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.
Pragmata.
Reasoning: It’s a new IP. It’s not based on anything. Controlling two characters isn’t new (Brothers anyone?) but the shooting + hacking thing kind of is. And I feel like it works better than it should. I didn’t think I’d be able to play it, but I’ve taken to it quite well. Haven’t beat it yet, kinda been putting it off because I know how it ends. (Knowing how it ends was a purchase requirement, I was going to blacklist the game if the kid died at the end. I felt like they were heavily implying she would, so I waited for spoilers. Of course, that means I know what happens at the end, so after the big reveal, it’s like “okay now there’s nothing else for me except to just push through and finish it.”)
Pragmata looks actually very interesting, for personal reasons. But I excluded it from the list above because its critic scores are not as high as the other games listed, at about
85and86. And I don’t think with that many games available with that high scores, that Pragmata would even be nominated for most who do a Game of the Year award. And that is the vibe I was going for.And this speaks for the amount of quality games we got this year, if I do not even consider Pragmata being included in this list.