Let's talk about the announcements at the 2020 Game Awards

So, the game awards happened. Did you care? Does anyone care? I’m pretty sure most gamers don’t give a shit about the Game Awards and who can blame them. I certainly don’t care for them, most awards shows are little more than an excuse for industry insiders to pat themselves on the back and bask in their own admiration. If that sounds insufferable to you, that’s only because it is. The Game Awards, much like the Oscars and the Emmy’s and the Grammy’s, are little more than a protracted industry bukkake session.

And you know what, I’m not going to talk about the awards, fuck the awards. Who care if The Last of Us Part 2 swept them? It’s not like they matter. But you know what I am going to talk about, the announcements at the Game Awards. Because even if the Game Awards does turn out to be a total shit show, which it always does, there’s usually a couple of decent trailers that makes it worth watching. Not for me though, I couldn’t stand to stay up just for the Game Awards. I could, but I could also wash my eyes out with hydrochloric acid and get the same result.

But because I didn’t watch it live, and I refuse to watch them now, I won’t do my usual analysis of going through the event and talk about the games as they come up. Instead, I’ve picked out a handful of the announcements that personally interested me the most. So if I don’t mention a game here it was because it either didn’t interest me, or I didn’t have much to say about it. Enough rambling though, let’s get through this.

Shady Part of Me

Shady Part of Me reminds me of a mixture of Little Nightmares and A Shadows Tale mixed with a bit of Alice in Wonderland. It follows a young girl and her shadow as they try to escape a world of nightmares. This game already looks like it’s right up my alley. The art direction looks wonderfully twisted and creative, but not too twisted that it becomes horrifying like Little Nightmares did. More like its twisted in a Tim Burton kind of way, I wouldn’t say it looks exactly like Tim burton’s style, but it is going for that kind of dark whimsical look.

From the looks of the gameplay, it looks like a puzzle platformer where you shift between the girl and the shadow. Again, this is something that interests me. I like games that play with perspective and it looks like Shady Part of Me is doing just that. It also looks like it’s a very story driven game and is being narrated by Hannah Murray, I didn’t watch Game of Thrones so I don’t know who she is, but I heard she’s a good actress so she should do alright. Even the story looks interesting as it focuses on the contrasting personalities of the girl and the shadow, I don’t know I always liked those kinds of stories. This looks like a game that was tailor made for me and the best part is, it’s already out. It's available to download right now and I’m probably going to do that after I finish writing this. Well, that’s one thing to look forward to.

Perfect Dark

I’m actually not that interested in Perfect Dark. I’m not really into First Person-Shooters so it isn’t a game I’m that excited to play. Plus, there isn’t much to talk about since it was just a cinematic reveal trailer. So why am I talking about it, because I’m just glad it exists. Microsoft have been sitting on a lot of properties, especially those from Rare, and it’s nice to see them do something with them.

Granted the Battletoads reboot wasn’t very good from what I can gather, but at least they did something with it and look at what they did with Killer Instinct, that game turned out very well. Plus, it’s nice to see a spy themed FPS again. The industry could use more spy games in general to be honest, But the FPS genre in particular, is in dire need of something of a shakeup. It’s just nice to see a classic property again, now we just need a new Banjo Kazooie game.

Ruined King: A League of Legends Story

I’ve never played League of Legends, but I'm still interested in Ruined Kings. I’m glad the League of Legends team are branching the series out and doing more with the characters and lore, Blizzard should do the same thing with Overwatch. But the main reason I’m looking forward to this game is because it’s basically Battle Chasers: Nightwar. No, I’m being serious, it’s almost the exact same game. From the art direction, to the gameplay it’s Battle Chasers: Nightwar just with League of Legends characters. Unsurprising since it’s from the same developer. I’m not even complaining about it, I liked Battle Chasers: Nightwar, so chances are I’m going like this one too. Who knows, it might get me into League of Legends, but I doubt it.

Century: Age of Ashes

So, this is a multiplayer dogfighting game with dragons? Sold! Bring this to consoles and I’m there day one.

Road 96

Road 96 has a very interesting premise. You’re on a road trip trying to cross the border to start a new life. Sounds kind of basic, but what interests me is that its procedurally generated. So, you'll see different characters and events on different playthroughs. That sounds awesome. We need more choose your own adventure games like this. That being said, there’s also a political element to the story that I'm not a fan of. It looks like it’s taking shots at a certain political administration that I think everyone is sick of, you know which one. And given the recent election it looks like it might be dated before it even comes out. I hope I’m wrong on that one and that the story doesn’t lean to heavily on the politics. If it doesn’t, this could be a good one to check out.

Scarlet Nexus

This game looks Anime as hell, and I love it. Now when I say Anime, I don’t just mean the art style, though it is very Anime, I meant the story and gameplay. I don’t even know what's going on here, apparently there's a substance that links peoples brains and grants them superpowers at the same time, I don’t know it’s weird as hell. The gameplay looks fun though, got a Platinum Games vibe from it. Reminds mime a lot of Astral Chain actually, just without controlling two characters at once. Scarlet Nexus should be a fun time though I have a feeling it’s going to be weird. Very, very weird.

F.I.S.T

Didn’t think I’d see a cyberpunk furry game but, here it is. Weird art direction aside, this looks pretty dope. It's a 2D action game where you play as a bunny with a bionic arm that can grapple on to enemies and even turn into a drill. Looks like it’s heavy on the action and I’’ll say this about the art direction, it doesn’t try to make the characters cute. It does try to take itself somewhat seriously, even if you are playing as a bunny rabbit. Hmmm, a bunny with a bionic arm. Bionic Bunny? Capcom get on that. Speaking of Capcom.

Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection

I Know Capcom is in the middle of a redemption arc, but I did not see this one coming. For those who might be too young to remember Ghosts ‘n Goblins was a classic Capcom series that was known for it’s brutal difficulty. Basically, it was Dark Souls before Dark Souls. This new game looks to be carrying on that tradition. It looks hard as nails, but I did notice that the armour can now take 2 hits befor breaking off instead of 1, so it shouldn’t be as hard as it was before.

It still looks brutal though and those bastard red devils are back, so expect to break a few controllers while playing this one. I’m still looking forward to it though, looks like a lot of fun and the art direction is unique. Its hand drawn, so immediately I'm a fan. I also like some of the new gameplay features shown off in the trailer like the new magic attack system. It looks like a solid update to the Ghost ‘n Goblins series. I am hoping that they don’t force us to play it twice to get the ending. Some traditions are best left in the past.

Sephiroth is in Smash Bros.

Just a head up, I’m not going to talk about the recent drama about Nintendo, at least not here. I want to wait until everyone's calmed down before I talk about and it really doesn’t have any bearing on this announcement. With that said, this was the best thing shown at the Game Awards. Aside from the fact that it’s a new character for Smash, which is always exciting, it’s goddamn Sephiroth. I've always felt like Smash doesn’t have enough villain representation, there’s only 6 of them in the whole game and 3 of them are from the Mario series, plus one of them is frigging Piranha Plant. Not only is Sephiroth a good step in rectifying that, he’s also one of the most iconic villains in all of gaming.

And can I just faun over that reveal trailer because, holy hell, did they ever knock it out of the park. Sephiroth is an immensely character and, by god, did they ever showcase that in this trailer. In fact, I think they went through every one of Sephiroth’s iconic moments here. You had him bathed in fire, they referenced the death of Aerith, him impaling Cloud, even the final fight in Advent Children was referenced at the end. Speaking of which, it looks like they changed Clouds Final Smash when he’s in his Advent Children costume to reflect what he did in the movie, really nice touch.

As far as his gameplay is concerned, well we won’t know much about it until the showcase on the 17th, but he looks like he’s got a lot of range and a lot of powerful magic attacks. We didn’t get to see much of his stage but at least we know we’re getting some more Final Fantasy VII music. I can’t help but feel that Sephiroth was added just to have the excuse to add more Final Fantasy music. And don’t worry ladies, there’s a shirtless costume. This was a great reveal and I can’t wait to play as him later this month. Now I have an excuse to get Fighters Pass 2.

So that was all the Game Awards announcements that caught my eye. I know I missed a lot of big announcements but, what can I say, I didn’t have much to say on them. And I don’t have much to say on The Game Awards. I said at the beginning that I didn’t care for them and even after all these great announcements and trailers, I still don’t. Really, what does it say about an award show when the best part of it isn’t the actual awards. Take the trailers away and this even is more useless than a one-legged unicyclist. Fuck the Game Awards! Until next time, remember to stay safe and have fun.