Looking back at the most anticipated games from the recent The Game Awards, it's clear that the biggest games are the ones we're all excited about. That's shocking. I know. Allowing for a few games to be delayed and one major failure (looking at you No Man's Sky), games named Most Anticipated tend to do very well at GOTY the following year. So it's natural to consider Grand Theft Auto 6 a frontrunner for Game of the Year 2025. But I'm not sure it will be mine.
I have nothing against GTA per se, but I thought 4 was better than 5, and I think the two best games Rockstar has ever made are the two Red Dead Redemptions. I'm much more intrigued by the prospects of RDR 3 than GTA 6 and would consider Cowboy Adventures to be the one to beat this year. I'm going to play GTA 6, and I expect to like it, but I'm not sure it's a good fit for my GOTY. In fact, I have no idea what my GOTY will be next year.
My game of the year is usually unexpected
On the one hand, this is again clear. The whole point of Game of the Year is to say 'this game is the best game I've ever played', and if you haven't played that game yet, you won't be able to pick a favorite. But the best games tend to be the ones that surprise me, which is an exciting prospect to look forward to in 2025. It's always what you least suspect.
This year I chose Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth as my Game of the Year, and while I enjoyed Ichiban's previous games, I couldn't just look to 2024 for that. It's great as a single experience, but my personal emotional connection to it (especially at the time I played it) was an important factor in my placement. Second place was 1000xResist, which I had no idea about at the beginning of the year. Third place was Balatro, same thing.
In 2023, it was Baldur's Gate 3 (with about 80% of the population). I've never played it in Early Access and generally rarely play it. I expected to scratch some D&D after hearing the good news, but I never expected it would take over the world. No one did that. Remember when you had to move to avoid colliding with a starfield?
In 2022, we had Marvel's Midnight Suns, another game we didn't expect when it launched. But looking back, I wish I had ranked Immortality first. No, I had never heard of that before either. In 2021, my first pick from TheGamer was Life is Strange: True Colors. I don't remember if it was announced before 2021, but I think this is the only year where they gave me a random list of 20 games from the year before I played them and asked me to pick the ones I expected to like. I would be right.
I haven't even heard of the best games of 2025 yet.
I don't think there's anything that stands out to me personally as we head into 2025. GTA 6 may end up in controversy, but that doesn't mean it can run away. Like a Dragon: Yakuza, Pirates of Hawaii is as much to watch after Infinite Wealth as Lost Records was after True Colors. Split Fiction, Avowed, Doom: The Dark Ages and Pokemon Legends: ZA are also available at relatively short odds at all good bookmakers.
There is another obvious element to the latter game. We expect Switch 2 (a hybrid console by any other name) to launch in 2025, and it will come with a huge catalog. Who doesn't love 3D Mario games? If we were making the list in 2020, Animal Crossing would have been a contender, so a follow-up would be worth noting and we'd probably get a fantastic Kirby, Fire Emblem, or Kid Icarus. If only they lived up to their predecessors.
But between Immortality, 1000xResist, and Balatro, it's very possible that at least one major contender for the crown won't be on my radar at all. It could be an indie game I can vaguely guess about, like Despelote, Time Flies, or Bye Sweet Carole, or it could be a game I've never heard of, missed its release date, and don't play until someone else does a few months later. The site bugs me. Probably Eric or Ben.
My brain is still in GOTY mode, and I know it's important to appreciate games from my experience playing them and not put them on some random yearly list, but making that list gives me new experiences to appreciate. There will be. achieve balance Maybe my 2025 GOTY is Yakuza, maybe it's GTA 6, maybe it's a game you and I and everyone else has never heard of except for our team of three. But this coming year, there's an all-you-can-eat buffet, and I'm ready to pile my plate high.
- platform
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PS5, Xbox Series X|S
- released
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2025-00-00
