Longtime TGA host Geoff Keighley speedran a few of this year’s categories, making the award show feel more like an announcement montage rather than an award show.
This year’s surprise hit, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 nearly swept the award show bagging the most coveted Game of the Year award, including a few others with Best Narrative, Best RPG, and Best Game Direction to name a few.
Also from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Jennifer English who lent her voice for Maelle, won Best Performance against costars Ben Starr, Charlie Cox and Troy Baker.
Arc Raiders, another surprise hit, won Best Multiplayer Game with Kuro Games’ Wuthering Waves bagging the Player’s Voice Award, outpacing Clair Obscur and Dispatch, the episodic superhero adventure from AdHoc Studios.
Letting the memes pour in, Most Anticipated Game undoubtedly went to Grand Theft Auto VI while Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves bagged the award for the Best Fighting Game at this year’s edition.
The critically panned The Last of Us: Season 2 was named as this year’s Best Adaptation, and Hades 2 was named as the Best Action Game this year. Umamusume: Pretty Derby bagged the Best Mobile Game Award and Counter Strike 2 was hailed as the Best Esports Game this year.
Remaining awardees include Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles (Best Sim/Strategy), Hollow Knight: Silksong (Best Action-Adventure), Battlefield 6 (Best Audio Design), No Man’s Sky (Best Ongoing), South of Midnight (Games for Impact), Doom: The Dark Ages (Innovation in Acccessibility), Donkey Kong Bananza (Best Family), Mario Kart World (Best Racing), Baldur’s Gate 3 (Best Community Support), and the Midnight Walk (Best AR/VR).
A few surprises
Capcom revealed that the ever so iconic Leon Kennedy will also be a playable character for Resident Evil: Requiem offering an action packed gameplay option compared to Grace, the main character for the ninth installment.
Filmmaker JJ Abrams also dropped a surprise announcement with PlayStation, announcing their brand new co-op title named 4 Loop, a quirky sci-fi themed game. Hollywood has been slowly invading the gaming sphere as famous korean actor Don Lee is set to star in a violent and action packed game in Gang of Dragon.
At this year’s TGA, we also got a first look at the upcoming Street Fighter movie with Noah Centineo, Jason Momoa, and Andrew Koji, along with the rest of the cast.
Exodus a sci-fi adventure from publishers Wizards of the Coast was also announced along with Phantom Blade Zero a stylish action game akin to the wuxia genre of films. Phantom Blade Zero is described as blend between martial arts and machinery, and the game is set to release on September next year.
The final game revealed was Highguard, a free-to-play fantasy first person shooter (FPS) game from some of the people who worked on Apex Legends and Titanfall. As described by Geoff Keighley, this game aims to push the FPS genre forward by adding mechanics from genres not typically seen in the FPS sphere. The game will launch on January of 2026.
Games to be excited for
Alan Wake 2 developers Remedy announced the sequel to their 2019 game Control with Control: Resonant, seeing the series evolve into the Action RPG genre, releasing next year.
Two new bombshells from Amazon Game Studios and Crystal Dynamics include Tomb Raider: Catalyst to be released in 2027, a new adventure starring the iconic Lara Croft, and a remake based from her first outing with Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, out next year.
Two new games from the Star Wars franchise were also unveiled with a follow-up to the Knights of the Old Republic aptly named, Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic, as well as a new racing game from Need For Speed and Burnout creators, Star Wars: Galactic Racer.
SOMA and Amnesia developers Frictional Games also unveiled their new IP titled Ontos, described as a sci-fi mystery thriller with an engineer exploring a hotel on the moon to search for her missing father.
In the dark-fantasy RPG genre are Divinity and Lords of the Fallen 2, new installments to their franchises respectively with both games showcasing brutal trailers revealed at this year’s TGA.
Returning franchises also made their way into the show with Megaman: Dual Override, Nioh 3, Warhammer 40,000 and Ace Combat 8 revealing the trailers for their upcoming games respectively.
While many fans braced for the announcement of some of the most heavily rumored games this year (Half-Life 3, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag Remake, and many others), the year has not ended yet and we may still see some other surprises from notable game developers.
