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With E3 is truly a thing of the past in the post-pandemic world, Geoff Kieghley The Game Awards are now the biggest source of video game announcements of the year, following in the footsteps of the series that brought us such announcements unforgettable moments as “my body is ready.”
Keighley’s Summer games festival usually also offers some surprises Germany’s Gamescombut it’s clear that the big guns are coming out at the awards ceremony. Despite its name, it’s almost better known at this point as a trailer festival, as Muppets Statler and Waldorf joke (Yes, really) during this year’s event.
With that in mind, here are the biggest reveals from last night’s show, including two different returns to fantasy favorites and a new sci-fi game from the creators of The Last of Us.
The Witcher IV puts Ciri in the lead role
Can you believe it’s been just over nine years since then? The Witcher 3 came out? Since then, the title has received two major expansions and partially inspired a Netflix show, but it’s finally time for a proper sequel.
Simply titled The Witcher IVThe game’s reveal was the show’s first big announcement, and while gameplay hasn’t been shown yet, it brought with it two big reveals.
The first was a change of protagonist. Geralt and his Fabio hair take a break this time, and instead his adopted daughter and apprentice Ciri takes up the dual blades to hunt the monsters of the continent.
The second actually had little to do with the game itself and was more of a teaser for technology nerds. At the start of the game’s trailer, a small note at the bottom of the screen said that it was “pre-rendered in Unreal Engine 5 on an unannounced Nvidia GeForce RTX GPU,” confirming that game developers already have their hands on Nvidia’s next generation of graphics cards. Eager PC makers will likely hear about it soon, possibly as early as next month’s CES.
Elden Ring Nightreign is a cooperative spin-off
After a nearly 60 hour base game and a 30-40 hour expansion, Elden Ring is not finished yet. In a surprising move for developer FromSoftware, the next title in the series will be a session-based co-op game rather than an RPG in a persistent world.
You wouldn’t know that from the trailer, which mostly focuses on small groups of players banding together to fight big bosses. Monster hunter Style (it looks sick, to be honest). However, there are sales outlets such as: IGN (which is owned by the same parent company as Lifehacker) has already conducted interviews and tried out preview builds, which is where these details come from.
According to the developers, the game is designed for three players, but will have a solo mode and take place in a condensed version of the Limgrave map from the first game. Over the course of three days of play, players must survive and prepare to face a major boss at the end of the session.
Rather than customizing their own characters, players can also choose between eight presets here, although I imagine the same character can look very different at the end of different sessions.
Since I’m a big fan of FromSoftware games, but not a big fan of the mostly clunky multiplayer systems, I’m cautiously optimistic about this Night rain Maybe it’s finally the game that convinces me to try it with friends.
A new game from the people behind it Shadow of the Colossus
It’s been eight years since the last game was released under the direction of legendary developer Fumito Ueda, the creative mind behind classics such as Ico And Shadow of the Colossus. The studio behind these titles, Japan Studio, has since closed and merged with AstroBot Development team Asobi (more on that later) was unclear whether we would ever see another title in the same vein as these games again.
Luckily, Ueda and a number of Japan Studio veterans appear to be back with a new game, currently codenamed Project Robot.
Yesterday’s awards trailer was light on details, but the vibe we all remember from Ueda’s previous games was present as the crowd watched silently as a small figure in mysterious clothing climbed atop a lumbering giant robot to become one to escape impending catastrophe.
As with our protagonist at the end of the trailer, a release date is still open, but one surprising detail: Epic Games (yes, that Fortnite people) helps with production.
Eyes is back
Towards the end of the awards ceremony, Geoff Keighley wowed the audience with what seemed to be his favorite announcement of the night, even going so far as to appear to tear up a bit and bring in a real drummer to set the tone before the trailer played.
When the host talked about impossibilities becoming true and said, “If you really love video games like I do, this moment is for all of us,” I was expecting it Half-life 3 to pop up on my screen. Instead I was surprised with one Eyes Consequence.
I’m not disappointed! A cult classic for PS2 and Wii, Eyes combines a beautiful art style, Japanese folklore, innovative calligraphy mechanics and a Legend of Zelda-style approach to gameplay to create a truly impressive blend of mechanics and vision that hasn’t really been captured since.
One of the reasons for this? Shortly after its release in 2006, director Hideki Kamiya left Capcom to help found Platinum Games, and his studio Clover closed just a few months later. The game was a critical success, but it seems Capcom was not happy with the sales.
Now it seems like the publisher is ready to give Kamiya a second chance and not just announce one Eyes Sequel (no official title yet) with him at the helm, but actually giving him a new studio under the name Clovers (never change it, Kamiya).
The news follows the success of Devil May Cry 5a sequel to another Kamiya classic that probably helped change Capcom’s tune. It wouldn’t surprise me to see other cult hits like Viewtiful Joe or God’s hand Next, treat yourself to some time in the sun.
A new Naughty Dog sci-fi game
In the last trailer of the evening The Last of Us Developer Naughty Dog has revealed its next big game, and after all, it has nothing to do with zombies. Instead, Intergalactic: The Heretical Prophet is a space adventure about a bounty hunter who attempts to become the first human to leave the orbit of the planet Sempiria in over 600 years.
The actual gameplay was light (a running theme of the evening), although the reveal trailer showed our heroine arming herself with a weapon and confronting a giant robot that didn’t have a lightsaber. What turned out to be a controversial decision on my Bluesky feed was that the trailer also clearly expressed ’80s nostalgia and brand partnerships, which definitely gave it some appeal Guardians of the Galaxy vibes.
Still, the overall lighter tone of the announcement should prove to be an entertaining change from the dark nature of The Last of Us series, and will perhaps bring Naughty Dog closer to this one Jak & Daxter roots.
And the winner is…
After all, you can’t get the Game Awards without naming Game of the Year. This year’s winner had to face high-profile competition, which included the list of nominees Balatro, Black Myth: Wukong, Metaphor: ReFantasia, AstroBotAnd Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
In the end, Team Asobi AstroBot pulled through. The win marks the first time a platform game has taken home the Game of the Year award AstroBot which Mario also does couldn’t (to be fair, he was up against the likes of Link and Geralt when he was nominated).
However, it’s an impressive achievement for the character’s first full-fledged game – and as a celebration, so is the title about $10 off currently available in most stores.
