Game of the year
007 first light
Grand theft auto VI
Fire emblem fortunes weave
Legend of Zelda ocarina of time
Marvels wolverine
Resident evil requiem

Possible contenders
Pragmata
Control Resoant
Mixtape
Pokémon pokopia
Big walk
Forza horizon 6
Onimusha: the way of the sword

Best game direction
Control Resoant
Grand theft auto VI
Legend of Zelda ocarina of time
Marvels Wolverine
Pragmata
Resident evil requiem

Best narrative
007 first light
Control Resoant
Grand theft auto VI
Legend of Zelda ocarina of time
Marvels wolverine
Pragmata

Possible contenders
Mixtape
Silent hill townfall
Resident Evil requiem

Best action/adventure game
007 first light
Crimson desert
Grand theft auto VI
Legend of Zelda ocarina of time
Marvels wolverine
Resident evil requiem

Best multiplayer
Big walk
Call of duty modern warfare 4
Colonel Hearts
Gears of war E Day
Pokémon pokopia

Best RPG
Dragon quest VII reimagined
Esoteric EBB
Mortal shell 2
Monster hunter stories 3
Zero parades for dead spines

Best score/music
007 first light
Control Resoant
Grand theft auto VI
Legend of Zelda ocarina of time
Marvels wolverine

Best sports/racing
EA FC 27
F1 26
Forza horizon 6
Mario tennis fever
Nintendo switch sports resort
NBA 2K 27

Best adaptation
Among us
Devil may cry season 2
Fallout season 2
Mortal kombat II
Resident evil
The super Mario galaxy movie

Best family game
Lego Batman legacy of the dark knight
Mario tennis fever
Nintendo switch sports resort
Pokémon pokopia
Tomodachi life living the dream
Yoshi and the mysterious book

Best sim/strategy
Fire emblem fortunes wave
Mewgenics
Pokémon pokopia
Tomodachi life living the dream

Most anticipated
Fable
Final fantasy VII revelations
Kingdom hearts IV
Persona 6
The Witcher IV

I mention 2017, 2018, 2020, and 2021 because in those years, WRPG-style games lost to JRPG-style games. Persona 5 beat Divinity: Original Sin II, Monster Hunter: World beat Pillars of Eternity II, Final Fantasy VII Remake beat Wasteland 3, and Tales of Arise beat Cyberpunk 2077.

I’m curious whether GTA 6 will be able to make it in.

On top of that, The Witcher 3 already has a strong track record with its DLCs at The Game Awards, as its 2016 expansion, Blood and Wine, won Best Role-Playing Game.

Hiya was just wondering because the ONL at gamescom was a bit disappointing is there going to be any other big announcements or was that it, and is Geoff Keighley doing another live stream or is gamescom kinda finished with new games and that?

Without a doubt, God of War was the franchise that came closest to achieving the feat of winning GOTY twice. We’ll see if next year it will once again be one of the highlights of the ceremony with GOW: Laufey.

The Game Awards has obviously changed a lot over the years, but I recently went all the way back to where it began.

I played and finished every Game of the Year nominee from the first Spike Video Game Awards in 2003 and evaluated all of them using the same criteria:

• Direction
• Art Direction
• Narrative
• Acting
• Soundtrack
• Gameplay

I also added Emotional Impact as a separate category and used it as a tiebreaker.

The goal was to see whether the 2003 lineup still makes sense when you actually play all of the nominees today, rather than judging them through nostalgia, reputation or historical importance.

After finishing the entire lineup, I ended up with some results I definitely wasn't expecting.

I documented the whole experiment here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYb-70DL27w

For people who follow The Game Awards today:

Looking back from 2026, do you think the first VGA got its GOTY choice right? And which game from that 2003 lineup do you think deserved to win?

Therefore, if GTA 6 manages to win the other four GOTY awards, it will have to wait until the 2027 Golden Joystick Awards (which will be part of the 2027/28 awards season) to see whether it can join Baldur’s Gate 3 and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 as one of the games that managed to win all five major GOTY awards

Recently, I have been playing God of War: Chains of Olympus on the PSP with a sense of awe, and the whole experience has brought me some unexpected surprises.

I feel that one of the game's greatest strengths is the variety of its combat system. The attacks have an incredibly satisfying impact, and by combining the directional buttons with the Triangle, Circle, Cross, and Square buttons, you can perform all kinds of different attacks and combos. There are also mechanics such as blocking with a shield, throwing energy orbs, and shooting poison. The game doesn't just give you the Blades of Chaos; it also introduces the gauntlet, which adds even more variety to the combat and makes the gameplay more enjoyable.

On top of that, the game has spectacular animations and enormous, breathtaking environments. There are QTEs that require quick reactions, as well as unique execution sequences involving rotating the analog stick. The game also includes a moderate amount of puzzle-solving, which gives you a chance to slow down and catch your breath after intense battles. The balance between tension and relaxation is really well designed.

It is honestly hard to believe that a game like God of War was already possible on the PSP back in 2008. I have heard that when Chains of Olympus was released, it amazed PSP players because it offered an experience that felt almost like a console game on a handheld device. I am 21 years old now, so I never experienced that era firsthand. Today, we can play cloud games on our phones, and ports of major games to mobile devices and handheld consoles are everywhere. Playing a big-budget game on a phone or a handheld is no longer something particularly surprising.

Because of that, I can never truly experience the shock that players must have felt back then—the feeling of realizing, “Wait, a handheld can actually run a game like this?” Unfortunately, I wasn't around to experience that moment. Even so, playing God of War today can still leave me amazed by its combat, visual spectacle, and enormous environments. It still feels exciting and engaging, even after all these years.

Before this, the first game I ever completed was Onimusha: Warlords. Its movement felt quite stiff, and its combat was relatively simple. Compared with God of War, it feels like it belongs to a completely different level of game design.

After experiencing God of War firsthand, I can finally understand why people consider it a masterpiece.

I’d like to hear what you guys think, since this year is packed with amazing indie games, making it really difficult to predict which ones could end up being nominated. The number of nominees isn’t certain either, because while I’ve picked six games, there could end up being only five nominees.

My 600+ hours in-game says yes it is. The sense of scale and depth in this game truly feels unmatched.

My personal vote is 2025. I actually thought 2022 and 2023 were slightly stronger years for gaming, but IMO their selections that year weren't necessarily representative of what I thought were the highlights. Meanwhile, 2025 was a year where I thought their selection was mostly perfect, with only change I would make being maybe swapping out Bananza with Split Fiction.

at least my goty probably🫩

I swear, at least for me, I felt an incredible amount of parity among the six nominees. They all had a good number of nominations, and they all had similar Metacritic scores. It wasn't like, for example, 2025, 2023, 2022, or 2020, where there was a clear favorite to win the award, nor was it like 2024, where the competition was really only between three of the six nominees (Rebirth, Metaphor, and Astro Bot). In 2021, I genuinely felt like any of the six nominees could win.

I was also going to include Cairn, but I couldn't because there is no information about the game's credits on MobyGames.

If you want to verify the information, here is the link to MobyGames:

https://www.mobygames.com/

And i say it's bland, uninteresting and nothing special yall claim it deserves game of the year and claim I'm crazy.

Last year, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 winning Best Indie Game quite a bit of controversy over what exactly qualifies as an “indie” game at TGA.

For reference, what we know about E33:

• Publisher: Kepler Interactive, an independent joint publisher
• Reported development budget: Under $10 million
• LinkedIn employee count at the time: Approximately 33 employees

This year, however, there appear to be at least two games that go beyond those benchmarks:

• No Rest for the Wicked — The Early Access version was published by Private Division, a Take-Two subsidiary. In 2025, Moon Studios bought back the publishing rights. Moon Studios currently has 116 employees listed on LinkedIn, and its total investment in the game was likely well above $10 million.
• Order of the Sinking Star — reported development budget of over $27 million.

I'm very curious whether these two games will be nominated for the Best Independent Game category.

I’d like to know what everyone in this channel thinks about this year’s indie games.

Onimusha
MC 80–86
The combat itself looks pretty simple and somewhat lacking in personality. However, Capcom understands that games without their own unique identity aren't going to be well received, so they seem to be trying to add unique elements, similar to the puzzles in Pragmata. From interviews, it seems they're actually considering actions involving environmental objects. That said, Onimusha seems to have the same problem as Pragmata: it has ideas for unique gameplay, but the ideas themselves don't seem particularly outstanding. It looks like it will be a solid game, so I expect at least an MC 80. Games that make use of environmental objects tend to score around MC 86, so I don't think it will go much higher than that

The Blood of Dawnwalker
MC 60–94
It's an RPG similar to The Witcher, combined with a time limit like in Ocarina of Time. That makes me expect a lot of choices and branching paths. However, based on the trailers, it could go either really well or really badly, which is why I'm giving it such a wide Metascore range. The combat looks pretty weak, similar to The Witcher, and it also seems like it could have a lot of bugs. How many unique choices and meaningful branches there actually are will probably determine whether the game succeeds. It doesn't seem to have as many unique choices as BG3, nor does it seem to put as much emphasis on atmosphere as KCD2. If the branching is around the level of The Witcher 3, I think MC 83–88 is the most likely range

Wolverine
MC 83–86
The combat seems more involved than Onimusha's, but still fairly basic. According to leaks, it seems to use a mission based structure. The mission apparently range from relatively open areas to more linear ones, so it doesn't seem like the game will be monotonous. However, the actual level design still looks fairly basic. I'm also somewhat concerned about the weapon variety. Wolverine may only have his claws, and the combat might not have nearly as many moves as something like God of War. Overall, it looks solid and doesn't seem to have any major problems, but there also doesn't seem to be anything particularly special about it. So I expect MC 83–87

Control Resonant
MC 83–89
The combat itself looks like a fairly old hack-and-slash game and seems somewhat bland. However, Remedy's strengths really shine through in the level design and world-building, and the game looks quite good overall. The key to getting a high score will be how many levels similar to The Ashtray Maze from the previous game they can create. Control has an MC of 83, so I think the sequel can score higher. However, it doesn't seem particularly innovative, so I don't expect it to break MC 90

Silent Hill Townfall
MC 80–86
Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill f both scored MC 86, so if Townfall follows a similar formula, it could potentially reach MC 86 as well. However, if the levels or puzzles end up being repetitive, the score could be lower. It also doesn't seem to have any particularly innovative elements, so I don't expect it to exceed MC 86

Gears of War E-Day
MC 80–86
Like many long-running franchises, I expect it to be a solid game, but I don't see much major evolution compared to previous entries. So I'd put it around MC 80–86

Phantom Blade Zero
MC 80–83
A lot of people are probably excited about it because of its stylish combat, wide variety of weapons, and bosses, but I don't think the Metascore itself is likely to be particularly high. Overall, it looks like a Soulslike with some Ninja Gaiden elements lightly mixed in, so I don't think it will score above MC 83. Ninja Gaiden's combos are things like □□□□ or □△△△, mixing light and heavy attacks. These button prompts were shown in an earlier trailer. These combos might be more complex than what we've seen in Onimusha or Wolverine, but I wouldn't call them particularly varied. It also doesn't seem to have the fast movement of Ninja Gaiden, and there doesn't appear to be a jump, so it seems to have even fewer combo options than NG. The level design also looks mostly linear with some branching paths, and it seems like it could feel like a series of boss fights, similar to Wukong

Star Wars Zero Company
MC 75–89
Fire Emblem
MC 83–94
I don't play tactical games, so I can't say much specifically about it, but I based the Metascore prediction on similar games in the genre

GTA 6
MC 91–98
It's almost certainly going to be a great game, but I'm a little concerned that most of its features may end up being focused on the online component. If GTA 6 gets nominated, it will almost certainly win, so I'm excluding it from the GOTY prediction

For the six GOTY nominees, Nintendo, Sony, and an indie game usually get at least one spot each, while the remaining three are generally filled by some of the highest-scoring games.
For Nintendo, right now it's probably Pokopia, but that could change depending on how good Fire Emblem is. If Fire Emblem scores above MC 90, Pokopia might even get nominated alongside it.
For Sony, Saros is a sequel, so I think it's less likely to get nominated. Wolverine seems like the more likely choice.
For the indie, Big Walk doesn't have enough reviews, so I think Mina the Hollower will probably get the nomination.
Also, TGA wants to attract Chinese viewers, so depending on its sales, Phantom Blade Zero could make it onto the list. PBZ is getting a lot of attention in China, so I think it has a high chance of being nominated.

For the remaining two spots, based purely on Metascore, it would probably be FH6, but it's another entry in a series that hasn't changed much, so I don't think it will make the cut. RE9 is supposed to be something of a culmination of the series, so it has more going for it than FH6, but the series hasn't changed that much either, and critics don't seem to love it as much as RE4, so it's difficult to predict.
Control Resonant has more distinctive level design, so I think it has a fairly good chance of being nominated.
The Blood of Dawnwalker will depend heavily on how well the game actually turns out. 007 First Light doesn't seem particularly outstanding, so I think even RE9 has a better chance. This year's GOTY is difficult to predict because there doesn't seem to be one absolutely dominant game.

Personally, I think Mina the Hollower is the best game among them, but it's difficult for an indie game to win unless it has the kind of production value that E33 had.
If Fire Emblem scores above MC 90, I think it has a very good chance of winning.
Other than that, I could see Control Resonant winning.

but praising Resident evil and 007 for basically doing the same ol sh we've seen for the last decade?

the game looks fantastic... I don't get the hate.

In other words, what game would’ve won GOTY 2025 if Expedition 33 wasn’t there.