‘The Game Awards’ Are A Joke, Here’s Why.
courtesy of www.foxsportsasia.com
December 11, 2018
On Dec. 6, 2018, YouTube held “The Game Awards” on a live stream. “The Game Awards” are an annual award ceremony held at the end of each year that hands out awards for the best in video games. Reminiscent of the Oscars, but for video games. However, this year seemed to be a little biased towards a newer game, “Red Dead Redemption 2.”
“Red Dead Redemption 2” almost swept the game awards and it’s ridiculous. A game that’s been out for barley two months has the opportunity to sweep an award show? The game won: Best Performance, Best Narrative, Best Audio Design and Best Score/Soundtrack. This is a significantly high number of awards for a brand new game. Thankfully, “God of War” won Game of the Year. Fans expect “God of War” to take home some awards during the show.
For loyal gamers, it seemed like “God of War” and “Spider-Man” were snubbed during the award ceremony. “God of War” was rated one of the best games. For some devoted fans, it was not only the best game of the year, but for the last fifteen years. “Spider-Man” had exceedingly higher graphics than “Red Dead.”
The fact that “Spider-Man” did not win anything blew fans mind’s. The game seen as a flawless masterpiece in the industry.
Another thing that was completely absurd were the nominees for sports games. They were: “NBA 2k19,” “FIFA19,” “Mario Tennis,” “Forza Horizon 4” and “Pro Evolution Soccer 2019.” The first gripe is with the fact that two soccer games were chosen, which is outrageously unfair. Second, Nintendo games, specifically “Mario” games, all have similar gameplay, which makes gamers feel like they should never be nominated for an awards. Lastly, MLB the Show was not on the roster. This is seen as one of the best sports games currently out and it doesn’t make the list. “Forza Horizon 4” won the award, which is a great game.
One of the most captivating parts of the night were the announcements of world premiers of future games. “Far Cry: New Dawn” was announced, which is pretty interesting considering “Far Cry 5” is not even a year old yet. But, fans are still excited to play a new variation in the “Far Cry” series. Another game fans are extremely excited to see is “Mortal Kombat 11.” The trailer was brutal and gory, which stirs an excitement in horror fans. “Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3” was announced as a Nintendo Switch exclusive, which will deficiently drive up sales for the Switch this holiday season.
During this whole award show, they were also counting down the release of “Super Smash Brothers Ultimate.” Loyal gamers played the game the night it was released, it received positive reviews. It’s a Smash, what else is there to know?
The overall show itself left much to be desired. The host was awful, the performances were just as bad and presenters were trying way too hard to be funny. Some parts were hard to watch, which left viewers cringing and laughing for all the wrong reasons. However, with this industry growing, the Game Awards are a necessary evil. Hopefully they will learn from their mistakes and improve next year.
Anthony Cancellieri • Apr 2, 2019 at 11:11 am
I think you should give the Game Awards a little more credit. It’s come a long way from a joke, just compare this year to a decade ago when people who didn’t have any involvement with gaming were presenting, and they played advertising atrociously and in-your-face. Plus, a decade ago NO jokes landed at all. They’ve come a long way to have heads of chief game developers and the upper staff of Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft gaming to be a part of the presentation. Sure it’s still a bit goofy but it has become far more interesting to watch than before. The host, Geoff Keighley, is aware of the position of the Game Awards and is a major factor in how the Game Awards have been improved since a decade ago. Every year runs a bit smoother, the jokes land a bit more, and the recipients of the awards feel more deserving over their competition instead of just a popular opinion.
Having played Red Dead Redemption 2 I’d say that it deserves many of the awards that it has recieved. The game really is a masterpiece in many areas such as Narrative, Performance, and Audio Design, but games like Spiderman and God of War were better contenders for Game of the Year not necessarily because they feel better or worse, but because they feel less flawed. God of War can provide a much more tailored experience because it is not an open world sandbox with 40+ hours of unique gameplay. However, I will absolutely say that it was jarring when ALL of Red Dead 2’s awards were awarded almost directly after each other. It definitely made it stand out as an outlier over all of these other games that were also great, but a winner had to be picked as the best and it was Red Dead 2. This is just how awards go, there cannot be a tie for the best.