The Game Awards 2020

[kamikazekeeg]

Just for kicks, figured I'd post the Game Awards listings and we can see if we like it or if we'd add or changing things.  I'm kinda surprised Hades was so well received, like it's a fantastic game, but its up there just as much as I think Last of Us 2 is.  Overall, it's a list that makes sense, fighting game category is probably stretching things with Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter, but the rest makes sense.

https://thegameawards.com/nominees

For me, just based on this list (As I'm still waiting on Cyberpunk 2077 which could be my proper GOTY and I haven't beaten Demon's Souls or even played Miles Morales), this is how I put my winners.  Not gonna do every category, just the ones that stand out for me.

Game of the Year:
Final Fantasy VII Remake

Best Art Direction:
Ori and the Will of the Wisps

Best Score and Music: (This is a super stacked category, all of these games are fighting for a position, I might have to really think about it lol)
Doom Eternal (Mick Gordon)
Final Fantasy VII Remake (Nobuo Uematsu, Masahi Hamauzu, Mitsuto Suzuki)
Hades (Darren Korb)
Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Gareth Coker)

Best Performance: (I may not be in love with this game, but both of their performances were incredibly good.)
Ashley Johnson as Ellie, The Last of Us Part II
Laura Bailey as Abby, The Last of Us Part II

Best Indie:
Hades

Best Action/Adventure:
Ghost of Tsushima

Best Role-Playing:
Final Fantasy VII Remake

Best Sports/Racing
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2

Debut Game: (They really shouldn't count Early Access games for this category, because while Phasmaphobia is a popular streamer game right now, this game is such an absolute buggy mess lol)
Carrion

[telekill]

Hmm... I had actually forgotten about this. Here's my picks in some categories from what they have listed:

GOTY:
Ghost of Tsushima

Best Music:
FF7 Remake

Best Action:
Streets of Rage 4

Interesting to see eSports categories take off.

[NickAwesome]

Ah man, I clicked on this hoping oldgamerz had done another long detailed game awards thread- he usually goes all out with gifs and colored text.

Hades is my game of the year, followed by Doom Eternal. 

[shatterstar69]

GOTY:
The Last of Us 2

I know this game was divisive for fans but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The environments and character models were top notch, story was emotional and
conflicted.  The combat wasn't revolutionary but why fix something that ain't broke? 

Best Narrative:
The Last of Us 2

Best Art Direction:
Ghost of Tsushima

Best Game Direction:
Hades

Best Perfomance:
Ashley Johnson as Ellie

Best Score and Music:
The Last of Us 2

Best Ongoing:
Fortnite

Best Indie:
Hades

Anyway, those are my predictions.  It will be interesting because there were a lot of excellent games this year

[pzeke]

Ah man, I clicked on this hoping oldgamerz had done another long detailed game awards thread- he usually goes all out with gifs and colored text.

You're thinking of marvelvscapcom2.

[endemonadia]

Here is a full list of every category and nominations.https://www.cgmagonline.com/2020/11/18/video-game-awards-announce-2020-nominees/

Game of the Year
Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch/SIE)

Best Game Direction
Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix)

Best Narrative
Final Fantasy VII Remake (Kazushige Nojima, Motomu Toriyama, Hiroki Iwaki, Sachie Hirano)

Best Art Direction
Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Moon Studios/Xbox Game Studios)

Best Score and Music
Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Gareth Coker)

Best Audio Design
Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch/SIE)

Best Performance
Logan Cunningham as Hades, Hades

Games for Impact
DONT KNOW THESE GAMES! lol

Best Ongoing
No Man’s Sky (Hello Games)

Best Indie
Hades (Supergiant Games)

Best Mobile
Genshin Impact (miHoYo)

Best Community Support
No Man’s Sky (Hello Games)

Innovation in Accessibility
Watch Dogs Legion (Ubisoft Toronto/Ubisoft)

Best VR/AR
Half-Life: Alyx (Valve)

Best Action
Half-Life: Alyx (Valve)

Best Action/Adventure
Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch/SIE)

Best Role Playing
Persona 5 Royal (Atlus, P Studios)

Best Fighting
DONT KNOW THESE GAMES!

Best Family
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo)

Best Sim/Strategy
Crusader Kings III (Paradox Development Studio/Paradox)

Best Sports/Racing
FIFA 21 (EA Vancouver/EA Sports)

Best Multiplayer
Among Us (InnerSloth)

Best Debut Game
DONT KNOW THESE GAMES!

Content Creator of the Year, Presented by Adobe
TimtheTatman

Best Esports Game
Fortnite (Epic Games)

Best Esports Athlete
Matthieu “ZywOo” Herbaut / CS:GO

Best Esports Team
Team Secret / DOTA2

Best Esports Event
Meh

Best Esports Host
Meh

[shawndude82]

I haven't played most of these games, and I know nothing about eSports.

I handed a few votes to The Last of Us Part 2 to give it a well-deserved boost. 
And to trigger the haters.

Everything else I just voted by box art.  Does it look relevant to the category?  Yes?  It gets my vote.

[NickAwesome]

Ah man, I clicked on this hoping oldgamerz had done another long detailed game awards thread- he usually goes all out with gifs and colored text.

You're thinking of marvelvscapcom2.

You are 100% correct. My mistake. What happened to that guy? Is he still active? He was my secret santa last year and sent me a really nice message. I hope he is doing well.

[pzeke]

I believe he had some things to figure out/solve, so he took a break. I'm sure he's doing fine.

[baileykun]

For GoTY I'm leaning into Ghost of Tsushima if Cyberpunk doesn't dethrone it. Didn't play myself but saw my SO playing it and it looks top notch. I mostly just sat around and gawked at the attention to Japanese culture, history, and terrain.

I feel like CDPR is a lot of people's darling dev company right now though so I think it could steal a last minute win. Meanwhile, I'm still here licking my wounds that there's no Media option. Really they got rid of all the face classes. I still ordered the game, but ouch it's a lot less classes than they initially promised.

[dhaabi]

For GoTY I'm leaning into Ghost of Tsushima if Cyberpunk doesn't dethrone it. I feel like CDPR is a lot of people's darling dev company right now though so I think it could steal a last minute win.

The cut-off date for The Game Awards nominations was November 20, 2020. Cyberpunk 2077 will be eligible at next year's show.

[kamikazekeeg]

A thing on the side of the actual awards...technically the thing most people are interested in...are the game announcements and teases, so what do folks think will show up this year? Nintendo is probably a guarantee, but what they'll bring, could actually be a couple different things. 

I think at the top, would be a Smash Bros DLC announcement.  Minecraft Steve was released back in October, so it could be time to tease the next character.  Bayonetta 3 makes sense being that it was originally teased here 3 years ago...god it's been far too long...But who knows with that game at this point.  And third, I think we can get something Zelda, but probably not Breath of the Wild 2.  I think they save BOTW2 for a big blow out in spring, so I'm going with Hyrule Warriors DLC announcement or maybe something else like a new remake or remaster of something for next years 35th Zelda anniversary.  Have that release in the spring with a possible Breath of the Wild 2 release at the end of year.  It would kill me if they announce another remake in the Link's Awakening art style, I just don't want to see that ever again.

Other things, I feel like we should be seeing something for Elden Ring eventually, it would be great hype to show off something for that with all the Demon's Souls hype going on right now, and it's just been a long while since we've heard anything on it.

And of course there could always be something that is a complete surprise and I'm all for being blown away like that.  Feel like Sony in particular could push for something since they are riding on PS5 hype right now.

[telekill]

Changing my Best Soundtrack to Astro's Playroom. Having spent more time with it.... just phenomenal.

As for announcements, I'm hoping to see the following as I always do...

 - A new Uncharted game.
 - A Dino Crisis reboot.
 - A dark and gritty Ninja Turtles.
 - Shenmue 4 with an ending. Let's finish it Suzuki...

So as those are all kind of a tall ask with the exception of maybe Uncharted (given rumors), I'm assuming disappointment.

[kamikazekeeg]

Microsoft apparently has an announcement for the show, which could honestly be anything at this point with how crazy Microsoft has been lately such as buying Zenimax.  Apparently there have been strong rumors for a Perfect Dark reboot of some sort.  I'm hoping for something else Rare related like Banjo-Kazooie getting the fancy remake treatment that Spyro and Crash got, or finally getting Banjo-Threeie.  I'd also be interested in a new Killer Instinct, not because I'm the biggest fan, it is a cool game, I'd just get a lot of entertainment value from it by watching other people enjoy it lol

[telekill]

Microsoft apparently has an announcement for the show,

They bought the IP gaming rights for Paw Patrol. They're on a roll.