I don't expect that this sentiment will be particularly shared, but I am curious what you guys thing.

Spider-Man 2 actually was a fantastic game, and I truly do believe it deserved an award or two. The problem is, the award categories are very narrow, and it just didn't fit in anywhere. The improvements to the swinging and overall transversal of the environment bring an incredibly unique experience. It's so fun! The quality of the game is so high that I hate to see everybody shitting on it.

I'm a long time Larian fan, and BG3 is my favorite game I've ever played, and I'm so glad it went mainstream. The thing is, a lot of the things that are blowing people away have been genre standard for years upon years, just most people turned their noses up at it, or had absolutely no interest.

It's certainly been tweaked, and adjusted to incorporate D&D rules, but Larian has been using the same engine (DIVINITY, we're on version 4 for BG3 iirc) for 11 years. I've been playing on the same engine for as long.

Since it was such a niche genre, this is the mainstream's first exposure to crpgs, and a lot of the praise it's getting is the magic of the genre itself. I feel as though they've almost perfected the formula, and their companion romance stuff is pinnacle so far - I think Dragon Age was the last one I really enjoyed, and it was basically just Morrigan lmao. The cinematic aspect is incredible, and the overall scope of the campaign is absolutely amazing too, and these are standouts among video games in general, as well as amongst crpgs.

I think the game looks much different to people who aren't fans of the genre, and I find it all plays and works very similar to DoS2, which was, coincidentally, my favorite game before BG3. The magic of the innovation is much different when you realize they've been building on the same framework for over a decade. Larian is absolutely an incredible innovator, but most of the innovation they did in 2014, and 2017. If those games got bandwagonned as hard, things would look different for BG3 as well.

It would have still been GotY, I'm certain of it, but many of the things people fell in love with are things that seem brand new, and unique, but are par for the genre, and something Larian has been doing for a very long time at this point.