The Game Awards were amazing, as they always are. And like every year, it was bigger and better. There were amazing performances and huge game announcements.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won so many awards, like eight of them. Pretty much any time their name came up in the list for an award, you could assume they were going to win it.
After a long (but great) 3.5 hours, I put together a list of the highlights and my favorite announcements from the show, but be forewarned, my list is not exhaustive and is heavily biased toward the kinds of games I actually get excited about.
Performances
Before getting into the games, let’s talk about performances.
The orchestra was amazing. They played lots of songs from the games featured in the show. There was also a very animated guy at the end of the front row in the orchestra who had a new instrument every time the camera came back to him. That guy was awesome!
There was also a great performance from Evanescence, singing their song “Afterlife”. It was a little pitchy, but I appreciate that they were actually playing and not faking the performance. And they played this song to announce season 2 of the Devil May Cry animated series.
And there was a special performance from Miss Piggy and Rowlf of the Muppets (3:01:09 in the video if you want to watch it). The song was funny and included a great section with Rowlf trying to name as many big games of the year as he could. It was some great fan service.
Celebrities
I think the celebrities this year were probably the biggest they’ve had yet. Lenny Kravitz was there to reveal that he’s the villain in the upcoming 007: First Light.
Then there was the entire cast of the upcoming 2026 Street Fighter movie:
- Noah Centineo (Ken)
- Andrew Koji (Ryu)
- Callina Liang (Chun Li)
- Joe “Roman Reigns” AnoaŹ»i (Akuma)
- David Dastmalchian (M. Bison)
- Cody Rhodes (Guile)
- Andrew Schulz (Dan Hibiki)
- Vidyut Jammwal (Dhalsim)
- Orville Peck (Vega)
- Olivier Richters (Zangief)
- Rayna Vallandingham (Juli)
- Mel Jarnson (Cammy)
- Jason Momoa (Blanka)
So that was cool. I’m looking forward to the movie, but to be honest, the footage didn’t look too exciting. I unfortunately have my doubts about how good it’s going to be.
Then we had David Harbour to announce Total War: Warhammer 40K, which he’s starring in.
And Milla Jovovich made an appearance to reveal her role in the upcoming Hitman: World of Assassination.
Game of the Year
The nominees this year included:
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
- Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Hollow Knight: Silksong
- Hades II
- Donkey Kong Bananza
As you could have guessed, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won. And deservedly, I’d say. I haven’t played it, but clearly, people love it. And after all of the awards it received, I’m convinced that I need to play it. So that’ll be the next game I play. But really, all the nominees should probably be top priorities.
Other Category Winners
Here are the winners from other categories. If you want to see the nominees for any of these categories, you can find them on the official The Game Awards website.
- Best Family Game – Donkey Kong Bananza
- Innovation In Accessibility – Doom: The Dark Ages
- Best Esports Game – Counter-Strike 2
- Best Esports Athlete – Chovy
- Best Esports Team – Team Vitality – Counter-Strike 2
- Best Mobile Game – Umamusume: Pretty Derby
- Best Independent Game – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Best Adaptation – The Last of Us: Season 2
- Best Action Game – Hades II
- Best Performance – Jennifer English (Clair Obscur: Expedition 33)
- Games for Impact – South of Midnight
- Best Ongoing Game – No Man’s Sky
- Best Audio Design – Battlefield 6
- Content Creator of the Year – MoistCr1TiKaL
- Best Fighting Game – Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves
- Most Anticipated Game – Grand Theft Auto VI
- Game Changer – Girls Make Games
- Best Action Adventure Game – Hollow Knight: Silksong
- Best Art Direction – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Best Sim/Strategy Game – Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles
- Best Debut Indie Game – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Best Score and Music – Lorien Testard (Clair Obscur: Expedition 33)
- Best Sports/Racing Game – Mario Kart World
- Best Community Support – Baldur’s Gate 3
- Best VR/AR Game – The Midnight Walk
- Best RPG – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Player’s Voice – Wuthering Waves
- Best Narrative – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Best Multiplayer – Arc Raiders
- Best Game Direction – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
There were some surprises for me here. For example, I thought for sure that Blue Prince was going to win either Best Independent Game or Best Debut Indie Game, but Clair Obscur won both. That was a bummer.
I was also surprised that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle didn’t win Best Action/Adventure. I have a feeling that a part of that is because it came out in the very beginning of the year, and just wasn’t fresh in people’s minds anymore.
And Arc Raiders took home Best Multiplayer, but that game just came out only a month ago. But hey, the game already seems to be a hit. I thought Battlefield or Split Fiction was going to win.
The Best Game Announcements
Ok, lets get into the games that I’m most excited about:
- Bradley the Badger
- Divinity
- Resident Evil Requiem
- Control Resonant
- Tomb Raider Legacy of Atlantis
- No Law
- Out of Words
- The Duskbloods
- Phantom Blade 0
- Megaman Dual Override
The one that I’m most excited about is Control Resonant. Control was an amazing game, and one of the games I enjoyed the most in the last few years. That will be a day-one purchase for me.
Ok, now the following games look great, and I do want to play them, just not as much as the ones listed above:
- Decrepit
- Pragmata
- John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando
- Coven of the Chicken Foot
- Ontos
- 007 First Light
- Saros
This next list of games look like they have potential. I’m sort of interested, but I’m on the fence.
- 4Loop
- Tomb Raider Catalyst
- Forest 3
- Diablo IV Reckoning
- Lords of the Fallen 2
- Highguard
The one game in the list I’m mostly unsure about is Highguard. This looks like it might be the next big game in the PvP shooter genre – or at least it was being hyped that way. But it looked a little generic to me. It’ll be free to play, and it launches on January 26, 2026, so we’ll find out soon enough. Most promising is that it’s from the creators of Apex Legends and Titanfall.
And this last list below includes other games mentioned, but that I’m not personally interested in – at least not at this time. But that may change when we get closer to their release dates.
- Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve
- Gang of Dragon
- Guild Wars 2
- Invincible VS
- LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight
- Nioh 3
- Order of the Sinking Star
- Solasta 2
- Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic
- Star Wars: Galactic Racer
- Stupid Never Dies
- The Free Shepherd
- Total War: Warhammer 40,000
- Warlock: Dungeons and Dragons
And one more exciting non-game announcement was a new trailer for the upcoming The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, coming April, 2026. I can’t wait for that.
What a Great Show
I always look forward to The Game Awards. It’s probably the best gaming event of the year. It gives me a great guide of the games that I missed and need to play, and gets me pumped for the games to look forward to.
If you watched The Game Awards, what did you think? And what games are you looking forward to most?