The Game Awards may haveclosed out 2019 with a big celebrationof the year’s best games, but it’s not the only major awards ceremony the industry has to offer. Since 1998, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) has honored some of the most noteworthy titles out there with the annualDICE Awards, and today it announced the nominees for this year’s ceremony, which will cap off a week-long industry gathering at the 2020 DICE Summit next month.
This year’s event will see a total of 65 games nominated across 23 different categories. While many will be interested in all of these (the full list can be seen below), most will probably be interested specifically in the five games vying for the most prominent award of them all,Game of the Year.
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AIAS’ choices for this year areControl,Death Stranding,Disco Elysium,Outer Wilds, andUntitled Goose Game. These games make up an interesting selection, as they cover pretty much the whole spectrum of the games that came out in 2019. Here we have both major AAA titles and indie games that most gamers probably missed, games that are nearly universally beloved and games that are wildly divisive, and games whose merits vary from the strength of their gameplay to the uniqueness of the experiences they offer. It’s not every yeara game lets players harass people as a testy goose, after all.
Besides Game of the Year, these games mostly overshadow the competition across the other categories too, withControlandDeath Strandingboth leading theDICE Award nominationswith eight each (including for Outstanding Technical Achievement and Action Game of the Year). Following them isDisco Elysiumwith six, andOuter WildsandUntitled Goose Gamewith four.
Other games of note here includeCall of Duty: Modern Warfare(which tied withDisco Elysiumto get six nominations)Mortal Kombat 11,Resident Evil 2, andSayonara Wild Hearts(all of which got three). Some of these games will obviously have a better chance of winning their respective awards than others, but all in all these and the dozens of other nominated games make a solid representation of what was great and most memorable about 2019.
Dead or Alive 6
Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield
FIFA 20
NBA 2K20
NHL 20
Blood and Truth
Game of the Year
