2018 is wrapping up and we here at Gamer Malaya and Gamer Matters are ready to close the year with one last hurrah: celebrating the best games we play this year! And berating some of them too.
Just like last year, we are doing our very own awards and again, the award winners here reflects on the opinion of the GM crew only.
We are also be letting you hear in on how we make our decisions, a three-hour deliberation process. It will the last episode of dia.log- The Gamer Matters Podcast for this year.
Starting tomorrow, we will be unveiling our award winners day-by-day. There will be a separate news posts to announce each award winner. This post will be updated with all of the award winners as they are announced.
UPDATE 30/12/18: The list has post has been fully updated and complete.
Here are the award categories for this year:
Best Game Given Away For Free
The best game we got to play for $free.99. Any games that had limited time giveaway (from Steam/Humble/etc.), PS Plus subscription or straight-up free games are eligible.
Winner: Deltarune (Toby Fox)
Honorable Mentions: Simulacra: Pipe Dreams (Kaigan Games), Destiny 2 (Bungie, Activision), Hacknet (Team Fractal Alligator, Fellow Traveller)
Best Game Under RM50
Budget games or games that get regular enough deep discounts that is worth every penny
Winner: Monster Prom (Beautiful Glitch, Those Awesome Guys)
Honorable Mentions: Into The Breach (Subset Games), Sunset Overdrive (Insomniac Games, Microsoft Studios), Lethal League Blaze (Team Reptile), Need For Speed Payback (Ghost Games, EA)
Best Remake/Remaster
Either the game holds up really well or the new release spruced up in a major way that made us love the same game all over again
Winner: Spyro Reignited Trilogy (Toys For Bob, Activision)
Honorable Mentions: Shadow Of The Colossus (2018) (Bluepoint, Sony Interactive Entertainment), Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered (THQNordic), Katamari Damacy Reroll (Monkeycraft, Bandai Namco)
The Anan Award For Best Game We Didn’t Play
The game we love best from afar and pining to play
Winner: Yakuza 6: Song Of Life (Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, Sega)
Honorable Mentions: Celeste (Matt Makes Games), Fist Of The North Star: Lost Paradise (Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, Sega), Octopath Traveller (Square Enix Business Division 11/Acquire, Square Enix)
Best Racing Game
The only normal genre-based game award here and it is as it says
Winner: Forza Horizon 4 (Playground Games, Microsoft Studios)
Honorable Mentions: Burnout Paradise Remastered (Stellar Entertainment, EA), Wreckfest (Bugbear, THQNordic), Onrush (Codemasters), The Crew 2 (Ivory Tower, Ubisoft)
Best a e s t h e t i c
A combination of graphics and sound used that is not necessarily the best, but definitely stands out
Winner: Dragon Ball FighterZ (Arc System Works, Bandai Namco)
Honorable Mentions: Tetris Effect (Enhance Games), Death’s Gambit (White Rabbit, Adult Swim Games), Dragon Quest XI (Square Enix), Lethal League Blaze (Team Reptile)
The David Cage Award For Best Story
The narrative that captures our hearts and minds delivered in video game form
Winner: Red Dead Redemption II, the Stand Unshaken scene (Rockstar Games)
Honorable Mentions: God Of War, that scene with Kratos and his weapons (Sony Santa Monica, Sony Interactive Entertainment), Marvel’s Spider-Man, that secret ending scene (Insomniac Games, Sony Interactive Entertainment), The Crew 2, The Accident mission (Ivory Tower, Ubisoft)
Most Surprising Game
Surprise! Didn’t expect it to be this good now did we?
Winner: The Missing: J.J. MacField And The Island Of Memories (White Owls, Arc System Works)
Honorable Mentions: A Way Out (Hazelight, EA), Into The Breach (Subset Games), Frostpunk (11bit Studios)
The Daniel’s Trashfire Award for Most Disappointing Game
Why you do this? The opposite of Most Surprising Game
Winner: Fallout 76 (Bethesda Game Studios, Bethesda)
Dishonorable Mentions: New Gundam Breaker (Bandai Namco), Metal Gear Survive (Konami), F1 2018 (Codemasters), Dissidia Final Fantasy NT (Square Enix)
Game Of The Year
The big one. As it says, the Gamer Malaya and Gamer Matters Game Of The Year 2018 award. The game we collectively believe to best released this year.
Winner: Monster Hunter: World (Capcom)
Honorable Mentions: Monster Prom (Beautiful Glitch, These Awesome Guys), Red Dead Redemption II (Rockstar Games), God Of War (Sony Santa Monica, Sony Interactive Entertainment), Hitman 2 (IO Interactive, WB Games), Battletech (Harebrained Schemes, Paradox Interactive)
You can listen to the full GOTY deliberations on YouTube here:
Here is the audio-only version on Anchor. You can also listen to it via the Anchor app which allows you to skip certain segments of the podcast:
dia.log – The Gamer Matters Podcast is also available on iTunes, Pocket Casts, Radio Public, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Overcast and now also on Spotify.