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The Game Awards 2020 | Discussion Thread


Ghost

Who will win Game of the Year  

77 members have voted

  1. 1. Who will win Game of the Year

    • Doom Eternal
      2
    • Final Fantasy VII Remake
      4
    • Ghost of Tsushima
      29
    • Hades
      1
    • Animal Crossing: New Horizons
      2
    • The Last of Us Part II
      39


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Kinda like this format more than past years. Show flows better without crowd and having to go up on stage and stuff lol. The Last of Us II brought it home with game of the year, congrats to them. I expected them to win that. Personally Ghost of Tsushima is my game of the year(followed by Hades). I can't speak on The Last of Us II as I still haven't played it but I will soon hopefully. Ghost took home a couple with Player's Voice and Best Art Direction so you know i'm happy for Sucker Punch.

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11 hours ago, Ghost said:
Best Performance (Ashley Johnson - The Last of Us Part 2)

 

Correction - Laura Bailey took the award.

 

Yeah, I didn't enjoy the show. I feel bad for people who watched it live. I watched it today skipping through all the BS and spent 1.5 hours instead of 3.5. I just didn't care about all these live service game updates, and it seems like every single one of them was there. Fall Guys, Among Us, Destiny 2, 4 minutes of Fortnite, maaan. In terms of the new announcements and trailers, this show almost made me feel like I don't like games anymore. I was like "Is this me, or does everything I see just look boring and generic?". The only 3 things I liked were the Disco Elysium console verison reveal, the new Returnal trailer, and the It Takes Two trailer (although I know I'll probably never play this one). The first game from The Initiative being Perfect Dark is alright, I guess. The announcement and the trailer didn't blow me away. The rest though... There were SO MANY generic looking shooters with generic looking monsters/zombies. I thought Back 4 Blood was trash. Ark 2 looked absolutely horrible, even for a cinematic trailer. The entire Crimson Desert's trailer had framerate issues, which was painful to watch.

 

In terms of the winners, yeah, it was predictable. I got 18 of my 22 predictions right. I'm still not happy with the result because I got the Best Direction category wrong, was split between TLOU2 and Hades, but picked the latter in the end. BTW, I'm gonna be honest, I don't really care who won, because I haven't played any single game on the list ?.

 

Congrats to Naughty Dog though. Don't forget, guys, ND is not just Druckmann. Many people worked hard on this game and did their best to make it a technical masterpiece, to build the atmosphere, to improve the gameplay, and whatever else. Let's at least not take the win away from these people. Also, try to avoid that TLOU2 thread which quickly turned into a trash fire. Don't add to the negativity towards any side. Just don't.

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2 hours ago, Alderriz said:

 

Yeah, I didn't enjoy the show. I feel bad for people who watched it live.

 

You need to know what you're getting into. I've watched all TGA shows live since they were introduced (I think.)  Last year was very cringe.

 

I think it's best to either watch with friends so you can make fun of the show together, or watch a reaction stream. Last night I watched the Easy Allies as they reacted to the show. 

 

I have a dual monitor setup on my PC, so I also had youtube ready on my second screen. Whenever a victory speech or a "citizen gamer" segment started, I just switched to that for those couple minutes because I don't actually care about the awards. I just watch to see trailers and reveals, and I think last night TGA actually had the best slate of reveals it's ever had.

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Just now, darkrequiem7 said:

I think it's best to either watch with friends so you can make fun of the show together

 

I agree. I've been doing this every E3. Watching the conferences and making fun of them with other people on Twitter. I guess the difference with TGA for me is that it starts at 3 AM my time and goes for 3 hours, so most people just go to sleep. All E3 shows except Sony were usually around 8 PM which was perfect for that.

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I didn't have work until later the next day so I stayed up to watch the whole thing. I thought it was alright overall. Dragged a bit in places but what show doesn't? Preferred the winners being on video call rather than accepting in person as it streamlined the show a bit and made some of the reactions a bit more memorable. Sean Murray in the middle of a sip when No Man's Sky was announced as a winner was golden. On the flip side, I think the lack of an audience hurt the reveals somewhat as there wasn't a natural reaction and just piped in crowd noise. Maybe it's just me but the best game reveals of shows like these have been one where you can hear the crowd reacting to the footage. Thinking back to when Final Fantasy VII remake and The Last of Us 2 were first revealed and the crowds going mental at it.

Speaking of, the only award winner I have a problem with is TLoU2 - specifically in the best direction award. It just feels a bit odd to give a game so tied to crunch and employee condition the best working practise. From what I've read of Hades, their developer seems to treat the employees better. Might be the difference between a 20 and 300 people team though.

In terms of games, the one that I'm most hyped for is Back 4 Blood. Been waiting for news on it for a while, what with Left 4 Dead being one of my favourite games that I've played. I did mark out to Vin Diesel fighting dinosaurs before I learned it was Ark 2.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Had the unfortunate pleasure of watching this myself. It was a complete joke.

 

This isn’t about the games as much as it is about award shows being completely watered down, predictable, cookie cutter, forced, and having to overly rely on studio magic and trickery. 
 

Nothing original anymore. That is why E3 stopped being relevant. This is becoming more like the yearly Emmy and Grammy Awards that hand out the same awards to the same worthless, talentless performers and then the discussion of politics pops up because everybody lives in a fucking glass house nowadays and are easily offended if people so much as tell others their hair color is gross. 
 

Very disappointed. Then again, I wasn’t expecting much for this years game awards.

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12 hours ago, Spaz said:

Had the unfortunate pleasure of watching this myself. It was a complete joke.

 

This isn’t about the games as much as it is about award shows being completely watered down, predictable, cookie cutter, forced, and having to overly rely on studio magic and trickery. 
 

Nothing original anymore. That is why E3 stopped being relevant. This is becoming more like the yearly Emmy and Grammy Awards that hand out the same awards to the same worthless, talentless performers and then the discussion of politics pops up because everybody lives in a fucking glass house nowadays and are easily offended if people so much as tell others their hair color is gross. 
 

Very disappointed. Then again, I wasn’t expecting much for this years game awards.

The Game Awards wasn't a disappointment. Sepiroth's reveal for Smash Bros was the only good thing about it. And FF7 Remake got a award for best music.

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12 hours ago, Spaz said:

Had the unfortunate pleasure of watching this myself. It was a complete joke.

 

This isn’t about the games as much as it is about award shows being completely watered down, predictable, cookie cutter, forced, and having to overly rely on studio magic and trickery. 
 

Nothing original anymore. That is why E3 stopped being relevant. This is becoming more like the yearly Emmy and Grammy Awards that hand out the same awards to the same worthless, talentless performers and then the discussion of politics pops up because everybody lives in a fucking glass house nowadays and are easily offended if people so much as tell others their hair color is gross. 
 

Very disappointed. Then again, I wasn’t expecting much for this years game awards.


Agreed. I only caught 20 minutes or so of the stream and watched the highlights afterwards, and the whole thing was pretty clearly one big cringe fest.
 

Not to mention it was all just a huge circle jerk for Naughty Dog and The Last of Us 2. I’m sure super fans of the game were thrilled, but the whole program just felt like a giant advertisement for a single game, which begs the question why even bother watching something like this? It was so utterly predictable.
 

I feel bad for all the developers and studios that worked their asses off during this shitty year, slaved away to put out some great products and barely even got a nod at the awards show. They easily could have spread the love around a little bit with the smaller awards if they had cared to. I highly doubt Naughty Dog gives a shit about adding an award like Best Direction to their pile of awards, but for some smaller studio like Supergiant Games that kind of official recognition would mean the world to them and their employees.
 

I’m also tired of a very small group of industry insiders and shills deciding for us which games are good and which ones deserve to take home awards, and the way we all put so much stock into what they decide for us. I mean, we all know that these journalists and critics have a very symbiotic business relationship with the major studios and publishers, and yet we all still pretend like that doesn’t matter and doesn’t factor in to the voting process. 

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On 12/25/2020 at 1:03 PM, dieselmanchild said:


Agreed. I only caught 20 minutes or so of the stream and watched the highlights afterwards, and the whole thing was pretty clearly one big cringe fest.
 

Not to mention it was all just a huge circle jerk for Naughty Dog and The Last of Us 2. I’m sure super fans of the game were thrilled, but the whole program just felt like a giant advertisement for a single game, which begs the question why even bother watching something like this? It was so utterly predictable.
 

I feel bad for all the developers and studios that worked their asses off during this shitty year, slaved away to put out some great products and barely even got a nod at the awards show. They easily could have spread the love around a little bit with the smaller awards if they had cared to. I highly doubt Naughty Dog gives a shit about adding an award like Best Direction to their pile of awards, but for some smaller studio like Supergiant Games that kind of official recognition would mean the world to them and their employees.
 

I’m also tired of a very small group of industry insiders and shills deciding for us which games are good and which ones deserve to take home awards, and the way we all put so much stock into what they decide for us. I mean, we all know that these journalists and critics have a very symbiotic business relationship with the major studios and publishers, and yet we all still pretend like that doesn’t matter and doesn’t factor in to the voting process. 

 

Naughty Dog has been in the game since what, 1996? Ever since the original Crash Bandicoot. Almost every game of theirs has received universal appraise that has stretched for over 20 years. For smaller studios, something like Best Direction means a whole lot more to them.

 

The controversy surrounding The Last of Us Part II was enough to turn me away from the game, perhaps indefinitely. Yet it still gets a bunch of awards, despite the fact that Neil himself was threatened on Twitter, and people who were posting complaints on the game in YouTube videos ran the risk of having them getting removed.

 

That to me is complete bullshit. I can't take crap like that seriously. I mean, award shows in general have always been sort of rigged, but at least in the past the people who ran them did a good job in not trying to make them feel like so. Today these award shows are so blatantly obvious it's not even funny.

 

The video game industry is just as filthy as Hollywood. You got a bunch of shills and insiders working in the movie industry saying which movies are good and which movies don't deserve to get awards. The old E3 was something special because it was a big opportunity for Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft and others to showcase their latest and greatest. Gaming magazines put a huge emphasis on E3, and the result was more attention.

 

Nowadays I don't need any award show anymore, because I already know the games these guys are going to put on the pedestal before the show even starts. A number of these journalists and critics are basically in bed with the major studios and publishers. Look at IGN. They're a bunch of corporate shills always praising the latest and greatest AAA game, but games developed by smaller studios would be lucky to even get a mere mention by them.

 

Some of these games to me are just me going "Pass". Pretty much like I do for every garbage Star Wars sequel Hollywood cranks out to try to increase the life expectancy of the franchise, which is now on life support. I just don't care anymore.

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2 hours ago, Spaz said:

A number of these journalists and critics are basically in bed with the major studios and publishers. Look at IGN. They're a bunch of corporate shills always praising the latest and greatest AAA game, but games developed by smaller studios would be lucky to even get a mere mention by them.

 


Amen brotha ? I agree with everything you said in your post.

 

It’s pretty clear that the video game industry has become almost incestuous in the way the major players all operate with one another. You have an industry darling like Naughty Dog that generates a lot of money and buzz for Sony trading insider access, interviews, advertising dollars, and god knows what else with the big gaming publications like IGN in return for favourable coverage of their products, and votes at these award shows.

 

Anyone who thinks some kind of quid pro quo isn’t happening behind the scenes is just naive. Because at the end of the day this is business, and it’s the almighty dollar that keeps the world spinning. And everybody benefits from such an arrangement where they’re all in bed with one another.

 

We saw the fruits of such an arrangement with the rampant DMCA takedown abuse that was launched against small Youtubers and amateur content creators who cover gaming news when The Last of Us 2 leaks happened last year. They weren’t just going after people sharing the leaks or trying to spoil the game (which is completely fair and within their rights), but they went after ANYBODY at all who was even covering the situation as it happened or discussing the leaks in any capacity, which lead to hundreds of channels being copyright striked and being bullied into silence.
 

Most people probably aren’t even aware of the extent to which Sony and Naughty Dog abused their power last spring, and the lengths they went to silence anybody discussing the leaks of the game. Why?? Because the whole debacle was never reported on by mainstream gaming journalists at all. I didn’t see a single article by a big gaming publication covering the drama unfolding on YouTube at the time. These so called “gaming journalists” somehow missed one of the biggest stories in the industry at that time? It’s hard to imagine, but somehow they did, and now it’s like the entire thing never even happened. 

 

We also heard one or two stories of the few smaller publications that gave less-than-stellar reviews of TLoU2 being contacted privately and intimidated by Sony. And those were only the ones willing to speak publicly and go on record about being contacted. Do you think any of those guys are getting insider access or advanced review copies of the next big AAA game to come out? Because I highly doubt it. They will be made an example of and shut out of the entire development/review process so everyone knows what happens if you don’t play ball with the big dogs. 

 

 

 

 

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11 hours ago, dieselmanchild said:

Anyone who thinks some kind of quid pro quo isn’t happening behind the scenes is just naive. Because at the end of the day this is business, and it’s the almighty dollar that keeps the world spinning. And everybody benefits from such an arrangement where they’re all in bed with one another.


That is why EA, Activision, Blizzard (whom Activision pretty much owns at this point), 2K Games, Ubisoft and the like can continue to crank out unfinished products, then stand on their pedestal if any means of criticism is directed at them. 
 

All scummy, all filthy, all a bunch of liars and conmen who operate behind the scenes. There’s a lot of cheats and conmen in the indie game scene, but the guys who put in the care and effort like Supergiant Games, they are more deserving of my money than EA. 
 

I’m only one of a small minority of people, Ubisoft couldn’t care less if 10,000 like minded people like myself stop buying their products. As much as I appreciate and enjoy Assassin’s Creed, it is one of Ubisoft’s biggest cash cows that has gone to cheap tactics. They will pull any shit business tactic to try to rake more money, and they have done so with great success with Assassin’s Creed. Tom Clancy is another highly profitable franchise, with varying degrees of quality just like Assassin’s Creed.

 

Just a stupid corporation that runs purely by the numbers. 
 

A good reason why I prefer indie games over AAA games is explained in this very post. 
 

11 hours ago, dieselmanchild said:

We saw the fruits of such an arrangement with the rampant DMCA takedown abuse that was launched against small Youtubers and amateur content creators who cover gaming news when The Last of Us 2 leaks happened last year. They weren’t just going after people sharing the leaks or trying to spoil the game (which is completely fair and within their rights), but they went after ANYBODY at all who was even covering the situation as it happened or discussing the leaks in any capacity, which lead to hundreds of channels being copyright striked and being bullied into silence.


None of those channels draw the big numbers or make any sort of money worth mentioning. 
 

Why do you think guys like Shane Dawson, PewDiePie, Markiplier and those other worthless Let’s Play channels/video game streamers could still upload content despite having numerous copyright strikes? Because they were giving YouTube the money. 
 

I could have a channel with 50,000 subscribers, make a video describing my feelings with a certain game, and have those assholes take down that video with no reason provided. Someone like PewDiePie who amassed tens of millions of subscribers, YouTube would be far more hesitant to take down the same type of video. 
 

That’s the way the game works on YouTube. Going against smaller YouTubers while having the big guys be left unscathed is the main reason why I will never take the Terms of Service seriously. 

 

Sure, some of those guys who posted videos on The Last of Us Part II likely broke a few rules. The DMCA takedown abuse was far worse, and makes an already largely uneven play field even more apparent. 
 

12 hours ago, dieselmanchild said:

Most people probably aren’t even aware of the extent to which Sony and Naughty Dog abused their power last spring, and the lengths they went to silence anybody discussing the leaks of the game. Why?? Because the whole debacle was never reported on by mainstream gaming journalists at all. I didn’t see a single article by a big gaming publication covering the drama unfolding on YouTube at the time. These so called “gaming journalists” somehow missed one of the biggest stories in the industry at that time? It’s hard to imagine, but somehow they did, and now it’s like the entire thing never even happened. 


Of course. Those mainstream gaming journalists like the guys at IGN were going to take a big hit to their reputation if they did so much as make a mere mention at those leaks. 
 

The guys who did any sort of decent coverage regarding the topic were the small fries who weren’t stuffed full of money. And unfortunately, they were attacked and bullied into silence for reasons you already stated. 
 

It sickens me to no end. 
 

12 hours ago, dieselmanchild said:

We also heard one or two stories of the few smaller publications that gave less-than-stellar reviews of TLoU2 being contacted privately and intimidated by Sony. And those were only the ones willing to speak publicly and go on record about being contacted. Do you think any of those guys are getting insider access or advanced review copies of the next big AAA game to come out? Because I highly doubt it. They will be made an example of and shut out of the entire development/review process so everyone knows what happens if you don’t play ball with the big dogs. 


What’s truly tragic is these guys can’t even give a fair review. It can’t be somewhat good, it has to be stellar. 
 

I’d give games like Horizon Zero Dawn and Marvel’s Spider-Man a 7.5 out of 10. A fair rating, but giving my take on the games in YouTube videos in my honest fashion wouldn’t give me insider access or advanced review copies. 

A 7.5 rating for them isn’t good enough. I will never be big time, because I go against all the criteria that makes up today’s big YouTuber or mainstream gaming journalist. 
 

The true tragedy is the smaller guys getting bullied. Why they feel a need to go after them is something I will probably never understand.

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