Topic: Game of the Year: 2025

Deltarune's my GOTY but it has such weird circumstances that there's no chance of it getting nominated. My second pick would be Pokemon Legends: Z-A but I'm not an idiot so I guess I'll go for Donkey Kong Bananza.

Interesting question. I'm not totally sure it would have been nominated for something anyways, but it may have missed the cutoff except maybe the player's voice category.

There will be a lot of competition in the indies category of the game awards, but I imagine Deltarune might get nominated. As for the actual GotY category ... I agree Bananza is probably the Nintendo game which will be nominated (and then not win).

If Deltarune doesn't win best soundtrack then I will, uh... IDK pronounce Geoff Keighley's name as Jee-Off Kay-Lay

@FishyS I'm sure it would've been nominated for something, but I feel like Geoff only likes 3rd person action/adventure open-world games so it may not be a priority. He was also openly supporting the PS5 Pro, so I think there's a clear bias when he and his team choose the games.

Deltarune is weird, I don't know where it counts since it both came out in 2018 and is still incomplete. Best ongoing game contender for sure at least, I assume.

Granted, I don't think there's any real consistency for the awards anyway, so who cares?

I mean... the games are chosen by over 100 gaming outlets and game journalists so I don't think it matters all that much what Geoff's biases are. The exact represented publications vary year by year, but I wouldnt be surprised if Nintendo Life is one of the the voters. This is not to say the process is fair and equal and I strongly suspect some nominations are at least partially bought, but it's certainly not Geoff or his main panel directly choosing the games.

@FishyS interesting, didn't know that's how it worked! I still don't think it's unbiased, but that's good to know. So if enough of the publications have a review version of Air Riders, they could put it in?

@PikminMarioKirby The rules are a bit inconsistent about what games are allowed. There seem to be arguments every year whether remasters or DLC or early access games etc. count. If enough of the voters submit Air Riders in their list, I think that's when Geoff and his commitee make a semi arbitrary rule decision about whether something can be nominated only based on early previews.

As for bias, it's definitely biased, but its also kinda hard to make it 100% fair. Fundamentally, everyone in the game and game journalism industries get money from games so it's impossible to imagine that won't effect some of their votes. And it's not like anyone takes the event seriously enough to worry about super ethical voting procedures.

The category where players vote is worse though - it's basically chaos led by memes and influencers and sometimes games directly bribe players to vote with in-game currency.

There's normally like 6 nominees right? Alright, I'm gonna call my shot on the nominees right now.

Split Fiction (It takes two won in 2021, so yeah)
DK Bananza (Nintendo game from the 3d Mario team, makes sense to me)
Silksong (I mean, it's Silksong)
Clair Obscur Expedition 33 (The internet's favorite game of the year apparently)
Death Stranding 2 (Kojima game, so yeah)
Ghost of Yotei (first pary Sony game that's pretty good from everything I hear, so yeah)

@Bigmanfan I pretty much agree with your list except for Ghost of Yotei. The general consensus I'm hearing is that it's good but ultimately nothing special, so that doesn't seem like something worthy of GOTY. Besides there's already Death Stranding 2 for PlayStation rep. Some games I see a lot of people suggest are Hades 2 (Ihaven't played it yet, but plan to soon) and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II (haven't played and don't plan to). I think one of these two will be nominated instead of Ghost of Yotei.

I feel like Expedition 33 and Bananza are guaranteed and there will at least be one but possibly both of Silksong and Hades 2.

I agree decent chance of Split fiction.

For the last one? I wouldn't rule out Monster Hunter Wilds, but the others people have mentioned seem like reasonable possibilities also.

@UpsideDownRowlet Hades 2 has the highest review metacritic score of the year by a wide margin for a new game. I feel like it would be a garanteed nomination if not for the slight confusion caused by the fact that it was in early access for so long that some people don't think of it as a 2025 game.

@UpsideDownRowlet I think that's a fair assessment. Personally, I still think it can get nominated even if it is considered nothing special. I mean, we've seen that same thing happen with a Sony game a couple years ago, that being Spiderman 2. It was widely considered good but not special I feel like (an assessment I would agree with). So yeah, I can see the reasoning, but I'm sticking with my picks.

I googled and AI told me:

"The eligibility window for The Game Awards 2025 is for games released between November 1, 2024, and October 31, 2025"

But I was skeptical, AI then told me "mid-November".

I did more googling to find a source...and cannot find one.

In 2024 the last day of eligibility was Nov. 22. And nominees were announced on Nov. 18.

This year, nominees are announced Monday, Nov. 17. So just using that "4 days later" as an example...maybe the cutoff is...Nov. 21?

And Kirby Air Riders comes out...Nov. 20!

You can't argue with science.

I know people who don't like what monster hunter is actually about will disagree with me but to me mh6 is still the best game of the year BY FAR. Haven't had this much fun with a high rank-only monster hunter game since Portable 3rd - although I absolutely loved the high rank content in 4U, never truly engaged in that endgame given it's a g rank expansion, technically, though - and close to 300 hours in I still enjoy collecting armor, building new sets for different weapons and just generally f***ing around in the game. Some of the cooler settings /locales, focus mode is probably THE best gameplay addition besides customizing your moveset in rise/Sunbreak and the roster is incredibly strong, imho. Might be the most varied one besides generations, which is a game they just threw EVERYTHING into. Story still won't win any prices but that is also quite comfortably the best one yet, not that the bar was high, and there's not a single character I outright dislike or even someone who's forgettable like you'd find in all the others.

Overall it's just MH4 2 in many ways and it has a lot of the same strengths, which is why I don't understand why people seem to hate on the game as a whole so much - I do get criticisms about optimization on pc, of course. The only real reason for that I can think of is that the people so vocal about not liking wilds is that they don't actually like monster hunter and just want the kind of dogs***, grindy and monotonous "content" world forced onto its players with the horrible deco system and mind numbingly dull, endless investigation farming with its three viable targets/fights...Iceborne was a godsend, and I'd argue even there they fumbled making the final stretch of the game actually fun throughout with how abysmal the guiding lands were in execution.
Still think Sunbreak did it best, if they HAVE to turn the games into pseudo mmo style, "endless" grinds, but overall I prefer the current approach of a game just...being done at some point.
The series is about creating your own goals for each step throughout the ranks and beating the snot out of oversized animals, not about treating the games as a second full time job in chase of the next cookie cutter meta s***.

Uh... Yeah. Probably reads a little more heated than intended but I just REALLY disagree with anyone saying wilds is disappointing in any aspect but technical ones (and even then I'll die on the hill that it looks good on ps5, legit worried about the eyesight /mental state of some people)

Everything I've read and heard about Wilds says that it is "too easy" and "catering to newcomers" and is "disappointing for veteran players".

So far Pokémon Z-A. I would've said Voices of the Void, but it's technically been in early access since 2024 and isn't finished yet.

@OmnitronVariant I wonder if Z-A will be nominated for anything. The RPG category is often far too competitive but maybe there is a different category 🤔

@MontyCircus and I disagree as someone who's played almsot all of the games in now close to 20 years.. QoL isn't catering to newcomers and none of the high rank only games have been difficult until you hit the very last couple quests/monsters, ever.

Deltarune will probably be my favorite game ever when it’s done but I don’t think it will be recognized by the game awards