Summary
UPDATE: Forza Motorsport won Best Sports/Racing Game at The Game Awards 2023!
A genre that’s been an integral part of the gaming ecosphere since the very beginning, sports video games are still abundant in the modern video game market. Fromsoccer games to NFL, NBA, NHL, and everything in between, all the usual sports games still make annual appearances, and they’re still some of the highest-grossing games on the market, right along with racing games, which tend to get lumped in together whenThe Game Awardscomes around every year.
TheGame Awards 2023’s Best Sports/Racing Game category brings five of the year’s best sports games together and allows each one to walk away with the much-coveted Game Award trophy. While each of these five games has a pretty sizable fan-base, there’s only one that stands a real chance of winning this year’s Game Award for the Best Sports/Racing game, though the other four did try their best.
2023 Best Sports/Racing Game Nominees
EA Sports FC 24
After announcing its split from the FIFA license back in May 2022, fans were left a little unsure of the future of EA’s soccer franchise, one that had continued to grow for the last few decades. Thankfully, it seems as thoughFIFA’s lack of involvement inEA Sports FC 24has barely hindered the game at all, with it earning pretty decent reviews across the board. Some Ultimate Team improvements, a vast selection of teams and players, and a new PlayStyles feature makeEA Sports FC 24an impressive new start for EA, albeit one that does feel admittedly familiar for long-timeFIFAfans.
F1 23
Widely considered to be a new high point for the series,F1 23makes some small but very welcome improvements over its past few predecessors.F1 23brings back the laudedBraking Point story mode, and introduces a new World mode to the series, both of which help to makeF1 23feel like the complete package. After being disappointed withF1 22’s more predatory practices and lack of content,F1 23is a major step in the right direction for the franchise, but it might still be a few steps away from earning the Game Award this year.
Forza Motorsport
Though it didn’t quite set the world on fire,Forza Motorsportwas still an excellent entry in the long-running racing franchise, and has since cemented itself one of the most technically impressive racing games of all time. With realistic lighting, cutting-edge physics, and a slew of other technical features too smart for their own good,Forza Motorsportis truly a technical marvel, and should receive the flowers it rightly deserves. Though there are plenty of racing games in this category this year, few can match the sheer quality and technical impressiveness on display inForza Motorsport.
Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged
A true sequel,Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbochargedfixes just about everything fans weren’t too keen on in the 2021 original, and improves upon just about everything they did like. While there are plenty of more technically impressive racing games nominated in this year’sBest Sports/Racing Game category, few are as genuinely fun asHot Wheels Unleashed 2, with the game’s developers having a lot of fun creating smaller-than-life tracks and bringing a ton of extravagant vehicles to the game.
The Crew Motorfest
Ubisoft’s attempt to deliver aForza Horizoncompetitor,The Crew Motorfestis a fairly strong contender. With abeautiful open worldand excellent attention to detail,The Crew Motorfestis a surprising visual spectacle, and it’s definitely a big improvement over previous games in the series. However,The Crew Motorfestdoes feel like it’s trying to imitateForza Horizona little too closely at times, and that lack of originality might cost it the Game Award.
Final Prediction
Though all five games nominated for the Best Sports/Racing category atthis year’s Game Awardsare worthy sequels and successors, there’s only one game that can take home the award, and it seems pretty likely that it’ll beForza Motorsport. It may not have reviewed quite as well as Xbox probably hoped, butForza Motorsportis a technical marvel, and at the end of the day that’s a vital boon in this category.
