I've said it for most of the year that mine would be Elden Ring. FS took everything they've learned with the soul's formula and perfected it in my opinion. Vampire Survivors created a whole new genre of games and made me add that to have a co-GoTY. Then, High on Life came in at the end and just made my day. To sit back and just enjoy a game that didn't take itself seriously while enjoying almost every aspect of it, I'm gonna give it my Xbox GoTY easily.
Horizon FW didn't really do anything new to me. It was fun, but felt more of the same. Sifu was fantastic. I really enjoyed getting into that one and learning out to dodge and combat multiple enemies in different ways. Frustrating at times, yes. but worth it. GoW Ragnarok was a fun one even though the Atreus parts really sucked IMO. RE:Village started off really good before devolving into a more action focused game which kind of sucked to be honest. Especially after the doll house area.
I know there's more I can't think of off the top of my head, but it was a decent year for games to be sure. 2023 should be interesting too.
