As you undoubtedly know, The Game Awards released their nominees for every category of their upcoming show on December 7th. The Game of the Year category is packed with all-star titles and franchises, and many fans are already debating who will win and why. They’re also noting the “snubs” that The Game Awards left out, not only in the main GOTY category but in other categories as well. A jury of sites and fans will determine the winners, and that’s where things get complicated. In contrast, Metacritic has set up a new system highlighting what would win if the critics were the only judges.
The” award tracker” feature will showcase the games that were nominated for or won awards, like at The Game Awards, to highlight how well they’ve done in these places. Currently, only The Game Award nominations have been added, but that’ll grow as more “end of the year” shows happen.
But as a byproduct of this list, Metacritic shows who would win each category at The Game Awards based solely on the review scores that the critics gave it.
For example, if we were to go by the reviewers’ scores and nothing else, Baldur’s Gate 3 would win the most awards at the show. It would win “Game of the Year,” “Best Narrative,” “Best Multiplayer,” and “Best RPG.”
Many would be fine with those results for various reasons, not the least of which is that people really LOVED Larian Studios title and think it should win tons of awards simply because of how good it is. Whether it wins these at The Game Awards is irrelevant, as it still stands as the best-reviewed game of 2023.
The other “big winner” via the reviewer scores would be The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, which would win “Best Art Direction” and “Best Action/Adventure Game” based on its review scores. That, too, wouldn’t be too controversial as the game was the frontrunner for “Game of the Year” from the moment it arrived and was praised for its beautiful art style, its vast world, and the numerous things you could do between the Sky Islands, the surface world, and the Depths.
Now, obviously, there are certain “problems” with solely going by these scores. First, it’s a small number of reviewers, depending on the game. Second, it takes the fan vote out. Finally, like with another aggregate site, just because this group of critics liked it doesn’t mean fans always feel the same way.
