Summary
The Game Awards 2023 nominations have made their way to each corner of the internet and fans everywhere have since responded with their own opinions on how categories have taken shape. Everyone’s entitled to their opinions after the fact, of course, but when looking at nominations it is clear that some games may have been snubbed for one reason or another, especially concerning particular categories where fans believe one game’s nomination may be unearned, illogical, or omitted.
EA Motive’sDead Spaceremake has sort of flown under the radar since its release, even though it made a fairly large impact at launch with impressive ground-up changes it made from its predecessor. Indeed, the remake’s lighting and audio systems alone were substantially enhanced, but one addition to the game was easily its most astounding and unique due to the fact that it wasn’t in the original. That addition wasa voice and dialogue for Isaac, and yet that performance seems to have been snubbed at The Game Awards this year.
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IfDead Space’s remake didn’t have voice lines for Isaac it still would’ve been entirely superb in how it updated the original for modern audiences. How players traverse the Ishimura and how certain functions in the ship needed to be activated or deactivated to progress were only two ways that madeDead Spacefeel even more fluid, for instance, while limb degradation and the alteration ofa divisive turret mini-game sequencewere also terrific iterations.
However, what Isaac’s voice lines give to the remake is a completely refurbished story, where now Isaac is finally responsive in every situation and can actually participate in conversations instead of being talked at exclusively. Hearing him shout characters’ names as they’re in peril is a wonderful way to demonstrate his emotions in certain scenes, and witha Nicole side quest in theDead Spaceremakeit feels as though Isaac is actually worried about his girlfriend’s whereabouts the whole time.
Therefore, because Gunner Wright reprised the role of Isaac for the remake of a game that he didn’t previously have a voice in, only to make it more narratively significant and not receive a nomination inThe Game Awards’ Performance categoryis disappointing. The nominees for the Performance category are as follows:
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
Cameron Monaghan
There are outstanding actors nominated who all deserve to win, and their portrayals have all led to fan-favorite characters from their respective titles. Still,Gunner Wrightnot receiving a nomination here seems like a huge missed opportunity considering the circumstances of his Isaac reprisal, breathing new life into the character once more and creating an experience that is wildly different from the original game.
Dead Space’s remakearrived right at the start of the year and it may have been easy for exciting games to obscure it thereafter. Nonetheless, Gunner Wright’s voice was its most distinct inclusion and definitely deserved to have more recognition in this year’s Game Awards as a result.
Dead Space (2023)
WHERE TO PLAY
The sci-fi survival-horror classic Dead Space™ returns, completely rebuilt from the ground up to offer a deeper, more immersive experience. This remake brings jaw-dropping visual fidelity, suspenseful atmospheric audio, and improvements to gameplay while staying faithful to the original game’s thrilling vision.Isaac Clarke is an everyman engineer on a mission to repair a vast mining ship, the USG Ishimura, only to discover something has gone horribly wrong. The ship’s crew has been slaughtered and Isaac’s beloved partner, Nicole, is lost somewhere on board.Now alone and armed with only his engineering tools and skills, Isaac races to find Nicole as the nightmarish mystery of what happened aboard the Ishimura unravels around him. Trapped with hostile creatures called Necromorphs, Isaac faces a battle for survival, not only against the escalating terrors of the ship but against his own crumbling sanity.
