Cant wait. Though I am bit dissapointed by the visuals. Sure E3 was just X360 demo though I am currently playing Two Worlds 2 with Direct X 10 and it looks much better then Skyrim.

But Oblivion was great.....but please this time have an option to dissable level scaling.

What are you smoking? Skyrim looks great on 360. The advantage Two Worlds 2 has on PC is higher resolutions and antialiasing, that's pretty much it.

As for level scaling, it'll be similar to Fallout 3.

Why would anyone choose Two Worlds over Oblivion? I can see someone stating the plot for Oblivion was boring but the dialogue option on 2 Worlds was unintentionally funny. The framerate was alot worse on 2 Worlds

Two Worlds 2!!
The first wasnt good.

I know there are a lot of great games coming out this year, but with Mass Effect 3 moving to 2012, and based on what we've seen so far pre-launch, I have to think Skyrim will be game of the year. Thoughts?

Zelda Skyward Sword will be the Game of The Year

It's certainly a contender, but it seems Skyrim has so much more to it at this point...

Wii Games are still relevant in the year 2011?
While the PS3/360 has vastly improved the graphics on their games over the past 5 years, Nintendo programmers are still sticking with scrolling text and 8bit music

Deus Ex 3 is gonna be hard to beat.

All right, so what are the 2011 games in the running for game of the year?

Already released...

Portal 2 (IGN 9.5)
Infamous 2 (IGN 9.0)
LittleBigPlanet 2 (IGN 9.0)
Dead Space 2 (IGN 9.0)
Crysis 2 (IGN 9.0)
Catherine (IGN 9.0)
Deus Ex: Human Revolution (IGN 9.0)
Resistance 3 (IGN 9.0)
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (IGN 9.0)

Upcoming releases of 2011...

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Assassins Creed: Revelations
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
Star Wars: The Old Republic
Battlefield 3
Batman: Arkham City
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Gears of War 3

Am I missing any contenders?

I would go by metacritic score but even that one theres no guarantee that the highest scored game will get GOTY. Supermario Brother Galaxy had a higher metacritic score than Red Dead Redemption and Mass Effect 2 yet it was those latter two that dominated most of the year end gaming awards on major sites like Gamespot, IGN etc.

No game other than Portal 2 and LBP 2 scored above metacritic this year. We had alot of games racking in above 85 like Deus Ex 3, Shogun, Witcher 2 and LA Noire, Dead Space 2 and Crysis 2 but thats not really high enough for GOTY award.

Most likely it will come down to Portal 2(which IMO wasnt that great), Gears of War 3, Drakes Fortune, Elder Scrolls Skyrim, and Arkham City. Rage may surprise and Dark Soul may be a darkhorse. The Zelda game doesnt seem to be getting that much buzz

IGN has done a wonderful job keeping a steady flow of small bits of info coming to build up anticipation for this game. They don't give away too much, but write short articles from different perspectives that make you anxious for more. I'm at the point where I can't imagine this not being one of the best video games ever made.

With the review IGN just gave Uncharted 3, it looks like Skyrim might not get game of the year. I watched the video for Uncharted 3 and it DOES look amazing. Hopefully Skyrim is up to the challenge.

Well, Eurogamer gave Uncharted 3 an 8 out of 10 for instance, its Metacritic score is less than that of Arkham City.

Skyrim might not get GOTY on IGN perhaps. Let's wait for them to review it first, though.

What does Uncharted 3's review have anything to do with Skyrim?

It's relevant to an earlier discussion of potential Game of the Year titles, of which I am hoping Skyrim is better than all. Uncharted 3 getting 10/10 on IGN is a bump in the road for Skyrim getting those honors.

The latest video I saw of Skyrim had action animations in third person WAY beyond anything in Oblivion. For a game so huge, they've actually released very little content, which is awesome. Less than 3 weeks away!

What you mean with action animations?

If we mean the same video, the animations i saw there were - typical for Bethesda - crap (prime example - the woman walking over a bridge / plank). The first time they showed Skyrim and switched to 3rd person, the animations looked quite nice, i dunno what happened between then and now, maybe NPCs are animated worse than your character. Why Bethesda in 2011 still can't do proper animations is beyond me. They should just fire their animators. I know, once i start playing, it won't bother me as much anymore, still... WHY, BETHESDA?!

The NPC models were a little stiff when moving. I was referring to the melee combat animations. Specifically toward the end of the video in 3rd person fighting the werewolf.

I bought Elder Scrolls 4 and MW3 today.

I was able to get it free after trading in 2 games.

Never really liked RPG"s on consuls apart from FF, so will try it out.

I like how you can dual wield weapons/spells in this game, kinda like Bioshock 2. I'm gonna shoot nonstop fireballs at people.

Fire is great, but I prefer lightning bolts

And of course freezing things is cool too.

Looking at both metacritic and ign, it looks like game of the year will come down to Zelda, Arkham City, Skyrim, and Drake's Fortune.

Skyrim has some glitches, but it's also by far the biggest game and there are just awe-inducing moments. The environments are incredible. I walk out of a tavern in a town at the base of a mountain. The northern lights were flickering in the sky as snow whirled around a mountain top and wind pushed the smoke from a smithy in another direction. Meanwhile the leaves on the trees were blowing and you could see and hear the flowing river in the background. Talk about sensory overload. Amazing.

I've only played for about 8 hours so I can't completely review the game, but ign's new review seems to hit the pros and cons that I was thinking about.

I have to think GOTY will go to Skyrim despite it's flaws thanks to the level of difficulty (size and scope of game) being so huge. However, that 98 metacritc score for Zelda scares me.

...then you come across townsfolk awkwardly strolling along, taking you out of the experience, reminding you, you're just playing a game, a badly animated one at that. Same thing in dialogs, people show no emotions in their faces. I guess, you can't have it all.

There is no ONE game of the year, anyway. Every publication does its own thing. Who cares...

(i guess, Spike's VGA tries to be the Oscar of gaming, dunno about that, though)