The Game Awards Game of the Year Nominees Revealed

The Game Awards has announced its list of nominees for the coveted Game of the Year Award, including some massive heavy hitters. 2023 has been a fantastic year for games with Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Resident Evil 4 Remake leading the charge at the start of the year. Baldur's Gate III proved to be a massive cultural moment in gaming, setting a new standard that RPGs will measure up against for years to come. 

The end of the year was capped off by 2 massive releases in Alan Wake II and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 with the former making meaningful strides in innovative game design and setting a new bar for presentation and storytelling. The final list of the nominees looks like this: 

• Alan Wake II
• Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
• Baldur's Gate III
• Marvel's Spider-Man 2 
• Resident Evil 4
• Super Mario Bros. Wonder

While many considered titles like Legend of Zelda: Tear of the Kingdom and Resident Evil 4 to be a shoo-in for this year's GOTY, this year saw some massive surprises as it went on. The 1-2 punch of Baldur's Gate III and Alan Wake II make for 2 titles that fans didn't quite expect to be as good as they were. 2023 is easily one of the most competitive years in gaming, a healthy sign of things for the games industry.

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2023 Game of the Year: One of the Most Competitive Years in Gaming

While 2022 was also a pretty fantastic year for gaming, the final major awards eventually boiled down to 2 titles - God of War: Ragnarok and Elden Ring. This year, there are at least 4 titles that make a great case for themselves. Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom takes massive creative risks concerning gameplay design and goes a step further than its predecessor to provide an even more open-ended gameplay experience to the player.

Baldur's Gate III reinvents the wheel in a big way by bringing nuance to the DnD-style RPG with impeccable writing and sheer breadth of variety in quests. Remedy continues their hot streak after the excellent Control with Alan Wake II. The sequel to the 2010 game completely changes gears from an action-horror title to a full-on survival horror that pays off in a big way.

Resident Evil 4 is perhaps the finest Capcom remake to date and it also helps it was already considered one of the greatest games ever made. The studio has masterfully retained everything that made the original great and improved in key areas that make for a vastly superior experience. Marvel's Spider-Man is this year's big PlayStation exclusive in the GOTY conversation and it makes some truly impressive leaps in tech with seamless traversal and fast travel mechanics and visuals.

The Game Awards will take place on December 7. Fans can head to The Game Awards site (linked here) to sign in and vote for their favourite games this year across multiple categories, including GOTY.