From Naughty Dog to Snoop Dogg and Everything in Between
It’s the holiday season, which means presents, parties, best-of lists and The Game Awards. While people continue to complain about the marathon length of the show, every year it delivers some pretty cool surprises. Now ten years old, The Game Awards has grown out of its petulant adolescent phase. It’s become something more reflective of what video games truly are: the product of mature adults for a largely adult audience. Of course there are games for everyone. It’s the planet’s biggest entertainment industry after all. But the creators of the games are decidedly middle aged and so the tone of the show has shifted from blue jeans to ball gowns. In this year’s show there were fewer f-bombs and more dad jokes.
There were fewer upsets this year and no shocking snubs of beloved games. Outside of Balatro scooping up an oversized number of awards, recognition for excellence was pretty well distributed. The show still felt padded out by niche awards. But if you’re a fan of eSports, content creators or audio design you want to see your interests represented. Clocking in at three and a half hours, it’s doubtful that anyone stayed glued to their screens the whole time. So in case you missed them, here are a few of our biggest and best surprises, in no particular order.
Elden Ring Nightreign
This one was the definition of a happy surprise: an as-yet-unannounced new stand-alone game based in the Elden Ring universe. We know Elden Ring Nightreign is coming in 2025 and that it’s a three player co-op game. Players aim to survive three day/night cycles and a powerful end boss. Lore hunters and lovers of all things FromSoft will be happily salivating over this one for months to come. Hard to believe, coming so soon after Shadow of the Erdtree, which didn’t take home any hardware.
The Witcher 4 Looks Amazing and has a Female Protagonist
For millions of Witcher fans, the decision to put Ciri front and center is cause for celebration. Hey, Geralt of Rivia is great but it’s definitely time to shift the focus and tell a new story, or at least from a different point-of-view.
Naughty Dog’s New Game is Coming
Once a console generation, more or less, The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog reminds us just how good they are with cinematic storytelling. Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet shifts from post-apocalyptic to far-future sci-fi. Don’t expect it anytime soon, but Intergalactic will probably be another Naughty Dog home run. Oh, and The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered is finally coming to PC, as is Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
Borderlands 4 is on the Horizon
I’m a big fan of Gearbox Games and all things Borderlands. Heck, I even liked Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. The fourth mainline Borderlands game looks incredibly polished and ambitious. Let’s hope the 2025 release date is real.
New Turok, New Okami and New Mafia Games
You’ve heard the expression “old wine in new bottles?” 2025 looks to be the year when a lot of venerable IPs get new games, and not just reboots or remasters. Both Turok and Okami are genuinely OG action franchises and it’s exciting to see them leap forward with present day mechanics and graphics. Hanger 13’s Mafia: The Old Country is a prequel, set in the early 20th century. From the trailer, at least, it looks to be as focused on narrative and character as it is on action. Can’t wait until summer!
Say what you will about The Game Awards as a media event, it’s a yearly reminder that the world of video games is incredibly broad, exciting, creative and increasingly mature in concept and execution. Lorne Balfe and the orchestra sounded great and I appreciated that the game music award was prominent and in prime time. As always, even the most jaded and cynical gamer has to admit there’s a lot to look forward to in 2025.
