Who will win at The Game Awards 2021? | Team Talk

---

It’s awards season, and while every game released in these unusual times deserves extra praise, there’s still an opportunity for a chosen few to rise above the rest at The Game Awards 2021.

The actual ceremony takes place on 9 December, though we already know the nominees. We’ve each picked a couple of categories in order to predict their winners. What are your predictions? Let us know in the comments.

---

by James Michael Parry

---

@James_Parry

---

by Team PTC

---

@pass_controller

---

James

Innovation in Accessibility

• Far Cry 6
• Forza Horizon 5 
• Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
• The Vale: Shadow of the Crown

Most Anticipated Game

• Elden Ring 
• God of War Ragnarök
• Horizon Forbidden West
• Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Starfield

Accessibility has arguably come on leaps and bounds in the past few years. While standards still aren’t anywhere near as high as they should be, we’ve seen more titles using text-to-speech prompts by default when you first load in. There are also far more customisation options than ever before in many AAA titles.

The nominees in this category include Far Cry 6, Forza Horizon 5, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart and The Vale: The Shadow of the Crown.

The work Ubisoft Milan and Toronto put into Far Cry 6 has created an experience which contains “the most extensive set of options” so far and the results are impressive. Games Accessibility Specialist Stacey Jenkins has put together an excellent accessibility preview which covers it far more effectively than we could.

For Most Anticipated Game, FromSoftware’s Elden Ring stands apart from the rest of the pack (which includes God of War Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West, the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Starfield) partly because it’s coming a lot sooner than the other options.

The recent Closed Network Test sparked a huge amount of conversation and excitement in just a few hours, which definitely points to Elden Ring snapping up this accolade.

Move over Epona, there's a new favourite mount in town.

---

Liam

Best Sim/Strategy

• Age of Empires IV
• Evil Genius 2: World Domination
• Humankind
• Inscryption
• Microsoft Flight Simulator

Best Multiplayer

• Back 4 Blood 
• It Takes Two
• Knockout City 
• Monster Hunter Rise
• New World
• Valheim

Skipping over the fact that Deathloop seems to be up for almost every award going (I was half expecting to see it crop up in “Best Family Game”), I think there’s a decent variety of titles vying for the top prizes this year.

​For the Best Sim/Strategy title, I have to go for Microsoft Flight Simulator. I’d already played around with the game on PC but having it available on Xbox has been an even better experience. What I like best about it is it can be as challenging or as welcoming as you want it to be.

Personally, I enjoy the latter option. Picking up a pad and just cruising around distant (or even local) locations for 30 minutes or so has been a great way to unwind. Flying, it turns out, is surprisingly peaceful when it’s not sandwiched between hours of airport tedium.

As for Best Multiplayer, I would have liked to have seen Hell Let Loose get nominated. Yes, I know it’s been out since last year on PC but, like MS Flight Sim, technically it did come out this year for consoles. From the options available, however, I have to go with Back 4 Blood because it was pretty good with friends and had a surprisingly fun PvP mode.

Tranquillity. In plane form.

---

Sam

Game of the Year
​​

• Deathloop
• It Takes Two
• Metroid Dread
• Psychonauts 2
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
• Resident Evil Village

Best Game Direction 
​

• Deathloop
• It Takes Two
• Returnal
• Psychonauts 2
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

As a big fan of the Resident Evil franchise in all its guises, RE Village struck an excellent balance between old and new. It’s a unique blend of classic survival horror and modern action/adventure - each of its acts almost feel like separate games, though they also coexist and complement one another.

Arkane Studios’ titles are typically some of my favourites, including the divisive Prey. It came as a nasty surprise to learn that Deathloop isn’t for me, then; I kept playing in the hopes that it’d finally click, but then the credits rolled... Considering its level of recognition, however, I half expect it to clean up at The Game Awards.

In terms of Best Game Direction, Josef Fares and Hazelight Studios’ It Takes Two would be a worthy winner. Fares’ games so far all share a common thread - that innovation and cooperation are central to the experience. It Takes Two once again achieves that objective, building upon the foundations set by Brothers and A Way Out.

Elsewhere on the list, Deathloop and Returnal already feel like outdated roguelikes by comparison to the superior design of Supermassive Games’ Hades. Psychonauts 2 and Ratchet & Clank are both excellent, though just fall short of matching the directorial prowess displayed by Hazelight.

Forget the lovely art style, it has split-screen multiplayer! That's worth an award all on its own.

---

What nominations would you like to see win? Let us know below or in the forums.