Starfield lets you build your own spaceships which is pretty innovative in the RPG genre and in the AAA market. If nominees are only being judged in comparison to their direct peers, one could argue that Starfield is innovative, much in the way that Gears of War was innovative for popularizing the cover system, even…

Again, AAA publishers have only become more conservative over the past 20 years so I don’t know why you’d expect that to change. The few attempts we do get at new AAA IP usually flop. Forspoken, Anthem, Redfall, Outriders, Immortals: Fenyx Rising, Days Gone, etc, were all commercial failures. With AAA games costing…

What I mean is that you shouldn’t be allowed to vote in any category unless you’ve played all of the nominees. That would significantly reduce the number of people that could vote but that’s probably a good thing if we want meaningful awards.

So to confirm, you’re angry that AAA publishers continue to make sequels despite the fact that this trend has been going on for well over a decade and there’s still plenty of new IP in the indie and AA markets.

Oh, yeah, the console versions are more expensive. Lowest those dropped was $30.

It seems like this more of a “10 Random Sci-Fi Movies on Netflix” list than a “Top 10 Sci-Fi Movies on Netflix” list.

Daggerfall was basically fantasy Starfield. Tons of content, 95% of it completely generic and forgettable. With Morrowind, they went the opposite route and handcrafted everything, leading to a much better game. That they’d return to the Daggerfall approach with Starfield is... puzzling.

For someone who supposedly doesn’t care, you seem pretty adamant about continuing this discussion.

Even if winners are picked by an anonymous board of industry people, it’s still a popularity contest. It’s just a popularity contest within a much smaller pool of participants. For example, Persona 5 winning RPG of the Year in TGA 2017 was the result of the voting board consisting primarily of console players.…

This is pretty much how popularity votes work, though. Ideally, people would only be allowed to vote for games they’ve actually played but the reality is that the average Steam user only plays like 5 games a year.

I imagine RDR2 winning Labor of Love is also the result of ironic voting.

They aren’t quite the same. In BG3, you can make your character permanently naked at all times. That’s why I’m confused as to how it got an MA rating from the ESRB. Conan Exiles also let you get naked at any time and the North American console SKUs were censored in order to achieve an MA rating. I don’t see why the…

Apparently the North American SKU is censored but the European one isn’t. I guess the rating boards have different standards when it comes to nudity.

Yes, you clearly made a stupid comment, got called out for it, then got overly defensive and snarky. In the future, if you want to avoid being embarrassed, try to think for more than two seconds before posting.

Cutscenes notwithstanding, I’m surprised that the console versions of BG3 let you strip completely naked. Typically, MA-rated games only allow conditional nudity (e.g cutscenes, inventory screen with very limited camera controls, etc). Conan Exiles was censored on consoles because the PC version let you get naked at…

I’ll never understand why people choose to drive cars in urban open-world games that have a lot of traffic. Bikes are way faster to get around in because they can easily cut through traffic.

As I already explained, AAA publishers started relying on sequels like 20 years ago. I’m not sure why you’d expect that trend to suddenly change in 2024 when AAA games are more expensive to make than ever before. If you want new IP, indie and AA games have you covered.

Most AAA games are going to be sequels, spin-offs or remakes. This has been the trend for, oh, the past twenty years or so.

I’m not sure reading comprehension is the sword you should choose to die on. Here’s what you actually said:

If you’re offended by the concept of sequels, you’re probably going to struggle to enjoy any entertainment medium.