Analytic Dreamz: Notorious Mass Effect - "CLAIR OBSCUR: EXPEDITION 33 WON THE MOST AWARDS EVER AT THE GAME AWARDS"

Episode Date: December 13, 2025

Linktree: ⁠https://linktr.ee/Analytic⁠Join The Normandy For Additional Bonus Audio And Visual Content For All Things Nme+! Join Here: ⁠https://ow.ly/msoH50WCu0K⁠In this segment of Notorious Mass Effect, host Analytic Dreamz delivers a full high-detail breakdown of The Game Awards 2025 from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, streamed on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, and Twitch. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 by Sandfall Interactive/Kepler Interactive shattered records with 13 nominations and 9 wins, including Game of the Year, Best Game Direction, Best Narrative, Best Art Direction, Best Performance (Jennifer English), Best Score & Music, Best Independent Game, Best Debut Indie Game, and Best RPG—surpassing The Last of Us Part II's previous mark. Analytic Dreamz covers top nominees like Death Stranding 2 (7 nods), Ghost of Yotei (7), Hades 2 (6), Hollow Knight: Silksong (6); other winners including Arc Raiders (Best Multiplayer), Mario Kart World (Best Sports/Racing), Baldur’s Gate 3 (Best Community Support); and surprises like Control Resonant trailer, Leon Kennedy in Resident Evil Requiem, Street Fighter movie cast, new Mega Man, amid indie momentum with 3 GOTY nominees.Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

First off, it is finally time. It is finally time to recognize the recognition that we've been giving Expedition 33 this entire year. To the point where not only was the Game Awards, some would say a glorified glazed fest for Expedition 33. But for the, I'm not going to say real gamers because, you know, artist's objective. But I feel like the consensus was rewarded heavily, especially in this award show. because if you look at Expedition 33, winning nine total, which is the most in Game of Wars history, it's a humongous accomplishment,

but also the 13 nomination, so they did lose some, right? It was also a record-breaking total. And the reason why I say it like that and set it up for us diving into the Game Awards, because that's essentially what happened. The Expedition 33 fandom was through the roof, deservedly so because if you don't watch sports then this analogy or comparison may lose you but art is subjective right when it comes to expedition 33 and everything and captivated in it being at a high level it's comparable to how okay c is just by far in the way the best team in the NBA you look at the

record i think they've only lost like what one game out of 30 and okay see It's like the Expedition 33 of the NBA. And Expedition 33 is like the OKC in the gaming industry. So when people are glazing Expedition 33 to the moon and back, it's because everything about the game, from the music to the voice acting, to the storyline, to the gameplay mechanics, and then also having a development team of 30 people making that type of game is really one of the most groundbreaking revolutions we've seen in the gaming industry.

Because I cannot tell you, the amount of AAA developers that was looking at Expedition 33 and hating like Kendrick Lamar but then you know what I'm saying I was like damn look at the state of hip hop like what's going on I mean not even Kendrick Lamar could sum up the hatred that was directed towards Expedition 33's way I watched the entire war show when I say you nobody seemingly was excited for expedition 33 I'm telling you nobody I mean it was to the point which I don't want to call anybody specifically but let's just say the voice actor for Atsu as far as ghost of Yote I'm not saying that she purposely ate popcorn while they

was announcing the only nomination that she was for and had a camera on her for a reason because she knew Expedition 33 was gonna win because that's a stretch right so that's a stretch so let's just pull up let's see expedition 33 let's see ghost of Yote let's just pull up there are developments team right interesting interestingly enough their uh development team during the award show and because i watch this i'm gonna have to research you on the spot because i'm like i know what happened in a war show but i still got researching uh analytic dreams video on spotify to see the video along with the audio ladies and gentlemen the only other award that they was nominated for i think these

are the well the caption says the director so i'm just going to assume as the director and and look at this This is the full. This is just a zoom in. This is just a zoom in, right? If you look at, let me switch my, uh, scene. When you look at best game direction, as soon as these on camera, the director holds up three. Now, I don't know what planting y'all are from, but usually if you're trying to do the P sign, you put up two fingers. So I think he's trying to be hilarious in the way of hating on Expedition 33 sweeping the entire award show. So that's just one of the examples. that's not even the example I was talking about as far as the voice actor of Atsu from Goseyote

basically eating popcorn while the only camera time she had she was eating popcorn like I mean it was just hilarious the way that she was nominated and you know how they have these scenes exactly like this and it was for um I think best actor or whatever or best voice actor or whatever and she was in the shot the only time she's going to be in the shot in the whole award show and she was eating a bucket of popcorn basically acting like they're just watching the Expedition 33 Glades face. So when I tell you that a lot of AAA developers are highly upset, remember,

Ghost of Yote came after Ghost of Tashima that was hilariously beaten by Last of Us 2, which was a very egregious win as far as on the Last of Us 2 side. So to come back with Ghost of Yote and then get beaten by Expedition 33, but this one is rightfully so, I can see how they could have some animosity,

especially being backed by PlayStation. when once again expedition 33 was made of a team of 33 people so with that being said i just wanted to show you all just a little evidence because this is a lot more but i just want to show you all a little little evidence on how people was just hating on expedition 33's glaze fest right the main thing you need know is that there were other games that won and hilariously enough when hollow and a silk song who you know completely skipped out on the show because they knew it was going to be an expedition 33 glazeathon basically won an award and during it Jeff said himself he was like hey look guys you actually won an award right let me see if I can find it hollow night so Jeff was like

hey guys you actually won and that was one of the highlights to me because he was basically poking fun at everybody being so mad that Expedition 33 was winning everything so let me see oh release this year no that's not it it was when they won the award I don't know if they have it actually Oh, I'm tripping. Why don't I just go to my own tweets? If you don't know, your boy was tweeting throughout the whole show. And one of my replies was to them actually winning.

And I actually talked about how they threw a lot of shade. So as far as the Game Awards breakdown, we have to get into this guy. I want to pinpoint stuff specifically because I watched the whole show. So I was like, let me just pinpoint certain things I noticed. So, interestingly enough, we do have an interest. We have an aspiring content creator that talked about Jeff with the shade, right? He was tweeting throughout the whole event. And basically as you see right here, oh, this is the picture.

I'm tripping. It doesn't have the video. So does anybody else? Oh, let me not scroll down too far. But, you know, Twitter's wild place. Anyways, Jeff basically say, hey, look, guys, you actually won when Hollow Night Soxong won Best Action slash Adventure Game. And, you know, they wasn't up against Expedition 33.

So, you know, so I could say they had to win because you look at Hollenight Sixthong. I think that was one of the better games in my opinion. Like as far as out of the games, at all the games I play, obviously I'm biased because I like split fiction. Can I play it with my cousin? That's like one of my favorite games. No, it is my favorite game at the year.

My top three would probably be split fiction, ready or not. And I really don't know what the third one would be. It would be Marvel token, really, but you know, that hasn't came out yet. I ain't trying to flex. My bad. My bad.

I ain't trying to flex, my bad. So anyways. That would be my top three. So as far as a clear obscure expedition, getting back to the Glazathon, they basically had 13 nominations, which was a record breaking total. They won nine, which was the highest of all time, right? They won Game of the Year. They won Best Game Direction. Best Narrative.

Best Independent Game. Debut indie game. Best RPG. Best art direction. Best performance. Specifically, Jennifer English. If you don't know, for the best performance, they had three. I repeat three voice actors for Expedition 33 in best performance just to let you know how the night was already foreshadowed by the game awards and then of course last but definitely not least they won best score and music now if they was to win or lose certain categories we're going to get to that in the second but because I want to go over the whole list even though I was contemplating on doing it because I mean Expedition 33 won everything but I do want to comment on certain wins they had um other notable category

winners of course was arc raiders best multiplayer mario car world best sports slash racing i don't know how in a world pun intended they won that award because sonic racing cross worlds and i guess you know the kirby ones a stretch but sonic racing cross worlds i believe that came out this year if i'm not mistaken let me see sonic racing cross worlds release date let me see up september 25th now i don't know if that was before the game award show or not as far as the eligibility period i think it was you i don't know what jeff keely has against sonic because it also wasn't even nominated for best adaptation when we all know let's look up that uh let's look at that release date sonic three release day it came out december 20th 20th 20 24 so technically amidst the 2024 eligibility so that would have made it eligible for this

award show right so i don't know if they forgot about it because it came out late 2024 but still in the 25 eligibility period which you know how do you forget about one of the most engaged with new movies but also as far as from the critics and a general audience perspective a higher quality type of video game adaption how you just completely leave that out of the nominations and i think last of us ended up winning again which i'm like come on man you guys what type of money what type of money is the last of us publishers paying that game awards to give them whatever award they won because they they was winning like as far as the adaptation they was winning against Minecraft they won against uh who's the other one fallout

which i thought either one of those should have won if it wasn't going to be sonic three and last of us ended up winning which if you even know the history of last of us two is really so bad that it made us look differently at the last of us won because at the end of the game spoil it i'm not going to spoil it but let's just say the whole revenge storyline was not really handled the best because of course when you have droll which i think was the the main male character he's out here being the you know an interesting gray he's in a gray area in the first game but in the second game yeah i'm just going to spoil it the way he gets killed shortly into season two i mean shortly into uh last of us two is insane it's really the pacing's just super off with the last of us two

which makes you look at Last of Us One in a different light. So, yeah, I think they even came out with a re, a restructured Last of Us 2 as far as the pacing to fix that issue, I believe. As far as you plan as Abby and I think the other girls, Ellie, I know that's how you know I don't watch the, watch the movies or whatever. Or the, I don't play Last of Us. I don't even, I don't get the hype. I ain't going to cap to you.

So anyways, with that being said, I don't know what type of money to pay in the Game Awards. all like I say and then of course there was a lot of surprise announcements which we will get into later there's a three hour well the game of wars in general was three hours right three hours of all type of unexpected reveals from the controlled resident to Leon being a part of resident evil recrium to the street fighter movie cast also appearing live for the award show which i thought was a huge deal i mean they're they're cast like they did not hold back on any type of budget for the casting my opinion like i know people making jokes about andrew shoals 50 cent but if you look at them in their

individual careers it's it's a lot to get them to get away from that and come to a whole movie i mean you see how it's a lot because 50 cents currently promoting for Netflix and it's the number one show in the world as far as the ditty doc so and then uh shouts i believe has sold out Madison square garden like multiple times like these guys are big pulse on the own but as far as getting them away from their own successful career to be in the street fighter movie cast I would seemingly say and of course they got Jason Mamoa as well I think the budget was through the roof for the acting part of for the for the cast so to get them in person for the game award show was it's pretty phenomenal I'm not going on and then the shot that Andrew Schultz through at more to combat I think I'm the only one that can tolerate Andrew Andrew Schultz everybody else I watched just haste on him like what do you do but then you come to realize he did advocate for Trump and things that nature so I kind of understand so with that be a said um and then moving on if we was talking about the location for the game awards just know it was at the peacock theater downtown los angeles distributed through amazon prime video because if you

don't know amazon owns twitch so um the show was also on twitch and it was on youtube and when you look at the industry details as far as expedition 33 winning which is 33 developers or no yeah 33 developers as a team it makes you look at triple a dominant in a way that is fading because if indie games keep winning the Game Awards as far as best game, best art direction, best indie game, I mean obviously with the indie game, but you look at dispatch, you look at Expedition 33, these are people who left Ubisoft to make their own game and now they're being highly regarded to the point where they're about to receive all the funding in the world and this time they may play things differently because of how it went with Ubisoft. If

Ubisoft keeps letting people leave their development studio and making these highly creative games such as dispatch such as Expedition 33. I mean, we got to have a real conversation about what these suits are doing in the boardroom to take away to creativity. Because at some point, somebody got to point out and say, hey, hold up now. What are y'all saying to these developers to make them less creative? You all saying? Like, how are 33 people leaving you and making a better game that 100 plus people can't make? Like, it's almost like Iron Man 1 all over again. They're in a cave with box the scraps and they're making something better than you.

And you have a 200 plus team. Somebody got to walk in there like Coach Carter and get to grilling the lead for the creative team and telling them the Expedition 33 made this in a cave with a development team for Expedition 33. made this in a cave with a box of scraps. And that's all you got saying to walk out. So I don't know if that helped. But, you know, basically it'll get the point across. Because indie developers are going crazy and as far as the reception

and is resulting into actual sales. Because quality isn't always equal to quantity or even boost the quantity. Really, when it comes to quantity, it's the marketing budget. It's a lot of things that have to fall in place. So there's a lot of luck in play. You know, people don't want to tell you

that because they want you to show up first because the hardest part is being consistent. But then, of course, luck has to play a part and you become a successful because they always say, you know, this is, you know, cliche. It's not really cliche because it's inherently true. But, you know, it's like preparation and then opportunity, hold of it's preparation and there's opportunity and then you get success. Now sometimes people prep like Batman. You know what I'm saying? They got all type of prep time. But then they may be in a certain location when they never get that opportunity. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why they say it's a lot of luck that goes into success, but you still have to prep like you are going to be successful at some point. Or your chance

is going to be inherently zero. Um, with that old man life lesson out of the way. Overall, Expedition 33 just had an insane glaze fest. And that's probably the ultimate summary I could give you for the game award. So let's go through every single category as when you look at most anticipated game. It went to GTA6, which I think is a crime. We don't even know if this game's going to come out in 2026. They need to worry about its developers trying to do,

I think, I think, I forget who was actually going at them. But basically, GTA, well, Rockstar, is being accused of union busting. So now a lot of people who's working for Rockstar once those people reinstate it because they fired them, right? We don't know the real reasons, but we do know the people who's working for a particular studio for a rock star is revolting

and one of those people hired back which i just think is you know it's just a match it's a recipe for disaster like if you already have bosses that feel the way about you fired you and now your uh employees advocate you for comeback like that's a huge gray area as far as how you're going to be able to have a uh um a workable an amicable situation as far as going going forward so basically i say all that to say this gt86 may get delayed again if it's not delayed they may come out a buggy mess similar to cyberpunk 2077 when it first came out so with that out the way let's get into uh so i think it should have as far as uh i think they should have went to marvels uh livering or even resident evil honestly the witcher i don't know if the witch is actually some of these games

i don't know it's going to come out i know for a fact well not for a fact but marvels wolverine i'll definitely put money on to come out next year um best adaptation went to splinter cell death watch Oh, I actually watched that TV show. Oh, no, that's my vote. I'm tripping. Hold on. What was this? What was this one?

I voted for GTA6. Oh, man. Well, dang, I'm part of the problem. You guys. See, that's the problem. I still stand on what I said. Oh, or past me, didn't know the error in his ways. But ultimately, GTA6 is the most anticipated game.

But Whitlett come out in 2026, the world. may never know let's keep going best adaptation i voted for splinter cell last of us two um last of us season two actually ended up winning i have no idea how to happen over minecraft and i guess the uh what's the hell of the movie um i guess the fallout tv show came out before that so it winning over minecraft is just insane i mean i think they literally had people bringing chickens to certain movie theaters because of the stand on being so insane which i don't cosign You know, the chicken jockey and throwing chickens across the theater. I don't know who has to say it, but that's insane behavior.

Like, y'all should be ashamed of yourselves. Anyways, so last of a season two actually won best adaptation. And, yeah, I just think what the last of us is like, they're just paying off Jeff Keely. Like people talk about Kojima and Jeff Keely's relationship. How in the world? Last of a season two, I think one game in the year. And now the show's winning best adaptation. Like, I'm a guy.

Y'all talk about the expedition 33 glaze. The last of a season two glaze has to stop. stop. It has to stop, man. It's not that good. It's not that good of a franchise. Maybe I'm hating because I've seen like walking dead or whatever. But looking at it in totality, I just, I just don't get it, man. I just don't get it. So anyways, best multiplayer. My vote was for split fiction. I don't think split fiction went any of the words, which, you know, poor one off the split fiction. You guys. Sad day in history. Shepard, just look at the state of gaming. Like, what is going on?

I had to have a moment of silence for split fiction, man. They ain't, they ain't walk away with any awards um so yeah uh best multi-player went to arc raters i'm not mad at that at all all of these could have won i wouldn't have been mad at it actually this is probably one of the more competitive list uh in the whole show yeah so let's keep going all these games could have won it anyways um best best sports slash racing okay so sonic racing cross worlds was on this list how in the world okay so when it comes to the gaming universe i'm not mad at mario getting unnecessary glaze because Mario saved the gaming industry. I don't know if y'all know.

But when it comes to my banner, I had to bring this up every time because, you know, I put immense respect on Mario's name. When it comes to the banner, Mario's right next to Biggie. And really, the whole notorious mass effect banner is to showcase the biggest gaming and music IPs, and yes, I'm calling them IPs,

that notoriously affect the masses, right? And I just have Biggie and Shepard next to me because, of course, that's the name of the podcast. But when you look at Mario, Mario and Drake inherently, I'm not going to say Drake's the savior of hip hop. That'd be crazy. But as far as the engagement, he's definitely the top. And Mario's the top for gaming, right?

So the reason why I say that is Mario actually saved the entire landscape of gaming, like all the way back when people just thought gaming was stupid, right? Literally. They was like looking at gaming the same way that people looked at animate watchers back in the day. And you know how it's like cool the game now, people, rappers bringing their PSP to certain WWE events. the similar well that wouldn't have been able to happen without Mario especially the way that the gaming industry

I had a whole deep doubt on this I ain't gonna lie I don't feel like talking about it like in depth because when it comes to Mario it's a lot of segments I've done like specifically deep diving into how Mario saved the gaming industry but if you was wanting to see that basically the Super Mario Galaxy movie official trailer

November 14, 2025 so recently I dove into how Mario saved the gaming industry. But basically with the NES and Mario, the platforming being innovative, the money that it made, turning people's opinion on gaming upside down as far as them thinking it was stupid for kids to the point where you come to realize that gaming is honestly one of the best things you could do, especially as a hobby, if you enjoy creativity. and of course the way that gaming

honestly challenges your brain on certain puzzles and just hand-dye coronation. It's a lot of things that go on to, you know, just the benefits of gaming. So anyways, with that being said, Mario Car World won for Best Sports slash Racing. And because Mario saved the entire gaming industry, I'm not mad at it.

But Sonic Crossing, you know, Sonic Racing Crossworld should definitely win. Best Sim slash strategy. I didn't know who is going to win this. I pick Sid and Myers Final Fantasy Tactics won. You know, hey, kudos to them, man. You know what, hey. What do they do?

I don't know what in the world this category is about. So, I mean, I know it's sims slash strategy, but I don't know any of the games on this list. Best Family Game went to Donkey Kong Bonanza. By far and away, best family game. Split fiction is on here. Another L for them. I thought if they was going to win,

it was going to be the other category that we just talked about that they was in. I did not think they was going to win this one. Nintendo notoriously wins Best Family. It's almost like when Nikki Minaj, And I'm going to keep having music references throughout this whole review. When Niki Minaj kept winning

Best Female Rapper at the BETT Awards, that's basically what Best Family is for Nintendo. Nintendo's going to always win Best Family because that's literally what the whole platform is dominant as far as their discography and their fan base. Best Fighting Game. I placed mine for 2XCO.

I didn't even know how 2XCO was able to make it on this list. But I guess it makes sense because technically it's out. Is it out right now? Let me see. 2XKO. K.O. I thought they didn't even, I don't even know. So it comes out January of 26. I don't know how in the world is on here. Like how is that? Maybe I'm tripping. I don't know how that happens. But yeah, somehow they just completely, you know, the laws of physics, as far as the laws of eligibility at the game wars did not affect 2XKL. But they ended up still losing. So I don't know if this, if there would be nominated again in 2026. I think that's cheating. But whatever. Final Fantasy

or no Fatal Fury ended up winning as far as City of the World Wolves and when it comes to them they're OG I think

Fatal Fury is definitely one of the foundations of fighting games so I'm not mad at them winning looking at the other games is really other than them I couldn't see another

I mean maybe Capcom but I really thought I was going to go 2XCO but shout out to Fatal Fury and then of course you have clear obscure expedition for best

RPG which this one a lot of people is mad at. They thought if Expedition was going to lose one it would have been Kingdom Come because I believe there's a lot more customizable aspects and Kingdom Come deliverance too which this is the one category where I'm like okay I kind of understand that people

are upset about the Glazeathon with Expedition 33. But at the end of day Expedition 33 is an RPG and it's by far on the way the best complete game. But when it comes to best RPG, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 gives you way more customization to the point where I wouldn't been mad if it won over Expedition. But guess what? It didn't. So, um, best action slash adventure

ended up going to Hollow Night Silk Song. Now, I placed mine for Split Fiction. I did not think it was going to win this category, but I thought it should because it was my favorite game. Um, I'm pretty sure when it comes to Hollow Night Silk Song, Kojima is highly upset. He's like, hold up now. Now, Jeff, you know, me and you go way back and team cherry literally came out and said they're not attending because they know it's going to be an expedition 33 glazerthor so you know i'm here in attendance and you still give the award to hollow night silk song i would have been thinking you guys see that's the problem i would have been thinking wow man we've really got to put our friendship in perspective

because what in the actual world what what what in what world would you turn on our friendship to give it to a development studio that didn't even show up. So anyways, Hollow Night 6th song, One Best Action slash Adventure. I'm not mad at it. If it didn't go to Split Fiction, I would have chose Hollow Night. But of course, since I'm biased, I like Split Fiction. It's my personal favorite game of the year.

And one thing about having a favorite game of the year is that technically, art is subjective. So any game of the year in your heart is your game of the year, right? You don't need a word shows to tell you what's the best game of 2025. if you say a if you say a specific game is the best for you think guess what it was your game of the year you should you know in all totality well in in uh in all honesty when you look at it in the grand scheme of things developers having certain fan bases is really more important than awards call of duty would rather be the best selling game than to win these award shows right so the reason

basically why I say that as far as quantity to quality, it's vice versa. If you think a game is higher quality, then guess what? To you personally, you gave it your game of the year. So as far as best, action slash adventure, and went to a Hollow Nice Hook song,

and I am not mad at that. But once again, poor went out for split fiction, not winning anything. Sad day in history. Shepard, just look at the state of gaming. Like, what is going on? I don't know how many moments that silences we're going to have for split fiction but let's you say it was a fantastic game

and guess what if team cherry you're watching this or not team cherry i'm tripping um who made split fiction was a hazelight i don't know if it's haze light let me see i get these studios mixed up i cover so many games it's kind of crazy split fiction game devs that should pull it up that's just that should pull up okay so oh it is hazelight hey shout to me That's what's up. So Hayslight Studios. If you're watching this, I did not have to look up your name to know if you developed this game. But all I got to say is, in my heart of hearts, use my game in the year.

You know what I'm saying? Shepard. No, I had to let them know. You know what I mean? You know, hey, use my game. In my heart, you was my game of the year. So anyways, best action slash adventure went to Holliday Sook song. Okay, so best action game went to Hades 2 as far as what I voted for.

Oh, I voted for Hades 2. Oh, shout out. Okay. that's what so i'm trying to think of what else i don't even know my doom's on this list i still i remember saying that when i was going over this list too um best vr slash ar i voted for deadpool just because you know i'm a marvel fan i really had no like weight in this uh went to midnight walk shout out to them um best mobile game i voted for persona five i think that's the only mobile game i even saw and went to um what in the world you you you my moose

what museum they went to the game called museum bro yeah that's what so uh best debut indie game dispatch could have won this award and i don't even think expedition 33 would have been mad but you know it's expedition glazedathon so you know they won that award you know if you're gonna win game of the year safe to say you're probably gonna win best debut indie game anyone makes sense if it was vice versa like wow the best the game of the year didn't win the indie game but once again dispatch and clear up Obscure developers left Ubisoft so I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have been mad. They would have been like oh look at our brothers or sisters actually

thriving and creativity outside from the suits, right? Shame, man. What are they doing in those AAA development studios man? Crazy day in history. Best independent game went to Claire Obscure Expedition 33. So when you look at that this is what I think. Um, why in the world is the difference between best indie game and best independent game Because when I look at it, best indie game, it says for best debut game created by a new independent studio. I don't know why I clicked that. My fault.

Best independent game for outstanding creative and technical achievement in a game made outside of traditional publisher system. So the main thing I'm looking at is debut versus non-debut. So when I looked at, I forget what game came out. It was a game on this list that's not on this, that's not on this list anymore because they basically came out and said it's not our debut. But if you look at Clear, if you look at dispatch, technically, it's not their debut either because it was under Ubisoft developing games. But as a studio, it's the first game. So I don't know, I think it's very, I think it's very much a great area. Like, should the best debut indie game go to the development studio that has the least amount of experience that has the best.

game or should it go to you know i'm trying to say i don't know if that makes sense as far as rewarding somebody for actually being a rookie it's like going from the mavericks to the lakers but then you looka don't know look at don't put up 40 points right how many you're just going to put up 40 points on another team so i don't know if that makes sense you know as far as the experience i think that should play a factor and best debut indie game like we'll look at your resume and it'll be the opposite of a job interview. Tell me how unqualified are you for this job and then show me your game. You know what I'm saying? And I guess they'll end up, you know, giving a word to the worst game possible. So I don't know. I was just a little confused on that. So anyways, best independent

game. Claire Obscure Expedition won this one as well. Best community support. Interestingly enough, Fortnite did not win this. And you know, with their Simpsons revitalizing the overall player base, I thought for sure they was going to win this. But it went to Balders Gate 3, which actually one game of the year when they initially came out. I think it was, I want to say it was last year. Let me see. Borders Gate 3. I think it was last year at one.

Last year. No, that was 2023. Okay, let me see. 2024. Game of the year. Winner. Oh, Astroba. I'm tripping.

Interesting. Okay, so yeah, it makes sense that they got best community support. If people are still playing the game two years out. Um, best ongoing game. I voted for Marvel rivals. Uh, safe to say, No Man Sky won. I'm not mad at that any of these games could have won because all of these games have a phenomenal community support.

No Man Sky is the more interesting pick, I will say. So, uh, yeah, shout to them. Um, games for Impact, South of Midnight One and I don't want to be that guy. So I'm not going to be that guy. But all I'm going to say, the representation is interesting. But also to play devil's advocacy. the people who accepted the award you can kind of put the representation to the side because technically that's what we want people to do when they make games centered around our culture actually deep dive

and get constructive feedback from people who grew up in the culture seems as if the developers for South and Midnight did this because I believe the developers for this game it's not even like from what they made this game about, you know, I think they're from, like, basically they're not black. That's what I'm trying to say. I don't know any PR way to say it, no corporate way to say,

man, they're not black. And they made South and Midnight, a very black-centric game, really feel like it was made by black people. You know what I'm saying? So they did a great job. Basically,

what I'm saying, as far as the research part, it just threw me off. With South of Midnight one and then developers got out there. I was like, oh, hold them now. And I thought to myself, well, you know,

like I said, some phenomenal research. because you, hey, you fool me. You know what I'm saying? So shout out to South and Midnight. You definitely deserved it. Definitely wasn't impactful, especially the music. I think the music was one of the more underrated soundtracks for 2025.

Innovation and Accessibility. I voted for South and Midnight. Doom to Dark Ages won. I'm surprised they even got a win. What in the world? Innovation and accessibility. Huh. I wonder what they did.

I don't know, man. I wasn't a big fan of Doom to Dark Ages. And I like majority of the games. almost all the games I played this year. But, you know, this award is for some difference. So it's probably some technical settings aspect. Best performance went to Jennifer English. Just back to what I was saying.

They had three people from Clear Expedition on this list, basically foreshattering the way that, how this award show was going to go. And then also, you look at the Ghost of Yote voice actor, and she was eating popcorn. I already said this. I'll say that at the beginning. I'm not going to say it again.

But let's just say everybody knew the expedition 33 was going to win. And of course, the reason why I chose Benstar is because I thought his performance was better in the game. I know there's a hot take. I know it was a hot take. A lot of people was liking Mayo, Mayo, or have you said a name, which all of them are top tier. It's kind of like choosing who's the MVP of the Golden State Warriors. Like there's no incorrect answer in my opinion. I would have just went with Ben Star.

But that's just me. Best audio design went to Battlefield 6. I voted for Silent Hill F. I thought really Silent Hill F should have won this war. If you ever like, I don't play scary games. As far as from my audio perspective, if you watch enough people play through the game entirely, because it's just like, I don't want to spoil it.

Let's just say multiple playthrus ends up helping your overall understanding of the story. Let's just put like that. And the sounding, the sound of the game, especially in the horror aspect, is just really intuitive to how scared you're going to be you know and i think silent hill i've had a lot of interesting sound effects to make the make it really intense especially in the tight corridors and monsters coming closer to you when you're looking away and you look at them and they're just frozen like there's a lot of interesting cues audio cues that you had to pay attention

to to survive in that game so i think that's why i paid attention to the audio more but if battlefield six is going to win for this i think it's just because you know it's the best selling game of the year i'm you know because call of duty battlefield i mean how different can can the guns get you know the gun sounds are the same ain't it am i tripping i don't know how different the sounds could get and literally there's may be a hot take but battlefield six may have had worse audio than call of duty i know a lot of people's coming out and saying like red sec the audio was off to where the i don't know if they said the footsteps was too loud or too low or whenever like the tanks will come by it'll be too loud i think that's what it was it was something

like that it was the balancing was off now for me when i played the game i didn't really find it too much but you know i'm not like a hardcore battlefield six but a lot of people saying the audio was off a battlefield six red sex or maybe the original package the audio was fine but i did hear their complaint specifically about the audio so i was like hold of now how they win this award but you know at the end of the day any of these games could have won it and it's just you is justifiable. So I'm not mad at Battle for the 6th win. And definitely, definitely put, you know, like I reported, may Activision come out with the statement. That's how you know you won the battle.

Well, yeah, you definitely won the battle because the war is still going. But Activision said, I covered back on December 10th, 2025, Activision was saying it would no longer do back-to-back modern warfare or blackouts releases. So that only happened, ladies and gentlemen, because people voted with the wallet. and they basically said that Battlefield 6 was better than Call of Duty. And Call of Duty is now, you know, switching it out. And remember last, I think I brought this up last time. In 2023, the best selling game was Hogwarts Legacy.

The following year, we got the Omni movement with Blackop Six. I think we're going to get a similar innovation, if not multiple innovations, to the next Call of Duty installment. But that's just me having high hopes. You know, I don't know how that's going to go. But, yeah, that's just me having high hopes. So I think call a duty losing in this fashion is is one of the better things that could have happened because If it was going to keep being on top, it wasn't going to change a thing. So yeah, shout out to Battlefield 6th.

Best score in music. So Claire Obscure Expedition 33. I voted for this and it won. I'm not going to lot to you. This is the only award where I was like you should have now they would have definitely called it an Expedition 33 Glazathon but I think there should have been like some special type of war for an expedition for this one because now I'm about the glaze

but the soundtrack for Expedition 33 I think it's the first time ever I took a track I think it was Lumiere it was multiple but I think one of them specifically was Lumier and put it on my actual playlist that I listened to along with Drake 21 Savage Taylor Swift yes I listened to

Taylor Swift. I know judgment. K-pop, Paisal Pluma. I mean, it's just, I mean, I ain't gonna cap. My playlist is pretty, yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's a lot of variety in it. But it never really has gaming soundtracks. So multiple from the Expedition 33.

Like, if you listen to it, I don't know if I could play without getting a copyright strike. I think I should be fine. Yeah, let me, let me play it right quick. So, um, this specific track right here is straight. fire. Exhibition, let me see 3030 sound track. I'm trying to see. Because it's really part of the game. So if it was a copyright, it would happen when I was playing the game. It never happened. So I think one of these should be a, no, not the official music video.

Actually, is it? Hold up, maybe. Yeah, this is it right here. This right here? This is some heat. I'm not going to care. Because for this to be, because the main thing is like, oh, I've heard that. before but you really haven't like this is original this is strictly for the game exposition 33 and it sounds like this I mean it's just it's just heat hold on and then when they get up to the to the buildup like I thought I was listening to a weekend album I could keep going for days I ain't okay to you because I think there's another track actually yeah we're about to glaze it right quick there's another track on here where uh let's see

So I can come on man Come on man You know the weekend's album was my favorite album of the year So if that should tell you a little bit about my taste Like I kind of like these melodies Where they could really sing And they just hit the notes You know effortlessly

Not that one Okay that's what me here There's a certain one I was wanting to play It's not that one Making sure we still live You know, take me down But if people listen to the after fact I'm live right now

Okay I don't know if I'll be able to find it But they ain't never stopped me. So we about to do a little Mickey research. Talk about glazing. What I'm saying? Jeff Keely ain't got nothing on me. Pause. Oh yeah, I think it's this one right here.

Okay. I think it's this one. That may have been too loud, my fault. Trying to see if I can find it. We're just having it. We're just vibing right now. I ain't going to cap to you. I mean, that's just, that's just top tier.

I mean, this is just like, it's just top tier, man. Like, I barely don't even know what else to say. Like, I'm just in awe. Like, this is really. like I don't really talk about soundtracks like this so in general it just really struck me while I was playing the game I was like wow this music is like every single track is it's phenomenal it's a specific track I'm trying to look for it I don't know if I

can find it it's like when you're in a campfire I don't know if you all know what track I'm talking about I don't know if I could just type in can't fire track but um I think that was basically it okay so yeah no need for more of the glazedathon because I could keep going. So anyways, we just spent like, I think like five to ten minutes, well, I don't know five, but you know, basically we spent a lot of time strictly on playing Expedition 33 music to let y'all know that they are not, it's not even close. Like the type of quality in the soundtrack is just, it's really top tier. It's probably one of the best gaming soundtracks of all time. So anyways, yeah, by far in the way they won this. Best score of music, if they was only going

to win one category, this would have been it right here. I think the music is the best part the game in my opinion anyways um best art direction now this one was uh i think this was uh controversial because uh death strand and two has a very unique art direction but clear obscure like has a whole upside down cities and sideways castles and like in space and you have a flying person where you travel and stuff like that my fault if i sported again i ain't sport too much and you know you're just transverse in the environment um but yeah the the main thing is that you know clear obscure especially being fictional um it just it really took it to the to the heights as far as just your imagination running wild and everything you could imagine being in every single atmosphere so best art direction

i'm not mad at going to expedition 33 best narrative going to clear obscure expedition 33 now that's that's that is interesting because when you look at expedition especially when you first play i could see how people be like why did expedition 33 win best narrative when you have all these other games that seemingly had a better narrative especially if you only play like two to three hours because now i may really have to i don't really want to sportily but um so you know how a lot of people praise kotor and they talk about how the story is immaculent right there's a certain part and Kotor where you come to realize that and it's a really old game so if I'm spoiling I really don't care the main protagonist is the antagonist and it just blows your mind you're like

one in the world you're like hold on now shepherd just look at the state of gaming like what is going on and the whole time you never figured that out whole time just know I mean I guess it was hints but you just never figure that out I will go into detail but I don't want to go into too much detail before the Kotor fans killed me they're like what you're doing man is a sacred storyline you never post it ruin that for people but guess what it's like a 50 year old game if they ain't played it by now hey man hey what young thugs say who do my fault so anyways um yeah something like that similar similar to that happens to expedition 33 i don't want spoil it for you but i think that's why a lot of people hold it in the high regards of best narrative so i think a lot

people's thinking oh death strand two should have won best narrative but um yeah y'all should really like finish um expedition 33 that's what i got said um let me see best game direction I mean, I thought split fiction sure won this, but you know, I'm biased once again. It's my personal game of the year. I like the different directions it took granted. A lot of people say that it was just a bunch of other games mashed into one, which I still think is a huge accomplishment, especially the way they pulled it off. Especially at final mission and split fiction, I don't think I've ever experienced like

that in the video. I've never experienced anything like that in the video game as far as the final missions in split fiction. The way the screen contorts and shapes and shifts, it was crazy. While also playing with somebody else, it was crazy. Pause. Claire Expedition, Expedition, well, Clare Obscuition 33, the game direction was also Immaculent,

so I'm not mad at it. Game of the Year. Now, it's the last category, so it's safe to say you already know who it went to, because I already read off, that's why I started, I started off this deep dive the way that I did. I wanted to give you the synopsis of the game awards,

basically letting you know that Expedition 33 won each and every award. Well, no, not everyone. Because it, what was it, nominated for 13 and 1-9? Yeah, it was nominated for 13, which was the most ever, right? And then, and won 9, which was the most ever. So it was basically letting you know. Hey, we're about to glaze Expedition to the moon and back. To wrap this up.

Claire Obscura Expedition 33, one game of the year. Shout out to them. You look at the top nominated games, Claire Obscure Expedition had 13 nominations. Death Stranding had seven. Gossi Yote has seven. Hollow Night Silk Song has six. Hades 2 has six.

So it's not like other games didn't get also like glazed. It's just whenever you're going against Jordan, you're just not going to look as, you're not going to look as good as you may have if Jordan didn't exist. And the reason why I'm using these sports analogies is because, you know, one, my audience, but also, if you look at it from a sports perspective, you come to realize why everybody in their mama

was just saying the Expedition 33 should win each and every category. It's just from a totality aspect. It's just so complete and so high quality on the music side, the story side, the voice acting side, everything. Everything's just fantastic about the game. Yeah, it'll probably, like, if you're a real gamer, and I don't like saying that, because, you know, then you sound like elitist. Or if you're a real gamer, you have to play Expedition 33. Like, you know, spoiler alert, I never played Baldescade 3, so you don't have to be a real gamer. gamer to play every single game of the year but um i will say clear obscure is it's a great game if you

are interested in broadening your horizon as far as what you think about video games because it will really change your opinions about video games especially playing it from start to finish and understanding what they was trying to tell you from start and then what ends up happening at the end you come to realize your mind just blown he's like wow who like when it was in the room writing this story you had to know they was like, bro, we're sitting on some heat right now. Like, I can't wait to get this game out to the public because this game was definitely heat. Shepard, just look at the state of gaming. Like, what is going on?

And ladies and gentlemen, that's technically the state of gaming. The game awards 2025, once again, is subjective. Art is subjective. So whatever was the game of the year to you in your heart, guess what? That's your game of the year. Art being subjective means that the war. Show really just showcases the masses and what they basically wanted to win. But for you specifically, in your personal heart of hearts, like me, I'm going to keep saying that,

Split Fiction was my favorite game of the year. Last year, I think it was Astrobaugh, honestly, as far as it actually winning game of the year. And the year before that, I think it was Star Wars. So, you know, my personal favorite game of the year isn't always the winner. Like for this year, Split Fiction is not even on this list, which is I think is a criminal. it's just a crime split fiction i be on this list i think it's a crime um if i had to take a game out i'm not gonna lie bro i know a nintendo game has to make game of the year list because you know it's nintendo but bro donkey con banza wasn't nowhere near split fiction and y'all can't

you y'all can't no no no no there's no way donkey con is over split fiction but now we're talking my nominations because ultimately everybody was just going to end up losing the expedition 33 yeah and that's that's basically the story everybody ended up losing the expedition 33 So that being said, click my link, sure in my bio. Let me know on one of my social medias. What did you think about my in-depth breakdown of the winners of the Game Awards? And at the end of the day, another successful year, not only for the notorious Mass Effect. As you can see, we surpassed 16 million downloads on the way to 17 million downloads.

But at the end, the day has the end. No, I'll just play. I say that a lot, so sometimes I like to make that joke. For the most part, for the people who enjoy gaming, 2025 has been one of the greatest years in gaming history. And I know Expedition 33 made it look like it was the only great game on the market, which, you know, is the power. It's just basically the power of marketing.

The Game Awards, the gamers, the consensus. Well, you know, some people are like, arc rated should, you know, those are other people. But in general, Expoision 33 was amongst a plethora of games that could have gave it a run for its money. Like split fiction. nobody even talked about Kazan I think Kazan was a very highly underrated game Ready and not I think is highly underrated

as far as this year I know it's a shooter game But and technically came out earlier On PC but you get the point The console version came out this year Hollow Nets song What else? I already say split fiction Another games

I think Osiote was better than you know Zero wins It's kind of crazy It's kind of crazy but a lot of other games, like dispatch. I didn't even say dispatch yet. Like 2025, as far as like a cream of the crop, it has so many games you could put in it

as far as just the competitiveness in the year of 2025, which really goes back to the consumer port I make all the time, especially when I talk about how Nintendo had the worst movement of all time as far as the drop the price movement. If you want things to change, then you have to act like it. You can't support things that you want to change or else that you're going to keep doing the same thing. They wanted Call of Duty to change and guess what they play Battlefield 6 morning

Call of Duty and now Activision put out a whole statement talk about no more Back-to-back model warfare and Black Ops releases promising innovation When you look at Nintendo people folded like cheap lawn chairs and bought all type of Mario cart worlds to the point where it was like hold up now Y'all not serious about us dropping the prices on these Nintendo Switch 2 games. So we're just gonna keep the price especially Going for it so if you if you vote for your wallet as a consumer break and I mean you had it right there to drop the price movement was phenomenal and y'all dropped it pun intended so you see what happens with battle six versus call it duty when you actually vote with

your wallet so now that's basically it so with that been said click my link show in my bio let me know in one of my social media is what do you think about my deep dive of the game awards 2025 and what game do you think got disrespected the most at the game awards 2025 and more importantly personally to you what was your favorite game of 2025.