The Game Awards 2020

Background

I have been a fan of video game shows, especially the E3 and The Game Awards. I look forward to both events every year and religiously wake up early in the morning at 5a.m. to watch the shows. I had planned on attending E3 and The Game Awards this year and had planned leaves accordingly, but the pandemic struck.

E3 could not take place because it was planned very close to the time when travel was suspended and I imagine that they did not have a back up for such a scenario. The Game Awards on the other hand had close to 9 months to plan it out, and boy did they do an excellent job of it! The show was broadcast on multiple platforms (YouTube, Twitter, Twitch, Facebook, Oculus VR, etc.) and they even had tie-ups with Instagram, Twitch, Pokemon Go and TikTok. From the Game Awards account on Instagram, users could download a variety of filters they could use for the reels feature on the platform. They had something called drops on Twitch and users could catch some special kind of Pokemons in Pokemon Go during the show. (I really do not know what game drops or catching Pokemon is currently, but I hope to find out some day.)

Preparation

Before sleeping, I set the Oculus and the controller batteries to charge "overnight". I slept at 3a.m. and I set 3 alarms to wake up at 5 a.m. when the show was slated to begin. I thankfully woke up on time and joined the live stream via Oculus. I expected the show to have an immersive feel with a virtual audience surrounding me in all directions. What I ended up with unfortunately was a 2D broadcast being viewed by multiple people on a virtual balcony. It was fun at first, but a couple of people who would not shut up irritated me and I stopped watching the show on the Oculus and opted to watch it on Twitch instead.

The only two games that released this year that I had played and were nominated were Half-Life Alyx and Spider-Man Miles Morales. I wasn't too keen on seeing who the winners were, given that I had barely played any games, but was rooting for Half-Life Alyx to win all the awards it was nominated for. I was primarily watching the show to see new game announcements and game play reveals.

Standout moments

The gameplay announcements that stood out for me were Ark 2 and the new Mass Effect game. Ark 2 stood out primarily for the fact that it seemed to have Vin Diesel as a playable character in the game. The trailer wasn't that great to be honest as the actions of the characters seemed to be chunky. It did evoke a bit of interest in the game and I made a mental note to play it once to see what it is about. The Mass Effect announcement was excellent. It was the last game to be revealed during the show, and a small yelp of excitement escaped my mouth when I saw an item being picked up from the snow and reveals the N7 logo as the snow is wiped off it. Other games that were showcased which I am interested in playing in the future are the new Dragon Age, and the Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond. The latter is a VR game and I loved playing some of the original MoH games and I made a note to check out the latest in the series. I was hoping to get a sneak peek into God of War Ragnarok, but it did not happen.

The creators of Among Us won a bunch of awards and the developers were very cute when they were giving their acceptance speeches. Three of the developers were in a room, their faces covered with masks, and they had a fourth team member join in via phone. Every video game event has one quirky cute moment with a developer, and this was the cute moment of the Game Awards 2020.

The developers of Among Us giving their acceptance speech

Overall impression

The  show was very well packaged, rehearsed well and probably done inside a studio with all nominees and presenters joining the show remotely. It went on smoothly with barely any noticeable hiccup, but it did appear as if some of the videos of the presenters were prerecorded. The video game reveals were decent but not overwhelming. I look forward to attending this event in person at some point of time in the future. Till then, the memories from this event will persist.

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