Here at MMORPG we are lucky to have been working in games since 2002. The Game Awards represents a fantastic achievement for fans and the industry itself to bring people together who love playing games. In their fifth year, Geoff Keighly has managed to put together a great following and some even better exclusive announcements built around the show. To kick the night off, representatives from Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo all took the stage together, that achievement alone, was a miracle.
The Highs
Atlas – For MMO fans, just hearing the letters M, M, O was a big deal. The creators of ARK: Survival have built a huge new MMO. 40,000 players on the ground, or in the seas if you watched the trailer. At first we looked at it saying, “dragons and pirate ships.” Then we thought about what made ARK so successful. The game has teeth and offers a huge new experience for fans.
The Outer Worlds – Thank You! Obsidian came in with a winner tonight showing us the first footage of outer Worlds. The team behind New Vegas, you know the other Fallout game…is creating something that has fans drooling over their popcorn. Now with the power of Microsoft behind them, you’ll see some serious punch from this game. We loved it!
EPIC Game Store – Lots of titles are coming to the EPIC Games Store. Some of them really look fantastic.
The Pathless – This game looked amazing, as many of the indie titles they showed last night really surprised the audience. Pathless followed an archer and her eagle through the forest with lots of giant fire monsters. Mechanics looked fun and the artwork was gorgeous.
Hades – An action RPG which is available to play right now! What? The game has a fun take on Hades relationship with Zeus, but also boasts some cool mechanics for fighting enemies.
The Lows
Anthem – Bioware’s giant cross between Destiny and Monster Hunter continues to go big with promotion. However, no one is really buying the hype being pitched by this game. The design does look beautiful, however, the story seems lacking and the Javelin suits mirror Destiny a bit too closely. We could be wrong, but Anthem is just not meeting our expectations at the moment. We hope they prove us wrong.
Dragon Age – EA makes our list again with Bioware showing a very brief teaser for Dragon Age. The trailer did not reveal anything about the game. The team has changed so much internally it will be interesting to see where they go with the idea of making a strong RPG again. After some of the missteps by EA over the past few years, they need a big comeback, we hope this Dragon Age will be the best one. Still, too little, too early on the trailer.
Rocket League – A new Rocket League announcement, everyone sits up with expectation! Oh wait, Mclaren just paid to put their car in Rocket league, everyone sits down with a grumble. That was how it went in my house when the kids were hoping for something much bigger. We are huge fans of Rocket League, but they missed the goal last night with this announcement.
To sum up, probably one of the most comforting things about the game awards was seeing humble acceptance speeches and very little politics at an entertainment awards show. It proves that the people making video games are more down to earth than ever and mixing winners with exclusive reveals went a long way for Geoff Keighley’s connection to the audience. Every time the mood started to dull, another game was revealed. Even the awards were fun to watch and cheer about. The live stream interaction on Twitch to predict the winners was a stroke of genius as well. The Game Awards really sets the trend for what an awards show will look like for generations of the future. It is definitely not the snore-fest that the Oscars has become. Embrace the new form of entertainment and enjoy Sonic Fox’s speech, he won everyone over quickly with his charm. 2019 is going to be quite a year for games.
