The Metro GameCentral Video Game Awards is the only UK-based video game awards ceremony that recognises games developed and released in 2015. The finalists were selected by a jury of over 20 industry professionals from across Europe based on their achievements during the year, with winners voted for by visitors to the website.
The “Metro GameCentral Video Game Awards” is an annual event that’s held in the United Kingdom. The event recognizes games and developers for their achievements in the gaming industry. Read more in detail here: the game awards.
What games and gadgets do you think should win an award in 2021? (Photo courtesy of Microsoft)
GameCentral honors the year’s greatest visuals, music, and storyline, as well as the year’s best format and worst game.
The full impact of the epidemic is now being felt in the video game business, as new titles are increasingly being developed while individuals are working from home or under other constraints. As a consequence, the release calendar has shrunk and there have been several delays, but the year still saw plenty of noteworthy titles, as our Top 20 of 2021 demonstrates.
Every year, we want to highlight key areas, especially for games that would not otherwise make it into the top 20, since even bad games can have things worth praising. Although this isn’t the case this year, since all of our big prizes go to games that are excellent in their own right.
If you agree or disagree with our selections, please let us know in the comments or through email, but you’ll also have the opportunity to vote in the Readers’ Top 20 of 2021 at the end of January. We’ll be watching to see where views diverge, but these are among the most accomplished games of 2021 in our opinion…
The Best Graphics
Guilty Gear Strive is the winner.
This award will be fiercely fought in the future years, when the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X finally release next-gen-only games that push their technology to its limits. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is the only one that actually did in 2021 (The Matrix Awakens doesn’t qualify since it wasn’t really a game). Although it was interesting how fast you become used to the stunning sights, in part because the game didn’t do anything with them.
Guilty Gear Strive, on the other hand, is just as impressive 20 hours in as it is the first time you see it. Arc System Works has been experimenting with 3D, anime-inspired aesthetics for a time now – most notably with Dragon Ball FighterZ – but Guilty Gear Strive takes it to the next level owing to significantly more sophisticated and diverse character designs. The effect is just amazing when the 3D camera starts swinging around what is normally a 2D one-on-one fighting.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart was the runner-up.
Forza Horizon 5 is the best of the bunch (pic: Microsoft)
The Most Innovative
Forza Horizon 5 (XO/XSX/PC) is the winner.
Fans are used to Microsoft and Sony competing for the best hardware, graphics, and exclusive games, but in recent years, they’ve both been attempting to outdo each other on the issue of accessibility – which is extremely beneficial for anyone who can’t play games using their default options, which are often the only ones.
There are a lot of titles that might have won this prize, but Forza Horizon 5’s pledge to include on-screen sign language to the game’s cut sequences struck us the most because of the amount of work that must have gone into it. The game already features an in-game narration, configurable subtitle settings, and high contrast and color blindness modes, but it will have to be introduced as DLC later. Putting aside the irony of the’story’ being by far the weakest aspect of the game, these are things that should be included in every future game, and maybe Forza Horizon will assist to guarantee that they are.
The Vale: Shadow Of The Crown (XO/PC) came in second.
The Xbox Series S is currently available. (Photo courtesy of Microsoft)
The year’s format
Xbox Series S is the winner.
This is a category that has been lost more than won this year, given how difficult it has been to get a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X, and how few first-party releases there have been from any console maker. Nintendo’s sole significant release in 2021 was Metroid Dread, and although Sony began out strong, they finished up with no new releases at Christmas and no fresh previews – in fact, they’ve scarcely said anything in public since the summer.
Microsoft’s year has been the polar opposite, with Microsoft Flight Simulator and Psychonauts 2 debuting in the summer and Forza Horizon 5 and Halo Infinite debuting around Christmas. Cloud gaming and Game Pass have also given them a level of popularity that they haven’t had since the Xbox 360 era. Plus, unlike the Xbox Series X, the less expensive, digital-only Xbox Series S is a system that you can pick up and purchase quickly.
PC was the runner-up.
Year’s best remake
NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139 is the winner… (XO/PS4/PC)
Yoko Taro is plainly a moron who has no idea what she’s talking about. He predicted that the now-classic NieR Automata would be a disaster, then said that its unexpected popularity was a fluke, and that the remaster NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139…, like the majority of his prior games, would be overlooked by mainstream audiences. He was completely incorrect.
We have no clue how something as purposely odd as NieR became an internationally popular video game series, and Yoko Taro plainly doesn’t either. It’s a pleasant surprise, however, since both games are among the greatest action role-players of the contemporary period, with surprisingly deep narratives and charmingly odd characters. Best of all, the success of the first two games nearly guarantees a new third.
Resident Evil 4 was the runner-up (Oculus Quest 2)
Favorite Music
Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy (XO/PS4/NS/XSX/PS5/PC) is the winner.
We were as startled as everyone to see Guardians Of The Galaxy so high on our list of the top games of 2021, but there’s no doubting that it’s a fantastic game with incredible production standards – including a licensed music that’s on par with the films.
Normally, when it comes to video game soundtracks, we’d consider it cheating, but the game goes even farther by offering a full new 80s style rock album developed just for the game, which, as cringey as it sounds, is really rather fantastic. Richard Jacques, a veteran composer, worked on the orchestral parts, ensuring that the game boasts one of the most diverse and well-considered soundtracks in recent memory.
Neo: The World Ends With You (PS4/NS/PC) was the runner-up.
Storytelling at its finest
Wildermyth is the winner (PC)
Guardians Of The Galaxy was no slouch in terms of narrative, but it was one of the few AAA games to accomplish so this year, with smaller titles doing the majority of the greatest work. So much so that this is the category with the most fierce competition of any of the prizes. But it’s Wildermyth that comes out on top, not just for the quality of its tale but also for the unique manner it’s put together.
Procedurally generated content in level design can often result in very bland and generic layouts, but when Wildermyth applies some of the same technology to story generation, the end result is an endless array of unpredictability, different characters, and scenarios that manage to be captivating every time.
The Forgotten City (XO/PS4/NS/XSX/PS5/PC) was the runner-up.
Worst game ever
eFootball 2022 (XO/PS4/XSX/PS4/PC) is the winner.
The only thing we can say about eFootball 2022 that is good is that it is so blatantly the worst game of the year that it prevents SWERY’s terribly dismal The Good Life from ‘winning’ the category. A train disaster that no one saw coming, save maybe Konami, supporters are now grateful that the series’ name was changed from Pro Evolution Soccer, ensuring that the formerly illustrious moniker was not tainted.
eFootball 2022 is the worst game not just of 2021, but of the decade, perhaps not the whole decade. With terribly broken gameplay and physics, unending bugs, horrible menus, and visuals so poor that laughing at them nearly made the game so bad it’s fantastic, it quickly became the lowest-rated Steam game ever.
The Good Life (XO/PS4/NS/PC) is the runner-up.
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