The 2024 Game Awards actually wasn’t bad

In the several years it has been that I’ve been watching Geoff Keighley’s yearly game advertisements, I don’t think I’ve enjoyed the show just as much as I think I have this year. Not because I wasn’t the one covering it, but simply because it seemed to have struck a balance, to some degree. I still find the unending attempts to call me a “coffin dodger” a bit insulting. Maybe next year we can showcase who this Faker is, maybe tell us what an Usada Pekora is, or better still buy me the coffin and I’ll dig my own grave.

Despite the name, the Game Awards are never about the awards. I think Geoff has finally realized that few people want his stream of an Oscars for video games. If you want a dry awards show, there is the DICE Awards, the BAFTA Games Awards, and in January there is the New York Game Awards. No one watches them though. Mostly because they don’t jump all over Metroid Prime 4 for the 48th year in a row shouting: “Will you just release already so we can have people complain about playing as Samus, and thus call it ‘Woke!’?”

If there is one thing I love, it has to be the online discourse of new game announcements. They are usually so nuanced and diverse that it could really give you a breath of fresh air when it comes to politics. For anyone who’s starved their brain of oxygen, that’s a joke. Having every comment section filled with “Woke, I don’t want to play as Ciri. I’m not a woman, so why would I want to play as her?” is tiring. You aren’t a fully grown and well-adjusted adult, nor are you a samurai, guerrilla, a car, a Lombax with a robot pal, a robot, or anything else you’ve played as.

While I’m on things I could do without, having a Finnish man with no personality other than telling the world just how perfect he thinks himself to be attempting broad-appeal comedy isn’t a good waste of 5 minutes. Neither is dragging out Harrison Ford, but at least we can laugh at him without thinking other people are crazy for thinking everything he does is perfect. Ok, I might have a thing against having Sam Lake on the show all the time, but it goes back to what I say about the music segments: Why are we allowing Geoff’s friends to take time away from Award recipient speeches?

The show that most people tune in for (the announcements), was pretty fun and well-paced. Well, it was for the first half, being unrelenting and bombarding my wishlists with more additions than wherever it is COD is set this week, I believe MakeUpIstan is still en vogue. A new Ninja Gaiden game, Slay the Spire 2, Dave the Diver DLC (though no one said DLC), Warren Spector’s wannabe-Dishonored multiplayer thing, The Witcher 4, Fumito Ueda’s next game that had me stiffer than the first Colossus, and it didn’t stop there.

I’d argue there was a bit of a lull in the middle of the show, but there were occasional pick-me-ups, including Statler and Waldorf (see Kotaku, you can use their names) doing exactly what I’ve done every time I’ve spoken about the Game Awards. It wasn’t deep, cutting remarks, but it certainly was better comedy than everything else on the show. That or Aaron Paul and Laura Bailey’s SNL sketch gone wrong, they could have maybe worked on it. Overall it was a pretty good show that should set the standard for whatever comes next year and beyond.

That said, the end almost worked. Alexx and I spoke on this as he was writing up the roundup, but ending on Naughty Dog’s Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet followed by what I’d call a questionable Game of the Year winner felt odd. Especially as not 5 minutes before (maybe 10 if you watch that guy with his many mouthpieces) you have Geoff stirring up every bit of emotion inside him to reveal Hideki Kamiya’s Okami 2. Which hilariously smash-cuts into an advertisement for single-player Black Desert Online game, Crimson Desert.

For the life of me, I can’t understand why the Okami Sequel and Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet weren’t swapped. End on the big emotional announcement before cutting into the Game of the Year reveal instead of the big budget game no one has any emotion for. Wait, I forgot, there is one emotion: “WOKE!” Despite the fact we didn’t know who we’d play as, of course that was the overriding sentiment from people who couldn’t understand a dictionary tattooed on their mum’s lower back, even if it had pictures and audio descriptions.

I hate that I have to say this, but for once I don’t hate a good portion of a Geoff Keighley-presented show. I hate the online discourse, but that’s outside his purview. The show was paced well, the awards weren’t overly debatable for the most part, there was a hint of self-awareness, and generally, it was a lot more enjoyable than in previous years.