[The Game Awards 2019] Moving on from shilling Doritos to... shilling Subway.

cloudeagle

Blah blah blah Game Awards blah blah Geoff Keighley blah blah blah new game announcements blah blah blah blah Dec. 12 blah blah okay here's the nominees.

Game of the Year

Control (Remedy/505 Games)
Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/SIE)
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Bandai-Namco/Sora/Nintendo)
Resident Evil 2 (Capcom/Capcom)
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (FromSoftware/Activision)
The Outer Worlds (Obsidian/Private Division)

Best Game Direction

Control (Remedy/505 Games)
Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/SIE)
Resident Evil 2 (Capcom/Capcom)
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (FromSoftware/Activision)
Outer Wilds (Mobius Digital/Annapurna)

Best Narrative

A Plague Tale: Innocence (Asobo/Focus Home)
Control (Remedy/505)
Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/SIE)
Disco Elysium (ZA/UM)
The Outer Worlds (Obsidian/Private Division)

Best Art Direction

Control (Remedy/505)
Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/SIE)
Gris (Nomada Studio/Devolver)
Sayonara Wild Hearts (Simogo/Annapurna)
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (FromSoftware/Activision)
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Grezzo/Nintendo)

Best Score/Music

Cadence of Hyrule (Brace Yourself Games/Nintendo)
Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/SIE)
Devil May Cry 5 (Capcom)
Kingdom Hearts III (Square Enix)
Sayonara Wild Hearts (Simogo/Annapurna)


Best Audio Design

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward/Activision)
Control (Remedy/505)
Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/SIE)
Gears 5 (The Coalition/Xbox Game Studios)
Resident Evil 2 (Capcom)
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (FromSoftware/Activision)


Best Performance

Ashly Burch as Parvati Holcomb, The Outer Worlds
Courtney Hopeas Jesse Faden, Control
Laura Bailey as Kait Diaz, Gears 5
Mads Mikkelsen as Cliff, Death Stranding
Matthew Porretta as Dr. Casper Darling, Control
Norman Reedus as Sam Porter Bridges, Death Stranding


Games for Impact

Concrete Genie (Pixelopus/SIE)
Gris (Nomada Studio/Devolver)
Kind Words (Popcannibal)
Life Is Strange 2 (Dontnod/Square Enix)
Sea of Solitude (Jo-Mei Games/EA)


Best Ongoing Game

Apex Legends (Respawn)
Destiny 2 (Bungie)
Final Fantasy XIV (Square Enix)
Fortnite (Epic Games)
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)


Best Independent Game

Baba Is You (Hempuli)
Disco Elysium (ZA/UM)
Katana ZERO (Askiisoft/Devoler)
Outer Wilds (Mobius Digital/Annapurna)
Untitled Goose Game (House House/Panic)


Best Mobile Game

Call of Duty: Mobile (TiMi Studios/Activision)
GRINDSTONE (Capybara Games)
Sayonara Wild Hearts (Simogo/Annapurna)
Sky: Children of Light (Thatgamecompany)
What the Golf? (Tribland)


Best Community Support

Apex Legends (Respawn/EA)
Destiny 2 (Bungie)
Final Fantasy XIV (Square Enix)
Fortnite (Epic Games)
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)


Best VR/AR Game

Asgard's Wrath (Sanzaru Games/Oculus Studios)
Blood & Truth (SIE London Studio/SIE)
Beat Saber (Beat Games)
No Man's Sky (Hello Games)
Trover Saves the Universe (Squanch Games)


Best Action Game

Apex Legends (Respawn/EA)
Astral Chain (Platinum Games/Nintendo)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward/Activision)
Devil May Cry 5 (Capcom/Capcom)
Gears 5 (The Coalition/Xbox Game Studios)
Metro Exodus (4A Games/Deep Silver)


Best Action/Adventure Game

Borderlands 3 (Gearbox/2K)
Control (Remedy/505 Games)
Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/SIE)
Resident Evil 2 (Capcom)
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Grezzo/Nintendo)
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (FromSoftware/Activision)


Best RPG

Disco Elysium (ZA/UM)
Final Fantasy XIV (Square Enix)
Kingdom Hearts III (Square Enix)
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne (Capcom)
The Outer Worlds (Obsidian/Private Division)


Best Fighting Game

Dead or Alive 6 (Team Ninja/Koei Tecmo)
Jump Force (Spike Chunsoft/Bandai Namco)
Mortal Kombat 11 (NetherRealm/WBIE)
Samurai Showdown (SNK/Athlon)
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Bandai Namco/Sora/Nintendo


Best Family Game

Luigi's Mansion 3 (Next Level Games/Nintendo)
Ring Fit Adventure (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
Super Mario Maker 2 (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Bandai Namco/Sora/Nintendo)
Yoshi's Crafted World (Good-Feel/Nintendo)


Best Strategy Game

Age of Wonders: Planetfall (Triumph Studios/Paradox)
Anno 1800 (Blue Byte/Ubisoft)
Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Intelligent Systems/Koei Tecmo/Nintendo)
Total War: Three Kingdoms (Creative Assembly/Sega)
Tropico 6 (Limbic Entertainment/Kalypso Media)
Wargroove (Chucklefish)


Best Sports/Racing Game

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled (Beenox/Activision)
DiRT Rally 2.0 (Codemasters)
eFootball Pro Evolution Soccer 2020 (PES Productions/Konami)
F1 2019 (Codemasters)
FIFA 20 (EA Sports)


Best Multiplayer Game

Apex Legends (Respawn/EA)
Borderlands 3 (Gearbox/2K)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward/Activision)
Tetris 99 (Arika/Nintendo)
Tom Clancy's The Division 2 (Massive Entertainment/Ubisoft)


Fresh Indie Game Presented by Subway

ZA/UM for Disco Elysium
Nomada Studio for Gris
DeadToast Entertainment for My Friend Pedro
Mobius Digital for Outer Wilds
Mega Crit for Slay the Spire
House House for Untitled Goose Game


Content Creator of the Year

Courage - Jack Dunlop
Dr. Lupo - Benjamin Lupo
Ewok - Soleil Wheeler
Grefg - David Martínez
Shroud - Michael Grzesiek


ESPORTS AWARDS



Best Esports Game

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (Valve)
DOTA2 (Valve)
Fortnite (Epic Games)
League of Legends (Riot Games)
Overwatch (Blizzard)


Best Esports Player

Kyle "Bugha" Giersdorf (Immortals, Fortnite)
Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok (SK Telecom, League of Legends)
Luka "Perkz" Perkovic (G2 Esports, League of Legends)
Oleksandr "S1mple" Kostyliev (Natus Vincere, CSGO)
Jay "Sinatraa" Won (SF Shock, Overwatch)


Best Esports Team

Astralis (CS:GO)
G2 Esports (LOL)
OG (DOTA2)
San Francisco Shock (OWL)
Team Liquid (CS:GO)


Best Esports Event

2019 Overwatch League Grand Finals
EVO 2019
Fortnite World Cup
IEM Katowice 2019
League of Legends World Championship 2019
The International 2019


Best Esports Coach

Eric "adreN" Hoag (Team Liquid, CS:GO)
Nu-ri "Cain" Jang (Team Liquid, LOL)
Fabian "GrabbZ" Lohmann (G2 Esports, LOL)
Kim "Kkoma" Jeong-gyun (SK Telecom T1, LOL)
Titouan "Sockshka" Merloz (OG, DOTA2)
Danny "Zonic" Sørensen (Astralis, CSGO)


Best Esports Host

Eefje "Sjokz" Depoortere
Alex "Machine" Richardson
Paul "Redeye" Chaloner
Alex "Goldenboy" Mendez
Duan "Candice" Yu-Shuang

....that's it! Get to arguin'.

cloudeagle

First question! Why is "best game direction" exactly the same as "Game of the Year" with the exception of Smash Bros.? Did Sakurai's goofy videos and "please, play it on Xbox" disqualify him?

BRIAN BLESSED

Was the RPG category that really fucking starved this year that they had to include expansions for already-released videogames?

Shoulda put Lego Forza in Racing then lmao

Axen

To be fair to FFXIV, the Shadowbringers expansion is fucking amazing and easily, easily makes for one of the best FF experiences in years.

But yeah, it was a real slow year for RPGs in general huh?

furlion

There does seem to be a lack of variety for a lot of the bigger categories. I wonder if there is going to be a big sweep or if they will spread the love around.

BRIAN BLESSED

Axen wrote: »

To be fair to FFXIV, the Shadowbringers expansion is fucking amazing and easily, easily makes for one of the best FF experiences in years.

But yeah, it was a real slow year for RPGs in general huh?

I mean I agree. I'm wholly happy with it showing up in the "Best Ongoing Game" category (which I think is a really smart addition) but there has to have been more new stuff than just Disco Elysium, KHIII and Outer Worlds

Zilla360

Control should win GOTY but Death Stranding will probably win. Then Keighly & Kojima can finally get that hotel room together with a lot of lube. :snap: :tell_me_more:

SyphonBlue

Fresh Indie Game Presented by Subway

BRIAN BLESSED

I'm pretty sure last time there was a similar promotional award for indie studios which supported a Steam sale for all the nominated games

Keighley gotta balance the books, I guess

Handsome Costanza

My picks:

GOTY: The Outer Worlds. (I know it missed the deadline but, Jedi: Fallen Order)
Best Game Direction: Death Stranding (he's gonna win anyway, so its whatever).
Best Narrative: The Outer Worlds.
Best Art Direction: Links Awakening.
Best Score: Cadence of Hyrule (it's a crime that Neo Cab wasn't nominated)
Best Audio: Modern Warfare
Best Performance: Ashly Burch as Parvati, duh.
I don't even know what "games for impact" means.
Best Ongoing: Rainbow Six
Best Independent: Untitled Goose Game (it's a crime that Neo Cab wasn't nominated)
Best Mobile: Who gives a crap
Best Community Support: Ditto. It's like saying "who sucked less?"
Best VR game: it's a crime that Vader Immortal wasn't nominated.
Best Action Game: Astral Chain (show Daemon X Machina some love damnit)
Best Action Adventure: Control (Jedi: Fallen Order)
Best RPG: The Outer Worlds
Best Fighting Game: Smash Ultimate
Best Family Game: Luigi's Mansion 3 (Pokemon)
Best Strategy: Wargroove
Best Sports/Racing: uhhh...
Best Multiplayer: Tetris 99
Fresh Indie Game Presented by Subway: Eat Fresh
Content Creator: Don't care
Esports: Don't care

Johnny Chopsocky

I'm happy to see Control across several categories. That game feels woefully overlooked by the game-playing public.

And Devil May Cry 5 for Action Game of the Year how is there even a competition for that one?

TexiKen

Outer Worlds and Death Stranding seem to be in too many categories. I mean yes what's the point in arguing this with a fake game award show based more on pay to win (straight up forgot Control existed until I saw the name there).

Lack of Astral Chain respek hella disappointing. It shouldn't beat DMC5 in its one category of Action Game but it definitely deserved an art direction and especially music nomination/win.

Also again no Dunkey for content creator no dice 0/5 why even make a Knack 3 now.

Grundlestiltskin

Sad to see Warframe and Path of Exile left off the best ongoing game list, feels like they give their player bases more interesting new content more often than Destiny 2 and Apex Legends.

BRIAN BLESSED

Dunkey makes great comedy content but he comes off as a petulant chud when he gets blowback from his critical content.

That said I'd take his content over most of the others in that list, personally. Fuckin who?
Call me when Girlfriend Reviews gets a nomination

dporowski

Baba is Better Win Some Stuff.

NB: "Shill(ing)". "Schilling" is that fellow who burned up all the money ever making an Amalur MMO.

Fencingsax

Surprised Death Stranding wasn't nominated a few more times.

cloudeagle

Death Stranding came in at an 83 on Metacritic, so yeah, it's a smidge weird it got nominated that many times.

Maybe the folks who came up the ballot were impressed he was just plain able to do something so weird and unusual in a AAA space?

Edit: Damn spellcheck for not catching the typo in the title.

Axen

Well Kojima is pretty much Geoff Keighley‘s Spirit Animal so I’m none too surprised to see Death Stranding nominated a bunch.

Plus just the act of nominating the game is an easy “Fuck you” to Konami.

As to whether or not it deserves to win any I can’t say. As an outsider the game strikes me as the type where you either “Get it” or “You just don’t get it, man”.

cloudeagle

Axen wrote: »

Plus just the act of nominating the game is an easy “Fuck you” to Konami.

This could be it. I forgot Konami prohibited from attending The Game Awards in 2015.

Forar

I was glad to see OG on the eSports team list, but not a single DotA2 player on the individuals list? This is an outrage!

Zilla360

I don't know ANY of those E-sports people. But then I don't really have time to watch E-sports more than a few times a year.

I know the names of a lot more speed-runners.

Polaritie

Grundlestiltskin wrote: »

Sad to see Warframe and Path of Exile left off the best ongoing game list, feels like they give their player bases more interesting new content more often than Destiny 2 and Apex Legends.

One of those two will probably be given it despite Shadowbringers anyways. I'm cynical about this show.

Grundlestiltskin

Polaritie wrote: »

Grundlestiltskin wrote: »

Sad to see Warframe and Path of Exile left off the best ongoing game list, feels like they give their player bases more interesting new content more often than Destiny 2 and Apex Legends.

One of those two will probably be given it despite Shadowbringers anyways. I'm cynical about this show.

Which is weird, because especially with Apex Legends I feel like one of the biggest complaints has been the pace of updates compared to something like Fortnite? Which seems important for an ongoing game?

Handsome Costanza

dporowski wrote: »

Baba is Better Win Some Stuff.

NB: "Shill(ing)". "Schilling" is that fellow who burned up all the money ever making an Amalur MMO.

I literally thought it was some kind of play on words involving Curt Schilling somehow.

BTW fuck that guy.. and his fake bloody sock.

cooljammer00

What's wrong with Subway as a sponsor? Keighley has said that the show needs to have sponsors, and Doritos and Subway are relatively benign and unrelated to gaming. At least Subway sandwiches aren't associated with the worst gamer stereotypes.

Lilnoobs

The lack of variety in the first half of the list says about all you need to know of the industry and these awards.

BRIAN BLESSED

I mean, other than the fact that the categories themselves can get vague and nonspecific?

Or are we peddling that these are all publishers explicitly paying for nominations as advertising or something

Axen

Y'know, while I do not believe that publishers are paying for nominations at the same time if in the future some scandal comes to light that they were paying for nominations I wouldn't be altogether surprised.

Handsome Costanza

Still don't know what "Games For Impact" means.

Aren't all games supposed to have an impact?

Snicketysnick

It's basically "Socially Conscious Game"

Xaquin

Gris better win art direction

also .... eSports .... coach?

Polaritie

Axen wrote: »

Y'know, while I do not believe that publishers are paying for nominations at the same time if in the future some scandal comes to light that they were paying for nominations I wouldn't be altogether surprised.

Honestly I think its more the industry just being up its own ass (see also the ludicrous amount of focus on esports).

Handsome Costanza

Snicketysnick wrote: »

It's basically "Socially Conscious Game"

Well that makes it even dumber that Neo Cab wasn't nominated.

Zilla360

Public voting is open now. Just search for 'The Game Awards' on Google and you should be able to vote right there on the results page.

eSports .... coach?

Yeah, I have no idea what they do either. I can only imagine them teaching APM strats with the theme from 'Rocky' playing in the background. :P

Frozenzen

Coaching is incredibly important in esports, much like regular sports.

A good coach makes a good team in dota at least, and I imagine it helps as much in other games.

Nosf

Kinda confused how Warframe isn't in there. I'm surprised by how many of these titles listed I either care so little about or don't feel like they should be getting awards of any sort. Looking at you Destiny 2.

Axen

Nosf wrote: »

Kinda confused how Warframe isn't in there. I'm surprised by how many of these titles listed I either care so little about or don't feel like they should be getting awards of any sort. Looking at you Destiny 2.

If Warframe was allowed to be on that list it’d win every year. This lets other games have a shot at winning. :razz:

reVerse

I guess the Warframe team didn't buy any ads this year, so they're off the list.

furlion

While I will agree that Warframe offers a staggering amount of content, it is insanely complicated at this point. There are so many different systems you have to keep track of and it requires either the wiki or a community space for new players to get help from. I can see that being the reason it was left off.

The Wolfman

I wanna live in the universe where Death Stranding doesn't win a single award. Just so I can see Keighley's head explode ala the ol' Scanners gif.

BRIAN BLESSED

furlion wrote: »

While I will agree that Warframe offers a staggering amount of content, it is insanely complicated at this point. There are so many different systems you have to keep track of and it requires either the wiki or a community space for new players to get help from. I can see that being the reason it was left off.

I generally agree with this, and while I definitely got my hundreds of hours worth playing the game I will say that the onboarding process for new/returning players is generally garbage. Fair play to the incredibly talented developers making Warframe but despite the polish it definitely smells of the free-to-play syndrome of systems upon systems upon systems.

That said, I would say that it would deserve the nomination given the award is generally about the quality of ongoing content and support rather than the core game itself