The Game Awards has a problem. Or, perhaps, games media and the way nominees are voted for have a problem. Because when looking at the recently announced nominees, there seem to be many obvious omissions, especially in certain categories. For instance, Best Game Direction, which is supposedly “Awarded for outstanding creative vision and innovation in game direction and design.” Can someone tell me why Ghost of Yōtei is nominated for this category? Not because I don’t think it’s a good or well-directed game—I do—but it is very much an iterative sequel. 

When thinking about the words “innovation,” “design,” and “creative vision,” I think of titles like Blue Prince, a game that I didn’t particularly click with, but is a puzzle game unlike anything else in terms of its design. The way The Alters combines its narrative with its resource management gameplay is incredibly innovative and takes a tremendous effort, directionally, to pull off. Even if you don’t want to show that much love to indies, fine—how about Donkey Kong Bananza? The way the world forms to your destruction and allows for so many fun solutions to problems is nothing short of brilliant. Then, there are personal gripes. For me, it’s a shame that South of Midnight didn’t get love for either Best Music or Best Art Direction. It’s such a special game that I felt deserved more of a spotlight. 

Listen, I get it, it’s impossible to create a perfect award show that fully encapsulates the year in gaming and pleases everybody. And credit to Geoff for improving the show each year. It simply seems like every year, the voters choose five or six games that they think are the year’s best games, and nominate them for damn near every category. Either way, it doesn’t matter; we all know Expedition 33 is sweeping this thing.