[The Game Awards 2018] Habemus doritos papem.

Ceno

2018 is ending and we have the prescription-strength stress reducing medication to prove it. What light is there at the end of this dark tunnel?

Geoff Keighley has returned. The Game Awards will be presented on December 6th at 8:30 PM EST/5:30 PM PST and will be streamable (for free) on a variety of different platforms, including but not limited to:

Twitch
YouTube
Twitter
Facebook

Be sure to check out your gaming platform of choice as well, as they may have their own stream of the event that you can watch from your device through the magic of the internet. You can also vote for your choices by visiting the official website.

This year's nominees for GAME OF THE YEAR are:

Celeste
Assassin's Creed Odyssey
God of War
Spider-Man
Monster Hunter World
Red Dead Redemption 2

Other categories listed underneath the spoiler below! There are a lot of them and it took me a long time to type them out, so check them out! Also, I hope you like e-sports.

BEST GAME DIRECTION
A Way Out
Detroit: Become Human
God of War
Spider-Man
Red Dead Redemption 2

BEST NARRATIVE
Detroit: Become Human
God of War
Life is Strange 2
Spider-Man
Red Dead Redemption 2

BEST ART DIRECTION
Assassin's Creedy Odyssey
God of War
Octopath Traveler
Red Dead Redemption 2
Return of the Obra Dinn

BEST SCORE/MUSIC
Celeste
God of War
Spider-Man
Ni No Kuni 2
Octopath Traveler
Red Dead Redemption 2

BEST AUDIO DESIGN
Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII
Forza Horizon 4
God of War
Spider-Man
Red Dead Redemption 2

BEST PERFORMANCE
Bryan Dechart - Connor - Detroit: Become Human
Christopher Judge - Kratos - God of War
Melessanthi Mahut - Kassandra - Assassin's Creed Odyssey
Roger Clark - Arthur Morgan - Red Dead Redemption 2
Yuri Lowenthal - Peter Parker - Spider-Man

GAMES FOR IMPACT
11-11 Memories Retold
Celeste
Florence
Life is Strange 2
The Missing

BEST ONGOING GAME
Destiny 2
Fortnite
No Man's Sky
Overwatch
Rainbow Six Siege

BEST MOBILE GAME
Donut County
Florence
Fortnite
PUBG
Reigns: Game of Thrones

BEST VR/AR GAME
Astrobot Rescue Mission
Beat Saber
Firewall Zero Hour
Moss
Tetris Effect

BEST ACTION GAME
Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII
Dead Cells
Destiny 2: Forsaken
Far Cry 5
Mega Man 11

BEST ACTION/ADVENTURE GAME
Assassin's Creed Odyssey
God of War
Spider-Man
Red Dead Redemption 2
Shadow of the Tomb Raider

BEST ROLE-PLAYING GAME
Dragon Quest XI
Monster Hunter World
Ni No Kuni 2
Octopath Traveler
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

BEST FIGHTING GAME
Blazblue Crosstag Battle
Dragonball FighterZ
Soul Calibur VI
Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition

BEST FAMILY GAME
Mario Tennis Aces
Nintendo Labo
Overcooked 2
Starlink: Battle for Atlas
Super Mario Party

BEST STRATEGY GAME
Battletech
Frostpunk
Into the Breach
The Banner Saga 3
Valkyria Chronicles 4

BEST SPORTS/RACING GAME
FIFA 19
Forza Horizon 4
Mario Tennis Aces
NBA 2K19
PES 2019

BEST MULTIPLAYER
Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII
Destiny 2: Forsaken
Fortnite
Monster Hunter World
Sea of Thieves

BEST INDEPENDENT GAME
Celeste
Dead Cells
Into the Breach
Return of the Obra Dinn
The Messenger

BEST STUDENT GAME
Combat 2018
Dash Quasar
JERA
LIFF
RE: Charge

BEST ESPORTS GAME
CS Go
Dota 2
Fortnite
League of Legends
Overwatch

BEST ESPORTS PLAYER
Sonicfox
Tokido
Uzi
S1mple
Jjonak

BEST ESPORTS TEAM
Fnatic
Astralis
Cloud9
London Spitfire
OG

BEST ESPORTS COACH
Reapered
Zonic
Dylan Falco
Yamato Cannon
YNK
Ppaserel

BEST ESPORTS EVENT
Overwatch League
LoL World Championship
ELeague Major Boston 2018
The International 2018
Evo 2018

BEST ESPORTS HOST
SJOKZ
Machine
Redeye
Anders Blume
Goldenboy

BEST ESPORTS MOMENT
Dota 2 OG Upset
KT vs IG Base Race
C9 Triple Overtime
G2 vs RNG
Sonicfox DBFZ side switch

CONTENT CREATOR OF THE YEAR
DrLupo
Myth
Ninja
Pokimane
Willyrex

BEST DEBUT INDIE GAME
Donut County
Florence
Moss
The Messenger
Yoku's Island Express

Notably no more "best handheld game" category. Let us discuss games, awards, and the awarding of said games with awards.

Henroid

I don't usually pay attention to this sort of thing, but in 2017 I played more new video games than I have in any other year of my life.

acidlacedpenguin

I love PUBG, but PUBG being anywhere near any of the categories is a fucking travesty. I guess it would make sense if they had like a "Most Potential, Early Access Game"

Henroid

I really wish they would only grant games one category to be nominated to. There's SO MUCH that deserves to be on those lists but it's all Horizon, Mario, Wolfenstein, and Legend of Zelda.

Also, PUBG should not be on the list because it is not complete. Which, hey, speaks to how remarkable it is where it stands, but this means that if it comes out next year they'll be like "now we can add it!" even though it was on the year prior.

Axen

Oh God please let Rocksteady be working on a TMNT game.

I mean, like, look at their name! They have to do one!

Skull2185

I guess it should be out of early access by the time the VGAs happen? I do not agree with its inclusion on the GOTY list. Especially when Cuphead is omitted...

I fully expect Dr. Disrespect to win the gamer thing, though. He's so hot right now.

I also find it hard to be excited for any of the game announcements either. Whatever cool looking game gets revealed, it's all but certain whichever "AAA" publisher it's from will fuck it up.

Ceno

I have no idea who any of the trending gamers are.

Skull2185

Dr. Disrespect is one of the more popular guys on Twitch right now. I only know about him because my coworker is super into his content. He seems pretty funny, though. He calls himself "The Two-Time" because he claims to be the back to back 1993-1994 Blockbuster videogame champion (whatever that is...) and also the last con he went to he stayed at a hotel right across the street, and still managed to get his Lamborghini Diablo up to 100mph when he drove there.

Edit: He plays a lot of PUBG and H1Z1 I guess.

Lucascraft

I know my opinion is in the very small minority, but I don't think Zelda was that good, and it is an over-hyped, over-praised mediocre game. I also believe 100% that it already won GotY back in March when it came out. No other game has had a chance this year. People are latched on the Zelda dick hard, and it sucks because there are a lot of better games out this year. But none of them matter in the looming shadow of BotW.

I would pick Horizon as my own personal GotY.

Skull2185

I'm with ya on BotW, but I'd also lump Horizon in the over-hyped camp.

If that's the list we get, I'm pulling for Mario. Fortunately, Odyssey is very deserving of GOTY honors.

Axen

I'm riding the same boat as you guys on BotW and Horizon. Not that I think they were bad, they weren't. Just not mind blowingly awesome as others seem to think.

PUBG I'm very "eh?" on it being in the running. Early access game that has pulled done some questionable things. That said I can't deny it has been a wild success.

That said, rest of the GotY contenders I'm fine with. Though Persona 5 is one I haven't played, but when Extra Credits has an episode about why you should play a particular game I tend to assume it is of higher-than-average quality.

Polaritie

Axen wrote: »

I'm riding the same boat as you guys on BotW and Horizon. Not that I think they were bad, they weren't. Just not mind blowingly awesome as others seem to think.

PUBG I'm very "eh?" on it being in the running. Early access game that has pulled done some questionable things. That said I can't deny it has been a wild success.

That said, rest of the GotY contenders I'm fine with. Though Persona 5 is one I haven't played, but when Extra Credits has an episode about why you should play a particular game I tend to assume it is of higher-than-average quality.

P5 is worthy. I'd personally just replace PUBG with Nier and call it a day. The start of this year was stacked as hell.

Skull2185

Yeah, P5 is definitely worthy. I only pick Mario over it because I actually finished Odyssey.

Zilla360

Good to know that the walking capitalist/eldritch horror that is the SCHICK HYDRO BOT will be making a return this year.

I fully expect BOTW to win in a lot of the award categories.

Axen

For Best Role-Playing game I say Divinity 2 hands down. Since, y'know, for a category called "best role-playing" it had actual roleplaying.

Johnny Chopsocky

Nier Automata had better win for music.

Everything else I'm undecided on, but Nier needs to win music.

HallowedFaith

I'm going through my second play of BotW and it def deserves GotW for me.

Shadowhope

HZD is easily one of my favourite games ever. The combat is my favourite for any video game I’ve ever played; I never, ever fight with the controls and Aloy does exactly what I want, when I want. It’s incredibly beautiful even on a regular PS4; the little I’ve seen of it on Pro with a 4K TV is incredible. Ashley Burch delivers a fantastic performance; the whole A-plot of the game rests on the strength of her voice work. The backstory is my favourite SFF story of the last few years.

El Fantastico

Destructoid did a big "years in history" of the VGAs and there's a lot of evidence to suggest that basically any non-North American developed game won't win GotY. 2 of the 30 or so judges are Japanese, and only one non-NA developed game won GotY in the last 13 years (Witcher 3 in 2015) and though there is a larger presence of Japanese games this year, with big names like Legend of Zelda and Mario in the running, they'd be expected to take the technical awards leaving GotY to go to a western developer.

None of that reflects my own opinion, mind you. However, I feel like BotW being in the Sound/Music category was a mistake. Most of the original music was forgettable, with the most memorable bits of music being the regular clips you hear in every LoZ game because that was carried through the franchise.

Polaritie

El Fantastico wrote: »

Destructoid did a big "years in history" of the VGAs and there's a lot of evidence to suggest that basically any non-North American developed game won't win GotY. 2 of the 30 or so judges are Japanese, and only one non-NA developed game won GotY in the last 13 years (Witcher 3 in 2015) and though there is a larger presence of Japanese games this year, with big names like Legend of Zelda and Mario in the running, they'd be expected to take the technical awards leaving GotY to go to a western developer.

None of that reflects my own opinion, mind you. However, I feel like BotW being in the Sound/Music category was a mistake. Most of the original music was forgettable, with the most memorable bits of music being the regular clips you hear in every LoZ game because that was carried through the franchise.

So, PUBG is in the running so it can win, because otherwise none of those games would be developed in NA? (Mario, Zelda, and Persona are out of JP, and Horizon is from a Dutch developer)

TychoCelchuuu

These awards are dumb. I like how there's a best action category and a best action/adventure category but no best adventure category. Come on! And lol Prey being an "action" game. Awards are already dumb for stuff like movies (what's a lead actor vs. a supporting actor?) and super dumb when they start categorizing movies (Get Out for best comedy? The Martian for best comedy?) but at least movie genres make a little more sense than game genres.

Ceno

I’d like to see Horizon get some love. That’s a fantastic game.

Zxerol

Polaritie wrote: »

El Fantastico wrote: »

Destructoid did a big "years in history" of the VGAs and there's a lot of evidence to suggest that basically any non-North American developed game won't win GotY. 2 of the 30 or so judges are Japanese, and only one non-NA developed game won GotY in the last 13 years (Witcher 3 in 2015) and though there is a larger presence of Japanese games this year, with big names like Legend of Zelda and Mario in the running, they'd be expected to take the technical awards leaving GotY to go to a western developer.

None of that reflects my own opinion, mind you. However, I feel like BotW being in the Sound/Music category was a mistake. Most of the original music was forgettable, with the most memorable bits of music being the regular clips you hear in every LoZ game because that was carried through the franchise.

So, PUBG is in the running so it can win, because otherwise none of those games would be developed in NA? (Mario, Zelda, and Persona are out of JP, and Horizon is from a Dutch developer)

PUBG is Korean, so...

cloudeagle

If nothing else the list of nominees seem pretty damn reasonable overall. Though "best handheld game" will probably need to be retired; we're scraping the bottom of the barrel there.

Also, yay for Cuphead getting loads of recognition.

Ceno

I'm surprised they didn't take the opportunity to list all Switch games again under "best handheld".

Ceno

https://www.facebook.com/pg/roadtothegameawards/episodes/

Looks like there's a behind the scenes series going up on their facebook page, showing the process of getting all this stuff organized. Two episodes so far.

Nightslyr

Ceno wrote: »

I have no idea who any of the trending gamers are.

Halfcoordinated is a disabled speed runner who essentially only has dexterity in one hand, but still crushes it.

Never heard of the others.

GnomeTank

Skull2185 wrote: »

Dr. Disrespect is one of the more popular guys on Twitch right now. I only know about him because my coworker is super into his content. He seems pretty funny, though. He calls himself "The Two-Time" because he claims to be the back to back 1993-1994 Blockbuster videogame champion (whatever that is...) and also the last con he went to he stayed at a hotel right across the street, and still managed to get his Lamborghini Diablo up to 100mph when he drove there.

Edit: He plays a lot of PUBG and H1Z1 I guess.

To be very clear here, "Dr. Disrespect" is a character. So if you watch his content and you think he's an 80's themed asshole, he is, but it's all a bit. The actual dude is Guy Beahm and he used to be the lead multiplayer designer for the Call of Duty series, and one of their main map makers before that.

Skull2185

Well yeah, It's pretty obvious it's a guy playing a character.

GnomeTank

Skull2185 wrote: »

Well yeah, It's pretty obvious it's a guy playing a character.

You say that. There are a lot of people who do not understand that. Watch PlayerUnknown's NoClip video, he talks about it. He and Dr Disrespect have a fake feud between their "characters" and a lot of fans absolutely do not understand The Doc is playing a bit.

Lucascraft

I guess I just don't "get" the Youtube/Twitch/Streamer craze.

Like. I don't understand it at all. Maybe I'm just old and out of touch, but I don't understand why or how it is a thing. And I don't understand why other people watch those streams.

Is this what people do instead of television now?

Here's the main thing I don't understand... Why would I ever spend my time watching someone else play a video game, when I could spend my time playing games myself.

It just seems like a really, really inefficient use of time. I'm not saying that to be judgemental or anything. I just feel like if I'm going to be doing something gaming related, I want to be doing it first-hand instead of second-hand. It's like living vicariously when you could just live it yourself instead.

/shrug. I dunno man. I think I'm just old.

(And I'm only 35)

GnomeTank

So you never spend any time at your PC that isn't 100% focused on doing something? You never just laze around and browse the web, or read an article, or watch a video? If you ever do any of those things, how hard is it to imagine watching a personality do something you also enjoy doing? I'm 38 and I totally get it. It's not a mystery or a hard thing to understand why streaming has taken off.

You're assuming people are watching people just play games, they aren't. They are watching personalities that happen to be engaging in a like pass time. I don't watch The Doc because he's playing PUBG, I could just go play PUBG myself. I watch The Doc because I find this character hilarious and I'm entertained by his antics.

TychoCelchuuu

I've been watching some Battlefront 2 streams because I don't want to pay $60 for the game, I don't want to support the loot box bullshit, I didn't find it super fun when I played, and because I already have plenty of other games to play, but I really like Star Wars and that game is really impressively done so it's nice to get to soak up that universe. There are lots of other reasons to watch streams: see people who are better at the game play it so that you can marvel at their skill and pick up tips; check out a game you're thinking about buying to see what it's like; have something on in the background while you cook or clean or whatever; etc.

Lucascraft

I mean. There's a lot of things I don't understand about the internet. I don't understand why memes are popular. I think they're annoying. I don't understand cat videos. I don't understand Twitter's purpose. I don't understand why people spend more than 5 minutes at a time on Facebook.

Anyway, this is off topic. Yay game awards. Go go Horizon.

GnomeTank

Also eSports. That's a big part of the streaming craze, as streaming has risen in popularity along the same trajectory as eSports. A lot of my time on Twitch is spent watching professional matches, especially in Dota 2 and StarCraft.

Lucascraft

I will admit that I like watching esports. But to me, that's different from just watching some guy play a video game while being in-character.

I watch a lot of Heroes of the Storm esports, but that's because I myself (used to) play Heroes, and even though I don't really play it myself anymore, I enjoy watching good matches of top competitors face off. But that to me is entirely different than watching JoeBob the Clown play some random shooter, or whatever.

El Fantastico

eSports is to streaming/youtube/letsplay channels as regular sports is to regular TV. Why watch them at all when you could be spending your time doing them? This line of thinking becomes even more relevant when you think about how easy it is to set up a Twitch account and stream game play, whereas playing real sports usually requires a devoted schedule to travelling, becoming athletic and actually leaving your apartment.

On the topic of people who become a character for their youtube channel, I just hope none of them are like the James Rolfe (Cinemassacre/Angry Video Game Nerd) type. Anger for the sake of amusement. I only know of halfcoordinated because he's legit in the fighting game community and has done some of the *Games Done Quick charities. He's got my vote.

GnomeTank

Again, you're downplaying why people watch personality streams. It's not to watch JoeBob the Clown play a random shooter. It's to watch a personality you find entertaining engage in a like minded hobby. Do you think guys like Summit and Doc pull down 20-30k viewers most nights because they are just some random clown playing a game, or because they are engaging personalities?

Lucascraft

El Fantastico wrote: »

eSports is to streaming/youtube/letsplay channels as regular sports is to regular TV. Why watch them at all when you could be spending your time doing them? This line of thinking becomes even more relevant when you think about how easy it is to set up a Twitch account and stream game play, whereas playing real sports usually requires a devoted schedule to travelling, becoming athletic and actually leaving your apartment.

On the topic of people who become a character for their youtube channel, I just hope none of them are like the James Rolfe (Cinemassacre/Angry Video Game Nerd) type. Anger for the sake of amusement. I only know of halfcoordinated because he's legit in the fighting game community and has done some of the *Games Done Quick charities. He's got my vote.

Except that there's one massively huge difference. Two actually.

Space and people.

I don't watch the sports balls, but if I did, it would not be anything at all like going outside to do the same activity. It's easy to flip on the TV and watch a game of football. But finding 30 other people to play it with, the space to do that, and heck, even the time to coordinate it is an entirely different matter. You cannot just play football in real life whenever you want to. Sure, you can schedule leagues and games and whatever. But you still can't do that whenever you want to.

Video games, are any time of day, with people pretty much always available to play with/against, and I never have to leave home to do it.

So if I decide to spend my time watching an esport, I could just as easily go and play that same game myself without any fuss at all.

The same cannot be said for realsports. I cannot just turn off my TV and go outside and play football.

Pixelated Pixie

I'm happy to see Hellblade in a bunch of categories and hope it wins a few. I especially hope Melina Juergens wins for best performance because holy crap she was fantastic.

Ceno

It's entirely old-man-shouting-at-sky of me, but one of the big reasons I can't get really into eSports is all the gamertag bullshit.

Just use your name.

Hearing some announcer shouting about bigballs420 or whatever de-legitimizes everything that professional esports is trying to accomplish. The only function of gamertags is to serve as a way to remain anonymous. If you're a professional gamer, that's out the window already, so just use your name and stop hanging on to these things that make the whole industry seem that much more immature. Especially if you're going to be airing on national television.