Topic: The Game Awards 2020

@kkslider5552000

Among Us wasn't a 2020 game. It just randomly became popular in 2020. Also I think Dreams feels like a 2019 game to lots of people because it had such a big "early access" period in 2019.

FF7 I'm totally on board with though. That's probably my game of the year so far. Either that or Xenoblade DE. But FF7 is more of a new game so probably deserves it more.

Among Us was more of a 2020 game than most games released in 2020 though.

Halo Infinite is confirmed not to be at the Game Awards so I'm guessing Xbox presence will be:

• Gears 5 DLC trailer (if it launches after December 10th)
• DOOM Eternal 2nd campaign expansion trailer with release date (no news on the Switch version of DOOM Eternal)
• Flight Sim console trailer with release date
• Psychonauts 2 trailer with release date
• The Initiative's game reveal

Nominees have been revealed and Nintendo's only presence is:

• GotY - Animal Crossing New Horizons
• Best Multiplayer - Animal Crossing New Horizons
• Best Family Game - Animal Crossing New Horizons, Mario Kart Live Home Circuit, Paper Mario The Origami King
• Best Mobile Game - Pokemon Cafe Mix

Unsurprising given this year for Nintendo has mostly been ports and remasters which aren't eligible.

Can someone please explain why remasters aren't eligible, but "GotY" editions apparently are? (Persona 5 Royal, Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate, & Street Fighter V Ultimate were all nominated in various categories).

For the record I don't necessarily mind that remasters aren't eligible, but if adding some DLC (or some other slight tweaks) to a 1-2 year old game is enough to make it re-eligable, I don't see why something a bit more expansive like the Xenoblade remaster shouldn't be.

Nintendo has a nominee for GotY! Pretty nice to see it up there.

@RR529 among us didn’t even release this year and it’s nominated for stuff🤔

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim totally deserves to win best narrative. It sold pretty poorly though, so I doubt it, but I'm glad it was nominated nonetheless. It's probably my GOTY.

@RR529 That's actually super weird that those all got nominated considering I don't think they've ever done that before, even with Dragon Quest XI S

@RR529 I'd guess there weren't enough fighting games for nominations, don't know about Persona 5 Royal though.

Yeah, I could maybe understand doing it for something like the fighting game category if they need to fill out the nomination slots due to a low number of genuinely new prominent titles, but the P5R nod is odd considering the number of well received new RPGs we got this year (not that it's a bad game by any means, but they could have used the slot to bring more awareness to genuinely new RPGs that were generally well received, even if they wouldn't beat FFVIIR. Trials of Mana remake and Paper Mario: Origami King, if you want to open that debate, would have been decent picks, probably even over Genshin Impact, which is nominated & while new, is controversial due due to the gatcha grind).

lol, Xenoblade DE got snubbed hard, which is a little annoying considering the presence of Persona 5 Royal on this list. And Genshin Impact being a nominee for best RPG...

Bleh.

The last round of voting for the "Player's Voice" award (a category determined only by fan voting) is going on now, and it looks like it's a shootout between TLOU2 & Ghost of Tsushima, with the former ahead (the other 3 titles to make it to the final round are Doom Eternal, Hades, & Spider-Man: Miles Morales).

Too bad Final Fantasy VII Remake & Xenoblade DE didn't make it this far (I think Xenoblade didn't get passed the first round☹️).

@RR529 I had a look, and it doesn't look like the original Xenoblade Chronicles got nominated for any baftas back in 2012. So a spruced up version with extra content was unlikely to here.

Shame about FFVII, it's the best game I've played this year. However it's the one award you can't really argue with. The most popular game wins. Lots of people adore these 5 games, and they all look pretty good.

@RR529

Ghost of Tsushima has pulled out in front. I'm a bit surprised TLOU2 is that competitive really. I know plenty of people loved it, but plenty didn't as well (whereas a lot of those others are universally liked)

Ultimately the main bias in these kinds of things is that the total sales of a game will have a huge effect. That's why Xenoblade just isn't competitive in a yearly awards like this. Just not enough people played it.

Xenoblade sold like 1.5 million so far, whereas FF7 Remake sold like 5.5 million so far and TLOU2 has sold like 7.5 million.

So you're just not going to get a relative comparison of quality between the games. If it was just about that pure quality, Xenoblade would surely deserve to win. One of the best games ever made, remastered in a way that improves on the original in every way.

@Dezzy I mean, I love XC:DE, but I really don't think a remaster should qualify for GotY. Unless it's a whole hog remake (a la FF VII), I wouldn't vote for it for this (same as I felt about P5R, which is honestly my personal GOTY). So it has that against it on top of sales numbers.

@link3710

Yeah I would mostly agree. Although they should probably have a category for "Best HD Port/Remaster" nowadays, given how common it is.

I just meant in terms of sheer quality, ignoring all other factors, Xenoblade DE is probably the best game released this year in my opinion. The only negative I could find with the game is the disappointing resolution. I wanted 1080p docked and 720p handheld.

@link3710, @Dezzy, yeah, I was curious as to why P5R, MK11 Ultimate, Street Fighter 5, & Among Us (a 2018 release) were all nominated in various categories (and even XCDE was one of the original 30 titles in the "Player's Voice" category) based on their previous stance on re-releases, and after reading their FAQ it's stated that games from any previous year are eligible to be nominated if they gained any new content or social relivence in the past year that they lacked beforehand.

This does seem to be a break from how they used to do things, and in that case would have liked to see XCDE get a spot in the RPG category over Genshin Impact (heck, throw Trials of Mana remake in there too. That one's more similar to the FFVII situation).

EDIT: @Dezzy, I believe they did have a best remaster category for a couple years, but dropped it (maybe because they're no longer disqualified for other awards?).

EDIT 2: I stand corrected on the best remaster category, as I couldn't find it when looking at past winner's list. I thought they had something like that, though.

Hey @RR529, if you don't mind me asking, do you not like Genshin Impact? 🤔
I'm asking because you have mentioned a couple times how you wish that another game got the (PRG & Player's Voice) nominees over Genshin Impact. 🤔
EDIT: I'm hope my response didn't come off as harsh or rude.
Also, I'm surprised that there isn't a Best Remaster category. I feel like it would work perfectly in The Game Awards. Maybe we'll have that category at next year's Game Awards.

Hey my predictive power is top notch. I predicted Cyberpunk would be low 90s on metacritic, and I predicted Ghost of Tsushima would be the most popular game of the year for the audience. It just won that vote.

I predicted it back on the first page of this thread!

Clearly a lot of work went into it, however I feel that "Free to Start" titles are games as product over art in a way that not even the big AAA blockbusters are, and that they run counter to what the Game Awards are supposed to represent as the self described "Oscars of gaming". I have similar thoughts about all the inclusion of all the eSport stuff, which I feel also runs counter to that ethos.

Furthermore, regarding Genshin Impact in particular, it's "Free to Start" nature directly interferes with the gameplay loop & narrative, as unlike titles such as Fortnite where the items you buy are largely cosmetic, in GI "endgame" completion is essentially locked behind getting powerful units through the gacha mechanic (which takes grinding far beyond what you'd experience in "pay up front" titles, unless you pay for summons, and even then you're not guaranteed to get the unit(s) you need), meaning the pacing isn't near to the same quality expected in titles such as Xenoblade, Trials of Mana, or a host of other "pay up front" RPGs.