Which GOTY is actually better?

The Game Awards is an interesting event for a number of reasons, not the least of which is to deliver well-deserved praise for some of the medium's best releases. We tend to observe this celebratory atmosphere most during the years when a game sweeps the awards and emerges as the clear winner across multiple categories, not just the coveted Game of the Year award. In recent times, few games have fit this description better than Fire Ring and Baldur's Gate 3winners of the 2022 and 2023 Games of the Year awards, respectively.

These games are remarkably different, but they share some important similarities, which may help explain their popularity. Yes, they're both great RPGs with mature elements and a focus on a single-player campaign, but more than that, they're complete, uncompromising, ambitious projects, serving as welcome pickups from the often stodgy, must-have games put out every year by other AAA studios. In other words, Fire Ring and Baldur's Gate 3 have integrity and vision. These games don't have to make you like them; you will hook up whether you want to or not. And of course, their total lack of microtransactions and other creepy industry trends has certainly helped. With all that said, it's interesting to evaluate these landmark releases now that a few years have passed, considering their cultural impact, innovation, critical reception, and raw “fun factor” to determine which is more worthy of gamers' time.

Clash of the Titans: Baldur's Gate 3 Vs. Fire Ring

Because these games are so diverse (and because I value my safety), I'll analyze them across specific vectors and categories, and single out a title as the victor in each area rather than overall. For example, it would not be fair to say something like “Fire Ring has better combat than Baldur's Gate 3“, as each game presents radically, fundamentally different combat mechanics. If you zoom out a little further, it's much easier to make comparisons.

Baldur's Gate 3 has the Elden Ring Beat in innovation and creativity

If you've been playing RPGs for more than a few years, I probably don't need to tell you how groundbreaking and ambitious Baldur's Gate 3 is. Briefly, BG3 is a choice-based RPG that follows in the footsteps of games like Fallout: New Vegas, Pillar of Eternity, Dragon Ageand Mass effect. But these predecessors, especially more cinematic ones Mass effectare often more concerned with the illusion of choice than real, meaningful agency. For example, you have dialog choices in Mass effectbut most conversations will end the same regardless of which options are chosen. This approach isn't without value—for one, it can heighten immersion—but it's also a constant reminder that you're playing a video game. The illusion is poorly maintained.

When the choice-based RPGs of old actually present meaningful choices, like when Mass Effect 1 forcing players to choose between saving Ashley and Kaiden can still feel like an on-rails decision. It's like a crossroads: you technically have the choice between the left path and the right path, but it will always come down to just those two choices. Rarely do such games involve dynamic or compound choices, where one decision leads organically to the next, and where repeated playthroughs feel genuinely unpredictable and novel. But Baldur's Gate 3 involves such choices, and in doing so manages to be the closest approximation of tabletop role-playing that the gaming medium has ever seen.

The breadth and freedom of choice offered by Baldur's Gate 3 never feels like a gimmick or a cheap trick, but simply another way for players to express themselves within the gaming world. Choices and consequences won't usually boil down to a simple back-and-forth conversation with slightly different dialogue depending on the player's decisions: entire quest lines can be skipped, central characters, including party members, can die and be lost forever, you can either befriend or betray various NPCs, only to get your just deserts hours later, and so on. Crucially, the decision-making process is a reward in and of itself, rather than just a series of binary choices that lead to the “real” story or game rewards further down the line.

Elden Ring is not as innovative as Baldur's Gate 3, but it is the pinnacle of its genre

One of the reasons why it is so interesting to compare Fire Ring to Baldur's Gate 3 is that while certainly inventive and ambitious in many ways, Fire Ring is much less demarcating than BG3. Before the launch, Fire Ring was often called the “open world”. Dark souls,” and while this title was often used derisively, it also fits the final project. Fire Ring is basically a culmination of FromSoftware's modern work up to that point, which is exactly what makes it such a masterpiece.

Within the broader context of post-2010 action RPGs, Fire Ring represents something of a “final form”, a mash-up of the design pillars that FromSoftware popularized back in Dark souls and Demon's Soulswhich later propagated throughout the industry. Fire Ring is the open-world action RPG of its generation, polishing all its FromSoftware-isms to a brilliant shine: combat is tough but flexible and expressive, exploration is inherently driven and engaging, and its art design, lore, and atmosphere are all best-in-class. It may not be as groundbreaking as Baldur's Gate 3but it represents the pinnacle of a very specific, influential video game formula.

Worth noting is also Fire Rings cultural impact. While Baldur's Gate 3 is really extremely popular, Fire Rings success with mainstream audiences is almost unprecedented: it marks one of the few times that a year's most talked-about game, across several different demographics, was anything but Call of Duty, FIFAor the like. It brought high art to the gaming masses, which is no small feat. While Baldur's Gate 3 will be a better game in the eyes of players who like choice-based RPGs with a focus on clear narrative and characters, Fire Ring will be superior for those looking for action, deep lore to speculate on, and a challenging but rewarding gameplay loop. Ultimately, both games are masterpieces, with each being better at specific things as opposed to one being the unequivocal “best” game of the two.

Released

February 25, 2022

ESRB

M for mature: blood and gore, language, suggestive themes, violence