Fallout 4 looks pretty damn promising for someone who loved Fallout 3, but seeing how Skyrim was a disappointment, I am a little skeptical about FO 4. If it's a bigger better version if Fallout 3 with a better story, it will be my game of the year.

I just love the post apocalyptic world of Fallout (I find the 3D ones especially immersive). I also love exploring random ominous locations, something which was lacking in Witcher 3. For example, entering an abandoned building and finding something interesting or unusual.

The art style and graphics are greatly improved as well. What do you think you will pick for GOTY?

Are you going to stick by Witcher 3 no matter what or are you expecting Fallout 4 to win you over?

Fallout 4 looks underwhelming to me... But most Bethesda games have been lately. I hope FO4 will be as good as hyped. but I'm finding it hard to get excited for it.

Yea, I'm not that excited by Fallout 4 so far. It just looks like more of the same. Where as Witcher 3 has raised the bar for RPGs and is a massive improvement on the previous games.

I agree with the exploration in W3 being a bit limited though. Large parts of the map have invisible walls blocking them off and are empty. Why even put them there if they are just empty space?

I'll undoubtedly get FO4, but Bethesda cannot write a story to save their lives. The graphics and animations also looked pretty weak, and they certainly haven't dropped the cartoonish style (hand cranked laser rifle? 17th century ship with rockets attached?). Highly doubt I'll be convinced that FO4 deserves the GOTY title over Witcher 3. I'm pretty sure Bethesda programmers who have been playing Witcher 3 for the last few months are thinking the exact same thing.

Edit: I have to say, the so-called improvements to FO4 are also just mod ripoffs. Building settlements? I know where they got that idea; Real Time Settler. Sprinting and grenade hotkeys? Oh, well that would be Project Nevada. Two of the most popular mods ever. I'm not real impressed when they just looked to community ideas and said hey we'll do that for vanilla this time.

Well that's easy, Pillars of Eternity is GOTY, hands down :-P

Anyway, let's not compare a game which is not out yet with one which is. Besides, Witcher 3 is more likely to become GOTY as it's much more likely to actually be fixed by the end of the year. Any improvement Bethesda would ever make to their games is a mod somewhere. There's a mod for animals taking shit and players being able to collect said shit. There's a mod for your very own torture chamber with naked female slaves. There's EVERYTHING.

Nah. They could have thought of something original at least. Or they could make basic gameplay or system improvements (they might have done this; we'll see), or try out something new.

The voice acting of the main character might be interesting.

Within the limitations of the genre and engine they're developing for? Most certainly not. Seriously, go and browse the mods - you'd be hard pressed to find anything which would make the game better and doesn't exist already. What Bethesda is currently doing is listening to the biggest requests of their community which any other developer would get applauded for - the only difference is that Bethesda always makes sure that their community has the opportunity to implement those changes themselves without having to wait. They always do. Well, they always try anyway.

Games that uses DRM (even just a requirement to register said game) should not be considered eligible for GOTY honors.

edited to fix spelling

Oh...... well..... thats a short list of candidates then.

The Witcher 3 wins by default if that is the case then!

From the reviews I have seen so far, Metal Gear PP seems to be a candidate to add to this list (though I could never get into the series, personally).

I wonder if GTA V will be a GOTY entry; even though it was released on consoles a few years ago, it only came out on PC this year?

Some good stuff for everyone this year (excepting the disappointment of PC Arkham Knight, I feel for the people that were looking forward to that).

I don't know... I pirated Batman Arkham Knight (since it isn't on steam) and my PC handles it very well. Of course, you only get 30fps when driving, but it's still very playable. But then again, I'm using a gtx 970...

? Downvote for piracy? And randomly admitting it?

In Bethesda Games I always feel like there is a lot to explore but the world itself always felt so dead to me, it's like I'm exploring more of the same ground. Unlike Witcher, this World really feels alive, the forest really felt like I was in a forest, the rivers, the sea, the mountains, the cities and villages, it all felt like I was really there and not just more of the same ground with different shapes like Bethesda and most of the games around.
I don't know which game will get more GOTY prizes but analyzing all the details in the Witcher for me it will be hard to match.

Ori will beat them both i think.

I'm afraid Witcher 3 has very bleak chances, simply because it was released like 6 months before Fallout 4 and media tends to have very short memory, throwing awards only to games released at the end of the year.
Plus Witcher 3 has that "odd" vibe, I mean it's perfectly fine for me, but I'm from Eastern Europe, surely it feels home, but judging by random articles in media (excluding that facepalmotron from polygon) and occasional talks at forums, amount of people simply not getting Witcher or getting it entirely wrong is, unfortunately, rather overwhelming.
In addition, Witcher 3 had (maybe still have, I don't know, I uninstalled it after announcement of 16th DLC) various issues that needed time to be fixed, and last time I checked most of them were present. Surely, those weren't major issues, but sadly, those were persistent issues you, as gamer, had to deal most of the time when not talking to people.
I'm not saying Fallout 4 will be perfect. Hardly ever, according to known footage, Bethesda still can't into FPS mechanic, nor into normal AI, and creating big settlements filled with people, not your average "Defenders of Bruma", yes, all 15 of them. Because come on, they should've killed that engine back in the days of Fallout 3 and bury it, because Cyrodiil's Mage's guild forbids the necromancy, physical based rendering or not. And they should let their animator out of his basement, to let him see how normal people walk, come on!