Re: [Game News] + General Gamesy Chatter
Posted: Wed Nov 20, 2019 2:03 pm
Nominees for the Keighley's the Game Awards 2019 are up
https://thegameawards.com/nominees
My money's on Control winning several of the categories it's up for (in particular GOTY, Action/Adventure, and Audio Design.) The Outer Worlds is the only GOTY nominee I've played, and I dig it, but it's not gonna be my GOTY let alone take the biggest award at an awards show. But who knows, I'm usually wrong in these predictions.
Apex Legends for Action, Sayonara Wild Hearts for Art Direction... but it should go to Gris.
I've got no real opinion on the community/esports/content creator awards other than OWL being the only esports thing I watch and Goldenboy is cool. If there were any amazing community management responses to situations which warranted them this year I either missed them or they got drowned-out in the noise of all the bad ones.
Luigi's Mansion could take Family Game based on recency bias. Super Mario Maker 2 didn't quite hit full force and Smash feels slightly less "family" than the others. Whatever the case, it's a straight Nintendo category this year.
Fighting Game probably goes to MK11 or Smash. Dead or Alive 6 was the only 2019 fighter I played this year - I liked it, but last year's Soulcalibur 6 is way more my speed and has been consistently supported with more interesting content updates than DOA.
Untitled Goose Game probably takes "Fresh Indie" (BROUGHT TO YOU BY SUBWAY™) just by name/meme value even if it's not the best game on that list, which is probably either Outer Wilds or Gris. ...or Disco Elysium, but that's a tough game to gauge for awards potential at a show like this. (Also its fans kinda suck and winning things won't help that.)
Game Direction feels like it's either Control or Outer Wilds but this is a weird category, like they feel the need to have a separate award for direction just because it's a big deal at movie awards? I don't know. It's not a 1:1 comparable position for games. So it'll go to Kojima and Death Stranding just because of the name association.
Games For Impact, another kinda weird category which I get the reasoning behind but never quite has a name that fits, should go to Kind Words but will probably end up with Life is Strange 2 instead, despite the final episode still not being out by the time this show airs, I think. I could be way off about those dates or how the jury makes that decision; maybe everyone wrote LiS2 off completely due to Episode 5 still being in development, despite the game still being in the nominees.
Independent Game could be a toss-up, kinda hard to imagine the Goose taking both indie-related awards, but who knows. Outer Wilds has to win something so maybe it's this. Or Disco, or Baba. Throw a dart, see where it lands.
Mobile is fairly competitive this year thanks to Apple Arcade's emergence. Grindstone, Sayonara, and What the Golf are all strong picks.
Multiplayer could be Apex, maybe Borderlands. Depends on if Apex was too early in the year and didn't retain as much of its base as it needed. I'm assuming Borderlands is doing okay in that area but I haven't been paying close attention. Tetris 99 is really good.
Narrative feels like another toss-up. Control, Outer Worlds, or Disco feel strongest. I really don't see it going to Death Stranding since it's narrative hasn't really been driving the most conversations about that game and Plague Tale was far enough back in the year I'm not sure how many folks really remember it for its storytelling.
Ongoing Game could be anything, aside from maybe Rainbow 6, which I feel fell right off the map for most people.
I'd like Ashly Burch to win Best Performance as much as possible and she was so good as Parvati, probably this year's best character and my favourite part of Outer Worlds. ...Norman Reedus will win because they want Kojima and Reedus on stage being Kojima and Reedus. Pfft. If not him, Mads.
RPG could go to Outer Worlds if it doesn't win any of its other categories.
Hard to imagine anything other than Cadence of Hyrule or Sayonara Wild Hearts winning Best Soundtrack.
No idea about Sports/Racing. Uhh. Go Dirt Rally?
Best Strategy should go to Fire Emblem in a walk, though Total War and Wargroove are pretty competitive. That said, I'm pretty sure Three Houses outperformed those two both commercially and critically. Wargroove was maybe too early in the year, Total War's Three Kingdoms setting is maybe too niche barring a huge breakout, which it didn't have.
VR/AR feels like No Man's Sky or Beat Saber.
https://thegameawards.com/nominees
My money's on Control winning several of the categories it's up for (in particular GOTY, Action/Adventure, and Audio Design.) The Outer Worlds is the only GOTY nominee I've played, and I dig it, but it's not gonna be my GOTY let alone take the biggest award at an awards show. But who knows, I'm usually wrong in these predictions.
Apex Legends for Action, Sayonara Wild Hearts for Art Direction... but it should go to Gris.
I've got no real opinion on the community/esports/content creator awards other than OWL being the only esports thing I watch and Goldenboy is cool. If there were any amazing community management responses to situations which warranted them this year I either missed them or they got drowned-out in the noise of all the bad ones.
Luigi's Mansion could take Family Game based on recency bias. Super Mario Maker 2 didn't quite hit full force and Smash feels slightly less "family" than the others. Whatever the case, it's a straight Nintendo category this year.
Fighting Game probably goes to MK11 or Smash. Dead or Alive 6 was the only 2019 fighter I played this year - I liked it, but last year's Soulcalibur 6 is way more my speed and has been consistently supported with more interesting content updates than DOA.
Untitled Goose Game probably takes "Fresh Indie" (BROUGHT TO YOU BY SUBWAY™) just by name/meme value even if it's not the best game on that list, which is probably either Outer Wilds or Gris. ...or Disco Elysium, but that's a tough game to gauge for awards potential at a show like this. (Also its fans kinda suck and winning things won't help that.)
Game Direction feels like it's either Control or Outer Wilds but this is a weird category, like they feel the need to have a separate award for direction just because it's a big deal at movie awards? I don't know. It's not a 1:1 comparable position for games. So it'll go to Kojima and Death Stranding just because of the name association.
Games For Impact, another kinda weird category which I get the reasoning behind but never quite has a name that fits, should go to Kind Words but will probably end up with Life is Strange 2 instead, despite the final episode still not being out by the time this show airs, I think. I could be way off about those dates or how the jury makes that decision; maybe everyone wrote LiS2 off completely due to Episode 5 still being in development, despite the game still being in the nominees.
Independent Game could be a toss-up, kinda hard to imagine the Goose taking both indie-related awards, but who knows. Outer Wilds has to win something so maybe it's this. Or Disco, or Baba. Throw a dart, see where it lands.
Mobile is fairly competitive this year thanks to Apple Arcade's emergence. Grindstone, Sayonara, and What the Golf are all strong picks.
Multiplayer could be Apex, maybe Borderlands. Depends on if Apex was too early in the year and didn't retain as much of its base as it needed. I'm assuming Borderlands is doing okay in that area but I haven't been paying close attention. Tetris 99 is really good.
Narrative feels like another toss-up. Control, Outer Worlds, or Disco feel strongest. I really don't see it going to Death Stranding since it's narrative hasn't really been driving the most conversations about that game and Plague Tale was far enough back in the year I'm not sure how many folks really remember it for its storytelling.
Ongoing Game could be anything, aside from maybe Rainbow 6, which I feel fell right off the map for most people.
I'd like Ashly Burch to win Best Performance as much as possible and she was so good as Parvati, probably this year's best character and my favourite part of Outer Worlds. ...Norman Reedus will win because they want Kojima and Reedus on stage being Kojima and Reedus. Pfft. If not him, Mads.
RPG could go to Outer Worlds if it doesn't win any of its other categories.
Hard to imagine anything other than Cadence of Hyrule or Sayonara Wild Hearts winning Best Soundtrack.
No idea about Sports/Racing. Uhh. Go Dirt Rally?
Best Strategy should go to Fire Emblem in a walk, though Total War and Wargroove are pretty competitive. That said, I'm pretty sure Three Houses outperformed those two both commercially and critically. Wargroove was maybe too early in the year, Total War's Three Kingdoms setting is maybe too niche barring a huge breakout, which it didn't have.
VR/AR feels like No Man's Sky or Beat Saber.