The Game Awards 2021 News Roundup

It’s that time again y’all. I don’t often take much stock in the actual awards at The Game Awards each year, and this year I’ve actually avoided looking at the nominees, just to be surprised at the results even if I don’t agree. However, what we’re all really here for is the announcements, and there seem to be quite a few. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, so let’s get into it, shall we?

The Pre-Show started with a world premiere trailer for Tunic, which now has a March 16^th release date. The trailer they showed was absolutely gorgeous, and I wish that it was launching on Switch or PS4. However, currently, it is only slated for an Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One release.

After that world premiere trailer came the award for the Games for Impact category, which went to Life is Strange: True Colors. While I haven’t played the game myself, I can see why it was a frontrunner. The other nominees (such as Boyfriend Dungeon) were well-deserving, but the Life is Strange franchise has always taken home awards like this, and for good reason.

Of course, as with all Pre-shows, we have to sit through some ad breaks and whatnot. However, after the ad break, we dove right back in with a world premiere trailer for King of Fighters XV. The trailer particularly advertised the second PS4 and PS5 beta test, which will be available in the US from December 17^th to December 20^th. The trailer also advertised the February 17^th, 2022 release date of King of Fighters XV.

Next up was another world premiere for a new horror game based around the events of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Of course, the trailer put great emphasis on the fact that it was based on true events, but honestly, do we need another multiplayer horror game like this? Hopefully, it will stand out from games like Dead by Daylight and Friday the 13^th.

Then another world premiere trailer was shown for Homeworld 3, showing off more gameplay along with a little bit of the story. Homeworld 3 will release on the Epic store and Steam in Q4 of 2022. After that, they gave the award for Best eSports Athlete which went to S1mple. Other awards given out went to:

Best eSports Team (Natus Vincere)
Best eSports Coach (Kkoma)
Best eSports Event (2021 League of Legends World Championship)

Three more world premiere trailers came next, starting with a new Telltale Games property. The popular TV series The Expanse is getting the Telltale Games treatment with The Expanse: A Telltale Series. They didn’t give us much info on this adaptation/tie-in game, but more info is to come.

The next trailer they showed was for Babylon’s Fall, which showed off more information about gameplay and the story. I’m still not entirely sold on a multiplayer Platinum Games experience, but their pedigree is good, especially working with Square Enix. Babylon’s Fall will release on March 3^rd, 2022, and is definitely one to watch.

The last of the three trailers in this block was for a free weekend for Chivalry II. The trailer also showed a new Chivalry II map, a new objective, and more in the House Aberfell content coming early in 2022. The free weekend for Chivalry II (with holiday content) runs from December 9^th (last night) until December 12^th.

Two world premiere trailers came next, though I’m not sure why they didn’t just show all five together? Anyhow, next up was a trailer for Monster Hunter’s new upcoming expansion. Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak looks great, and the trailer showed us a little more of the story that is coming. Sunbreak will release (along with 3 new amiibo) in Summer 2022.

The second trailer was for an Annapurna Interactive property known as Thirsty Suitors. I have to admit, this one interested me. Fighting against your exes, cooking traditional Indian food, and potentially enjoying some comedic antics at the same time? I’m sold! I also love any sort of game that lets me dip into some other cultural ideas that I might not be familiar with. Thirsty Suitors is coming soon, you should watch the trailer so it can chastise you for not being patient like it did to me.

Next up the show transitioned into a gameplay reveal for Evil West, which was showcased last year at The Game Awards in 2020. I’m gonna make a bit of a deep-cut reference here, but Evil West reminds me of a mix of Darkwatch, Diablo, and several other action franchises. Evil West will release in 2022 on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox consoles.

Perfect World Entertainment also dropped a new world premiere for Have a Nice Death. This game is so cute I almost can’t see straight. You play as Death, whose subordinates have caused chaos on Earth. Now, you have to clean up everyone’s mess and whip people into shape. This action side-scroller looks amazing, and I can’t wait to see more when it comes to Early Access in March.

We then circled back around to awards, particularly the award for Best Audio Design. Forza Horizon 5 took home the award, which is a bit of a strange choice considering the other nominees. Somehow Deathloop, Resident Evil: Village, and Returnal all missed out? I’m very confused.

Another world premiere came thanks to Takeshi Furukawa, who is doing the musical score for a new sci-fi game by Thunderful Publishing and developer Wishfully. Planet of Lana: an Off-Earth Odyssey puts the player in the role of a young girl, who forms a bond with an alien-esque being. It looks cute, interesting, and the score is great, I just need more information. Planet of Lana will release on PC and Xbox Consoles in 2022.

The pre-show closed out with one more premiere for Persona 4 Arena: Ultimax on PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC! Persona 4 Arena Ultimax will release on March 17^th, 2022. I was hoping for a Switch port of Persona 3 and 4, but there are more 25^th anniversary announcements to be had this year.

The main show itself started with a musical performance from Sting. I’ve said this before, but unless you’re doing some sort of Sonic, Mario, Final Fantasy-esque soundtrack or relevant gaming performance, leave the musical guests at home. This is about games, awards, and reveals. Then they showed an advertisement for…The Game Awards? Why do I need an ad for it when I’m watching it?

The proper show began with Geoff Keighley trying to talk around the controversy surrounding companies like Activision-Blizzard and Ubisoft, not directly making any condemning statements, just generalized ones. I didn’t expect anything different, I mean The Emmy’s didn’t disavow Cosby, and the Oscars don’t say anything about Woody Allen. In a perfect world, they’d call a spade a spade, but this is the best we get apparently.

Giancarlo Esposito presented the award for Best Indie Game, which went to Kena: Bridge of Spirits. I haven’t gotten to play Kena yet, but I’ve heard a lot of good things about it. Kena also won Best Debut Indie Game, which is even better. Two awards in one night!

Next up came world premiere gameplay footage of Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga. The footage they showed was intense, impressive, and incredibly cinematic. I have been curious about Hellblade 2’s story since it was announced, and I still have plenty of questions. However, I’m even more excited to see what we find out next after seeing some gameplay.

A new game announcement was next from Lucasfilm Games. They showed a stunning cinematic trailer for a game called Star Wars: Eclipse, in conjunction with Quantic Dream. I’m curious to see what form this game takes since they didn’t give us any platform or release info yet. We do know that Star Wars: Eclipse will be the first game set in the High Republic Era of Star Wars though.

They then took the time to spotlight one of their Global Gaming Citizens, namely the Drag streaming community. We’ve covered creators there before, so I won’t go into too much detail, but the initiative showcases groups trying to make positive gaming change in diversity and other areas.

After an ad break, things went right back to new game announcements. A Wonder Woman-centric game is coming! I’ve been asking for this for ages, and I am *very* excited to see this reveal. It seems we’ll be taking Diana on an adventure, though they haven’t said when or on what platforms yet. After that exciting reveal, they gave out the award for Best Performance, which went to Maggie Robertson for her portrayal of Lady Alcina Dimitrescu in Resident Evil: Village.

The next world premiere was a trailer for Alan Wake 2, which will be released in 2023. I’m excited to see how Remedy Entertainment carries on with Alan’s story after the AWE expansion connected it to Control. It will come to PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via the Epic Games store. We’ll learn more this summer, but we know that it will be Remedy Entertainment’s first Survival Horror experience.

Next up came a segment all about the second Sonic the Hedgehog movie. The segment with Jim Carrey was just strange, but the trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was interesting at least. Sonic The Hedgehog 2 will release on April 8^th, 2022.

Horizon: Forbidden West took the stage with another world premiere trailer. The game looks absolutely gorgeous, and the dev team is gearing up for a February release. After the trailer, they showed a musical performance from the soundtrack. This is the kind of musical performance I don’t actually mind too much.

They immediately transitioned into a new announcement for Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade on the Epic Games Store. Intergrade will be available on December 16^th, offering the full Final Fantasy VII Remake experience on PC. Then we had a bit of an ad break, leading into Simu Liu (from Shang Chi) presenting the award for Best Action Game. Returnal took home the award, which is…interesting to say the least.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyEfpC87VIs

Then we were back on the premiere train with a trailer for Destiny 2’s newest expansion titled The Witch Queen. The expansion will release on February 22^nd and is now available for pre-order. It was immediately followed by an announcement for a new game created by the original creative director of Silent Hill Keiichiro Toyama.

The horror game is known as Slitterhead and looks absolutely terrifying. Not much else is known yet, but I think Silent Hill fans will be excited to take a look. It seems to also have some action elements involved.

More announcements were incoming, starting with a new world premiere for Nightingale, a multiplayer shared-world crafting and survival game from Inflexion Games. It looks interesting, though with just a cinematic trailer and small snippets of gameplay I can’t be sure. Looks like fun for people who enjoy things like Ark or Conan Exiles.

Then we had another ad break as if there weren’t enough already. Afterward, we got another world premiere trailer, this time for Somerville, a sci-fi adventure game. It looks impressive, but I think I want to wait to see more before I get too excited.

Another musical performance took the stage thanks to the Cuphead team. The team also took the time to advertise the new DLC island for Cuphead, coming June 30^th. Cuphead in The Delicious Last Course will be available on all platforms as of the June 30^th, 2022 release date.

More surprisingly, we got more Sonic the Hedgehog news! Particularly in the form of a brand new game announcement for Sonic Frontiers, coming to PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch in Holiday 2022. It looks to be an open-world type Sonic experience, but it might be a little too soon to tell. Either way, I’m intrigued by the announcement.

Hideo Kojima then stopped by (virtually) to present Guillermo Del Toro’s new film, Nightmare Alley. Nightmare Alley will release on December 17^th and features big names such as Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett. Guillermo himself presented the Best Art Direction award, which went to Deathloop. I’m not entirely sure I agree with that award compared to games like The Artful Escape and Psychonauts 2, but fair enough.

Then we had another rapid-fire award section that went as follows:

Player’s Voice Award – Halo Infinite
Best RPG – Tales of Arise
Best Score and Music – Nier Replicant
Content Creator of the Year – Dream
Best Multiplayer Game – It Takes Two
Best Mobile Game – Genshin Impact

More ad breaks came next, leading into Ming Na-Wen presenting the Best Narrative award. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy took home the award, which was a decent choice if you ask me. Right back into world premieres, we got a gameplay trailer for Tchia, bringing to life even more of the gameplay inspired by New Caledonia. Tchia will release this Spring.

Another highly anticipated trailer came next. I’ve been wanting to see more from Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, though now with the Wonder Woman game I wonder, how can I kick all kinds of tail as Diana if the Suicide Squad kills her? I’m kidding, I know they’re not connected, or at least they don’t seem to be.

I gotta say though, Amanda Waller showing up to The Game Awards herself was a nice touch. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will release in 2022 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. It looks chaotic, but also really fun.

Forspoken took the stage next, and I’ve been excited to see more from the game since the last showing at E3. They presented a brand new trailer, which looks absolutely gorgeous, and showed off a bit more of the story. Forspoken will release on PS5 on May 24^th, 2022, and I am incredibly ready for it.

Saber Interactive presented a trailer for Warhammer 40,000 – Space Marine 2. I’m not very familiar with Warhammer, so I can’t really give too many predictions on this. The over-the-shoulder action gameplay looks pretty stylish though. It will release on PC and Next-Gen consoles at a later date.

Saints Row got a new trailer as well! I’m really excited to see what the new Saints Row is like, and this trailer gets me even more hyped. The wingsuit they showed off looks really incredible, as does a lot of the vehicular travel and traversal methods. Saints Row will release on August 23^rd for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox consoles.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is also coming to Fall Guys! New skins for Jack, Sally, and more are coming to the game along with new challenges and more. The new event will be available from December 16^th to the 27^th. This led to another ad break.

The award for Best Action-Adventure game was presented next, with the award going to Metroid Dread. I’m honestly confused as to why Resident Evil 8 was even up for that award, considering it is a Survival Horror game rather than an action-adventure. Then again the breakdowns for these awards have been strange all night.

Things then transitioned into a world premiere trailer for Dune: Spice Wars. Dune: Spice Wars is a 4x strategy game set in the Dune universe. It will be available in Early Access sometime in 2022. This led to a segment for Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, which I am very excited about.

We got a brand new trailer, detailing some of the story we’ll be diving into. We’ll be playing as the Fatemaker, adventuring alongside a cast of suitably zany characters to go after the Dragon Lord. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands will release on March 25^th, and I can’t wait.

More world premiere trailers incoming! Among Us is getting a VR version, though there isn’t a release date of any sort yet. The developers at Pearl Abyss also wanted to celebrate the positive response to their reveal of DokeV at E3 and did so with a Kpop performance at the Game Awards. I’m still intrigued by DokeV, I just hope we see more gameplay soon.

Genshin Impact also took up a bit of time on stage, showing off two new characters coming to the game, as well as an in-depth look at another character known as Yun Jin. Admittedly, I don’t know much about Genshin Impact, but the gameplay is slick.

Another trailer was shown for Steel Rising, showing off a June 2022 release date for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. It looks stylish, gorgeous, and almost like a period-esque Bayonetta. I’m intrigued. Then we had another ad break, showing off some of the Game Awards’ sponsors, including Google Play Games. It seems that sometime in 2022, we’ll be able to play mobile games on PC!

After that ad break, we dove right back into announcements and world premieres, starting with Star Trek Resurgence. It seems that Resurgence will detail a brand new story in the Star Trek universe and will follow in the footsteps of other Telltale experiences, giving you choice and agency over how the story goes. Star Trek Resurgence will release in the Spring of 2022.

Former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Amie presented the Best Ongoing Game award to Final Fantasy XIV Online. I have to say, having played FFXIV, I can entirely agree. The team constantly adds more and more great content to the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxOPuvPtg58

The next trailer was for Rumbleverse, a new brawler coming to PlayStation, Xbox, and PC soon. It might be a battle royale, though I’m honestly not sure. The trailer was a little confusing in regards to what the game actually is.

A Plague Tale: Requiem was shown off next with a brand new trailer. The game seems a bit more open and action-oriented than the first. I’m pretty intrigued by it, though I’ll have to go back and play the first one. A Plague Tale: Requiem will release on Switch, PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S in 2022.

Dying Light 2 was up next, with a CG trailer showing off more of the story. I never played the first game, but I have been consistently intrigued by what I’m seeing from Techland with the sequel. Dying Light 2: Stay Human will release on February 4^th, 2022. They also showed a trailer for Remedy Entertainment’s Crossfire X, coming to Xbox Consoles on February 10^th.

After another ad break, Imagine Dragons performed to celebrate Bastion, alongside the composers of much of Supergiant Games’ excellent portfolio. Personally, they could have just let Ashley Barrett sing for the duration of that segment and I’d have been happy.

The next award handed out was for Innovation in Accessibility. It was awarded to Forza Horizon 5, though I think all of the nominees were worthy, so you couldn’t really go wrong with this one. Celebrating accessibility where you can is important, and though we may still have a ways to go, we’ve never been in a better spot in terms of accessibility.

Another trailer was presented, this time for 10 Chambers Games’ GTFO. It is now available, out of Early Access, in its full release state. It is also currently 20% off to celebrate this new 1.0 release. Then came another ad break, leading into a new segment showing the trailer for the Halo television series on Paramount Plus.

Back to awards, the award for Best Game Direction went to Deathloop. I’m still not quite sure it measured up compared to some of the other nominees, but maybe I’m off base somewhere. With that out of the way, here are some more awards and winners.

Best eSports Game – League of Legends
Best Family Game – It Takes Two
Best Fighting Game – Guilty Gear –Strive-
Best Sim/Strategy Game – Age of Empires IV
Best VR/AR Game – Resident Evil 4 VR
Most Anticipated Game – Elden Ring

Moving right along, next up we had an Elden Ring segment and a new trailer for the game. The trailer showcased a bit more of the lore behind the game and a sneak peek at some of the characters involved. Elden Ring will release on February 25^th, 2022.

After another ad break, we move right into a new announcement, revealing a multiplayer game known as Arc Raiders. In the game, you and other players team up against large hostile robotic creatures from space. It looks interesting if you like multiplayer PvE experiences.

Keanu Reeves and Carrie Ann Moss took the stage to present The Matrix Awakens, a new experience for Next-Gen consoles. They also showed a new trailer for The Matrix Resurrections, coming December 22^nd. The Matrix Awakens is now available on Next-Gen consoles and seems to let you engage with the films directly.

The Game of the Year Award was the last thing on the list, so Neil Druckmann came out to pass the award on. It Takes Two took home the award, which I think was probably a strange choice, but who am I to judge? Regardless, that closed out the show, despite my hopes that there would be one last stunning announcement.