The Best Game Of The Year Has Already Lost 2024's GOTY Award (& That's Not Fair)

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2024 Game of the Year awards should be as interesting as always, but the fact that won't be in the running throws things off from the start. As the newest experience from acclaimed developer FromSoftware, takes players to the Land of Shadow, a new area connected to the world of the Lands Between. Although it's quickly acquired some infamy thanks to an intense difficulty spike compared to the base game, the impressive heights of its design have also garnered plenty of acclaim.

It's still too early to make most real calls for Game of the Year 2024 front-runners, as plenty of exciting releases still await in the back half of the year. From huge titles like to interesting indie prospects like, no one should have much trouble finding an upcoming game to enjoy. Among the titles that have been dropped in 2024 to date, however, is one of the obvious standouts, and it will doubtless end up being the favorite of the year for many.

2024 has already given us some great games, and the second half of the year will have to deliver some serious hits to beat what has already come out.

is a massive, game-sized expansion for , but it's still fundamentally categorized as DLC rather than a game. Although it's not impossible that some awards or outlets will be willing to hand it a Game of the Year award, this generally knocks it out of the running for most competitions. The best precedent for a win lies in the Best RPG win at the 2016 Game Awards for 's expansion, but that still didn't make it into the list for the primary GOTY award.

It makes sense for DLC to generally be kept out of GOTY awards, but does show just how blurred the lines can get. Plenty of standalone sequels are less ambitious and complete experiences than is, with the primary difference lying more in the release model than anything else. Most other major releases of the year so far present more significant shortcomings than 's flaws, and if the award ends up going to something less impressive, the somewhat arbitrary