Gaming The 2020 Game Awards

Nominees were announced for the 2020 Game Awards, which stream on Dec. 10th.

https://bleedingcool.com/games/the-game-awards-releases-the-complete-2020-nominees-list/


Discuss nominations here.

 

The Last of Us 2 for everything, please and thank you!

 

Am I crazy for thinking TLOU2 should not be up for Best Score and Music? It's fine and all but aside from the main theme not much of it comes across as particularly memorable.

 

The score in TLOU series is not as obvious as most games, but what it does have is fantastic. I thought it stood out a lot more than the first game.

 

I would have traded it out for GoT for music.

 

I struggle with Last of Us Part II for the big awards like Game of the Year or Narrative. While I freely admit to not playing a lot of these as I tend to be a few years behind on games while waiting for sales, it's like... 60% of that game I think is my favourite game I've played and I really want to be cheering it on for that and for the lofty heights I think it reaches there.. But then that rest of it is just sloppy and disappointing to me, so, two minds on that one. Score though... yeah I'd be completely onboard for that one. Been listening to "The Last of Us Part II," "It Can't Last," "Unbound," "Restless Spirits," "It Can't Last (Home)," "Unbroken," and "Beyond Desolation" since the game came out.

 

Best RPG will probably go to FFVIIR but should go to Yakuza, goddammit, and then I just expect TLoU2 to crush it everywhere else because Naughty Dog games are basically made to win these things.

Actually nominating new fighting games requires an amount of legwork these shows have never put in. The Evo top slots are the real awards for that field anyway.

 

Was planning on doing a point by point summary but there are so many categories


Game of the Year will be FF7R or TLOU2. FF7 wins for me but I can see TLOU getting it

Direction should be TLOU due to the merging storylines and general pacing throughout, only the last chapter is a let down in all honesty. FFY is a premade story and even with the expanded bits, it's a bit too long in parts and that lets it down (see the climb to Shinra Tower)

Score and Music hands down is FF7R

 

Without the last chapter of TLOU2 going the way it does, the rest of the direction choices make no sense. It's great direction.

 

Ashley Johnson is definitely the best choice for performance, but I kind of want to see Laura Bailey get it to make up for all the harassment this year. They were both perfect.

 

Oh, the last chapter is needed but it didn't need the end it did. It didn't need the fight

It could and should have been Ellie freeing Abbie, getting ready to fight then realizing Teb needed help and finishing with them both getting on separate boats realizing that the violence had gone on too long. Just a natural but tiredness driven cessation of violence, thats what Abbie wanted after she was saved and that would have shown massive growth for Ellie. The final scene in the farmhouse could still have ended in a similar way, you could even contrive a way for her to lose her fingers but that last fight could and should have been avoided or at least if required have it end earlier as both recognize the futility of it all.

Lets say it isn't the direction I'd have gone

 

Laura was the Zoom call guest last week and I was so happy that everyone had only wonderful things to say.

 

Ghost is my game of the year easily.

It's the only game that has made heavy attacks practical and useful, with a feel to its combat that remains unequalled.

If course it won't win - that'll be Maneater.

 

Seconded

 

I get why TLoU2 gets praise for that, but I've found I can very rarely play as a character I don't like in games. Sure, in JRPGs there's the usual mass slaughter of enemies for XP and yes, you can go seal-clubbing in Valhalla but say something like GTA 5's infamous torture sequence? Pass, oh I have to do that? Hard screw-this-game pass.

 

I assume you’re talking about Abby? The whole point of her character is to hate her to begin with, but end up sympathising for her by the end. And it’s masterfully done.

 

I was reading Chiz' post as applying to both lead characters in TLoU2

 

There are some really tough sequences where I was like "no I don't want to push square here!!" It makes you realize how much carnage both characters have caused. So brilliant. But I can see why some people might not have enjoyed playing that.

To me, it reminds me of the famous Ryan scene in Bioshock.

 

My favorite game that I played this year was Persona 5 Royal. (No dis on FF7R which is a very close second) Of course that’s just a DLC that they make you pay full game price for, but I had never played vanilla so it was all new to me.

 

Yeah, that also fell flat for me but thus is due to the medium.

I've a liad of stories with all manner of reprehensible characters but there's that greater sense of separation and distance, which isn't so in games.

 

Yeah see I like putting you in the shoes of someone supposedly reprehensible and saying "look, they are really just like the main character you love".

 

I'll be trying to get some hands on time with the Games for Impact nominees and the soundtracks for the best score nominees.

I'll report back.