As the end of the year approaches, so does the video game awards season. We’ve already had the Golden Joystick Awards a few days ago, with Baldur’s Gate 3 sweeping up most of the prominent awards.
But still to come is the most prestigious video game awards ceremony of them all – The Game Awards. Not only does The Game Awards reward the very best games of the year, but the ceremony always includes some huge reveals of brand-new upcoming games.
In previous years, the Game Awards featured reveals for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Game, Alan Wake 2, The Callisto Protocol and more.
Horror Game Nominations
As fans of horror games, it’s nice to see some recognition for the genre, especially in a year dominated by RPGs such as Baldur’s Gate 3, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Starfield. All of which were fantastic games, might I add.
The nominations for the 31 categories of awards were recently announced, and coming out on top is the recently released Alan Wake 2. It’s in the running for 8 awards – tying Baldur’s Gate 3 as the most nominated games this year. This includes:
- Game of the Year
- Best Game Direction
- Best Narrative
- Best Art Direction
- Best Score and Music (for composer Petri Alanko)
- Best Audio Design
- Best Performance (for Melanie Liburd)
- Best Action-Adventure Game
It’s really fantastic to see Alan Wake 2 get the praise it deserves. But it’s going to have to go against some heavy hitters, especially in the Game of the Year category.
Plus, Alan Wake 2 isn’t the only horror game in contention for Game of the Year, with the Resident Evil 4 remake earning a nomination too. Unfortunately for Capcom, it’s probably unlikely that a remake or remaster would ever win the Game of the Year award.
Resident Evil 4 is also nominated for audio design and action-adventure game. Based on how many Leon Kennedy edits that were circulating around the internet earlier this year, it’s likely that a lot of fans have placed their votes with Resident Evil.
Shifting over to indie games, the fantastic Lovecraftian horror fishing game Dredge is sailing away with 2 nominations. They are best indie game, and best indie debut game.
Funnily enough, Dredge is competing with fellow “indie” fishing game Dave the Diver. That game’s nomination in the indie category is pretty controversial at the minute, as the developers are a subsidiary of a multi-billion-dollar Korean company. That doesn’t seem too independent to us.
Some video game adaptations are also seeing some recognition by The Game Awards. Castlevania and The Last of Us – two of the top-selling horror franchises of all time – released excellent adaptations to animation and TV respectively this year.
In the Game Award’s 9-year tenure, The Last of Us Part II has been the only horror game to ever win. So it’d be fantastic to see the franchise winning once more.
Finally, nominated for the best AR/VR game is Resident Evil Village, which released a VR mode this year for PSVR. Whilst not as scary it’s predecessor Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, it’s still a fantastic and enjoyable survival horror game.
If you have a favourite game this year that you would love to see win, remember to cast your vote. Let’s try to see some representation for the horror genre! The winners are chosen by a blended vote. It’s weighted 90% towards the voting jury – consisting of over 100 video game outlets – and 10% towards the public.