Every year, I play a lot of video games. There are three reasons for this, which all have fairly equal weighting. Firstly, I likea da video games. Secondly, it’s my job to write about video games, and I find that job much easier when my steady supply of hot takes is topped up by fresh meat. And third, I have my Game of the Year list to do. I always have my Game of the Year list to do.
I take my list seriously – I’m never going to be able to play every game in a given year, and there’s still a matter of my taste clashing with the general consensus, but I like my list to be fully reflective of the year in question, not just one person’s narrow experience of it. I want it to be as comprehensive as possible, even allowing for not including great games I personally do not connect with, like Elden Ring or Tears of the Kingdom. But somewhere along the way, I fear I have lost sight of that.
The Power Of A Game Of The Year List
At TheGamer, as you may have noticed, we have many Game of the Year lists. Each editor creates their own top ten, with ten points awarded to first and one awarded to tenth, and other numbers in the middle. Once every list is in, we publish a collective Game of the Year list with our mathematically derived top ten. In the first two years of running Game of the Year this way, the process threw up a couple of unexpected winners in The Forgotten City and Citizen Sleeper.
In 2023, the site’s editorial team grew larger and the net was extended wider for these lists. At the same time, a generation-defining title launched in Baldur’s Gate 3. Predictably, but very deservedly, it won in a landslide. 2024 felt like the first road test of whether our overall list can still be interesting at this scale – there is no Baldur’s Gate 3 this year.
I have long predicted that Astro Bot would take the crown due to its mass appeal, and we’re seeing the fruits of that in TheGamer’s list in progress. At the time of writing, we are just a couple of days away from revealing our results, and Astro Bot has been named as Game of the Year in just one list. The rest of the top five all have at least two, and in one case, as many as five. But none of those feature in as many lists as Astro Bot does.
So then the question becomes, is a Game of the Year the game that more people like, or the game that more people love? Does Astro Bot deserve it because everybody who played it enjoyed themselves a lot? Or do these other games deserve it because, while fewer people may have enjoyed them, more of the ones who did declared it the greatest thing this year has produced? I’ve thought about this long and hard, longer and harder than I should have. And I’ve decided that the answer is ‘who cares?’.
Maybe It’s Better To Just Celebrate Games
Astro Bot is a great game. The other four games, which shall remain secret to maintain a sliver of suspense, are also great games. All five appear in my list because, again, I like my list to be comprehensive. They all deserve a moment in the sun. The prize only matters as much as you want it to. Hand on heart, I probably wouldn’t want Astro to win over any of these games because I think loving is more important than liking. But also, had we picked GOTY debate-style without numbers to back it up, we might never have selected The Forgotten City or Citizen Sleeper, and I’m very proud that we did.
I also want to change my own approach to things next year. I’ve gotten better at not cramming games late and trying to take in recommendations through the year (though I did carve out a spare two hours for Mouthwashing to make the cut this week), but I want to work on my vibes. As it became apparent that this year was a little more open, my recommendations to colleagues have gone from ‘I played this game, it’s pretty cool’ to ‘I am going to put this on my list and if you don’t play it in time to put it on yours I will kidnap your family’. I still think it’s important that your list try to offer a zoomed out look at the year rather than the ten best games of the 12 you played, but just because I think that doesn’t mean other people do.
2025 could be an extremely interesting contest too. While it seems like GTA 6 will dominate, I know the tastes of the staff here and I’m not sure it will be such a colossal force on our personal lists as it likely will be for gaming culture. Especially not if the Switch 2 arrives with a bumper catalogue. One thing’s for sure though – if you don’t play this niche indie platformer that’s a metaphor for gender discrimination I will end you in your sleep. Wait, sorry, that’s the old me talking. You play whatever you darn well please, I promise nothing bad will happen to your loved ones.
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OpenCritic
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Top Critic Rating:
95/100
- Released
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September 6, 2024
- Developer(s)
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Team Asobi