Well, it happened. The 2025 Game Awards have concluded, and I hope you like French melancholia and parrying until your fingers bleed, because Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 didn’t just win; it held the entire industry hostage and demanded its lunch money.
We all knew it was nominated for a record-breaking 12 awards. But watching it win Game of the Year, Best Direction, Best Narrative, Best Art Direction, Best Score, and Best RPG felt less like an awards show and more like a coronation for a game that I—and I cannot stress this enough—do not get.
Here is your “Warscar Recap” of the night, featuring the few moments where people weren’t awkwardly clapping for Sandfall Interactive.
The “Expedition 33” Sweep: A Cry for Help?
Let’s look at the stats. Clair Obscur took home almost every major statue. The developers, Sandfall Games, looked genuinely confused by the end of it. Creative Director Guillaume Broche even gave a speech that essentially amounted to, “We thought this was a AA game, why are you doing this?”
Meanwhile, I’m sitting here remembering the “turn-based” combat that actually requires me to possess the reflexes of a caffeine-addicted squirrel. We are giving Game of the Year to a title where the final boss has been known to crash the game harder than my PC on a hot day? Apparently, yes. Yes we are.
The “Wait, That Won?” Awards
It wasn’t all about the Paintress. Here are the other notable winners:
- Best Action Game: Hades II Finally, some sanity. Supergiant Games deserved this. It’s fast, it’s responsive, and Melinoë doesn’t ask me to engage in a rhythm game just to dodge an attack.
- Best Audio Design: Battlefield 6 The irony here was palpable. The game that deafened us all with audio bugs at launch winning for sound design? Poetry. Absolute cinema.
- Best Family Game: Donkey Kong Bananza I will admit, I didn’t see Bananza coming. Mostly because I assumed Nintendo would just re-release a Wii U port and call it a day. But the ape is back, and he beat out Lego Party and Sonic Racing: Crossworlds. If you need me, I’ll be over here trying to figure out the lore implications of “Bananza.”
Behind The Scenes: The Cringe Report
You want the juice? Here is what the cameras didn’t quite catch (or what you frantically skipped):
- The Teleprompter Incident: During the Best Action Game presentation, the teleprompter apparently froze. There was a solid 15 seconds where the presenter just stared into the soul of the camera, likely contemplating if they could just shout “SKIBIDI” and run off stage.
- The “Keighley Stare”: There was a moment during the 8-minute acceptance speech for Clair Obscur’s Best Narrative win where Geoff Keighley looked like he was mentally calculating the overtime costs for the venue. The “Wrap It Up” music started playing, and they kept talking.
The “World Premieres” (AKA: Games We Might Play Before We Die)
Of course, the awards are just filler between the trailers. We sat through 3.5 hours of commercials to see what we’ll be playing on the PlayStation 6. Here are the announcements that actually woke me up.
1. Grand Theft Auto VI… Delayed (Again) The night ended with a “One More Thing,” and for a second, the roof nearly blew off the theater. Rockstar dropped a new trailer. It looks incredible. The water physics alone probably cost more than my house. The Catch: The release date shifted from “Fall 2025” to “Spring 2026.” The collective groan from the audience was loud enough to be picked up by seismographs.
2. Death Stranding 2: On The Beach got Weirder Hideo Kojima came out (descending from the ceiling, naturally) to show us more of DS2. I have analyzed the trailer frame-by-frame and here is what I know: Norman Reedus fights a guitarist using a baby as a shield, and there is a talking puppet. I will play 100 hours of it. I will understand 0% of it.
3. Mass Effect 5 Exists (Allegedly) BioWare showed a 45-second teaser. We saw an N7 coat. We saw a Krogan who looks grumpy. We saw absolutely zero gameplay. Backstage chatter suggests this game is still in “early pre-production,” which is developer speak for “we have a folder of cool concept art and a dream.” See you in 2029, Shepard.
4. The “Actually Cool” Reveal: Monster Hunter: Extinction Out of nowhere, Capcom dropped a teaser for a massive expansion/sequel to Wilds. Dinosaurs. Lasers? A Palico driving a tank. This is what I want. No “emotional narrative about loss” (looking at you, Clair Obscur). Just give me a big sword and a bigger lizard to hit with it.
5. Hollow Knight: Silksong I just want to address the elephant in the room. Or rather, the hornet. There was no trailer. There was no mention. Team Cherry is gaslighting us. I am convinced Silksong is a social experiment to test the breaking point of the human psyche.
The Final Verdict
The 2025 Game Awards will be remembered as the year the industry decided that “Turn-Based Souls-Like with a 33-year expiration date” was the peak of entertainment.
I’m going back to Where Winds Meet. At least when a goose kills me there, I know it’s because of jank, not because I missed a 0.5-second parry window in a “relaxing” RPG.
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