Should The Witcher 3 Be Disqualified from GotY Awards?

It was a game that launched with a laundry list of issues and while the developers have indeed fixed it, can we really gloss over the first few months?

[Relientk77]

No

[Aloy-Boyfriend]

Witcher 3 is damn too ambitious to not have issues at launch. Hell it still have some woes here and there while the devs keep adding and tweaking it. There's still more to be added when Blood and Wine DLC comes... And yet, those issues aren't or weren't as bad or close to atrocious. Devs have been committed to it since day one. It shouldn't be disqualified because of some issues at launch

[mikeslemonade]

Everything is disqualified since Bloodborne is the true game of the year. If you would open eyes you would be able to see it as clear as I do.

All other games are generic.

[WellyUK]

Right yeah because Bloodborne isn't just a faster paced Souls game... And doesn't have a glaring frame rate issue.

[WellyUK]

ah yes disagrees from people who obviously haven't played a souls game as Bloodborne is pretty much a faster paced souls game, it's great but at it's core it's a souls game through and through.

[Dabigsiebowski]

I played Bloodborne and Witcher 3 and completed them both. Witcher 3 is by far the bigger, better, more ambitious title in comparison. Sure Bloodborne was really fun to play but when it comes down to intriguing content the Witcher 3 has it locked down for sure.

It took me probably 5 times the amount longer to beat the Witcher 3 than it was for me to beat Bloodborne and it was compelling the entire time as was Bloodborne but Witcher 3 is without a doubt in my mind the better game. I played both on PS4 obviously and while both had some issues at launch, they both were ironed out relatively quick. Witcher 3 just had it all while Bloodborne felt lacking story wise in comparison tho the gameplay was a bit tighter in BB.

[guyman]

WellyUK

Wake up and smell the blood roses

Bloodborne doesn't have glaring frame rate issues. The game is right up there with the witcher 3, no need to be salty. Eat a watermelon.

Bowski.

The gameplay in bloodborne is FAR better than the witcher 3.... Story is lacking you say?

The beauty of souls games and bloodborne especially is that the story is laid out in The environment for you to piece together... It may also take up reading on the internet but bloodborne's story is incredibly dark, and is rich in lore. It's just the way it is. Heck I've played through the game twice and I'm still discovering secrets.

The witcher 3 and bloodborne can't really be compared though. 2 completely different games. Both games execute what they aim to achieve perfectly.

[Aloy-Boyfriend]

W3, Dying Light, and Bloodborne are my only Gotys this year. My eyes are very openned. Any of these games win goty will be enough to me

[Dabigsiebowski]

@ Guyman- Sure the gameplay is better in BB I won't argue that. But the great thing about the Witcher is it has depth in literally every corner of the game that makes most other games look shallow in comparison. Character depth, customization of stats, crafting, alchemy, interesting dialogue, and a world that makes you feel as if you were part of it. This game tells many of stories whether it's right in front of you or even in subtle ways. Witcher 3 is rich in a variety of categories with "depth" bleeding out in each one. Bloodborne has strong gameplay moments and plenty of depth for your liking in that department but clearly doesn't achieve this across the board like the Witcher 3 does.

Plus there is a lot of depth many people don't know about with Witcher 3. Level up your alchemy instead of your swordsman stats and you'll be in for a treat by the amount of surprises you can achieve in the game.

Bloodborne is really good and has respects in its own regard. Witcher 3 hands down for GOTY though.

[Ozmoses]

If you're just going to consider developer support than the winner should go to Dying Light hands down..

no other developer this year has shown more post love support for their game than the developers of Dying Light

[thekhurg]

What a ridiculous article. Games rarely launch in flawless condition - especially now that everything gets easily patched.

[_-EDMIX-_]

No based on GOTY is a subjective thing, no one has any official standing on such an award as anyone can give such a title or award to any game.

Witcher 3 in terms of features, lacks even elements found in Skyrim, maybe due to being a different game, but I likely think its due to CDPR making an open world game for the first time.

I can't say anything like "too ambitious" as this isn't the first open world game in history of gaming bud, not even slightly. The issues are very much likely due to CDPR being new to this concept, where other teams like Bethesda or Bioware are not strangers to the open world RPG concept.

They will get better over time of course, I would argue that CDPR if they made Witcher 1 and 2 open world like 3, would have very much resulted in a better Witcher 3 in terms of issues, bugs, design choices etc.

Yes...those issues where very, very bad. Day 1 I got a quest that could be completed, ignored it and moved on, came across issues with disappearing and reappearing people or even headless people or people with no limbs, then finally 40 or so hours in, got a corrupt save, had to start the game over again.

I'm 45 or so hours in Fallout 4, no corrupt save, no quest broken etc. Frame rate issues, voice over issues, sometimes the text doesn't show up when someone is speaking etc, but nothing like my first few months with Witcher 3, it was legit near AC Unity bad.

I like both games, own all of both series, but I won't just ignore, lie ,exaggerate etc the issues in Witcher 3, it had and still currently has some major issues that ultimately had me stopping the game in favor of finishing other titles. I'll likely go back to it when I'm done with Fallout 4, but I do agree with you that such a thing shouldn't bar a game from getting some GOTY award, consider its not as if any of us can even name a game with zero issues that launched perfect.

To the rest of the gamers on here, please....stop seeking titles to bash with issues, yet ignore other titles with THE SAME ISSUES. BF4 ,AC Unity....Witcher 3, all had issues day 1 ,some still have a few issues. I stated this when both those titles first released, no game launches just perfect, I'm saying this now for Witcher 3. We can't just bash a developer for such a thing, yet suddenly another game that has the same issue...GOTY.

GOTY isn't a official thing, its subjective. Anyone can find any game they feel just as "GOTY" regardless of issues or not.

[nitus10]

Playing now under hard (not the top) mode and with the latest patch (15+ GB - huge) it appears to be quite stable and great fun to play.

Even guiding Roach your horse seems to be quite easy which was supposed to be an issue prior to the patch, although it is even easier if you just press "X" and let the horse follow the tracks, every now and again making adjustments.

There are some long loading time especially if you die which is quite easy on hard mode so try not too.

As for graphics, story and fighting it is like Skyrim, a touch of "Game of Thrones" and lots of visceral blood and gore.

I also have Bloodborne and I do think this is a very good game as well with a very atmospheric, detailed setting with lots of blood and hopefully not too much of your own.

Both The Witcher 3 and Bloodborne are excellent games and I am going to enjoy playing them since I have only been playing them for a few hours and have many, many hours to look forward to.

Choosing one of the other is difficult since they are not really similar therefore it is like comparing apples to oranges.

As far as GotY I would give one to The Witcher 3 for the best third party game and Bloodborne for a first party game.

The problem you have here is the above is my choice which is subjective and I am very sure many will agree and disagree with me which is rightly so.

[jstark]

@mikeslemonade but i already played darksouls years ago

[mikeslemonade]

Faster pace souls, that is pretty different.

New story, new theme, different weapons, different fight mecahnic, different enemies. It's different than souls you blind people. The only similarity is you collect blood echoes and the lantern is the bonfire. Souls is still much more fresh than a generic wrpg which has been done before since KOTOR!

Where as Witcher 3 is more generic and is more guilty of copying. I'm skilledge island right now and i've already fell asleep three times playing this game.

[cyber_daemonx]

@Dabigsiebowski, so The Witcher is better than Bloodborne because its 'bigger n longer' really? Lol

And Bloodborne felt 'really lacking' story wise. No, Bloodborne's story is fantastic. Its just not in your face. You have to find it as it is hidden between the lines.

Bloodborne is hands down a better game than The Witcher along with most other games released this generation, not just this year.

[BallsEye]

I disqualify this "journalist" for using Witcher 2 images. Obviously didn't play it.

[strike101]

bloodborn only beats witcher 3 in combat

[FlipSwitch]

The Witcher 3's issues have been vastly over stated. I bought day one on PS4 and the worst that happened was a few framerate drops that weren't even all that noticeable

[nucky64]

my big complaint with W3 is the load times - way too long. I didn't think the hearts of stone dlc was that great either.

[FlipSwitch]

Was Hearts of Stone not that good?

Was considering giving that ago. Don't usually go for DLC

[Dabigsiebowski]

Yes HoS is really good. I mean it's another 10 hour plus side story thats just ad well written as the main game. It also adds minor gameplay elements to it which can have a lasting impact once the Blood and Wine comes which will for sure be a day 1 for me as HoS was.

[VJGenova]

@nucky

Load times? Are you kidding? I game on pc "exclusively" so when i picked up bloodborne, i was mortified by the horrible load times (which were fixed after i had already beaten the game). Also, they finally added information to the load screens (which should have been there from the beginning). Before, it was just "BLOODBORNE" ... Thanks, i know what game I'm playing .... oh shit, what was it? Oh yeah, bloodborne. Praise the sun for that load screen! I recall reading comments about how the load screen was a "blessing because it made the player 'think on their mistakes'" too bad it happened every time you went to hunter's dream ... people will say anything to defend what they like.

Not saying that load times can't ruin an experience, they can, but it wasn't my experience with TW3. I actually got a mod to remove those annoying "recap" videos. Takes about 10 seconds to load with a pretty stanard SSD.

[Bahamut]

More like

HELLLLL No.

Disqualify the game of the year from the game of the year awards? Da fuq??

The only reason they're even suggesting this is because it's obviously the best game of not only the past year, but quite possibly 5 - 10 years. Obviously it's the winner. So take it away so others can stand a chance right?

[2pacalypsenow]

Not quite, tons of games from 2006-2016 that are better than W3

[averagejoe26]

Best game of the last 5 to 10 years?

Not sure if it's just a young generation or what but the Witcher 3 is incredibly overhyped.

I loved the game. It was great fun with lots of content.

But it was buggy as all hell, generic story, mediocre battle system and tons of pointless busy work.

Great fun, for sure. Overhyped? Indeed.

[Bahamut]

@Averagejoe26

I'm 31 and have been playing games daily since I was 5, so I don't know anything about this "young generation" you speak of. It's not incredibly overhyped, it's accurately hyped. The game is phenomenal and has set the bar for how games should be, quality-wise. No other games released in the past 5 years have even come close to this game, in story, graphics, or just about everything, with the exception of combat, which is good, just nothing mind-blowing.

Great fun? For sure. Overhyped? Nope.

Fantastic game. And I don't know what the hell they mean from "disqualified from GOTY awards", the game has won the award numerous times so far, and will continue to take home more. Because it truly is that good, and deserves every award.

[memots]

Since every other website has their own Goty award, And most people have their own favorite as well.

Who actually decides? Is there some kind of entity somewhere that makes the final call that everyone must agree with ? Who are these people ? True question.

[joab777]

Every game launches w/ issues and I got this game at launch and had minimal problems. BB fixed their long load times and Fallout 4 is still a mess in many ways like Skyrim was on Consoles.

But CDPR has been so good to us, giving us free dlc and everything we asked for.

[nitus10]

Skyrim on the PS3 had allot of issues although the main one was the 6MB bug/feature were the loading times got noticeably longer because of auto saving.

The fix was to turn off all auto saving although it was always a good idea to auto save ever 30 minutes to an hour depending how confident you were.

Another annoyance was the DLC. With the legendary edition loading all DLC was IMHO an invitation to a disaster which you would not know about until you had played for over 60 hours. It was best to save the game at level 10/20 and use that save for loading up one DLC at a time.

With The Witcher 3 I have been playing for over 15 hours and I have rarely seen any issues although a horse climbing a fence (only once) does seem odd.

Evidently that 15GB patch did fix allot of problems. I do see long load times when I die (on second hardest setting) so the fix is not to die so much and to take note what the recommended level for a given quest is.

Basically if you are level 4 and the recommended level for a particular quest is 6 or more then you are going to die allot as is taking on enemies that have a red skull above them. The game does explain this.

[Takwin]

The Witcher 3 is - and will remain for quite some time - my favorite game of all time and the game I consider the best game ever. It is an unforgettable story, amazing battle system, and on a maxed out PC, simply gorgeous. It does everything right and it will be very difficult for this game to be topped any time soon.

[averagejoe26]

Amazing battle system?

Every fight was the same unless you were forced to use certain tactics. All you had to do was spam attack and roll every once in a while. Battle system was mediocre at best.

Same with the story. Pretty generic.

It's strong points were it's characters, open world and length (even tho a lot of it is busy work).

I'm glad it's your favorite game. But by no means has an amazing battle system or story. Which is OK...but let's just be real here.

[Bansai]

Generis story? LOL

Some people... smh

[JsonHenry]

I bought it launch day on PC and never had any problems with it.

[starchild]

Yeah, same here. Bought it day one on Steam and never had any real issues. Minor glitches here and there of the sort you find in any large open world game, but nothing that hampered my enjoyment of the game to any noticeable degree.

Just an absolutely superb game. Probably the best I've ever played.

[memots]

Problem is the minority speak loud and cry, while the majority who have no issue are playing the game.

Same with DriveClub had it from the day it came out and apart from the club part and the connection message i was getting, the game was far from being "teh broken wurrrst game evar" that all the journalist and fanboy keep going on about.

[bumnut]

I had a few broken quests but managed to fix the problem.

[rainslacker]

If we were going to disqualify games due to their technical issues at launch, we'd not have a single candidate for GOTY...or at least the ones that had no noticeable technical issues would not be the kinds of games we'd consider GOTY material.

[DLConspiracy]

Why are there so many articles upset about W3 winning game of the year? Disqualified? Really??

I guess we need to disqualify opinions and reviews from now on too? I'm sure other games are considered the best games to individuals and they didn't win. Doesn't mean those games suck and you shouldn't buy them.

[3-4-5]

Should we disqualify this writers opinion because they seem biased against a certain game ?

I wonder what they would say.

[showtimefolks]

if one site or one per son thinks it's their GOTY than that's fine. why do we want everyone to agree with our opinion

to some people it's witcher 3 to others it could be verity of different games like fallout 4, halo 5, until dawn, bloodborne, batman etc,

one thing i will say though is why is it that as we move forward we are getting so many games that have major bugs/glitches at launch and or don't have much content that would be later sold to us as dlc?

is that what true next gen gaming is?

the amount of people who defend these broken/unfinished games should really rethink their support

as long as we chose to not speak with our wallets our voices won't be heard

[Lukejrl]

It is nothing old. The snes vs genesis battles. Are you a giants or a patriots fan? People just want to feel the importance that they can have when they are right about something... even if it is a video game.

[mechlord]

What a pretentious article. I could not play skyrim on launch day and to this day it is still bugged. Didnt read an article like this then when it was wholly deserved, not gonna put up with this now.

[Ol_G]

Don't be a troll nobody forces you to put up with anything and not because you didn't read any articles means they weren't there

Some of you guys are acting like you're personally invested really childish behaviour

[wsoutlaw87]

It really wasn't that bad.

[llMurcielagoll]

Damn, you beat me to it

Hell FREAKIN' NO.

[Spenok]

This is quite possibly one of the dumbest article titles I have ever seen. Far more has been said above than I need to add, so I'll just leave it at that, and as simple as you put it. No.

[XanderZane]

I agree. If this is the case, every GOTY game would have to be disqualified. It's ridiculous.

[AznGaara]

Skyrim didn't work for a whole console so should its GOTY award get revoked too?

[ninsigma]

You'd have to disqualify a large amount of games for goty then. Biggest offenders being arkham knight and fall out 4.

[DarkOcelet]

I think by his rules, the only two games that should be on the GOTY lists are Bloodborne and MGSV since they were the most polished games in 2015.

[ninsigma]

Bloodborne was amazing but even that had some technical issues so lets exclude that one as well. That frame pacing ya know! :P

Just seems like they're picking on witcher 3 either just as a point of contention or because they're mad everyone likes it.

[MaxiPower90]

Mgsv is an unfinished product lol... Polished my ass

[joab777]

Most ppl agree that MGS5 was cut short due to production costs, the final act being a mess. Online had many issues too.

[thekhurg]

WTF?

Bloodborne had a game shattering memory leak issue that broke every boss encounter in the game.

[starchild]

Bloodborne is a great game, but it definitely had issues too. The framerate alone really irked me when I played it.

[WellyUK]

bloodborne was polished? that sub 30 fps would say otherwise... It runs like sh*t tbh, very good game but it's far from polished.

[donwel]

Came here to say exactly this. Glad I'm not the only one with a bit of sense.

[uth11]

Until Dawn had no day one patch, guess it wins GOTY by default then!

[ninsigma]

I have no issues with that outcome xD

[crazychris4124]

If the problems were fixed in a timely manner then no. Arkham Knight for PC shouldn't be on GOTY lists after they refuse to patch in basic PC features like multiple GPU support.

[blackblades]

Some issues still remains, like the swordsmith rescue bug. It was know since may and they still haven't fixed it.

[yarbie1000]

Who really cares about award shows anyway? Most movies that critics love and win awards, are movies I don't care anything about

[nitus10]

Could not agree more.

As far as I am concerned if you enjoy playing the game that is the best award although one that the developers would never see.

Still developers do see sales and the more the better.

[OB1Biker]

haha first time you get an agree from me... totally agree there.
Same goes for reviews IMO

[Jalva]

Dafuq?

[Perjoss]

Spoiler alert: They want you to click in order to display ads in your browser window.

[joab777]

I didnt

[andibandit]

@Joab777

Got you covered, clicked twice.

[Grap]

clickbait article nothing to see here.

[PANDAB]

If Witcher III is disqualified on that basis, then you can take away a whole bunch of others too

[soul-assassin-]

may as well of cancelled GOTY this year then. 90% of games were shite at launch

[lolosgolos]

Still playing with no patches on Xbox and haven't had any issues

[thisgamer503]

so your xbox isn't hooked up to the internet? If so then I'm willing to bet it auto-updated whenever an update has become available

[nitus10]

While I only have a PC , PS3 and PS4 I always like to know what is getting put on my systems. This is why I only allow manual updates.

[lolosgolos]

I connect to the net for updates of other games, Halo, Killer Instinct, Unity etc. No need to patch games am not experiencing game breaking issues with unless am about to get the expansions. Data is expensive around here

[Kiwi66]

Most games these days have launch issues , thats why they have day one patches followed by updates to fix bugs etc so most games shouldn't be considered for goty then

[ninsigma]

Maybe that's the answer. If we exclude every game that has a ridiculous number of bugs after it's day one patch, maybe they'll actually start to finish games off before releasing. I don't know how much attention the pubs pay to awards shows and what not so I'm basing my statement off of assuming they care a bit :P

[rainslacker]

The awards "shows" are just there for some extra marketing purposes. Since there is nothing official, they hardly care, as these awards are typically put out quite a while after the initial selling time for games(most games release no later than early Febuary). By the time the awards start going out, the holiday season is over, and pubs are gearing up for their Q1 game releases, and at best, a GOTY award lets them throw that onto a box for the inevitable re-release 6 months later with the actual completed game.

Awards shows are majorly so websites can drive traffic to their sites, and while it's nice as a dev to get some recognition, to me, the best part is just knowing that many people feel your game is GOTY material, because ultimately, the players are the ones giving you the money, and as customers, it's usually a good thing to want them to be happy with their purchases.

[UltraNova]

@rain

" the players are the ones giving you the money, and as customers, it's usually a good thing to want them to be happy with their purchases."

Yet companies like EA and Activision who can be justifiably viewed as anti-consumer/gamer make the most money in the sector while not caring about the customer one bit.

Lets be clear here, both companies above made abundantly clear that microtransactions, over priced DLC schemes, season passes and mobile games are a priority to them.

Why is that do you think, why do they keep making so much money, are we the gamers so gullible after all?

[rainslacker]

I'm not really speaking on any companies business habits, just their usage of GOTY awards. I feel a companies actual business practices, and how they relate to the customer a different subject altogether.

EA and activision use these as marketing. That's all. There may be bonuses for the developers involved as well, but that's different.

Are most of EA's customers unhappy? I'd say not, if their games keep selling. Most people don't look for every flaw in a game, and while they may be disgruntled at the beginning, they usually move on once things get fixed. Even SimCity, EA's worst release in recent history, is now enjoyed.

[Lordani66]

W3 and whole Witcher series are MEH RPG games. The controls are clunky and heavy, the world is missing something, the game is overallyy boring and the fighting is just poor, though the RPG element is pretty good. This game is so overrated, no only did and still does have many bugs, it looks worse than GTA 5 but worked like shit compared to this game on consoles. Terrible optimisation that needed a dozen of patches. We have pretty low standards if we consider this game to be able to fight for the GOTY award. The Glitcher? No thanks, I think Bloodborne should win hands down.

[starchild]

Haha hardcore Bloodborne fanboys are so funny, and probably the most annoying type of fanboy in gaming right now. You people think you're so hardcore for playing and worshiping Bloodborne, but you're not. Bloodborne offers a decent challenge, especially in the beginning, but its difficulty is way over-hyped.

And yeah its combat is a little more refined than The Witcher 3's, but only by a nose. This is another aspect of the game that is overly exaggerated. The Witcher 3 has a deep, responsive, engaging combat system too. It just so happens that The Witcher 3 is better in almost every other way, so this makes hardcore Bloodborne fanboys feel the need to exaggerate the latter game's combat prowess relative to The Witcher 3.

They are both great games, but personally I find The Witcher 3 to be the much fuller, more fleshed-out and more well-rounded experience.

[pyroxxx]

It is not just a little more refined,.. It is a lot more refined,..
Hell just playing Dragon's Dogma Online on PS4 trough JPN PSN,.. and combat is better than the Witcher 3 ,.. and game is an MMO,.. for fuck's sake

[P_Bomb]

I beg to differ. There's just as many Witcher fanboys that can't seem to stop erecting shrines and burning effigies to Wild Hunt, calling all other games mediocre in comparison. That's generally the clique I find the most pretentious and abrasive. There are several here already.

"Us people" also don't go on about difficulty or hardcore anything. Too busy helping eachother in the community with PVE co-op and PVP.

I only started (and platinumed) BB this summer so whatever frame rate issues and broken bosses fud some of you Witcher guys are spouting is not in the build I just played. I just 100%ed the DLC too. So love Witcher all ye want. Just don't think we're stupid.

[Lordani66]

"And yeah its combat is a little more refined than The Witcher 3's, but only by a nose. "

Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but saying ferraris are faster by a nose than nissans is pure bull***t. That's what you basically said. That's total ignorance that shows you never played both of those games. Witcher feels like just another RPG game, bloodborne feels like you have total control over your character and his attacks, the timing is much more precise, there are MUCH more weapons than in witcher (in witcher it's always X,X,X,X,square, roll, repeat, with every weapon). This just proves your whole point and comment is invalid.

@P_Bomb, couldn't have said it better.

[starchild]

@Lordani66

Except that a Ferrari being faster than a Nissan is something than can be objectively proven. Claiming Bloodborne's combat is vastly better than The Witcher 3's is not an objective fact. I've played both games and I find that claim to be blatantly false. The truth is, that malarkey was cooked up by diehard Bloodborne fanboys who just can't stand all the positive praise The Witcher 3 has received.

I agree with sammarshall102, it honestly sounds like you've never played The Witcher 3. The combat in The Witcher 3 does not feel just like another RPG game. It actually has more similar mechanics to the Souls games and Bloodborne than other RPGs.

The Witcher 3 isn't overrated, your opinion is just outnumbered.

[Lordani66]

I hope you are trolling bro "The truth is, that malarkey was cooked up by diehard Bloodborne fanboys who just can't stand all the positive praise The Witcher 3 has received."

Like WTF? It's not like we are some sort of secret society/gang of bloodborne fanboys, that will try to bring down any game that is praised (falsely or rightously) just to have our game at the top. I like what is the best, I don't care if it's A or B, maybe the next Witcher I will like more than the next Souls game, then I will praise Witcher and bash the other one. It's just you who can't accept the fact that tons of people have other opinion than you, and while opinion is good to have, when it's as shitty as your "BB combat is just slightly better than Witcher's" then it's a nono. Not only did I said all the argument's why it's not SLIGHTLY but MASSIVELY better combat, all you post is your own opinion, without any facts.

Anyways, it looks like Horizon will eat Witcher for the breakfast and not even drink after doing so, this game is shaping up to be so much better, I just hope the combat is as fun as it looks to be.

[sammarshall102]

It sounds like you didn't play The Witcher 3

[Lordani66]

I played it on PS4, and only managed to get past the introduction part. Gave it 2 tries on PC, and game got me bored after 3 hour of gameplay both times (and it felt like it was 12 hours, the game was so boring). BTW I like how after I posted this comment there emerged this article: http://n4g.com/news/1842521...

And even though W3 is not on the top 10 list, it is mentioned in the beginning as overrated game, so it's #11 for this guy I believe. Face it, this game is SO OVERRATED, that if it was released by any other developer like ubisoft, it would be thrown down the toilette (the same is for Fallout 4 and bethesda).

[averagejoe26]

Agreed. I loved the Witcher 3 but it was a basic rpg with mediocre combat and generic story. I enjoyed it but it's crazy overhyped.

[Moe-Gunz]

To me the game of the year is whatever game you personally enjoyed the most in said year. Not because some site says it. For me The Witcher 3 was painful to play. I hated it and sold it to a friend who thoroughly enjoyed it. The game was not for me.

The problem is when people state the game they enjoyed the most being GOTY as a fact. With a subjective medium there really isn't any definitive best anything.

Enjoy what you enjoy and stop looking for validation from pseudo awards.

[rainslacker]

No doubt if some game won a lot of awards it'll simply be claimed as over-hyped anyways...because apparently all these pubs and devs are paying off hundreds of sites to get these mostly meaningless for business purposes rewards.

The recognition is nice, but I'd prefer people enjoy my game than have some snobby reviewer decide it's the best.

[Gatsu]

"To me the game of the year is whatever game you personally enjoyed the most in said year."

I always think the same :).

[Sm00thNinja]

I just discovered how great bloodborne is and I'm only level 71 but your friggin lying to yourself if you don't think this game has atrocious frame rate issues but then again so does the witcher

[ClayRules2012]

No, I don't believe it should.
The only real issues I came across while playing the game are

1. Roach ( Geralt's horse ) would disappear from time to time, while Geralt would climb on top of him.
2. The occasional framerate drops.
3. Minor glitches during cutscenes ( civilians floating in mid air ) Stuttering as well.
None of these issues were big problems for me, personally.

Its not my personal GoTY, but other people have said TW3 is their GoTY, and that's wonderful.

CD Projekt Red did a good job patching many of the issues "in my opinion"

[nitus10]

I think that issue was fixed in that 15GB patch since I have put in over 15 hours and have not noticed any issue.

Actually when I got the game it was ready to play on my PS4 within 5 minutes although I did wait till I downloaded the patch.

I actually played Blooborne first because the patch was smaller and I did not mind the one hour wait. This is a really great game and even though I loved the Souls series the combat on Bloodborne is more I suppose for want of better word confrontational.

From what I can gather the updates actually fixed allot of issues and I am enjoying both games.

[ClayRules2012]

I'm really happy to hear that you've been enjoying both games =)

[Gatsu]

Who cares? GOTYs are just opinions.

[Realms]

It is my personal GOTY having played the game since it released I can say that the minor problems that I encounter were at times annoying but never they did not take away from everything good that the witcher 3 had to offer.

[Lonnie18]

People just don't want to accept that Witcher 3 goty lol, even though it was announced at the VGA's, an annual muti-millionire event that is wildly accepted by everyone in the gaming industry! That won't change a thing though, and it beat all the tired and true titles that come out every year or two which I'm happy to see. It's also my personal pick for goty, such a great job Project CD Red great work.

[SpinalRemains138]

Correction to BB "being a Souls game through and through".

It is actually "The best Souls Game.". I prefer it over Demons Souls even. The costume armor system is so much better than just upgrading one good armor and rolling with it 90% of time. Depending on where you fight, you change clothing. Its cool as hell.

[Hold_It]

If The Witcher should be disqualified, than Bethesda as a studio should be disqualified. I still don't understand the appeal of Fallout and Elder Scrolls when they run on an engine that is over 10 years old, that the community has to fix the game themselves because they are shipped with more issues than Sports Illustrated.

Skyrim has a ton of copy pasted textures from Fallout New Vegas, but when another company does that it's the end of the world. At least CD Projekt Red has been working on optimizing the game for consoles, where as the majority of publishers and developers will do a day one patch and call it quits.

[Fusion_Ninja]

Please post a link to any copy-and-pasted textures or other assets from FO: New Vegas- otherwise, you're talking out your a$@.

The irony here is that Obsidian's FO: New Vegas borrowed a LOT of textures (in fact, an entire unmodified engine) from BethSoft's FO3.

News flash: MANY AAA titles across the industry run on enhanced, modified, upgraded or otherwise 'iterated' versions of older engines. It's standard practice that allows creative development within large studios to run smoothly, in order to avoid having to start from pure scratch.

[starchild]

Yeah, even graphically standout titles like Uncharted 4 are running on a modified version of the same engine used to make the older games in the series.

[dvewlsh]

Silly clickbait.

[Artemidorus]

You want to disqualify a game for having teething problems at the start?

What's next, ban future games if they don't make the cut within a timeframe? Get a life.

[Chris_Wray]

Utter insanity and, quite frankly, stupidity. The very best games launch with bugs because of the scope and sheer depth they offer. Witcher 3, every TES game after Morrowind, earlier Total War games. Even the ever popular Bloodborne isn't without bugs. However, one or two have complained about Witcher 3's framerate, I never had any issues (though I do have a good PC).

[spicelicka]

Exactly, unless the issues are game breaking there is no reason to exclude the games from GOTY. Otherwise what's the point of making ambitious games?

The way I see it a game can have technical flaws (minor of course) as long as it's equally ambitious in gameplay and content.

[RedDeadLB]

On what grounds? Being too good for others to be competitive?

[Khaotic]

I played this game from day 1 and had no issues. I know there were some but hardly enough for this hack clickbait article.

[TXIDarkAvenger]

Never ran into any of those problems and I had it since launch on PC. It was just as good of game then as it is now.

[Dyldog69]

No

[MadLad]

Witcher 3 is almost in a league of its own, and, from what I've seen, had only a handful of issues for most issues.

Now Bethesda on the other hand ..
To say they played it safe with Fallout 4 is an understatement. Even so, that thing was, and in a lot of ways still is, a complete mess.

[Scatpants]

The only reason Witcher 3 should be disqualified is that it is so much better than all the other games that it makes them look bad by comparison.

[DivineAssault]

I beat the game before all those updates and it was still amazing! Not to mention those updates did happen this year showing they cared about their work so why would it be disqualified?

Them adding a thank you note in the box was a cherry on top.. How many devs take the time to appreciate you as a customer? FN right they deserve GOTY awards

[Kenshin_BATT0USAI]

Games have launched in a much worst state. So no.

[maelstromb]

This article is laughably absurd, as is the trolling website by which it is published. The logical answer here is a resounding NO. As others have stated, there are a litany of AAA games released in MUCH, MUCH worse states than that of TW3... In fact, I experienced nearly no bugs during my 237hr playthrough! And by the author's measure, what about Skyrim? Oh, that's right! It was GOTY, despite being a nearly non-playable bug-fest for many 6+ months after release (to this day many bugs have not ever been addressed by Bethesda) and no one questioned it. TW3 IS GOTY... move the ***k on with your life, and stop trying to sensationalize a non-issue for the sake of clicks and ad-revenue.

[Warshade]

Best game of the year by far. Also most of the bugs and roach stuff were comical and did not take away from the games enjoyment. If it was a but that made it unplayable then it would have been a different story.

[Gamehard]

It's a difficult argument to say Witcher doesn't deserve to be in the running for GOTY, when Skyrim won GOTY the year it launched... and we all know which game had more problems at launch.

[DVAcme]

A game as ridiculously huge as The Witcher 3 which also happens to deliver on story, setting and gameplay, should never be disqualified for a few technical issues. If Bethesda games are not disqualified, neither should The Witcher 3. If it were completely broken, like, say, the PC version of Arkham Knight, that's a whole different issue altogether, but CD Projekt Red have been hard at work releasing contant tweaks and patches to get the game running like it's supposed to

[mahmoods26]

I think there's a huge difference between The Witcher 3's launch and other games this year. I know the game had problems on certain systems but all pc games have problems on certain systems. The difference between the Witcher 3 and games like BLOPS3 and Arkham Knight is that the problems got fixed within the first month.

[yuukiliu]

I guess my GOTY would be Fire Emblem If(or Until Dawn)...if you can't choose a game that had patches to help its performance post launch. I bought W3 at launch, played for 10 hours, got too busy with work and forgot about it until November. Then I played it nonstop, and hardly had any issues. Some dropped frames. One side quest glitched on me, the game crashed on me 3 or 4 times, but overall it was still an absolutely amazing game. Put in way over a 100 hours(don't know the real answer because my play counter said over 14 days, because of putting the PS4 in rest mode). Beat every side quest(except for Gwent and racing quests) treasure hunt, Witcher contract. Couldn't get enough of it. I would play it again but I still have so many games I need to play.

[sullynathan]

You would also have to disqualify Fallout 4 and a bunch of other games with issues too.

[Orionsangel]

Fallout 4 is currently having glitch issues. Arkham Knight is a mess. I've encountered issues in MGS V, Just Cause 3 and Rise of the Tomb Raider. It happens. Some more than others but it's there in every game. So NO! Witcher 3 stays!

[Kalebninja]

bought it launch day, had some frame rate issues but thats it, at least it wasnt as buggy as Fallout 4.

[Ferrethat22]

Fallout 4

[Saijahn]

If we start holding games accountable for launch issues then we can get rid of all the gaming awards to date. There hasn't been a game that came out to my recollection that didn't require a day 1 patch.

Meaning they've all had bugs, glitches, etc., and that's been since the 360 / ps3 days.

[DVAcme]

It's simple mathematics and a perfect example of chaos theory in action. The more variables you have at the beginning of an equation, the more chances for it to go wrong. In today's boom of open-world sandbox games, and especially in the choice-heavy western RPG type, these kind of bugs at launch are practically impossible to avoid, and it's a heavy reason why player feedback is so valuable for developers these days. Of course, this is all within reason: the atrocious initial state of the PC version of Arkham Knight goes waaaaay beyond the reasonable, for example. Add to that the modular nature of PC gaming rigs compared to the standard configuration of consoles and the problem aggravates exponentially. But it's just the nature of the beast for modern gaming.

At least these days a patch can be easily downloaded and usually takes little time to be made available, not like when I played games back in the day with 56K modems and had to download the patch through a BBS, if I even actually knew the patch existed in the first place.

Yeah, I'm kinda old :p

[DrumBeat]

I found it insufferably boring. Nice visuals with nice writing and nice music, yet the game was just so boring.

No better than any other medieval RPG in terms of sheer fun. It also had flaws galore, and certain parts were nigh unplayable on consoles. I honestly try not to pick at those types of issues, but Witcher 3 did have them.

The game was just boring and draggy, really, and that's my main gripe with it. It gets so much massaging for presentation and characters, yet I still had very little fun playing

[The7Reaper]

Did it release in 2015? Yes? Okay then no it shouldn't be DQed. On too the next dumb article.

[warriors_13]

This article is ridiculous. W3 shouldnt be disqualified from anything. The problem is that it's just not as good as some people claim.

I've grown tired of massive worlds with generic story/gameplay. How many times do we have to travel across the world to fetch an item or kill a random monster?

[victorMaje]

Seriously? Wth is this?

[Kreisen]

The website behind this article should be ''disqualified' 9; from the internet.

[letsgopal]

Should vgrhq.com be closed for shitty and controversial articles?

The answer is yes

[jmc8888]

So let me get this straight. The guy only wants to award games that came out bug free?

Well I guess that might narrow down the candidates to probably about 1 game in the entire 2015 release list... and whatever game that happens to be, would win by default.

Or better yet, maybe we simply can't award any because EVERY game has bugs.

Yeah there were issues. Still was a great game at launch. Of course it's not for everyone, which is why people can make their own choice. But to disqualify it is pretty stupid.

[Phill-Spencer]

Don't understand why it even won goty awards in the first place. After a few hours it was so boring that i traded it for arkham knight. Sure, even though i played on ps4 the graphics were amazingly beautiful but there was something missing that games like skyrim, fallout, bloodborne etc.have to keep me hooked.

[areisul]

I really don't get the hype surrounding the Witcher 3. It's pretty-looking and the dialogue is great, but other than that the game is sorely lacking.

The combat is repetitive and the controls are terribly unresponsive. Geralt moves like he's on ice. The number of enemy types can be counted on one hand. As with most open-world games, there is no level design, making encounters dull. There isn't much of anything to interact with in the environment except for the hundreds of Drowners they throw at you and picking herbs/looting crates, making the time wasted travelling absolutely dreadful. The sidequests don't help as there's rarely any variety to them, especially the hunts.

The story, most of all, I just don't get the hype. In storytelling we have a phrase "show-don't-tell,&quo t; that makes for better writing as it lets the audience experience for themselves rather than second-hand. In games, this is reflected in cutscenes and dialogue versus gameplay. The Witcher is ENTIRELY tell. EVERYTHING is told directly to your face through dialogue or shown to you in a cutscene. There is no subtlety to it whatsoever. You never actually get to DO anything cool or interesting because all the game actually puts you in charge of is combat - which is the weakest part of the game - following stupid smoke trails, and dialogue options. You never actually DISCOVER anything for yourself. The game doesn't think you're smart enough to put two and two together so any time you come across something in the environment Geralt or Triss or Yennifer has to go "Well this is interesting, look at this"

In the end it just feels like most of the time the game is trying to distract you from the actual "game" part of it because there isn't much substance there. The Witcher 3 is so dialogue-focused I don't get why they didn't just make an interactive movie like Telltale does.

[starchild]

Sheesh, what kind of arrogant drivel is this? I guess everybody else is just wrong in your mind.

Needless to say, I don't agree with any of what you wrote.

The game isn't overrated, your opinion is just outnumbered.

[areisul]

I'm arrogant because I found legitimate problems with the game? YOU are the one taking offense at MY opinion, dude.

Just because a lot of people like something doesn't mean it's objectively great. A lot of people like Call of Duty and League of Legends and those games are trash. A lot of people liked the Transformer movies when they came out but that doesn't make them the new Citizen Kane.

[g-nome]

Witcher was ok , but Bloodborne was on another level , no other game have I finished 3 times , and still enjoy doing so.

[Sokol]

Compared to other games of the witcher 3 scale absolutely not. I played through the original game with very few bugs and the absolutely amazing amount of content the game provided deserves the GOTY award.

[leahcim]

Seriously no.

The Witcher 3 is the biggest achievement of videogames to date.
30 years playing videogames and for me this game is a dream come true. The scope, the landscape, the lore, the weather, the story, the characters, the gameplay ohh a dream....

thank you CD PROJECT RED !

[MrsNesbitt]

Darn, just clicked on a click-bait title...

[Orionsangel]

The Witcher 3 has been winning the most GOTY awards. Here come the Witcher 3 backlash articles on N4G.

[cd1]

No, its a great game. But you knew that already - just after clicks eh?

[WickedLester]

LMAO NO! It absolutely deserves to be nominated! Now, does it deserve to win? That's another argument. Personally I don't think so. For me, Bloodborne and Metal Gear Phantom Pain were the best two games of 2015. However The Witcher 3 deserves to be among the nominees.

[The_Truth_24_7]

Who cares. It's not going to win anyways.

[NicSage]

I'm sorry but if you look at it being disqualified because of issues every single Bethesda game ever made would be disqualified.

Is this a satire article?

[WolfLeBlack]

Jesus Christ, if we're going to disqualify The Witcher 3 for having problems at launch then we're not going to have any games to actually nominate.

[OutcastMosquito]

I haven't even played the game yet and I can tell this is a dumbass question. I feel my brain cells commuting suicide one by one the more shit articles I read on this site.

[OutcastMosquito]

Another thing, if you all think that any review or GOTY award actually mean anything, you're delusional. The only opinion that should matter is your own.

[TheHaloGuy]

What if my opinions generally fall in line with a reviewer or person that I like?

[OutcastMosquito]

Then that is a good thing. Gives you something to relate to.

[TheHaloGuy]

Fallout 4 had issues @ launch. EVERY game has issues @ launch. Show me a game that launched with 0 issues. That means no bugs. I've never seen a game with 0 faults. If you have, you're a liar.

[skratchy]

There's always some whiny bastard.

[masterfox]

aww the Witcher 3, spend almost 70 hours(loving each minute of it) and I'm at level 10 lol, I wonder what level I would be if I started my play in normal mode ?, well who knows time to go back and try to save Anna :D

[Dewitt]

What a trashy clickbait article, almost every title released now a days has issues at launch. Development process is longer and it takes a long time to test and fine tune things.

[Trolltroll]

If Ubisoft released this game it would have been buried under the hate.

This is why I get mad at the new "indie" games published by Microsoft or kickstarted durring a PlayStation experience.

Trueth being that Witcher 3 is more of an indie title than Ori.

[fllysurfer]

This article is total shit... honestly.

[Apollosupreme]

Should this blog post be disqualified from my attention?