The 2025 Game Awards are officially in the books! Coming off the 2024 show, which I thought was an all timer, the show had a whole lot to live up to. I had a great time with it, but I would say it fell a bit short of that incredible show. After a first half that was consistently blowing me away, the pacing in the second half of the show slowed considerably.
But you know what? That’s OK! As much as I love the reveals during The Game Awards, I watch it equally for the actual awards, and it seems like the awards truly ended up being the headline of the show for once. History was made, and we had several gracious and excellent speeches on that stage that truly captured the passion that the people who make video games have for this art form.
Per my usual tradition with these types of shows, here are my 23 biggest winners from Game Awards week. I also watched the “Wholesome Snack” and “Day of the Devs” presentations this week, so I am also including some winners from there. By “winners,” I am talking about games, people, or award recipients that truly excited me and had special moments this week. As a reminder, I usually scoff at any trailer that doesn’t clearly feature gameplay, but of course, there are exceptions.
Let’s get on to the list!
If you want to watch trailers for the games, I linked them to them in each one.
23. ROCKBEASTS
This one was in the “Day of the Devs” showcase. ROCKBEASTS is a sim/RPG where you manage a rock band, and it also has rhythm game elements. The art style, personality, sim elements, and RPG features all look great. The idea of taking a rock band from the underground to stardom is not unique, but still a fun concept. And the management elements of the game actually look pretty deep. The only downside that I saw from the trailer is that the rhythm sections of the game looked pretty mediocre. But I don’t think that will matter much if everything else is done well. I’m a lot more excited for this one than I expected to be.
22. Arcane Eats
I can’t say I expected to see a roguelike deckbuilder shown off at the “Wholesome Snack” presentation, but this looked pretty neat. Instead of being about combat, this card game is related to cooking meals for different people. I was really into this genre after I first played Slay the Spire, but I’ve become much more selective with it over the years. Arcane Eats looks like one that may actually pull off having a deep deckbuilder while doing something different. I’ll be keeping my eye on this one.
It didn’t look like we got much in the way of real gameplay on this one, but screw it. Pod racing is just undeniably cool. I also have no idea if it was an actual good video game, but I kind of dug the N64 pod racer game as a kid, so it’s nice to see a return. I think there’s just an undeniable amount of potential with this concept, and I really hope they deliver on that.
20. Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve
I’ve never paid the smallest bit of attention to the Ace Combat games, outside of knowing that they are pretty highly rated. This trailer wasn’t anything special, but I genuinely had no idea that these games actually went all in on the story as well as the flight combat. This looked super cheesy, but really entertaining, and I’ve only heard great things about the actual gameplay in this series. This trailer literally inspired me to spend $5 on Ace Combat 7, so that’s a pretty big win. If I like that game, I will probably be purchasing this.
19. Verdant
This was in the “Wholesome Snack” showcase and instantly blew me away with its colorful and gorgeous post-apocalyptic world. It also had some 80s vibes with its music, which felt pretty unexpected, but I kind of vibed with it. Honestly, I probably vibe with anything 80s, but that’s another story. The trailer doesn’t give you tons of insight into how the game will play, but the lovely art and unexpected music choices both have me interested in learning more.
In and of itself, this trailer didn’t do much for me. Leon Kennedy is fine, but his return doesn’t particularly excite me (frankly, no Resident Evil character has ever excited me much). The very short blips of gameplay seemed solid as you’d expect, but not much was shown. This actually made the list off Geoff discussing the game after the trailer. Usually, Resident Evil games lean more into survival horror or action. With the recent Resident Evil games, we had Biohazard that focused more on survival horror, and Village which focused more on action. I think the 50-50 balance of survival horror and action segments could be a lot of fun and a nice way to keep the game interesting throughout. That alone was enough to get me more interested in Requiem.
17. Screamer
This is another one where there isn’t much shown, so it wouldn’t usually be here. But an anime styled racing game with what seems to be a pretty big story emphasis is such a non-existent thing these days that I have to pay some attention to it. The style here is top notch at the very least. Hopefully, everything comes together well. It’s only a few months away, which is another bonus.
16. Farah Brixi From South Of Midnight
Farah Brixi is with Compulsion Games and accepted the “Games for Impact” award for South of Midnight. I really respected how excited and passionate she seemed to be about the award.
But despite a very eloquent speech with tons of emotion, she still managed to pivot and give South of Midnight a free one million dollars worth of advertising by throwing in the announcement that the game was coming to PS5 and Switch 2 soon. I respect that hustle, as I want this game to succeed. I think Compulsion has a lot of talent, and I want to see more from them.
This trailer was kind of bizarre, but I was into it. The first 90 seconds or so of the trailer are devoted to what essentially feels like an emo/alt-rock music video of some sort. The song was reminiscent of the kind of stuff I’d hear all the time on my local alt-rock station as a teen (shout out 89x), and I kind of dug it. The visual style is great too. But then they showed the gameplay, and this looked like a fun zombie action game. It seems like you will be taking on pretty big hordes of foes, and the game showed off a pretty nice array of moves to take them on. I’m not 100% sold on this one, but it looks like the developers have a pedigree with some pretty big franchises in the past, and the gameplay I saw looked good enough, especially if the music and style are as on point as I think they might be.
I’m not going to lie, I almost wrote this game off twice before the trailer really got going while watching “Day of the Devs.” The developer of this game mostly has experience with making VR games, so I was ready to stop paying attention right then and there. No shade to VR; I just don’t use it for a variety of reasons.
From there, the developer mentioned that this would be a battle royale game, and I was ready to quit paying attention all over again.
But then, my interest immediately piqued when I noticed that this looked like a Zelda game. Sure enough, Scrambleknights Royale basically looks like a Zelda battle royale game. You enter the map, fight monsters, and look for armor and gear upgrades. The zone slowly shrinks, and you need to survive, fight off enemies and bosses, and eventually fight off other players as well.
It seemed really well thought out and interesting. The game also has solo and group modes as an added bonus.
My only issue is that combat in large groups looks a tad clunky to me. The one-on-one fights where there was more space looked a bit more compelling. Either way, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I really have my eyes on this battle royale game.
13. Forest 3
Even fans of the Forest series probably didn’t guess that this was a Forest game based on the trailer. Admittedly, I’ve never played this series, but the shift to sci-fi and the incredible atmosphere throughout this trailer had me very invested in this one. I feel like if I play this one, I will have no idea what to expect around every corner, and I dig that.
12. Out of Words
This is the second trailer I’ve seen for this game. And while there wasn’t much gameplay shown once again, my god, the visuals are incredible. I love the way they show a brief “behind the scenes” glimpse of how they shoot this claymation style. The amount of detail is incredible. I feel like it’s a lot prettier than the average game or show that has this kind of style. With the amount of imagination and detail in the visual style, I feel somewhat confident that the gameplay will deliver as well, even though we haven’t seen much of it. It’s really cool that we finally seem to be getting a lot of different co-op focused games these days. This has tons of potential.
11. Saros
I’m pretty much already totally sold on Saros, but this trailer still built up a little more excitement for what I think has a good chance to be a “Game of the Year” nominee in 2026. Saros has blips of gameplay interspersed throughout the trailer, which all look fantastic as you’d expect. But it feels like Saros is going to be even heavier on the story than Returnal was, which is exciting stuff. Returnal with more story and more roguelite elements feels like a guaranteed 9/10 or higher for me. This was a nice little reminder that it is on the way.
This trailer was absolutely insane. It somehow managed to surprise me in a new way every 10 seconds. There’s some fun looking platforming here and seemingly tons of ways to modify your main character and each level in various ways. The levels all seem to be homages to tons of huge video games à la Astro Bot, and there appears to be a lot of personality and fun humor. The game also hints at a sort of meta narrative, and then goes full live action at the end. Somehow I left the trailer with more questions than answers, but in a good way. I thought what I saw was compelling, and I’d really like to see more. You have my attention, Bradley the Badger.
I’m always amazed at how developers keep coming up with new gimmicks for their first-person puzzle games. In recent years, I played The Entropy Centre and Viewfinder, which both had very cool concepts that all of their puzzles were based around. Stretchmancer is built around the ability to stretch parts of the level out to get through each area. It seems really creative, and the game had a decent sense of style and personality too. After watching this, I really am kind of shocked I hadn’t seen any buzz for this game out there yet, because this really looks like it has a lot of potential. This is exactly why I made sure to watch “Day of the Devs” before posting this article. I’m very fascinated by this one.
8. Orbitals
I do not own a Switch 2 yet, and outside of borrowing my brother’s console for Donkey Kong Bananza, I have had no desire to have one at all, thanks to my somewhat recently acquired Steam Deck. I have not seen any other Switch 2 exclusive that has piqued my interest at all. That finally changed with Orbitals. Orbitals basically looks like a Split Fiction type of co-op game with a retro anime aesthetic. The visuals are unbelievably good. If the substance can even come close to the style, this should be an absolute banger. I can’t wait to check this one out. I feel like I need three worthwhile Switch 2 exclusives before I’ll buy the console, and there’s a good chance this is the first.
For whatever reason, Jonathan Blow’s games have never quite clicked with me, even though I generally love puzzle games. I heard all the hype for Braid and The Witness, and neither clicked with me all that much. I think I was ready to write off any project he made going forward, but after watching this trailer, I guess I’m going to be back for one more.
For lack of a better way to describe it, Order of the Sinking Star seems like a series of Zelda-esque environmental puzzles. You have to navigate from point A to point B and use various abilities to do so. As the trailer progresses, characters from different puzzles seem to intermingle and combine abilities, which makes the puzzles increasingly complex. It looks like there are over 1000 puzzles here and a wild, interconnected story of some sort. At the very least, it’s incredibly ambitious in a way that demands my attention. I also enjoy the sorts of puzzles I saw here, so I think there are good odds that I’ll get some enjoyment out of this one.
The story feels like it has some potential, though the voice acting was kind of subpar during the trailer, which makes me a bit more skeptical about how well it will be executed on, but there’s no doubt that the amount going on here was enough to catch my attention.
6. Ontos
Let’s just say that if I watch a trailer for your game, and that suddenly makes me want to go back and play your past games that I missed, that’s a pretty good sign. I have never played Soma, but this trailer made me put it in my potential queue for post “Game of the Year” season. In a short minute, Ontos showed off tons of atmosphere, some real mystery, and some strong writing. This looked immersive as hell. I’m fascinated to hear more, though once again, I might be sold on it enough to just go dark on it going forward.
I feel like we’ve been getting a real resurgence of games my dear friend Andres would absolutely describe as “Journey-Likes” in recent years. These are usually beautiful and chill exploration games. You might have to solve a few very light puzzles along the way, but you mostly meander from point A to point B.
Even with just this aspect, Coven of the Chicken Foot stands out for me. It looks incredible. I’ve seen a few studios attempt a “Studio Ghibli” art style in recent years, but I don’t think anything looks better than this. The odd but cute sheep/monster companion also seemed really charming.
But then the trailer took things to the next level by creating a little mystery at the end. The animal companion seems to get less friendly in spots, so there might be a bit more danger than expected, too. I found myself very interested in this. I want to know more, but it honestly seems like it might be smart to go totally dark on this game and be as surprised as possible when you play it.
4. Beastro
Holy crap, I love this concept. Beastro is a cozy cooking game that seems to have plenty of the usual “farm-sim” elements. You play as a cook who makes food for adventurers to help them fight better. There are also minigames attached to the cooking and an entire deckbuilder element as well. It seems like a really clever mix of elements.
Being a farm sim, you might expect the card game element to be overly simple, but it actually looks quite involved. I was almost a bit overwhelmed by how many different elements of the game this trailer showed off, but I view that as a good thing. This seems unlike anything else out there, and I am really excited about it.
3. Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic
When Geoff says, “that’s the magic of this show, anything can happen”, you know he has to have something very hot on deck. Sure enough, revealing a new Old Republic game was an insane revelation. The original director being on board was pretty damn exciting too.
Admittedly, while the trailer is pretty cool, it’s nothing special. There is no gameplay, but it’s dark and pretty atmospheric. It seems pretty clear that it’s a Star Wars game from the onset, but safe to say, my jaw dropped when I saw what it was. This wasn’t quite as shocking as Okami 2 for me, as there has at least been KOTOR remake buzz out there, but I was still pretty damn stunned, to say the least.
This trailer is one of the few that still feels like a winner despite the lack of gameplay. It has been 20+ years since the last KOTOR single-player game, and that is a series that changed my gaming life. KOTOR (and Morrowind) introduced me to “Western RPGs” and made me fall in love with them. They have pretty much been my favorite genre ever since. This is a revelation where I actually think a teaser trailer is pretty damn awesome.
Now, the buzz admittedly died down after the show. I doubted that Fate of the Old Republic was right around the corner, but this game is almost assuredly at least five years out from everything that I’m seeing. That is a bummer, and frankly, there’s at least a small chance it never makes it out. But for that one moment, I was in awe and had a huge smile on my face. Let’s just hope it doesn’t turn to tears.
Wow. I really enjoyed Control, so I’ve been interested in the sequel, but suddenly this is one of my most anticipated games of 2026. Despite the success of Control, Remedy is going even bolder for its next game, with what appears to be a more action focused game, and a setting and some enemies that gave me serious Nier vibes. Afterward, Remedy also said that this is an RPG, so yeah, I’m very intrigued. Remedy has become one of the best gaming studios around, and their willingness to push the envelope has to be commended. I have no idea what to expect from Control Resonant, even though it’s a sequel. That is pretty awesome.
1. Expedition 33 And Everyone Involved With It
Last year, I ranked Astro Bot #5 for “biggest winners” after its “Game of the Year” victory. I would have liked to rank it higher, but the game didn’t dominate the awards quite as much as I thought it might, and we also had some all-time revelations that kind of took over the headlines.
This year, there is no question who the biggest winner of the show is. Expedition 33 made history by winning more awards than any game in show history. While the game has sold over 5 million copies, I now expect it to sell several million more, partly because of the extra hype and headlines from this.
It also just had one awesome moment after another throughout the show. The main show kicked off with an incredible musical performance from Lorien Testard and the vocalists, and the highs didn’t stop there. I loved every speech that was given by all the various people from the studio. I loved how sincere and moved both Testard and Alicia Duport-Percier were. I loved how emotional Jennifer English was during her speech. Unsurprisingly, the speech from writer Jennifer Svedberg-Yen was incredibly eloquent and moving. And of course, seeing that almost the entire studio was there and that they were able to celebrate their win together was such a cool moment. This was then topped off with director Guillaume Broche thanking Hironobu Sakaguchi for inspiring him to make games and helping him fall in love with the art form.
Nothing hits for me like when you can see how much an award means to someone who won it, and the emotion was flowing all night from everyone involved with this game. And now it will only become bigger. What a story.
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