It’s hard to believe we are already nearing the end of 2016, which of course means the Game Awards will soon be upon us! Just this morning, world renowned games journalist and producer of the Game Awards Geoff Keighley, announced the nominees for The 2016 Game Awards.
The awards range from Best Narrative, Best Art Direction and many more, including the prestigious Game Of The Year Award, which this year is between Doom, Inside, Overwatch, Titanfall 2 and Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. The 2016 Awards will also feature a new award too, with ‘Best VR Game’ joining the extensive list of categories.
Overwatch, Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2, Uncharted 4 and Doom feature throughout a number of categories, representing the best in Triple A titles. However, there are plenty of incredible indie games which have been nominated for awards too, including Firewatch, Abzu, Inside, Oxenfree and many more!
One indie game with an Aussie connection which has been nominated for the ‘Games For Impact’ award, is Orwell. An episodic privacy invasion thriller, developed by Osmotic Studios and Melbourne based indie publishing label, Surprise Attack Games.
The nominations came from an international panel of publications including the likes of Polygon, Kinda Funny and Game Informer, while eight eSports-focused outlets selected the nominees for the eSports categories. Which are decided by a global fan vote online, which you can participate in right now!
In order to qualify for the awards, a game needs to have a commercial release date on or before the 24th of November this year. Meaning a number of big releases including the likes of Final Fantasy 15 and infamous The Last Guardian, will not be taking part in this year’s awards. While a number of late releases from 2015 are up for awards this year, including Xenoblade Chronicles X for ‘Best Role Playing Game’ and Rainbow Six Siege for ‘Best Multiplayer Game’.
We will be finding out on the Dec 2nd (Australian date) who the winners are when The Game Awards 2016 are held at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles. If you can’t make it to the awards like us, you’ll be able to catch the show live via stream on various platforms, with the pre show set to start 12:30PM AEST and 1:00PM for the start on Dec 2nd, for us Aussies.
Check out the nominations below and we’ll have links to all our reviews of the nominated games throughout!
“Recognising a game that delivers the absolute best experience across all creative and technical fields.”
“Recognising a game studio for outstanding creative and innovation in game direction and design.”
“For outstanding storytelling and narrative development in a game.”
“For outstanding creative and technical achievement in artistic design and animation.”
“For outstanding audio, inclusive of score, original song, licensed soundtrack and sound design.”
“Award to an individual for voice-over acting, motion and/or performance capture.”
“For a thought provoking game with a profound pro-social meaning or message.”
“For outstanding creative and technical achievement in a game outside the traditional publisher system.”
“For the best game playable on portable devices, including mobile phones ad dedicated gaming handhelds (2DS, 3DS, PS Vita).”
“For the best game experience playable in virtual reality.”
“For the best game in the action genre focused on combat.”
“The best action/adventure game, combining combat with traversal and puzzle solving.”
“The best game designed for rich player character customisation and progression, both offline and online, including massively multiplayer.”
“For a game designed primarily around head-to-head combat.”
“Best game appropriate for family play, including toys-to-life, rhythm/music/dance , and other genres.”
“Best game focused on real time or turn-based strategy gameplay.”
“For traditional and non-traditional sports and racing games.”
“For outstanding online multiplayer gameplay and design, including co-op and massively multiplayer experiences.”
“The eSports player judged to be the most outstanding performer in 2016, irrespective of game.”
“The sSports team organisation judged to be the most outstanding for performance in 2016, irrespective of game.”
“The eSports game that has demonstrated creative and technical excellence in 2016 with the best gameplay, community support and content updates.”
“For a streamer/influencer/media member who has made an important impact on the industry in 2016.”
“For fan-created content, such as MODs, fan films, and other player content.”
“Recognising an upcoming game that has shown significant ambition and promise in moving the gaming medium forward. Must be announced and scheduled for release after 12/1/16.”
A few noticeable titles not up for any awards is Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Pokémon Sun and Moon (although reviews for the latter are only just coming out now), do you think there are any other titles which should have received a nomination? Let us know in the comments!