I think its perfectly normal to have expectations and have expectations shift based on amount of accolades or word of mouth, that's part of what "hype" is.

Thats just the way it works man, idk what to tell you.

That's just the way it works for me. This game is touted as the pinacle of gaming because it beat out not only every other game that it was nominated against but also won the most awards, of any other game ever. Therefore it needs to be the #1 game i have ever played or it was overhyped 🤷‍♂️

But now it has to also compete with an insane amount of hype and grandure that has built up and I will be extra hard on it and scrutinize it more.

I don't think anyone is saying that. At least not that I have seen. The discourse seems to be more around the deification of this game in particular when even something like BG3 (which is my #2 game of all time) didn't do. Is it possible this game finds a place on my list at #1? Maybe.

To your credit you have been getting better about it haha

Not to be a shithead but as someone who's followed you for a decade at this point, this coming from you of all people is very "leopards ate my face" lol

I would love if my brain worked like that. But sadly it doesn't. The expectations have been set and I can't really just "forget" them. That being said I will still end up playing it but it will be with constant "is it really THAT good". As opposed to if I had played earlier in the year.

Not necessarily. It's a different kind of RPG. The categories so broad these days which isn't E33's fault. But E33 could be a better overall game when you factor in things like performances, story, score, etc and deserve GOTY, while KCD2 could be the better purely RPG.

All the wins opens it up for such harsh criticism. It has to try and prove itself to people who may not have otherwise played it because its touted as the best game to ever do it (winning the most awards ever at the game awards) beating out games in a historically good gaming year.

So even if you compare it to something like BG3, my number 2 game of all time, this won more awards than BG3 which defacto in my brain means "game should be better" and it likely won't beat out BG3 on my personal list, or at least it opens it up to the constant comparison for me.

It really kills the hype for me specifically. How many times pre-game awards or social media did you hear "oh man you should absolutely play this game, it's got everything you love in it and its my favorite game of all time, you'll love it!" And then play it and it be kinda meh and expected better?

My takeaway from the game awards this year was that E33 exists on a pedestal, a pedestal it can never hope to uphold. When it wins every category in a year with some of my personal favorite games of all time I go into the game expecting it to eclipse those other games which will ruin the experience.