2022

2022 Game of the Year Awards — Genre Awards — Best Shooter

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/29/2022
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This was a solid year for shooters. There was a lot of variety this year, and surprisingly, there is something better than Call of Duty. From indie to AAA budget there was something for everyone this year.

Destiny 2: The Witch Queen

With a slew of new content, advancing the addictive gameplay loop, a great story, and fun RPG elements makes The Witch Queen a fantastic game. It’s not just a DLC package, but a full on package that makes the base game than it’s ever been.

Runner-Ups

High on Life

Prodeus

Metal: Hellsinger

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II

2022 Game of the Year Awards — Genre Awards — Best Graphics, Artistic

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/27/2022
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Every game has artistic graphics. It takes an artist to put them into the game. However, the best usually have a flair, style, design DNA, or something unique to them that set them apart from any other game. It makes them iconic and instantly recognizable or it can make you stop and soak in every scene and detail in the game.

Scorn

It may not be a very good game, but my God does it look good. It’s one of the best looking games ever made and the art inspired by H.R. Giger is prevalent and beautiful. It’s dark, depressing, lonely, and hopeless. The scenery invokes a lot of emotion when playing despite the awful combat and derivative puzzle designs. I just wish a good story accompanied this work of art.

Runner-Ups

High on Life

Cult of the Lamb

Elden Ring

Stray

2022 Game of the Year Awards — Genre Awards — Best RPG

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/27/2022
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This was a light year for traditional RPGs, but we still got a few awesome ones. From Western to Eastern RPGs can be one of the best ways to dive into a story and soak in lore and characters. While not groundbreaking normally they can look fantastical and suck the player in and let you become lost in their world.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3

This whopper of an RPG didn’t disappoint. It’s a juggernaut of a franchise that’s stuck close to Nintendo’s heels. Gorgeous visuals, a more intricate battle system, awesome characters, and a story with a lot of twists and turns. It’s a JRPG that pretty much checks all of the boxes which is kind of rare.

Runner-Ups

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII – Reunion

Chained Echoes

The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero

Jack Move

2022 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Best New Game

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/26/2022
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A new game can breath new life into the game industry. Either with innovative ideas or something that’s already been done, but incredibly well. These are some of the games that everyone watches for. What new IPs await around the corner?

Not for Broadcast

Not for Broadcast is an adventure game full of fantastic written British humor and fun gameplay that can be quite challenging. The entire world that’s built here is something that you will remember forever. This is easily the best FMV game ever made.

Runner-Ups

The Callisto Protocol

Stray

Cult of the Lamb

High on Life

2022 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Most Exciting Return

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/25/2022
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A decade-dormant franchise, a reboot, a spin-off, or anything else that could conjure up such excitement and anticipation to make an exciting return to a franchise. This doesn’t mean the biggest sequel, the longest in development, or anything like that. Just a sequel that is well-teased and well-loved that people want to get their hands on. This also doesn’t mean the game will be any good. Half-Life 3 might finally come along and totally suck, but it will still be exciting to see that franchise return.

Bayonetta 3

Take any dormant Nintendo franchise and they would always win this category. While Bayonetta 2 was a fine port it was exactly that. Gamers have been anticipating the threequel on Switch since the system’s announcement. Constant delays and rumored cancellations brewed making gamers want this game even more. Everyone knew it would be good, but how good? What new tricks would Platinum have up its sleeve. Well, they delivered. A bombastic and high-octane action game with tons of personality and thrills.

Runner-Ups

Sonic Frontiers

Dying Light 2

Return to Monkey Island

God of War: Ragnarok

2022 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Best Multi-Platform Game

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/25/2022
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While console exclusives are slowly dying this category will never disappear. Some games may remain console exclusive one year and then go multi-platform. Some are just designed that way in the beginning. This allows all gamers to play a game and share the experience.

Elden Ring

It’s not often that a game full of so much lore yet so little storytelling can be as compelling as Elden Ring. The combat can be addictive once you master it. The learning curve can be monumental or impossible for some, but the patient will be rewarding with one of the most beautiful and interesting games ever made. No matter what system you it on you’re going to have a great time.

Runner-Ups

Sonic Frontiers

The Callisto Protocol

Destiny 2: The Witch Queen

A Plague Tale: Requiem

2022 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Most Evolved Sequel

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/25/2022
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A game that evolves the most isn’t always the best game out there. Bringing a series back from the dead in spectacular ways, fantastic reboots, or fixing a long-running broken series can go a long way. There were many greatly improved sequels that did little to halt the progress of what it went out to achieve.

Sonic Frontiers

Sonic Frontiers is a perfect example of what to do and not to do. Spending 20 years to make a good game in a long running franchise isn’t good and Sonic Team probably holds a world record for it. Somehow they finally found the magic. An open world design which is a first for the series. More advanced combat with combos, parrying, and dodging, a unique fast travel system, great graphics, and bite-sized 2D stages thrown in. If they keep this up this can be a home run for the series.

Runner-Ups

God of War: Ragnarok

Horizon: Forbidden West

Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Bayonetta 3

2022 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Least Evolved Sequel

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/23/2022
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Being least evolved doesn’t always mean bad. Sometimes it can be a good thing as if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But, that’s not the best approach to a sequel and can be considered lazy or phoned in. There were a lot of games this year that had sequels that didn’t change much from previous games or stepped back in some places.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II

This wasn’t the stark change that 2019’s Modern Warfare was at all. This was more of the same. A lot more of the same. While it’s all good and nothing was ruined there were a few steps backwards such as the UI and the awful stealth missions in the single-player campaign that Cold War did so well. Even the visuals weren’t a huge boost over 2019’s game. Still, it’s a great game with a hell of a multiplayer suite.

Runner-Ups

A Plague Tale: Requiem

The King of Fighters XV

Pokemon Scarlet/Violet

Goat Simulator 3

2022 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Most Disappointing Game

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/23/2022
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Well, this category isn’t something you want to see any games in, but they exist every year, and as time goes on it’s actually harder to find the games to put in here due to how many there are. That’s not a good thing. Many games disappointed this year from buggy launches, unfinished products, being a dud in a loved series, or just plain sucking.

Scorn

This is one of the toughest awards I have had to give a game to this year. Scorn had so much incredible potential. It’s one of the most artistic and unique looking games ever made. How on Earth do you screw everything else up? The combat is atrociously slow and dull, there is zero story or characters involved, there’s hardly any music, and the puzzles get dull after so long. I wanted this game to be good, and I was utterly shocked at just how not good it was.

Runner-Ups

Valkyrie Elysium

Babylon’s Fall

Gotham Knights

Saints Row

2022 Game of the Year Awards — Achievement Awards — Best Platformer

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/23/2022
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Platformers have mostly been ignored by AAA publishers outside of the occasional first-party release. Indie developers have been advancing the series for the last decade and we got a huge variety of great games this year. Many 2D, some 3D, and all a ton of fun.

Sonic Frontiers

They finally did it. Sonic Team finally managed to make a good 3D Sonic game. It may have taken 20 years, but it’s finally here. It may not objectively be perfect platformer, but it advances the series so much that it deserves praise. It’s something that fans have been wanting and it has become a running joke that Sonic Team can’t make a good 3D game. The gameplay loop is addictive, the voice acting is finally good, the graphics are weird, but wonderful, and despite a few hiccups you can’t fault Sonic Team much for it. This game is the start of something grand that tens of millions of fans can finally be proud of.

Runner-Ups

OlliOlli World

Neon White

Freedom Planet 2

Rogue Legacy 2