Posted November 13, 2023 (edited) The nominees for next month's The Game Awards were announced earlier today. This year's GOTY nominees are: Quote • Alan Wake 2 • Baldur's Gate 3 • Marvel's Spider-Man 2 • Resident Evil 4 • Super Mario Bros. Wonder • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Spoiler Best Game Direction: Alan Wake 2 Baldur's Gate 3 Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Super Mario Bros. Wonder The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Best Narrative: Alan Wake 2 Baldur's Gate 3 Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Final Fantasy XVI Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Best Art Direction: Alan Wake 2 Hi-Fi Rush Lies of P Super Mario Bros. Wonder The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Best Score and Music: Alan Wake 2, composer Petri Alanko Baldur's Gate 3, composer Borislav Slavov Final Fantasy XVI, composer Masayoshi Soken Hi-Fi Rush, audio director Shuichi Kobori The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, composed by Nintendo Sound Team Best Audio Design: Alan Wake 2 Dead Space Hi-Fi Rush Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Resident Evil 4 Best Performance: Ben Starr, Final Fantasy XVI Cameron Monaghan, Star Wars: Jedi Survivor Idris Elba, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Melanie Liburd, Alan Wake 2 Neil Newbon, Baldur's Gate 3 Yuri Lowenthal, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Games for Impact: A Space for the Unbound Chants of Sennaar Goodbye Volcano High Tchia Terra Nil Venba Best Ongoing: Apex Legends Cyberpunk 2077 Final Fantasy XIV Fortnite Genshin Impact Best Community Support: Baldur's Gate 3 Cyberpunk 2077 Destiny 2 Final Fantasy XIV No Man's Sky Best Independent Game: Cocoon Dave the Diver Dredge Sea of Stars Viewfinder Best Debut Indie Game: Cocoon Dredge Pizza Tower Venba Viewfinder Innovation in Accessibility: Diablo IV Forza Motorsport Hi-Fi Rush Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Mortal Kombat 1 Street Fighter 6 Best Mobile Game: Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis Hello Kitty Island Adventure Honkai Star Rail Monster Hunter Now Terra Nil Best VR/AR: Gran Turismo 7 Horizon: Call of the Mountain Humanity Resident Evil Village: VR Mode Synapse Best Action Game: Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon Dead Island 2 Ghostrunner 2 Hi-Fi Rush Remnant 2 Best Action/Adventure Game: Alan Wake 2 Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Resident Evil 4 Star Wars: Jedi Survivor The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Best RPG: Baldur's Gate 3 Final Fantasy XVI Lies of P Sea of Stars Starfield Best Fighting: God of Rock Mortal Kombat 1 Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 Pocket Bravery Street Fighter 6 Best Family: Disney Illusion Island Party Animals Pikmin 4 Sonic Superstars Super Mario Bros. Wonder Best Sim/Strategy: Advance Wars 1+2: Reboot Camp Cities Skylines 2 Company of Heroes 3 Fire Emblem Engage Pikmin 4 Best Sports/Racing: EA Sports FC 24 F1 23 Forza Motorsport Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged The Crew Motorfest Best Multiplayer: Baldur's Gate 3 Diablo 4 Party Animals Street Fighter 6 Super Mario Bros. Wonder Best Adaptation: Castlevania Nocturne Gran Turismo The Last of Us The Super Mario Bros. Movie Twisted Metal Most Anticipated Game: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Hades II Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Star Wars Outlaws Tekken 8 Content Creator of the Year: Ironmouse People Make Games Quackity Spreen SypherPK Best eSports Game: Counter-Strike 2 Dota 2 League of Legends PUBG: Battlegrounds Valorant Best eSports Athlete: Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok Mathieu "Zywoo" Herbaut Max "Demon1" Mazanov Paco "Hydra" Rusiewiez Park "Ruler" Jae-hyuk Phillip "Imperialhal" Dosen Best eSports Team: Evil Geniuses (Valorant) Fnatic (Valorant) Gaimin Gladiators (Dota 2) JD Gaming (League of Legends) Team Vitality (Counter-Strike) Best eSports Coach: Christine "Potter" Chi Danny "Zonic" Sorensen Jordan "Gunba" Graham Remy "XTQZZZ" Quoniam Yoon "Homme" Sung-young Best eSports Event: 2023 League of Legends World Championship Blast.tv Paris Major 2023 EVO 2023 The International Dota Championships 2023 Valorant Champions 2023 Alan Wake 2 and Super Mario Bros. Wonder both sneaking in towards the end of October has surprised me a little bit (I expected one to get in, but both?), just given the wealth of other games released this year which could also have been nominated. Recency bias? Maybe a little. Street Fighter 6 and Diablo IV both garnered a lot of love at release and could have easily been on the list from what I'd read and heard, and both Armored Core VI and Final Fantasy XVI were well-received generally, but perhaps a bit more middling in some ways for From Soft and Final Fantasy fans, respectively, and enough to get in the way of a GOTY nod. Interesting fact (but not all that surprising): since the TGAs started in their current format - excluding Deracine because it's not considered a full release on the same scale and was VR-only - this is the first time that a From Software game has released and not been nominated for Game of the Year. Anyways, other four GOTY nominees were totally expected, though. I think it's between Tears of the Kingdom and Baldur's Gate 3 for GOTY, and honestly, having not completed either but having put a chunk of time into both? They would both be very deserving in my opinion, TOTK fixing a lot of the issues people had with BOTW (still coming up short in a couple of places, mind you) and just being a whole ass lot of video game to digest; and well, BG3 is also a whole ass lot of video game, but has also forced a resurgence in CRPG interest and got many casual fans (myself included) onboard. It's a bit rough around the edges as a multiplayer experience (which is how I'm currently experiencing it), but honestly, I'd love to see it win over Tears if only because of the impact it's had. I don't really have a serious horse in this race as my personal GOTY so far was excluded (ah well, not like they haven't won it before!), but I'm curious to see how the show shakes out. Not sure if I'll stay up for it, but the potential of a Shadow of the Erdtree update seems real, never mind all the other potential announcements, so here's hoping for a decent one! Edited November 13, 2023 by Julius 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 13, 2023 I've only played 3 of the 6 GOTY nominations and out of them (Spider-Man 2, Resident Evil 4 Remake, Super Mario Bros. Wonder) my vote would be for Resi4. I picked it up at the end of September for one of my spooky games to play in October and I absolutely loved it. The game is vastly superior to the original, both in gameplay and narrative. I've said many times over the years that I found the original to be very overrated but this version I fell in love with. The trophy list helped with this though. Like all the other Resident Evil games it requires you to play through various difficulties, not use guns or herbs, get S rankings and do a speed run. I played the hell out of it numerous times. I made sure it was platinum number 666. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 13, 2023 Tears of the Kingdom is the only one of the nominees that I have cleared.. and I absolutely wouldn't vote for it. The other game from the list that I have played (up to the end of World 4 at least) is Super Mario Wonder so I guess that would have to get my vote! 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 13, 2023 It's a real shame not to see Street Fighter 6 in the GOTY category. I get it, this has been an insane year for major releases, but still. I've complained my fair share about this show in previous years, so now I'll just say that "Best Adaptation" is a cool idea for an award, and I fully support it. More unique awards catered to the reality of the gaming industry, please! Maybe next year they'll have a "Best Boss" category... whoamIkidding? As for my prediction... TGA normally likes to play it "safe" with the nominees, but still award the main prize to a slightly more surprising candidate (emphasis on "slightly"), to pretend they're making a hot statement. I do believe this is why they crowned "It Takes Two" and "Sekiro" in the years that they won. With that in mind...... ... .... Baldur's Gate 3 will take the prize 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 15, 2023 (edited) Baldur's Gate 3 is gonna clean up this year, TOTK doesn't stand a chance (except for Best Action Adventure). Bit surprised that they didn't do the P.C thing and throw MS a bone with Starfield though. Edited November 15, 2023 by Dcubed Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 15, 2023 17 minutes ago, Dcubed said: Baldur's Gate 3 is gonna clean up this year, TOTK doesn't stand a chance (except for Best Action Adventure). Bit surprised that they didn't do the P.C thing and throw MS a bone with Starfield though. That seems to have just came and went without much fanfare. BG3 looks to have sucked all the conversation away from it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 15, 2023 (edited) 19 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said: That seems to have just came and went without much fanfare. BG3 looks to have sucked all the conversation away from it. I'd love to see what the discourse would've been like if the release dates of these games were swapped around... I bet that if TOTK came out after BG3, there'd be a lot more discourse in favour of TOTK... And that Starfield would've stood a much better chance of getting nominated. Recency Bias is a hell of a thing in the video game industry. Edited November 15, 2023 by Dcubed Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 15, 2023 (edited) 57 minutes ago, Dcubed said: I'd love to see what the discourse would've been like if the release dates of these games were swapped around... I bet that if TOTK came out after BG3, there'd be a lot more discourse in favour of TOTK... And that Starfield would've stood a much better chance of getting nominated. Recency Bias is a hell of a thing in the video game industry. Not that I like to use review scores for discussion but both Zelda and BG3 reviewed very well, whereas Starfield got decent scores but not in the same league as the other two. I think no matter when BG3 was released it was always going to take away from Starfield. Edited November 15, 2023 by Hero-of-Time Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 15, 2023 25 minutes ago, Dcubed said: I bet that if TOTK came out after BG3, there'd be a lot more discourse in favour of TOTK... And that Starfield would've stood a much better chance of getting nominated. Recency Bias is a hell of a thing in the video game industry. While I agree that recency bias is a hell of a thing (I'm still surprised that both Alan Wake II and Super Mario Bros. Wonder managed to sneak in at the death), and the stretch from PC to console release for BG3 definitely shut down any conversation to be had around Starfield before it even started, I don't think Starfield ever stood a snowball's chance in hell of getting nominated this year. It released in a middling technical state - it was no Cyberpunk 2077, by any means, but certainly the broken mess at launch we've come to expect from Bethesda - and seemingly didn't do much besides be exactly what you'd expect from a Bethesda game set in space. It just never had GOTY buzz around it besides it marketing campaign, and I think many other games would've come ahead of it in the GOTY conversation. 21 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said: Not that I like to use review scores fir discussion but both Zelda and BG3 reviewed very well, whereas Starfield got decent scores but not in the same league as the other two. I think no matter when BG3 was released it was always going to take away from Starfield. Yeah, I agree with this. I mean, the contrast between the two certainly didn't help Starfield's case, but I'd argue that it wouldn't have helped any game's case: Baldur's Gate 3 singlehandedly revived the conversation around CRPGs, bringing a lot of new people into the genre; is a worthy adaptation of one of the most popular variations of one of the most popular tabletop games of all time (which in the last decade has seen a resurgence of interest and newcomers); and that stretch of four or five weeks from PC to console release with no other major game releasing in-between that could hold the conversation. Also, I don't like to lean on review scores for these either, but if we were to lean on those a little and the relative GOTY buzz at the time of release around other games released this year, I think there's a long list of games that make it to that list before Starfield: Street Fighter 6, Diablo IV, Armored Core VI, Final Fantasy XVI, and potentially even Jedi Survivor, which I think scored lower than Starfield but certainly had waaaaaaaay more buzz around it at launch. I will say, even though I loved both AC VI and FF XVI, I was pleasantly surprised that they didn't make it in as GOTY nominees, because I almost felt like it was inevitable due to the good relationship both studios clearly have with Geoff considering the marketing they've thrown out at his events. I was worried that they'd be thrown a bone for those reasons, as they always seemed on the fringes. I actually think Xbox's biggest misstep this year is not pushing a For Your Consideration-type campaign for Hi-Fi Rush, as that game was better received than Starfield, is very unique, didn't release in a messy state, and although developed by Tango and published by Bethesda, certainly has the look and feel of an indie darling that would probably have worked in its favour the problem for Xbox I guess is, in lieu of a DLC drop, I think the way you go about that is a wider launch on Switch (if that's technically possible) and potentially even PlayStation, because a game released at the start of the year on the console platform with the smallest audience of the current consoles simply isn't capable of generating and maintaining the conversation in the way I think you need it to 2 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 16, 2023 If it was all up to recency bias, it would be a tight race between Alan Wake, Spider-Man, and Mario. Anyway, I get the feeling that TotK, Resi 4 R, and Spider-Man aren't going to win it because, despite being quite good, they're all fairly similar to other memorable games that came out relatively recently. If they can help it, I think TGA wants to avoid giving the GOTY award to "Twice the Spider-Men as 5 years ago", "Remade even harder than 5 years ago", and "We won the award 7 years ago, but now we craftin'". Super Mario Wonder is way too off-genre of what TGA wants. If they didn't give it to Metroid Dread, they ain't giving it to Mario. Alan Wake has a legit shot, but this Horror passion project also falls short of the kind of game that tends to gain awards. Plus, direct comparisons to Resi 4 would then be inevitable, and TGA likely doesn't want the scrutiny of "picking a side" in a flamewar. Alan Wake is too risky, is what I'm saying. Baldur's Gate is part of a mainstream-approved genre, is universally praised (quasi-Cinderella story, too), hasn't had any recent game quite like it, and it is just unique enough (especially when seen with the other nominees) to look like a hot take when it wins. ...On a side note, I do wish Baldur's Gate had come out before the Dungeons&Dragons film. That was a good one, and it might've helped its chances. 2 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 28, 2023 Keighley did a Q&A livestream a bit over a day ago on the TGAs, and confirmed that the "WORLD PREMIERE" voice over tag we've got so used to will be going away this year. Shame, but weirdly I always thought it felt like an Xbox thing (and in either case I'm not a fan), so...oh well? Curious to see if the minute or two saved from that being torn out shortens the show or– no, who am I kidding, it means time for a few more ads Security will also be tightened following the end to last year's event: And Geoff has a very weak defence for the controversial indie nomination of Dave the Diver, which is notably not indie (being developed and published by Korean company MintRocket, aka a smaller team from Nexon, famous for MapleStory and also a company with offices worldwide and revenue of nearly $2 billion reported in 2021): Quote "Independent can mean different things to different people, and it's sort of a broad term." And lastly, the TGAs have considered new awards for Best Remake and Best Supporting Actor: The idea of Best Remake I'm not a fan of, the term "remake" is already such a murky term which means different things to different people, then there's the question of if they're eligible for GOTY like indies, and that whole mess. I agree with Geoff's point that it's also not a guarantee that we see consistently great remakes released as it is. The idea of Best Supporting Actor, though, I'm totally for. Was thinking about this just the other day and it makes perfect sense, I'm all for having more talent recognised in the industry, especially because there have been so many supporting roles in the last 5 years alone that I think would have warranted the award being a thing. Just a week and a half to go to the show, folks. Anyone planning on tuning in? 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 28, 2023 Nah. I skipped it last year and do the same this year. The show is nothing but a glorified advert. I'll catch up on the news in the morning. 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 28, 2023 8 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said: Nah. I skipped it last year and do the same this year. The show is nothing but a glorified advert. I'll catch up on the news in the morning. Exactly what I do. Can't stand Keighley these days. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 28, 2023 2 hours ago, Happenstance said: Exactly what I do. Can't stand Keighley these days. I'm the same. I didn't use to mind him back during the GT/Bonus Round days but now is become quite arrogant and smug. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 28, 2023 Dave The Diver being in the running for best indie game tells you all you need to know about the legitimacy of these awards. Absolutely sweet FA. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted November 28, 2023 Quote "LEVEL5 VISION 2023 II" is an online event presented by LEVEL-5. We will announce release dates for various titles, including "INAZUMA ELEVEN: Victory Road," and showcase lots of new information. Featured Titles ・INAZUMA ELEVEN: Victory Road ・DECAPOLICE ・FANTASY LIFE i: The Girl Who Steals Time ・MEGATON MUSASHI: WIRED ・Professor Layton and the New World of Steam - The estimated runtime is approximately 30 minutes. - The date and time of the stream are subject to change without prior notice. - The stream includes titles with ratings not suitable for children. - The translations in this trailer are provisional and may be subject to change before release. - The version shown in this video is under development and may differ from the final product in some aspects. Game Awards is so easy to take a pass on—life's too short to be giving views to all these Geoff Keighley vanity projects. I'm infinitely more interested in what will come from Level-5 Vision 2023 II. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 1, 2023 Something new and unexpected? Perhaps a good awards show ? 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 1, 2023 1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said: Something new and unexpected? Perhaps a good awards show ? Let's not go crazy now 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 3, 2023 Hype trailer for the TGAs: Roll on stupid o'clock on Friday morning Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 7, 2023 Currently sick, might get a sick note from my doctor for the remainder of the week and given last night I won't be able to sleep so...might just tune in (or rather play Slay the Spire and have the show running on my second monitor ). 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 7, 2023 We're getting more Metaphor: ReFantazio tonight (tomorrow? whatever ) Still on the fence with this one, so I'm excited to see more, and at the very least hear some new Shoji Meguro music. Next year is stacked with JRPGs already so we'll see if this still makes it out then, but for me personally, idk, this being Atlus I might just wait for the Royal/Gold/Simile version that'll release a couple of years down the line Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 7, 2023 It's looking very likely that the next Monster Hunter game will be shown during the awards show. @Julius I expect a topic created and a trailer ready for when I get up for work in the morning! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 7, 2023 3 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said: It's looking very likely that the next Monster Hunter game will be shown during the awards show. Look, if this turns out to be wrong...I will respond with many angry gifs Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 7, 2023 (edited) 7 minutes ago, drahkon said: Look, if this turns out to be wrong...I will respond with many angry gifs Deal. Either way I'll have something to look at in the morning. Edited December 7, 2023 by Hero-of-Time Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 7, 2023 Shenmue 4 is getting announced tonight Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
