Well f*ck the Oscars indeed. It Takes Two from Josef Fares‘ Hazelight Studios won Game of the Year at The Game Awards.
The nominees also included Deathloop, Psychonauts 2, Resident Evil Village, Metroid Dread, and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.
Neil Druckmann, game director for last year’s winner, The Last of Us Part II, presented the top gaming award. The Game Awards has become the defacto Oscars of gaming as it draws the biggest audience of the year. Last year’s viewership topped 83 million viewers.
This year, some of the big titles turned out to have bad timing. Cyberpunk 2077 was eligible, but it came out last December and it had a very buggy launch. Halo: Infinite came out on December 8, making it ineligible for voting this year.
A live orchestra performed the soundtracks from each of the nominees. It Takes Two, published by Electronic Arts, was a cute story where two players played as a husband-and-wife team. The estranged couple had to learn how to cooperate in a co-op game where they had to do tasks together in order to get through obstacles. It was a heartwarming game about the nature of love.
And it was unusual for Fares, who was famous for saying “f*ck the Oscars” a few years back. But Fares’ games always have an interesting story that is woven into the gameplay. His past titles included A Way Out and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons.