The Game Awards 2022 nominees revealed – Gematsu

Game of the Year

Recognize a game that offers the absolute best experience in all creative and technical areas.

Best game direction

Awarded for outstanding creative vision and innovation in game direction and design.

• Ring of Elden (FromSoftware / Bandai Namco Entertainment)
• God of War Ragnarok (Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Forbidden Horizon West (Guerrilla Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• IMMORTALITY [3 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/immortality”>IMMORTALITY (half-mermaid)
• WANDER (BlueTwelve Studio / Annapurna Interactive)

Best Story

For exceptional storytelling and narrative development in a game.

• A Plague Tale: Requiem (Asobo Studio/Focus Entertainment)
• Ring of Elden (FromSoftware / Bandai Namco Entertainment)
• God of War Ragnarok (Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Forbidden Horizon West (Guerrilla Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• IMMORTALITY (half-mermaid)

Best Art Direction

For outstanding creative and/or technical achievement in art design and animation.

• Ring of Elden (FromSoftware / Bandai Namco Entertainment)
• God of War Ragnarok (Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Forbidden Horizon West (Guerrilla Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Contempt [6 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/scorn”>Scorn (Ebb Software [6 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/ebb-software”>Ebb Software / Kepler Interactive [4 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/kepler-interactive”>Kepler Interactive)
• WANDER (BlueTwelve Studio / Annapurna Interactive)

Best score and music

For outstanding music, including licensed sheet music, original song and/or soundtrack.

• A Plague Tale: Requiem (Olivier Derivière, Composer)
• Ring of Elden (Tsukasa Saitoh, Composer)
• God of War Ragnarok (Bear McCreary, composer)
• Metal: Hellsinger [7 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/metal-hellsinger”>Metal: Hellsinger (Two Feathers, Composer)
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (Yasunori Mitsuda, composer)

Best Audio Design

Recognize the best audio and sound design in the game.

Better performance

Assigned to a person for voice acting, motion and/or performance capture.

• Ashley Burch (Forbidden Horizon West)
• Charlotte McBurney (A Plague Tale: Requiem)
• Christopher Judge (God of War Ragnarok)
• Manon Gage (IMMORTALITY)
• Sunny Suljic (God of War Ragnarok)

Impact Games

For stimulating play with a pro-social meaning or message.

Best Ongoing Game

Awarded to a game for outstanding development of ongoing content that evolves the player experience over time.

Best indie

For outstanding creative and technical achievement in a game made outside of the traditional publishing system.

Best mobile [1,965 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/mobile”>Mobile game

For the best game playable on a mobile device.

Better community support

Recognize a game for its outstanding community support, transparency, and responsiveness, including social media activity and game updates/patches.

• Apex Legends (Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts)
• Destiny 2 (Bungie)
• Final Fantasy XIV (Creative Business Unit III / Square Enix)
• Fortnite (Epic Games)
• No Man’s Sky [65 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/no-mans-sky”>No Man’s Sky (Hello Games [70 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/hello-games”>Hello Games)

Innovation in accessibility

Recognize software and/or hardware that advances the medium by adding features, technology and content to help games be played and enjoyed by an even wider audience.

Best Virtual Reality [24 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/virtual-reality”>Virtual Reality / Augmented Reality

For the best gaming experience playable in virtual or augmented reality, whatever the platform.

Best action game

For the best action game [759 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/action”>action genre primarily focused on combat.

Best Action/Adventure

For the best action/adventure [572 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/adventure”>adventure game, combining combat, traversal and puzzle solving.

• A Plague Tale: Requiem (Asobo Studio/Focus Entertainment)
• God of War Ragnarok (Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Forbidden Horizon West (Guerrilla Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• WANDER (BlueTwelve Studio / Annapurna Interactive)
• TUNIC (TUNIC Team / Finji)

Best RPG

For the best game crafted with rich player character customization and progression, including massively multiplayer experiences.

best fight

For the best game designed primarily around one-on-one combat.

best family

For the best game suitable for family play, regardless of genre or platform.

Better simulation/strategy

Best real-time or turn-based simulation-focused game [182 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/simulation”>simulation or strategy [66 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/strategy”>strategy game, regardless of platform.

Top Sports [447 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/sports”>Sport / Racing [82 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/racing”>Racing

For the best traditional and non-traditional sports and racing game.

Best Multiplayer

For exceptional online multiplayer [96 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/multiplayer”>multiplayer gameplay and design, including Co-Op [60 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/multiplayer/co-op”>cooperative and massively multiplayer experiences, regardless of game genre or platform.

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Infinity Ward / Activision)
• MultiVersus (Player’s First Games / WB Games)
• Monitor 2 [8 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/overwatch-2″>Overwatch 2 (Snow storm)
• Splaton 3 (Nintendo EPD / Nintendo)
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (Tribute Games / Dotemu)

Content Creator of the Year

For a streamer or content creator who made a big, positive impact on the community in 2021.

• Karl Jacobs
• Louis
• nibellion
• count up
• QTCinderella

Best Indie Debut

For the best first game created by a new independent studio.

• neon white (Angel Matrix / Annapurna Interactive)
• NORCO (Robot Geography / Raw Fury [62 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/raw-fury”>Raw Fury)
• WANDER (BlueTwelve Studio / Annapurna Interactive)
• TUNIC (TUNIC Team / Finji)
• vampire survivors [1 article]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/vampire-survivors”>Vampire Survivors (sand [1 article]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/poncle”>poncle)

Best adaptation

To reward outstanding creative work that faithfully and authentically adapts a video game to another entertainment medium.

• Arcane: League of Legends (Fortiche/Riot Games/Netflix [72 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/netflix”>Netflix)
• Cyberpunk: Edge Runners (Studio Trigger / CD Projekt RED [189 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/cd-projekt-red”>CD Projekt RED / Netflix)
• The Cuphead [19 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/cuphead”>Cuphead Show! ( Studio MDHR [15 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/studio-mdhr”>Studio MDHR / King Features Syndicate / Netflix)
• sonic the hedgehog 2 (Sega Sammy Group/Paramount Pictures)
• Unexplored ( PlayStation [41,450 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/playstation”>PlayStation Productions / Sony Pictures)

More anticipated

Recognize an advertised game that has demonstrably illustrated the potential to advance the game medium.

Best eSports Game

For the game that provided the best overall esports experience for players (including tournaments, community support, and content updates), regardless of genre or platform.

• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive ( Valve [197 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/valve”>Valve)
• DOTA 2 (Valve)
• League of Legends (Riot Games)
• rocket league (Psyonix/Epic Games)
• ENHANCE (Riot Games)

Best eSport Athlete

eSports athlete deemed most outstanding for performance and drive in 2021, regardless of game.

• Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon (General G, League of Legends)
• Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok (T1, League of Legends)
• Finn “karrigan” Andersen ((FaZe Clan, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive)
• Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev (Born to win, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive)
• Jacob “Yay” Whiteaker (Cloud9, ENHANCE)

Best eSports Team

Recognize a specific esports team (not the entire organization) deemed most outstanding for performance and conduct in 2021.

• DarkZero Esports (Apex Legends)
• FaZe Clan (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive)
• Gen.G (League of Legends)
• LA Thieves (Call of Duty)
• STRONG (ENHANCE)

Best eSports Trainer

The eSports coach deemed most outstanding for his performance and conduct in 2021.

• Andrii “B1ad3” Horodenskyi (Born to win, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive)
• Matheus “bzkA” Tarasconi (STRONG, ENHANCE)
• Erik “d00mbr0s” Sandgren (FPX, ENHANCE)
• Robert “RobbaN” Dahlström (FaZe Clan, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive)
• Go “Score” Dong-bin (Gen.G, League of Legends)

Best eSports Event

Recognize an event (over one or more days) that provided an exceptional experience for attendees and broadcast audiences.

• EVO 2022
• 2022 League of Legends World Championship
• PGL Major Antwerp 2022
• The 2022 mid-season invitation
• ENHANCE Champions 2022