2024 TGA Wrap Up and thoughts

Well what a good first blog post to begin on! Since no one is gonna read this, I am just gonna get right into these thoughts. Maybe I can do another blog post where I get into something cool, but right now, this one is for me!

Last night was "The End" of the mainstream video game year, culminating in the annual show known as "The Game Awards" hosted by Geoff Keighley. Overall, my rating of the show was super high! I enjoyed the show and I really enjoyed all of the announcements. The show started off with a BANG by showing off a ton of cool indie games, The Witcher 4, led by Ciri, and a NEW ELDEN RING? It was a fantastic opening hour to the show.

The Witcher 4 trailer was amazing as usual. All of the animated Witcher reveal trailers are incredibly good, not that I ever played the other games besides Wild Hunt, but those trailers are great! I immediately thought of the Diablo IV announcement trailer because the animation and level of detail was top notch.

The new Elden Ring seems to be some kind of Co-Op survival game? From what I have read, its got the closing arena mechanic from many popular battle royale games, and it leads you towards the final boss of that area before moving on to the next. There was also a glider! Not much needs to be said about one of the best games of all time. Funny enough I have not played Shadow of the Erdtree, but mostly because my wife has hogged our PlayStation all year since she got into Fortnite! Still, I will need to go back and feed my need.

Another cool moment was the first ever Game Changer Award, which went to Amir Satvat, for taking a proactive step in helping displaced game developers find new work. This one really hit for me. I was laid off at the end of October this year, and it was such a fucking gut punch. Top that off with my cancer diagnosis from November of 2023, and needing insurance to get a medical device removed from my body, it definitely hit home. I wish there had been someone like that for me, but I am happy to see that someone can help others in that way.

Lastly, my favorite announcement is definitely the new Naughty Dog IP. It started off super cool, had a lot of cool brands in it, and was heavily 80s inspired. I am not a child of the 80s but if I had to choose a decade to relive my adolescence in, it would absolutely be the 80s. I don't know much about Neil Druckmann, I hear he is a dick, and while I am inclined to believe it, I have to remember he is not the only one working on this game. I will be glad to check this one out!

Astro Bot ended up winning the GOTY award. I have not played it, but it seems super fun and I cannot wait to pick it up. My money was on Balatro and I still would say it deserves it. Funny enough, I think it should have been nominated for best narrative, since the entire story behind it is amazing! A single dev making this game for his friends, turns his passion into 3.5 Million copies sold. Further, when the haters rear their ugly heads on twitter, each of them never having touched the game, get totally converted once picking it up and seeing why the game is as hot as it is. Balatro is life!