Baldur’s Gate 3: The Unprecedented Game of the Year
In the eyes of many, Baldur’s Gate 3 isn’t just the best game of 2023, but one of the best games of all time. Now, BG3 has proven to be levels above its competition by winning five major Game of the Year awards.
Unmatched Success at the British Academy Games Awards
The British Academy Games Awards’ 20th edition was held on April 11, with Baldur’s Gate 3 snagging the BAFTA Game of the Year award alongside a few other trophies. This marks BG3’s fifth major GOTY win, after winning GOTY at The Golden Joysticks, The Game Awards, the D.I.C.E. Awards, and the Games Developers Choice Awards over the last few months.
This makes Baldur’s Gate 3 the first ever game to claim all five major GOTY awards. No game has managed to achieve this feat since 2014, when the first TGA was held.
Past Near Misses and Rivals
In the past, several games came close to collecting all five trophies, but they always fell short in at least one award show. In 2015, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt snagged four GOTY awards, but lost at the BAFTAs to Fallout 4. The same can be said about Elden Ring, which secured four GOTY awards but didn’t win at the BAFTAs, where Vampire Survivors triumphed.
Baldur’s Gate 3: A Truly Exceptional Game
Anyone who’s played Baldur’s Gate 3 knows it’s a truly exceptional game. Many things make it a one-of-a-kind experience, including its excellent narrative, direction, music, gameplay, and sheer breadth of role-playing choices and consequences. ESN.GG wholeheartedly agrees, as we named Larian Studios’ production the best game of 2023.
So far this year, there haven’t been many titles to garner as much attention and critical acclaim. Dragon’s Dogma 2 seems to be the leading GOTY contender, though the year is far from over.