The Game Awards, an annual awards ceremony honoring video games, took place Dec. 11. Though The Game Awards include multiple achievements, there are few as coveted as the “Game of the Year” award — the title given to the most esteemed release of that year.

According to its website, The Game Awards was founded in 2014 by its host and producer, Geoff Keighley, a Canadian video game journalist and television presenter. The show has since become widely popular with 154 million viewers livestreaming it last year, a 31% increase from 2023, according to its website.

The Game Awards’ website showcases the six nominees for this year’s award: “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33,” “Death Stranding 2: On the Beach,” “Donkey Kong Bananza,” “Hades II,” “Hollow Knight: Silksong” and “Kingdom Come: Deliverance II.” Given the prestige of this award, The Badger Herald spoke to local students about their preferences and feelings on this year’s competition.

Junior and computer science major Victor Zhou said The Game Awards more so represented a popularity contest among gamers than an objective measurement of the best game of that respective year. He said he consistently enjoys watching it each year.

Senior and computer engineering major Bowen Yuan said The Game Awards is more of a social event than a strictly professional game ceremony. While some fans will inevitably be upset by the winners and losers every year, there is still room for curiosity and excitement, Yuan said.

“I think the Game Awards is really just an outlet for people to come together and discuss their favorite games of the year,” Yuan said.

Yuan said the nominees for this year’s GOTY award were all fairly impressive, though he thinks only “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33,” “Death Stranding 2: On the Beach” and “Kingdom Come: Deliverance II” should win. Their atmosphere, narrative writing and overall immersiveness makes them stand out, Yuan said, though all three are notably long and require a heavy commitment from the player.

Zhou also said this year’s lineup of GOTY candidates was fairly strong, especially compared to last year. He said his personal pick would be for “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33,” a dark fantasy role-playing game made by the independent French studio Sandfall Interactive.

“It’s probably one of my favorite games [ever],” Zhou said about “Expedition 33.”

According to Zhou, highlights of the game stem from its soundtrack, fluid combat system and compelling story. He said fans of combat-oriented games and story-oriented games alike can find enjoyment in “Expedition 33,” noting that he himself typically does not prefer story-based games.

Of the three games he mentioned previously, Yuan said his overall pick would also go to “Expedition 33.” According to Yuan, the game excels at everything its directors set out to do, particularly in regard to the rest of its genre — role-playing games.

“It’s set the standard for a lot of role-playing games and story-heavy games,” Yuan said.

Zhou said the most likely winner for GOTY would be “Expedition 33” considering its popularity among the gaming community, particularly compared to the other candidates. The only other likely winner, according to Zhou, would be “Hollow Knight: Silksong.” Still, Zhou said, all of the games on the list earned their place in some capacity.

“This is probably the best line-up they could have had [this year],” Zhou said.

The Game Awards, of course, only represent the cream of the industry’s crop. The Badger Herald also spoke to the students about how they feel about the state of gaming more generally.

According to Zhou, while the GOTY line-up for this year was strong, gaming as a whole is currently going in a bad direction. He said many modern games are released in an unfinished or buggy state and consistently contain unnecessary padding that bog down the experience. While the GOTY nominees avoid these issues, Zhou said, they only represent a small portion of annual releases.

But, Yuan said he believes video games are in fact on an upward trajectory. An exciting part of 2025, according to Yuan, was the sheer consistency of quality titles releasing on a monthly basis. Quite a few, he said, would be stand-outs in past years.

“This year, I’ve played a bunch of new releases, and a lot of them could have easily been on the Game of the Year list,” Yuan said.

Editor’s note: This article was written before award winners were announced. “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33” was selected as the 2025 Game of the Year.