The Best of Sports and the Redemption of Geoff Keighley | The DeanBeat

Geoff Keighley redeemed himself with his ten year performance at The Game Awards. It was an evening full of memorable moments, new game trailers and well-deserved awards.

I was in Peacock Hall for over three hours to witness everything Thursday night. We caught ourselves GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games event on the same day, but I managed to release 17 stories on the day of the biggest sports festival.

And Keighley has supported criticism since last year, when he was prosecuted for failing to accept dismissals from the sports industry, dancing for short-term winners, and failing to protect the stage.

This year, there was plenty of security to stop the runners on stage and enough time for speeches like Swen Vincke, who presented the Game of the Year Award after winning the title (and cutting off his voice) last year for Baldur’s Gate III. Vincke predicted that the best games of 2025 will be created by leaders who “don’t treat developers like numbers on a spreadsheet.”

And this time, Keighley accepted the removal of 34,000 companies in the last 2.5 years and presented the first Game Changer award to. Aamir Satvata single person who has made such a difference by enabling many builders to find work.

Satvat has helped more than 3,000 people find work by creating an accessible tool that included all the open source jobs in the gaming industry. Thoughtful Satvat declared that you can’t make a good game without great people, and that his parents taught him that his value is in how he treats other people. They took these ideas to heart when they created spreadsheets and more to help devs.

Another great thing about Keighley’s show was that he brought the game. Of course, the rumors of Half-Life 3 did not exist and Rockstar Games did not appear with Grand Theft Auto VI. Nintendo didn’t show off its Switch 2.

But the Keighley stage was the venue for solo producer Balatro to win three awards, while Black Myth: Wukong won a number of awards that showcased China’s creative talent and established a global platform for Chinese culture. And when Team Asobi showed everyone that simple 3D platformer, Astro Botcould win Game of the Year. As a huge Senua fan, I was happy to see Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II win for best reviews and Melina Juergens win for best performance (for an unprecedented second time).

Naughty Dog showed off the new technology, its first gaming opportunity since The Last of Us came out 11 years ago in 2013. The title, Intergalactic: A prophet of deceptionit was a sci-fi drama about a bald man who the mentally retarded would call a “resurrectionist.”

The pictures were surprisingly realistic, but there were odd things like the word “Porsche” on the back of the ship. With titles like Crash Bandicoot, Jak & Daxter, Uncharted and The Last of Us behind it, Naughty Dog has a triple-A reputation to uphold.

But Intergalactic wasn’t the best new trailer for the show, probably because it spent too much time showing how the lady shaved her head.

The Witcher 4‘s cart showed how to do it. It told a moving, animated and cinematic story in a short amount of time, highlighting the female Witcher Ciri of Cintra instead of the male protagonist Geralt of Rivia. Reminding me that movies are art unto themselves, the trailer showed a scene where the townspeople sacrificed a virgin to a “god” who was just a monster. Ciri tried to save the woman and had a big fight with a spider-like monster with a human head that was very scary. It didn’t go well. The last comment was very good: “There are no gods here, only monsters.”

The Elden Ring developers at From Software were back Elden Ring: Nightreigna new co-op game in the impoverished world of Elden Ring for people like me who can’t finish the game alone.

I was also happy to see the appearance of celebrities such as Harrison Ford, who did comedy with voice actor Troy Baker, who was the lead in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (which came out too late to win any awards. ).

Considering our Hollywood and Sports background, it was great to see so much collaboration between the industries. AGBO, started by the Russo brothers who made the Avengers movies, worked with Neople to make Nexon’s upcoming The First Berserker: Khazan, which was violent enough for gamers.

And there was Snoop Dogg, who performed songs from his new album that dropped that night. It’s also an example of how getting your entertainment in front of gamers, whether it’s from the Fallout TV show or Snoop Dogg’s new project, is a great way to market your product. Sadly, Snoop didn’t show off the new game.

But there were also professional athletes there. And Josef Fares, founder of Hazelight and creator of the 2021 game of the year, It Takes Two, was back with another partner, sharing a famous name. Share Fiction. He added that the team “does things without gimmicks,” and this development philosophy led to the gameplay, where players jump in and out of science fiction and fantasy to overcome challenges. The part about the wild pigs made me laugh.

Fares clearly stated, “Attend the Oscars” back at The Game Awards in 2017. But the interesting thing now, with the great marriages between the industries appearing in shows like Fallout (winner of the best game adaptation), is that we are in the golden age of Hollywood and game cooperation.

Randy PitchfordThe CEO of Gearbox Software, presented Borderlands 4 for the first time, hoping to redeem the brand after the horror film Borderlands from the summer. It looked good, even with its familiar comic book-like visuals.

Mafia: The Old WorldThe producer of Hangar 13 released a trailer showing the origins of the “made” man and the rise of the mafia in Sicily in the early 1900s. I loved the story and action of Mafia III, and I hope this game continues that tradition.

And I was delighted to see legendary game developer Warren Spector and his studio OtherSide Entertainment drop a trailer Fat as Thieveswhich takes the childhood comedy Thief (created by Spector and his crew in the late 1990s and early 2000s) to the next level with a classic drama about four people fighting each other in a competitive game. .

Finally, it was liberating to see Wargaming, a company that has been successful in live-action titles like World of Tanks and World of Warships, appear with an original, Metal Huntersa sci-fi mech game. It shows that the industry can launch new game projects without being hindered by the Innovator’s Dilemma.

It was also great to see Netflix showing the mobile game (December 17) Squid Game Released, linked to the December 26 launch of Season 2 of Squid Game, the popular Netflix show.

And Game of Thrones is getting similar support Game of Thrones: Kingsroad from Netmarble and Warner Bros. Pocket Pair’s Palworldwhich sold 25 million copies in a month, is being expanded on December 23.

We also get Okami 2 from the new Capcom studio. Original director Hideki Kamiya is returning to direct the sequel as studio head Clovers. Other studios contributing to the game are M-Two and Machine Head Works.

It was a great day for the game industry, which has had to take a break after many studio closures and layoffs over the past 2.5 years. Let’s hope that one good day leads to another, and one good The Game Awards show leads to many more.