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The Game Awards will announce the winners for the various categories they've selected on December 8th at 11:00 AM CST. As always, the heaviest debated subject is who will be Game of the Year, and fans believe that it's only between two different games--Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarök.
In fact, fans seemed to believe these would be the frontrunners before the games were even released, and they were right. Many fans have a lot to say about this, including Redditors, who give compelling arguments for each game. Both of these games are fantastic entries, but only one can win.
Elden Ring Has More Accessibility
One of God of War Ragnarök's biggest challenges is that it is a PlayStation exclusive, whereas it is up against a game that appears on multiple platforms. Not only does Elden Ring appear on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC, but it also had a PlayStation 4 and Xbox One release.
This is a heavy advantage that Elden Ring has, especially for two games so massively popular. Redditor wspartan says, after summarizing what each game has excelled at this year, "I think Elden Ring will take it simply because it is multi-plat, so it will get more of the public vote." With how many more players were able to pick up Elden Ring, it seems like a reasonable argument.
God Of War Ragnarök Surpassed Its Predecessors
A critique that Elden Ring has received from many of its fans, especially longtime FromSoftware games, is while the game is great, it doesn't really out-do its predecessors. However, this isn't the case for most GoW fans, who believe Ragnarök is the best in the franchise.
Emergency-Garage-179 from Reddit says, "GowR deserves more because it is much better than the previous ones in every way. ER on the other hand is not as good as Bloorborne or Demon's Souls remake. Or even Dark Souls 2." Some entries this Redditor comments on may be a bit of a hot take, but it's an understandable one, with many fans believing that Elden Ring isn't FromSoftware's best gamey.
Elden Ring Has More Content
To players, crunching in more hours and gameplay of a game is far more important than a game they'll beat in one weekend. Redditor MattTheBold talks about how they loved both games and that each one excels in different areas, but that "GOW doesn't even have ng+ so I don't have a reason to jump back in. It puts my playtime at 85hrs vs over 1000hrs in ER which has multyplayer and ng+ available right away."
These are fantastic points that showcase the importance of how different players view their games. There's simply far more to do in Elden Ring, and it doesn't get boring easily thanks to the NG+ modes that allow players to continue their journey in more challenging ways and the ceaseless multiplayer activities.
God Of War Ragnarök Is More Organized And Straightforward
A common issue many fans have discussed in relation to Elden Ring is how difficult it is to follow the questlines due to there not being any way to track the quests, with many fans having to read guides online or watch YouTube videos. Redditor mattv82211 comments on this, saying, "I don't even want to get into the side quests where I had to watch multiple youtube videos to figure out what the heck is going on."
This was their issue with the overall story of the game as well, not knowing precisely what the game was even about. While they had a lot of fun with it, they simply preferred the overall straightforwardness of Ragnarök, which felt more organized. Their final comment on the games is, "For me it's GOW. The story and gameplay are just better. ER is a confusing hot mess that I don't want to revisit anytime soon because it feels like work most of the time."
Elden Ring Feels Like Something New
Despite Elden Ring, a great RPG to play on Steam Deck, being made with the previous Souls games in mind, the game still felt relatively fresh and new. However, this was less of the case for Ragnarök, which was a direct sequel that essentially improved upon what had already been done. A couple of different Redditors made comments on this, with duckyduckster2 saying, "I have so much fun playing GoW Ragnarök, but in the end its 'just' a sequel. 2018's was the real game-changer here. Elden Ring feels like something special."
shammysaurus agreesm, saying, "ER is better from a gameplay perspective. GoW does insanely little to progress the combat from 2018. Which is still good, but it's more of the same." While players certainly enjoy more of the same, they want heavy improvements when new games are released, and many fans felt they didn't get that with Ragnarök.
God Of War Ragnarök Gives A Great Overall Experience
Ragnarök was one of the most anticipated games of November, and even though it's near the end of the year, it stands a great chance of winning GOTY. SirSwishSteam from Reddit says, "For a game to win Game of the Year, it has to surpass just that of being a good game and transcend." An excellent point and an important idea to keep in mind when players go to vote for their favorite game of the year.
The same Redditor also says in reference to GoW that "Not only is it an excellent game, it's a masterful story and overall experience. It will stick with you after completing it." This is certainly true, and many players will continue to talk about their experience of Ragnarök for many years to come.
Elden Ring Still Brought Many New Fans To FromSoftware
What many fans like to continue pointing out is that GoW (2018) is what brought new innovation and fans; however, this time Elden Ring did that for its own franchise. Doyoulikemyjorts from Reddit says, "Elden Ring. I've been jaded in the past from playing FromSoft games, but they took every element of ER's predecessors and improved upon them."
This is such an important comment as it shows one of the many fans who have desired to get into FromSoftware's past games but never could due to the difficulty or other awkward peculiarities about the Souls games.
Elden Ring's Sales Aren't As Important As It Seems
Redditor oopseyecrappedmypants doesn't seem to think the number of sales that Elden Ring has had really mattered. They say, "GoW will win based on its ability to be played by normal people. Many people bought ER and got extremely frustrated and put it down. Elden Ring is great don’t get me wrong. But it’s massive flaw is not being told what to do."
While Elden Ring did successfully sell more copies of its game than any other FromSoftware game, it's equally true that it's the most dropped game they've released. This is a problem for many FromSoftware games, and while it didn't stop Sekiro from being game of the year, it might help Ragnarök.
Elden Ring's Hype Lasted The Longest
It's difficult to really compare Ragnarök in some ways to Elden Ring due to the game being released at the end of the year. It does have the advantage of recency bias. However, Elden Ring did have hype for much longer than any other game this year.
Redditor Agent-Vermont says in reference to the other Game Awards nominees, "Yeah there was a solid 2-3 months where Elden Ring was THE game. With the exception of GoW, which only came out last week, every other game here has kind of come and gone pretty quickly." This is precisely the reason why many fans believe Elden Ring has the best chance at Game of the Year, though Ragnarök's odd release date definitely adds an interesting challenge.
God Of War Ragnarök's Pacing Helps It Greatly
While GoW (2018) was a sensation, many fans critiqued the franchise for splitting it and Ragnarök up into two games. This, as well as the incredibly slow pace of the first game, made some players feel dissatisfied with how little was really covered narratively throughout the entire game.
This isn't the case with Ragnarök as Redditor KristyPlatypus says, "But in [Ragnarök], I was actually enjoying the continuous flow of the game, where all the side missions kind of line up with the story, and the puzzles just glide into the next scene." A perfect description of how massive a game Ragnarök is and how it excels at providing a full game encompassing all the Nine Realms and completion to a great story.
Game Of The Year Will Likely Be Elden Ring
While many fans have their various beliefs as to what the Game of the Year will be, most of the answers seem to point to Elden Ring. It had a large amount of hype, was incredibly well-received by fans and critics, and generated more online discussion about a video game in a very long time.