Some of the takes here are so fucking dumb.

 I could not get into ToTK myself but that was for a host of reasons on my side but underselling the massive changes to the world and the new abilities plus dungeons change everything. Ultra-hand is one of the most impressive things in any game in years. Not only were devs blown away as they were not even sure it was possible with consoles like PS5 let alone Switch. It's a huge accomplishment. I said it before and will say it again. There is a reason why devs even are floored with Yagami in Judgment walking up steps with each individual step. It's a nightmare to program.  The ultra hand is many times more complicated. So underselling it as ...just the same game with JUST ultra hand. It's idiotic.

To revisit this one, now that it's out with a Metascore of 84, I feel like Starfield could be the lower-scored GOTY contender for a lot of shows/sites.

Biggest snob is definitely gonna be Turbo Overkill, it's at 92 on Meta but it's getting almost zero attention outside of niche circles.

Turbo Overkill is from April 2022.

Episode 1 came out in early access then, then full game came out last month.

Oh, it was early access...

I might check this one once I get a new GPU. It looks really good.

We'll see. So far I haven't been able to figure out what exactly is that these judges take into consideration for their nominations. I mean, the only thing that these previous "low-rated" games that have been nominated have in common is that they were all narrative-driven single player games (and three of them were Playstation exclusives, but I think we can all assume that that is just a coincidence).

Personally I think there's definitely a pattern to which games are deemed "GOTY material", which probably stems from the fact that it's not really only a question of the "best" games of the year but also a question of "year-defining" games. The games that garner the most attention definitely have an advantage. In terms of genre I also think there are two that have a distinct advantage: cinematic story-driven games and open-world games. Looking back across the years a very large portion of the winners and nominees fit into one of those two. On the other hand some genres will almost never make the cut (hack-n-slash, fighting, adventure games, "chill games")  unless they really become that year-defining game like Animal Crossing did in 2020.

Traditionally I would also say there has been a bit of a western bias with highly acclaimed japanese games getting snubbed to varying degrees, though it seems to have gotten a bit better over time with even a relatively niche game like XC3 getting a nominee last year.

As for this year I expect the list of nominees will probably be something like:

• Baldur's Gate 3
• Tears of the Kingdom
• Starfield
• Resident Evil 4 Remake
• Marvel's Spider-Man 2
• Diablo IV or Hogwarts Legacy

Starfield and Hogwarts may have scored "low" but they're definitely big enough to be year-defining.

Now that it's out, Mario Bros Wonder could well be the biggest snub.
It's a phenomenal game that has received a glowing reception, but as touched on earlier the VGAs tend not to care for 2D platformers.

Sounds pretty interesting (and the low-pixel black-and-white digitized pictures also give it an intriguing look, reminding me of some of my first PC games), I put it on my wishlist for now.