Elden Ring is the winner of the Best Visual Design award at this year's Golden Joysticks.
FromSoftware's esteemed action role-player may be known for its brutally challenging enemies and boss battles, but it is definitely easy on the eye – and this accolade proves it. Beating some stunning competition in the likes of Horizon Forbidden West, Cult of the Lamb, Ghostwire: Tokyo, A Plague Tale: Requiem, and Lost in Play, the Best Visual Design category is easily one of this year's toughest groups, but it's the Lands Between and everything within that has come out on top.
Released to much fanfare in February of this year, Elden Ring has quickly become FromSoftware's most successful game of all time – surpassing everything from Demon's Souls to Dark Souls, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Bloodborne. At launch, we gave the Tarnished's cursed crusade five stars in our Elden Ring review, describing it as "both a refinement and evolution of the Dark Souls formula, presenting an expansive world that's as hostile as it is inviting."
The full list of nominations was as follows:
- Elden Ring (winner)
- Horizon Forbidden West
- Cult of the Lamb
- Ghostwire: Tokyo
- A Plague Tale: Requiem
- Lost in Play
Of how it looks specifically, we said: "The world itself is suitably gorgeous. Each region has a clear visual theme that marks it out, but enhanced by creative design. The swamps and lakes to the West have eerie balloons floating over them, half-visible in the mist. The fiery wastelands couldn't just be singed rocks, they're overgrown with fat, tumorous growths that make it feel like the land itself is diseased… could a world by Miyazaki be anything other?"
Beyond Best Visual Design, Elden Ring is also nominated in three other Golden Joysticks categories – Best Multiplayer Game, Best PlayStation Game, and Ultimate Game of the Year.
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