Your faves clockwise from top left: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Split Fiction, Death Stranding 2 and ARC Raiders. Your faves clockwise from top left: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Split Fiction, Death Stranding 2 and ARC Raiders. Once again, we are approaching the cherished time of year between Christmas and New Year when we might actually have the time to play some video games. I hope Santa brought you something new to play, instead of taking one look at all the unplayed games in your Steam library and putting you straight on the naughty list. Over the past few weeks you have been sending in your favourite games of the year.

Guillaume Broche collects the award for game of the year at 2025's The Game awards. Guillaume Broche collects the award for game of the year at 2025's The Game awards. Alien: Rogue Incursion Arken Age Ghost Town Marvel's Deadpool VR The Midnight Walk - WINNER

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won nine awards, including game of the year, while newly announced games at the show include the next project from Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian Studios New titles were announced, celebrities appeared, and at one point, screaming people were suspended from the ceiling in an extravagant promotion for a new role-playing game. Acclaimed French adventure Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 began the night with 12 nominations - the most in the event's history - and ended it with nine awards. The Gallic favourite took game of the year, as well as awards for best game direction, best art direction, best narrative and best performance (for actor Jennifer English). Elsewhere, Hades II took best action game, Hollow Knight: Silksong won in best action/adventure and Arc Raiders won best multiplayer. There was a decent showing for the new(ish) Nintendo Switch 2, with Donkey Kong Bananza taking best family game and Mario Kart World scorching across the line with best sports/racing game.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 leads the pack at this year's Game Awards with 12 nominations. The critically acclaimed role-playing game (RPG) is up for Game of the Year, as well as three entries in the best performance category. Other contenders for the top game prize this year are Death Stranding 2, Nintendo platformer Donkey Kong Bananza, indie games Hollow Knight: Silksong and Hades 2, and medieval adventure Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. They will all compete at the event - the world's most-watched ceremony celebrating video games - on 11 December in Los Angeles, California. Organisers say there were 154 million livestreams in 2024, when platformer Astro Bot was named Game of the Year. What are the Game Awards?

Much has been made of the fact that the year's most recent breakout hit, an idiosyncratic role-playing game called Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, was made by a small team. It's a tempting narrative in this age of blockbuster mega-flops, live-service games and eye-watering budgets: scrappy team makes a lengthy, unusual and beautiful thing, sells it for 40, and everybody wins. The Guardian's journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Sandfall Interactive, the game's French developer, comprises around 30 people, but as Rock Paper Shotgun points out, there are many more listed in the game's credits – from a Korean animation team to the outsourced quality assurance testers, and the localisation and performance staff who give the game and its story heft and emotional believability.

It's rare for a turn-based RPG to excite the editorial team beyond Engadget's usual core RPG fans. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has many excited, however. Maybe it's the characters, bolstered by a starry voice artist roster, and nuanced animation and story. Expedition 33 does a great job setting up its world in a way that allows everyone to get on board. Lumiere, which seems to be a chunk of Paris plus change, is doomed to repeat a cycle of death, with a powerful godlike figure, the Paintress, looming on the horizon.

I've been wondering why everyone seems so hyped on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. It's the debut game from Sandfall Interactive, an independent French studio with fewer than 30 employees, and it's attracted massive partnerships in video games and film over the past five years. Expedition 33 has a high-profile cast of voice actors, including Andy Serkis, Charlie Cox, Shala Nyx and Jennifer English. It received an Epic MegaGrant in 2022, it was picked up by Pacific Drive publisher Kepler Interactive in 2023, and it was a tentpole of Xbox's first showcase of 2025. Even though the game isn't out until April, Story Kitchen has already signed on to turn it into a live-action film.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 first appeared with an intriguing trailer as part of Microsoft's summer showcase, teasing a dream world where squads of adventurers fight in a bid to defeat "The Paintress" who is gradually shaving years off the maximum life that people could live. It's the first title from new French studio Sandfall Interactive, set in a bleak, ethereal world inspired by Belle Époque-era France (spot the twisted Eiffel Tower), adding slightly more reason to battle this powerful, mysterious Paintress. You'll play a team of Expeditioners, exploring fantastical landscapes and fighting monsters to defeat the Paintress. It sounds vague because well, I don't quite understand what the hell is going on. I went back to the trailer – perhaps that will help clarify things.