By Variety | Created at 2024-11-18 22:31:16 | Updated at 2024-11-25 23:31:44
1 week ago
The nominations are in for the 2024 Game Awards and the people have spoken with their own opinions about the final nods issued by the voting committee, made up of multiple media outlets covering video games.
Among the 29 categories, the most hotly contested is always the top honor, game of the year. This crop as no different, with the six titles that made the cut — “Astro Bot,” “Balatro,” “Black Myth: Wukong,” “Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree,” “Final Fantasy VII Rebirth,” and “Metaphor: ReFantazio” — drawing a range of praise, confusion or frustration.
See below for some of the most notable shut-outs and submissions to the top category.
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‘The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom’
Image Credit: Nintendo
The latest installment in the “Zelda” franchise, which this time allows players to play as Zelda herself, was widely loved and a would have been a worthy nom for game of the year. Instead it picked up noms for best action/adventure game and best family game.
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‘Balatro’
This popular poker-themed deck-building video game was a surprise to some as a pick for game of the year, due to its genre not being a common choice for top honors.
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‘Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree’
Image Credit: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco
With six slots available in the game of the year category, “Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree” taking one of them turned a few heads because it is not exactly a game. It’s downloadable content, which, due to a rule change, is now eligible in the category — but still a hard sell to some critics, who would have preferred to see a full game title take the spot as opposed to an expansion for “Elden Ring.”
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‘Silent Hill 2’ Remake
This popular updated version of the iconic survival horror game developed by Bloober Team and published by Konami Digital Entertainment got some love from the Game Awards voters, but not enough to land it a game of the year nom.
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‘Star Wars Outlaws’
Image Credit: Ubisoft
The fact that “Star Wars Outlaws” took three nominations — performance for lead actress Humberly González, innovation in accessibility and best action/adventure game — is a twist in an ongoing saga of the Ubisoft game’s weak sales performance and lukewarm gameplay reviews. The title was poorly received enough that Ubisoft decided in October to delay its upcoming “Assassin’s Creed Shadows” game to insure that title is up to snuff, and got to work on a major update for “Outlaws.”
