Every year, The Game Awards are held to decide which games are the best of the best in certain categories. Some of these categories include Best Narrative, Best Art Direction, Innovation in Accessibility, or Best Ongoing.
But of course, the category everyone cares about is the Game of the Year award, the award presented to the game that’s better than the rest in that year, one that beat all the odds and left its players feeling the best they’ve ever felt playing a video game.
As of November 13th, the nominees for this year’s Game Awards have been revealed and voting has been opened, and there’s lots of competition for the many categories. Here’s a couple of the categories and their nominees:
In the category of Best Game Direction, the award given to the game with the most outstanding creative vision in it’s design and direction, the nominees are: Alan Wake 2 by Remedy Entertainment, Baldur’s Gate 3 by Larian Studios, Spider-Man 2 by Insomniac Games, Super Mario Bros Wonder by Nintendo, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, also made by Nintendo. Nintendo is no stranger to the Game Awards and has been nominated and awarded many times in it. And most of these games have also been nominated in other categories, to the glee or dismay of many gamers, provoking either celebration or outrage.
And in the category of Best Score and Music, for all you music nerds, the nominees are a couple you’ve seen before: First off with Alan Wake 2 with composer Petri Alanko, Baldur’s Gate 3 with composer Borislav Slavov, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom with the Nintendo Sound Team. These made it to a lot of categories, really showing how beloved these games are. And for the other nominees in this category, there’s Final Fantasy XVI with composer Masayoshi Soken, and Hi-Fi Rush with audio director Shuichi Kobori. All of these games have been nominated due to their amazing musical scores, which elevates the theme and settings of their respective games dramatically, created by some very talented composers.
Of course, there are plenty of other categories in the Game Awards, but there’s always the category to rule them all, the one everybody waits for, one of the only reasons people even watch the Game Awards… the Game of the Year. The Game of the Year award goes to the game that the majority of gamers agree is the best of the best. Some games that have won this award have grown to become so popular that even non-gamers can recognize them, with such beloved titles like Skyrim or Uncharted winning this prestigious award. The nominees for the 2023 Game of the Year award are: Alan Wake 2, Baldur’s Gate 3, Super Mario Bros Wonder, Resident Evil 4 Remake, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and last, but not least, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. These games have been viewed by gamers as some of the best this year, and it will be a hard fight between them all as people flock to vote for which one will be the greatest. The one game to rule them all…for this year at least.
The voting has already been opened to the public and the winners will be announced on December 7th. If you want to vote for your favorite game, check out the other categories, or even just look through the list to get inspiration on what games you should play, you can find them all at The Game Awards official website.
