Shadow of the Erdtree is nominated in the Game of the Year section at TGA 2024

Today, the official nominations for the Game of the Year category at The Game Awards 2024 have been sharedand the biggest news is that Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree was included. This is surprising because Shadow of the Erdtree is not a standalone game, but a DLC that requires Elden Ring to be played.

Since this is unprecedented, The Game Awards organization clarified its stance on the matter with a newly added FAQ on the event’s official website:

The Game Awards aim to recognize the best creative and technical work each year, regardless of the format of the content in question’s release. Expansion packs, new game seasons, DLCs, remakes and remasters are eligible in all categories if the jury deems the new creative and technical work worthy of a nomination. Factors such as the novelty of the content and its price/value should be considered.

So it’s fair game for everyone, and Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is the obvious favorite in an otherwise less than exceptional year. FromSoftware’s admittedly large DLC (according to HowLongToBeat takes 25.5 hours for the main quest, but over 50 hours for a complete run) must beat Atlus’ Metafor: ReFantazio, Game Science’s Black Myth: Wukong, Square Enix’s Final Fantasy, Team VII Rebirth Asobi’s Astro Bot and PlayStack’s Balatro to repeat the 2022 victory in the base game. It shouldn’t be too difficult, although on paper Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is tied with Astro Bot and Metaphor: ReFantazio when it comes to Metacritic scores (94 for all three). However, FromSoftware’s latest masterpiece is far more popular, as evidenced by the higher sales.

The DLC got a perfect score here at Wccftech from Francesco De Meo. Here is the summarized excerpt from his review:

It didn’t take long to get back into the exciting adventure loop of the Elden Ring experience, searching for map fragments to get a better look at the map, placing markers where points of interest are apparently located, and being amazed by beautiful vistas, huge castles and vast , haunting forests, unaware of the dangers that lurked within them. With open-world fatigue setting in earlier this year due to the many open-world games released in 2024 – such as Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Rise of the Ronin, and the PC versions of Horizon Forbidden West and Ghost of Tsushima – Shadow of the Erdtree’s open -world design stands out as a testament to how the Elden Ring experience still surpasses anything else on the market. As such, I think a perfect score is warranted, even with the obvious lack of significant innovation and some technical issues.

You can vote for your favorite game on the official The Game Awards website. The ceremony will go live on December 12 at 5 p.m. Pacific.