The six games nominated for Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2022 are A Plague Tale: Requiem, Elden Ring, God of War Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West, Stray, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Out of these, the two games that stand the most likely shot at being crowned Game of the Year are Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarok, as they are the two highest-rated new video game releases of the year. At the time of this writing, Elden Ring reviews are slightly higher than God of War Ragnarok’s, with Elden Ring’s overall rating at 95 and Ragnarok’s at 94.
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While Elden Ring has a higher overall rating than God of War Ragnarok, Ragnarok is nominated for more awards this year, so perhaps that will give it the edge. God of War Ragnarok has been nominated for a total of 10 awards at this year’s Game Awards event, whereas Elden Ring is up for seven awards. Horizon Forbidden West is also up for seven awards, so it could very well cause an upset.
There doesn’t appear to be any major snubs for Game of the Year this time around, but some may be confused by the way nominations work. After all, some major games aren’t even out yet, and so they aren’t being considered for awards in the year of their release. This includes titles like Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, set to launch exclusively for the Switch later this week, horror game The Callisto Protocol launching on December 2, and Firaxis’ Midnight Suns strategy games that’s launching on the same day.
The Game Awards failing to take into account games that release near the end of the year has long been a criticism of the show, and that isn’t changing with this year’s event. Regardless, fans will be able to tune in to The Game Awards 2022 on December 8 to see which games win which awards as well as check out all the big announcements and world premiere trailers.
Here is the full list of Game Awards 2022 nominees:
Game of the Year
A Plague Tale: Requiem Elden Ring God of War Ragnarok Horizon Forbidden West Stray Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Best Game Direction
Elden Ring God of War Ragnarok Horizon Forbidden West Immortality Stray
Best Narrative
A Plague Tale: Requiem Elden Ring God of War Ragnarok Horizon Forbidden West Immortality
Best Art Direction
Elden Ring God of War Ragnarok Horizon Forbidden West Scorn Stray
Best Score and Music
A Plague Tale: Requiem Elden Ring God of War Ragnarok Metal: Hellsinger Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Best Audio Design
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Elden Ring God of War Ragnarok Gran Turismo 7 Horizon Forbidden West
Best Performance
Horizon Forbidden West (Ashly Burch as Aloy) A Plague Tale: Requiem (Charlotte McBurney as Amicia de Rune) God of War Ragnarok (Christopher Judge as Kratos) Immortality (Manon Gage as Marissa Marcel) God of War Ragnarok (Sunny Suljic as Atreus)
Games for Impact
A Memoimr Blue As Dusk Falls Citizen Sleeper Endling - Extinction is Forever Hindsight I Was a Teenage Exocolonist
Best Ongoing
Apex Legends Destiny 2 Final Fantasy 14 Fortnite Genshin Impact
Best Indie
Cult of the Lamb Neon White Sifu Stray Tunic
Best Mobile Game
Apex Legends Mobile Diablo Immortal Genshin Impact Marvel Snap Tower of Fantasy
Best Community Support
Apex Legends Destiny 2 Final Fantasy 14 Fortnite No Man’s Sky
Innovation in Accessibility
As Dusk Falls God of War Ragnarok Return to Monkey Island The Last of Us Part 1 The Quarry
Best VR/AR
After the Fall Among Us VR Bonelab Moss: Book 2 Red Matter 2
Best Action Game
Bayonetta 3 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Neon White Sifu Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge
Best Action/Adventure
A Plague Tale: Requiem God of War Ragnarok Horizon Forbidden West Stray Tunic
Best Role Playing
Elden Ring Live A Live Pokemon Legends: Arceus Triangle Strategy Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Best Fighting
DNF Duel JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R The King of Fighters 15 MultiVersus Sifu
Best Family
Kirby and the Forgotten Land LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope Nintendo Switch Sports Splatoon 3
Best Sim/Strategy
Dune: Spice Wars Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope Total War: Warhammer 3 Two Point Campus Victoria 3
Best Sports/Racing
F1 22 FIFA 23 NBA 2K23 Gran Turismo 7 OlliOlli World
Best Multiplayer
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 MultiVersus Overwatch 2 Splatoon 3 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge
Content Creator of the Year
Karl Jacobs Ludwig Nibellion Nobru QTCinderella
Best Debut Indie
Neon White NORCO Stray Tunic Vampire Survivors
Best Adaptation
Arcane: League of Legends Cyberpunk: Edgerunners The Cuphead Show! Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Uncharted
Most Anticipated Game
Final Fantasy 16 Hogwarts Legacy Resident Evil 4 Starfield The Legend of Zelda: The Tears of the Kingdom
Best Esports Game
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Dota 2 League of Legends Rocket League Valorant
Best Esports Athlete
Jeong “Chovy” Ji-Hoon Lee “Faker” Sang-Hyeok Finn “Karrigan” Andersen Okelsander “S1mple” Kostyliev Jacob “Yay” Whiteaker
Best Esports Team
Darkzero Esports Faze Clan Gen. G LA Thieves Loud
Best Esports Coach
Andrii “B1AD3” Horodenskyi Matheus “Bzka” Tarasconi Erik “D00mbr0s” Sandgren Robert “Robban” Dahlstrom Go “Score” Dong-Bin
Best Esports Event
Evo 2022 2022 League of Legends World Championship PGL Major Antwerp 2022 The 2022 Mid-Season Invitational Valorant Champions 2022
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