The Game Awards - 2021

[KillerDraco]

Well it's that time of year again. They have announced the nominations for the Game Awards, with the most prestigious of which being the coveted GOTY.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1460660034782695428

(Other categories are in the same Twitter thread)

Discuss, complain about games you thought got snubbed, etc.

Personally I'm of the opinion that while this year had many good games, there weren't very many that stood out as truly great to me. So for GOTY, I don't really have any strong feelings for any of them.

Most Anticipated Game is highly contested though, between Elden Ring, BOTW2, Horizon Forbidden West, and God of War Ragnarok.

 

[Auraninja]

I like Metroid Dread quite a bit, but I don't know whether it really went above and beyond for GotY.
It was highly competent and fun, but was it GotY material?
For the record, I'm not disregarding it because it's 2.5 D. That's just dumb.

Overall, I agree with KillerDraco that there weren't many heavy hitters this year.
2022 seems like a good year for Nintendo at least, and that is my main focus in video games. It will be more interesting for me.

Edit: Omitted a paragraph because the nominees were finalized. Whoops!

 

[The Mega Champion]

They are really hyping this show up hard with Geoff Knightley claiming that '40-50' games are going to be shown off/revealed and that he's seen 'some true next gen stuff'

I mean I get it. I really do. They need something to fill the vacant void that is Smash and the DLC character reveals and the reactions each one got, however, I feel like something like that can't be replaced honestly. But they are clearly going to try.

I mean, at best, they might reveal Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and maybe something for FF16 (like a release date) but that's the best case scenario in terms of stuff they'll show off that I'll actually care about.

So, as of right now, I still plan on skipping this again as I always do. Unless I literally have nothing else better to do or watch when it airs.

 

[Auraninja]

I don't know whether I want to watch the whole Game Awards for sheer curiosity, or if I just want to just see what Nintendo's up to.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

NEO: TWEWY and Bravely Default II got done dirty, but apparently Cyberpunk is worth it.

 

[Pokemon Power]

I can already tell you that there WON'T be a Smash reveal. They're done with those.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

I can already tell you that there WON'T be a Smash reveal. They're done with those.

No, really.

 

[Auraninja]

NEO: TWEWY and Bravely Default II got done dirty, but apparently Cyberpunk is worth it.

Is Cyberpunk an actual RPG? I looked up it's genre on Google and got "action/adventure".

 

[Taodragon]

Yeah, the GotY winner will be interesting this time around as generally they don't stand heads above the other, they're just overall fantastic games. I do have my own bias choices of course, but if one of the others won I'm not going to be surprised about it.

 

[Zora]

To be honest, I don't really see The Game Awards as anything more than a glorified commercial reel dressed up as an awards show. I'm fully confident Deathloop will sweep just looking at its nominations just because it's the game that most overlaps with the trailers they'll inevitably show.

For that reason, I just can't be invested in TGA. I'll read up announcements after the show incase there's anything interesting, but I've just learned to accept my interests are too niche for an award show like this to have appeal--through its commercials or otherwise. E.g. visual novel is probably my most played genre this year (in no small part because it's the only genre that bothers to routinely have nblm/mlm), and it's like... not even an award category. So. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Auraninja]

Yeah, after thinking about it, I might just watch for the Nintendo announcement and call it a day after that.

I'll just see who wins it later. Twitter usuallly talks about the Game Awards quite a bit.

 

[shoz999]

Well it's that time of year again. They have announced the nominations for the Game Awards, with the most prestigious of which being the coveted GOTY.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1460660034782695428

(Other categories are in the same Twitter thread)

Discuss, complain about games you thought got snubbed, etc.

Personally I'm of the opinion that while this year had many good games, there weren't very many that stood out as truly great to me. So for GOTY, I don't really have any strong feelings for any of them.

Most Anticipated Game is highly contested though, between Elden Ring, BOTW2, Horizon Forbidden West, and God of War Ragnarok.

What makes a man turn neutral? Lust for gold? Power? Or were you just born with a heart full of neutrality?

 

[KillerDraco]

What makes a man turn neutral? Lust for gold? Power? Or were you just born with a heart full of neutrality?

If none of the games stood out to me as GOTY material to me then I'm not gonna just randomly pick one. If I had to pick any game released this year for GOTY, it probably would've been Tales of Arise or Kena. But given neither of those are on the ballet for GOTY, my feelings towards the nominees are a resounding "Meh".

To be honest, I don't really see The Game Awards as anything more than a glorified commercial reel dressed up as an awards show. I'm fully confident Deathloop will sweep just looking at its nominations just because it's the game that most overlaps with the trailers they'll inevitably show.

For that reason, I just can't be invested in TGA. I'll read up announcements after the show incase there's anything interesting, but I've just learned to accept my interests are too niche for an award show like this to have appeal--through its commercials or otherwise. E.g. visual novel is probably my most played genre this year (in no small part because it's the only genre that bothers to routinely have nblm/mlm), and it's like... not even an award category. So. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

You're not entirely wrong. It's honestly the game previews that make the topic worthy of a thread. Lord knows there's half a dozen or more other award ceremonies, but the gaming news is that only reason people give this one the credit that it gets.

 

[Hunter Zolomon]

Meh, outside of Metroid Dread this lineup is pretty weak in my opinion. It's a shame that Tales of Arise isn't on this list, but I shouldn't act surprised.

 

[Radical Centrist]

I have heard good things about Deathloop, other than that, as others have said, nothing there really stands out on that list.

 

[bobjr]

Game of the Year I think is a really solid lineup. Village suffers from being one of those games where the first act is amazing and the rest of the game tries to keep up but doesn't. But otherwise the only one that sticks out as not being fitting is It Takes Two.

Metroid Dread revived a mostly dead franchise, Ratchet and Clank delivered another great game on top of a great franchise, and Psychonauts 2 was amazing at showing a game about mental disorders and mental health in a way that's respectful and thoughtful.

Granted the main reason to watch is for reveal trailers, but I do think this year suffers much less from "Which AAA game got the most critical attention" than previous years.

 

[Auraninja]

Psychonauts 2 was a game I saw a lot of praise for on Twitter, and it does help that it's in a lot of categories.

It might have a good shot.

 

[bobjr]

If you told me in 2005 a game where it hasn't aged badly, but a theme of "invade their minds to see their mental issues" causes some uncomfortableness leads to a 2021 game where the second the protagonists does the same thing only to be told that mental health problems are not that easy to solve and needs to have the person come to solutions on their own terms I'd be pleasantly surprised, but the game did manage to do that.

 

[Auraninja]

You know, as much as I like Metroid Dread, I don't know if I'd consider it better than Fusion or Zero Mission (I have yet to beat Super, I know, I know).

A brief aside, but I always found criticism for Fusion weird. I'm not saying the game is perfect, but I beat it so many times, hearing something like, too many bosses, always sounds off to me. It's just so fun to play through and through.

Back to Dread, I do find it really fun, but there are certain aspects to it that fell short for me, but my opinion may change on a second playthrough.
That's sort of the wonder with Metroid games.

 

[Bolt the Cat]

Dread is the only game that I remotely like (and even then, I just found it good but not amazing), but it won't win because it's a 2D Nintendo game and they seem to go for the ones that are either LEET GRAFICKS or large scale 3D games. I'm with @Zora that about TGA being a glorified commercial. The reviewers seem to have implicit biases based on which games have mainstream appeal (read: which games have flashy graphics and the largest game worlds) moreso than which games are actually fun to play and I just can't take the winner seriously most of the time. I am interested in the game reveals sometimes, but other than that, I tend to avoid the whole show and I've never had any interest in watching it live.