In response to this article describing this year has not having a big obvious GOTY contender:
Game of the Year 2024 contenders aren’t clear yet — at all - Polygon
Well I have railed against the idea of smug pushy consensus favorites and critical darlings so my hot take is that I enjoy this kind of year more than the ones dominated by the YOU HAVE TO PLAY THIS years.
FF7:rebirth, Like a Dragon, Animal Well, Lorelei.. all very different games that have hit their respective audiences hard. I love that for them. And I love that my personal favorite game of the year so far is basically a glorified flash game and will most likely be an indy critical darling but the kind I personally like. It just makes everything feel less pressure and intense.
I know y'all are gonna say "well I just play what I want and like what I want" sure we all do, that's not the point. We do also consume games media and coverage and I just think it's all a lot more pleasant without the mob mentality pressure that makes it feel like you're a bad person if you don't get clubbed to death a million times by Elden Ring's camera bosses or are pressured to reload saves all the time in Baldur's Gate 3 or whatever.
I would even consider all this a good industry-wide trend if it wasn't paired with, like, firing everybody.