Ah yes, The Game Awards, which divides the gaming community every year.
Where games go head-to-head in a community-voted poll, to find out which game is truly the best of the year. This year, in the Game of the Year category not one, not two, but three indie games were nominated, tying with the amount of AAA games.
2025 started out with some middle-of-the-line unimportant releases, but towards the later half of the year, we got gaming giants such as Expedition 33, Hollow Knight Silksong, Hades 2, Ghost Of Yotei and more.
For Game of the Year, arguably the most important category, this year’s nominees were: Donkey Kong Bananza, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, and Hades 2.
There are a lot of heavy hitters this year. For me, it was a hard choice between Hades 2 and Hollow Knight Silksong 2, games I’ve both done reviews on. But, Hollow Knight Silksong should win. It has beautiful landscapes, character design, music, and overall it’s an amazing game.
Though sad as it may be, I know it won’t win. The creators themselves have even expressed their disbelief, saying Expedition 33 is undoubtedly going to win.
The next category I want to consider is Best Narrative, with the nominees being Expedition 33, Death Stranding 2, Ghost Of Yoteim, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 and Silent Hill F. I voted for Expedition 33 and that’s my bet for what’s winning this category as the game seems to be extremely popular.
The next category is for the best ongoing game. These are games that were released and still get frequent updates. The nominees are Final Fantasy XIX, Fortnite, No Man’s Sky, Marvel Rivals and Helldivers 2. Personally I voted for the controversial option: Fortnite. It’s not the best game, but my friends and I have made tons of memories playing the game together.
But as I said, it’s not the best game, so I am betting on Helldivers 2 winning.
There are two separate indie categories, one being Best Independent Game and the other is Best Debut Indie Game. The nominees for Best Debut Indie Game are: Blue Prince, Expedition 33, Despelote and Dispatch. I voted for Dispatch as it seems fun, but we all know Expedition 33 is going to win this category.
The nominees for Best Independent Game are: Absolum, Ball X Pit, Blue Prince, Expedition 33, Hades 2, and Hollow Knight Silksong. I voted for Silksong, but say it with me, class: “Expedition 33 is going to win.”
And finally we get to the best score and music category with the nominees: Christopher Larkin (Hollow Knight Silksong), Darren Korb (Hades 2), Lorien Testard (Expedition 33) Toma Otowa (Ghost Of Yotei), and Woodkid and Ludvig Forssell (Death Stranding 2). I voted for Darren Korb as Hades 2 had nothing but banger songs such as “I Am Gonna Claw (Out Your Eyes Then Drown You To Death)”. I honestly think Expedition 33 might not win this category, and I think enough people will like the soundtrack of Hades 2.
Those are my predictions. I couldn’t get through all the categories but if you want to go vote yourself, you can do that here. If you want to know what wins, the live show is tomorrow at 5:30 MST and will be streaming on most platforms such as Youtube, Twitch, Prime Video, and more.
