We're past the halfway point now, in both the time until the nominees get announced and also with our predictions! If you've missed our first two entries, you can find them here and here. Today we continue our journey by taking at look at the likeliest candidates in the following categories: Best Audio Design, Best Performance, Best Action / Adventure, Best Sim / Strategy and Best AR / VR. That's a lot of slashes!

Remember, we're listing games we think will be nominated, not games we personally found the best this year. Let's dive in!

Best Audio Design

Recognizing the best in-game audio and sound design.

Hi-Fi Rush

Developer: Tango Gameworks

Quote From Echo

One of Hi-Fi Rush's crowning achievements is its handling of audio. The satisfying smacking sound of the guitar, the music becoming more frantic when you overheat generators, and most rhythm of every sound effect playing into the music just all add up. Hi-Fi Rush's attention to minor details is incredible and adds a ton of style to an already heavily stylized game. Sound design has always been at the forefront of this games development and it certainly shows.

Dead Space

Developer: Motive Studio

Quote From Noxious

The Dead Space remake went hard on making sure the game sounded as realistic as possible. I highly recommend watching the video embedded below for a peek behind the curtain at how audio works in the dark corners of games. As the developers have stated numerous time, the game was rebuilt from the ground up, and this includes all audio as well. Not only is the entire audio system leagues more advanced over the original game (occlusion, the A.L.I.V.E.* system that controls the character's breathing and heartbeat seamlessly depending on oxygen/health levels), but as far as I could hear, almost every sound effect was redesigned and is better than its original version. The weapons sound sublime.

*Adrenaline, Limbic System Response, Intelligent Dialog, Vitals, Exertions (A.L.I.V.E.)

 

Planet of Lana

Quote From Nirast

Traversing an alien world and ordering around your alien pet is gonna require some solid audio cues, and Planet of Lana delivers. Commanding your little companion is always accompanied by a varied number of voice cues, which are hushed if enemies are nearby, and the little critter makes just the cutest little noises. Speaking of enemies, there's a very distinctive sound cue whenever one does something, which can fill you with the deepest form of dread if that something is against you.

Cocoon

Quote From Nirast

Everything that has to do with this game just screams "alien", and that goes for the sound design as well. Traversing the world and using your abilities makes distinct sounds that come across as other worldly, and the bosses' battle cries sound like nothing you can hear on Earth. Add to that the very satisfying clang of switching worlds, and you have a treat for the ears that matches the one for your eyes.

Best Performance

Awarded to an individual for voice-over acting, motion and/or performance capture.

Cara Gee (The Expanse: A Telltale Series)

Quote From Noxious

It's definitely an advantage to tell a story based off a TV show / book series about one of its characters in the gaming medium, and actually have that characters played by the same actor as on TV. This is exactly what happened in The Expanse: A Telltale Series, where Camina Drummer is played by no other than Cara Gee, the actual Camina Drummer of The Expanse's TV adaptation! If you've seen the show and then played the game, no doubt you've realized that, regarding Cara Gee's performance, it's like watching a flashback 'bottle episode' of the show itself. She is Camina Drummer.

Yuri Lowenthal as Peter Parker (Spider-Man 2)

Quote From Nirast

Peter Parker must be a very fun character to play, especially when paired with the symbiote suit. Throughout the game, he's happy, sleepy, sad, mad, insane, and a lot of other emotions in between, and Yuri's performance helps convey all of them with gusto. He didn't manage to get the award in 2018 for the first Spider-Man, but he might just be able to do it this year.

Nadji Jeter as Miles Morales(Spider-Man 2)

Quote From Nirast

Two Spider-Men for the price of a new PS5 game! While Miles doesn't go through the same range of emotions as Peter (the perks of not having aliens slime on your body), he still has a pretty rough path to follow in the game, while shining in the more quiet and personal moments. Nadji Jeter helps vocalize the ups and downs of that path in a great way. 

Laura Bailey as Grace (Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical)

Quote From Nirast

Is it cheating to consider singing performance while discussing this category? Regardless, Laura Bailey as Grace, the protagonist of Stray Gods, does a great job bringing the character to life. The game lets you partially pick Grace's personality at start of the game, so some sections will have her acting slightly different depending on the context, and Laura delivers on all of those fronts.

Neil Newbon (Astarion, Baldur's Gate 3)

Quote From Noxious

It's the man who plays Astarion. You know, Astarion. From Baldur's Gate 3. Neil is 100% winning this year.

Best Action / Adventure

Awarded for the best action/adventure game, combining combat with traversal and puzzle solving.

System Shock (2023)

Developer: Nightdive Studios

Quote From Noxious

You may have read how Dead Space did such a great job in the remake, out 16 years after the original released. But what about a remake released twenty-nine years after the original? In this particular situation, System Shock has also succeeded. Its faithful recreation of the classic, warts and all, is a great example of how to bring a game into the current generation, modernizing the usual stuff like visuals and audio while still respecting the perhaps outdated design that nonetheless made it succeed in the past. With this new System Shock, there's seldom any reason to travel back to 1994 and play the original.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

Developer: Respawn Entertainment

Quote From Nirast

Continuing the story form Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Survivor is a space adventure that sees you travel across the galaxy as the Empire hunts you down. The game has expanded on its predecessor in just about every way and, despite some technical that still persist, it's a great experience that fans of the Star Wars universe will enjoy from start to finish. Also, you can wield two lightsabers in this one, which is just cool.

Hogwarts Legacy

Developer: Avalanche Software

Quote From Noxious

Remember the old Harry Potter games? Especially the second one, with its open world and card collecting, innumerable hidden secrets and… beans you picked off the floor and traded to other students, what? Do you also remember how, as the game series continued releasing sequels, none of them really hit the mark? Hogwarts Legacy marks a return to form for the game part of the franchise. Combat, exploration and most importantly puzzles all come together to scratch that itch you've been feeling ever since your last trip to the "Bonus Bean Room" in 2002. Of course, Hogwarts Legacy comes with the usual cushy modern additions (interior design, enhanced character customization), but the base gameplay loop remains focused to stick the landing, and stick the landing it did.

Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Developer: Nintendo

Quote From Nirast

It's not very often a Zelda game is a direct sequel to a previous entry, and when it is, it tends to have some sort of unique aspect to it. Majora's Mask had the 3-day cycle, A Link Between Worlds had you walk on walls by becoming 3D, and Tears of the Kingdom is Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. Well, that's not entirely fair, the fact that the act of combining any* two objects together to create any sort of contraption while still in the game world encouraged ad-hoc improvisation and didn't kill the flow of the game. Outside of the wildly successful ultra-hand, TotK builds upon its predecessor's world while maintaining the actual geography relatively intact, while also telling a story that spans an unimaginable amount of time. It's also quite incredible that Nintendo managed to keep completely quiet about almost half the map, allowing the players to quite literally fall into said half. The sense of adventure and exploration is as prevalent in this one as it was in Breath of the Wild 6 years ago.

Best Sim / Strategy

Awarded for the best game focused on real time or turn-based simulation or strategy gameplay, irrespective of platform.

Pikmin 4

Developer: Nintendo

Quote From someone

Pikmin 4 is a great example of a game that understands how to weave game mechanics together. Each controllable Pikmin has its own set of unique abilities that are used to solve or traverse puzzles of platforms, respectively. There's something real nice about playing a game where, when facing problems, you have most of the solutions already available, and you merely have to figure out how to use all the tools at your disposal. Pikmin 4 provides all of that.

Terra Nil

Developer: Free Lives

Quote From Noxious

Terra Nil currently boasts an average rating of 9/10 on Steam and the number is quite accurate. Another gem of a game from Devolver Digital, Terra Nil is a "planetary clean-up" simulator. Say you just build a megalopolis in Cities: Skylines II. Well, come back a few millennia later in Terra Nil and clean up all that mess. It's about as chill an experience as you can get in a Sim game, and it sure beats cleaning your home. Terra Nil is an all-round great experience and there ought to be more games Sim games like it that don't have 'infinite growth' as a primary gameplay loop. It's refreshing to see.

Dungeons 4

Developer: Realmforge Studios

Quote From Nirast

The Dungeons games in general, and Dungeons 4 in particular, offer a unique gameplay loop for strategy fans, combining the Dungeon Keeper gradual expansion of your own evil lair with the more traditional aspect you'd find in a RTS. The two components gel quite well, giving you an experience you can't quite find anywhere else. The game is great for strategy fans of all experience levels, with people new to the genre able to slowly build their resources relatively uninterrupted, while veterans can crank up the difficulty for a proper challenge.

Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp

Developer: WayForward

Quote From Noxious

It's rare to get game remakes, remasters or re-releases that are an all-in-one bundle. Halo: The Master Chief Collection comes to find, being a combination of all those terms. Advance Wars 1+2 combines Advance Wars (2001) and Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising (2003) (… unfortunate name?) into one game with both campaigns, on the Nintendo Switch. Aside from its massive amount of content, the high degree of polish and the still fun game design make this a good contender for a nomination.

Best AR / VR

Awarded for the best game experience playable in virtual or augmented reality, irrespective of platform.

Resident Evil 4 VR

Developers: Capcom, Armature Studio

Quote From Nirast

Horror games want you to be immersed in them, and adding VR to the equation can only heighten that immersion. Capcom has added VR support to RE 7 and VIII, and they seem to continue the tradition with the remake of 4. If you want to take a closer look at the Spanish rural village overrun by cultists where the game takes place, this is the best way to do it.

Synapse

Developer: nDreams

Quote From Nirast

There's a good number of first person shooters in VR, which makes sense, as the entire medium is in first person. What Synapse does well is a) simplify the color pallet of the game to allow for sharper graphics without sacrificing performance, and b) use eye-tracking to highlight objects in the world, giving you access to telekinetic powers! Now, if only we could fix the immersion breaker that is "The character can move even if you sit in a chair".

Horizon: Call of the Mountain

Developers: Guerrilla Games, Firesprite

Quote From Nirast

You'll be hard pressed to find a more good-looking VR game today than Horizon: Call of the Mountain. It takes full advantage of the PSVR2's foveated rendering to deliver stunning visuals at a great performance, while the various set-pieces will keep you engaged for the duration of it's playtime. It does precisely what the launch title for a new platform needs to do: showcase it's core strenghts and leaving wanting for more. This is what you should expect from future AAA VR titles.

F1 23

Developer: Codemasters

Quote From Nirast

Few genres are as tailor-made for VR as racing games. Sitting in a chair is like sitting in the car, and the full field of vision brings the immersion to levels that are basically impossible with a monitor setup. All we need to figure out is a way to see the wheel. Wile last year's Best Racing/Sports winner, Gran Turismo 7, added VR support, we weren't sure if that would count for the nomination, so we're giving this one to F1 23.

That's it for today folks! One more of these left tomorrow, where we'll tackle the most important category of all: Game of the Year! We'll see you there, but until then, how did you find this list? Any other games you reckon could get nominated? Let us know in the comments below!