Posted Fri Nov 13, 2015 at 09:54 AM PST by Justin Clark
Begun, the GOTY Wars have.
With December pretty much only bringing 'Just Cause 3' and 'Xenobade Chronicles', time's come for most industry folk to start culling together the best of the best, and for the second year in a row, former Spike VGA showrunner Geoff Keighley is bringing us the Game Awards, in which a jury of game journalists and critics have gathered to decide on the best of the best, just without all the obnoxiousness that came with the awards previously being sponsored and hosted on Spike.
So, in case you wanted an idea of the way the wind was blowing in terms of critical acclaim this year, this is your first chance. Unlike the Grammys or Oscars, there's a fairly profound lack of cringingly bad choices in any of the categories. A few minor omissions, for sure--how neither 'Assassin's Creed Syndicate' or 'Everybody's Gone To The Rapture' didn't make the cut for Best Score boggles the mind--but you can balance that against the amount of love they threw at 'Her Story' and 'Life Is Strange'.
There's still time for you to get involve as well, since there's six fan awards to vote on: eSports Game of the Year, Team of the Year, and Player of the Year, Trending Gamer, Most Anticipated Game, and Fan Creation. That Fan Creation one's probably the one to be most excited about, since it's likely the only way the folks behind 'Portal Stories: Mel' will ever get the love and respect they deserve. Check out the full list below. And start tackling your backlog of games, before the show airs on December 3rd on, well, pretty much anywhere you can access the internet.
Game of the Year
Bloodborne
Fallout 4
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Super Mario Maker
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Developer of the Year
Bethesda Game Studios
CD Projekt Red
FromSoftware
Kojima Productions
Nintendo
Best Independent Game
Axiom Verge
Her Story
Ori and the Blind Forest
Rocket League
Undertale
Best Mobile/Handheld Game
Downwell
Fallout Shelter
Lara Croft GO
Monster Hunter 4: Ultimate
Pac-Man 256
Best Narrative
Her Story
Life Is Strange
Tales From The Borderlands
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Until Dawn
Best Art Direction
Batman: Arkham Knight
Bloodborne
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Ori and the Blind Forest
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Best Score/Soundtrack
Fallout 4
Halo 5: Guardians
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Ori and the Blind Forest
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Best Performance
Ashly Burch as Chloe Price (Life is Strange)
Camilla Luddington as Lara Croft (Rise of the Tomb Raider)
Doug Cockle as Geralt (The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt)
Mark Hamill as The Joker (Batman: Arkham Knight)
Viva Seifert (Her Story)
Games for Change Award
Cibele (Nina Freeman)
Her Story (Sam Barlow)
Life Is Strange (DONTNOD Entertainment / Square Enix)
Sunset (Tale of Tales)
Undertale (tobyfox)
Best Shooter
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
Destiny: The Taken King
Halo 5: Guardians
Splatoon
Star Wars Battlefront
Best Action/Adventure Game
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
Batman: Arkham Knight
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Ori and the Blind Forest
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Best Role Playing Game
Bloodborne
Fallout 4
Pillars of Eternity
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Undertale
Best Fighting Game
Guilty Gear Xrd –SIGN–
Mortal Kombat X
Rise of Incarnates
Rising Thunder
Best Family Game
Disney Infinity 3.0
LEGO Dimensions
Skylanders: SuperChargers
Splatoon
Super Mario Maker
Best Sports/Racing Game
FIFA 16
Forza Motorsport 6
NBA 2K16
Pro Evolution Soccer 2016
Rocket League
Best Multiplayer
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
Destiny: The Taken King
Halo 5: Guardians
Rocket League
Splatoon
Most Anticipated Game
Horizon Zero Dawn
No Man’s Sky
Quantum Break
The Last Guardian
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
eSports Player of the Year
Kenny “KennyS” Schrub
Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok
Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer
Peter “ppd” Dager
Syed Sumail “Suma1L” Hassan
eSports Team of the Year
Evil Geniuses
Fnatic
Optic Gaming
SK Telecom T1
Team SoloMid
eSports Game of the Year
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Dota 2
Hearthstone
League of Legends
Trending Gamer
Total Biscuit
Christopher “MonteCristo” Mykles
Greg Miller
Markiplier
PewDiePie
Best Fan Creation
GTA V – Targets (Hoodoo Operator)
Real GTA (Corridor Digital)
Portal Stories: Mel (Prism Studios)
Super Mario Maker e-Reader Levels (Baddboy78 / theycallmeshaky)
Twitch Plays Dark Souls (Twitch Community)
Source: The Game Awards
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