C'mon, tell me you wouldn't pay to see that fight.

This is a discussion of the GOTY honors for the media, and not my personal choices. (I'll get to those mid-December - mark those calendars!) Skyrim and Skyward Sword have emerged as the front-runners, with SkyBatman as the dark horse candidate. Okay, he's not called SkyBatman, but we had a nice theme going there. Tragically, there were no Skies of Arcadia or Sky Kid sequels to really bring it home.

I think the safe money is on Skyrim. Zelda has the pedigree, but I think most media outlets will be reluctant to award a Wii game with the top prize for fear of alienating their core demographic of bloodthirsty young men. Skyrim falls right in that sweet spot between 'commercially viable' and 'serious business,' too.

There are a ton of other candidates, sure, but I think they've got too much against them:

Arkham City - too similar to the original, and it's a licensed product. (Albeit a great one.)

Portal 2 - came out a thousand years ago in gaming time. Too cerebral and PC gamer-y.

Catherine - weird, hormonal, ultra-challenging, and very niche.

Dark Souls - Demon's Souls was a huge upset winner here at GameSpot, and they're not likely to pull the same trick twice. Also seems to have faded from memory now that Skyrim is out.

Dragon Age 2 - LOL.

Uncharted 3 - not as good as 2, although still pretty good.

Gears Of War 3 - too unremarkable.

Modern Warfare 3/Battlefield Whatever - not even the Activision-backed press pretends these are art anymore.

Saint's Row 3 - there may be a time where a game featuring midget cops being beaten with a giant purple sex toy can be GOTY. I don't think that time is now.

Deus Ex Human Revolution - kinda rings a bell?

Super Mario 3D Land - if Mario Galaxy 2 wasn't GOTY, then this sure isn't.

L.A. Noire - LULZ.

I'm betting on Skyrim. A game I don't own. This is why I don't gamble.