I thought last year was a tough year to go through on a macro and micro level. The combination of a lot of shenanigans and the end result of the presidential election, to a ton of highly regarded artists (particularly in the music field for me) combined with the on-going personal challenges on the constant barrage of constantly working long works just to keep up with the workload at my job and the little things here and there that makes life challenging. This year has thrown more than its share of headaches on both fronts. I’ll spare the details but as time is winding down on 2017, this has given me some pause into how I’ll tackle GOTY material in the waning days. Thankfully there are some breaks coming up (US Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years holidays) that I hope to catch up and finalize my approach, but for now my mind is set as follows.

Not Pushing to Have a GOTY 2017 List within the Year

I have lucked out into timing and having solidified list by the end of December for GOTY. Things have not broken out as well as I had hoped this year and thus I am forgoing setting a hard deadline to get out a GOTY list within this year. Ideally I’d like to get my GOTY list in as soon as I can but there are still a number of games (particularly a number of smaller titles) that I’d like to get a feel for before locking in my list.

Extending Past the Usual Ten Games

Ten is customary number that a lot of folks will chop down to finalize their GOTY lists and I have followed the custom in the years that I have published my GOTY lists thus far at Giant Bomb. This year, I am considering extending my GOTY list to a few more games, depending on how I feel about the games that make my preliminary GOTY shortlist this year. Considering the number of awesome games that have been released this year, I feel this is a great year to give more games more clout that they deserve.

My GOTY List Summaries

Thus far, I have formulated my GOTY lists by squeezing in three to four paragraphs summarizing why the ten games made it on my list. Upon developing my list last year, I wanted to change how I approached and presented my GOTY list to be quicker and easier for me to issue in forthcoming years. Lately, I am running into issues on what that would consist of and there are times where I told myself to stay the course for this year. This is still a work in progress but I’ll come up with something for my GOTY, whether it’s staying the course or showcasing something new to how each game is being presented.

So that’s what I have to say in regards to my preparation to GOTY this year. If I somehow make it in this year, great, but as of this time, it looks more likely I’ll have my list done in 2018.

The Final Countdown

As of this time, I have three games that I am actively progressing through and likely reach to a completion point and be in consideration: Cuphead / Etrian Odyssey V / Super Mario Odyssey. I have also gotten into Fire Emblem Echoes, but having a hard time finding time to get this game in lately.

Here is a list of the following smaller titles that I am in consideration to play for my GOTY 2017 list: Battle Chef Brigade, Night in the Woods, Pyre, Steamworld Dig 2.

The final list here are games that are unfortunately not in consideration for my GOTY list. Almost every game on the list is because I just could not parse out the time for them. DiRT 4 / Horizon: Zero Dawn / Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild / Tales of Berseria / Tekken 7 / Wolfenstein II / Yakuza / Ys VIII

I apologize for not being active in Giant Bomb as I once was. It’s been real rough the past few years and I have not been prolific with my activity here as I would like. Life’s still gotten a bad grip on my time and energy as of late and I have not found the opportunity to do as much writing that I used to do. Hope everyone else is doing well with themselves. I will be looking forward to reading everyone else’s GOTY lists as they come by and will get mines out as soon as I am able.

Thanks for reading.