BGA’s Miscellaneous Awards 2020

2020 had great games, which means we had to pit them against each other to find out which we collectively thought were the best games. We just finished going through them by genre, but now it’s time to find out which games excelled in which areas with our Miscellaneous Awards.

While you wait to see the rest of the Miscellaneous Awards tomorrow (including winners for Most Beautiful, Best Narrative, and more), maybe check out some of our editors’ personal lists?

Best Co-op

Working together is a beautiful thing. The best co-operative games test our patience with our weakest links while rewarding teamwork.

Our nominees for Best Co-op Game of 2020 are:

• Granblue Fantasy Versus
• Ghost of Tsushima: Legends
• Gunfire Reborn
• Pikmin 3 Deluxe

And the winner is…

Ghost of Tsushima: Legends

The addition of Legends to Ghost of Tsushima truly provided the excellent combat a place to shine. Get some friends together to grind through survival and story missions so that you’re ready for the raid.

Best Online Multiplayer

Don’t lag and let friends play together are higher barriers for entry than they should be for this list, but our nominees clear it with finesse.

And those nominees for Best Online Multiplayer of 2020 are:

• Fall Guys
• Star Wars Squadrons
• Call of Duty: Cold War
• Doom Eternal
• Animal Crossing: New Horizons

And the winner is…

Fall Guys

Chaos reigns in this unique and casual-friendly approach to battle royales. 60 pill-shaped, physics-controlled guys fall down a variety of obstacle-crowded chutes…and only the best (or luckiest) will remain standing!

Best Offline Multiplayer

It sure was harder to get the gaming group together for some offline rollicks, but maybe you lucked out with roommates, siblings, or varmint that were more than happy to pick up a controller to join in the fun.

Our nominees for Best Offline Multiplayer Game of 2020 are:

• Granblue Fantasy Versus
• Street Fighter V CE
• Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath
• WWE Battlegrounds
• Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1&2
• Pikmin 3 Deluxe

And the winner is…

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1&2

While THPS1+2 does support online multiplayer, there’s really no substituting the rush of crushing your buddies in local play. Feeling the nostalgia of pulling off some huge moves and coming out on top is all that much better in classic split-screen format.

Best DLC/Living Game Updates

Games are the gift that keep on giving, even when they ask us to pay for more. Whether updated with free content or improved with sizeable DLC, these games keep us playing throughout the year.

Our nominees for Best DLC/Living Game Updates of 2020 are:

• Ghost of Tsushima: Legends
• Fall Guys
• Animal Crossing: New Horizons
• Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods
• Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath

And the winner is…

Fall Guys

Each new season of Fall Guys brought a smorgasbord of hilarious levels, costumes, and memories. Rotating seasons, updated stages, and new lobbies rounded out the constant barrage of updates that has kept Fall Guys in our regular rotation.

Best Early Access

What separates and Early Access game from a living game? Simple: the Steam page says Early Access. Typically just as feature rich as finished products, these are the titles that aren’t finished, but are available for purchase.

Our nominees for Best Early Access Game of 2020 are:

• Element TD 2
• Satisfactory
• Gunfire Reborn
• Endzone – A World Apart

And the winner is…

Endzone- A World Apart

A post-apocalyptic city builder set in a stunning, beautiful, yet desolate world. Simple on the surface but contains a tonne of depth within. The sort of game you could easily lose several hours to.

Biggest Letdown

Not an award, per se, but we like to be sure the Biggest Letdown gets its time in the sun. You’ll notice “Our nominees for Biggest Letdown of 2020 are” excludes the word game. This is to include the lack of gaming conventions, not 2020’s real issues.

Our nominees for Biggest Letdown of 2020 are:

• Cyberpunk 2077
• No E3
• No Standard Nintendo Directs
• Halo Misses the Xbox Launch
• No Cons!
• Warcraft III Reforged
• Ubisoft Still Exists

And the winner is…

No E3

No E3 means no enormously concentrated gaming Christmas. No Microsoft or Sony briefing. No 45-minute Nintendo Direct. And no (relatively) concise look at the future. We had our alternatives, but they didn’t carry the excitement that comes from the pomp and circumstance.

Biggest Surprise

When you don’t see it coming, well, son, that’s a surprise.

Our nominees for Biggest Surprise of 2020 are:

• Microsoft Acquires Bethesda
• Half Life Returns
• The Resurgence of Among Us
• Fall Guys is a Smash
• Activision Gets Tony Hawk Pro Skater Right

And the winner is…

Tie: Microsoft Acquires Bethesda and Half Life Returns

Guys, Elder Scrolls, Doom, and Fallout just went first party.

But we also got a new Half Life game that was VR exclusive. We couldn’t decide which was more surprising, so we let this one sit at a tie. The Bethesda purchase probably has a larger impact (especially if you’re a GamePass owner), but, you know, Half Life 3 has kind of taken on a life of its own at this point. (Half Life: Alyx is not Half Life 3, but you know what I mean.)

More? You want more awards to disagree with? That’ll have to wait until tomorrow, pal. For now, tell us what you thought about today. And I don’t mean the weather. Did we miss the mark on 2020’s best multiplayer titles? What didn’t we play that we absolutely should have? Please let us know: we are always looking for fun titles we missed to fill our backlogs!

Stay tuned for the rest of the Miscellaneous Awards tomorrow, and then catch up on Friday to find out our 2020 group-voted Game of the Year.