Every December the gaming community turns into a real battlefield with the Game Awards, a digital version of the Oscars for chronically online people, coming out. This year's edition will take place on Friday, December 13th. Drama after drama, with little boys who have never felt a touch of a woman getting pissed at their favourite pew-pew game not winning, the reputation of gamers is slowly reaching an all-time low. We heard some wild takes in 2022 when Elden Ring won the best game of the year and you could hear men crying and screaming left and right about it being “too hard.”
Then, in 2023 Baldur’s Gate 3 won, and out of all the competition that year, people chose to be mad that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 didn’t win. Mind you, it was a great year in gaming, with a masterpiece like Tears of the Kingdom coming out alongside Baldur’s Gate 3, Resident Evil 4, and Alan Wake 2, all nominated for the best game. No, people chose Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and started the drama that went on for months, with grown men crying hysterically on camera and attacking people for no reason. How mature.
What about this year though? Who’s going to win and what is going to cause another meltdown of a statistically average gamer?
Unfortunately, it will take ages to go over all of this year’s nominations, but you can always find more information on The Game Awards website. Honestly speaking, I think most of us are more interested in which game will win the main category. This year’s nominees for the “Game of The Year” award are:
- Astro Bot
- Balatro
- Black Myth: Wukong
- Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree
- Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
- Metaphor: ReFantazio
Times are Changing
Many people might be surprised to see Elden Ring nominated for the Game of the Year award. After all, it already won in 2022, taking the “Game of the Year” title as well as the “Best RPG,” “Best Art Direction,” and “Best Studio/Game Direction” back to Japan. It had caused quite a lot of drama back then, considering that “Elden Ring,” despite winning the main nomination of the evening, had fewer nominations and won fewer awards than another public favourite - God of War Ragnarök. God of War fans were furious, which caused Elden Ring fans to get angry as well. In the end, you had a big group of gamers screaming at each other about how trash the other game was, making bad reviews on YouTube and even sending threats on X.
Unfortunately, we can expect the same thing to happen this year as well, with Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree not only being harder than the original game but also being the first DLC, or downloadable content, to get nominated for Game of the Year. This change is an insane accomplishment for FromSoftware, Elden Ring’s developer, on its own, but if you think that the general public will be happy about it – you should think again. Shadow of the Erdtree is a controversial DLC. Truth be told, all FromSoftware DLCs are usually harder than their original games, but as it turns out, people tend to forget about it and end up rage-quitting as soon as the first boss doesn’t fall on its knees right in front of them 5 minutes into the game. Complaining about the difficulty level of a game that is known to be difficult is stupid, that is just a fact. There is a woman on Twitch finishing this DLC while using a dancing pad. Get a grip, guys!
I do agree that Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree nominated for the main award while being a DLC is a drama waiting to happen. Even if it doesn’t win in a single of its nominations, people will still be mad. Is it fair to put an expansion on the same level as full independent games? And if it’s not, who exactly is getting robbed here? Perhaps The Game Awards should make a separate award for the best DLC…
Will it win? It’s hard to say. The competition this year might not be as strong as some other years, but are they good enough to win? Let’s check the nominees out...
Astro Bot
Astro Bot is a PlayStation 5 platform game developed by Team Asobi and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It’s a family-friendly game where the player controls a robot named Astro Bot throughout the game’s 90 levels. The game is cute and engaging, with various difficulties available based on the player’s skill and an interesting and easy-to-follow plot. It is, however, still a game for children at its core, and although it will definitely win some nominations, the likelihood of Astro Bot being named Game of the Year is quite low.
Balatro
A poker deck-building roguelike developed by LocalThunk, Balatro was released on multiple platforms, including Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One with ports for Android and iOS available. The player is supposed to play poker hands to score points and defeat “blinds.” Different decks that a player has a chance to build have different effects corresponding to the deck’s colour. Balatro doesn’t have a plot, which makes it stand out from other nominees, but is that a good thing in this case? It is a systemic card game which is not something most people prefer to play in their free time. Furthermore, I can’t remember when a game like Balatro won any major game awards…
Black Myth: Wukong
Black Myth: Wukong is an action RPG (role-playing game) developed and published by Game Science. The game got its inspiration from the classical Chinese novel Journey to the West about an anthropomorphic monkey Sun Wukong, and while it received a lot of good reviews and sold 20 million copies in its first month alone, it got one of the lowest Metacritics scores of 81 out of all nominees for Game of the Year. Adding to that, do we really want to support a controversial and misogynistic developer? That’s right, right before the release of the game a company connected with its developer sent a list of “topics to avoid” to the content creators that were supposed to play the game live. The list included things such as “feminist propaganda,” and because Game Science employees had faced allegations of inappropriate and sexist behaviour in the past… well, I think you can draw your own conclusions on this one. The game has a fair chance to win, but its success despite the developer’s inappropriate comments and behaviour indicates that we are indeed going back as a society.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Who hasn’t heard of Final Fantasy? Final Fantasy VII Rebirth specifically is an action RPG remake of the original Final Fantasy VII game that came out on PlayStation in 1997. This game is part of a trilogy, with Final Fantasy VII Remake that came out in 2020 being the first one in the series and has a huge fanbase all over the world. The player mainly controls Cloud Strife, who joins AVALANCHE, an eco-terrorist group to fight Shinra. The game vaguely follows the plot of the original, although there are some differences that I can’t share without spoilers that will completely change the narrative. It was greatly anticipated and has a high Metacritics score, but some of the reviews are quite mixed and the game’s developer Square Enix shared that the sales ended up being underwhelming. Nevertheless, I can confidently say that Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has one of the best chances of winning the Game of the Year of 2024.
Metaphor: ReFantazio
Developed by the same studio as Persona 5, Metaphor: ReFantazio is an RPG available on PlayStation 4 and 5, as well as Windows and Xbox Series X/S. The game is set in a medieval fantasy realm right after the king’s assassination. You as the player are an orphaned boy Will, who now has to participate in the Royal Tournament to decide the throne’s next successor. The game’s storytelling is strong and engaging, and I can’t say anything bad about the game mechanic’s either, so it really wouldn’t be that big of a surprise if it ended up winning instead of Final Fantasy or Shadow of the Erdtree. Is it likely? Not really. The game is pretty niche with its turn-based combat, and although we did see some turn-based games win in the past (cough, Baldur’s Gate), Metaphor: ReFantazio is not even close to the level of its predecessors. A shame.
Who will win?
My bet is on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, although Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree would’ve been a clear winner if it wasn’t for the fact that it is still a DLC. I don’t think the public is ready to see Elden Ring win the Game of the Year twice, no matter how good it is. There is already quite a lot of controversy surrounding both its nomination and the fact that it has a big chance to win, and there’s nothing we want less than a bunch of whining grown men review bomb a great DLC. Now, unfortunately, Black Myth: Wukong has a chance to win as well, and even putting the controversy aside, I don’t think the game is good enough for this title.
All we can do now is wait till the end of the week.
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