Best Score/Music
"For outstanding music, inclusive of score, original song and/or licensed soundtrack."
- Destiny 2
- Cuphead
- NieR: Automata
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- Super Mario Odyssey
- Persona 5
You know what? We're not happy with this shortlist, so we're going to subvert it completely by picking something different: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. It may be a Wii U port, but the Wii U was such a flop that most people had never played it before its April release on Switch, which means that a whole new generation of players were finally exposed to the game's soundtrack. Nintendo used a live band to perform endless upbeat variations on classic Mario Kart tunes, and the results are sensational. The games on The Game Awards list all have great music, but Mario Kart 8 Deluxe wouldn't be the same game without its soundtrack.
Best Audio Design
"Recognizing the best in-game audio and sound design."
- Destiny 2
- Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
- Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- Super Mario Odyssey
Ninja Theory has been kicking around since the early 2000s, and while its games have often found the limelight to some degree - from Heavenly Sword to DmC: Devil May Cry - it still feels like a studio on the fringes, restless and eager to try new things. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is perhaps the ultimate expression of that: an action adventure that explores the unpredictability of psychosis. It's a powerful and challenging piece of work that uses bold audio design to convey Senua's auditory hallucinations, and takes this category hands down.
Best Performance
"Awarded to an individual for voice-over acting, motion and/or performance capture."
- Melina Juergens - Senua in Hellblade
- Laura Bailey - Nadine Ross in Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
- Claudia Black - Chloe Frazer in Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
- Brian Bloom - BJ Blazkowicz in Wolfenstein II
- Ashly Burch - Aloy in Horizon Zero Dawn
The quality of acting in video games has skyrocketed in recent years - we've certainly come a long way from the laughable dialogue and stilted performances that were commonplace a decade ago - and this category is a tough one, but we feel as though Melina Juergens has to take the gong for her work on Hellblade. Juergens is utterly convincing as Senua, allowing you to concentrate on the game's detailed portrayal of her psychosis, and that feels like an incredible accomplishment, even by the ever-rising standards of contemporary game acting.
Games for Impact
"For a thought-provoking game with a profound pro-social meaning or message."
- Please Knock on My Door
- Night in the Woods
- Life is Strange: Before the Storm
- Bury Me, My Love
- What Remains of Edith Finch
- Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
At a time when mental health is increasingly part of our cultural conversation, Ninja Theory is one of the few mainstream developers bold enough to make a traditional AAA-style action adventure that really digs into it. Everything on this list deserves praise for different reasons, but Hellblade feels like the winner for us.
Best Ongoing Game
"Awarded to a game for outstanding development of ongoing content that evolves the player experience over time."
- Warframe
- Rainbow Six: Siege
- Overwatch
- Grand Theft Auto Online
- Destiny 2
- PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds
We imagine a lot of people will give this to PUBG, and it's hard to argue with the sales figures, but if we stick to the wording of the category, does PUBG feel like the most outstanding example of ongoing development? Or is it more the case that Brendan Greene and his colleagues nailed the original concept and we've yet to run out of interest in it? Grand Theft Auto Online feels like it has a much stronger case, for our money. If you could go back and experience GTA Online as it was when GTA V first launched, it would be unrecognizable next to what you can experience today. Rockstar has allowed the way people play the game to shape its development, and poured seemingly endless resources into it as it has felt its way into "games as a service", with no end in sight. Now that's what we call ongoing game development.
