If the following games all released last year which would have won GOTY at the time?

I don't want to undermine this entire post, but Super Mario Bros. 3.

I just enjoy that in this absolutely wild hodgepodge of games and series God of War 1+2 is apparently intended to mean God of War 2018 and God of War: Ragnarok instead of...God of War and God of War 2.

But Tony Hawk doesn't get the remakes it gets a game that doesn't exist that blends together the first 4 Tony Hawk games, even though Tony Hawk 4 levels are much more open ended and totally different from Tony Hawk 1-3 levels.

Also Zelda only gets the one game and not a compilation for reasons that aren't clear.

And The Witcher 3 seems to get only its base version and not its DLC. Same with Skyrim I guess?

Which would be more popular, GTA VI, a game that does not exist and that we know nothing about, or a different Tony Hawk game that also does not exist?

This is an unanswerable question involving a lot of stuff that does not exist but there's no way a game that has PlayStation 1 graphics like Tony Hawk wins GOTY in 2023.

@nodima:I think you mean Super Mario Bros 2 (Japan), Super Mario Bros 3., Yoshi's Island, and Super Mario 3D World except they're all the same game the levels just stitch together.

are we talking this website, industry-wide, or personally? probably different answers depending on the scope.

in other words never count out Cool Tetris.

I'm just going to assume Skyrim is released every year.

Imaginary GTA 6 actually lets you play all of these imaginary games at full fidelity in your in-game apartment, where you own all the consoles, including consoles which haven't been released yet, and a PC with an RTX 6090 and you can even mod the games, so you get all the mods and stuff for imaginary Skyrim too.

If Metal Gear Solid 1-5 were the only video games ever made i'd still be happy.

@bigsocrates: I meant for all the games to be maxed out. So Skyrim would have all mods, gta would be perfected no online issues, zelda would have max graphics, mgs would have no issues and be playable continuously from one game to the next, tony hawk yes would just go to the 4th game and open up with maxxed graphics, and correct witcher 3 is considered complete since you need the dlc for that, and it comes in a package these days anyway.

For other questions, we can judge industry wise not GB since GB would likely pick PUBG or Vampire survivors etc which would go against the grain but not be indicative of average players. GB usually picks very nuanced since they are more busy with kids and family and played a lot of games or have alot of opinions that arent the popular pick so i think using their gauge would just end up pointless for overall people.

Ohhh, Zelda would have max graphics, and MGS would have no issues. This addresses all my outstanding questions.

I think MGS 1-5 remade in the Fox Engine would have to include at least Peace Walker too for the story to make sense, so we might as well remake Metal Gear 1 and 2 in that engine too while we're at it. For all of that to be in a single package that comes out all at once (with no technical issues, too) would be an insane feat of engineering and business development. But I don't think this question takes place in the real world, so who's to say how it would compare to other games that come out at the same time? Also, very few people would play and finish the whole thing before the year is over. A lot of people would probably be too indimidated by the size of the package to even buy it. What would something like that even cost?

I think that Eldin Ring would still walk away as a critics choice, while Totk would likely be the sales winner. The rest would be well regarded, though I think Skyrim as-is wouldn’t be the powerhouse it was in 2011.

It's a lil weird having some games get their full run of releases while others just get one entry. That said, I think Elden Ring's tough to top and I reckon it'd still have a good chance to snap the GB awards too, given what broad appeal it seems to have had. The entire MGS catalogue (especially if we assume it includes PW) is a pretty choice collection, though.

@topcyclist: Whose GOTY? It's such a generic idea that you need specifics. Is this my personal GOTY? Is this the Game Awards GOTY? Is this, "which game would win the most GOTY awards across the industry?" Those are all different answers.

I assume we all agree Bubsy would top this list so handily we're not including it.

@ginormous76:Just an overall internet consensus like how people generally acknowledge Last of us won one year or elden ring won last year, overlooking that many hate those games and would consider them nowhere near GOTY, were speaking more of just overall feel on the winner. But if its easier you can do your personal one. I said not GB since they have nuanced takes that might not even include the selection i placed, which is nice but not what im looking for this time.

@y2ken: Funny, didnt expect so many to still say elden ring. After release many threads bashed it on how it was basically overrated or not different enough from souls or nothing revolutionary and such not worthy of the praise and so forth, but it now seems to be far above in interest for games of the past decade and a bit of the potential future. That said yeah it could just be the vocal minority that disliked the game. Also the list doesnt include say a bunch of other favorites ( im guessing metroid or something would win votes maybe doom and so on.) Anyway rule is yes, as you'd assume elden ring maxxed out would include the potential dlc or whatever in this weird hypothetical. Elden ring didnt get say the other souls games since its a single one of its own stories. MGS for example feels incomplete without the rest to showcase itself, and yes the MGS package would max out graphics so you'd get MGS1 with MGSV graphics but no gameplay improvements.

Im most shocked in this odd potential face off people dont have faith that GTA 6 will come out and wreck. GTA5 is the highest seller just about. And i put GTA 5 at the base lowest GTA6 would come out as. All mapped out in the rules lol.

@eccentrix: Yes, good point since MGS series needs that side series for the complete feel of that game, It would be included, and for the sake of fairness (or unfairness) all games would be the same price so value in what the game is not the price. Though that rule messes up things more, anymore rules to add lol.

Oh, so the graphics and performance are upgraded and there are no technical issues, but it's exactly the same gameplay? That's good to know.

How are the prices evened out? Are they all as cheap as Vampire Survivors or does Vampire Survivors cost $70? Oh, but I guess Vampire Survivors would be a fully 3D environment with graphics like GTA 6 too, so maybe that would increase the cost.

Just because something sells well doesn't mean it's good. GTA V's resurgence is entirely because of the online, the role-playing community, and Rockstar's continued development of the online over the last 10 years. When that game was first released 10 years ago it just kind of came and went without much hubbub. It didn't even make GB's top 10 of the year because of how forgettable it was (like literally, it did so little to impact them that they forgot to include it for consideration for the top 10 despite the fact it came out in September of that year. They realized this when they went back over that year's list on an episode of the Hotspot). The online was considered a neat novelty but the main single player campaign was considered one of the worst in terms of modern GTA games (especially after how strong GTA IV's story was). Mechanically it was better than the previous games but the campaign story was nonsense and lacked anything resembling structure or stakes.

I recently replayed GTA V on my Steam Deck and I think the complaints about that campaign still hold true. It starts strong but completely fizzles out half way through before limping through the second half. They front loaded all of the of the more creative mission designs and the story gets so spread out over the three characters that it loses anything resembling focus or depth. Because all focus has to be split over the three main characters, the game never gets to focus on any of the side characters enough and as a result most of them end up being shallow caricatures.

@ben_h:I'mma let you finish, but GTA V was like goddamned magic on the Xbox 360. You had to install part of it to the hard drive (something a couple other games did) but after you did...it was a damned near next gen experience on that creaky old thing. I think there are lots of valid criticisms of the game, but as a console game in 2013 before the new stuff launched it was almost unbelievably good looking.

Also the heists were very cool. Even the later ones. The overall story was super bland and forgettable and some of the set up missions were bad, but the heists themselves were a very good time.

This is the issue though. It could have been an all-timer. Mechanically it was a great game and it looked amazing considering the hardware. A focus on heists would have hugely improved the single player (which was something a lot of critics pointed out at the time). But they didn't do that. Instead, there's only a few heists and most of the second half of the game is generic "go to place while maybe chasing a car, shoot a bunch of guys at place" missions with little variation, especially during the Trevor sections. They could have removed most of the Trevor missions and almost nothing would have changed in the main story. Most of Trevor's missions felt like filler content in the worst way possible.

In the first third or so of the game where it's focused purely on Franklin and Michael's relationship and planning heists, the game is great. The focus is small enough that they actually are able to introduce meaningful side characters (like Lamar, who basically disappears for most of the game after this until the end) and Michael's family (who also largely disappear in the second half of the game) and the missions actually have a purpose. The game completely loses focus in the transition to Trevor's first section and it never recovers.

@ben_h: I'm not disagreeing with your criticisms except the claim that it was forgettable. Maybe Giant Bomb forgot it but I sure didn't! I was blown away by the graphics and I really enjoyed some of the heists. Was it bloated? Yes. Was the city kind of boring compared to Vice City or even Liberty City? Yes. Was the soundtrack a HUGE step back from the prior games? Yes. In fact I can't believe you didn't mention that. The soundtrack was very middling for a series that in some ways was MADE by its sound tracks.

But it was memorable because of the highs of the heists and how good it looked.

@bigsocrates: I'm surprised I didn't mention the soundtrack either. I loved the soundtracks of the older games but couldn't name more than a handful of songs off GTA V's soundtrack. I guess maybe I forgot about it because it's an inherently forgettable soundtrack. There's a few good songs on it but none of it is impactful in the game and they don't really use it within the story like they did in the past (there's 2(?) missions I can think of that use music from the soundtrack to add to the mission). Certainly nothing like Vice City where they worked music into many of the cutscenes and deliberately had certain songs playing during some missions.

No Vampire would look as is. Just no glitches or issues ever. I guess it makes things hard when you factor it in as a 1 buck or free game, So I guess you'd have to just factor in that money isn't an issue for buying and you have a billion bucks or something lol. This is turning into a DnD campaign of rules. Also can we all agree that Skyrim would need to include glitches cause without glitches and it aint Skyrim...or do we do what we said, perfectly playable all dlc, and mods to the most realistic it can get for modern looks i guess. Doesnt matter i guess, seems skyrim isn't holding up on the list.

PS: Im aware now that MGS3 is getting a remake, so now that 1-3 all have pretty updated graphics this list of games is coming true...or atleast MGS3 vs zelda can be a thing for debate.

I can see both sides. I think at the time the 3-person switch thing was like the Nemesis system or pinning in multiplayer games, it's such a nice feature that changes the way you play enough to be novel. I also think with the leap in graphics you gotta pull back on some things so i get why say San Andreas looks to have more fun features to play with. I think for example, people call out glitches and lack of polish in a skyrim or fallout or whatever and question why it can't be as tight as say an outer worlds, but with big worlds and systems comes more duck tape holding it all together when it's also polished. A better example is people calling out limitations in horizon games vs breath of the wild. Something about keeping that high realism and fidelity makes it hard to say just add the ability to go teleport out a mountain, break components together, scatter them on the ground in any environment and have AI that picks up different lying around equipment etc. We give up the sandbox nature for fidelity and fidelity sells to a big crowd at say a e3 vs a sandbox which takes time to explain its merits (see some reactions to Zelda fusing mechanic originally, with some saying it's just simple and won't mean anything, or that its just Zelda DLC).

But yeah, GTA 5 sold most, but you could argue it's due to the online part (which is funny cause at release GB completely gave up on it lol and now It's so well liked, never give up people (game creators at least))

Also, I can see this community may not have been that impressed by just another open world even if it's to GTA's quality...still think GTA6 is cooking for so long they must have something big. They were way more angry than expected about a leak, that I think they're planning something huge, and they don't need to make the game, so it's like a gamble, as it takes away eyes on GTA5 which still sells. Much like Elden Ring reinvigorated souls likes, I think GTA can reinvigorate open world bloat games...Zelda did it, I assume almost any genre can get a touch up and blow minds. (except Battleroyal...seems too far gone).

@topcyclist: Just release Skyrim without glitches and let people mod in whatever glitches they want.

@eccentrix: Fair lol. Cause that giant glitch that threw you sky high was just too funny. So skyrim gets the same equal maxed out performance treatment, and you can mod in original glitches... Though now i think it's unfair since mods make skyrim into a ton that it wasn't, like entire fixes to UI and more character stories etc. Still looks like most still think elden ring tops so it doesnt matter.