It’s that time of the year again where we at Fanbyte share our favorite games of the year. This discussion typically includes insightful listicles, chaotic podcasts, and the infamous Jordies. Yet, I realized that you, the humble reader, do not get to join in and pick your game of the year. I don’t blame you, as this can be a rather daunting task. With new games releasing every week it can be impossible to discern what title is worthy of being considered the best of the best.

Lucky for you, I have come up with a system to help determine not only what games should be considered for your game of the year list, but which one is

How to Pick Your GOTY

1. Narrow Down Your Choices

The first step in your quest is to make a shortlist of the games you enjoyed the most this year. It can be from any system (including mobile!), but they need to have released this year. You can also include major expansions such as Final Fantasy XIV’s Endwalker or literally any of the DLC released for No Man’s Sky. Most guides and Youtube thumbnails will insist that you have to select 10 different games for GOTY. This is ambitious, but not necessary. Instead, I recommend selecting 5-7 games that really stuck with you this year.

There’s often a misconception that in order for a title to be your GOTY it needs to have the entire package. An engaging story that you can point to whenever that one relative during the holidays acts like video games haven’t advanced beyond Joust. Graphics so real you can reach out and touch Kratos’ (probably) soft beard and gameplay that innovates our very understanding of what a video game is. While some of that may matter to you, absolutely none of it is required for a game to be your personal GOTY.

Instead, focus on the games that stuck with you after you played or ones you have the most enjoyment playing. It can be anything from the mind-bending card games of Inscrpytion to the chaotic multiplayer of Halo Infinite. Your choices should represent the highest points of gaming you had this year. To help with the process I have narrowed my pool of games down to 6 top contenders.

They are:

Psychonauts
Resident Evil Village
Chicory
Halo Infinite
Hitman 3
Little Nightmares 2

Resident Evil Village Review

2. Ordering Your List

Here’s where things get tricky because now that you’ve decided on 5-7 games we need to order them from worst to best. Just remember, you need to numerically order them otherwise people won’t take your list seriously because it’s impossible that there isn’t one clear winner. There always has to be a number one. Sorry, I don’t make the rules I simply explain them to you.

In order to decide which games go where we will assign arbitrary point values. This is done through my pattern pending, a scientifically provable system for determining the best game in any year. While most chumps will factor in things like gameplay we will be focusing on categories that actually matter. Below are the five different categories and the maximum amount of points you’re allowed to allot.

Fashion – 30 Points
Best Death – 10 Points
Number of Times You Said “Fuck” – 20 Points
How Many Friends You Bugged to Play It – 15 Points
Is It Persona 5 Royal? – 15 Points

Now that we have our rating systems, go through your choices and assign the appropriate amount of points in each category. You may need to write this down, so open up a separate Word document or get a piece of paper. Here’s an example of what this should look like using one of my choices, Resident Evil: Village.

Resident Evil: Village

Fashion – 25 Points
Best Death – 8 Points
Number of Times You Said “Fuck” – 20 Points
How Many Friends You Bugged to Play It – 9 Points
Is It Persona 5 Royal? – 0 Points

Total – 62 Points

Once you’ve determined your points for each put them in ascending numerical order based on what they scored.

3. So What Is Your GOTY?

It’s Hitman 3.

There’s been a bug going around that makes some people pick different games for GOTY, but I assure you they’re wrong. The one and only GOTY should be Hitman 3, as it earns perfect scores in each category minus “Is It Persona 5 Royal?” but let’s face it no one is perfect – except Persona 5 Royal. Which is perfect. I don’t want to hear about Persona 4 Golden in the comments, this isn’t up for debate.

Neither is Hitman 3 being GOTY. If you got a different game I recommend going back, evaluating your choices, selecting Hitman 3, and running it through the patent-pending point system.

So congratulations to developer Io Interactive for winning 2021’s game of the year award from both myself and Fanbyte (unofficially).

The Fancies 2021: Collin's Guide to Picking Your GOTY

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