The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Leads 2015 Game Awards Nominees

[Lizzy Finnegan]

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Leads 2015 Game Awards Nominees

The nominees for the 2015 Game Awards have been announced.

The nominees for the 2015 Game Awards [http://thegameawards.com/nominees/] have been announced, and CD Projekt Red's The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is leading the pack with a total of seven nominations. Of those seven, The Witcher 3 was nominated for Best Narrative, Best Art Direction, Best Performance (Doug Cockle), Best Score/Soundtrack, Best Role-Playing Game, Developer of the Year (CD Projekt Red), and the top honor of overall Game of the Year.

Fallout 4, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Bloodborne, and Super Mario Maker were also nominated for the top award.

The 2015 Game Awards airs live on December 3 at 6pm PDT. The full list of nominees is below.

Game of the Year
Bloodborne
Fallout 4
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Super Mario Maker
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Developer of the Year
Bethesda Game Studios
CD Projekt Red
FromSoftware
Kojima Productions
Nintendo

Best Independent Game
Axiom Verge
Her Story
Ori and the Blind Forest
Rocket League
Undertale

Best Mobile/Handheld Game
Downwell
Fallout Shelter
Lara Croft GO
Monster Hunter 4: Ultimate
Pac-Man 256

Best Narrative
Her Story
Life Is Strange
Tales From The Borderlands
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Until Dawn

Best Art Direction
Batman: Arkham Knight
Bloodborne
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Ori and the Blind Forest
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Best Score/Soundtrack
Fallout 4
Halo 5: Guardians
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Ori and the Blind Forest
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Best Performance
Ashly Burch as Chloe Price (Life is Strange)
Camilla Luddington as Lara Croft (Rise of the Tomb Raider)
Doug Cockle as Geralt (The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt)
Mark Hamill as The Joker (Batman: Arkham Knight)
Viva Seifert (Her Story)

Games for Change Award
Cibele (Nina Freeman)
Her Story (Sam Barlow)
Life Is Strange (DONTNOD Entertainment / Square Enix)
Sunset (Tale of Tales)
Undertale (tobyfox)

Best Shooter
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
Destiny: The Taken King
Halo 5: Guardians
Splatoon
Star Wars Battlefront

Best Action/Adventure Game
Assassin's Creed Syndicate
Batman: Arkham Knight
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Ori and the Blind Forest
Rise of the Tomb Raider

Best Role Playing Game
Bloodborne
Fallout 4
Pillars of Eternity
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Undertale

Best Fighting Game
Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-
Mortal Kombat X
Rise of Incarnates
Rising Thunder

Best Family Game
Disney Infinity 3.0
Lego Dimensions
Skylanders: SuperChargers
Splatoon
Super Mario Maker

Best Sports/Racing Game
FIFA 16
Forza Motorsport 6
NBA 2K16
Pro Evolution Soccer 2016
Rocket League

Best Multiplayer
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
Destiny: The Taken King
Halo 5: Guardians
Rocket League
Splatoon

Most Anticipated Game
Horizon Zero Dawn
No Man's Sky
Quantum Break
The Last Guardian
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

esports Player of the Year
Kenny "KennyS" Schrub
Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok
Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer
Peter "ppd" Dager
Syed Sumail "Suma1L" Hassan

esports Team of the Year
Evil Geniuses
Fnatic
Optic Gaming
SK Telecom T1
Team SoloMid

esports Game of the Year
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Dota 2
Hearthstone
League of Legends

Trending Gamer
Total Biscuit
Christopher "MonteCristo" Mykles
Greg Miller
Markiplier
PewDiePie

Best Fan Creation
GTA V - Targets (Hoodoo Operator)
Real GTA (Corridor Digital)
Portal Stories: Mel (Prism Studios)
Super Mario Maker e-Reader Levels (Baddboy78 / theycallmeshaky)
Twitch Plays Dark Souls (Twitch Community)


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[Aerosteam]

Why is DLC for Destiny in some of these categories? And why is Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- not nominated for Best Art Direction? Also what the fuck is the point in "Developer of the Year"?

Edit: Shyte, I just realized I shouldn't care about awards like these.

 

[shadowxvii]

I have to say that the "Best Fan Creation" part made me smile, especially "twitch Plays Dark Souls ( Twitch Community)". Is that a new category ?

 

[Sniper Team 4]

That's...wow, that's a lot of stuff to consider.

From what I've heard, Witcher III should be Game of the Year.
Best performance I think should be Mark Hamill because Joker, enough said.
Best art design I think should be Bloodborne.
Shooter...hm...I've only played Black Ops III so far, and while I'm enjoying it, it has yet to have that "wow!" moment that all the pre-Ghost games had, so I reserve judgment.
RPG will probably be a toss up between Fallout 4 and Witcher III.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Star wars Battlefront isn't even out yet, you fucks! (Directed at EA and game awards organisery person, not you, Escapist) That reeks of some stinky bullshit already.

Anymoo, Tales from the Borderlands for the win!! All over. For a comedy, it still made cry at times. That is the brilliance of their skillful use of emotional contrast.

Geralt...best performance?? Bahahhaha! He was literally the most dubious of all performances in that game. I love the Witcher 3, but surely did anyone else notice how often his voice performance felt flat or off at times like a terrible movie? It occurs every so often in the game, usually when i pay half attention and hear only the voice not quite agreeing with the words as if the actor forgot to not sound like he was reading off a bit of card. (It is seriously the only gripe that gripes my grapes there). Give the nominee to Ciri or...whoever. But not Geralt's voice actor. Edit: Or Mark Hamill...yeah, give it to him...every year. He deserves it. I would give myself to him if i could.

Most anticipated game? Get out. That's a stupid award. Tell me what use that could possibly have other than securing pre-orders and plastering a dumb sticker on the box.

 

[ShakerSilver]

Game of the Year
Super Mario Maker

Huh, wasn't expecting that to show up under the GOTY category. I guess it was the game this year that made people give a shit about the Wii U though.

Best Role Playing Game
Fallout 4

I can't say the game really fits here. Ever since Fallout 3 the games have basically just been open-world shooters with minor RPG elements, and Fallout 4 almost completely dropped the pretense of it being an RPG with a greater focus on action. It's more of an open-world action-adventure along the lines of Far Cry than an RPG.

 

[shintakie10]

Tales from the Borderlands better fuckin win best Narrative. Like, no exceptions. That better win best narrative.

Really Tales deserves far more than just best narrative. If Walking Dead season 1 can win award after award then Tales deserves just as much.

 

[Dornedas]

Developer of the year
Kojima Productions

How can something that doesn't even exist anymore get any awards? That's just silly

OOOH but I already know the winner in the Games for Change Award category.
Clearly Sunset because it was really a game for change.
Change in their employment status that is. Ba-Dum Tsh.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Why isn't The Witcher 3 in the Best Independent Game category? It's from an independent studio. Independent doesn't mean small/poor/shitty. It means independent. Ori and the Blind Forest doesn't fit the bill. It was published by Microsoft. If you get a publisher your game is by definition no longer independent.

Who the fuck is in charge of these awards?

I can't say the game really fits here.

Agreed. Fallout 4 is not a true RPG. Almost every open world game today has some kind of character customization option and progression system. That's not enough for the game to be a true RPG. Borderlands is more of an RPG than Fallout 4.

 

[Kingjackl]

Disappointed Undertale's not up for GOTY or Best Narrative (or Best Soundtrack, now I think of it; that game had such good music). Hopefully it can at least get a win for best indie.

It's not a bad crop of nominees this year, all told. I expect Witcher 3 or possibly MGSV to get GOTY, although I would prefer Bloodborne to get it myself. Best Studio is probably going to go to the GOTY winner ala Best Director in the Academy Awards. I'd definitely give that to CD Projekt; even if Bloodborne's a better game in my opinion, that studio goes above and beyond in terms of consumer-positive behaviour.

Best Performance will probably go to Mark Hamill, but he wins every time there's a Batman game, so maybe give someone else the credit. Maybe Ashly Burch, she was great as Chloe.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Honestly, I'd give the best performance to Geralt's voice actor. He sounds like a real human being. His performance is full of subtlety instead of being in your face every time he utters a sentence. His voice totally fits Geralt's facial animations. It's really incredible. If you want examples look at some of the scenes on YouTube.
Mainly these two:

Spoiler

Vesemir's funeral when Geralt is comforting Ciri and last conversation with Ciri in the bittersweet ending.

 

[Goliath100]

CD Projekt Red better win Developer of the Year. Kojima Productions might win just say #FucKonami. If Bethesda win, I'll lose faith in the human race.

And nothing else is interesting because it will be a race between those 3 games: The Witcher 3, MGS5 and Fallout 4.

 

[Goliath100]

Who the fuck is in charge of these awards?

People who cares more about thier brand than anything else.

Why isn't The Witcher 3 in the Best Independent Game category? It's from an independent studio. Independent doesn't mean small/poor/shitty. It means independent. Ori and the Blind Forest doesn't fit the bill. It was published by Microsoft. If you get a publisher your game is by definition no longer independent.

Independent = Low budget, handful of people .

 

[Andy Shandy]

Spoiler: My picks (taking into account I haven't played every game in every category)

Game of the Year
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Developer of the Year
Kojima Productions

Best Independent Game
Ori and the Blind Forest

Best Mobile/Handheld Game
Monster Hunter 4: Ultimate

Best Narrative
Life Is Strange. Wouldn't be disappointed with Tales From The Borderlands winning either

Best Art Direction
Ori and the Blind Forest

Best Score/Soundtrack
Ori and the Blind Forest

Best Performance
Ashly Burch as Chloe Price (Life is Strange)

Games for Change Award
Life Is Strange (DONTNOD Entertainment / Square Enix)

Best Shooter
Splatoon

Best Action/Adventure Game
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Best Role Playing Game (not actually played any of these so this is just a guess at the winner instead)
Fallout 4

Best Fighting Game
Mortal Kombat X

Best Family Game
Splatoon

Best Sports/Racing Game
Rocket League

Best Multiplayer
Rocket League

Most Anticipated Game
Quantum Break

esports Player of the Year
esports Team of the Year
esports Game of the Year
Could not give less of a shite about eSports.

Trending Gamer
Total Biscuit

Best Fan Creation
Twitch Plays Dark Souls (Twitch Community)

 

[Li Mu]

Odd. How can Fallout4 and Star Wars Battlefront be on the list? FO4 has only just been released, a little early for feedback from gamers. SWB isn't even out yet!

Sure, these games are expected to be popular, but it's like giving a film an Oscar nomination before it's even been completed.

 

[Saetha]

"Games for change?" The hell even is that category? What?

Also, Life is Strange is up for several awards? Look, it was a nice game, but it kinda fumbled at the end. And Until Dawn is up for best narrative? Ugh.

Disappointed Undertale's not up for GOTY or Best Narrative (or Best Soundtrack, now I think of it; that game had such good music). Hopefully it can at least get a win for best indie.

It's not a bad crop of nominees this year, all told. I expect Witcher 3 or possibly MGSV to get GOTY, although I would prefer Bloodborne to get it myself. Best Studio is probably going to go to the GOTY winner ala Best Director in the Academy Awards. I'd definitely give that to CD Projekt; even if Bloodborne's a better game in my opinion, that studio goes above and beyond in terms of consumer-positive behaviour.

Undertale would've gotten crushed if it were up for GOTY. It's probably gonna get crushed in the best RPG category, too. (Can you just imagine what an uproar there'd be if some tiny indie game beat out The Witcher?) So I fail to see the point of putting it up for those. But it's nice to see it's getting some recognition, at least.

(Although, yeah, it might've deserved a Best Narrative spot over Until Dawn. Seriously guys, it's just a slasher film!)

As for soundtrack - it's got a nice one, yeah, but I've seen some people point out that a lot of the songs are just variations on Megalomania's basic structure. It might not deserve an award over a fully developed soundtrack with more variation.

 

[Kingjackl]

Disappointed Undertale's not up for GOTY or Best Narrative (or Best Soundtrack, now I think of it; that game had such good music). Hopefully it can at least get a win for best indie.

It's not a bad crop of nominees this year, all told. I expect Witcher 3 or possibly MGSV to get GOTY, although I would prefer Bloodborne to get it myself. Best Studio is probably going to go to the GOTY winner ala Best Director in the Academy Awards. I'd definitely give that to CD Projekt; even if Bloodborne's a better game in my opinion, that studio goes above and beyond in terms of consumer-positive behaviour.

Undertale would've gotten crushed if it were up for GOTY. It's probably gonna get crushed in the best RPG category, too. (Can you just imagine what an uproar there'd be if some tiny indie game beat out The Witcher?) So I fail to see the point of putting it up for those. But it's nice to see it's getting some recognition, at least.

(Although, yeah, it might've deserved a Best Narrative spot over Until Dawn. Seriously guys, it's just a slasher film!)

As for soundtrack - it's got a nice one, yeah, but I've seen some people point out that a lot of the songs are just variations on Megalomania's basic structure. It might not deserve an award over a fully developed soundtrack with more variation.

As far as I'm concerned, it's better than most of the others in those categories. Being smaller does not mean lack of quality. I genuinely think it does branching story/choices better than any other game out there, which has become the current measuring stick for determining RPG/narrative quality these days.

I agree that there is a bit of repetition in the soundtrack, particularly with the boss themes, but my reasoning is that the soundtrack is more melodious and distinctive than most games, which is what sets it apart. But really, I just think those tracks are so enjoyable to listen to.

 

[mysecondlife]

So, the game of the year is just best AAA title of the year?

I've never played Undertale but from what I've heard it sounds like it should be nominated for GOTY.

 

[Ryallen]

I can't help but shake my head at the category "Games for Change." I don't know why it's a category and I don't know why Life is Strange is there. I had to look it up to see what it is and all it did was reinforce how trivial(? Is that the right word for it?) the whole thing is. Really? We're rewarding games for having homosexual relationships now? Is that really what we're doing? Or are the awards being given for having female protagonists? Or is it both? It's just so... I really don't know what to call it. Let's just go with stupid.

OT: Witcher 3 is going to win. I can't really imagine any other game winning, if only for the sheer amount of hype that was behind it. I have it, and I like it, but movement is far too lose for me to say it's anything more than just alright. It shouldn't take a half second to get to full movement speed, and it shouldn't be hard to go in a circle, but I have less than 2 hours on the thing, so maybe I need to play it more?

Bloodborne can't NOT win best Art Direction. It looks far too good and well designed not to.

As for best soundtrack... Undertale should be on that list. I'm surprised that it isn't.

Best Performance is going to Mark Hamill by sheer fact that he came back for the Joker's Final Laugh in the Arkham series.

I know for a fact that Undertale is winning best Indie Game.

And as for best Role Playing Game, I have every single game on that list, and I don't see why I should choose one over the other. I love them all for different but equally valid reasons. If I had to choose one, however, Fallout 4 is the only game on that list that made me forget to go to sleep today.