Elden Ring is not Game of the Year but Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is – Reader’s Feature

metro.co.uk:

A reader argues that Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is the best game of 2022 and superior to Elden Ring, even if it’s unlikely to win many awards.

One of the side effects of 2022 being such a quiet year for games is that this year’s Game Awards are going to be a pretty straightforward affair. There are very few contenders in any of the categories and even the more general ones are pretty much uncontested. Which is another way of saying that Elden Ring is going to walk off with everything. I mean, they might as well give it the award now, and all the other game of the year nods, because there’s clearly nothing else that’s even in the running.

God Of War Ragnarök is the only upcoming games that’s guaranteed (as much as anything is guaranteed) to score well but I cannot see it beating Elden Ring unless it is something radically different to the original. I can though, easily see it being worse as they’ve got a lot of hard work to do with the story, which is a lot more restricted by the legend of what Ragnarök is than the entirely original plot of the first game.

I could easily see God Of War Ragnarök being a disappointment and, frankly, the fact they’ve showed basically nothing of it so far makes me worry that they’re hiding something. Maybe a secret that’s a game-changer, but, more likely, there’s been problems and they’ve not been confident of showing anything yet.

I’ve got similar vibes about Bayonetta 3 and I doubt anyone is expecting Gotham Knights or Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to be challenging Elden Ring. But there is one game, that’s already out, which I think is better and, as I guess you’ve worked out from the title, that’s Xenoblade Chronicles 3.

I don’t expect Xenoblade Chronicles 3 to win many game of the year awards,