On December 7, 2023, Geoff Keighley hosted the tenth annual Game Awards for this year’s top games and performances. There were over 30 different categories that the games and people could win in. The most popular categories are Game of the Year, Best Game Direction, Best Narrative, and Best Performance.

This Game Awards has been described as controversial with the heavily anticipated “Spider-Man 2” receiving seven nominations, yet zero awards. “Baldur’s Gate 3” was nominated for eight awards and won six of them.

The Best Performance Award went to an individual for voice-over acting, motion, and/or performance capture. There were many great nominations this year from Yuri Lowenthal’s Spider-Man to Cameron Monaghan’s Cal Kestis. In the end, Neil Newbon’s versatile performance as Astarion in “Baldur’s Gate 3” won it all, beginning their collection of trophies.

Up next is Best Narrative. This award went to the game which had outstanding storytelling and narrative development in a game. The nominees for this award are the popular picks this year, “Baldur’s Gate 3” and “Spider-Man 2,” as previously mentioned, “Alan Wake 2,” “Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty,” and “Final Fantasy XVI.” Ultimately, “Alan Wake 2” won the award for its compelling storyline that captivated players from start to finish.

Game enthusiast junior Colby Taylor stated, “I’m going to be completely honest, I’ve never heard of this game, but any game such as ‘Spider-Man 2’ or ‘Tears of the Kingdom’ deserved to win, but definitely not ‘Baldur’s Gate 3.’”

Along with Best Narrative and various other awards, “Alan Wake 2” received the award for Best Game Direction for their outstanding creative vision and innovation in game direction and design. This award highlighted how “Alan Wake 2” managed to immerse players with its amazing environment design and character designs.

Finally, the award every game desires is Game of the Year. This award recognizes the game that delivered the absolute best experience across all creative and technical fields. The nominated games were “Alan Wake 2,” “Baldur’s Gate 3,” “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2,” “Resident Evil 4,” “Super Mario Bros. Wonder,” and “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.” To conclude the game awards, the game to win Game of the Year was “Baldur’s Gate 3.”

“I don’t think ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ deserved game of the year. Either ‘Spider-Man’ or ‘Tears of the Kingdom.’ ‘Tears of the Kingdom’ came out earlier in the year, even though ‘Spider-Man’ didn’t, it had people excited and I actually saw people playing it. No one had really heard about ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ until it happened. No one I knew thought it had a chance,” stated Taylor.

While many are against “Baldur’s Gate 3,” there are also many supporters, one of which is junior Nick Ratnesar.

“I think this is a controversial thing to say, but I think ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ is a great game of the year. The fact that it delivers a new experience with multiple ways to progress, doesn’t really limit you like a normal D&D-based game would makes it a better candidate than a remake of ‘Spider-Man’ in my opinion, which many people think should be the Game of the Year winner. I looked into the game and it seemed really interesting, and it’s not just a ‘Spider-Man’ remake. I was looking at IGN and instead of fighting a really difficult boss, you can go into a secret area and have a drinking contest with an NPC and if you win you can avoid fighting the boss. ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ seems to deliver new gameplay to the D&D space that is very eye-opening, and I think it’s a great game,” Ratnesar stated.