The Wildcard slot is reserved for special award categories that may only be feasible to have for only this year and deserve further deliberation. This year, we are celebrating the Best Horror Game.
Starting in 2023, we are retiring the Best Game We Didn’t Play Award. It was there to highlight games we love but never got around to play. But as the site has grown, and the rise of game subscriptions, getting access to the latest games has been easier than before. Last year, it boiled into only one unplayed game, and became a punchline of how we at Gamer Malaya and Gamer Matters regularly missed out on the big zeitgeist game of the year.
In its place, we’re introducing a Wildcard slot, which can be of any award category. The idea is that for this award for the year to reflect a very specific niche, grouping, or trend of games that emerge from out Best 30 selection. It could be a way to reintroduce retired award categories, or bring in another genre-based award.
For 2023, we’ve decided to use the wildcard slot for Best Horror Game. The year has seen some fantastic selection of games of this genre and the crew were passionate enough to deliberate on this category.
Best Horror Game Nominees
- Alan Wake 2
- Dead Island 2
- Dead Space (2023)
- Resident Evil 4 (2023)
Deliberations Summary (How The Winner Is Decided)
These four games are horror games, but not all in the same way. Alan Wake 2 is more surreal with the occasional jump scare and musical number. Dead Island 2 is more George Romero-esque with its undead mob but with tinge more satire/parody than it is spooky/scary. Dead Space is gory and unsettling. While Resident Evil 4’s remake retains that cliff-edge balance between peak action and absolute survival horror.
Due to being a wildcard slot award category, the brunt of the discussion was spent more on figuring out how we define “Best Horror Game”. And the definition we arrived at was to put the game that instill the most unnerving sense of terror that linger on the player.
Once that was defined, it was clear which was the winner.
Best Horror Game Winner
Congratulations to Dead Space (2023) for winning Best Horror Game!
Check out the GM GOTY Awards 2023 hub for the rest of the categories and winners. The page will be updated as we announce the winners everyday until December 29