The Game Awards 2018 just concluded today, and there’s a lot for us to unpack, but first, I want to get the new game announcements out of the way. At least, the ones that I am personally excited for. Then onto the awards that I actually care about, because I actually didn’t play every game this year, to nobody’s surprise.
We Didn’t See It Coming
PERSONA’S IN SMASH!
This was a pleasant surprise, but I sure hope it isn’t the last. This was such an out of left field pick, and it’s amazing that a bombshell this big was not leaked. Hopefully, this means we get other characters from the Persona series as assist trophies (Yu trophy please!). Persona 5 is the last game I expected to get representation in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, so I now have great hopes for the next four characters.
Kawakami better be in there to do some massage assists!
TEST YOUR HYPE!
They were quite clever by announcing things in the middle of award-giving to ensure people watched the whole show! Not only that, people already expected an MK11 trailer for months now, so they had to trick us into thinking there was no trailer so we could get surprised.
The trailer is definitely Mortal Kombat alright, but I’m a little bit upset there’s no gameplay footage yet. We DO get confirmation of Evil Red Raiden though.
Evil Raiden is a lot more interesting than Normal Riaden anyhow, so I’m gonna be pretty excited to see Earth’s Protector protect his realm a bit too zealously.
The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe Hyper Turbo EX Super Arcade Edition: REmakester
The Stanley Parable was a really funny and at times, very philosophical and disturbing game about a man named Stanley and how the decisions he makes affects the story, all the while a snarky Narrator constantly berates you for not following the path he set out for you.
I’ve long given up on using my PC, which is basically a potato with wires attached to it-
So a console release is a godsend for me, seeing as I do most of the little gaming I still do on my Xbox One.
A New Age Of Adventure
While Bioware has hurt me with the mediocre Mass Effect: Andromeda, I am willing to forgive them for this. I love Dragon Age! I don’t care at all for it’s combat, but the story, the dialogue, and the characters are all incredibly likeable. The thing that holds back Bioware games were the limitations of their time, so I’m excited for a new modern Dragon Age, one that hopefully learns some lessons from it’s predecessors.
Ah, who am I kidding, it’s EA, they’ll mess this up somehow.
That about sums up the announcements that I was personally excited for this game awards.
I won’t be posting all the awards here because to be honest, I didn’t play THAT many games this year, so I’ll only be talking about the awards that I personally think we’re the most hotly debated anyway. If you would like to see the full list of awards, go here.
Game of the Year and Best Game Direction
Winner: God of War (Sony Santa Monica / SIE)
I have zero complaints about this. God of War (2018) was a beautiful game, in it’s story, in it’s visuals, in it’s music, and even it’s rich lore. Hard to believe a game franchise so over-the-top violent and edgy could turn into one of this year’s most heartfelt games was astounding.
Best Narrative and Best Performance
Winner: Roger Clark as Arthur Morgan, Red Dead Redemption 2
Okay, this one I actually disagree with SO MUCH. Don’t get me wrong, great game, great performances, but my personal favorite performance from this year was none other than the best android boi himself, Connor from Detroit: Become Human.
I completely understand why RDR 2 won over Detroit’s from a narrative perspective, because hoo boy, David Cage is a hack. However, he’s a hack has great ideas, but he just lacks the direction to make a more cohesive and tasteful story. Fortunately, Connor’s journey was mostly adlibbed by Bryan DeChart and Clancy Brown, so we are now left with only the good idea and the good performances.
As for narrative, Persona 5! Come on, there’s like a hundred substories, each as memorable as the last. Plus, Red Dead Redemption 2 doesn’t allow me to save a Christmas Cake teacher from debt and having her reward you with a rough massage.
I like my westerns, but unfortunately, I like my cute robot boys and Phantom Thieves more.
That’s it for today, folks! Leave in the comments below if you’re excited about any new games coming out, or if you have some choice words about the awards.
Lumi Reviews Things 
It’s sad but they probably will ruin a new Dragon Age.
On the plus side, all of the cost cutting, scummy pricing policies, and other ridiculous decisions by the AAA companies are helping smaller developers to thrive. Now that physical copies aren’t a thing smaller companies are starting to come up through the cracks, run by people who actually care about their fans. Maybe the death of Dragon Age will bring us another great fantasy story through a different company…
I’m not sure about awards anymore. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was money exchanged behind the scenes to influence decisions, considering how often this happens with game review sites.
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I don’t really give much clout to awards as well, I’m mostly there for the announcements and goodwill.
The one GOOD thing about EA being literal scum of the earth is that they poisoned the well so bad for other AAA companies that no other company dare try microtransactions as egregious ever again.
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The fan pushback is a start, but it’s sad when we see unfinished games being released with a full pricetag. And even finished games these days have less content than they would have many years ago, with DLC ready to go before the game is even out.
(To be fair with this though, my favourite games are made by Paradox, which is pretty bad for this on the DLC front..)
Luckily we still get great titles here and there, like P5 (which I still have to play!), RDR2, The Witcher 3.
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I’d like to think games are becoming better about this these days. If we look at the most acclaimed games this year, most of them have a LOT of content from the get-go. Nier, Detroit, God of War, P5, etc.
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