It’s time for the second BLAEO Game Awards!
Let’s see which games released this year were most loved by the BLAEO community! We can’t pick the best games of 2019 without your help so please nominate your favourite games released in 2019 and make sure to return between December 21 and 29 to vote for your absolute favourites.
The timeline for this event is as follows:
20 November - 20 December: Nomination phase
21 December - 29 December: Voting phase
31 December: The winners are announced
These are the proposed categories:
- Game of the Year
- Choices Matter
- Best Story
- Best Co-op/Multiplayer Game
- Best Free to Play Game
- Most Value for Money
- Best Game Under $20
- Best Addition to an Existing Series
- Most Addictive Game
- Prettiest Game
- Best Soundtrack
- Best DLC
- Best Early Access Game (Added to EA in 2019 or left EA in 2019.)
- Best Underdog/Hidden Gem
- Best Character
- Best Console Exclusive
- Best Mobile Game
Nomination Phase
To nominate a game simply post a comment with a list of games that you want to nominate in each category.
Please include games even if they have already been mentioned by other users. We might not be able to include every proposed game in the final vote and seeing how popular the games are will make it easier for us to make the final selection.
In a similar way we might not include all the categories in the final vote if there’s an obvious lack of interest/proposed games.
Guidelines for nominating games:
- Best Console Game category: games released on console for the first time in 2019 can be nominated.
- Best Mobile Game category: games released on mobile for the first time in 2019 can be nominated.
- Best DLC category: the DLC needs to have been released in 2019, but the game can be older.
- All other categories: games released on PC for the first time in 2019 can be nominated.
Please use the following format when nominating games:
**- Game of the Year:**
**- Choices Matter:**
**- Best Story:**
**- Best Co-op/Multiplayer Game:**
**- Best Free to Play Game:**
**- Most Value for Money:**
**- Best Game Under $20:**
**- Best Addition to an Existing Series:**
**- Most Addictive Game:**
**- Prettiest Game:**
**- Best Soundtrack:**
**- Best DLC:**
**- Best Early Access Game:**
**- Best Underdog/Hidden Gem:**
**- Best Character:**
**- Best Console Exclusive:**
**- Best Mobile Game:**
- Game of the Year: Unheard
- Choices Matter: missed messages.
- Best Story: Unheard
- Best Co-op/Multiplayer Game: Kind Words
- Best Free to Play Game: missed messages.
- Most Value for Money: Beat Hazard 2
- Best Game Under $20: Unheard
- Best Addition to an Existing Series: Beat Hazard 2
- Most Addictive Game: Beat Hazard 2
- Prettiest Game: Blasphemous
- Best Soundtrack: Kind Words
- Best DLC: Unheard The Lethal Script
- Best Early Access Game:
- Best Underdog/Hidden Gem: Unheard
- Best Character:
- Best Console Exclusive:
- Best Mobile Game:
- Game of the Year: Disco Elysium, The Outer Worlds, Journey, Detroit: Become Human
- Choices Matter: The Outer Worlds, Detroit: Become Human
- Best Story: Detroit: Become Human
- Best Co-op/Multiplayer Game: The Jackbox Party Pack 6, Cat Quest II, Journey
- Best Free to Play Game:
- Most Value for Money: Oxygen Not Included, My Time At Portia
- Best Game Under $20: Untitled Goose Game, Journey
- Best Addition to an Existing Series: Cat Quest II
- Most Addictive Game: Oxygen Not Included, My Time At Portia
- Prettiest Game: Lost Ember, Journey
- Best Soundtrack: Journey
- Best DLC: Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm
- Best Early Access Game: Oxygen Not Included, Hades
- Best Underdog/Hidden Gem: Untitled Goose Game
- Best Character: Untitled Goose Game (Goose), BD-1 (Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order)
- Best Console Exclusive:
- Best Mobile Game:
- Best Underdog/Hidden Gem: A Short Hike
- Only game I’ve played released in 2019: A Short Hike
- Game of the Year: Dicey Dungeons, Unheard
- Choices Matter:
- Best Story: Unheard
- Best Co-op/Multiplayer Game: Heave Ho, The Jackbox Party Pack 6
- Best Free to Play Game: When the Darkness comes, Neon Beats
- Most Value for Money: Slay the Spire, Dicey Dungeons
- Best Game Under $20: Dicey Dungeons, Unheard, Untitled Goose Game, Baba is You, Superliminal
- Best Addition to an Existing Series:
- Most Addictive Game: Dicey Dungeons, Tracks - The Family Friendly Open World Train Set Game
- Prettiest Game: Katana ZERO, Gato Roboto (the animations especially, so good)
- Best Soundtrack: A Short Hike, Katana ZERO
- Best DLC:
- Best Early Access Game: Totally Accurate Battle Simulator
- Best Underdog/Hidden Gem: A Short Hike, Kind Words, Gato Roboto, Snakeybus, I HATE THIS GAME
- Best Character: Goose in Untitled Goose Game
- Best Console Exclusive: Super Mario Maker 2, Tetris 99 (been obsessed with both all year, watching & now playing)
- Best Mobile Game:
Honorary mentions:
Jack-In-A-Castle (VN that pleasantly surprised me)
Not For Broadcast: Prologue (a fantastic f2p demo)
Teamfight Tactics
Cadence of Hyrule OST
-
Looking back I played loads of games released in the last half of 2018 this year, unlucky. haha
- Game of the Year: The Outer Worlds
- Choices Matter: The Outer Worlds
- Best Story: The Outer Worlds
- Best Co-op/Multiplayer Game: Trine 4 / Gears 5
- Most Value for Money: Football Manager 2020 / (Xbox Game Pass for PC ! :D)
- Best Game Under $20: Untitled Goose Game
- Best Addition to an Existing Series: Trine 4
- Most Addictive Game: Football Manager 2020
- Prettiest Game: Trine 4 / The Outer Worlds / Gears 5
- Best Character: Parvati (The Outer Worlds) / Goose (Untitled Goose Game)
- Best Console Exclusive: Fire Emblem: Three Houses / Luigi’s Mansion 3
Ok guys, lets be honest - I’m here only to nominate Eastshade :D
- Game of the Year:
- Choices Matter:
- Best Story: A Plague Tale
- Most Value for Money: One Finger Death Punch 2
- Best Game Under $20:
- Best Addition to an Existing Series: Resident Evil 2
- Most Addictive Game: One Finger Death Punch 2
- Prettiest Game: A Plague Tale
- Best Soundtrack: A Plague Tale
- Best DLC:
- Best Early Access Game:
- Best Underdog/Hidden Gem: Eastshade
- Best Character:
- Best Console Exclusive: Judgment
Well darn, Dragon Quest XI released last year. That ruins my ballot. Edit: Okay, I can add a little more (mostly thanks to one very good demo)
- Game of the Year: Dragon Quest Builders 2
- Best Story: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, Dragon Quest Builders 2
- Best Co-op/Multiplayer Game: Kind Words
- Best Free to Play Game: NGU Idle
- Most Value for Money: Dragon Quest Builders 2
- Best Game Under $20: Kind Words
- Best Addition to an Existing Series: Dragon Quest Builders 2
- Most Addictive Game: Dragon Quest Builders 2, Slay the Spire
- Best DLC: Shovel Knight: King of Cards
- Best Underdog/Hidden Gem: Kind Words
- Best Character: Malroth - Dragon Quest Builders 2
I haven’t really played much games released in 2019 so……..
- Best Soundtrack: Kind Words
- Best Early Access Game: Dungeon Munchies
Can we nominate for games that were released in December last year, seeing how they could not fit into that year’s “game of the year” due to when the voting happened?
Short answer: no, only games released in 2019.
Long answer: I remember that issue from last year and was trying to figure out what to do about it this year. I tried postponing everything by a few days this year to exclude the smallest amount of games possible, so that we hopefully don’t feel like we left out some amazing games when voting this year and the event can stay as simple as possible in a “best games of the current year” format.
One of the problems is deciding the cut off point - if only games released after the nomination period are excluded this year, but available for nominations next year, that’s “unfair” to games released in the week before since not many people will buy these new games, play them, nominate them and then actually vote for them in the final vote. So do we exclude games from the last 3 weeks of the year? Entire December? End of November as well since not that many people will buy and play new releases?
And this website being a backlog oriented website makes these kind of events just generally difficult to organise. :) The average backlog assassin doesn’t buy new games on release so to get the most “accurate” result we should probably vote on best games of 2019 in 2021 when more of us will have played the big releases and discovered all the hidden gems.
Anyway, I assume (but could of course be wrong) that changing the system to include an extra few weeks of games wouldn’t affect the results of the final vote much (small amount of worthwile games being released in that window anyway) or at least not enough to warrant moving to a more complicated system. Everyone is of course welcome to post any honourable mentions, though!
That does meant that the game I feel is the best game of last year falls into this period where it simply can’t be nominated for a game of the year :(
I still think it would be best to have the game of the year awards after the year has ended, in say early Feb, so that games don’t end up in this kind of situation.
Which game do you mean? We can always have a thread/discussion around February about people’s favourite games of 2019.
Also, January’s monthly theme will be done the same way as last year so that’s also a good time to have good games get some more exposure (no matter what their release date is).
Mutant. I was very pleasantly surprised by that one. I still think that if there’s going to be nominations in November, then the 1st of November should be the cutoff point, so anything released between the 1st of November last year to the last of October this year would be for this year’s GOTY awards, or otherwise place it in February, so you don’t end up with a blind spot where games released during the last ~17% of the year won’t be eligible.
- Game of the Year:Sekiro™: Shadows Die Twice
- Choices Matter: The Outer Worlds
- Best Story: Metro Exodus
- Best Co-op/Multiplayer Game:
- Best Free to Play Game:
- Most Value for Money: Xbox Game Pass for PC :P
- Best Game Under $20: Baba Is You
- Best Addition to an Existing Series: Gears 5
- Most Addictive Game:
- Prettiest Game: Metro Exodus
- Best Soundtrack: Cadence of Hyrule
- Best DLC:
- Best Early Access Game: Praey for the Gods
- Best Underdog/Hidden Gem:
- Best Character:
- Best Console Exclusive: Super Mario Maker 2
- Best Mobile Game:
- Most Value for Money: Xbox Game Pass for PC :P
Also a “best thing to happen to gaming in 2019” and “worst thing to happen to backlogs in 2019”. :D
Not all that many 2019 games that I played this year but still better than last year.
- Game of the Year: Reventure, Faerie Solitaire Harvest
- Choices Matter: Reventure, Pilgrims
- Best Story: uhhhh
- Best Co-op/Multiplayer Game: Staxel
- Best Free to Play Game: Only game like that I played this year is Destiny 2 but it is just the Steam release in 2019 and not the first PC release.
- Most Value for Money: Faerie Solitaire Harvest
- Best Game Under $20: Reventure, Faerie Solitaire Harvest, PC Building Simulator, Pilgrims
- Best Addition to an Existing Series: Faerie Solitaire Harvest, Glass Masquerade 2: Illusions
- Most Addictive Game: Faerie Solitaire Harvest, PC Building Simulator
- Prettiest Game: Glass Masquerade 2: Illusions
- Best Soundtrack: no ;)
- Best DLC: Glass Masquerade - Heritages Puzzle Pack, American Truck Simulator - Washington and if I can I would like to nominate something that is coming out most likely in the beginning of December because I already know I will love it: Euro Truck Simulator 2 - Road to the Black Sea
- Best Early Access Game: My Time At Portia (I think?)
- Best Underdog/Hidden Gem: Pilgrims
- Best Character: /
- Best Console Exclusive: I don’t play console games
- Best Mobile Game: I don’t play mobile games either
I haven’t played many games this year that I know would make the list, so here’s just what I’ve played :P
- Game of the Year: Plagues Tale
- Choices Matter:
- Best Story: A Plague’s Tale
- Best Co-op/Multiplayer Game: Borderlands 3
- Best Free to Play Game: Missed Message
- Most Value for Money: Slay the Spire
- Best Game Under $20: A short Hike
- Best Addition to an Existing Series: Resident Evil 2
- Most Addictive Game:
- Prettiest Game:
- Best Soundtrack: Kind Words
- Best DLC:
- Best Early Access Game:
- Best Underdog/Hidden Gem: Kind Words
- Best Character: Plague’s Tale (Amicia)
- Best Console Exclusive: Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
- Best Mobile Game:
I haven’t played many 2019 games to be honest.
- Game of the Year: Slay the Spire
- Choices Matter:
- Best Story:
- Best Co-op/Multiplayer Game:
- Best Free to Play Game:
- Most Value for Money: Slay the Spire (For replayability. Bought on sale, played more hours than any other game)
- Best Game Under $20:
- Best Addition to an Existing Series: Trine 4
- Most Addictive Game: Slay the Spire
- Prettiest Game: Glass Masquerade 2: Illusions
- Best Soundtrack: A Short Hike
- Best DLC:
- Best Early Access Game:
- Best Underdog/Hidden Gem:
- Best Character:
- Best Console Exclusive:
- Best Mobile Game:
(Will update this post if I play any more deserving games between now and the deadline)
Pretty bad at playing games of the current year, so not much of a nomination, but here.
- Game of the Year: Devil May Cry 5
- Choices Matter:I Love You, Colonel Sanders! A Finger Lickin’ Good Dating Simulator
- Best Story: I Love You, Colonel Sanders! A Finger Lickin’ Good Dating Simulator
- Best Co-op/Multiplayer Game: Borderlands 3
- Best Free to Play Game: I Love You, Colonel Sanders! A Finger Lickin’ Good Dating Simulator
- Most Value for Money: Beat Saber
- Best Game Under $20: Deep Space Waifu: Nekomimi
- Best Addition to an Existing Series: Devil May Cry 5
- Most Addictive Game: Beat Saber
- Prettiest Game:
- Best Soundtrack:Devil May Cry 5
- Best DLC: Dead by Daylight - Ash vs Evil Dead
- Best Early Access Game:
- Best Underdog/Hidden Gem:
- Best Character: Colonel Sanders
- Best Console Exclusive:Kingdom Hearts 3
- Best Mobile Game:
- Game of the Year:
- Choices Matter:
- Best Story:
- Most Value for Money: My time at portia
- Best Game Under $20:
- Best Addition to an Existing Series: tropico 6
- Most Addictive Game: My time at portia
- Prettiest Game: My time at portia
- Best Soundtrack:
- Best DLC:
- Best Early Access Game:
- Best Underdog/Hidden Gem:
- Best Character:
- Best Console Exclusive:
Too bad I cannot nominate games from the past 3 years. I very often play them a year after release :(
- Game of the Year: A Plague Tale: Innocence
- Best Story: A Plague Tale: Innocence
- Best Co-op/Multiplayer Game: Tick Tock: A Tale for Two
- Best Free to Play Game: Tick Tock: A Tale for Two
- Prettiest Game: Trüberbrook
- Best DLC: Shadow of the Tomb Raider - The Serpent’s Heart
- Best Early Access Game: My Time At Portia
- Best Underdog/Hidden Gem: Baba Is You
- Best Character: A Plague Tale: Innocence
Wow, I own a total of 6 (or 7 if you count DLCs) games released this year. I want a few more - haha, same trouble every year - but yeah, not yet. I only played three of them and two I don’t even wanna talk about :D
- Game of the Year:
- Choices Matter:
- Best Story:
- Best Co-op/Multiplayer Game:
- Best Free to Play Game: I Love You, Colonel Sanders! A Finger Lickin’ Good Dating Simulator
- Most Value for Money:
- Best Game Under $20:
- Best Addition to an Existing Series:
- Most Addictive Game:
- Prettiest Game:
- Best Soundtrack:
- Best DLC:
- Best Early Access Game:
- Best Underdog/Hidden Gem:
- Best Character:
- Best Console Exclusive:
- Best Mobile Game:
- Game of the Year:
- Choices Matter: code vein
- Best Story: Plague Tale Innocence
- Best Co-op/Multiplayer Game: Call of duty modern warfare
- Best Free to Play Game: I Love You, Colonel Sanders! A Finger Lickin’ Good Dating Simulator
- Most Value for Money: Xbox Game Pass
- Best Game Under $20: Untitled Goose Game
- Best Addition to an Existing Series: Call of duty modern warfare / star wars jedi fallen order
- Most Addictive Game:
- Prettiest Game: Devil may cry 5
- Best Soundtrack: Kingdom hearts 3
- Best DLC: Destiny 2: Shadowkeep
- Best Early Access Game:Risk of Rain 2
- Best Underdog/Hidden Gem: Code vein / star wars jedi fallen order
- Best Character: Untitled Goose Game
- Best Console Exclusive: Kingdom hearts 3 / death stranding
- Best Mobile Game:
- Game of the Year:
- Choices Matter: Outer Worlds
- Best Story: Plague Tale Innocence
- Best Co-op/Multiplayer Game:
- Best Free to Play Game:
- Most Value for Money:
- Best Game Under $20:
- Best Addition to an Existing Series:
- Most Addictive Game:
- Prettiest Game: Plague Tale Innocence
- Best Soundtrack: Eastshade
- Best DLC:
- Best Early Access Game:
- Best Underdog/Hidden Gem: Eastshade
- Best Character: Plague Tale Innocence
- Best Console Exclusive:
- Best Mobile Game:
Think have played only those three games from 2019 so can’t say much for others even if there would be possibly good choices there. o.-
- Game of the Year: RESIDENT EVIL 2 / BIOHAZARD RE:2
- Choices Matter: Slay the Spire
- Best Story: Apsulov: End of Gods
- Best Co-op/Multiplayer Game:
- Best Free to Play Game: Atma (haven’t played it, but seems good Hyperlight Drifter like)
- Most Value for Money: RESIDENT EVIL 2 / BIOHAZARD RE:2
- Best Game Under $20: Apsulov: End of Gods
- Best Addition to an Existing Series: RESIDENT EVIL 2 / BIOHAZARD RE:2
- Most Addictive Game: RESIDENT EVIL 2 / BIOHAZARD RE:2
- Prettiest Game: RESIDENT EVIL 2 / BIOHAZARD RE:2
- Best Soundtrack: The Messenger
- Best DLC: RESIDENT EVIL 2 / BIOHAZARD RE:2 (Ghost Survivors free dlc)
- Best Early Access Game: Bright Memory (don’t own it and haven’t played it, but that one guy project really stands out)
- Best Underdog/Hidden Gem: Apsulov: End of Gods
- Best Character: RESIDENT EVIL 2 / BIOHAZARD RE:2
- Best Console Exclusive:
- Best Mobile Game:
The Messenger is a 2018 game ;)
Ah, yes indeed. Should have added after it Picnic Panic dlc, it’s from 2019. :3
- Game of the Year: Disco Elysium
- Choices Matter: Disco Elysium, The Outer Worlds, We. The Revolution
- Best Story: Disco Elysium
- Best Co-op/Multiplayer Game: Knights And Bikes
- Best Free to Play Game:
- Most Value for Money: Xbox Game Pass (far ahead), Slay the Spire, Dicey Dungeons, Demoncrawl
- Best Game Under $20: A Short Hike, Dicey Dungeons
- Best Addition to an Existing Series: Cat Quest 2
- Most Addictive Game: Slay the Spire, Demoncrawl, Dicey Dungeons
- Prettiest Game: Jenny LeClue - Detectivu
- Best Soundtrack: A Short Hike
- Best DLC: Monster Prom: Second Term
- Best Early Access Game: Encased: A Sci-Fi Post-Apocalyptic RPG
- Best Underdog/Hidden Gem: A Short Hike, Kind Words
- Best Character: The Outer Worlds (Parvati <3), Pokemon Sword & Shield (Wooloo)
- Best Console Exclusive: Fire Emblem: Three Houses
- Best Mobile Game:
- Game of the Year: Borderlands 3
- Choices Matter: Disco Elysium
- Best Story: Children of Morta
- Best Co-op/Multiplayer Game: Borderlands 3
- Best Free to Play Game:
- Most Value for Money:
- Best Game Under $20:
- Best Addition to an Existing Series: Borderlands 3
- Most Addictive Game: My Time At Portia
- Prettiest Game: My Time At Portia
- Best Soundtrack: My Time At Portia
- Best DLC:
- Best Early Access Game: Encased: A Sci-Fi Post-Apocalyptic RPG
- Best Underdog/Hidden Gem: My Time at Portia
- Best Character:
- Best Console Exclusive: Fire Emblem: Three Houses
- Best Mobile Game:
- Choices Matter: The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan
- Best Free to Play Game: I Love You, Colonel Sanders! A Finger Lickin’ Good Dating Simulator
- Most Value for Money:My Time At Portia
- Best Game Under $20:Baba is You
- Best Addition to an Existing Series: Anno 1800, Tropico 6
- Most Addictive Game:My Time at Portia
- Best Underdog/Hidden Gem:Baba is You
- Best Console Exclusive:Pokemon Sword/Shield / Death Stranding
I haven’t played any game released in 2019, but that doesn’t stop me from following what’s happening in the gaming industry and from being pretty good at predicting game awards winners on different shows such as The Game Awards or BAFTA ;)
- Game of the Year: Disco Elysium, Outer Wilds
- Choices Matter: Disco Elysium
- Best Story: Disco Elysium, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy
- Best Co-op/Multiplayer Game: Heave Ho
- Best Free to Play Game:
- Most Value for Money: Yakuza Kiwami
- Best Game Under $20: Yakuza Kiwami, Outer Wilds, Baba Is You
- Best Addition to an Existing Series: Trine 4
- Most Addictive Game: Slay the Spire
- Prettiest Game: Eastshade, Flower, Gibbous - A Cthulhu Adventure, MO:Astray, Whispers of a Machine
- Best Soundtrack:
- Best DLC:
- Best Early Access Game:
- Best Underdog/Hidden Gem: Whispers of a Machine, MO:Astray, Rehtona, Elsinore
- Best Character:
- Best Console Exclusive: Super Mario Maker 2, Astral Chain, Death Stranding
- Best Mobile Game:
I only played a few games that released in 2019, but I’ll try:
- Best Story: Yakuza Kiwami 2
- Most Value for Money: Yakuza Kiwami 2, Yakuza Kiwami
- Best Early Access Game: Streets of Rogue
- Best Underdog/Hidden Gem: Untitled Goose Game
- Best Character: Goose from Untitled Goose Game
- Game of the Year: Death Stranding | RESIDENT EVIL 2 / BIOHAZARD RE:2 | Disco Elysium
- Choices Matter: Disco Elysium
- Best Story: A Plague Tale: Innocence
- Best Co-op/Multiplayer Game: Gears 5 | Borderlands 3 | Apex Legends
- Best Free to Play Game: Destiny 2
- Most Value for Money: One Finger Death Punch 2
- Best Game Under $20: Baba is You | Kind Words
- Best Addition to an Existing Series: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
- Most Addictive Game: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
- Prettiest Game: GRIS
- Best Soundtrack: Death Stranding
- Best DLC: Monster Hunter World: Iceborne
- Best Early Access Game: Bright Memory
- Best Underdog/Hidden Gem: Baba Is You | My Friend Pedro
- Best Character: Cliff (Death Stranding) | Second Sister (Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order) | Mr.X (RESIDENT EVIL 2 / BIOHAZARD RE:2)
- Best Console Exclusive: Death Stranding
- Best Mobile Game: Call of Duty: Mobile
- Game of the Year: Sekiro™: Shadows Die Twice || A Plague Tale: Innocence
- Choices Matter: Disco Elysium || The Outer Worlds || OCTOPATH TRAVELER
- Best Story: Disco Elysium || A Plague Tale: Innocence
- Most Value for Money: Yakuza Kiwami || Slay the Spire || Xbox Game Pass
- Best Game Under $20: Yakuza Kiwami || Cat Quest 2
- Best Addition to an Existing Series: Yakuza Kiwami || Yakuza Kiwami 2 || Resident Evil 2 || Cat Quest 2
- Most Addictive Game: Sekiro™: Shadows Die Twice || Slay the Spire || Demoncrawl
- Prettiest Game: A Plague Tale: Innocence || Blasphemous || Control || Sekiro™: Shadows Die Twice || Sayonara Wild Hearts
- Best Soundtrack: Blasphemous || Sekiro™: Shadows Die Twice || Demoncrawl || Sayonara Wild Hearts
- Best Underdog/Hidden Gem: A Short Hike || Strange Telephone
- Best Character: Untitled Goose Game (Goose) || The Outer Worlds (Parvati Holcomb) || A Short Hike (Beachstickball opponent)
- Best Console Exclusive: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate || Death Stranding