My gaming hot take for this week is that black Myth Wukong, even though I love it, I think it is a great video game. Will not win game of the year and also will not even be nominated for game of the year because of the way that The Game Awards is structured. People need to understand this cause we have conversations about The Game Awards all the time and what’s gonna get nominated. It’s very exciting. The way that things get nominated is 90% weighted towards a group of of journalists and media that gets to decide what gets voted in, and 10% is the audience votes. As as I understand it. So the critics around this game have not been super kind to it. It seems like 80, 81, 82. Like, people think it’s a great game, but it’s not in that upper Echelon that gets you game of the year. A guaranteed game of the year stuff like Final Fantasy 7 rebirth at this point I think is a shoe in for it. Then you have your stuff like Zelda that has yet to come out, but people, it’s Zelda. Like, I feel like it just gets that bump automatically. Um, what else for this year? Uh, metaphor refantasy, uh, I think has a really good shot. So you have a. A bunch of games that are still left to come out that I think could eke out. Black Myth Wukong for those six spots stuff Like, even, like, um, Hell, divers two or, like, a Dragon, Infinite Wealth that was received really well. Tech and eights, like, I think there’s a lot of games that have a chance that have come out previously and are coming out later to eke out Black Myth Wukong for that game of the year conversation. That’s not an indictment from me. I think the game is great. I need to read harp on that. It’s a great video game, but I don’t think it’s gonna win, nor will it even get nominated for game of the year. That’s my hot take. We’ve had this discussion many times of what we think are locks that are, uh, the people looking out. I do want to bring this up. Metacritic, 80 reviews for Black Myth Wukong at sitting at an 82 right now. Tech, an eight. Is that 90 reviews and sitting at a 90. There’s a panel of over 100, uh, media and influencers that get to vote on Black Myth Wukong or not Black Myth Wukong. They get to vote on the game of the year. Uh, and it is very, very interesting to have those different aspects come into play, where it’s like, the media gets to decide. The people that are, like, on journalists, IGN, uh, the game spot, these big outlets, and then some medium to larger size outlets get to vote on this. I’m really curious. Out of those outlets when they’re in the war. Room when they’re having those discussions, who’s going really hard for it? Who’s going super like, black myth is the game of the year. I don’t think that there’s a lot of people. I can promise you that there are people going crazy over tech and eight. That that is like one of the best games this year. I promise you that. People in the media and the journalist had such an amazing time with Hell Divers 2. They only get to play a game like Hell Divers 2 for a month or two, and those first couple months of hell divers 2 is awesome. And then they have to move on to the next review that is definitely in contention. I don’t see that fervor from the industry in the way that I’ve seen for some other titles this year. The only thing that is confirmed 100% that I think will be there at the end of this year is rebirth. At this point, that is the only thing that I’m like, yeah, that’s just gonna get nominated because, I mean, critically acclaimed. Metallica. 92 on Metacritic with a lot of reviews, and it is a expertly crafted open world game that will be there. I’m really excited to see the music played at The Game Awards. Other than that, the first half of the year was a lot of question marks and a lot of highlights from some smaller games. And then some of the bigger titles were Just like, ah, this is pretty great. Shadow the eternity is an interesting discussion that could get nominated if they allow it for a DLC. Dragon Age could be great. Oh, I think Sound Hill 2 is turning it around, apparently. Yeah, a lot of previews seem to be very positive about Sound Hill 2. You could have indies like the Plucky Squire or Neva up there. Yeah, people they. Or you could have Boltro or animal well up there, like, stuff that was reviewed really, really well in, like, from the indie side. I could get up there over Black Myth. the most important thing when it comes to the discussion around it is Metacritic score. Probably, like, because that’s. That’s the indicator of where are the journalists are at that are voting on this. Yeah, the journalists are the people that are verified on medical critic score for the critical review. Right. And the amount of, uh, scores that go into it. I think that another interesting one is, like, could, like, persona 3 get in there on reload, right? Persona 3 reload reviewed really well. Really well. But I might be question to the audience is yes, the sales are there. Yes, it is a great game. Like, I don’t want to take anything away from what this game has done, and honestly, I love when video games are cool, and this is the moment that video games are cool. And here’s. Here’s the thing. There’s Always been a discussion like when Fortnite was really big, like, what is the game of the year? Not like the best game of the year, but what is the game that has taken over the conversation? What is like, the most talked about important game of the year for. For that year? It was Fortnite or whatever. Like when Fortnite, like, really blew up, even though it wasn’t the first year that it came out, but like, when Fortnite was at its peak, that was the game of the year. When everybody was. Was posting their Victory Royales on their Snapchat story. Yeah, it’s like, that was the game of the year for that year, even though it. It wasn’t nominated. It shouldn’t be nominated, but that was like the zeitgeist moment. Black myth Wukong is having that zeitgeist moment. Yeah, had that zeitgeist moment. It probably is the game of the year when you come to. When it comes to that, but if we’re talking the best game of the year, I don’t think it’s even close.