Now usually I do not watch award ceremonies of any sorts. I may have watched Oscar’s a couple of times when I was smaller – but all in all I have not been that much interested. This year was different mostly because my favorite genre of games made its way to general public. A CRPG game – Baldur’s Gate 3 was a contender for most prestigious awards in game world – that is TGA Game Of The Year.
Now I may be bias so I will not speak that much to results however there were 3 awards given that baffled me. All 3 awards that I find questionable: “Best Art Direction”, ” Best Narrative”, “Best Game Direction”, went to Alan Wake II, which I find just mind boggling to me. Now I understand that this make be a really good game. However I did not play it. And as a matter a fact no one of my friends have heard of it prior to TGA. And even when I watch critics and youtubers – even very popular ones like Angry Joe, they all have the same commentary: “I heard its good, but I have not played it”.
I find this highly sus, that a game with limited exposure to gamers gets to win such high profile awards. And I will go ahead and say that it feels rigged an unfair. I do intend to play Alan Wake 2 at some point – even if – just to confirm if the award was well deserved. But I really doubt it. I smells like some salty devs who did not want BG3 getting all awards.
Baldur’s Gate 3 obviously won Game of the Year Awards and Neil Newborn won Best Performance. Larian also won Best Multiplayer, Best Community Support and Players Voice Award and Best RPG. That is not surprising. If BG3 would not win Game of the Year there would be riots on Discord and Twitch. And if Neild did not win Best Performance than Astarion psycho-fans would start killing people… Below you will find a full list of all winners for all categories.
- Game of the Year – Baldur’s Gate 3
- Players’ Voice – Baldur’s Gate 3
- Best RPG – Baldur’s Gate 3
- Best Performance – Neil Newbon | Baldur’s Gate 3
- Best Multiplayer Game – Baldur’s Gate 3
- Best Community Support – Baldur’s Gate 3
- Best Art Direction – Alan Wake 2
- Best Narrative – Alan Wake 2
- Best Game Direction – Alan Wake 2
- Best Action/Adventure Game – The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
- Best Action Game – Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon
- Best Audio Design – Hi-Fi Rush
- Best Score/Music – Final Fantasy 16
- Best Mobile Game – Honkai: Star Rail
- Best Ongoing Game – Cyberpunk 2077
- Best Debut Indie Game – Cocoon
- Best Indie Game – Sea of Stars
- Games for Impact – Tchia
- Best SIM/Strategy Game – Pikmin 4
- Best Sports/Racing Game – Forza Motorsport
- Best Fighting Game – Street Fighter 6
- Best Family Game – Super Mario Bros. Wonder
- Best VR/AR Game – Resident Evil Village
- Best Adaptation – Nocturne
- Innovation in Accessibility – Forza Motorsport
- Most Anticipated Game – Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
- Best Esports Team – JD Gaming
- Best Esports Game – Valorant
- Best Esports Event – 2023 League of Legends World Championship
- Best Esports Coach – Christine Potter Chi
- Best Esports Athlete – Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok
- Content Creator of the Year – IronMouse
Now there is one last thing that has to be said. To me – someone who tunned in for the very first time to this award show I was shocked how the award winners were treated. 1 minute speeches each – and some awards were not even handed out at the stage. Everyone told me that TGA is the most important show in the game biz right now. And if that is tur I feel very sorry for these devs and studios.
Rather than being appreciated and awarded for their work they were used as prompts. And for me as a viewer it sucked as well. Because the only reason why I tuned in was to find out if my favorite game won and if so what its creators have to say to me.
