This year has seen many highs and lows when it comes to gaming. However, the Game Awards 2024 were certainly a highlight of the year! Once again hosted at the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles, twenty-nine awards were handed out to acknowledge the phenomenal work behind our favourite games of the year. Join us as we look at who won big and check out some tasty trailers for the games on the horizon.
Best Score and Music
From an epic orchestral sting to a simple 8-bit bop, nothing can help elevate a game like its score. What’s more, a well performed composition can stick with you for life. Vying to be your next ear worm in the Best Score and Music award are Astro Bot, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Metaphor: ReFantazio, Silent Hill 2, and Stellar Blade.
And the Winner is… Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
I said it last year when FF16 took this award and I’ll say it again now, Final Fantasy games always go big on the music. No surprise then, that Final Fantasy VII Rebirth took the gong this year.
Best Art Direction
No matter what some people say, video games are pieces of art. Countless hours get poured in to how a game should look and feel. As a result, we’re lucky to receive a fantastic range of visual feasts, in styles ranging from simple to complex. The games in competition for the Best Art Direction were Astro Bot, Black Myth: Wukong, Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and Neva.
And the Winner is… Metaphor: ReFantazio
Metaphor ReFantazio features that unique anime style Atlus perfected. With its unique locations, eye-catching characters, and crazy enemy designs, it’s no wonder it won the award.
Best Performance
Bringing a character to life is a difficult job that not many of us would be able to accomplish. Luckily for us, the video game industry is home to many talented performers who nail their parts time and again. This year, the nominees for the Best Performance award were Briana White – Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Hannah Telle – Life is Strange: Double Exposure, Humberly González – Star Wars Outlaws, Luke Roberts – Silent Hill 2, and Melina Juegens – Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II.
And the Winner is… Melina Juegens
Senua is a highly complex character, who struggles with mental illness. Melina Juegens perfectly captures the part, providing the voice for Senua and the personalities she can hear.
Best Adaptation
It’s the classic trope that adaptations of video games are on the whole, awful. But recently that’s not been so true, especially in the last year where we’ve had some real banger adaptations of some of our favourite franchises. Up for the award for Best Adaptation were Arcane, Fallout, Knuckles, Like a Dragon: Yakuza, and Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft.
And the Winner is… Fallout
Was there ever any doubt who would win? When Fallout literally exploded earlier in the year, it captured the hearts of gamers and the public, alike.
Best Debut Indie Game
The independent video game market is thriving, with brand new studios and games popping up all the time. To acknowledge this, the Game Awards is handing out the Best Debut Indie Game award to an original game from a fresh-faced studio. Up for this award were Animal Well – Shared Memory / Bigmode, Balatro – LocalThunk / Playstack, Manor Lords – Slavic Magic / Hooded Horse, Pacific Drive – Ironwood Studios / Keplar Interactive, and The Plucky Squire – All Possible Futures / Devolver.
And the Winner is… Balatro
Balatro is the perfect combination of a game that’s easy to get into and still has plenty of depth to keep you hooked. A worthy winner of the Best Indie Debut, and we can’t wait to see what LocalThunk can come up with next.
Games for Impact
Video games aren’t just a medium to keep us entertained, they can also be a way of making us really think about heavy subjects. To honour those games that cover gritty topics, the Game Awards has a Games for Impact Award this year. Nominated for this prize were Closer the Distance, Indika, Neva, Life is Strange: Double Exposure, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, and Tales of Kenzera: Zau.
And the Winner is… Neva
Nomada Studio wanted to depict the relationship between a parent and child over time in Neva, and they definitely succeeded in this endeavor. Such a worthy winner of this award.
Most Anticipated
Alongside honouring those games that have come before, the Game Awards also looks to the future. The Most Anticipated award is for those games that were on the horizon that can push our hobby forward to a new level. Up for this award this year are Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Ghost of Yōtei, Grand Theft Auto VI, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, Monster Hunter Wilds.
And the Winner is… GTA VI
This award was no surprise to anyone. Everyone is chomping at the bit for GTA VI! Just look at how each frame of the trailer was dissected for any hints to the game.
Game of the Year
And here it is, the big one, Game of the Year. This award acknowledges a game that excels in story, art, music, performances, gameplay, technical aspects, and so much more. We’ve seen some truly spectacular games this year, so it must have been a tough choice! Up for Game of the Year were Astro Bot, Balatro, Black Myth: Wukong, Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and Metaphor: ReFantazio.
And the Winner is… Astro Bot
A love letter to 3D platformers of the past with modern technology, Astro Bot is quirky, colourful, and most importantly loads of fun. A perfect choice to take the Game of the Year 2024 crown!
A Perfect PC to Play These Games
Fancy playing these award-winning games but need an upgrade? Overclockers UK has you covered! We have a fantastic range of gaming PCs and laptops, with models to match any budget, perfect for playing these games and more.
OcUK Gaming Mach 3
- Pre-built gaming PC
- Perfect for 1440p gaming
- AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D CPU
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Super GPU
- 1TB NVMe SSD
Best Trailers of the Game Awards 2024
As exciting as the awards are, we all know that we actually watch the Game Awards for the trailers! From announcements of brand-new titles to remasters and remakes of classic games, and everything in between. We’ve cherry-picked a fantastic selection which is sure to get you pumped for next year and beyond.
Your Views on the Game Awards 2024
That’s it, another Game Awards completed. What did you think of the winners? Do you have any predictions on what may be up for a gong next year? Let us know what you think in the comment section below, and we’ll see you next year for another amazing show.
- 7 min read
Simon Procter
Author
Having been a gaming nut for longer than he cares to think, Simon landed his dream job over a year ago at Overclockers UK. Since then, he has written many product pages and category texts. He even gets released from the basement to write the odd cheeky blog post. When not working, you can often find him entrenched in World of Warcraft, visiting friends to have his butt whooped in a board game, or with his nose buried in a book.
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