The narrative that captures our hearts and minds delivered in video game form
The nominees for the GM GOTY Award 2021 for Best Aesthetic are the following:
- The Forgotten City
- Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy
- Outriders
- Psychonauts 2
- Road 96
Deliberations Summary
This one award was conceived out of spite against a certain storyteller that writes awful stories but good at making set-pieces in video games, take a guess who.
The deliberation crew admitted to how wild the shortlisted games that made it to this list, and it’s the result of having very peculiar tastes for when it comes to stories in a video game. So, some obvious choices to most folks did not have a place here.
But that means oddballs like the self-aware grimdark tales of Outriders, the investigative put-together-the-narrative-yourself story of The Forgotten City, and the choose-your-own-adventure procedural of Road 96 gets a big shout. The shonen retelling of the events of Sengoku Japan that is Samurai Warriors 5 almost made the cut, which again, speaks to how odd our selection is. But hey, different perspectives are to be celebrated.
For those looking for more mainstream picks, Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy showcased the masterclass of storytellers from the team at Eidos Montreal, while Psychonauts 2, amazingly enough, told a better story than Marvel’s Avengers attempted to do.
The spoiler-filled deliberation shows how the writing team in all the nominated games used their tools to deliver a story, though one familiar story told in such a compelling manner, with a good dose of comedy, takes the W.
Deliberation Length (after edits): 48 minutes
Best Aesthetic Winner
Congratulations to Psychonauts 2 for winning the 2021 GM GOTY Award for Best Story!
Stay tuned tomorrow when we reveal the winner for Best Indie Game.
For the full list and full recording of the deliberations (as part of dia.log – The Gamer Matters Podcast), check the main page for the Gamer Malaya And Gamer Matters Game Of The Year Awards 2021 here.