I think it's time to talk seriously about GoTY...

[Mr Somewhere]

Skyward Sword
Dead Space 2
Dark Souls
Arkham City

Can't think of much else, wasn't terribly impressed this year, asides from these games, a handful of indie titles and older games.

 

[Versuvius]

MW3 will get it, having broken all sales records known to man it's probably going to get it. As much as i hate that prospect.

 

[babinro]

Still too early. Many people haven't actually played through Skyrim yet, let alone Skyward Sword. The Old Republic hasn't been released yet either.

Dragon Age 2 still tops my list for this year.
Skyrim is a close second and may top the list as I put more time into it.

Haven't played Skyward Sword or Arkham City, both of which seem like very strong contenders.

 

[Seventh Actuality]

Dragon Age 2 is the game I like best, but objectively? Nope. Too many obvious, annoying and undeniable flaws to make the cut. Same goes for the Witcher 2, but that doesn't even have the chance of a free pass on story and characters.

DE:HR? Muuuch closer, there hasn't been another game like it all year.
Skyrim? The anti-DA2. Objectively the most impressive, but I just don't find it that much fun or the world at all compelling.
Batman: Arkham City? I WOULDN'T KNOW, BECAUSE SOMEBODY DELAYED THE FUCKING PC RELEASE AGAIN.

 

[ToastiestZombie]

Cant really think of one for GOTY, but I can put them in separate categories.

Best RPG: Skyrim
Best FPS: Battlefield 3
Best Action Adventure: Arkham City
Best TPS: Uncharted 3
Best Puzzle Game: Portal 2
Best graphics: Battlefield 3
Best overall: Skyrim

 

[DanielBrown]

Haven't played that many games released this year, but out of those I'd nominate Skyrim, Dark Souls and Batman: Arkham City. Favorite out of those is definetly Skyrim. Recently checked my playtime and I'm over 60 hours with the end nowhere in sight.
I'm not claiming game length = great game, but I'm not the least bit bored yet, which I am with Dark Souls in spite of having the same play time there. Dark Souls is a good game, though I feel that Demon's Souls was superior. Spent too much time wondering where the hell I was/where I should go and dying from cheap shots to enjoy it.

Skyrim should get it based on effort alone. I haven't encountered any copy-pasted dungeons so far(have probably covered 80% of the map), and the huge amount of quests/things to do really shows how much Bethesda has put into this game.
Batman: Arkham City also shares the effort put into the game, but often I felt that it was rushed and that they threw in too many criminals in there... the more open world didn't do any harm, however it wasn't necessary either.

 

[Kyber]

Skyrim all the way for me

 

[Yopaz]

Since Batman Arkham City isn't out yet I can't say. I also haven't had time to play Skyward Sword yet, but my contenders are the following.
Deus Ex Human Revolution
Saints Row The Third
Xenoblade

The 2 first on that list are the top contenders.

 

[iRevanchist]

Portal 2
Skyrim
Deus Ex: HR
Infamous 2
If I had to pick one, I'd probably choose Portal 2, with Skyrim as a close second.

 

[Sehnsucht Engel]

I've not played many games that came out this year, but I'll go with Dragon Age 2, which I love for having great characters and story. I've played Skyrim for many hours, but I still think DA2 is more fun.

 

[KaiKai753]

Does Minecraft qualify?

Also, Skyrim.

 

[Ubermetalhed]

I don't have the money to buy a few potentially awesome games as of yet. So seeing as I don't have Arkham city, Saints Row 3 and Dark Souls yet I'll have to go with the only good games I've played.

1.Deus Ex HR
2.Portal 2
3.Skyrim - only to fill a third slot, the other two are exceptional this is just a pretty good game.

 

[EndOfDaWorld]

1) Skyrim (who didnt see that coming?)
2) Ummm BF3?
3) Gears 3?

I personally wouldn't nominate either of them. Those are the only 3 games I have from 2011 that would have a possibility of getting the GOTY.
I would however like to nominate Batman: Arkham City and Assassin's Creed: Revelations and tenativly Saints Row 3. I haven't played either of them, but according to what my friends say, they're pretty damn good.
Also MW3, not because I like it, or think its a good game, but I just bet its gonna be nominated....

 

[Assassin Xaero]

So now I ask you for your nominations or if you want, name the game you think will be the straight out winner for GoTY.

I love the irony of the thread title. You are on the Escapist, you can't use "serious" and "GOTY" in the same sentence when the whole year everyone has been going "OMGZ SKYRIM!!!11" every time a GOTY thread came up. Even when I made a thread about how people say a game will be GOTY before even playing the game (the thread had "GOTY" in the title), people still posted "Skyrim" without reading any of it, just because those 4 letters were in the title. So this thread will be filled with that.

For me, personally, Rage was my favorite. Followed by BulletStorm and Duke Nukem Forever.

 

[Black Arrow Officer]

1. Battlefield 3
2. Arkham City
3. Skyrim-Maybe if I put some more time it would go higher on my list.

I haven't played Revelations or Human Revolution, both of which look incredible but my budget only goes so high.

 

[Get_A_Grip_]

My nominations are:
Portal 2
Pokémon White
DiRT 3 (I seem to be the only person on this site that loves driving games.)
Batman: Arkham City

Still haven't played enough Skyrim to form a solid opinion on it.

 

[Rodrigo Girao]

People, this is getting silly. Stop denying that Sturmwind for the Dreamcast will obviously be the game of the year!

 

[Delsana]

The Old Republic.

Has anyone even tried the beta's? Another massive one coming this Thanskgiving for 4 days, people from WoW tried it and cancelled their subscriptions. The game is worth it, the NDA is officially 90% dropped so I can talk about what happens, and it was awesome seeing the story and style of it.

BF3, Gears, Deus Ex, those are GOOD games, but they have NOTHING on top of SWTOR. I even tried Skyrim, and I found I was in the beta so why not, but Skyrim is a slow start with little direction if you're not keen-eyed and SWTOR brings you in and keeps you there and you can't stop playing.

I know many people who can't go back to ANY GAME after playing SWTOR because of how great it really was. Yeah it has some issues, but it's an MMORPG (with the RPG capitalized) being released, so of course it will need some finetuning after.

 

[Skops]

You're really asking that on the Escapist? Maybe if you haven't been around for the last 3 weeks, I'd understand. But just in case you haven't noticed, I can sum up just what about 80% of the people who post regularly on the Gaming Forums:

"SKYRIM SKYRIM SKYRIM SKYRIM SKYRIM SKYRIM SKYRIM SKYRIM SKYRIM SKYRIM SKYRIM SKYRIM SKYRIM SKYRIM SKYRIM SKYRIM SKYRIM"

At any givin time, for the past few weeks, it's not uncommon to have more than half of the threads on the first page of threads be about Skyrim in sort of fashion. Personally, I think the game is great but not worth the nerdgasm that every is needing to consistantly clean their monitors/TVs about.