Last year’s The Game Awards were pretty great– we had a mostly good and entertaining show with reasonably good production values, and some good reveals as well. For an event that was in its inaugural year, The Game Awards did well- we had a new King’s Quest game announced, we had a showing of No Man’s Sky, as well as Uncharted, Kojima debuted Metal Gear Online 3 on stage, and Nintendo went ham, revealing Super Mario Maker, Codename STEAM, and The Legend of Zelda, all at the event.
So, that’s a good first outing, right? The second edition has to at least live up to the standards set by the first, if not outright exceed them. Can The Game Awards even do it? With Sony holding most of their announcements for their own PlayStation Experience that follows a day later, Nintendo holding its most exciting announcements close to its chest until next year, and Microsoft not being very bullish on the event in general, what can we expect from The Game Awards this year that would make it live up to last year’s show?
A lot, as it turns out. In the leadup to the event, a lot of companies have confirmed some of their plans for the show- and they all sound very exciting, definitely.
MASS EFFECT: ANDROMEDA
A new Mass Effect is coming up- that would ordinarily be cause for loads of hype and anticipation, but so far, we haven’t actually seen anything of Mass Effect Andromeda. We’ve had some nice, nostalgic montage teasers for the game, but as for what Andromeda itself is? Who knows? Bioware have been playing this one very close to the chest.
And we think that is about to change with the upcoming The Game Awards. There’s precedent for it, too- Mass Effect 3 was unveiled at VGA 2010 (although that was just with a teaser- but in that case, the game’s existence was confirmed for the first time at the event). Mass Effect typically aims for the mainstream shooter audience, the kind that Bethesda aims for with Fallout. That is the kind of crowd that will be tuning in to The Game Awards, more than anyone else. What better way to get their attention and pre-order money for your new upcoming game, than to have the world premier of said game at an event where they will all be watching? The only other such chance that Bioware would get to reveal the game would be at E3 next year, and frankly, for a game that is launching in Holiday 2016 (allegedly), that would be too short of a hype cycle, especially with how EA does things.
No, the highest possibility is that we will be seeing the game in action for the first time this Thursday.
OCULUS RIFT
This one isn’t a prediction as much as it is pretty much a given- we already know Oculus is going to have some kind of presence at The Game Awards. It’s a smart move, too- Oculus has a lot of hype in the niche enthusiast circles, but for the mass market, it’s pretty much non existent at this point. People either don’t know Oculus exists, or if they do, they associate it with some far flung future technology that can’t realistically be achieved in the present, or previous, failed attempts at bringing VR or 3D to the masses.
If Oculus wants to actually send a message to people beyond the traditional tech savvy people, then The Game Awards would be a great platform to do so- as mentioned above, the mainstream casual customer, who purchases an Xbox or a PlayStation for their annual dosage of FIFA, Madden, Call of Duty, and Assassin’s Creed, is the kind of person who will be tuning into the event. If ever Oculus had a chance of ensuring some kind of break out success for their product, beyond their corest of the core niches, The Game Awards is it.
FAR CRY PRIMAL
Again, this one isn’t a prediction, but an expectation, and one we hold because it has been explicitly confirmed that we will be seeing the game at The Game Awards this year. Far Cry Primal was revealed earlier this year as a prehistoric Far Cry, which just sounds like the most ridiculously awesome thing ever. I mean, the kind of ridiculous and over the top action that Far Cry is known for, combined with the ridiculously awesome (and underutilized in games!) setting of a prehistoric earth? What could possibly be better?
The only blemish on the hype so far is that we have not yet seen the game- and thankfully, that will change this Thursday evening. Far Cry Primal will have its world premier at The Game Awards, meaning we finally get to see the kind of insanity that Ubisoft has been cooking up. Plus, since the game is targeted only for current gen platforms – no PS3 and Xbox 360 versions like with Far Cry 4 – we’ll be able to see what a Far Cry game not held back by the limitations of a ten year old hardware spec can really be like.
Can’t wait.
NINTENDO
Nintendo owned the show last year at The Game Awards- they took the stage to show off Super Mario Maker, they took the stage to show off Codename STEAM, and, in an incredibly unexpected turn of events, they also had the world premier of the gameplay for the upcoming Wii U Legend of Zelda game at the show. It was insane, and it was something else entirely.
Which is why expectations are high from them this year. Nintendo have already confirmed that they will have something at the event (plus we also know that The Game Awards will have some kind of memorial for the late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, who passed away earlier this year). The question is, exactly what could this showing consist of? We know it’s not the NX, because Geoff Keighley clearly shot that possibility down. So what could this be? Star Fox? Another look at Zelda? Cloud in Smash Bros.?
It could be anything at this point, which is why this is so exciting. We don’t know yet what Nintendo is planning- but since they’re so inherently unpredictable, it will be exciting to see what they have to show on Thursday.
METAL GEAR SOLID V CHAPTER 3
The Metal Gear Solid V ruse cruise has been something else entirely (as you probably know if you’ve been following the coverage on GamingBolt!) The highly anticipated game was launched earlier this year, to massive backlash from fans, in spite of critics loving it- an obviously incomplete story, along with liberties taken with the series canon, as well as a second half of the game being rushed, all formed a witch’s brew of clearly undesirable elements for fans.
A lot of these fans refused to believe that this could be it- with Kojima apparently fired from Konami, they refused to believe that Metal Gear Solid V as it exists could be the end of their beloved saga. So they took to mining and honeycombing for all sorts of hints and teases in a way that only Metal Gear fans can do. From datamining hidden files that hinted at something more coming, to leaked lists of missions, to something that hinted at an entire Chapter 3 having once been planned for the game, they were desperate for any evidence that there was more to The Phantom Pain than what they had.
And you know what? Against all odds, they may have been right! Look, Hideo Kojima is almost certainly going to be at The Game Awards, as is Keifer Sutherland- why would these people attend the show? Kojima might even be there to accept an award should his game win one, but why Sutherland? He hasn’t been nominated in any category, he has no reason to be there. Unless- unless there is more to their presence there. Unless we actually do learn of a Metal Gear Solid V Chapter 3 at The Game Awards this year.
Wouldn’t that be something to see.
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