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Bits & Bytes is a weekly column where Editor-in-Chief Robert shares his thoughts about video games and the industry on a lazy Sunday. Light reading for a day of rest, Bits & Bytes is short, to the point, and something to read with a nice drink.
Baldur’s Gate 3 won Game of the Year at the 2023 The Game Awards.
Meh. That sounds about right.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the heck out of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Frankly, I liked it even better than Breath of the Wild. But here’s the thing: as much as Tears of the King is, in my opinion, a more enjoyable game than Breath of the Wild, and Breath of the Wild won Game of the Year at the VGAs that year… Tears of the Kingdom isn’t anywhere near as groundbreaking as its predecessor. It just isn’t.
And that’s not a ding or slight against Tears of the Kingdom. It’s an amazing game. But looking at the slate of titles that were up for the award, I think that Baldur’s Gate 3, despite being a sequel itself, was very innovative and did things that really blew players away in the same manner that Breath of the Wild did when it came out. So while I am always down to see Nintendo take home hardware at awards ceremonies, in this instance, I don’t think the company was robbed or anything like that—it just wasn’t meant to be.
Besides, at least Tears of the Kingdom got to take home Adventure Game of the Year! That’s something, right? Right?
Awards are usually a bit silly and always heavily subjective, but I’d have to agree; nobody was “robbed” here.
Both Tears of the Kingdom and Baldur’s Gate 3 are game-of-the-year material. Each does an amazing job of presenting their numerous complexities in a non-alienating way, which is a mighty feat in itself. Both games encourage experimentation and reward improvisation. Both feature a lot of lore and detail which the player is free to get lost in, or to completely bypass.
There, the similarities end, and we’re left trying to figure out whether an extraordinary apple is better than an extraordinary orange. Take your pick, or love ’em both. Neither can tarnish the other in the slightest.