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Let's Talk About...Game Awards 2022

So, unfortunately, I have not watched the game awards as a whole, yet, though I have done some info searching on the big things that were announced, and lemme tell ya, for me, there are a lot of things to be excited about. And while not everything blew me away right away, I can see a lot of potential in some of these that may end up being some really cool experiences.

Let's start off with one that I know I'm going to have a good time with, that of course being Dead Cells Return To Castlevania. Now, I love both Dead Cells and Castlevania, and it's kind of funny how I got struck with the Castlevania bug so suddenly a few days ago, and I've just been playing nothing but Castlevania games for the past week. Then of course we come to find out that Dead Cells is getting a Castlevania crossover, and my mind just blew. Both Dead Cells and Castlevania are respectively their own thing and certainly different from one another, but they also share a lot of similarities in the way that they both work really well as metroidvanias, only one is a roguelike and the other is a much more story based endeavor. Gameplay wise I can certainly see how these two could mix, and who knows, it may mix really really well. What I thought was also really neat about this reveal is that, again, with me playing through the Castlevania games so suddenly recently, I recognized the characters right away, and everything just flowed so nicely. No gameplay of it as far as I can tell, but maybe I'm just missing a video somewhere. I've only seen the animation they released for the reveal, but even that is enough to get the hype going. This one is going to be really interesting to go through and I am certain it will be good given that the devs for Dead Cells are very passionate, and Castlevania is a beacon when it comes to metroidvanias, so they will treat it as such.

Next up is an exciting reveal at the gameplay of Star Wars: Jedi Survivor. As one would expect, the gameplay as a whole is very similar to it's predecessor however there are some obvious enhancements that make the combat feel even more natural and fun to learn. I've played many countless hours of Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order, and recently played it again on Xbox One, and it's still a great experience to go through. Even years later. It's just a good game, though I know it wasn't for everybody. I'm excited to see what the sequel has in store, and if EA can pull it off again by just making a great game. They managed to do a remarkable job on Jedi Fallen Order, and I hope that same outlook and commitment remain true for its sequel. This one has the chance to be very good. Let's just hope they don't mess this one up.

One that I'm still a little bit in between on is Diablo IV. I mean, I absolutely love Blizzard and their creative masterminds behind the cinematic trailers that come with their releases. Even going all the way back to the RTS Warcraft days. So many great cutscenes and cinematics, and still is true for Diablo IV. However, there is also gameplay of this game, and while I have seen very little of it, I'm hoping to keep it that way until I have my own hands on the game. I feel like games like Diablo and Path of Exile need to be experienced on a personal basis. Watching somebody play them is fine and all, but the experience is so much richer when you do it yourself. And games like this are always fun to go through, at least for me. I still do love Diablo III but I have not played it in quite some time. I did play a lot of the re-release of Diablo II and loved it. So, a new Diablo game to turn on and play from time to time will be really nice. I'm excited but not anxiously excited.

I'm going to stop talking about reveals for a second and focus on something that I am very excited about. Y'know, as far as game of the year rewards go, it's all really just subjective at the end of the day. People like what they like, and people like what they don't like. However, in this case I think the game that got recognized for game of the year really really truly deserved it. And if you haven't seen the news yet, the game of the year award for 2022 went to Elden Ring. Again, I didn't watch the game awards as a whole, but I read up on the awards and quickly found out that Elden Ring had won game of the year. Though, at the same time, when you look at the competition it had when talking about game of the year, it's no question that it would win. All the other games on the nominees list are ones that I wouldn't necessarily consider game of the year anyway, so at least there's that. I am certainly happy they got recognized as such, even if I don't agree with some of the inclusions. Elden Ring is my favorite game of 2022, and still remains true even months after playing it. And I still find myself from time to time jumping into it and trying out new builds and characters, and it's just a fun time. The game is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful and well deserving of the crown of game of the year. I am very pleased and happy to see that it won.

Going back to the reveals, or at least takeaway reveals for me, one that sort of surprised me was seeing a trailer for Hades II. Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved and still love Hades dearly, and I had a really good time with it. Part of me thinks though that maybe instead of making a full on sequel, just make a really big DLC pack. This game is basically built for that with the way that it mixes top down perspectives with roguelikes. At the same time though, I understand that the developers know what they're doing given that Hades did extremely well. A sequel is pretty cool and it looks really really cool. Not sure if the gameplay loop will be similar to the first one or if it will feel like a whole new game, but I'll be playing it regardless. Soundtracks sounds like it will be of course great, but again, that should be no surprise.

Although I have not played it yet, Stray got some awards for independent game and debut indie game which is really cool to see. Also nice to see that Tunic and Cult of the Lamb got some nominee attention though I would not have been surprised to see those winning as well. Indie developers brought a lot to the table this year, and so many of them are award winning. Vampire Survivors for instance deserves to be up there.

It is nice to see that the new Legend of Zelda game is getting a lot of hype and rightfully so. It won most anticipated game for the game awards this year, and I among many many other people are eagerly waiting for it to release. Breath of the Wild is still tops and one of my favorite games of all time, and I just want the sequel to be good if not better than its predecessor. And it seems like it will be with what we know about it so far. I am really excited to spend some quality time with Link again in the humongous world that he finds himself in. Really curious to see how the story progresses from the first one as well. I also just looking forward to having a really good time with it.

There really isn't much more worth mentioning at least things that I'm excited for. Some notable mentions would be that God of War: Ragnarok got a lot of awards despite it being released so close to the awards show. But, congrats nonetheless. I have not played it yet, and I don't really have any immediate plans to do so, but I'm glad to see it got recognized. I loved the first one a lot. Death Stranding 2 was also teased though it was interesting to see the people's reaction to this one given that the first Death Stranding did god awful. It was seen as a empty world with fetch quests one after the next. And the gameplay style just didn't fit the way the game was meant to play as a whole. Will be interesting to see what they learned from that and how Death Stranding 2 will do overall. I certainly want it to do well, but who knows. Don't even get me started on the Super Mario Movie. I'm sort of on the fence of whether I'm going to give it a chance or not, but I've watched the trailer for it a few times and it looks cool, but also looks really cheesy. I don't know. Maybe I'll watch it purely out of curiosity. Sonic The Hedgehog did pretty well and the sequel did pretty well as well. So video game adaptations can be done well. But, Chris Pratt, Mario, no.

Anyway, that's all for now. Overall some really cool things to look forward to and again, very excited to see that Elden Ring took the crown for game of the year. It really deserves it for so many reasons. I've done a post about it as it is my own personal game of the year as well. So it's fitting that it truly did win that title.