Another year, another show down (not meant to be read as showdown).

December 12th marked the 6th edition of The Game Awards. Like it or hate it, the Awards always has some announcements and news. Here’s a recap of a few of the things that went down during Thursday’s Game Awards.

Xbox SeX… Series X

Phil Spencer surprised a few fans on December 4th when he tweeted out that he had the next Xbox at home and was using it. Fast forward to The Game Awards and Xbox dropped a surprise new trailer showcasing the new Xbox. The memes were spicy and rightfully so.

It’s cool and marks the second time Xbox has beaten Sony to the punch with announcements regarding the next generation. I’m gonna remain as unbiased as possible here so I won’t say anything negative, but I’m glad. This gets me excited for the next generation of consoles, even though I’m reluctant to see this one end. Check out the reveal trailer below, and my take on the Series X meme.

 

New Game Trailers Galore

We got a bunch of new trailers for games. Here’s my favorite ones.

Ghost of Tsushima: We finally got a release period for Sucker Punch’s next big game. Summer 2020 can’t come soon enough. It’s dangerously close to the PS5 however, so I’m interested to see if SP has a next generation port in the works.

 

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2: Just gonna let you know ahead of time I’m sad. I loved Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, but since it’s release, Ninja Theory was purchased by Microsoft. That means part 2 is a Xbox exclusive, which means I have to buy it or find a friend. It’s real sad hours right now.

P.s. don’t watch this trailer at night/by yourself. It’s creepy as heck. I need answers though.

 

Godfall: I guess you could tell this was going to be next generation, and boy did it not disappoint. The trailer didn’t show off any combat or give us an idea about what it could be, but it ended with the “Playstation 5” tag at the end. Take that Phil Spencer.

I guess this is going to be a looter shooter, and that has me concerned because the last new looter shooter was Anthem… But it’s Gearbox so I have faith in them to make a solid title.

 

There were a ton more trailers, and it was cool. I saw a comment on a website that really resonated with me, and the person was saying they’re tired of these cinematic trailers with no gameplay.

I agree to an extent. I feel like if you’re just announcing your game for the first time, cinematic trailers work. However, if we’ve known about your game for extended periods of time, it’d be nice to see some gameplay footage. I at least thought we’d get gameplay footage from Ghosts of Tsushima, and we didn’t. I get The Game Awards probably aren’t the best time so it’s just an observation on my part.

Death Stranding is becoming a Meme

I don’t think I’ll ever play Hideo Kojima’s first game post Metal Gear Solid. I have no clue what it’s about and won’t sit through something I don’t understand. No disrespect to Kojima, main man Norman Reedus or anybody/anything involved with the game, but it was nominated for a ton of freaking awards, and it won a few. Congrats!

I’m not gonna get into a conspiracy theory, but the media seemed to be really pushing the Death Stranding narrative. It’s definitely one of the more polarizing games of this year, as fans either really like it or don’t. All I’m saying is Kojima knew what he was doing when he made this game.

Game of the Year isssssss….

Congratulations to From Software on their W. It’s pretty awesome that they won this especially since people don’t really play their games for the story (at least in my opinion).

I will say the list was actually surprising. Besides Sekiro, there was…

• Control
• Death Stranding
• Resident Evil 2 (2019)
• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
• The Outer Worlds

I’m looking at this list, and I can’t help but think…

“Did we really not have that many good games come out this year?”.

This leads me to my next point.

TGA Format

No idea how, no hate directed to it, but Super Smash Bros. Ultimate came out in 2018 and was nominated in 2019. I guess that leads to a bigger issue that I haven’t seen get any attention, and maybe it doesn’t deserve attention.

Per the FAQ, games must have been released on or before November 15, 2019 to be eligible for The Game Awards. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order released right on the cutoff date and did not receive any votes. Maybe developer Respawn Entertainment didn’t submit it for consideration. I don’t know.

I’m just saying some games will not receive any consideration that should receive consideration due to the cutoff date. I don’t know if there’s a logistical reason as to why the TGA’s are held in December besides the fact that it’s the “end of the year”, but I’d propose that they should hold off The Game Awards until January/February. That way every game gets a fair shake especially since Smash Bros came out last year and was considered.

That’s all I got for you though. Did you watch The Game Awards, and if you did, did you see anything you like?