The Game Awards 2020 Takes us to Trailer Town
I find my thoughts on The Game Awards to be very similar to that of Belghast’s. I don’t much care for the awards themselves. I didn’t even know they were on yesterday until I saw the stream of trailers entering my feeds. Still couldn’t tell you which games won anything.
But I did see a number of trailers that I’m quite excited about. Yay!
Crimson Desert
You know — for a time at least, I quite enjoyed Black Desert online. Ultimately, it was the intense grind — a grind it was possible to move backward in with rough RNG rules — that killed it for me.
I believe there have been a number of steps made to alleviate that endgame grind/RNG intensity but it’s a little late for me. It’s unlikely I’ll make a return.
However, once I work out exactly what sort of game Crimson Desert is — I’ll probably be really quite excited for it. ;) No, more seriously — it doesn’t appear to be another MMO. Rather it is a merger of ‘single player game narrative’ with ‘multi-player elements’. How much? Dunno. Is it a lobby-esque game like a Division/Destiny setup? Small-group co-op like a Remnant? Full on MMO after all? I don’t know. And honestly I at this stage don’t have a strong preference for any of those directions if the game itself is good.
Far too early to tell though.
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
Hoo boy do I have some hopes for this one. I love me some Vermintide 2 — even quite recently there has been the odd jump in to play a few maps.
I’d like to see some more sustained blocks of gameplay footage, but from this I think you can tell it’s still pretty early. Some re-used animations from Vermintide that perhaps don’t quite fit and the gunplay… Well; it needs work to say the least.
Fatshark in my books have earned some faith though with the progression of Vermintide 1 to 2 and the post-launch patches since, so we’ll see how it goes!
Back 4 Blood
Unfortunate name aside, this one could also be one of interest when it comes out. Turtle Rock makes a return (at least in spirit, if not with the license to the IP in-hand) to their work on Left 4 Dead.
There is some pre-alpha gameplay footage available although it’s very clearly captured with a controller and doesn’t really offer enough even aside from that to form much of a solid opinion.
The original Left 4 Dead though, is perhaps the earliest example I can think of where a game came along with achievements that my friend group at the time and I specifically made pushes toward collecting while also pushing difficulty of the campaigns we were playing through.
Good times. :)
The Others
There’s a good few in there also of interest. Couple by a small outfit called ‘BioWare’. Working on… *checks notes* …Mass Effect and Dragon Age 4.
I dunno about those two though. My mental image of BioWare right now is one of a patient in a movie or Dr show where the heart monitor has given it’s ‘Beep… beep… beep’ and time has slowed, cutting to the family, friends and ones who love them while we await the next tick, afraid it will instead be a long drawn out ‘Beeeeeeeeeeeep’ indicating their passing.
But for right now we’re still caught in that moment of pause, awaiting to see the outcome. I’m tentatively optimistic though. And whatever issues we might’ve seen to date, I’d like to see where this goes for them.
Otherwise, Endless Dungeon looks to be the next entry into the ‘Endless’ series from Amplitude Studios. I’m still trying to muddle my way through what links it may have to Dungeon of the Endless (beyond the universe setting). Dungeon of the Endless despite being a bit of a side project for them is probably my favourite entry into the series being a really odd mix of rogue-like and tower defense.
This new one seems to be more of an Action RPG perhaps.
Then there is the rework of Nier: Replicant. Ooh — and Elder Scrolls Online returning to Oblivion! But I should probably go and play the (already purchased) Skyrim expansion before picking this one up.
In short though: Lots to be looking forward to gamewise; even if it’s all a bit early and tentative at this stage.
