bot only takes 17 hours. While that point is true, in order to access the DLC you have to purchase a copy of Elden Ring costing $60 and then another $40 for Shadow of the Erdtree. You also have to progress significantly in Elden Ring. This would take the average first time player around 8-12 hours. Although Shadow of the Erdtree is the size of an entire game, that doesn’t mask the fact that it is still a DLC. I think it should be in its own category that only contains DLCs. It’s called Game of the Year and not DLC of the Year.
I also want to touch on Balatro. Balatro is a small indie game about poker. It is a roguelike game which means if you lose, you restart and you practically don’t keep anything. You try making the best scoring poker hands you can. After each round, you get access to a shop. This shop lets you buy jokers, which makes your hands score more. One joker adds a 15x multiplier to each hand, but there is a ⅙ chance the joker card gets destroyed at the end of each round. I have played this game and I, and many others, think this game is very addicting. It is very fun to try to make the best combination of Jokers to make the best possible poker hands. Despite all of that, the small indie game just can’t compete with some AAA games, like Black Myth: Wukong. Balatro isn’t even a 3D game when all other nominees are. Balatro was also in the category for best mobile game, which it won. It also won best independent game and a few other categories.
The winner ended up being Astro Bot, which some critics say is undeserved. Astro Bot only gives 17 hours of gameplay. Black Myth Wukong, who was the favorite to win, offers 40 hours of gameplay. Astro Bot is also a PlayStation 5 exclusive. This means you need an almost $500 console in order to play it.
In conclusion, the Game Awards are pretty controversial. There is downloadable content that isn’t even a full game, a remake of an earlier game, and a small indie game being put up against some of the biggest AAA game companies in the world.
