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I didn't feel like making a thread that sorta did "play-by-play" style posting this year as I was working overtime the night of the Awards and just wanted to watch it without anything else going on. But now with the show over might as well ask now: what'd ya think?

I kinda knew going into this Baldur's Gate 3 would sweep the majority of what it was nominated for, including GOTY, but that's not a bad thing as while I personally haven't played it yet, I know the game earned its high praise thanks to the devs listening to players in order to make a game they'd love. I am glad Zelda won best action-adventure, Pikmin 4 won best strategy game, and Alan Wake 2 won best narrative.

As for the reveals the most interesting for me were Hideo Kojima's newest game "OD" which he's making for Xbox with Jordan Peele (Kojima seemed to hint it's likely going to be a narrative adventure title, and with Peele involved no doubt it's gonna be a psychological thriller), Arkane Lyon (the branch of Arkane that made the Dishonored series) is making a game based on Marvel's Blade, which sounds like it could be awesome, Monster Hunter's next game, Wilds, was confirmed, Sega's going all out on reboots by announcing FIVE IP revivals with Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi, Golden Axe, Shinobi, and another new Streets of Rage project, and on a personal note I was hyped to see World of Goo 2 because that's one of my absolute favorite indie games on the Wii so seeing it get a sequel 15 years later is so awesome!

Also shout out to Christopher Judge for his jab at the newest Modern Warfare III and it's absurdly short campaign, even as a CoD fan that game deserves all the shit it's getting.

New Monster Hunter! And it doesn't have wirebugs in it! Suck it, Rise!

Aside from that, I'm most interested in Motion Twin's new game, Windblown.

They've moved on from 2D roguelike Metroidvania to 3D isometric furry slaughter. Seems fun.

I certainly forgot quite a few things because I also meant to highlight a couple other things in my last post.

-God of War: Ragnarok is getting a new roguelike DLC next week, and even better it's free. Kudos Sony Santa Monica.

-Exodus, that game Matthew McConaughey is starring in, is a game from former BioWare devs that looks like it could potentially be a spiritual successor to the original Mass Effect trilogy.

-Big Walk in the next game from House House, the studio behind Untitled Goose Game, which looks to be a multiplayer open world sandbox game, and the players are represented by these funny looking multi-orbed creatures.

-Former Tango Gameworks artist Ikumi Nakamura (who was also the original creative lead on Ghostwire Tokyo) has revealed she's started a new company called "Unseen" and the studio is already working on a game called "Kemuri." The trailer was just CG so hard to say what the game will exactly be, but it sounds interesting.

-No Rest For the Wicked is the next game from Moon Studios, the devs behind the Ori series. This will be an isometric action-RPG with some really nice looking painting styled visuals.

-Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is the long awaited successor to Budokai Tenkaichi

-Dead By Daylight's getting a spinoff narrative adventure game by Supermassive called "The Casting of Frank Stone," might act as a fun spin on the DBD universe.

-I can't believe I forgot to mention this one, but Square's making a new Mana game! It's called "Visions of Mana" and looks to use the same artstyle as the Trials of Mana remake. Coming sometime in 2024.

-Team Ninja's newest action game, the PS5 exclusive Rise of the Ronin, now has a date of March 22, 2024.

-Jurassic Park: Survivor is a first person horror adventure game set shortly after the events of the 1993 movie, playing as a lone scientist who got left behind.

-Black Myth: Wukong, the soulslike game based on Journey to the West, finally has a release date of August 20, 2024.

-The dude who voiced Bayek in Assassin's Creed: Origins has founded his own studio and his team is making a game called "Tales of Zenkara: Zau," a metroidvania that takes a lot of inspiration from African spiritualism. Interestingly Ridley Scott's helping fund it.

-The team at Don't Nod behind Life is Strange has unveiled a new game called "Lost Records: Bloom and Rage" which looks to have a similar kind of premise of "characters in small town suburbia get involved in something supernatural."

-Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth has a theme song composed by original composer Nobuo Uematsu, and to promote the game they're doing a crossover event with Apex Legends next month.

-Skull and Bones, the game that has been Ubisoft's albatross around their neck thanks to making a deal with the government of Singapore, finally has a date of February 16, 2024, and I bet you Ubisoft won't even care if the game flops as they probably just want this deal with the Singapore government over already.

-The Twisted Metal TV show, a show that ended up being way better than anyone expected, is getting a second season.

-The studio behind GTFO, which was founded by one of the original creators of Payday, has a sci-fi heist game in development called Den of Wolves (if Payday 3 ain't fixed anytime soon how much you wanna bet Payday's player base will migrate to this game?).

-Hello Games has a new open world survival game in the making called Light No Fire, which will trade out the sci-fi setting of No Man's Sky for a fantasy Earth that Sean Murray says will be the size of an actual planet. Hopefully Hello Games takes every lesson they learned from NMS and make sure this game is good at launch instead of a case of "promising game releases in bare bones state that needs fixing."

-Final Fantasy XVI DLC finally revealed, with the first one, Echoes of the Fallen, available now, and the next one, The Rising Tide, on the way next year.

-And last surprise, Baldur's Gate 3's digital release on Xbox was shadow dropped just as the game won GOTY, so anyone who doesn't want to wait on the physical edition on said console can grab it now.

Man, people here are seething over Pizza Tower's snub, and I'm just sitting here wishing it was Viewfinder.

My favourite game Sea of Stars got the Indie of the year award. I'm happy!

I’m very disappointed that the people accepting the awards didn’t get to talk enough while the Hollywood celebs get to drone on for minutes. And Geoff never acknowledged the layoffs this year or the letter to Palestine a bunch of devs already signed. So much for celebrating the devs hard work.

Let's take a look at the winners:

Game of the Year, Best Community support, Best RPG, Best Multiplayer(???): Baldur's Gate 3.
Given the mountain of good games this year, the competition was though. But BG3 rightfully bulldozed the competition and set a new standards for video games.
Best Game Direction, Best Narrative, Best Art Direction: Alan Wake 2
Remedy pulled it off again! Alan Wake returns with a vengeance.
Best Score and Music: FFXVI composer Masayoshi Soken
to be fair I haven't played the game but good for him I guess.
Best Audio Design: Hi-Fi Rush
Only Rythm game among the nominees, would be weird if this game wouldn't win
Best Performance: Neil Newbon (BG3)
with video games coming close of movies in terms of quality, this category gets more important
Innovation in Accessibility:¨Forza Motorsport
The game added features so blind and disabled people could play the game.
Games for Impact: Tchia
Wholesome island exploration/sandbox game
Best ongoing: Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk is slowly doing a redemtion arc to win back everyone's trust
Best Independent Game: Sea of Stars
I felt like there were a couple of other titles who deserved this price (poor dave, poor pizza tower) but I'm glad that my personal favourite won.
Best debut Indie game: Cocoon
Again, the competion was VERY tough this year. But I think Cocoon deserves this price as any other game on the nominee list. Pizza Tower may had no price but he won the internet's heart.
Best Mobile Game: Honkai: Star Rail
I don't know the mobile scene so well so no comment
Best VR/AR: Resident Evil Village VR mode
CRUSH ME DIMITRESCU MOMMY
Best Action Game: Armored Core VI
Why is Dead Island nominated?!
Best Action/Adventure: LoZ: Tears of the Kingdom
This game was phenomenal, this was also a tough competition.
Best Fighting Game: Street Fighter 6
No contest, when Street Fighter enters the ring, there's only one way this could end
Best Family Game: Mario Wonder
Wowie Zowie!
Best Sim/Strategy: Pikmin 4
Not even the combine might of Advance Wars, Cities Skylines, Company of heroes and Fire Emblem could dethrone Pikmin
Best Sports Racing Game: Forza Motorsport
Not really my genre, but good I guess
Best Adaptation: The Last of Us
the line between different media is getting thinner. Shitty video game adaptations seem to be a thing of the past
Most anticipated game: FFVII Rebirth
Why is this even an award???
Content Creator of the Year: Ironmouse
I don't know a single person on this nominee list.
Best Esports Game: Valorant
Who cares about esports lol
Best Esports Athlete: Faker
"I believe you are the faker here"
Best Esports Team: JD Gaming
snoooore
best Esports Coach: Potter
HERRY POTTAH
Best Esports event: 2023 League of Legends World Championship
ENOUGH WITH ESPORTS ALREADY

Awards were certainly a mixed bag, Pizza Tower snub is well know, but I also agree with the above that there was no reason for BG3 to be winning best multiplayer, as much as I like it.

There's literally nothing standout interesting about how the multiplayer works, it's not a multiplayer focused game. The multiplayer is identical to the single player, except you're dividing control of the 4 characters by the number of players.

Not really an easy watch. Personally, saying "Please wrap it up" to the developer was just so disrespectful, and perhaps the worst moment of the show