game of the year

After cleaning up the Nintendo Switch 2023 Game of the Year contest (with one of the biggest sweeps of the year), Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is back for the Overall 2023 Game of the Year award here at Destructoid. Act surprised! Look, as much as I’d like to talk about Tears of the Kingdom at length again, I figured it was a good time to point out some past winners and highlight some high hopes for 2024. Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is one of four Nintendo-published GOTY winners In the history of Destructoid’s Game…

It couldn’t have gone any other way, right? Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was a perfect crescendoed sonata of how to wow an audience. At first, I was just impressed with how magnificent and sprawling the sky islands were. By the time I had brute-forced puzzles with unique object manipulation mechanics and discovered the depths of the underground, I was completely enamored. Breath of the Wild managed to sing a similar song back in 2017, but this felt considerably different. That’s worth talking about because at first,…

Lethal Company has enjoyed enormous success since it launched just a couple of months ago. From smashing its player record not long after releasing to being the top-selling game on Steam (where it still sits), it’s been quite the journey for indie developer Zeekerss. Now, the title could walk away with one of gaming’s greatest honors. The Steam Awards recently revealed the player-voted nominations for this year. With categories such as Labor of Love, Best Game on Steam Deck, Most Innovative Gameplay, and more, there’s a…

There are very few years that aren’t “winners” for Nintendo. You can set your watch to the publisher putting out at least one Game of the Year nominee annually. Now, it’s time to decide the best of 2023. Screenshot by Destructoid. Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Obviously, all eyes are going to be on Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. As a follow-up to Breath of the Wild, it was expected to deliver: But I don’t think anyone could have anticipated just how much it would iterate upon the fantastic framework we already got with the…

Digital Trends When I first started playing Baldur’s Gate 3, I was immediately hooked by its engrossing (and gross) story, meaty CRPG systems, and the most personable cast of companions I’ve seen in the genre in quite some time. I knew I was about to sink months of my life into the 100-hour adventure. Things didn’t go according to plan. The nature of my job meant that I had to move on to Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon at the height of my obsession. Though I wouldn’t have much time to put in long play sessions, I…