Who is most likely to win GOTY so far in your opinion in the masses eyes?

Didn’t see Vampire Survivors on the list so I chose “none of the above”. Of the listed options, I’d say Neon White though.

EDIT: lol I thought op meant GB’s GOTY, according to our predictions. If we’re talking The Game Awards, I don’t see any way Elden Ring loses given its Keighley history.

Vampire Survivors and I feel Fortnite - Zero Build should be wiggled in there somehow.

Yeah, Elden Ring feels like a good bet. I should give Vampire Survivors more time though!

it's going to be Elden Ring, for better or worse.

great game, it was a super successful riff on a souls game- but it has tremendous 'too big to fail' energy and almost gets a buy due to the amount of conversation it dominated.

Elden Ring, Vampire Survivors. early reviews for the new God of War suggest it might sweep in at the last minute too.

Or for the cool people who had 300 hours to put into the best JRPG in years, Xenoblade 3.

Vampire Survivors will definitely win best Indie GOTY if not the whole thing. And yeah, it should've been on the list. Tunic might give it a challenge though.

Elden Ring is a good game, but not GOTY imo. I still think Bloodborne was the best From Software has done so far, along with Dark Souls 2. But it will be the industry pick for sure.

For the record: I chose "none of the above".

Vampire Survivors is now fully out and God of War is out soon, so those will benefit from recency bias. Elden Ring managed to dominate the conversation for most of the year, though. Neon White will be high on lists for people who like that kind of fast gameplay.

These are the four that I think will dominate, and I could see Giant Bomb assigning any of these its #1 GoTY.

I think it too early...and, nothing stood out to me because I'm old...and, it is probably going to be Elden Ring

I would be pretty shocked if it wasn't Elden Ring at The Game Awards, and at the lion's share of outlets. It was not only a critical darling, as FromSoftware titles have been for a long time, but did way bigger numbers than ever before. A couple of good graphics from Ars Technica do a good job showing this:

The critical reception of FromSoftware's titles had never been matched in widespread popularity; they would come out and the games press would love them and they'd still get killed sales-wise (relatively speaking) by CoD and other mainstream hits. Now that one of FS's titles is again a big critical hit and is also doing GTA-like sales numbers, it's hard to imagine it not dominating GOTY lists.

But also, if the question here, to paraphrase the opening post, isn't just what will win the most awards, but what's the best game "in the eyes of the masses... in the larger consensus over the years, what game will 2022 be remembered for?", then I think the answer becomes even more clear.

Elden Ring's stiffest competition for this kind of distinction would appear to be God of War Ragnarök and Vampire Survivors, but even so, it seems unlikely to me that even these two will be able to suck in much oxygen when we're looking back upon 2022 in future.

God of War is a console exclusive--which like it or not matters for all those people who don't have Playstations, even though I'm sure it will come to PC eventually--and has lost the novelty of the 2018 game. Yeah, I realize that Elden Ring is also very iterative on the Souls games, but technically it is still a new IP, and God of War Ragnarök is just a sequel, and these things do matter; retrospectives will say that Santa Monica Studio put out another good one of those rather than a new thing, which doesn't quite have the same impact. FWIW the new Horizon suffers from these same weaknesses.

As for Vampire Survivors, I love it as much as anyone, and I have a feeling that it will indeed be remembered as a game that kicked off a new genre fad; it's too easy a game style not to be copied by everyone and their dog, so I'm sure we'll see a lot of VS-likes. But it's also a fairly ephemeral sort of game. Pretty much everyone playing it over the course of the year had the same story: they would play the new content as it came out and then put it down until the next update, and now that updates seem mostly finished, there's less interest in continuing to return to it. Speaking for myself, I got all the new achievements once 1.0 hit and have not played it since. It's a fun time-waster game, but at some point you've seen it all and there's just nothing left to do. So, yes, it will be remembered fondly and will spawn a bunch of clones, but I don't think it'll have the same lasting impact as Elden Ring.

TL;DR: There's just no way that 2022 will be remembered as anything other than the year of Elden Ring. All other titles are destined to be also-rans/supporting cast.

To look specifically at the Giant Bomb GotY meta, not the greater gaming community GotY:

There’s a chance Dan and Grubb push for Neon White because of their leaderboard thirst that compelled them to keep chasing that dragon. I feel like at least one or two others liked that game decently enough that it’s in serious contention for top 3.

Elden Ring is good, but I feel like it all depends on how much support Tam can muster for it. Everyone at least vaguely liked it I think, but I don’t know who would really go to bat for it being number 1 other than Tam.

I can’t even tell what Jan will push for GotY since his interests fly all over the place from week to week. I want to say Xenoblade 3 because of anime team-building positivity, but I can’t imagine Jan has the time to sink a hundred hours into that in the next couple months.

I can’t get a read on Bakalar or Jess or Jason. They’ve been lukewarm on a bunch of titles this year, but I’m struggling to think of a game that blew their socks off.

Speaking to the GB staff list, my one hope is that Rogue Legacy 2 makes it into the top 10, because that game really deserves more attention. It's my personal #2 of the year behind Elden Ring, but it's tended to get a bit lost amidst the Vampire Survivors fervor. Thankfully I think the odds are good, Jess mentioned picking it up and loving it in the most recent podcast, and I know some of the other staff like it as well.

Stranger of Paradise should be on this list.

i realize this is slightly off-topic- but your post (which i'm totally in agreement with) has got me pondering another line of thinking, which is- if we presume 2022 will be remembered as The Year We Elden Rung, what happens to public perception of 2022's Elden Ring with its inevitable successor?

i think it's fair to presume From will not suddenly forget how to develop this one type of game they've been making for more than a decade- so if it's at ER's quality but better or at higher fidelity- does Elden Ring persist to the public as The Best From Has Ever Done- or will it sink into vague memory as soon as the next From souls-game emerges?

obviously only time will tell- but i have this sneaking suspicion that despite the utter saturation of Elden Ring in this year 2022- it feels like as soon as the Next One comes, Elden Ring will slip into faint recollection (in contrast to the original Demon Souls, Dark Souls, or the always-the-bridesmaid-never-the-bride Bloodborne).

@mellotronrules: As you say, I think it's hard to make a really intelligent guess about that right now. Too many unknowns. But my own suspicion is, especially if they make an actual *sequel* (Elden Ring 2) rather than yet another IP with similar gameplay--which I think they probably will--the first Elden Ring will still persist as a watershed moment when FromSoftware broke into the mainstream and ceased to be merely a largish niche, no matter how much better the theoretical Elden Ring 2 might be on a technical or artistic level. When looking back at 2022 ten years from now, I don't think that's going to change, it'll still be the year of Elden Ring regardless of how many more of these games From has put out.

But hey, I could be wrong. One thing that this thread got me thinking about is the fact that 2017 seemed like the year of PUBG (leaving aside BotW for the moment), and then Fortnite came along and ate its lunch. Looking back now five years later, do most people think of 2017 as the year of PUBG?

I mean, probably not? Most gamers don't spend a lot of time thinking about five or ten years ago anyway, and for "the masses," Fortnite has become so huge that it feels like it's practically erased PUBG from the collective consciousness. People who really follow the industry closely might think differently, but that's a smaller subset.

This is also why Vampire Survivors probably won't last long in zeitgeist. The clones will start coming hard and fast and one or two of them will manage to do it better, and those better games are what we'll be talking about.

By contrast, developers have been trying to ape the From Software formula for a decade now, and so far no one has managed to do it as well as they can, meaning that if a better ER-like happens, it'll likely be from FS themselves yet again. Sequels from the same developer don't tend to subsume past releases in quite the same way that Fortnite did to PUBG... a sequel inherently points back to its predecessor.

Also, Demon's Souls and Dark Souls have been out for a decade and still hold up--which makes me think Elden Ring will hold up in ten years as well--plus all of FS's Souls-likes are pretty much the Platonic ideal of a good streaming game, and for many people ER will be their first experience of the "FS cinematic universe." For all those reasons, ER seems to have a pretty good chance to persist in the collective consciousness of gamers years down the line as much as any game these days ever does.

Surprised elden ring is winning the poll as i see online so much hate for that game even existing cause whatever amount of flaws. That said I know most things that become that popular that used to be pretty niche get super hate due to people who have no business playing such games bouncing off of it and wondering where all the hype is from. Also surprised stray wasnt picked...seems the cat game was beloved at release. Poor horizon its a good game but outshined every release cause polished good game doesnt beat titans of industry. GOWR is a contender...but much like elden ring its more of the same and if you like that youll love it...otherwise you'll bounce off. Cinematic short games seem to be reviewer bread and butter. tunic seemed to pull alot of interest at release but is going against golaiths. xenoblade is a jrpg so it will be liked by the people who play those and overlooked otherwise even if it's good. The sonic game seems to be better than previews lead on but people hate sonic like a meme so even if sonic was mario galaxy good...people would call it trash lol.

I meant this more for general internet opinion and not Giantbomb as their GOTY list are hard to decifer...maybe less this year since no offense to jeff...he's gone...and he's usually the outliner picker with downvotes on some of the beloved games like souls, or god of war...since he bounces off games before they show their hand and kinda lowers others interest at the debate so those types of games dont see list as easy. This year may look like a more main stream list...but yeah

Neon White, stray, Splatoon 3, gowr, are definitely making the list. I dont think elden ring will given those who like it are gone

yeah, it's this exact phenomenon that i was thinking of (how PUBG was EVERYWHERE and yet owns virtually zero mental real estate these days).

which is to say nothing of the quality of PUBG or ER- i have no doubt that ER will hold up several years down the line as the core 'game feel' and mechanics are rock solid. almost like a CoD- there's always a good CoD every few years, but it's the early ones that people really care about.

i'm mostly thinking about the cultural dynamics of souls games- how so much of their cache and gamer cred seems to come from people figuring them out and the collective experience of watching streamers get their asses kicked until the inevitable triumph.

OG dark souls and bloodborne (and even demon souls in being the first) benefit from their position in the From canon, and honestly as having retained some of the more unique boss designs. whereas with Elden Ring- sure, it's the one that popped huge in the cultural zeitgeist- but IMHO feels like it will diminish now that the mystery of discovery has largely dissipated (and will undoubtedly be replaced by From's next offering).

but this is just me spitballing here- we'll check in after 10 years or so and see where we're at :)

The issue with Elden Ring in 5 years is that it's not all that easy to capture in one sentence. It's kinda doing the same style as you're used to from the Souls games... but it's easier to dodge boss-battles and it has a jump button? What is it really adding to the gameworld at large?

At least with Bloodborne you can immediatly point at the lovecraftian gothic style of that game as being refreshing. With Sekiro you can point at it being a parry-centric Ninja game. I haven't played Elden Ring yet so maybe there's a very obvious thing i'm missing from the coverage so far, but it mostly seems like a well-liked souls game that made the transition to an open world map with a mount.

That mount might be the most memorable given "feature" of Elden Ring though. Other games gotta stop being cowards and let me press a horse button to immediately be riding off, no more of this sneaky bullshit of just teleporting it into the empty space.

Plus From did kind of just first try it's way into the best mounted combat.

Yeah, I was going to say this exactly. I mean, Elden Ring is basically just Dark Souls with an open world, and that sort of necessitated the horse, which becomes a big part of the game. There are even bosses you can fight on the horse. The open world and the horse together are the biggest thing that makes it different. That and the sheer scale.

It also introduced the spirit ash summons, but those aren't as big an addition since these games have had some form of summonable NPC help since the beginning.

Overall Elden Ring will win most GOTY awards though I think God of War will have its fair share as well.

If we are talking GB awards I think GoW is pretty well positioned to take it. A lot of members loved the first game and didn't fall in love with Elden Ring, so I'm gonna guess that's where it ends up.

Maybe, but I was surprised when I listened to the latest Nextlander podcast and Vinny seemed very tepid about it. I wonder if any current GB staff will have a similar reaction. Then again there is literally no scored review on Metacritic right now that's less than a 4 out of 5, the vast majority sure seem to like it a lot.

When it comes to God of War Ragnarok, I believe the GB staff will talk about it the same way they talked about Horizon Forbidden West. They will say the game is an improvement, but more of the same, and the negative, nit picky voices will win out. Speaking of nit picky, Elden Ring will be the game they pick apart the most. They'll point out how its a good open world Souls game, but not much else. It won't win GOTY on this site, I don't think. Bayonetta 3 might make the Top 10, but it will be lower on the list. So will Xenoblade Chronicles 3, mainly because of Jan and possibly Jeff Grubb arguing for it. I could go on, but at the end of the event, the staff will do the same thing they've been doing for the last 3-4 years now. Not really engaging in a debate and just pick the game everyone can agree on liking a lot to win GB GOTY. This makes Vampire Survivors, and possibly Tunic the victors.

This my prediction of what will happen, I could be completely off base.

@av_gamer: Isn’t Tunic this year’s Fez? I expected sorta nobody to push strongly for that game other than Gerstmann, unless I’m forgetting someone still on staff who was crazy about it.

On another note, I wonder if there’s any Year of the Tile candidate Jan is suddenly going to get back into before GotY and make a huge push for. Probably not Triangle Strategy but maybe Live A Live?

@bisonhero: I remember the other staff members with the exception of Jess also being very positive about Tunic, but you could be right. And yes, Jan could pull a game like Live A Live out and argue for it. If Jan does and gets it on the list, that would be brilliant as that game shouldn't stand a chance against many others competing this year. I could see Triangle Strategy being a lot more easy to argue for than Live A Live. Not because I think its a bad game, I haven't played it yet, and I'm sure I would like it. But because its an old JRPG that suddenly got remastered and released in the US. GB has a history of not being too big on JRPGs in general, with a few exceptions.

Yeah, in truth, the GB GOTY proceedings can be fun to listen to, but the result is highly idiosyncratic to the staff and usually has blind spots the size of Lake Michigan. E.g., Bloodborne didn't make the staff top 10 in 2015 at all, the Journey OST didn't make the 2012 best sound list, etc. In that sense I find it hard to take it all that seriously.

Elden Ring is the main candidate. Not only its a good, big, successful game, but also because this was a year with very, very little big-games presence. It seems to be a result of the pandemic but, regardless, the AAA space was a wasteland for 2/3 of the year. Now (November) it seems to get a little more normal, but for months, the only AAA game in the zeitgeist was Elden Ring. It sure didn't help that most other big games were console exclusives to hardware that is still hard and expensive to access.

The only games that could compete with it are indie games, which is almost cruel as comparison due to sheer scope. It won't be my game of the year (tried to buy it a couple times, but it seems my setup doesn't gel with their anticheat software, and they haven't patched it), but it seems disingenuous to argue Beacon Pines, Vampire Survivor or Trombone Champ bring as much to the table as Elden Ring.

Sonic Frontiers, for actually being a good Sonic game.

It will be Elden Ring, even though it shouldn't be.