Game Awards Unrolled

I try to avoid “tweet storms” that go beyond two or three threaded tweets but I couldn’t resist the temptation to live tweet the Game Awards last night, as I was just sitting in front of the television and a laptop. My assumption is that people can mute tweet threads if they find them annoying (and let’s be honest, every tweet thread is always annoying to someone). It’s the first time I’ve watched them, and probably the last time as well. Today I found a tool to “unroll” my thread into text that I could paste into a blog post for posterity. (I only wish there was an option to include timestamps.)

I think I’m watching the game awards but I’m not entirely sure if what I’m seeing is lining up with the out-of-context twitter comments.

Well now they gave out an award for something I didn’t catch before the timer got to zero so now I’m more confused than ever.

The opening act for the show was a performance by a band named Chvrches, presumably for their connection to the game Death Stranding. (Although I have yet to hear a Chvrches song in the game after over 60 hours of play time - it’s all been Low Roar music.) It’s probably the first time I’ve heard Chvrches.

Don’t skip vocal lessons kids.

‘Nuff said.

A trailer for Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II was shown, which I remember mainly for the rather exaggerated and dramatic and realistic facial rendering technology on display, which made me think that games going forward are going to focus more and more on rendering realistic faces in cut scenes (Death Stranding also has amazing face rendering tech). Otherwise the trailer meant nothing to me. But I haven’t played the first game, though it’s on my Steam wish list. I believe it’s from the same studio that made Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, which was a game that I enjoyed.

I think that was one of the games I put in my Steam cart but forgot to buy in the sale. The first one that is.

Weirdly, an award was given for “best esports player.”

Kind of feels like “esports” categories should have their own separate awards show. It’s like including Best Baseball Player in the Oscars.

My automatic response is to stop paying attention when they start rolling videos that look like commercials, and I have to keep reminding myself that they aren’t really commercials and I’m supposed to pay attention to them. I mean they obviously are commercials, but they’re meant to look like content.

I’m surprised that Sekiro is nominated so much in these awards.

A creepy trailer for Sons of The Forest was played. Throughout the trailer I kept thinking, “This reminds me of The Forest.” Then at the end, sure enough, much to my surprise, it was “Sons of The Forest,” a sequel.

I don’t think I ever realized that The Forest had launched.

Okay that was a real commercial.. I’m so confused about what’s supposed to be a commercial and what’s supposed to be a world premiere exclusive first look trailer whatever video thingy.

Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker presented an award. At one time in my life, I thought these were among the funniest of the Muppets.

This is ruining my childhood.

An award was presented for “Games For Impact,” which allegedly rewards games with socially-conscious messages, or something like that. Death Stranding, in my personal opinion of course, is a game that is absolutely gushing with extremely blatant social commentary at every turn.

Death Stranding is on every list but it’s not on the list for socially conscious game?? Um okay. Sure.

That time Ninja was a better presenter than Norman Reedus.

This show is quite long.

Ah “ongoing game” that’s what we’re calling it now.

An award was given Best “Ongoing” Game, which in one fell swoop solved the dilemma of whether to call games MMORPGs or MMOs. You probably aren’t aware of how much I’ve agonized over this labeling in various blog post drafts. It’s a relief to see that someone else has solved that problem. :)

Which will finish first? Impeachment markup hearing, UK election results, or this award show?

Black Desert’s graphics look really dated now. :)

Mads Mikkelson from Death Stranding won the Best Performance award. Norman Reedus was also up for the same award, which is impossible for me to understand, considering that Norman Reedus’s character actually has the least amount of dialog in Death Stranding. His role is basically to stand around and react to everyone else’s extensive monologues. Perhaps they mean “performance” to include “motion capture performance.”

Mads Mikkelson is a way better performance than Norman Reedus in Death Stranding for sure, but I’m not sure I’d say it’s the best in the game.

Green Day played a couple of songs.

I absolutely hated Green Day when they first arrived but I’ve completely reversed my opinion on them over the decades.

They are one of the tightest, most musically talented and professional bands to survive multiple decades. Their drummer in particular is amazing.

The much-awaited trailer for Amazon’s New World was played. I was unimpressed. Looks like it bears no resemblance to the previous alpha test.

Uh what was that.

My god this show is pay-to-win. It’s like watching TWD live, 2 minutes of content followed by 15 minutes of commercials.

Death Stranding won the best game direction award, against Control, Outer Wilds [sic], Resident Evil 2, and Sekiro.

I mean that’s a no-brainer there, haven’t played the others but Sekiro definitely didn’t even belong on the same list.

I mean if Game of the Year is supposed to reward innovation I don’t see how it won’t be Death Stranding again.

Sekiro won Game of the Year.

Okay well then I guess Game of the Year is supposed to reward comfortably repetitive gameplay then. I mean Sekiro is a good game but it’s not as good as previous entries in the series. Not as good as previous FromSoft games I should say.

But anyway the really important thing is that Congress retired before the game awards ended, leaving only the BBC still reporting UK election results.