The Game Awards nominees fo💞r 2023 have finally been announced, and in a year boasting arguably the strongest line of games we’ve ever seen, competition has been fierce. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Baldur’s Gate 3, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Alan Wake 2, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Tears of the Kingdom, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Spider-Man 2, and countless others are spread across a wide array of categories in which any of them could pick up the win. It’s amazing to see this level of quality celebrated, even if some categories like Best Performance and Best Indie have raised more than a few eyebrows. One blockbuster is notably absent in the vast majority of categories though, and that’s Bethesda’s 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Starfield.
Launching a few months ago after several years in development, Starfield was marketed as the first original IP from Bethesda Game Studios in decades, and a true successor to many of the ideas we came to love in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Elder Scrolls and Fallout. It was larger, more ambitious, and more filled with content than any of its prior RPGs, but in pursuit of grandiosity, Bethesda had shr✤unk its once sprawling open world design into compartmentalized towns and cities. These hubs were mixed in with lifeless plane𒅌ts to explore that boiled down to nothing more than scanning for easy EXP and hitting rocks for resources. The magic was lost, and many walked away underwhelmed.
Bethesda is no stranger to award nominations, but in failing to update its formula the studio has been left behin♐d.
Starfield was only nominated in a single category this year - Best RPG. It’s a nomination that some are already debating, whether it even deserves a spot following a period when so many potential classics were unleashed. Aside from that, the critical jury didn’t support it for anything else, or there wasn’t enough collective support to rise above all the noise. I’m not surprised, nor do I think Starfield was ‘snubbed’ after taking a step back to see exactly where it sits in the current landscape. Ironically enough, Baldur’s Gate 3 moved up its PC launch to avoid competing with Starfield, and a month later when Starfield launched Larian’s RPG was still swallowing up any and all conversation anyway. Nobody was talking about the characters and narrative of Starfield, and if they were, it was frequently to make clear how they wanted more from it, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:how much it paled in comparison.
Any other year, I would have expected to see Starfield sneaking into several categories based on sheer size and hype, but🧸 it doesn’t have the pull in 2023 when competition for places is fierce. Snubbed means that something wasn’t nominated or received an award when it clearly deserved to. In Starfield’s case, it hasn’t been put forward for many awards because there are myriad better choices that, to nobody’s surprise, have come to take its place. Bethesda is likely annoyed, and has a right to be, but you only need to take a single look at the combined fan feedback and critical reception to Starfield to realise it didn’t hit the mark. Not in a year like this.
There’s a recency bias associated with Alan Wake 2 and Super Mario Bros. Wonder that will have played a factor, but when much earlier games like Hi-Fi Rush, Resident Evil 4, and the Dead Space remake are as (if not more) represented than I expected, it’s hard to defend Starfield as being unfairly excluded. Its characters, narrative, direction, music, and qualities as an RPG just don’t measure up, and I’m glad the jury looked beyond the fact it was a massive game when nominating. Who knows, we could see Starfield pull a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Phantom Liberty in the coming years and come back with several nominations in a couple of years. Although even 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Cyberpunk 2077 picked up two nominations. In a way, it’s like we're repeating history with an RPG we couldn’t wait to play, but simply didn’t hit the mark. Sorry Starfield, it's just not your year...
