All Platforms 2026. Let’s guess and talk about the best games of the year, which will likely to get GOTY nominations at various places. Or even games you think will not even be nominated, but wish it would get more exposure. Let’s have fun before the GTA 6 mayhem. As always with these lists, it will upset anyone who does not see their games included. Especially so indie games with less exposure with not many ratings. Tell me your picks, either your personal or what you think will get the most GOTY awards. And remember, this discussion is just for fun.
Clarification: These lists are not based on what I played or like.
Unreleased games are not included here. Only official games with ratings and with players able to play the game are allowed here. That off course excludes nominations of GTA 6 in example. Also less known games with only a few critic reviews are also excluded here. The below rules are just for me, there is some selection bias from me too.
New Games
DLCs, Remakes, Remasters, and Re-releases are excluded from this category. Games started in Early Access in previous years are also excluded in this list.
- Sektori: Metacritic=
92, OpenCritic=91 - Big Walk: Metacritic=
91, OpenCritic=89 - Forza Horizon 6: Metacritic=
90, OpenCritic=91 - Mina the Hollower: Metacritic=
90, OpenCritic=91 - Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter: Metacritic=
90, OpenCritic=92 - Schrodinger’s Call: Metacritic=
89, OpenCritic=90 - Pokemon Pokopia: Metacritic=
89, OpenCritic=89 - Resident Evil Requiem: Metacritic=
89, OpenCritic=89 - Fire Emblem - Fortune’s Weave: Metacritic=
89, OpenCritic=89 - Phantom Blade Zero: Metacritic=
88, OpenCritic=88 - Star Wars - Galactic Racer: Metacritic=
88, OpenCritic=88 - Mewgenics: Metacritic=
88, OpenCritic=89
New Games that are Less Known
Only games with not many critic ratings are allowed on this list. Kind of obscure and less known games, but widely recognize for its quality by their players.
- Lost and Found Co: Metacritic=
90, OpenCritic=90 - Mythmatch: Metacritic=
89, OpenCritic=93 - Queen’s Domain: Metacritic=
88, OpenCritic=89
New Games leaving Early Access
Only games coming out of Early Access that started in previous years are included in this category.
- Valheim: Metacritic=
89, OpenCritic=90
Remakes
Only Remakes with big changes to its origin are included in this category.
- The Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time: Metacritic=
96, OpenCritic=95
Expansions
Only DLCs to an existing game adding considerable amount of playable content are included in this category.
- Revelations for DOOM - The Dark Ages: Metacritic=
91, OpenCritic=89 - In the Jungle for Dave the Diver: Metacritic=
86, OpenCritic=91
BTW, I use Neovim.
This has me realizing that I just didn’t do a ton of gaming this year. At least not new releases.
I played and enjoyed Mina the Hollower, but I wouldn’t say it felt like GOTY material to me.
I still intend to play Control Resonant but have simply not had time. I’d be curious to see where that falls on people’s lists.
I’ve seen Control Resonant being a high contender for some too. Especially with those who do Game of the Year awards. But to not fill this post with too many games, I had to make a cutoff somewhere. This year of gaming was insanely good, at least from perspective of high quality releases on the top end.
I’m well aware of all the other issues we had, but sometimes people forget the good things we have because bad news are upsetting so much. Me included BTW.
I still didn’t even play the original Control. I want to, but there is so much games in my library that I just don’t find for it. It looks really interesting. And Resonant doesn’t fall short in how interesting it looks to me.