E3 2021: Digital Edition, TGA's 2021 & other 2021 events

[Julius]

27 minutes ago, Cube said:

We got a trailer, but the game has been confirmed for a while. 

I could be misremembering, but I think this is the first time the game has been officially confirmed as being in development. I think everyone thought when Epic Games announced they were publishing two Remedy titles - a smaller one and a larger one - that one might be a sequel to Alan Wake after they got the full rights in 2019, and it's possible it leaked like Alan Wake Remastered did, but I don't think they actually came out and officially confirmed Alan Wake II until last night. 

EDIT: not to say it wasn't very openly teased in another one of their games before this

Edited December 10, 2021 by Julius

[Jonnas]

On 16/11/2021 at 9:21 PM, Jonnas said:

Generally speaking, the Game Awards show prioritises whichever games are most popular and/or talked about. It's not exactly about the Oscar-bait, it's just that Oscar-bait tends to provoke a lot of discussion from the gaming community to begin with. With that in mind, Metroid Dread should have an advantage over Deathloop. In fact, I'd argue It Takes Two is the favourite to win it all.

I mean, when the principal Meme about Deathloop is "Boy, that game came and went quick, huh?", that puts it at a major disadvantage. Meanwhile, Metroid Dread brought a lot to the table, including "single-handedly revived the series" and "provoked debate over whether 2D games can be worth 60$". Of course, Psychonauts 2 has similar advantages on that front. Finally, It Takes Two trumps them all by providing strong themes on relationships and marriage in palatable, publicized, AAA form. It's the winner with the best look, so to speak.

See? What did I tell you? Can't say it's undeserved, I'm happy that game got it.

It's cool that Metroid Dread won Action-Adventure, as that's pretty much the de facto 2nd place. I'm baffled that Deathloop won best Art Direction and that Psychonauts got nothing.

Still miffed that the vast majority of the discussion around this event revolves around the trailers and reveals rather than the awards, but when the ceremony is so unceremonious with the part that should matter, that's what happens.

Edited December 11, 2021 by Jonnas

[Ronnie]

Next year's GOTY will be a bloodbath. BOTW2, God of War, Elden Ring, Horizon 2, Starfield, Mario + Rabbids 2...

Of course this is the games industry so half that list will probably get pushed into 2023, but still!

[bob]

Next year's GOTY will be a bloodbath. BOTW2, God of War, Elden Ring, Horizon 2, Starfield, Mario + Rabbids 2...
Of course this is the games industry so half that list will probably get pushed into 2023, but still!

All of those games might be shit though.

[Sheikah]

All of those games might be shit though.

Haha. Can you imagine...

Do people expect BOTW 2 to come out next year? Feels like the kind of game that will easily be delayed given we haven't seen much of it already.

[killthenet]

20 minutes ago, Sheikah said:

Haha. Can you imagine...

Do people expect BOTW 2 to come out next year? Feels like the kind of game that will easily be delayed given we haven't seen much of it already.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was delayed but the fact that we haven't seen much of it shouldn't be an indicator that it won't come out in 2022. BOTW didn't have a title and there had only been a few short glimpses before it's big unveiling at E3 2016 and it came out the next March alongside the Switch - if you compare it to BOTW 2 we've seen much more of it at this stage. 

November seems the most likely month for it to release so there's still ample time to go into more detail - we could get a longer trailer in a January direct before an in depth look at it at E3, with plenty of lead time to a release for the holiday season. 

[Aperson]

So does It Takes Two count as the first Indie Game to win Game of the Year at Game Awards or not?

[Cube]

16 hours ago, Aperson said:

So does It Takes Two count as the first Indie Game to win Game of the Year at Game Awards or not?

It depends on what you count as "indie". The Game Awards didn't count it as indie as it's published by EA (even though the games in their Indie category were from two companies: one made by a millionaire, the other worth a billion). 

[Julius]

I've given it a few days to let it stew a bit, and honestly, I think that's the best Game Awards I've tuned in for by some margin. Just want to say now though that a lot of the same problems persist despite that being my general takeaway. 

Pre-show was stupidly strong I felt compared with previous years: Tunic release date; King of Fighters XV character trailer and the announcement of next weekend's open beta times; the tease for Texas Chainsaw Massacre; a trailer for Homeworld 3 (I thought that was a really good and unique trailer); Telltale's The Expanse being announced (which makes me a little nervous, considering we have still heard nothing on Wolf Among Us 2, so I'm not sure how much they've learnt from their issues the last few years); a release date for Babylon's Fall (I think this is coming way too soon based on how rough it looks, and from what I've heard from Ben at Easy Allies saying about the betas, this is a game everyone should be skipping, but it's still a release date for a Platinum game and so a decent get for Geoff); a new (albeit kind of pointless) trailer for MH Rise's Sunbreak expansion next summer; Have a Nice Death (not a fan of the numbers but think it otherwise looks great); Planet of Lana (which still looks great) having The Last Guardian's composer Takeshi Furukawa come on board; and the announcement of one of Persona's anniversary projects in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. I was expecting the pre-show to be a right snooze fest, but it actually had a fair few worthwhile updates and announcements. 

The main show started very promptly on the hour, a massive change from the number of conferences we've seen start casually late this last year (looking at you, PlayStation). Sting performed, there was a hype montage, it was undoubtedly an intro to the main show of The Game Awards without a doubt. Like I mentioned during the stream, I know Geoff didn't name names, but I'm glad he brought up where the attention in this industry needs to be at the moment, which is everything going on with the slew of harassment stories and employees and developers of these massive companies just generally being treated like trash. It's a bit awkward to then have Gian Esposito, the face of Ubisoft's biggest game this year, then come out on stage to present Best Independent Game, though. Obviously it's not on Esposito, but that was the only time he could have been brought on stage and it be awkward throughout the entire thing. 

Then it was off to the races with the games, and the first 45 minutes was about as strong a showing we've seen this year outside of Nintendo and PlayStation, it was just game after game after game - and most importantly, games that look interesting. 

Senua's Saga: Hellblade II - with footage that was captured just this past weekend! - looked absolutely phenomenal. I didn't expect what we saw to straight up look like it was ripped from Attack on Titan, so that gave me a chuckle, but it reminded me that I seriously need to get around to playing Senua's Sacrifice. Star Wars Eclipse followed, and as a Star Wars fan and with us finally getting a game set in the High Republic, I'm very excited, though Quantic Dream being attached makes me a little concerned because of David Cage, and also because what they showed here was clearly far beyond the scope of, and vastly different to, their other games so far. Best CG Star Wars trailer we've had outside of The Old Republic since Disney's takeover by some margin.

After those set the bar, we'd see the tease for Monolith's Wonder Woman; the official announcement of Alan Wake II; a new trailer for Horizon Forbidden West (which I thought was meh); the announcement of Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade coming to PC next week; a funny sketch for Xbox Game Pass on PC; a solid trailer for Destiny 2's next expansion The Witch Queen; Bokeh's first game in Slitterhead, from the mind behind Silent Hill in Keiichiro Toyama and the music behind Silent Hill in Akira Yamaota; Nightingale by Inflexion has a very unique look and feel for a multiplayer survival game, so I'm curious about that one. There were two ad breaks in that entire section, which weren't particularly long, and so up to that point I thought the show was going great, it was being paced pretty well. Ben Schwartz and Jim Carrey were legitimately funny when unveiling the trailer for Sonic The Hedgehog 2 after Alan Wake II, got to mention it because it matched the vibe of the awards perfectly. 

Things then went from great to solid. The new trailer for Gollum was for some odd reason thrown into the middle of an ad break. We got a new trailer for Somerville, which still looks great, but I think Geoff introduced it a bit weirdly because it seemed like he was hyping up a new reveal ("back in 2019 I met with an individual in the UK whose dream was to show off their game at The Game Awards") when we've actually seen it a few times now. The Cuphead performance was actually really fun, and that trailer for The Delicious Last Course was great too, nice to see that finally get a release date. Sonic Frontiers finally got some in-engine footage shown, and that looks like an open world/zone/whatever Sonic game, that's for sure.

The show then screeched to a halt as we had Kojima saying he'll be at next year's awards (maybe with something to show?); they showed a trailer for Nightmare Alley; Guillermo Del Toro presented Best Art Direction after teasing about Silent Hill having a great art direction; and then we had a bunch of awards reeled off consecutively: Player's Voice, Best RPG, Best Score and Soundtrack, Creator of the Year, Best Multiplayer, Best Mobile game, and then followed that by diving into ads. 

Came back to a Vermintide II DLC trailer, Best Narrative being awarded, and then Tchia, which still looks great (even if I still hate the noses) -- Breath of the Wild/Wind Waker vibes, Mario Odyssey's possession, Uncharted's sliding, The Last of Us' guitar plucking, it really is a hot pot of some big ideas, huh? Forspoken got a release date of May next year (Square Enix's Japanese side has a stacked first half of 2022, I wonder why they'd keep the second half empty? ) and in my opinion that was by far it's best trailer since its initial reveal last year, looking forward to it! I do question how long it might actually be, though. Space Marine 2 had a fun CG trailer, but my head really turned when they showed off some gameplay (depending on the size of the project, because I think some massive announcements are worthy, those putting out CG trailers should really be trying to do their best to have some gameplay to show off too!); doubt I'll play it, but happy for those fans. Saints Row got delayed again to August (not that I really cared in the first place...), Fall Guys got Nightmare Before Christmas outfits. 

We then got more ads, followed by Best Action Adventure presented by Paul George, and it was at this point that the show really started to drag for me - still, just over 1 hours 45 minutes in, that's much later than when I felt it dragging in previous years. Dune: Spice Wars looks like it could be a good fun strategy game, so my interest is piqued; Tiny Tina's Wonderland still looks terrible to me, just really not my vibe, leading me to unfortunately groan every time I see it; Among Us VR actually didn't surprise me too much, but I'm glad to see them trying to take that next step already, as I still think they have a bit of mindshare; and then there was the DokeV K-Pop performance with those dead-in-the-eyes, freaky looking anime-eyed kids. Genshin Impact got another two new characters, which is great for those fans, but I know my interest in the series only extends to its (absolutely awesome) soundtrack. Steel Rising was a confusing one because I think everyone thought it was Lies of P (aka Pinocchio Souls), it still looks cool, but yeah, I think it might struggle to carve out a space for itself depending on when Lies of P ships, because they have a pretty similar look and vibe to them. 

Then we got more ads (woo)

Star Trek Resurgence is one of the rare Telltale-but-not-actually-Telltale games, I've got very little experience with Star Trek beyond Next Generation to be honest so haven't got much at stake here, but it does seem like one of those franchises ripe to take off in the gaming landscape. Reggie gave XIV the award for Best Ongoing Game, which sure was something, loved him going off the script and asking Geoff how many Game Awards he'd done now, and then we got Rumbleverse -- Iron Galaxy is a solid name and so I think they might have some people with their foot on the door, but that art style was so plain and generic that it's another one where I think it needs to carve out a stronger identity. A Plague Tale: Requiem still looks fantastic, but I still need to play the first one, so tried to only focus on its great visuals and atmosphere; their trailers are so good at setting a desperate and hopeless atmosphere. Dying Light 2 showed a CG trailer despite being less than two months from launch -- I think that game has been shown too much elsewhere (and poorly) up to this point, but that's definitely one way to take some of the confidence away from people excited for your game. Crossfire X still has a bit of my attention for looking more unique than most first-person shooter campaigns out there, especially coming from Remedy, but we'll see how it turns out, as it's only a couple of months away. 

And then the show went from getting weaker to just being outright boring. To go through it quickly, we had an ad for Fortnite Chapter 3, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt got a release date, Imagine Dragons did a crossover thing with Supergiant (the Supergiant stuff sounded good, but eh to what Imagine Dragons did to play off of it), and Innovation in Accessibility was awarded to Forza Horizon 5 (a great award with some great nominees). GTFO shadow dropped with early access on Steam and actually looks pretty cool, with a good trailer, but I still think that name could easily prove to be forgettable, so I hope it doesn't get lost in the shuffle if it deserves more attention.

And then it was the longest stretch for me of the show.

We got more ads and Future Class stuff, followed by Jeff Goldblum hilariously featuring in an ad for Raid: Shadow Legends (doesn't he know to delete those emails?!). The Halo TV series was shown off, and it visually looks alright, especially some of the armour, though the lack of enemies cast a shadow over the entire trailer I think. We had more than seven awards reeled off in quick succession: Best Game Direction, multiple eSports awards, Best Family Game, Best Fighting Game, Best Sim/Strategy, Best VR/AR, and then Most Anticipated, which Elden Ring won for the second year in a row. It's victory was a good segue into pot lad Alexander turning up on stage and an awesome cinematic trailer for Elden Ring. 

And then more ads at once than I think we had at once in the entire show? Followed by Arc Raiders, which looks intriguing but the music choice felt a bit off, and then Keanu and Carrie-Anne Moss came on via call with a scene from The Matrix Resurrections before the trailer for The Matrix Awakens, which I want to discuss at some point, because that experience genuinely scares me at times with what it's accomplishing (even if a bit rough). 

And then we got The Game Awards Orchestra kicking ass once again (love their medleys), before Josef Fares went up to collect the Game of the Year award for It Takes Two. He did say a few years back at The Game Awards that we'd be looking forward to this game, and so I look forward to finishing the half or so me and my brother have left of it from a while back over this coming weekend. From everything I've experienced of the game so far, and haven't but have heard of about the other games, I wasn't too surprised. I like the energy him and Geoff bring, yeah he could tone the language down a bit, but I can understand his excitement and pride. Well done to him and Hazelight! 

 

I think this Game Awards made it clearer than ever before that this might honestly be as good as the show can get in its current format (not necessarily the trailers or games shown, but the show itself).

I'm happy it's a thing, but given the backing required from big game studios and the crazy amount of advertisements (beyond the event itself kind of being one for the industry at large), it's no surprise that the show overstays it's welcome: it has to be frontloaded for the same reason the biggest slots for advertisement are early on for the Super Bowl or just before kick-offs in the World Cup final, because that's when most of the viewers will be tuning in. It's a shame, and I really think it was egregious at times this year with how it was handled, because having Future Class and Global Gaming Citizen stuff followed immediately by ads - without skipping a beat! - just feels wrong, and when you throw an award before or after along with a trailer that's less than stellar, you can really feel the seconds going by.

I'm also not a huge fan of the last reveal being related to some movie tie-in (and not for the first time), even if the Unreal Engine 5 experience is really interesting to see and try out on next-gen consoles, it feels so misaligned from what I think Geoff knows every gaming fan wants: that "one last thing" moment. It's tough because I don't know what else from today you could throw in there to be honest, because if you want to end on GOTY, as I think you should, it otherwise risks being overshadowed by the "one last thing" being placed before or after it. Hypothetically for me something like the Breath of the Wild sequel is "one last thing" material for The Game Awards, but Nintendo seemed uninterested this year besides the bare minimum with the ads they had running, and yeah, that absolutely would have overshadowed news of the GOTY winner. 

Not envious of Geoff's position, glad the show is a thing and a celebration of games, but I'm so happy I tuned into the Easy Allies stream to watch it, or I think I could've nodded off. For as long as it was I thought it had a very strong start, but as always, just ran for too long and the quality of reveals nosedived around halfway through. 

And let's not forget that none of the games I wanted here were shown...

On 09/12/2021 at 11:44 PM, Julius said:

• Starfield
• Playdead's next game
• Fumito Ueda's next game / genDesign's first game
• Final Fantasy XVI

...so I guess next year will need to deliver. 

My Totally Unofficial Score: 6.5/10

Assuming this is the final event of the year - save for us somehow getting some major surprise this week - I think it's been a rough year for events on the whole. E3 was a sham, and even the two strongest showings of the year for me - Nintendo's E3 Direct and September's PlayStation State of Play - feel inflated by the weakness of other offerings throughout the year. 

To recap my scores for the year (not exhaustive, guess I'll need to keep better tabs next year!)...

Quote

February's Nintendo Direct: 7.0/10

E3

Summer Game Fest - 6.5/10

Ubisoft Foward: 6.0/10

Devolver Maxpass+: 7.0/10

Gearbox: 3.0/10

Xbox & Bethesda Showcase: 8.0/10

Square Enix Presents: 4.0/10

Capcom: 4.5/10

Nintendo: 9.0/10

Post-E3

July's State of Play: 4.0/10

September's State of Play: 9.0/10

October's State of Play: 3.5/10

This gives us My Totally Unofficial Score for the Events of 2021: 6.0/10. I won't lie, that's much lower than I was expecting, but eh, averages 

As other have mentioned, though, not all hope is lost: 2022 is shaping up to be a cracker of a year. Elden Ring, Starfield, Horizon Forbidden West, God of War: Ragnarök, the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, potentially Silksong and Final Fantasy XVI, not to mention the Final Fantasy collection obviously being announced for consoles for the 35th anniversary of the franchise and plenty of other surprises I'm sure, whether it be AAA games with short lead time from announcement to release or a bunch of indie games once again swamping our GOTY-contending backlogs (Tunic, surely?). Even if a few of those games slip to 2023, the fact that at this point next year we could potentially see the next project/sequels to not one, not two, but three (!) Game Awards GOTY winners from the last four years is something to be very excited by, for me at least. 

Fingers crossed 2022 is another great year for games, and hopefully an even better one for gaming's events!