The Game Awards
E104: All the big announcements from The Game Awards.
Good morning gamers! The Game Awards hosted by Geoff Keighley put on an amazing (and record breaking) show loaded with special guests, game reveals and of course, awards. We’re going to recap some of the show's biggest announcements but before we get into that, we wanted to quickly congratulate everyone who was nominated and/or won an award - especially Elden Ring for winning “Game of the Year”. Without further ado, here’s the event recap.
New Game Announcements
Supergiant Games officially revealed Hades 2 with a short cinematic and gameplay trailer. The game will be released via early access in 2023.
Death Stranding 2 was officially announced by Hideo Kojima himself, showcasing a short glimpse of the sequel, and a much older Sam Bridges.
Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon by FromSoftware is coming in 2023.
BioShock creator Kevin Levine’s next game is called “Judas” and it’s a single-player, narrative, first-person shooter for next gen-consoles and PC.
Crash Team Rumble, a new 4v4 multiplayer game set in the Crash Bandicoot universe, is coming in 2023.
Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon, a spin-off set in the Bayonetta universe is set to release on March 17, 2023.
Hellboy is getting a rogue-like action-adventure video game adaptation called Hellboy Web of Wyrd with an original story.
Transformers: Reactivate, an online action game with a completely new story is in development by Splash Damage for consoles and PC.
New single-player magic FPS called Immortals of Aevum is being developed by Ascendent Studios - it will be an EA Original.
Remnant 2, the three-person cooperative shooter sequel by Gearbox was announced for 2023.
DLC Announcements
Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores DLC is set to release on April 19, 2023 exclusively for PS5 players. This expansion sends Aloy’s adventures to Los Angeles.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty DLC features Idris Elba as a US veteran named Solomon Reed who plays an important role in the expanded story.
Other Announcements
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is officially releasing on March 17, 2023 and is set five years after Fallen Order.
Square Enix finally announced that Final Fantasy XVI is releasing on June 22, 2023 exclusively for PlayStation 5 until December 31, 2023.
Street Fighter 6 is releasing June 2, 2023.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is releasing on May 26, 2023. The late Kevin Conroy is confirmed to be the voice of Batman.
Jun Kazama returns as a playable character in Tekken 8, revealed via a new gameplay trailer.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 first-gameplay footage revealed.
Amazon Games is publishing the anime-inspired MMORPG Blue Protocol outside of Japan.
The Last of Us Part 1 will make its PC debut on March 3, 2023 with Returnal following later in the year.
Other gameplay trailers for Destiny 2: Lightfall, The Lords of the Fallen, Dune: Awakening, Among Us: Hide N Seek and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Raids Season 1 Reloaded were premiered.
Esports Corner
DreamHack have revealed their complete 2023 “World Tour” schedule where they’ll be hosting 12 festivals across 9 countries, including events in San Diego (California) and Makuhari (Japan) for the first time ever. DreamHacks VP of Strategy & Growth Shahin Zarrabi said “2023 will be the most global and diverse DreamHack tour to date”.
Last week’s drama in the competitive Super Smash Bros. scene has not yet faded away, leading to the dismissal (or resignation) of Panda Global’s CEO Dr. Alan Bunney. Bunney later took to social media with an extended statement refuting all the allegations against him, and accusing Panda of lying. As the situation is still unfolding, and due to the immense community backlash, Panda has postponed the Panda Cup Finale.
🏆Continuing on with our The Game Awards theme, the awards featured multiple categories that recognized excellence in the esports industry. Congratulations to all the winners!
Best Esports Athlete: Jacob “Yay” Whiteaker (Cloud9, Valorant)
Best Esports Coach: Matheus “bzkA” Tarasconi (LOUD, Valorant)
Best Esports Event: 2022 League of Legends World Championship
Best Esports Game: Valorant (Riot Games)
Best Esports Team: LOUD (Valorant)
Gaming Roundup
Uncharted is reportedly being rebooted and Naughty Dog will not be the main developer. Naughty Dog will reportedly help with the initial development.
Microsoft has entered into a 10-year commitment to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo and Steam following the merger of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard King.
Cyberpunk 2077 Quest Designer/Coordinator Philipp Weber confirmed that their planned Multiplayer mode was postponed and ultimately canceled because their priorities were to fix the game.
Elden Ring Colosseum Update DLC that features new arenas, new PvP modes and new cosmetic options/items is now available across all platforms.
Aaron Greeberg, the VP of Xbox Games Marketing at Microsoft says “you will not have to wait too long for what’s next from us”.
Game Review - Need for Speed Unbound
Need for Speed Unbound is the newest instalment in Electronic Arts’ Need for Speed series. The Criterion Software developed game is available on the PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. The game went in a new direction with a focus on animations and style proving that EA is not scared to try new things.
Good: Unbound is one of the best Need For Speed games in recent memory. The game feels alive, and the animated art style is cool. The customization system is better than previous installments and the handling has been improved. The game’s story is very engaging, there’s some twists and turns however, there’s still some cheesy lines.
Bad: There’s been multiple body customizations removed for several different car models. The graphics should be better considering they didn’t release the game on the Xbox One and PS4. The multiplayer was disappointing as the matchmaking is not up to par. Also, the story and multiplayer seem completely separate.
As someone who’s been a fan of the Need for Speed series since Hot Pursuit 2 (2002) on the PS2, Unbound was a breath of air. We give Need for Speed Unbound a score of B-.
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