Hey guys! I feel like we just went through recapping the Game Awards last year, but here we are doing it again for 2022! There were quite a few great announcements last night, though I regret that I was unable to watch some of it due to going shopping for my work’s potluck that happened yesterday (hence, why this post didn’t come out the night of the award show). I caught most it though, and I went back to see what kind of stuff was shown so I could write this recap! Let’s get to it!

Announcements, Trailers, and More!

• Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania
• Valiant Hearts: Coming Home
• Returnal comes to PC
• It Takes Two Merch
• Hellboy Protocol: Web of Wyrd
• Horizon VR: Call of the Mountain
• Post Trauma
• Viewfinder
• Atomic Heart
• Scars Above
• Relic Hunters Legend
• Among Us: Hide N’ Seek
• After Us
• Replaced
• Street Fighter 6 (With preorder bonus content)
• Hades II
• Judas
• Bayonetta: Origins
• Upcoming Nintendo games (Fire Emblem: Engage, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, etc.)
• The Callisto (Promotion)
• Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord
• Destiny II: Lightfall
• Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
• Party Animals
• The Last of Us I comes to PC
• Stars Wars: Jedi Survivor
• Earthblade
• Dune Awakening
• Forespoken
• Death Stranding II
• Immortals of Aveum
• Tekken 8
• Nightinggale
• Baldur’s Gate
• Wayfinder
• Fire Emblem: Engage Expansion Pass Wave 1
• Diablo 4 Release Date
• Horizon: Burning Shores
• Blue Protocol
• Remnant II
• Transformers: Reactivate
• Company of Heroes III
• Behemoth
• The Super Mario Movie (new trailer)
• Banishers: Ghost of New Eden
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II
• Meet Your Maker
• Blood Bowl III
• The Witcher: Wild Hunt
• Crash Team Rumble
• The Lords of the Fallen
• Crime Boss Rockay City
• Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
• Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon
• Rocket League Season 9
• Wild Hearts
• Final Fantasy 16 (release date)

Obviously, there was a ton of stuff going on! I’m particularly excited about Hades II, Dune Awakening, and, of course, Final Fantasy 16! Also, I’ll probably be buying Replaced the instant it releases, because that games looks incredible! When I went back to see what stuff had been revealed (since I missed some of it, I realized they announced a new Castlevania expansion for Dead Cells, which I mentioned above, so that looks like a lot of fun.

As soon as the Hades II trailer came on, I knew what I had been waiting for had finally arrived! I didn’t think Hades would be getting a sequel, but I had been waiting on Supergiant to make a new game since I love their creativity and art. When I saw the designs of the characters though, I knew what it was! Can’t wait for this game to come out!

As for Final Fantasy 16, I can tell Square Enix will do their worst in this one . I’ve been impressed with the trailers so far, and this one was no different. I feel that it still strays slightly from old-time Final Fantasy games, but that doesn’t mean this won’t be a good game. However, I really don’t know whether I’ll get it or not due to the content, since I don’t usually play M rated games. I mean, the last time I tried an M rated Final Fantasy I lasted about 2 minutes before I turned it off and never went back. The game I tried was Type-0, and I knew it was bad when right off the bat a Chocobo was killed quite brutally. Lo and behold, this trailer shows a Chocobo getting killed! I’ll see what happens, I guess! It was announced in the trailer that FF16 will be releasing June 22nd 2023.

Let’s move on to this year’s winners, which are written in bold print.

Best Adaptation –

• Arcane: League of Legends
• Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
• The Cuphead Show!
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2
• Uncharted

Most Anticipated Game –

• Final Fantasy 16
• Hogwarts Legacy
• Resident Evil 4
• Starfield
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Best Esports Team –

• DarkZero Esports (Apex Legends)
• FaZe Clan (CS:GO)
• Gen.G (League of Legends)
• LA Thieves (Call of Duty)
• LOUD (Valorant)

Best Esports Game –

• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
• DOTA 2
• Leauge of Legends
• Rocket League
• VALORANT

Best Esports Event –

• EVO 2022
• 2022 League of Legends World Championship
• PGL Major Antwerp 2022
• The 2022 Mid-Season Invitational
• VALORANT Champions 2022

Best Esports Coach –

• Andrii “B1ad3” Horodenskyi (Natus Vincere, CS:GO)
• Matheus “bzkA” Tarasconi (LOUD, VALORANT)
• Erik “d00mbr0s” Sandgren (FPX, VALORANT)
• Robert “RobbaN” Dahlström (FaZe Clan, CS:GO)
• Go “Score” Dong-bin (Gen.G, LOL)

Best Esports Athlete –

• Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon (Gen.G, LOL)
• Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok (T1, LOL)
• Finn “karrigan” Andersen ( (FaZe Clan – CS:GO)
• Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev (Natus Vincere, CS:GO)
• Jacob “Yay” Whiteaker (Cloud9, Valorant)

Content Creator of the Year –

• Karl Jacobs
• Ludwig
• Nibellion
• Nobru
• QTCinderalla

Best Multiplayer Game –

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
• MultiVersus
• Overwatch 2
• Splatoon 3
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge

Best SIM/Strategy Game –

• Dune: Spice Wars
• Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope
• Total War: WARHAMMER 3
• Two Point Campus
• Victoria 3

Best Sports/Racing Game –

• F1 22
• FIFA 23
• NBA 2K23
• Gran Turismo 7
• OlliOlli World

Best Family Game –

• Kirby and the Forgotten Land
• LEGO Stars Wars: The Skywalker Saga
• Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope
• Nintendo Switch Sports
• Splatoon 3

Best Fighting Game –

• DNF Duel
• JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R
• The King of Fighters 15
• MultiVersus
• Sifu

Best RPG –

• Elden Ring
• Live a Live
• Pokemon Legends: Arceus
• Triangle Strategy
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Best Action/Adventure Game –

• A Plague Tale: Requiem
• God of War: Ragnarok
• Horizon: Forbidden West
• Stray
• TUNIC

Best Action Game –

• Bayonetta 3
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
• Neon White
• Sifu
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge

Innovation in Accessibility –

• As Dusk Falls
• God of War: Ragnarok
• Returnal
• Return to Monkey Island
• The Last of Us Part I
• The Quarry

Best VR/AR Game –

• After the Fall
• Among Us VR
• BONELAB
• Moss: Book II
• Red Matter 2

Best Community Support –

• Apex Legends
• Destiny 2
• Final Fantasy 14
• Fortnite
• No Man’s Sky

Best Mobile Game –

• Apex Legends Mobile
• Diablo Immortal
• Genshin Impact
• Marvel Snap
• Tower of Fantasy

Best Debut Indie Game –

• Neon White
• NORCO
• Stray
• TUNIC
• Vampire Survivors

Best Indie Game –

• Cult of the Lamb
• Neon White
• Sifu
• Stray
• TUNIC

Best Ongoing Game –

• Apex Legends
• Destiny 2
• Final Fantasy 14
• Fortnite
• Genshin Impact

Games for Impact –

• A Memoir Blue
• As Dusk Falls
• Citizen Sleeper
• Endling – Extinction is Forever
• Hindsight
• I Was a Teenage Exocolonist

Best Performance –

• Ashley Birch – Horizon: Forbidden West
• Charlotte McBurney – A Plague Tale: Requiem
• Christopher Judge – God of War: Ragnarok
• Manon Gage – Immortality
• Sunny Suljic – God of War: Ragnarok

Best Audio Design –

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
• Edlen Ring
• God of War: Ragnarok
• Gran Turismo 7
• Horizon: Forbidden West

Best Score/Music –

• Olivier Deriviere – A Plague Tale: Requiem
• Tsukasa Saitoh – Edlen Ring
• Bear McCreary – God of War: Ragnarok
• Two Feathers – Metal Hellsinger
• Yasunori Mitsuda

Best Art Direction –

• Elden Ring
• God of War: Ragnarok
• Horizon: Forbidden West
• Scorn
• Stray

Best Narrative –

• A Plague Tale: Requiem
• Elden Ring
• God of War: Ragnarok
• Horizon: Forbidden West
• Immortality

Best Game Direction –

• Elden Ring
• God of War: Ragnarok
• Horizon: Forbidden West
• Immmortality
• Stray

Game of the Year –

• A Plague Tale: Requiem
• Elden Ring
• God of War: Ragnarok
• Horizon: Forbidden West
• Stray
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Congratulations to all the winners! I was happy to see Final Fantasy 14 win two awards, too! Of course, we all knew Elden Ring would win Game of the Year, so that was no surprise. It was awesome that a debut indie game like Stray got nominated, though!

What are your thoughts on this year’s announcements and winners? Let me know in the comments below!

And as always, God bless y’all and have a wonderful Saturday!