After a Bad Year for Gaming Events, The Game Awards Delivered

Blame coronavirus, undue hype or whatever – this year hasn’t been good for gaming events. There’s been plenty to be excited about, but very little that tipped into real surprise territory. Completely expected sequels, promises upon promises and not much else. That’s 2020 in a nutshell.

So imagine my surprise when, just a few weeks before this awful year is finally over, a gaming event actually delivers. The stops were pulled out.

Not everybody is thrilled. They were expecting Elden Ring or, worse, unannounced but rumoured games that are totally happening (and going to be Sony exclusives) like Silent Hill and Metal Gear Solid. Sure.

But for the rest of us there were pleasant surprises, a few big announcements and, yes, a much-needed celebration of all things gaming.

Marvel-mania

It was a complete coincidence that Disney broke the internet pretty much alongside the Game Awards last night. It made for an interesting evening of news.

Dozens of new films, Star Wars TV shows, Marvel announcements – alongside the fact that Sephiroth is coming to Super Smash Brothers. All while we were reeling from the fact The Initiative’s new game is Perfect Dark (who saw that coming?).

For English viewers, you can add in Barbara Windsor’s sad death as well. I feel sorry for anybody covering entertainment last night.

Here’s a brief list of everything announced or shown during The Game Awards:

• Loop Hero: A Roguelite
• Tchia: A charming looking open-world adventure.
• Sea of Solitude – Director’s Cut
• Shady Part of Me: Available now
• Nier: Replicant ver.1.22474487139
• Century – Age of Ashes: Dragon-focussed PVP
• Sephiroth coming to Smash
• Perfect Dark
• Back4Blood: not Left4Dead
• Hood: Outlaws and Legends: not(?) Assassin’s Creed
• Scavengers open beta
• Cyberpunk vehicle coming to Forza Horizon 4
• The Callisto Protocol: not Dead Space
• Warhammer 40,000: Darktide got a gameplay trailer
• Open Roads: Gorgeous new title from the people behind Gone Home
• Disco Elysium Final Cut (and Xbox release)
• Dragon Age 4 teaser
• Endless Dungeon: Roguelite
• Crimson Desert: Open world action-adventure
• The Swedish Chef is coming to Overcooked
• Season: Gorgeous introduction to a new indie game
• Ark 2: Exclusive to Xbox and starring Vin Diesel
• Ark – The Animated Series
• Fall Guys – Season 3
• Evil Dead: The Game
• Ghosts n Goblins Resurrection
• Returnal gameplay
• Super Meat Boy Forever coming December 23
• Oddworld: Soulstorm coming Spring 2021
• The Elder Scrolls Online: Gates of Oblivion
• Monster Hunter Rise trailer
• Among Us: new map
• Master Chief is coming to Fortnite (and is being advertised on PS5)
• Just Cause Mobile
• Ruined King: A League of Legends
• Mass Effect teaser

A Night to Remember

There are a lot of things to digest in there. Gamers have been offered a little bit of everything. There are indie games, adventure games, AAA blockbusters. A few CGI trailers, but quite a bit of gameplay as well. Enough to look forward to, with a few closer surprises.

We’ll be playing with Sephiroth within weeks. Skyrim will be coming to Gamepass within days (as well as three new Yakuza games in January).

Back4Blood and The Callisto Protocol gave a look at games clearly filling a gap left vacant by certain other once-popular franchises, and both seemed to bring the energy needed. Evil Dead getting a game was a nice surprise for fans of the films, although I’d hoped it was a single player adventure. Still, it looked like it’d pack a punch, and I’m excited to find out more. Because, ultimately, more Evil Dead is always going to be a good thing.

On the distant horizon, we see Perfect Dark, Dragon Age and Mass Effect looming. The latter two have been confirmed before, and are exciting prospects. Those down on EA will always make a big stink, but even a mediocre entry in these franchies is usually worth a look.

Perfect Dark is an unsurprising announcement, although it’s nice to see that it’s finally been confirmed. I don’t understand why Microsoft are so keen on keeping open secrets behind closed doors. If this had been announced with a massive gameplay segment, a story trailer or some so-amazing-its-unreal twist, I’d have got it. But effectively it was just a teaser, showing off some locations, gadgets and a very special returning character.

I’m not complaining, because I love the idea of returning to this world. But stop hyping “name reveal” trailers, Xbox. We all already know.

Coming Together

The Game Awards is an awesome place to see new games, but that’s not its initial purpose. You could argue it’s about the marketing, and I suppose it’s obviously about the awards, but it’s also about more than that. It’s about community, which is something that’s been severely lacking over the last 12 months. Whether it’s fanboys arguing over the new consoles, YouTube and Twitter going into a meltdown every five minutes or games getting delayed, we haven’t had much positivity to share since January.

So it was nice, just before Christmas, to see videos from people who really love games, who love making games, who love sharing games. It was brilliant to sit in celebration of the great achievements that had been made in our industry, despite hardships due to coronavirus. There’s still plenty of negativity this morning, unsurprisingly from the usual suspects. But I think if The Game Awards proved anything, it’s that those voices don’t represent the rest of us.

There are still those of us out here who are excited to play games. Millions of people around the world are happy to hop on Fortnite or Among Us to get a quick gaming fix before going about their day. Just as many will drool over trailers for Perfect Dark, spotting laptop guns and other Easter eggs. When the loudest voices are so damn negative all the time, it’s easy to forget there is a silent majority who just love and appreciate everything that this medium is and can be.

So we didn’t get God of War 2 or Elden Ring footage, and Silent Hill is still a heavily-teased mystery. Who cares? There were nearly 40 announcements last night. If your gaming enjoyment is based on two or three franchises – most which are linked to Sony – and that you lose any hype for anything outside of that very narrow view, you’re not a gamer. You’re a Sony fan, at best.

Get excited about games. I was glad The Game Awards reminded us that that’s something we’re allowed to still do.