Inspired by my friend Me doing Game Awards Guessies last year, I have once again put together a list of the nominees for The 2024 Game Awards, with who I think will and should win, with notes interspersed. As with last year, I will update with the actually winners as well, with any thoughts I have included.

Now, I’ll start with my yearly reminder that this blog is mostly for fun. I don’t take The Game Awards particularly seriously as an award show; It has progressively become more of a Trailer Show, a venue for Geoff to get all of his favorite guys on stage to just kind of stand around, sometimes with little to know clue of what is actually going on. I have to imagine, with E3 all but officially canned, this probably will only become more exacerbated. Maybe not tho!

WIthout further adieu…

Jake Jacobson’s Official “The Game Awards” 2024 Guessies

Game of the Year

Should Win: Balatro
Will Win: Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC

I don’t care about the “Does A DLC Count As A Game?” Discourse to be honest. My Top 5 lists include games from whenever and games I watched someone else play.

I think “Will Win” for this year’s GotY is actually kind of a toughie, because Elden Ring, Astro Bot and Final Fantasy VII are all what I would consider to be Classic The Game Awards games, which makes it kind difficult to even try and meta game. I kind of think anything other than Wukong is deserving.

I do think Balatro is absolutely the game of the year. There’s a decent chance it’s my game of the year.

Best Game Direction

Should Win: Balatro
Will Win: Astro Bot

By the website’s own definition of Best Game Direction, which is for “outstanding creative vision and innovation in game design,” it seems wild that Balatro wouldn’t win this. But I’m metagaming, as previously mentioned, and I think Astro Bot probably finds a big (and equally deserving) win in this category. Worth noting that this category contains the exact same list of games as Game of the Year

Best Narrative

Should Win: Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Will Win: Final Fantasy VII: ReBirth

I very badly want Like a Dragon to win this category, but to all of the ways ReBirth seemed to deliver worse than ReMake, the “is this game different than the original?” is a compelling narrative.

Best Art Direction

Should Win: Astro Bot
Will Win: Astro Bot

Best Score and Music

Should Win: Metaphor: ReFantazio
Will Win: Astro Bot

I think there’s a side shot that the gooner caucus gets Stellar Blade into this one.

Best Audio Design

Should Win: Astro Bot
Will Win: Astro Bot

Hellblade 2 is probably equally worthy, but it’s actually incredible how good Astro Bot sounds.

Best Performance

Should Win: Briana White (Aerith, Final Fantasy VII: ReBirth)
Will Win: Briana White (Aerith, Final Fantasy VII: ReBirth)

Innovation in Accessibility

Should Win: I find myself once again not particularly familiar with the nominees this year.
Will Win: Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Best Ongoing

Should Win: Helldivers 2
Will Win: Final Fantasy 14

Feels like they should consider renaming this category after Final Fantasy 14 and move on from its regular nomination.

They tend to give this award to rehabbed games that were broken on release, but Destiny 2 is the closet nominated this year and I don’t think that’s the pick. Helldivers 2’s evolving story and Game Master is objectively one of the cooler things that a Games As A Service has done, but I suspect Final Fantasy 14 gets the win they probably should have gotten last year.

Best Community Support

Should Win: Baldur’s Gate 3
Will Win: Baldur’s Gate 3

Similarly, we could probably call this one the No Man’s Sky Best Community Support Award.

Best Independent Game

Should Win: UFO 50
Will Win: Balatro

So Balatro will win and deserves it, because it’s probably my Game of the Year. But UFO 50 is one of the coolest things that’s ever been released, I think. It’s incredible that it exists and it absolutely deserves the nod here over Balatro. UFO 50 is probably my Game of the Year.

Best Debut Indie Game

Should Win: Balatro
Will Win: Balatro

I mean, come on. Wouldn’t be upset with an Animal Well win here either.

Best Mobile Game

Should Win: Balatro
Will Win: Balatro

I mean, come on. I legitimately think that mobile is the ideal way to play Balatro.

Best VR/AR (Experience?)

Should Win: Balatro
Will Win: Metal: Hellsinger VR

Best Action Game

Should Win: Helldivers 2
Will Win: Stellar Blade

The Gooner Caucus will have their win.

Best Action/Adventure (Game?)

Should Win: Astro Bot
Will Win: Astro Bot

I think Astro Bot was one of those games that I didn’t believe the hype around. But I played it and it really is, like, an all-time platformer.

Best RPG

Should Win: Metaphor: ReFantazio
Will Win: Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

Fuck man any of these could win this one and I’d be satisfied. I’m actually typing this out before I pick who I think should win to stall for time. I guess I personally would like ReFantazio to win this one? But it could be any of them. They probably pick Erdtree I guess.

Best Fighting Game

Should Win: Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics
Will Win: Dragonball Z: Sparking! Zero

Good competition this year!

Best Family (Game?)

Should Win: Super Mario Party Jamboree (fun for the whole family!)
Will Win: Astro Bot

Best Sim/Strategy (Game?)

Should Win: Unicorn Overlord
Will Win: Unicorn Overlord

Best Sports/Racing (Game?)

Should Win: College Football 24 is not nominated??? What the fuck?

Will Win: I dunno FIFA I guess

It’s baffling that EA College Football 24 is not nominated for this category, considering it’s return has been the biggest piece of Sports Game news this decade. That’s wild.

Best Multiplayer (Experience?)

Should Win: Super Mario Party Jamboree
Will Win: Super Mario Party Jamboree

Gets the Nintendo buff here over Helldivers 2, I suspect. Also it’s the best one of these they’ve made in a long time (that wasn’t just a bunch of good parts of the other good Mario Party games)

Best Adaptation

Should Win: Arcane
Will Win: Arcane

It’s honestly not even worth knowing what else is nominated. Arcane has done more for the game League of Legends than any amount of advertising has done for any video game, ever. And it’s gay as hell.

The “Undisputed” Most Anticipated Game Award

Should Win: Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (I want to believe)
Will Win: Monster Hunter Wilds (deserved)

This is where I learned the subtitle for Metroid Prime 4 is, apparently, Beyond.

Content Creator of the Year

Should Win: Usada Pekora
Will Win: Usada Pekora

This one’s 4 u, Hideo Kojima-san

Best eSports Game

Should Win: Party House
Will Win: League of Legends

Out of Respect for how little I care about eSports, I will Simply Skip The Next Few Categories, Knowing Faker Should Probably Win Something, Provided He Is Nominated