I can already tell you what will be Game of the Year in 2025. 23 months from now, Rockstar will be up on stage at 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Game Awards celebrating 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:GTA 6's victory. It's not that the contest is fixed or bought off, it's just that GTA 6 is clearly the biggest game in the calendar and few studios are able to compete with Rockstar's resources or GTA's legendary status. If there is to be a surprise, it won't be a surprise by the time we get there. This time last year, we all would have thought 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Tears of the Kingdom had it locked up. By December, we knew it would be 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Baldur's Gate 3. The candidate changed, but the certainty didn't. That makes 2024 very interesting.

We have had this certainty before, very often. We knew it would be 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Elden Ring in 2022. We knew it would be 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Last of Us Part 2 in 2020, despite the stacked field. 2021 was a little more open, but the pandemic-hit year was without any stone cold classics, especially compared to the nominees in 2023 or 2020. 2018 was the last big shoot out, when 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Red Dead Redemption 2 and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:God of War were both in with an even chance, but that's the exception that proves the rule. I've missed 2019 out there. Let's talk about 2019. Then, I promise, onto 2024.

2019 Game of the Year Nominees

2019 falls between 2018 and 2021, and I don't just mean chronologically. Take a look at 2019's nominees, and what you'll see is a lot of very good games but no generation-defining title like The Last of Us Part 2, Red Dead Redemption 2, God of War, Elden Ring, Baldur's Gate 3, or Tears of the Kingdom. It was eventually won by Sekiro in a tight contest where at least five out of six (168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Resident Evil 2 might have been an upset) haℱd a shot at winning - we need years like that sometimes.

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Disco Elysium, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Outer Wilds, and Player's Voice winner 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Fire Emblem: Three Houses weren't even nominated.

All anyone has had to say 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:about 2024 is that it won't live up to 2023, and that is 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:admittedly a very high bar to clear. But the games were almost too good last year, at least in terms of making the awards interesting. Tears of the Kingdom and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Alan Wake 2 had a right to feel hard done by, while 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy 16 and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Starfield didn't even make the final six. 2024 looks to be a lot more interesting in terms of even competition, and that could make it the most exciting Game of the Year showdown ever.

If I had to pick right now, I'd guess the six candidates for GOTY 2024 will be:

• 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
• 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
• 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dragon's Dogma 2
• 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
• 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Black Myth: Wukong
• 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Wh𒆙atever Mario Game The Switch 2 Launches With

This leaves out 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Persona 3 Reload and Tekken 8, both of which cleared 90 on Metacritic, as well as 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (which scored 87), plus 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Hellblade 2, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Star Wars Outlaws, Avowed, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Rise of the Ronin, and any other games the Switch 2 will launch with. Add in that Sony is yet to reveal 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:PlayStation's slate beyond spring, and this could be a ♈packed race.

I wrote back in December 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:that I thought 2024 could be a thi🅷n year, and that it 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:made Infinite Wealth a dark horse. I still stand by my prediction that it will be the first game to launch in January and end up a Game of the Year nominee, and five of the six games I'm calling as challengers aren't out yet, while several of them or the first alternates could be delayed. 2024 could still end up very thin if Nintendo doesn't go all out on the launch (or, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:more surprisingly, doesn't have one), if Sony isn't showing us anything because 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:it doesn't have much, and if Xbox, well... 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Xbox is on a bad run and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:might be about to pack up shop. A lot could go wrong.

But assuming just enough goes right, 2024 could have the most interesting Game of the Year showdown ever. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy 7 Remake was an also-ran in 2020 and 16 didn't even make it to the starting line, so while Rebirth stands as the early favourite, it's not cut and dried especially after the Western breakthrough Infinite Wealth has enjoyed. I have a feeling that when the lights dim for The Game Awards in 2025, I will already know who is walking away with the big prize. I hope that in 2024, I don't.