2019 |

2019 Game of the Year Awards Round-Up

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/07/2020

Posted in: 2019, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: 2019, awards, game of the year, goty, round up. Leave a comment

Resident Evil 2

Awarded

Game of the Year
Best Atmosphere
Best Sound Design
Best Action
Best Reissue
Best Multi-Platform

Nominated

Best Graphics, Technical
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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

Awarded

Best Multiplayer
Best Shooter

Nominated

Game of the Year
Best Sound Design
Best Voice Acting
Best Graphics, Technical
Best Multi-Platform
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Disco Elysium

Awarded

Best Story
Best Indie Game
Best Graphics, Artistic
Best RPG
Best PC Exclusive

Nominated

Game of the Year
Best Atmosphere
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Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Awarded

Best Voice Acting

Nominated

Game of the Year
Best Story
Best Sound Design
Best Graphics, Technical
Best Action
Best Multi-Platform
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Death Stranding

Awarded

Best PlayStation 4 Exclusive

Nominated

Game of the Year
Best Story
Best Voice Acting
Best Graphics, Technical
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Mortal Kombat 11

Awarded

Best Fighter

Nominated

Game of the Year
Best Sound Design
Best Multiplayer
Best Multi-Platform
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Anthem

Awarded

Most Disappointing Game
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Super Mario Maker 2

Awarded

Best Platformer

Nominated

Game of the Year
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Metro Exodus

Awarded

Best Graphics, Technical

Nominated

Best Atmosphere
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Wreckfest

Awarded

Best Driving
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Sky: Children of Light

Awarded

Best Mobile Exclusive

Nominated

Best Graphics, Artistic
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Tetris 99

Awarded

Best Puzzler
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The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

Awarded

Best Switch Exclusive

Nominated

Game of the Year
Best Graphics, Artistic
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Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Awarded

Best Strategy

Nominated

Game of the Year
Best Switch Exclusive
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Game of the year is the hardest category to choose and I often think about this throughout the entire year. While there were so many great runner-ups, like there is every year, the one that makes it to the top for me is the most memorable. It’s not a mathematical score of what game received the most awards or had the highest score, but what was the most fun and memorable. A game has to leave something with me and resonate. A game that needs to be discussed and admired and something even revolutionary or groundbreaking.

Resident Evil 2

It was really only a close call between God of War and Red Dead II this year with Spider-Man right behind them. This was one of those rare years where I had to analyze each and every piece of both games to determine the winner. They both have fantastic acting, characters, gameplay elements, and visuals. God of War however did most of this with more finesse and less experimentation. I felt the story of Kratos and Atrius cut a little deeper and I felt more attached and wanted to die to see the next cut-scene while Red Dead II was a really slow burn. The gameplay in God of War single-handedly reshaped combat for its own genre while Red Dead II just refined it. They both had large open worlds, but God of War’s was more memorable and had so much incredible detail that Red Dead just didn’t have.

Runner-Ups

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

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Mortal Kombat 11

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A Plague Tale: Innocence

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

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Disco Elysium

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The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

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The Outer Worlds

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Super Mario Maker 2

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Death Stranding

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Fire Emblem: Three Houses

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Pokemon Sword/Shield

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2019 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Best Atmosphere

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/05/2020

Posted in: 2019, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: 2019, a plague tale, atmosphere, awards, disco elysium, exodus, game of the year, goty, innocence, metro, resident evil 2, the outer worlds. Leave a comment

The atmosphere doesn’t mean scary. While there are games out there that are scary and can suck you in, any game can really. It just takes excellent world-building and something that’s not realistic but engaging, a world that you would want to be in.

Resident Evil 2

RE2 managed to nab the scary atmosphere this year, but also the heart-wrenching fear of being stuck in Raccoon City. The world in RE2 may be linear, but it’s downright frightening and one of the best horror games of the last decade. The most realistic zombies ever created sure helps a lot too.

Runner-Ups

Metro Exodus

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Disco Elysium

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A Plague Tale: Innocence

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The Outer Worlds

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2019 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Best Story

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/05/2020

Posted in: 2019, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: 2019, a plague tale, awards, death stranding, disco elysium, game of the year, goty, innocence, jedi, star wars, story, the fallen order, the outer worlds. Leave a comment

A story is one of the most important parts of a game. Sometimes without a story, a game is nothing or boring. Not every game needs a story to be good, but if a developer is going to put one in make it memorable and worth sitting through.

Disco Elysium

Disco Elysium’s story is the best of the bunch this year due to the sheer amount of detail and lore set within the game. The characters are not only well written, but add to the story and make the entire journey worth finishing and it’s something you will remember and contemplate long after the game is finished.

Runner-Ups

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

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The Outer Worlds

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A Plague Tale: Innocence

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Death Stranding

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Sound design is all about immersing the player into the world. It’s not about quality but about how the sound is implemented and how much care is put into it. Do the developers use the same footstep sounds throughout the whole game or different steps for each type of terrain? That’s the type of detail we’re looking for.

Resident Evil 2

Resident Evil 2’s sound is both eerie and unbelievably engaging. From the sounds of opening doors, the moans of zombies, and footsteps in empty halls. Even the rustling of clothes is present and it’s tall enough to create one big sound design package that helps suck you into the atmosphere of RE2.

Runner-Ups

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

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Mortal Kombat 11

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A Plague Tale: Innocence

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

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2019 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Best Indie Game

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/01/2020

Posted in: 2019, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: 2019, a plague tale, a simple story, arise, awards, disco elysium, game of the year, goty, indie, innocence, life is strange 2, untitled goose game. Leave a comment

Indie titles have really taken off over the last decade and going into a new one we will see more indie games top the quality of some AAA titles. I have some indie games under my belt as some of my all-time favorite games. They don’t have the time constraints and corporate oversight that larger budget titles do.

Disco Elysium

Nothing screams top-notch indie developers like ZA/UM Studios. They came out swinging in the top-down RPG genre that’s ruled by companies like Obsidian, Beamdog, and Larian Studios. Disco Elysium has everything a AAA title has without the nonsense. Great voice acting, art, story, and characters.

Runner-Ups

Life is Strange 2

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Untitled Goose Game

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A Plague Tale: Innocence

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Arise: A Simple Story

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2019 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Best Voice Acting

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/01/2020

Posted in: 2019, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: 2019, awards, call of duty, cod, control, death stranding, fallen order, game of the year, gears 5, goty, jedi, modern warfare, star wars, voice acting. Leave a comment

Voice acting isn’t just tied to AAA titles, but many indie games have fantastic voice acting as well. It’s also not just about not sounding like you’re reading a high school play in boredom, but the delivery of character, and selling the character to the player and drawing them in.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Jedi: Fallen Order doesn’t just have great voice acting, but the actors sell the characters and it most importantly feels like it could be an actual Star Wars film. There have been bad voice acting in Star Wars games before, but Fallen Order is by far the best yet next to Battlefront II. Every character feels and looks like their voices and it helps sell the entire game as one cohesive top-notch package.

Runner-Ups

Control

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Gears 5

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Death Stranding

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

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2019 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Best Graphics, Technical

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 01/01/2020

Posted in: 2019, Game of the Year Awards. Tagged: 2019, awards, best graphics, call of duty, cod, death stranding, exodus, fallen order, game of the year, goty, jedi, metro, modern warfare, resident evil 2, star wars, technical. Leave a comment

The best graphics in a technical showcase are less about the art and more about pushing shaders and GPUs. Usually the best technical game is a masterclass example of a brand new graphics technology or just a game that can define a generation even.

Metro Exodus

PC – PS4 – Xbox One

Metro Exodus is a gorgeous game, but what really pushes it above the others is the use of Nvidia’s new ray tracing technology to bring lighting to life. It’s one of the few games that does it well and is only available on the latest RTX GPUs from Nvidia.

Runner-Ups

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

PC – PS4 – Xbox One

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

PC – PS4 – Xbox One

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Resident Evil 2

PC – PS4 – Xbox One

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Death Stranding

PS4

Graphics aren’t everything in a game, but they can still make or break it. Artistically, it can set a game apart from the rest or make one stand out over all the others. It’s not just cartoony, but a game with a unique art style and sense of identity is what you see here.

Disco Elysium

Disco Elysium’s art style is something that makes you stop and look when scrolling through a store page. It’s an art style you won’t forget and keep you entranced during your entire playthrough. The muddy, gritty, and dirty look of Elysium is just spectacular and every background oozes with detail.

Runner-Ups

Yoshi’s Crafted World

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Arise: A Simple Story

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Sky: Children of Light

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The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

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This isn’t the category that you want to try out. These games were the most horrific of the year due to several factors. Be it just overhyped, the controversy behind the production, awful gameplay, so many game-breaking bugs that it’s unplayable, or just not delivering what’s promised. The worst game of them all usually delivers on all fronts, and sadly, should be avoided.

Anthem

Anthem was so hyped by BioWare that it was considered the next best thing since Mass Effect. The problem is no knowing what the game even was leading up to launch. After launch the game was void of any gameplay, had very few maps, just wasn’t fun at all, not to mention the abusive work environments that BioWare put its staff through. Anthem being a live service game isn’t even fun to this day after all the changes made and that’s quite an achievement.