Okay, so let me preface this.    I was sorta impressed by the first Uncharted it was fun and a good start to the series.  Then Uncharted 2 came along.  It was fantastic and everything from the characters to the action scenes were extremely well crafted. 
 
I played hours of multiplayer, coop and loved it.   However, I have the UC3 beta sitting on my HDD and have absolutely no desire to play it.   I was trying to mull around in my head the reason why I wouldn't wanna be all over this like I think I would  have been and its been eluding  me.     But just recently I had the thought that Uncharted series is quickly becoming equivalent to the sports team that never loses.   
 
The game is obviously good and a well crafted game but I can't help to shrug in apathy.  When I hear people like Gary Whitta and Ryan Davis preemptively saying  "Oh its either this or Portal 2 for GOTY"   it kinda just  irks me in a way.    Again, no hate to the game at all but the Juggernaut of a shadow this game is obviously casting  seems to be overshadowing  tons of other great games  that I feel might not get their due  at all. 
 
I dunno about any of you but just like my sports team analogy I think its boring when the same team wins year in and year out. I  guess its dumb of me to expect people NOT to be excited about this as much as they are but   I dunno I kinda just wish some of these other games had a snowballs chance in hell  ( besides obviously call of duty) of getting as much attention as Uncharted 3 is going to get from press and fans alike. 
 
I don't really honestly expect anyone to agree with me seeing as how this is obviously home turf for Uncharted 3 being the UC3 form and all but felt  the need to probe the waters to see if there was anyone else that felt this way.

I don't really see the problem in UC3 being great with every new iteration. I'd rather it be the GOTY every year one comes out, than have it be mediocre.

I LOVE it when people claim unreleased games to be their GOTY. This happens all the time on these forums....

Yeah, I get where you are coming from. I'm kind of sick of everyone gushing about Uncharted, but then I'm an insane Halo fan, so I probably shouldn't speak.

I feel like they get to have one more game before people start turning on them though. If there is an Uncharted 4 and they don't change anything I think the love affair will dim.

Dark Souls GOTY! 
 
 maybe.. 
 
Anyway, i have a hard time sticking with the UC multiplayer for some damn reason. I like it but i don't love it.   
 
The single player is always good though.. and coop.. so I can't complain. I can't really relate with the sports team analogy very much. The fact something wins GOTY or anything else really has no sway on my enjoyment of a game or anything else. 

I get what you're trying to say, but considering it's actually only won one year, I don't think the analogy really applies yet. And I would still even consider Uncharted 3 to be the "underdog" this year. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure Uncharted 2 had nowhere near the sales numbers that the other big titles in 2009 had. And I don't think that Uncharted 3 will get the general public recognition it truly deserves this year either. The Modern Warfares and the Gears of Wars will more than likely overshadow Uncharted in the sales numbers. And in that aspect, if Uncharted 3 really is good enough to win Game of the Year again, I'll be glad that Naughty Dog at least gained the love of the enthusiast press and the enthusiast crowd. 
 
That is, if Uncharted 3 is good enough to live up to or even beat the bar set by Uncharted 2.

You need to step back from games if your going to go down the rabbit hole like that. Play it if it's fun to play, and if you have some higher priority for how you feel about games then you need other things to do.

I focus more on trying out different games and making my GOTY the best experience for me. Uncharted 2 may have been the best last time but with games like skyrim and Dark Souls no one can be 100 percent sure. After all, Uncharted isn't the only series that's improving.

Well Naughty Dog made some great games and therefore it's going to get A LOT of attentation, deserved attention in my opinion, since the Uncharted series can actually deliver on their promises.

By it's like that every year, so I don't really see what the problem is? It has always been like this and if UC3 wasn't released this year, god forbid(!), it would just be some other game grabbing all the attention and yet all these small games which you talk about seem to do fine every year. In the end I think that both the big and smaller games succeed because they cater to two different audiences, if they didn't they simply wouldn't sell and you wouldn't see games like Dark Souls in 2011. But games like Dark Souls are still around, because they target a very specific crowd and they don't care if some other big AAA title is released cause it doesn't give them the same experience as Dark Souls does.

@Demoskinos said:

@Brendan: I need to step back from games because I made a post on a GAMING forum about my mixed feelings about a game? Last I checked discussing opinions on games is what we do here.

You missed my point. If you weren't into uncharted because you were getting bored of playing them then that makes sense. But you being bored of the games because you think they're too big and you don't like the warping effect they have on the success of other games? Way too down the rabbit hole. If you can't enjoy a game because of that then you have some reconsidering to do.

As a citizen of Boston I like teams that always win.

Also, I like Uncharted.

Well I suppose if it wasn't so good it wouldn't win now would it? It's not something you blame on Uncharted, you just see if another company can upset the balance. Or..OR...you could just play the games you want to play and not let little stuff like critical acclaim get to you.

Well, I'm a Yankees fan but I agree with your analogy.  It would be nice if there was more variety among the honored, but games are short on that for the wider audience.  There maybe 30 teams in professional baseball, but less than a third regularly compete for the title.  Similarly, there are only a handful of "hot" franchises which hold our attention over a period of time.  Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty, GTA, Uncharted... well, you know the ones.  I think a lot of gamers would have trouble accepting something too different winning over their beloved franchise.  I think it's too early to award the top prize to Uncharted 3 especially when Bioshock Infinite seemed to impress the press at E3 and other top tier titles like Skyrim and Arkham City might also become worthwhile competitors.  Of course, all of those are sequels, too so I'm not sure what the answer is.  Rage is new IP, so maybe that will be the one to wrestle it away from the "thank you, come agains".

I believe you think too highly of Uncharted.. you're making it sound like it's COD (sales wise) or Mass Effect (praise wise) 
 At the end of the day it's a cover based console shooter, it's not as colossal as you think it is 
 
 
@PenguinDust: Dude, 8,888 posts! nice! DON'T RUIN IT

From what I've seen of the mp beta alone, even assuming the sp campaign will be brilliant, GOTY for U3 is rediculously premature. People just like to pop off for the attention or to get a reaction.

Uncharted 3 would be a pretty fucking boring GOTY pick. So probably.

@Ahmad_Metallic said:

I believe you think too highly of Uncharted.. you're making it sound like it's COD (sales wise) or Mass Effect (praise wise)
At the end of the day it's a cover based console shooter, it's not as colossal as you think it is

Uncharted 2 has a 96 metacritic. It's right up there in terms of praise.

Uncharted is fucking great, but it's still 'defeated' buy Assassin's Creed to me. I'm just glad I finally get to play both, now that I've got this PS3...

I wouldn't be surprised if ES V: Skyrim was to be high up in the nominations of GOTY as well, this year it's hard to choose who will win as there are much more great games for 2011 than any other year. I think it's going to be hard for Uncharted 3 to top its predecessor as Naughty Dog really set the bar high.

So are you ironically hating the games now? That's probably the only instance I've seen of this.

I feel the same way.  I haven't touched the beta.  I suddenly feel burned out on a lot of games that I haven't even played.  Uncharted 3, ME3, ES5 - if any of those came out today I don't think I would care.  I'm looking forward to Dark Souls, Saints Row 3 and New Vegas DLC.  It's like I'm rooting for the underdogs or something.

You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

Just ask Call of Duty.

I still read UC as Unreal Championship, even though I never played those games. 
 
As for the actual question, I can see where you're coming from; I think if you feel that way you should just stop paying so much attention to the really big games and just play more obscure games for a bit. Sometimes you just need a break from always playing the AAA titles.

The undefeated sports team is usually pretty good at sports. 
 
Usually.

Well, I'm a Yankees fan but I agree with your analogy.  It would be nice if there was more variety among the honored, but games are short on that for the wider audience.  There maybe 30 teams in professional baseball, but less than a third regularly compete for the title.  Similarly, there are only a handful of "hot" franchises which hold our attention over a period of time.  Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty, GTA, Uncharted... well, you know the ones.  I think a lot of gamers would have trouble accepting something too different winning over their beloved franchise.  I think it's too early to award the top prize to Uncharted 3 especially when Bioshock Infinite seemed to impress the press at E3 and other top tier titles like Skyrim and Arkham City might also become worthwhile competitors.  Of course, all of those are sequels, too so I'm not sure what the answer is.  Rage is new IP, so maybe that will be the one to wrestle it away from the "thank you, come agains".

It's odd to be annoyed that a game that most people praise and legitimately believe that its one of the top games of a year shouldn't get GOTY because there was a previous iteration that won.  And in fact Uncharted 2 was only GOTY in certain places.  Assassin's Creed 2, Batman, Dragon Age, Demon Souls, MW2,  etc also won GOTY 2009 awards.  DEMON SOULS!  You were talking about Dark Souls not getting it's just deserts.  Most games that are deemed good by the people that played them will be heard.  You shouldn't worry that a great game will have a lot of people saying its a great game and win GOTY.  
 
Also this@jaymorgoth said:

Well I suppose if it wasn't so good it wouldn't win now would it? It's not something you blame on Uncharted, you just see if another company can upset the balance. Or..OR...you could just play the games you want to play and not let little stuff like critical acclaim get to you.

You need to step back from games if your going to go down the rabbit hole like that. Play it if it's fun to play, and if you have some higher priority for how you feel about games then you need other things to do.

i have a feeling Uncharted 3 is not going to be GOTY material.  there are a lot of great games coming out and i want the game to really exceed my expectations but i dont think it will. 

@Brendan:  I don't see anything wrong with that at all.   God forbid  that I have concern that smaller games that are just as excellent as Uncharted 3 won't get the praise and attention they deserve because of the shadow some of these larger games cast. 

The best piece of advice for any piece of creative medium I've found that applies to anything; movies, games, books, music etc. is to drum down your hype. Drum it down as hard as you can and don't expect a thing - that way, you'll enjoy it so much more.

I didn't really get the hype about UC2. For me it was just a decent 3rd person shooter with a really short campaign. I probably won't bother with UC3. *shrug*

In the Batman:AA vs UC2 GOTY debate Batman won hands down for me and I expect the same to be true with Arkham City. I also expect Battlefield 3 to be close to the top of the list for me as well as Forza 4.

I think you have the chicken and the egg backwards. It's not like the world was constantly talking about Uncharted 2 and it was like some shoe-in for GotY 2009. No one really paid any attention to it until the review scores came out. Even now, with that game being one of the highest rated games ever, there still isn't that big of an audience, even among avid gamers.  
 
The media coverage and advertisement of this game stems from Naughty Dog basically feeling like "We made what could have been the best game of the last decade but most people are paying attention to largely inferior games. We're going to do everything we can to make sure everyone knows how good our game is, this time." If Uncharted 3 is that good, why should anyone have a problem with Naughty Dog and Sony promoting the hell out of it? Black Ops ads were literally everywhere and most fans of that series don't particularly care for it.  I personally think it would be awesome is U3 came out, was the best game of the generation, and sold as well as a Halo title. We should all want that for any good game.  
 
And just to say where I stand on the matter, I think Uncharted 2 is possibly the greatest game ever made and I seriously think Uncharted 3 has a legitimate shot of being the best of all time.

@onimonkii: No, see thats where your wrong.  Many games don't have the ad dollars that  Uncharted 3 has and  many games won't get the coverage space that Uncharted 3 will.    Your seriously telling me that a niche game like Dark Souls is going to get the mainstream coverage that something like uncharted 3 will with   Kevin Butler making a smarmy  30 second TV spot that plays on ESPN?   Give me a break.

A year ago, I could have said "You mean like the Lakers?" :(

Yeah, I'd prefer it to be mediocre, that would renew my interest instantly.

I kinda see what you mean. Many of my favourite games of the last years have its problems, like Vanquish. There is something about games that do everything right that can make me uninterested in them. It's the same with movies to me. (I haven't seen LotR or any Harry Potter, eventhough they got much praise, please don't hit me)

I don't really see the problem in UC3 being great with every new iteration. I'd rather it be the GOTY every year one comes out, than have it be mediocre.

@onimonkii:  No shit I know what niche means.    And thats my whole flubbing point here.   If these games got more exposure they might not  BE niche games.   There are tons of people who don't know  about them period and some of these games are equally or more creative  than some of these AAA games.   Just look at the buzz that Demons Souls got once it did start to catch on.  Walmart didn't carry the game PERIOD.  Not on its website and not on its store.    Then the game started selling  and getting word of mouth and  then they started stocking it.  THAT right there I think is incredible.   A niche game like Demons Souls by only word of mouth and sales made Walmart of all things stand up and pay attention to it.    If that can happen I think  with a  proper advertising campaign something like Dark Souls  can start breaking its way into mainstream success.

I believe you think too highly of Uncharted.. you're making it sound like it's COD (sales wise) or Mass Effect (praise wise) 
 At the end of the day it's a cover based console shooter, it's not as colossal as you think it is 
 
 
@PenguinDust: Dude, 8,888 posts! nice! DON'T RUIN IT

@blacklabeldomm said:

I LOVE it when people claim unreleased games to be their GOTY. This happens all the time on these forums....

Uncharted 4 is my GOTY 2013!

@blacklabeldomm said:

I LOVE it when people claim unreleased games to be their GOTY. This happens all the time on these forums....

Uncharted 4 is my GOTY 2013!

@Abyssfull said:

@LiquidPrince said:

@blacklabeldomm said:

I LOVE it when people claim unreleased games to be their GOTY. This happens all the time on these forums....

Uncharted 4 is my GOTY 2013!

If Naughty Dog's almost trademark franchise habits continue, then Uncharted: Kart Racer (Unkarted?) will be your GOTY 2013! Man, I really wouldn't say no to another Naughty Dog developed Kart Racer, set within the Uncharted-verse. It wouldn't fit in as well as Crash and Jak, but I think that would in-turn make it even more hilariously awesome.

Man how do you know about Unkarted? That wasn't to be announced until E3 2012! I wonder if everyone is gonna be chibi...