Let's see if we as a community of players can find out beforehand, which game will win the most Game of the Year awards this year. So I create a bet, please join if you think you know what will actually win.

As a decider I will rely on this site tracking GOTY-awards: https://goty.gamefa.com

So the game with the most awards here will decide the bet.

I keep the bet open mid November, as I guess this will still be before any actual awards were given. Please place your bets now!

The candidates...

Hogwarts Legacy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtyBjOW8sGY

Marvel's Spider-Man 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq1M_Wc4FIc

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHGShqcAHlQ

Street Fighter 6

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1INU3FOJsTw

Diablo IV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HukrLKMCz1I

Final Fantasy 16

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPT26Dd3OzE

Super Mario Bros. Wonder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhkhTpREfxU

Baldur's Gate III

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T22wNvoNiU

Starfield

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfYEiTdsyas

other

Seriously this year is kinda crazy with great releases. I kept kicking titles from the list to make space for others. So other notable titles that might be Dark Horses:

• Resident Evil 4 Remake
• Pikmin 4
• Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
• Super Mario RPG Remake
• Assassin's Creed Mirage
• Alan Wake 2
• Forza Motorsport
• Star Wars Jedi Survivor

And possibly games I forgot. There were even games that were considered big titles before the year startet and turned out - well not so great  (Redfall and Forspoken).

So yeah, this will be an impossible year to choose a favorite. Which game the media outlets will prefer?

BG3.

Maybe i will Bet a good VG$1500, maybe...

I mean, there's really only 2 candidates if we're being honest. It'll probably be the most even split in recent years between those two though, at least 30 % for both.
But realistically I expect it to be Baldur's Gate, it might be a little more niche than TotK perhaps, but TotK being an iterative sequel to a game that already took home a zillion GOTY awards will work against it.

Also RE4 will definitely take home more awards than some of those on the poll, remake or not. Could end up 3rd or 4th in the ranking.

OK, did the candidate list posting now. And yeah, I had RE4 on my list, but gave the spot to other games in the end. I am really not sure here. I agree that in my opinion Zelda and BG3 have the best chances, but who knows, gaming media can think quite differently than gamers in many regards. We will see. Will be interesting to watch how it unfolds in any case.

Yeah, I think Tears Of The Kingdom will get the most. Might be wrong though. It has some things going against it.

I went for max bet on Zelda because it's more mainstream. My hunch is BG3 is a bit too niche and PC-centric. I get the impression there are more dedicated Nintendo sites out there than PC ones, and their votes are less likely to be split (only really Wonder to compete with, and maybe a couple of them opting for Pikmin 4 vs a lot of competition for BG3 on PC sites). And non-aligned sites tend to be more console-centric too.

I haven't played any of these games yet. All I can tell you is the game that I'm most interested in playing, by far, is Baldur's Gate III. That gets my vote.

Actually now that I think about it this is Elden Ring vs Ragnarök again.

Ragnarök was an amazing game and my personal pick, but it was (like TotK) an iterative sequel to a previous GOTY winner, one which wasn't a clear upgrade (some liked it more than 2018, I liked it a bit less, but overall I don't think many would consider it a big leap forward), while Elden Ring was a whole new chapter for the "series" (it's a series let's be honest).

Basicly same scenario now expect TotK has garnered a bit more praise and impressed many with its mechanics so it'll definitely be closer, but I still think it's not generally regarded as a massive upgrade over BotW, where BG3 is more so in an Elden Ring kind of spot.

I'll go with BG 3

Zelda is great and a technical marvel. It's almost bug free and have a very good performance for a mobile chipset from almost 10 years ago. It's a fun game, engaging and that give you awesome freedom to explore at your own pace. I'm blowed away by the level of ambitious they tried with the mechanics such as Ultrahand and Ascend. You can see the insane level amount of polish they have dedicated to make shrines and overworld puzzles to be so clever and functional. It's a masterpiece, I have no other words for it. I'm around 150 hours on it and I'm surely playing it again in future
Maybe on Switch 2 to play it as full glory with higher resolution and 60 FPS



But... I need to give it to BG 3. It's like the RPG I wanted to play all my life and simply couldn't. It's also a huge game with a combat system that never fails to make me engaged. Bg3 has level of depth in combat and problem solving that is simply ridiculous. The quests, even the side ones, are incredibly well thought and they interact each other in a way that makes me wonder how hard was to programming so many interactions. The companions are awesome, I love game that focus in parties interactions (that's why Persona is one of my favorite games) and here you have many fully fleshed out companies with meaningful quests that interwine perfectly with the main quests. From a narrative point of view this is a game that has a level of ambition beyond anything I've ever played. I simply love how there is very few handholding, the game let you figure out how to play by yourself. Also love how your decisions can severely change plot lines and story events. It's a game with an insane replay value because your choices can make your journey so damn different. Messing around with the combat system, classes and variations is a joy. If you enjoy strategic combat with a huge variation of forms on how to win a fight you will never have a bad time here. This all fully voice acted, with great custscenes and running very well wirh very few bugs (at least on PS5). It's incredible how such a huge game could be developed by an independent studio