nominations are out and the gaming world is abuzz! I think. I feel like we’re all a little muted this year about the Game Awards. There’s defin𒁃itely a buzz, but it doesn’t seem like we’re really abuzz, if that makes sense. More of a muted acknowledgement, really.

The world feels like one of those levels where you have to try to not fall off the side of a cliff🦩 while everyone keeps shoving you towards said cliff. Still, people sure do click on links when they’ve got The Game Awards in the title, so let’s see what blood we can wring from this stone.

The Game Awards are designed to be a mainstream event, so categories like ‘Best Narrative’, ‘Best Score and Music’, and ‘Best Hyper Crunch In A Flavor-Blasted Indie Game’ make sense. And, all joking aside, it is worth honoring games and the vast effort it takes to make them. Even if most of that honoring is mostly done in 30-second fragments between five-minute trailers and ten-minute cameos by confused celebrities who seemed to have been tricked onto s💮tage with a trail of M&Ms.

However, even a ceremony that makes Killers of the Flower Moon feel like a short film can’t contain every category. It’s impossible to award all of gaming when you . I’m sure it’s that - they ran out of time - aꦏnd not the fact that members of the Future Class began using the honor to discuss issues that aren’t on Mountain Dew’s PR sheet. So, away they go into the memory hole! It was nice while it lasted, Future Class! Just because you’re the future doesn’t mean the suits want you discussing the future!

With that in 🍌mind, here ar🔯e a few of the categories missing from the Game Awards nomination list. Some are important. Some are minor. All would pair great with a teaser for the next Cooking Mama, coming 2027.

Best Game To Make You Go, “Wait That Came Out This Year?!”

Possible Nominee: Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League

This is one of the most popular categories because, really, there are so m🎉any games released each year. Few are remembered. Many are forgotten. Some just feel like they’ve been part of the undying discourse for decades and will always be a phantom hanging over future game development. Whether a blessing or a curse, this honor goes to the game that feels like it’s been out longe♛r than any other game ever made in human history.

Best Game Of The Year About Space Madness Revealing A Striking Interpersonal Tragedy

Possible Nominee: Mouthwashing

There were 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:some great horror games this year, and while many of them foಌcused on things like ‘fear’ and ‘scariness’ and ‘making you afraid’, some went the extra mile. While this category may seem specific, there are a lot of examples of games about space madness revealing a striking interpersonal tragedy. If you have time to get this far in the article, you can find them online for yourself. It’ll be hard to narrow down the games about space madness revealing a striking interpersonal tragedy, but with the remake already in the rearview mirror, it’ll be a f𓃲un category to watch.

Best Game To Make Me Question How My Life Got To This Point

Possible Nominee: Princess Peach Showtime

Another big one! Lots of games make me question how my life got to this point. I’ve probably spent more time choosing dialogue options in games than I have ever speaking to actual human beings, so this is a category that’s a hot ticket every year. Winning this awa🌳rd takes a lot of skill, though. It can’t just be a time sink that makes me realize I could’ve written a screenplay in ﷺthe 80 hours I’ve put into . Some of these games - most of which I played in the dark - had moments that made me reflect and ask, “Is something wrong with me that I’m playing this? Is this what I was made to do with my life?”

Best Game To Make People Online Get Super Weird

Possible Nominee: Concord

As a weird person online, I can tell you that there’s nothing more powerful than a game that gets peopl⛦e talking about how it makes someone else feel bad. If it’s a great game with positive reviews, people online can talk about how it being so good makes other people feel bad. If it’s a terrible game with awful reviews, people online can talk about how it being bad makes other people feel bad. But the important thing, at the end of the day, isn’t whether someone enjoyed a game or not. It’s whether it can be used as a cudgel to make people you don’t know hurt inside. Extra points if it’s a game literally nobody plaဣyed.

Best Game I’m Not Sure Why People Online We’re Super Weird About, But They Definitely Were

Possible Nominee: Stellar Blade

A related category to the above, this one involves games that people got weird about for no specific reason and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:nobody really felt that bad about. I think fans assumed these games offended people when they didnꦦ’t? Probably because of boobs? I think 2023 or 2024 brought the weird assumption that people are upset about boobs existing, whi🐻ch doesn’t really play out culturally. Anyway, the games in this category are solidly good games and nobody seems to have felt bad about them, but they were still spoken of as if they caused a vast divide in the fandom.

Best Game To Ruin My Recommendations Algorithm On Steam Because It’s A Dating Sim Asking What If Your Girl Was A Frog

Possible Nominee: What If Your Girl Was A Frog 2

Some categories are smaller than others and this is one. We’re all used to our choices on streaming apps and online stores affecting the recommendations algorithm. But some products can really affect the algorithm. It turns out that Steam does not know if you’re buying a game as a joke or if you’re drunk or just really lonely and feel like you’re trapped in a cosmic corner𒈔 you’ll never get out of. .

Most Depressing Game That Makes More Sense The More This Year Goes On

Possible Nominee: Frostpunk 2

Who doesn’t love a depressing game? That’𓄧s my bread and butter, baby! Give me all the sadness. And this year is no exception. From remakes to new releases, games have been filled with a deep sorrow that cannot be treated with anything but the knowledge that one day we’ll be dead and feel nothing. That said, a few of the sad games rose above the rest to make people melodramatically - but somewhat accurately - think, “Yeah, thi🐓s seems like where things are going. Geez Louise. Society, right?”

Best Game Of The Year To Actually Deserve Game Of The Year Because It Actually Contains 50 New Games

Possible Nominee: UFO 50

Here we go. The big one! There are a lot of great games that came out this year. And, look, all the current games on the Game of the Year list are great! 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Espec🌞ially Balatro, which dese🔯rves to win. But is it the best game of the year entirely? Is it💖 better than everything else out there? No. There are games far better than anything on that list that completely deserves the game of the year award. Games in which you have 50 new ‘classic’ games made for a fictional video game consol🔴e, for example.