What is your 2024 Game of the Year?

December and thus 2024 is rapidly approaching completion, and every organization is rolling out their Game of the Year Awards — including us! The Game Awards (and Kotaku!) surprised many by choosing Astro Bot, while fellow nominee Balatro has been recognized as Indie Game of the Year by both the Game Awards and the Indie Game Awards. Another nominee Metaphor: ReFantazio got the nod from IGN and even Time Magazine joined in the fun by tapping Blizzard Watch choice Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Of course most of these organizations have the advantage of having enough staff to play all these games and make a (somewhat) objective choice. The average gamer is not going to be able to sample all the major releases — as my Year in Review pointed out, the median number of games played on Steam was four. Then you have the console exclusive titles like Astro Bot and Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth on the PlayStation this year and Legend of Zelda games on Switch and despite the ubiquity of those systems plenty of gamers don’t have them, and of course not everyone can afford to pick up a dozen $60+ games each year.

That’s why I like to hear what individual players consider their game of the year. While you’re still going to see the popular industry choices, you’re also going to see a lot of Indie Games and smaller titles that may have been missed or forgotten (last February was apparently a decade ago as Persona 3: Reload seemed to be ignored this award season — although to be fair, I suspect Atlus was pushing Metaphor: ReFantazio harder for recognition). I know I’m taking the opportunity to remind everyone of Tales of Kenzera: ZAU every chance I get.

So how about it: what was your game of the year? Do you find your choice lines up with the major industry publications, or is it a game no one seems to have noticed? And do you go out of your way to check out other’s choices?