News from the Game Awards

There have got to be a million Best of the Year award things these days, and the variation in the data is a little suspect, if you ask me. But this year the Game Awards delivered on something that has been harder and harder to find since E3 died:

A bunch of cool game announcements at the same time. Here are some that I am psyched about.

The Witcher IV: The third Witcher game is one of my top five favorite games of all time. It was huge, it was fun, and the side missions actually felt like stories instead of a big health bar to beat up over there or a bunch of green whats-its to collect. Then they added two fantastic DLC additions, and, yeah. Top five game. The cinematic trailer for IV has my hopes up, sky high.

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet: I don’t know about that title, but Naughty Dog studios put out the Uncharted games, some of the best adventure titles around, and The Last of Us games, some of the best “Hi, My Name is Video Game, and I’m Going To Do You Emotional Harm” games of all time (The Last of Us is also a top five game for me). This one looks like a Cowboy Bebop-inspired space adventure. Bring it on.

Ōkami Sequel: It’s been like six years since I played the original game, which doesn’t sound too bad except that I was already a dozen years late. Ōkami came out in 2006, an action adventure game inspired by traditional Japanese woodblock painting and mythology. And they want to give us more? Yes. Please.

Dispatch: This one looks weird, but hey, let’s give it a shot, too.

Stage Fright: This was another pleasant surprise, this time from the people who made the Overcooked games: A couch coop spooky escape room type thing. Kind of an Overcooked meets Luigi’s Mansion mix? Looks pretty charming, and always fun to have a game that you can enjoy with someone else.