Last night, Geoff Keighly and the Game Awards returned to our normally scheduled program. They had awards, trailers, game reveals, world premieres and a live audience. I didn’t expect as big an event (when it comes to announcements) as years before, and I don’t think we saw something as big as 2019. However, I do believe this was a great comeback for Geoff and the traditional Game Awards.

We still saw a good amount of bangers, including some “This game is available right now,” surprise drops. We also saw a bigger focus on the awards. There were still those quick consecutive awards being presented in blocks, but we also saw some bigger categories get more recognition.

WHO WON BIG?

Some early awards went to Kena: Bridge of Spirits (Best Indie) and Returnal (Best Action). Deathloop got some love (Best Game Direction & Art Direction). It was very cool to see It Takes Two win Game of the Year (also, Best Family & Multiplayer).

I made my girlfriend watch The Game Awards with me. Since we beat It Takes Two together earlier this year, it was fun to root for Josef Fares and Hazelight Studios together.

When it comes to the announcements, trailers, reveals, updates and teasers we did get a good amount of everything. We saw many “World Premieres” and also some updates on games we’ve been keeping tabs on — Suicide Squad Kills the Justice League, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. 

I don’t think we needed any more Elden Ring trailers, especially another cinematic trailer. I think everyone is already excited. If Elden Ring gets delayed any more times, I will blame it on having to make this trailer instead of working on the game itself.

All joking aside, here are my Top Five Game Announcements from this year’s The Game Awards:

TGA TOP FIVE

5. Nightingale

Nightingale is a brand new, upcoming title from the studio Inflexion (created by Dragon Age developers). It takes place in a Victorian fantasy and is a shared world, survival crafting experience. The trailer also showed off some First-person shooter elements, which may get me into this game.

The one thing that I’m not sure about is the crafting in the game. Crafting and collecting can sometimes make or break a game for me. There’s the right amount of crafting that I can handle, but anytime there’s more than that the game loses me, if crafting is absolutely necessary.

The trailer got me excited with these characters and the world. The monsters and enemies were also intriguing. I saw giants, tree monsters, zombies and other wild creatures.

Nightingale is coming to PC with upcoming playtests in 2022.

4. Rumbleverse

Rumbleverse is the latest addition to the free-to-play Battle Royale craze. It does look different from other Battle Royale games though, in that it is a “Brawler Royale.” During the trailer I was thinking this looks like some sort of Urban Wrestling game where you fight everyone in the streets.

The game is being developed by Iron Galaxy with Epic Games. The look of the game along with the style give me some Knockout City vibes. I hope Rumbleverse doesn’t fall to the wayside like Knockout City did for me.

Although Knockout City is a fun game and I enjoy playing it, I ended up leaving it behind after less than a week. I hope Rumbleverse can sustain an audience. Iron Galaxy has worked on some big game ports and I’m excited to see what they do with this totally new experience.

You can sign up for the Rumbleverse Early Access, which I hope we’ll see very soon.

3. Have a Nice Death

Let me start by saying that I love any hand-drawn cartoony thing. Any video game trailer that starts off with that style instantly has my attention. When the trailer switched from animation to gameplay and still had that style I was still obsessed with this game.

Have a Nice Death is developed by Magic Design Studios. It is a 2D action roguelite platformer where you play as an overworked Death who must go collect souls on his own.

The game comes to Early Access on March 22, 2022.

2. Evil West

This third-person action game takes place in a twisted dark fantasy, weird wild west world. Evil West is developed by Flying Wild Hog and published by Focus Entertainment.

Take on tons of evil monsters and creatures as a Wild West Superhero or with a friend in online Co-op. This game reminds me of a game I really loved back in the day, The Darkness. The cowboy and western elements also give me The Dark Tower vibes.

Shooters that take place in the old days don’t usually grab my attention, but the supernatural elements and magic are what are pulling me into Evil West.

Evil West is coming in 2022 (even though some trailers mention 2021). It will be released on PC and PlayStation and Xbox consoles.

1. Star Wars: Eclipse

I’ve been wondering when we’d see The High Republic make its way into other Star Wars media. So far, we’ve seen it in books. 

Star Wars: Eclipse is being developed by Quantic Dream (creators of Detroit: Become Human) and Lucasfilm Games. The trailer did take us all over the Star Wars universe from planet to planet, revealing different known and unknown characters and species.

It’s true, we didn’t see any gameplay in this trailer, but I’m always down for anything Star Wars. Even the Battlefield games with all of their problems, it still felt like being in Star Wars with the music, sound effects, characters and more — and that’s pretty much what I want from a Star Wars game. Adding the High Republic means we’ll also be getting a new story.

I don’t think we have any release window info yet, but you can learn more about Star Wars: Eclipse and even download some digital goodies right here.

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HOT TEASES

Yes my #1 choice Star Wars Eclipse was a teaser (a long teaser), but pretty much any new Star Wars game is always going to be on top of my most anticipated games list.

My hot teasers section is reserved for games that had dope teasers, but didn’t really show much or anything at all about the game itself. There were three big ones:

DUNE: Spice Wars

Wonder Woman

Alan Wake II

I’m excited to see and most likely play these three games, but we don’t really know anything about them yet.

Even though we’re still about a year out from this one I was super happy we got to see more of Sonic Frontiers and the style and landscapes. I feel like this one isn’t going to be our classic Sonic game, and that excites me for some reason.

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HOPING FOR

I was really hoping to see some more about the upcoming Indiana Jones game from Bethesda and Machine Games. Although I’m pretty sure it will be an Xbox exclusive. This may be the game that pushes me to get that Xbox — if it’s something I’m genuinely excited for.

I’m happy the Game Awards are back, along with concerts and live events in general. I think this was a good show, and yes we may be used to seeing more as fans, but let’s not forget that Geoff Keighley also gave us tons of reveals and premieres during the summertime — something he didn’t used to do.

What was your most exciting reveal, trailer or teaser from the show? What were you hoping to see? Let us know.