@bchap1233
They both deserved GOTY, one had to lose. The bigger issue was Last of Us 2 beating out Ghost of Tsushima
@philipajfry
Tragedy is not the right word here. RDR 2 swept basically every award that year, and outsold GoW 3 to 1. It's a snub to be sure, but not a tragedy. Though I do agree, it should have won GotY.
@templarkid.
Overwatch also won instead of Doom in 2016. OW was just a reskin of TF2 while Doom rekindled an entire genre (some people even created the term BOOMER SHOOTER after that). People forget how basically all FPS were slow military fps at the time.
@ClellBiggs
I think most gamers would agree that RDR2 is better than God of War. Not saying GoW isn't great, it is, in fact it's one of the best, but RDR2 is in the discussion for the top spot of all time by most gamers while there are many fewer that would make the same claim about God of War.
@perblazio
Sony probably owns the rights to the game awards tbh or they pay alot of money. They had two of the most controversial GOTY picks ever with GOW and last of us 2. Don’t even get me started on last of us 2
@bigeststarspark
I think it was more of the personal choice rather than one was better than the other, both are amazing, guess they've just picked what they felt like
@perblazio
Im just starting the video and im already 100% gonna say that red dead redemption 2 is not only the GOTY, but the greatest game of all time. (You could debate that Elden Ring is also right there with it) i was heart broken when GOW won. God of war was a really good game however mechanically it was extremely stale with EXTREMELY low repeatability. God of War winning GOTY in 2018 honestly started one of the biggest down trends in quality games for the entire industry. I love this industry I’ve played games since i was 3 years old and I’m now 22. And to this day there has been no game that has impacted my life like red dead 2. Honestly i don’t think there’s been a character in media that’s ever impacted me in the way Arthur Morgan did on the 100% good ending. As a flawed human being trying to mend mistakes from his past Arthur Morgan truly becomes not the HERO who saves the world. But a man who makes his very best attempt to save people from the very problems he created. A lot of people would say my OPINION is just an opinion and it doesn’t mean a game should be game of the year. So I’ll give you some facts. GOW if you were to 100% the game would take you around 72 hours with multiple play throughs. Red dead has over 70 hours of content just in the MAIN STORY not including SIDE QUESTS. Red dead invented new mechanics in the games industry as a whole like the ENTIRE IN DEPTH HORSE SIMULATOR IN THE GAME. GOW has one mechanic that was new. The axe recall. That was the only innovative mechanic in their series. And when i say this im saying that these are mechanics that have never been used before in games previous that they had to invent on the spot. Another mechanic red dead created was dynamic shooting mechanics where shooting a revolver made you feel like you were pulling the hammer back yourself. All i have to do is name two mechanics and i already have the number of mechanics GOW made beat. People gave terrible excuses in 2018 to why GOW won. My friend said red dead lost because its TOO LONG. EXCUSE ME A GAME LOST GAME OF THE YEAR BECAUSE IT HAS MORE VIDEO GAME TO PLAY. This is a touchy subject to me i could argue all braindead morons all day that RDR2 is the better game to this day but there’s always someone who played GOW one time who feels like their entire opinion is correct because it won that year. Red dead redemption 2 is the greatest game of all time. If you played the bad ending the first time you’re a terrible person who made a great game not nearly as good as it could be. But that’s the beautiful thing is there’s still ANOTHER ENTIRE GAME YOU CAN PLAY. You can go back be good and play again and get EVEN MORE HOURS OUT OF THE GAME FOR MORE CONTENT AND REPEATABILITY. Ugh i hate what the video game industry is in 2025 where games that aren’t innovative get pushed down because of normal simple brained people.
@Silversmith70
Red Dead 2 left a lasting mark on me. RDO did as well, I met people in that game and we are still friends and play other stuff together. Shout out to all the other players that killed me and all the players that killed with me, thank you.
@hitmanino81
Both are 10/10 games, yes RD2 is bigger and maybe a bit better overall,but it's not like it lost to a mediocre game.. I'm just glad i bought them both and had an incredible time,2018 was insane for gaming
@kylefarris8866
I agree, I have played RDR2 about twice completely and hope more independent developers create other Western style games like it in the future with the advancement of technology.
@YeOldeMachina
I like GoW 2018, a lot... but there hasn't been anything even close to RDR2 since. What it does, it does it so much better than literally everything else.
@Matthew...1979
I'm 45yrs old. Got my NES on xmas when I was in kindergarten. RDR2 is the best game I've ever played for a MULTITUDE of reasons.
@nobel11
I love the story of RDR2, I just find it frustrating to play through. It's a beautiful world they've made. But I'm getting tired of the stiff feeling of Rockstar's games. I feel like I'm wrestling with the controls, trying to get the characters to move and react like I want them to.
@64bitCowboy
As an older gamer, who’s been an avid fan of gaming for a long time and I’ve had a chance to play a lot of different video games. More than a lot. I would say at least a couple thousand on the conservative side. Too many to sit down and count to be sure. But I have made a list of what I believe are the greatest games of all time, that I’ve ever played. God of War 4 was a truly great game. Red Dead Redemption II is the greatest video game ever made, that I have ever played. It’s not even close. In fact, I would say God of War 4 doesn’t even crack my top 30. Don’t get me wrong. It was excellent. I loved it. I’ve played through it multiple times. It doesn’t come close to doing what Red Dead Redemption II does. And I think it will be a very long time before any game does.
@Sparkypark
RDR2 was the reason why I got a PS4. Once it became clear no DLC was coming for it, and I couldn’t even play RDR1 on it (at the time) I sold the PS4 and got a Switch.
@Glassandcandy
Why would anyone consider this a tragedy? Who cares about the game awards in the first place? All it is is a marketing tool covered by producers to help them sell more product. It has absolutely no significant aesthetic or cultural value either, nor do awards like the Grammies or Oscar’s. The GDC awards and the BAFTAs are much bigger and more prestigious awards for à developer/game to achieve. “Game of the year” is just a phrase you get to put on your box in hopes of selling an additional 1 million copies post launch
@madara992
I think they both deserved it to be honest the biggest reason why God of war I think won by just a smidge is that it was entirely a soft reboot of the franchise and I think that’s a strong and fair reasoning going from a hack and slash focused revenge driven game to a third person story narrative pseudo open world game is such a feat that is not easily pull off and biggest thing I would say that hurt Rdr2 overall is chapter 5 and the unfortunate amount of cut content and I think combat goes to god of war as well Imagine red dead redemption going from third person open world to a top down turned based like baldurs gate I think it’s kinda like that
@Sekai_026
When I played this game, I wasn't looking for any tips and tricks and know nothing about the story. I deeply immersed with the game that when Arthur died, I was in denial state, I'm always thinking, he's the main character, surely there will be a plot twist that he's still alive, but there isn't. Only game that made me cry.
@perblazio
One thing ill say is people will constantly say its your opinion on which one was better. But what ill say is heres some ways you could definitely make some FACTUAL arguments on how GOTY is scaled. 1. Mechanics (how has the game changed added new things to the industry). 2. Character writing (how many characters have full development and writing. You can LITERALLY COUNT THE WORDS to see who would have more written for them) 3. Content (how many things are in the game that are NEW things to see that you could potentially come across during a play through) I could list more things but these are just objective things that are not opinionated but could be completely proven and backed up by facts and just pointing them out. If you were to just look at these themselves RED DEAD CLEARS
@Mac2104988