168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Games For Impact i💖s always an odd category at 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Game Awards. It’s tough to really def🌟ine what it’s for, and why it’s even in a show that seems to care less about the process behind making games and the vast array of titles than it does the sales of the biggest blockbuster hits. It’s usually full of odds and ends, making me torn on how I feel💛. But this year, it seems part of the show.

Of the six nominees for Games For Impact, three of them (168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Life is Strange: Double Exposure, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, and Neva) are nominated elsewhere. Compare that to the last two years when none of them were, or three years ago when just one was (also 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Life is Strange via 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:True Colors) and it’s a big, positive difference. There were still good games in those crops - TheGamer’s GOTY 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Citizen Sleeper bei𓄧ng the obvious one - but they weren’t TGA games. This year, they are. That’s important.

Games For Impact Has Nominations Across Categories

It brings Games For Impact in line with the rest of the show. While it’s nice on a representational level to see unique games nominated so more games can call themselves official TGA nominees, it was always odd that games appeared here and nowhere else. It made it seem like a fake category. These weren’t ’real TGA nominees’, just charity cases. That’s not the caseꦏ this year, and a rising tide raises all boats.

Even though 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Closer the Distance, Indika, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Tales of Kenzera: Zau are only nominated here, the category is legitimised by having noms cross into other categories. It now feels like Closer the Distance and I🍌ndika are unlucky not to be in the Indie categories, rather than lucky to be nominated for anything at all.

It’s still a category only open to certain games, and one the jury will likely disqualify the major triple-A titles from to make room for others. But hopefully this is the start of it being considered part of the show for real, rather than a participation trophy. The thinner crop of great games in 2024 (nominees in most🧔 categories were stronger and better reviewed last year) may be a factor, but I hope it is part of a longer lasting trend.

I Don't Agree With The Nominees, But That's Showbiz

I still don’t think the selections are perfect, but that’s how award shows go. There’s not one category where, if I had my way, I wouldn’t change at least one nominee. But in previous years, Games For Impact has been sheltered from this. The games weren’t really in a race. It was peak H꧟o🧸noured To Be Nominated territory.

An💟y criticism was usually angled at the award itself, for the show and jury failing to mesh Games For Impact into the fabric of the ceremony. The titles themselves were above reproach. That they’re now open to evaluation is another sign that this is finally a real category. And it's these in games that help legitimise the award where there seems room for improvement.

Hellblade 2 ꦯdeals with complex issues through Senua’s psychosis, though not quite as well as the first game did. Then again, few have tackled mental health so fiercely, and with a DLC of a GOTY winner up for GOTY itself, maybe Hellblade isn’t the worst double dipper on the docket. I’m unconvinced that Hellblade’s backwards step is worthy of nomination, but seeing as it’s also up for 𓃲Best Narrative, the jury clearly disagrees.

Life is Strange meanwhile is a quintessential Games for Impact series. This is its fourth time appearing in the category, more than any other game. But it’s hard to see why this time. It has a nice, cosy feel - the games are always set in a progressive utopia,🔥 despite the murders they feature - but I’m not sure what else there is to it. Maybe I’m taking Life is Strange for granted. Double Exposure features several gay characters, lots of diversity, and a trans woman. That’s in line with this award. But it does feel a little like LiS is there by default, even if it definitely does deserve Hannah Telles’ nomina💙tion in Best Performance.

This also feels like a major slight on 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dragon Age: The Veilguard. For all the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:flaws with its lore and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:softening of Dragon Age’s bite, its trans representation is fantastic and embedded deep within the game. Taash’s coming out was divisive, but I und♛erstood the inte💟ntion and imperfection has never been a disqualifier in this category previously. Then there’s 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Rook’s own optional transness, which is one of the best exampl𒅌es of embracing gender identity I have seen in a video game. The Veilguard would be my pick to win, and it’s not even nominated.

Perhaps those who would have voted declined to as they were already putting it up for ‘real’ categories, which it didn’t make the cut for (Innovation in Accessibility is decided by a specialist jury), and those who wouldn’t have voted for it in major categories didn’t like it enough to see its value in Games For Impact. Either way, the lack of The Veilguard is the one glaring misfire in thi๊s category, even if I consider other noms imperfect.

It’s tough to call who will win this year. I suspect the weight of the playerbase for Life is Strange and Hellblade will tip the scales. The category is being taken a bit more seriously, but perhaps not enough for the jury to make space in their calendars to play Closer the Distance. But if this trend holds into next꧒ year, maybe Games For Impact can finally feel like part of the show.

168澳洲幸运5开奖网: The Game Awards

Dates

❀ December 12, 2024 💞

Location

Peac🙈ock Theater, Los Angeles

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