The Game Awards 2021

EoinMcLovin

Creating new Discussion for this year's Game Awards which will stream live on December 9th

Here are the nominees

Game of the Year:

• DEATHLOOP
• It Takes Two
• Metroid Dread
• Psychonauts 2
• Ratchet & Clank
• Resident Evil Village

Best Game Direction:

• DEATHLOOP
• It Takes Two
• Returnal
• Psychonauts 2
• Ratchet & Clank

Best Art Direction:

• The Artful Escape
• DEATHLOOP
• Kena
• Psychonauts 2
• Ratchet & Clank

Best Narrative:

• DEATHLOOP
• It Takes Two
• Life is Strange: True Colors
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Psychonauts 2

Best Score:

• The Artful Escape
• Cyberpunk 2077
• DEATHLOOP
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• NieR Replicant

Best Audio Design:

• DEATHLOOP
• Forza Horizon 5
• Ratchet & Clank
• Resident Evil Village
• Returnal

Best Performance:

• Erika Mori as Alex Chen (Life is Strange: True Colors)
• Giancarlo Esposito as Antom Castillo (Far Cry 6)
• Jason Kelley as Colt Vahn (DEATHLOOP)
• Maggie Robertson as Lady Dimitrescu (Resident Evil Village)
• Ozioma Akagha as Julianna Blake (DEATHLOOP)

Best Action:

• Back 4 Blood
• Chivalry 2
• DEATHLOOP
• Far Cry 6
• Returnal

Best Action/Adventure:

• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Metroid Dread
• Ratchet & Clank
• Resident Evil Village
• Psychonauts 2

Best Role Playing Game:

• Cyberpunk 2077
• Monster Hunter Rise
• Scarlet Nexus
• Shin Megami Tensei V
• Tales of Arise

Best Sports/Racing:

• F1 2021
• FIFA 22
• Forza Horizon 5
• Hot Wheels Unleashed
• Riders Republic

Best Fighting:

• Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles
• Guilty Gear Strive
• Melty Blood: Type Lumina
• Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl
• Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown

Best Multiplayer:

• Back 4 Blood
• Knockout City
• It Takes Two
• Monster Hunter Rise
• New World
• Valheim

Best Indie:

• 12 Minutes
• Death's Door
• Kena
• Inscryption
• Loop Hero

CastorTroy

So Deathloop nominated for everything it was eligible for.

From that entire list, I've only played Metroid. Guess i won't be voting for any GotY this year

The Phantom Pain

ERG89

Been a real year of at best 8/10 games looking at the GOTY choices. When a game as bang average as 12 Minutes makes a best Indie Game nominee you know its not been a strong year.

Retr0gamer

It's just a list of all the better triple A games out this year and while out of them it's a good list most years none of them would be winning. I really don't care which win it because out of the them all they all deserve it in some capacity.

What shocks me is the complete dismissal of anything indie as it's been a very strong year for indie.

Gunmonkey

So was Deathloop really that good? Had heard it was a "very good, not amazing" style game, but 8 nominations out of 14 categories?

Also can see Cyberpunk unfortunately winning Best RPG (is that really all its nominated for....all that hype...) despite 4 very strong contenders (well Scarlet Nexus is meant to be good at least).

Mr Crispy

Jeff Grubb saying it's likely we'll see something of Hellblade 2 and Avowed at the show. I hope that magnificent hairball is correct.

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118183775#Comment_118183775

I've always found the game awards to be little more than a thinly veiled marketing exercise. Cyberpunk would probably be nominated for more awards if it wasn't released such a long time ago (December last year, it just missed the cut for the previous awards) and is no longer being pushed as hard.

Mr Crispy

https://twitter.com/geoffkeighley/status/1467007741214347264?s=20

Mr Crispy

I guess whatever this is will be revealed Thursday night/Friday morning.

https://twitter.com/Nibellion/status/1467934504719470594?s=20

Mr Crispy

In an interview with USA Today, Keighley says to expect Elden Ring level reveals. From PCGamesN;

Referring to the Elden Ring trailer at Kick Off Live, Keighley says there are "probably four or five things of that level" at The Game Awards. He adds that "probably six or ten of our games are things that people don’t know exist, but we’re going to reveal them at the show in a fun way". (Keighley previously said that there would be 40 to 50 games at the show altogether.)

So if you’re doing the math, that’s 40 to 50 games at The Game Awards, six to ten of which will be brand new announcements, and four to five of the announcements Keighley reckons are comparable in scope to Elden Ring.

B.A._Baracus

I want to see the long rumored mgs remake at this. Further fuel added to the fire by the Irish singer who said she recorded a cover of a very famous game song that will be revealed along with a game "in december" - makes people think she recorded The Best Is Yet To Come from mgs1.

Who knows.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118282612#Comment_118282612

I think I heard it mentioned somewhere that the song is more likely for a different game.

Spoiler Warning

Chrono Cross - apparantly has a very Celtic-like soundtrack and was leaked somewhere as a game possibly being remade.

B.A._Baracus

Balls.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118282674#Comment_118282674

I'm still not entirely convinced an MGS1 remake would be worth it. It'd need a full reimagining to accommodate updated gameplay mechanics and features (as per how the changes in The Twin Snakes completely changed the flow of the game by allowing first person shooting and jumping over rails). The amount of work it'd take would either make it too different, or not making enough changes might make the remake not worth it.

Remaking MGS3 as rumoured offers far more scope for doing something really incredible. Either that or make modern versions of the original MG games, but how they'd fare without Kojima would make it pretty risky.

B.A._Baracus

It could be seen as risky alright. But take RE2 remake. The original featured a fixed camera and janky controls (by today's standards) and they made it work. Of course it has to be said that RE2 remake did take the the over the shoulder camera from re4, 5 etc. It was a tested and proven concept.

I agree mgs3 would be the most ideal. One problem then is if mgs3 remake is successful where would Konami go next? Remake mgs4? From a business aspect it would make sense to remake 1. Then if popular remake 2 then 3. Mo money for Konami. Also mgs1 was the starting point of the story for many players (mg on nes don't count lol)

MGS5:Ground Zeros was kind of like a Shadow Moses facility.... but didn't even have that many tight closed fixed corridors MGS1 had. Hard task alright.

brainboru1104

Psychonauts 2 is great, I'm playing through it now.

Retr0gamer

Metal Gear on the NES was an abomination. The MSX versions of MG1 and 2 are fantastic, I finished them for the first time last year.

Anyway, the secret best Metal Gear is MGS/Ghost Babel on the Gameboy Colour (I'm serious, it's really good).

The Matrix Unreal Engine 5 demo thingy is available to download now on Xbox S/X and PS5. 30gb ish.

Zero-Cool

I'm gonna predict a teaser trailer for The Last of Us on HBO followed by a trailer for TLOU Remake. My predictions for these things never happen though.

Mr Crispy

https://twitter.com/AarynFlynn/status/1467908880667578370?s=20

This could be interesting, from a technical viewpoint at least. Flynn is the GM of the internal dev studio of Improbable, the cloud computing firm behind SpatialOS, a distributed networking engine. Flynn is also ex-Bioware where he worked on titles like Baldur's Gate II, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars KOTOR, Jade Empire, Mass Effect 1&2, Dragon Age: Origins, among others.

Retr0gamer

Halo Infinite is racing ahead of all other nominees in the gamers choice award which tells you all you need to know about the validity and integrity of the games awards.

CastorTroy

So it's winning an award based on a free multiplayer beta that was out a few weeks before voting began?

The Phantom Pain

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118290028#Comment_118290028

Oh yes, of course, because the opinion of regular folk who only play a select number of games per year and not even on all platforms is far more valuable than the professionals within the industry who play hundreds of games per year. Sometimes, Retro, I think you say things because you think it sounds cool or clever in your head but you don't actually think it through properly or consider all the factors before posting.

brainboru1104

I think awards are meaningless no matter how they are dished out.

blockfighter

It's been a pretty slow year for games in my opinion compared to other years. Totally to expected with the continuation of WFH for a lot of teams. This year has probably been the year I've spent the least amount of money on games in the last 10 years. I've played 6 of the games listed above. The highest out of 10 I would rank any of them is an 8. Some lower. Still good games but not GOTY contenders.

Mr.Fantastic

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118283119#Comment_118283119

Remember getting this as a present the story in it was fantastic , I remember getting stuck trying to rescue some VIP in it and pre internet days no idea how to get to him, had so much game in it for a GBC game.

Zero-Cool

Best games for me this year, top of my head. Not a great year for gaming but the below was enough to make it a substantial year for me. I still have The Forgotten City to start as well. More than enough choices for the Boards GOTY awards if they are going ahead this year.

Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye DLC (hands down best game of the year, even though it's dlc)

Subnautica: Below Zero

Mass Effect Trilogy

Life is Strange True Colors

Resident Evil Village

quokula

I played a lot of excellent games this year, though some of them were from my backlog, particularly 13 Sentinels which would have been game of the year for me if it came out in 2021.

Hitman 3 was a sublime game to start the year off

Ratchet & Clank was pure unpretentious fun combined with stunning tech

Guardians of the Galaxy is what I'm currently playing and I'm really enjoying it, it feels like a Naughty Dog game which for me is high praise indeed

I've played tons of Hades, which I know was on PC last year but I was waiting for the console releases that came this year for the best experience.

Lost Judgment was very enjoyable, even if it doesn't quite live up to the bar RGG set with Yakuza 7

F1 2021 made probably it's biggest step forward yet in this year's annual update with the story mode, and it's matured into the best racing game out there

While Forza Horizon 5 is basically FH4 on a new map that hasn't stopped it continually pulling me back in for quick sessions

FF7 Intergrade added a chapter that may have been short but played better and added hugely to the story of the main game

There are a bunch of other games that came out which I expect I'll thoroughly enjoy but haven't had time to play yet such as Persona 5 Strikers, Life Is Strange True Colours, or the director's cuts of Tsushima and Death Stranding

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118290130#Comment_118290130

I don't even know what you are trying to getting at here? My issue is that it's a vote based on a game that isn't even out until 6pm today and even if you want to count the multiplayer element, the multiplayer was released a day before it was shortlisted as a nominee. Of course the game awards can do what they want but that doesn't sit right with me.

The Phantom Pain

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118291076#Comment_118291076

Yes, but that's the players' choice and it's probably only there to placate the average gamer anyway. So what has that got to do with the nominees selected by industry professionals which make up the vast majority of the awards? You can't use average consumers' seemingly weird choices to discount the integrity of the awards created and voted for by industry veterans overall. And to be clear, I don't care either way but your logic here doesn't make any sense.