Geoff Keighley and crew just revealed the nominees for The Game Awards for 2020. The category known as "Game of the Year" includes a few of the usual suspects but has some noteworthy omissions. First, let's take a look at the current nominees for GOTY at The Game Awards.
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons
- Doom Eternal
- Final Fantasy VII Remake
- Ghost of Tsushima
- Hades
- The Last of Us Part II
It's a rather baffling list, to put it nicely. However, the Game of the Year list isn't the only category for The Game Awards. Let's take a look at the other categories and the nominees for each one.
The Game Awards will stream on December 10, 2020. Last year's Game of the Year was none other than Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
Best Performance
- Ashley Johnson, The Last of Us Part II
- Laura Bailey, The Last of Us Part II
- Daisuke Tsuji, Ghost of Tsushima
- Logan Cunningham, Hades
- Nadji Jeter, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Best Multiplayer
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons
- Among Us
- Call of Duty: Warzone
- Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
- Valorant
Best Ongoing Game
- Apex Legends
- Destiny 2
- Call of Duty Warzone
- Fortnite
- No Man’s Sky
Best Art Direction
- Final Fantasy VII Remake
- Ghost of Tsushima
- Hades
- Ori and the Will of the Wisps
- The Last of Us Part II
Best Score & Music
- DOOM Eternal
- Final Fantasy VII Remake
- Hades
- Ori and the Will of the Wisps
- The Last of Us Part II
Best Narrative
- 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
- Final Fantasy VII Remake
- Ghost of Tsushima
- Hades
- The Last of Us Part II
Best Independent Game
- Carrion
- Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
- Hades
- Spelunky 2
- Spiritfarer
Best Mobile Game
- Among Us
- Call of Duty Mobile
- Genshin Impact
- Legends of Runeterra
- Pokémon Café Mix
Best Esports Game
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
- Fortnite
- League of Legends
- Valorant
Best Esports Coach
- Danny "Zonic" Sorensen
- Dae-Hee "Crusty" Park
- Fabian "Grabbz" Lohmann
- Lee "Zefa" Jae-Min
- Raymond "Rambo" Lussier
Best Esports Athlete
- Ian “Crimsix†Porter
- Heo “Showmaker†Su
- Kim “Canyon†Geon-bu
- Anthony “Shotzzy†Cuevas-Castro
- Matthieu “ZywOo†Herbaut
Best Esports Event
- Blast Premiere: Spring 2020 European Finals, CS:GO
- Call of Duty League Championship 2020
- IEM Katowice 2020, CS:GO
- League of Legends World Championship 2020
- Overwatch League Grand Finals 2020
Best Game Direction
- Final Fantasy VII Remake
- Ghost of Tsushima
- Hades
- Half-Life: Alyx
- The Last of Us Part II
Best Audio Design
- Doom Eternal
- Half-Life: Alyx
- Ghosts of Tsushima
- Resident Evil 3
- The Last of Us Part 2
Games for Impact
- If Found...
- Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition
- Spiritfarer
- Tell Me Why
- Through Darkest of Times
Best Indie Game
- Carrion
- Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
- Hades
- Spelunky 2
- Spiritfarer
Content Creator of the Year
- Alanah Pearce
- Jay Ann Lopez
- Nickmercs
- Timthetatman
- Valkyrae
Best Debut Game
- Carrion
- Mortal Shell
- Raji: An Acient Epic
- Roki
- Phasmophobia
Best Community Support
- Apex Legends
- Destiny 2
- Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
- Fortnite
- No Man's Sky
- Valorant
Best VR/AR Game
- Dreams
- Half-Life: Alyx
- Marvel's Iron Man VR
- Star Wars: Squadrons
- The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners
Innovation in Accessibility
- Assassin's Creed Valhalla
- Grounded
- Hyperdot
- The Last of Us Part 2
- Watch Dogs Legion
Best Action Game
- Doom Eternal
- Hades
- Half-Life: Alyx
- Nioh 2
- Streets of Rage 4
Best Action/Adventure Game
- Assassin's Creed Valhalla
- Ghosts of Tsushima
- Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales
- Ori and the Will of the Wisps
- Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
- The Last of Us Part 2
Best RPG
- Final Fantasy VII Remake
- Genshin Impact
- Persona 5 Royal
- Wasteland 3
- Yakuza: Like a Dragon
Best Fighting Game
- Granblue Fantasy: Versus
- Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate
- Street Fighter V: Champion Edition
- One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows
- Under Night In-Birth EXE: Late[CL-R]
Best Family Game
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons
- Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time
- Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
- Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit
- Minecraft Dungeons
- Paper Mario: The Origami King
Best Sim/Strategy Game
- Crusader Kings 3
- Desperados 3
- Gears Tactics
- Microsoft Flight Simulator
- XCOM: Chimera Squad#
Best Sports/Racing Game
- Dirt 5
- F1 2020
- FIFA 21
- NBA 2K21
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2
Also, Cassandra Lee Morris deserves some acknowledgement for her excellent voice acting as Patricia Woods in Deadly Premonition 2. Yes the game is insultingly bad, but the character Patricia acts in a very relatable and convincingly realistic way. More so than Life is Strange. Great writing, but also great delivery by Cassandra.
At least we'll get our E3 fix through TGA, since for a while now, I've given up on treating this as an awards show, and will instead see this as a much better supported E3 2.0.
However, you're right about why a 2018 game is on there. This is just a popularity contest. There's no rhyme nor reason to the selections. It has a 2018 game listed there. There's the token "indie" title listed for GOTY. At least this one has a real chance of winning unlike other years. There's the "Oscar bait" cinematic action-adventure title.
The lack of HL: Alyx is really saying something. And I'm real sick of people, even those in the industry, going "Oh you need to spend $1,000 for a VR headset for Alyx" because that's bullshit. I played it just fine on my Oculus Rift, the original consumer version from years ago. This was on PC hardware that was just as old (6700K and a 1080Ti) that I've had for a while now. And I've read about people on older, worse hardware playing Alyx just fine as well. It can be played on nearly any VR headset on the market right now, including the Quest 2 which goes for around $300. Meanwhile they'll rush to buy the new $500 consoles to play on their 4K televisions and think nothing of it.
Then where's also Persona 5 Royal? Where's Ori and the Will of the Wisps? Both of which rated much higher than DOOM Eternal at the very least.
It's a fucking joke of an awards show.
I agree that HL: Alyx should've been a nominee to be GOTY, rather than be limited to its stereotypical categories. But I also wonder how many people would accuse Geoff Keighley of being biased if it did become a GOTY nominee, as he's the one of the first non-developer to finish the game long before it was even released.
And I'm glad you were able to prove to the naysayers that HL: Alyx actually has reasonable requirements, because I've heard exactly what you were saying, in regards to having only high-end equipment, or how it'll run like crap if you don't use the Index. Ironic how they're willing to buy next-gen hardware at far higher prices, or even from scalpers. Again, I had no idea HL: Alyx can scale that far down to run on more hardware.
DOOM Eternal being a nominee immediately makes me want to question the bias of the committee and how they were influenced.
I wanted an awards show, and excluding the first TGA (I said TGA, NOT VGA nor VGX), this has been nothing more than E3 2.0 where publishers advertise here much more than E3 itself. There's no meaning nor functionality to this show. I mean, Geoff seriously, did we really need the Fast and the Furious ad, with Michelle proving her love for "Tah-Ken"? While I believe Vin Diesel is a legit D&D player, I found it awkward when he kept saying, "These are my people!" Felt so much like Zachary Levi's presence calling everyone nerds (which is what the mainstream audience wanted to hear, but I guess I'm not part of that mainstream demand).
I would've preferred not having celebrities from other media, and just stick with people in the video games industry. I mean, Geoff kept touting this is about a celebration of games, yet the show does the exact opposite. It's a marketing platform, and the commiittee doesn't nominate enough games people would agree with (I said nominate, I'm aware the winners are usually NOT what we assumed). Even Geoff uses this platform for his own bias, aka Hideo Kojima. If anything, this celebrates less on games, and cannibalizes E3, because TGA is more accessible and more pandering.
This isn't the awards show I wanted. The debut had SO MUCH promise. Then it just went downhill from there. I'm sad, because I don't know what awards show I can take seriously. I wanted a show taken as seriously as The Oscars, but with the resources of the video games industry/community that movies can't possibly emulate. NO I DID NOT MEAN THE ****ING VIDEO GAME CHARACTER ACCEPTANCE SPEECHES OF VGA. Instead, we're going to get numerous skipped awards or "honorable mentions" as we get to the next World Premiere.
TGA simply isn't an awards show. It's a marketing platform presented fraudulently in an awards show format. I'm very sad I don't have a more prestigious awards show to follow, since this is the exclusive benchmark for the success of a title. Other awards aren't really advertised on game box art or company websites.
And this year, it'll look like VGX. Sigh... It's a ****ing joke of an awards show. Shame P5R and Ori are relegated to stereotypical categories.
(Also thanks for approving my post. I'm too used to reviewing and editing my posts, so it keeps triggering the spam countermeasures.)