The Game Awards nominations just dropped, and with them, comes the annual ritual all gamers secretly love: celebrating the deserving, arguing about the questionable, and rallying behind the brutally snubbed. 2025's lineup is stacked, which isn't surprising at all, and plenty of games are rightfully getting their flowers.

But for every Clair Obscur basking in well-earned praise, there's a brilliant release that slipped under the radar, ignored when it should've been applauded instead. That's the thing about award season, though, isn't it? It's never just about who made the cut — it's equally about those who didn't.

Hell is Us should've received at least a single nomination

A highly deserving game that deserved better than to go unmentioned

I couldn't be happier about a game like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 making TGA history with a record number of nominations, and I sure would hope to see the people involved take the stage several times come December to accept awards. Still, if there was one game that absolutely deserved a mention (or five) across the board, and went completely unmentioned, it's Hell is Us. Rogue Factor's AA semi-open-world title went under a lot of people's radar, but trust me when I tell you that it was one of the best games to come out in recent times.

If you ever, for even a minute, reminisced about older times when games didn't hold your hand, and you spent time in school deciding what to try and do next in the game once you get home, Hell is Us is the game for you. It should've been the game for everyone, in fact. The story is genuinely well-written — a mystery thriller set in a war-torn land with history that is as ancient as it gets, with a good bit of mythology thrown in. Hell is Us is the kind of game that makes you sit over a weekend with a pen and pad, taking notes about who you met and what you could do next, and that's old-school gaming right there. This is one game that could easily have been nominated for the Best RPG or the Best Action-Adventure Game award. It's a shame that this one went under the radar, unnoticed and under-appreciated.

Arc Raiders for Best Audio Design

It's baffling how it didn't get a mention

Arc Raiders is one of the newest games on the block, and it was almost a certain lock for the Best Multiplayer Game award. It even has a strong case for being the greatest extraction shooter ever, but there's no official award for that. What it absolutely deserved an official nomination for, however, is its audio design. I'm well aware of the controversy regarding the game's use of AI for doing voiceovers from consenting voice actors, but that's not the part of the audio design that I'm talking about. In Arc Raiders, every footstep, every clang, every bullet, every ARC machine whirring and moving — it all has a personality of its own, and it's all thanks to the fantastic sound design the game incorporates in every little thing.

You can easily discern if a fellow raider is nearby and in which direction. When a raider flare goes up because somebody took a raider out hundreds of meters away, you can tell exactly what weapons were used and how much damage was traded, all by the bullet sounds that ric\ochet around the map just as much as the bullets themselves. As certain as a lot of Arc Raiders players were about the game being a Multiplayer GOTY contender, it was almost a given that the game would also get a mention in the Best Audio Design list, which makes it all the more baffling that it didn't.

Luca Marinelli for Best Performance

An acting powerhouse who deserved more praise

How Luca Marinelli didn't walk away with a Best Performance nomination this year is truly beyond me. Even in a cast as stacked with talent as Death Stranding 2 — Jorman Reedus, Léa Seydoux, Elle Fanning, and Troy Baker — Marinelli still managed to carve out something absolutely unforgettable in Death Stranding 2. This was a performance that elevated Neil's character into the stratosphere, and Marinelli delivered the gravity of the Solid Snake-like character flawlessly.

This was a haunting, magnetic, and deeply human portrayal of a man forced to ignore his moral compass completely in exchange for his freedom and right to exist as a human being. It's the kind of performance that sticks to your bones long after the controller is down, and in every scene he was in, Luca Marinelli stole the show completely. For him to go unrecognized is surprising, yes, but it also feels like a genuine awards-season tragedy, because it would only have helped give an immensely incredible actor the recognition and praise they deserve.

LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight for Most Anticipated Game

Both my wishlist and my wallet are ready for this one

If there was ever a moment for The Game Awards to embrace the cultural gravity of a genre, LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight was it. Somehow, though, it slipped right through the cracks. This one is not "just another LEGO game." It's TT Games stepping back into the caped crusader's shoes after more than a decade, and it looks like they're finally delivering what fans have been begging for: a darker, richer, more character-driven LEGO adventure built on modern tech, with cinematic flair, an open-world setup, and everything makes Batman... Batman.

This is the kind of generational crossover event that unites everyone. Kids, adults, film lovers, comic-book lovers — they're all going to be looking forward to Legacy of the Dark Knight. Heck, the reveal alone broke the internet, and we can't wait for this game to finally come out. Legacy of the Dark Knight deserved a Most Anticipated Game nomination purely for the seismic amounts of nostalgia it carries, but even more for the genuine craftsmanship behind it. It's baffling that something this universally beloved and exciting got left off the list.

Ghost of Yotei for Game of the Year

Sucker Punch can't seem to catch a break

If I had a dollar for every time Sucker Punch released a stunning and brilliant action-adventure game worthy of being a Game of the Year, set in historic Japan, only to then lose out to another Sony first-party game, I'd have... a dollar-and-a-half. Why? Because Ghost of Yotei didn't even get nominated, while Tsushima still made it to the official nominees list. The Game of the Year award this year was an absolute bloodbath, with huge AAA titles going up against each other.

Death Stranding 2 has been my Game of the Year since June, but I really didn't expect Ghost of Yotei to not be included in the GOTY running. If you've played and loved Ghost of Tsushima, Yotei is absolutely just more of the same. The narrative hits just as hard, the gameplay is smoother, the game is incredibly, breathtakingly gorgeous, especially on the PS5 Pro, and there's just really no reason I could come up with, even if I tried, to justify Ghost of Yotei being snubbed for Game of the Year 2025.

It's impossible for awards season not to be messy

At the end of the day, awards season is always messy, and it's impossible for it to not leave a few bruises on the games and performances that deserved better. 2025 was stacked beyond belief, sure, but that shouldn't excuse how many brilliant works slipped through the cracks.

Still, nominations don't define legacy. It's the players who do. And every one of these omissions will be remembered, replayed, and celebrated long after the trophies gather dust.