The Game Awards 2021: A Look At An Exciting Future? - editorial

The Game Awards 2021

December. The end of the year is the perfect time to look back, take stock, understand what went right and what could have been done differently, in order to face the arrival of the next three hundred and sixty-five days with all the optimism and the confidence we are capable of.

It is a discourse that, of course, can also be extended to the world of video games which is experiencing a rather particular period, characterized by a very marked dualism. On the one hand, there are the usual market phenomena that continue to grind mind-boggling numbers, consolidating the exponential growth that has affected the medium in recent times while, on the other hand, the now well-known lack of components that is plaguing consumer electronics. will prevent loved ones from finding a latest generation console under the Christmas tree again this year.

And although this may seem a minor problem given the large amount of cross titles -gen crowding on store shelves, the shortage of PS5 and Xbox Series X and the difficulty of creating a solid installed base is certainly slowing down the complete transition to the elusive 'next-gen' that still shyly takes its first steps between SSDs, frame-rate and ray tracing rather than with concretely revolutionary experiences (apart from some rare and welcome exceptions, of course).

Geoff Keighley, creator of The Game Awards, is one of the most in view of the gaming industry. As we have often said, however, beyond the obstacles, doubts and uncertainties, the videogame industry is first of all a forge of dreams, expectations, hopes for the future and, in recent times, all these concepts have assumed a very specific name and surname: Geoff Keighley.

The eclectic Canadian journalist, after having dedicated a whole life to this extraordinary medium, already creator of the annual event of The Game Awards, has literally become a point of reference for announcements relating to news and upcoming games that still excite us so much, even after twenty years of honored career.

Just think that even during the pandemic era, one of the most difficult and demanding for the medium, in which even the main conventions of the planet have been forced to forfeit, the brave Keighley has managed to establish a new summer event, the Summer Game Fest, a virtual stage suitable to present the best the industry was bringing to light in those dark days. br>
The Elden Ring preview reveal is one of Keighley's biggest hits in recent times. A contagious enthusiasm that was first received by the large videogame community around the globe and then also recognized by the largest publishers who have entrusted it with some of the most important reveal of recent times, including that of Microsoft's new flagship, Xbox Series X , and the first trailer of FromSoftware's highly anticipated Elden Ring, just to name a few.

This year's edition of The Game Awards, fortunately, was no exception and brought with it a number of more or less surprise awards and the usual dose of unexpected announcements that kept us in suspense for all the more than three hours in duration, even at a very inconvenient time for us Europeans.

If you think about it, however , the TGA 2021 had another important merit: that of making us understand in which direction the industry is moving for the much 'next-gen' chat that so far, useless to go around it, has struggled a bit to take off.

The return of Remedy's Alan Wake was one of the highest and most exciting points of the event. The first of the announcements of the evening was emblematic in this sense. Ninja Theory, one of the first studios to be acquired by Microsoft in the Phil Spencer era, after the half misstep represented by the Bleeding Edge brawler arena (do you remember that? No? We don't blame you ...), has finally come out of 'shadow unveiling its next big project to the general public with a bluntly jaw-breaking trailer.

Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, a direct sequel to the original Senua's Sacrifice released in 2017, has appeared in a big way dusting, with a sequence of gameplay with an incredible emotional impact but, above all, visual. Few times in the past have we been so amazed by a clip captured in real time from a console game.

The charming character of Senua has been shown more alive, realistic and believable than ever with some of the best facial expressions ever seen. As he entered a dark cave together with a handful of allied warriors in search of a creature of colossal dimensions, one could appreciate unprecedented plays of light as well as first-rate particle effects and a stunning animation sector.

In short, if the quality of the Xbox Game Studios products were to remain on these standards, after the release of the excellent Halo Infinite, the battle for supremacy with exclusive hits on consoles will become more heated than ever and in these cases, needless to say, the winners are always the players.

Watch on YouTube. But beyond the incredible technical performance of the next Hellblade, there was also room for another type of dreams: those a little less concrete, more based on a promise and on the excellence of the names at stake, than on something. really tangible. Which are perhaps the most beautiful dreams, after all.

This is the case, for example, of Star Wars: Eclipse, a game heralded as a bolt from the blue with a glittering trailer and computer graphics developed by one of the most talented studios in terms of storytelling: Quantic Dream. The authors of Farenheit, Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls and Detroit Become Human have acquired the rights to exploit the Star Wars license and are preparing to explore the (rather unprecedented) period of the High Republic bringing with them the usual mix of interactivity , moral choices and multiple endings that have always characterized the products of David Cage's team.

Watch on YouTube. And then there was the reveal of the game dedicated to Monolith's Wonder Woman, former creators of the F.E.A.R. and the two action / adventure games based on Middle-earth, Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War. In the wake of the excellent comic tie-ins that have been populating the market in recent times, such as Insomniac's Spider-Man or Eidos Montréal's Guardians of the Galaxy, the curriculum of the US studio should guarantee a respectable product based on the Amazon of Themyscira, perhaps assisted by the excellent proprietary Nemesis system, appeared for the first time in the two titles starring the Drifter Talion.

Watch on YouTube. But that's not all. The time has also come to unveil one of the most anticipated, coveted and desired sequels by most gamers in the world. Presented by the lovable Sam Lake with that unmistakable sly smile of his, Remedy Entertainment's Alan Wake II set the audience alight with a short, concise trailer that hit the internet with the force of a tsunami. For the next 24 hours practically nothing else was talked about: the tormented writer born from the pen of the Finnish company is finally returning with a project that, according to Lake himself, should fully embrace the darkest and most horrifying soul of the little one. cult which has become the first chapter. We will have to wait until at least 2023, it is true, but honestly we are no longer in the skin.

Watch on YouTube. After this, between the awarding of an award and the other, a plethora of more or less surprising reveals followed on stage such as the unexpected (but welcome) return of Warhammer 40K: Space Marine with a direct sequel to the first chapter. , the first breathtaking gameplay of Rocksteady's Suicide Squad and the fascinating new trailers of A Plague Tale: Requiem, Forspoken and Elden Ring.

Among the most unexpected and appreciated, certainly the announcement of the Sonic Frontiers of SEGA that seems to have every intention of projecting the famous blue hedgehog into a new generation by following a bit the path made by Nintendo with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Frontiers, in fact, should immerse Sonic in a freely explorable environment in which to whiz at high speed in the arduous task of preventing the destruction of his world by inscrutable invaders. It is worth watching closely.

Watch on YouTube. The last two announcements, very interesting but perhaps a bit anticlimactic at the end of the event, were those dedicated to Arc Raiders (mysterious free-to-play shooter in progress at a new studio founded by industry veterans, including some Battlefield developers and Star Wars: Battlefront which, right now, shows an absolutely impressive technical sector) and Matrix: the Awakening, a tech demo created with Unreal Engine 5 which had the dual task of promoting the next film of the series arriving in theaters in January and to dispel all preconceptions about the alleged 'backwardness' of the next-gen with an unprecedented graphic design on consoles. If you have an Xbox Series X | S or a PS5 at your disposal, you have a moral duty to try it, you are warned.

Summing up, after this long gala evening that reached the end credits without a real final bang, the future of video games looks a little brighter than in the past few weeks. Leaders in the industry are starting to unveil their cards with some of them appearing as bright and fascinating as ever. Much of the doubts about this new generation of video games have been dispelled by cutting-edge presentations as well as the promise of new stories, new experiences and new worlds to be discovered in the near future.

Raise your hand if you expected a return of the Space Marines. Nobody, right? Side note for the assignment of the Game of the Year which among some of the most beautiful triple-As of this year such as Resident Evil: Village, Metroid Dread, Deathloop, Psychonauts 2 and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, saw its triumph It Takes Two by Hazelight, the game with the most soul and feelings in the group. The image of the excited Josef Fares who takes the stage exulting like a little boy has really warmed our hearts and will accompany us in the closing of this 2021 on an absolutely positive note.

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At the bottom, one last consideration (or provocation, depending on your point of view): what happened to Sony and Nintendo? The first was presented at the Game Awards, the last big appointment of the year, with only one trailer dedicated to the upcoming Horizon: Forbidden West, splendid as always, but already seen and revised as well as expected for February while the second, indeed historically little linked to this type of events, it was limited to a trailer for Pokémon Legends Arceus released shortly after the end of the event. Was there really nothing else to show to the public? No teaser, no promises, no hopes?

Maybe they both have a different communication strategy in mind, surely the new State of Play and Nintendo Direct will arrive to iron out the situation but, at present, it is evident how Microsoft has managed the communication of this event more effectively. Hellblade 2, Crossfire X, the lot of space dedicated to the Game Pass, the pounding advertising hype on Halo with a lot of recurring references to the launch of Infinite and trailer for the series for Paramount +, the nice curtain of Bethesda: the colossus of Redmond has practically had field free.

You shouldn't be surprised, in fact, if Xbox is named publisher of the year, right?