It’s been a long week of voting, but the final battle is here. On Monday, we kicked off a tournament to pick the best first-party game of this console generation to celebrate the five-year anniversary of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Eight PS5 games, eight Xbox games, one winner. You all came out in droves to pick your favorites, fueling some tight match-ups and surprise upsets along the way. Yesterday, we crowned the best game of each console’s library so far. Today, those two games go head to head to determine the best of the generation.
In the PS5 corner, we have an unlikely underdog: Astro Bot. Okay, maybe underdog isn’t the right word to use for the Game of the Year winning platformer, but it beat some serious competition to get there. Death Stranding 2: On The Beach, God of War: Ragnarok, and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 all fell at the feet of Team Asobi’s adorable robot. There’s a good reason for that. As impressive and expansive as all three of those games are, Astro Bot is a laser-focused game that delivers charm in droves. It’s hard not to love it, so its position at the top of the mountain makes total sense.
The Xbox side was more unpredictable with no clear frontrunner until the very end. When the dust settled, it was Indiana Jones and the Great Circle that stood tall. That’s a sensible choice given that MachineGames’ take on Indy is a barn-burner. It takes all the lessons that the studio learned from its work on Wolfenstein and puts them to good use in a globe-trotting blockbuster with morbidly satisfying melee action and thoughtful puzzle design. It’s a tried and true action-adventure game that rejects open-world bloat for something more focused. That makes it not so different from Astro Bot. Well, aside from the Nazis.
Both are winners already, but which deserves to be crowned the best first-party game of the generation? The polls are now open. Let your voice be heard.
Voting schedule
Round of 16: Monday, Nov. 10 at 11 a.m. EST – Tuesday, Nov. 11 at 9 a.m. EST
Round of 8: Tuesday, Nov. 11 at 11 a.m. EST – Wednesday, Nov. 12 at 9 a.m. EST
Semi-final round: Wednesday, Nov. 12 at 11 a.m. ET – Thursday, Nov. 13 at 9 a.m. EST
Final round: Thursday, Nov. 13 at 11 a.m. EST – Friday, Nov. 14 at 9 a.m. EST
Winner announced: Friday, Nov. 14 at 11 a.m. EST
Final matchup
Astro Bot vs. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Astro Bot vs. Indiana Jones: Vote on the greatest game of a generation (so far)
