The Game Awards 2024

Ten years ago, The Game Awards were established as one of the most important nights in gaming, packed full of categories and awards, celebrating all corners of the gaming industry, while also, of course, allowing many developers to announce their upcoming projects in huge trailer showcases. Now, as 2024 marks the 10th anniversary of the ceremony, the hype surrounding it has far from died down, and if anything, the feeling around the show is an electric as ever, and as of today, we have our full list of nominees for the Game Awards 2024.

There’s a lot of categories that will be awarded at this year’s awards, so while we’ve only chosen to highlight some of the most standout ones for us, be sure to check out the full list of nominees here. However, with the nominees being announced, we need to get our predictions out there! This year has been a pretty eclectic one in gaming, with some incredible titles releasing, and some…less than incredible ones. Of course, our predictions are going to be incredibly biased, but that’s the fun of it! With that being said, let’s get into some of the major categories at this year’s ceremonies, and talk about our opinions on who should take home the gold.

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Best Family Game

Image by Nintendo

• Astro Bot
• The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
• Princess Peach: Showtime
• The Plucky Squire
• Super Mario Party Jamboree

Unsurprisingly, Nintendo scores big with the nominations in the ‘Best Family Game’ category. As far as family-friendly games, and party games go, Nintendo are the elite. As great as it is to see The Plucky Squire here, and any Astro Bot nomination is more than deserved, I do have to give my support to Echoes of Wisdom for the win. Let’s be honest – none of the games listed in this category are really breaking any sort of barriers in innovation, so if something formulaic is going to take it, it should be the game that took a formula and re-worked it in such an incredible way. That being said, I’d be happy for any of these games to take the prize – except for Mario Party.

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Best Fighting Game

Image by Bandai Namco

• MultiVersus
• Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection Arcade Classics
• GranBlue Fantasy Versus: Rising
• Tekken 8
• Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero

So – this wasn’t exactly an incredible year for fighting games. I enjoy Tekken 8, but there’s not enough of a jump from Tekken 7 for me to think it should take this award home, and combined with all the complaints of online matchmaking being a disaster, it sort of nullifies its chances for me. MultiVersus has been a rough experience to say the least, and while the Marvel vs. Capcom collection is great for a nostalgia throwback, it doesn’t scream ‘Best Fighting Game’ for me. For that reason, I’m going to give the title to Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, which pretty much excels in all areas that any fighting game, or Dragon Ball fan for that matter, would want. Especially compared to last year’s nominees though, this isn’t a shining moment for the fighting game industry.

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Best Action Game

Image by Sony Interactive Entertainment

• Black Myth: Wukong
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2
• Stellar Blade
• Helldivers 2

Ok I’m going to put my hands up here and say, I’ve only played two of these games. One of the two is Black Myth: Wukong, which I enjoyed, but wasn’t absolutely in love with. The other I’ve played is Stellar Blade, so naturally, that’s my prediction! A lot of people have had issues with Stellar Blade’s story, and I’ll admit, I can see where they’re coming from, but for this category specifically, I can’t think of another game here that has more addicting combat and well-crafted action sequences. A lot of people may never decide to pick this game up, but whoever does often has trouble putting it back down.

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Best Action/Adventure Game

Image by Sony Interactive Entertainment

• Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
• Silent Hill 2
• Astro Bot
• Star Wars Outlaws
• The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

Sony have a pretty strong showing in this year’s list of nominees, and that’s mainly thanks to the little robot pictured above. While I think Echoes of Wisdom should be credited in the ‘Best Family Game’ category, I think Astro Bot is the most deserving contender for the ‘Best Action/Adventure’ crown. As you may know from my review, I adored Silent Hill 2, and Star Wars Outlaws was a nice surprise considering I had very low expectations for it, but all of that just speaks to how much I enjoyed Astro Bot. This is far from the peak of acclaim that this game deserves, but it should have this category in the bag in my opinion.

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Best Role-Playing Game

Image by Square Enix

• Dragon’s Dogma 2
• Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
• Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
• Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
• Metaphor: ReFantazio

You know, in any other year, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth would easily take home the majority of the awards it’s up for. However, competition this year is tough, and I don’t think that fate is on this game’s side in some of the larger categories. Where I do think Square Enix should take the award home, though, is ‘Best Role-Playing Game’ – I mean, Final Fantasy is like the ultimate RPG. There’s a larger discussion to be had here regarding the Elden Ring nomination, but let’s just say in brief – I don’t think DLC should be nominated alongside full-title releases. Let’s leave it at that and say, Final Fantasy, I hope you take this one home.

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Most Anticipated Game

Image by Rockstar Games

• Grand Theft Auto VI
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
• Ghost of Yotei
• Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
• Monster Hunter Wilds

Metroid Prime 4 may have been the shining announcement for a Nintendo Direct back in the summer, but let’s be honest here – there’s a correct answer for ‘Most Anticipated Game’ and it’s Grand Theft Auto VI. Respect to all the other nominees, but an award like this going to any other title would feel like highway robbery. The impending release of the Rockstar Games title has spawned endless memes, historical comparisons, and the release of the teaser trailer practically broke the internet – give Rockstar their props where props are due, and let them rightfully take this award home.

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Best Independent Game

Image by Devolver Digital

• Animal Well
• Balatro
• Lorelei and the Laser Eyes
• Neva
• UFO 50

Shamefully, I haven’t played many of these titles. I was, however, intrigued enough to play Neva, Nomada Studio’s beautiful puzzle-platformer, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it claimed the title of ‘Best Independent Game’ at this year’s Game Awards. Gris, the developer’s other, similarly renowned title, took home the ‘Games for Impact’ award at 2019’s Game Awards, and it would be a nice full-circle moment if the team was to take an even more prestigious award home at this year’s ceremony. At the end of the day though, I would enjoy any of these categories taking the crown – after all, highlighting these independent developers is the real victory here.

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Best Debut Indie Games

Image by Kepler Interactive

• Manor Lords
• Pacific Drive
• Animal Well
• Balatro
• The Plucky Squire

There are, again, very few games here I’ve had the fortune to try out for myself, but my choice for this category would have to be Pacific Drive. While some people have criticised this game for being too difficult and frustrating, all of the other great elements to this game have pushed it over the line for me into award-worthy territory. Again I want to shout out The Plucky Squire, which I would also be happy to see win, but for me, the choice is clear. I’d like to see Pacific Drive take this one.

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Best Narrative

Image by KONAMI

• Metaphor: ReFantazio
• Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2
• Silent Hill 2
• Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
• Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth

I do wonder if this prediction is fair, but as I said, this list is going to be incredibly biased, so here we go! At the end of the day, the award for ‘Best Narrative’ here is really going to the Silent Hill 2 story from 2001 – after all, as incredible a job as Bloober Team have done with the remake, it is the same story as before, almost beat for beat. However, that story is just so good that if the Game Awards wants to nominate it, I want to give it my support! There are some very good games listed here, so much so that I wouldn’t mind seeing any of these beat Silent Hill 2 for the crown, but story-wise, I need to give it to the incredible narrative that Bloober Team revived.

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Best Adaptation

Image by Netflix

• Arcane
• Fallout
• Knuckles
• Like a Dragon: Yakuza
• Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft

Wow, this is a strong category! With that being said though, I have somewhat unpopular opinions on most of these series, so it wasn’t a difficult choice for me to make. My review of Tomb Raider tells you all you need to know of my thoughts on that show, and I couldn’t click with Amazon’s Fallout at all, as much as I wish I did. So, my choice is ultimately Arcane, which has a phenomenal season one to its name, and is currently in the middle of airing an equally stellar second season. I’m a little surprised that Arcane made the deadline to be nominated, but I’m glad it did! This project ultimately deserves all the praise it can get.

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Best Score and Music

Image by KONAMI

• Silent Hill 2
• Stellar Blade
• Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
• Astro Bot
• Metaphor: ReFantazio

As a video game-OST nerd, I’m always excited to see what soundtracks get nominated for this category, and the 2024 line-up did not disappoint! It was really a toss up for me between Silent Hill 2, Astro Bot, and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and though I say this with as much hesitation as I did in the ‘Best Narrative’ category, I ultimately have to give it to Silent Hill 2. If anyone hasn’t heard Akira Yamaoka’s soundtrack for the original game, go check it out right now – you won’t regret it. Now, imagine that soundtrack, but upgraded for a 2024 listening experience. Again, while what we’re really awarding here may be the 2001 original, Bloober Team deserves their flowers for bringing the experience to the modern audience.

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Best Art Direction

Image by Studio Zero

• Astro Bot
• Black Myth: Wukong
• Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
• Metaphor: ReFantazio
• Neva

As great as the games here are visually, this was a fairly easy choice to make. One look at Metaphor: ReFantazio, and your eyes are blessed with stunning colours, incredible animation, and a truly standout style. I’ve also been sort of snubbing this game in the categories it’s been listed in up until this point, so there’s no better time to rightfully award it than now. Neva is equally deserving of this award though, so I could see this being a stiff battle between the two to take home the crown. If anything else takes it, it’ll raise an eyebrow or two for sure.

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Best Performance

Image by Ninja Theory

• Melina Juergens
• Briana White
• Hannah Telle
• Humberly Gonzalez
• Luke Roberts

It’s taking a lot for me to not mindlessly throw another award at Luke Roberts for his role as James Sunderland in Silent Hill 2, but I have to admit, Melina Juergens is ultimately the most deserving for this award. She took the prize home in this category for the same role back in 2017, but hey, that was a long time ago! Give it to her again! No other actor in this category carries a whole, narrative-driven game on their back, solo, like Juergens does in Hellblade. There’ll be absolutely no complaints here if she takes this home again. Shoutout to all of the incredible performers in this category though – this is another one where any victor is more than deserving.

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Game of the Year

Image by Sony Interactive Entertainment

• Astro Bot
• Balatro
• Black Myth: Wukong
• Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
• Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
• Metaphor: ReFantazio

Here it is – the biggest category of the night. Let’s whittle this one down one-by-one. Balatro is a nice surprise here, but I don’t think it defined the year in gaming. Black Myth: Wukong was a fun experience, but doesn’t have enough ‘wow’ factor to take the prize home for me. That Elden Ring DLC, should not be there. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was a stunning feat, but is more suited to take home something like ‘Best Role-Playing Game’ than the ultimate award. Metaphor: ReFantazio would be a nice wildcard winner, but I think it’s deserved victory in ‘Art Direction’ is enough acclaim for it. That leaves Astro Bot, a truly surprising, phenomenally crafted platformer, full of personality. In my opinion, this game should take home ‘Game of the Year’, and on a more journalistic level, it is the type of game that screams ‘give me the big award at the end’ – and it would deserve it! If you haven’t had the chance to try out Astro Bot, I think now is the time. I truly believe you’d be getting in ahead of its crowning as ‘Game of the Year’ at the Game Awards 2024.

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Conclusion

It’s looking like a pretty intense year for the Game Awards 2024! You can bet that we’ll be covering all of the results and announcements from the show right here when the show goes down on December 12 2024! What do you think of our predictions, and what do you think will take home the prestigious ‘Game of the Year’ award? Let us know in the comments!

See also: Best Games to Stream in 2024

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