All Articles: Game Awards 2019

Gears Tactics will be released for the PC on April 28, 2020

Posted on December 13, 2019 by John Scalzo

Gears Tactics was first announced at E3 2018, but it’s been shrouded in mystery ever since. Microsoft didn’t bring the tactical spinoff to this year’s E3 Expo, nor did it have a showing at the consolemaker’s recent X019 event. Thankfully, that all changed at this year’s Game Awards.

Unveiling a trailer that mixes cinematic moments with gameplay footage, The Coalition and Splash Damage have attempted to bring the spirit of the Gears franchise to the turn-based genre. Here’s what they had to say about their collaboration on Xbox Wire:

Developed by The Coalition and Splash Damage, Gears Tactics is set 12 years before the first Gears of War. Cities across the planet Sera are beginning to fall to the monstrous threat rising from underground – the Locust Horde. With the government in disarray, a squad of survivors emerge as humanity’s last hope. Outnumbered and fighting for survival, players must recruit and command a squad to hunt down Ukkon, an evil mastermind who makes monsters.

Gears Tactics features an immersive and character-driven story, one that follows the defiant soldier Gabe Diaz, voiced by Noshir Dalal, to rescue and build up a squad in a journey of leadership, survival and sacrifice. Playing as Gabe, you’ll customize your squad and equipment to prepare your troops to face tough enemies, upgrading squad skills and outfitting them with loot collected in challenging missions.

Microsoft also confirmed that Gears Tactics will be released for the PC on April 28, 2020. An Xbox One launch will follow at a later date.

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WolfEye Studios revealed Weird West at the 2019 Game Awards

Posted on December 13, 2019 by John Scalzo

Raphael Colantonio and Julien Roby shepherded the creation of Dishonored and Prey at Arkane Studios between 2012 and 2017, but the pair recently departed the development team to form a new company known as WolfEye Studios.

While WolfEye officially opened its doors just a few weeks ago, Colantonio and Roby were ready to unveil their first project Weird West, as part of this year’s Game Awards. Currently in development for the PC, and set to be published by Devolver Digital, Weird West is an action RPG that brings “fantastical creatures” to the dusty trails and one-horse towns that populate the American frontier:

Survive and unveil the mysteries of the Weird West through the intertwined destinies of its unusual heroes in an immersive sim from the co-creators of Dishonored and Prey.

Discover a dark fantasy reimagining of the Wild West where lawmen and gunslingers share the frontier with fantastical creatures. Journey through the origin stories of a group of atypical heroes, written into legend by the decisions you make in an unforgiving land. Each journey is unique and tailored to the actions taken – a series of high stakes stories where everything counts and the world reacts to the choices you make. Form a posse or venture forth alone into an otherworldly confines of the Weird West and make each legend your own.

A World Premiere Trailer for Weird West has been embedded above.

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Nintendo and Square Enix will bring Bravely Default II to the Switch in 2020

Posted on December 13, 2019 by John Scalzo

During this year’s Game Awards, Nintendo and Square Enix announced that Bravely Default II will be released exclusively for the Switch in 2020. A World Premiere Trailer for the RPG sequel accompanied the announcement, and it’s been embedded above.

If you’re confused by the title, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Bravely Default II is actually the third game in the Bravely series, and shouldn’t be confused with 2016’s Bravely Second: End Layer. However, it does feature an entirely new set of characters, so it is something of a fresh start for the franchise:

An original RPG experience is coming to Nintendo Switch in 2020 from the team that brought you the Bravely series and Octopath Traveler, and featuring music from Revo, acclaimed composer of the original Bravely Default soundtrack.

A new world, a new story and all-new Heroes of Light await!

Bravely Default II is currently in the works at Square Enix’s Team Asano, whose members produced the original game in the series, as well as 2018’s Octopath Traveler.

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Xbox Scarlett will officially be known as Xbox Series X

Posted on December 13, 2019 by John Scalzo

Rather than wait until early next year to host their own special reveal event, Microsoft used last night’s Game Awards ceremony to officially announce that their next-generation console will be known as the Xbox Series X.

We don’t know why Microsoft decided to go with a name that’s so similar to the currently-available Xbox One X, though I suppose we should have expected shenanigans like this from a company that decided to use Xbox One as the name of their third major console.

Naming controversy aside, the Xbox Series X looks like a pretty impressive piece of technology. It’ll include backwards compatibility for all three previous generations of Xbox hardware, as well as a funky PC-like case design, and a new controller that features a Share button and “an advanced d-pad derived from the Xbox Elite Series 2 Wireless Controller.”

Xbox Wire has more details about what’s happening under the hood, including confirmation that the Xbox Series X will support visuals up to 120 FPS and with 8K resolution.

From a technical standpoint, this will manifest as world-class visuals in 4K at 60 FPS, with possibility of up to 120 FPS, including support for Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), and 8K capability. Powered by our custom-designed processor leveraging the latest Zen 2 and next generation RDNA architecture from our partners at AMD, Xbox Series X will deliver hardware accelerated ray tracing and a new level of performance never before seen in a console. Additionally, our patented Variable Rate Shading (VRS) technology will allow developers to get even more out of the Xbox Series X GPU and our next-generation SSD will virtually eliminate load times and bring players into their gaming worlds faster than ever before.

The Xbox Series X will launch in Fall 2020, and Microsoft also promised that “the largest and most creatively diverse lineup of Xbox exclusive games in our history” will also be available next year, lead by 343 Industries’s Halo Infinite.

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Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice wins “Game of the Year” at the 2019 Game Awards

Posted on December 13, 2019 by John Scalzo

Geoff Keighley and his co-presenters shotgunned their way through dozens of awards during tonight’s Game Awards, but in between all the World Premiere Trailers, they managed to shine a brief spotlight on a wide variety of titles. Unlike most years when a handful of titles dominate the conversation, this year’s Game Awards spread the wealth among a lot of worthy winners, including Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, this year’s recipient of the “Game of the Year” award.

From Software’s ninja adventure also claimed the “Best Action/Adventure Game” trophy, but it wasn’t able to sway the jury for the other three nominations it was up for. Instead, ZA/UM’s Disco Elysium became the most-honored game of the night, winning “Best Narrative,” “Best Role Playing Game,” “Best Independent Game,” and “Fresh Indie Game.”

Some of the ceremony’s other winners included Kojima Production’s Death Stranding (“Best Game Direction,” “Best Score/Music,” and “Best Performance” for Mads Mikkelsen), Remedy’s Control (“Best Art Direction”), Beat Games’s Beat Saber (“Best VR/AR Game”), Respawn’s Apex Legends (“Best Multiplayer”), and Activision’s Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled (“Best Sports/Racing Game”).

In addition to a rousing speech by their former President, Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo had a great night too, taking home trophies for “Best Fighting Game” (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate), “Best Family Game” (Luigi’s Mansion 3), and “Best Strategy Game” (Fire Emblem: Three Houses).

A complete list of winners from the 2019 Game Awards can be found at Video Game Canon.

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Geoff Keighley launches The Game Festival to make limited-time demos of upcoming games available through Steam

Posted on December 11, 2019 by John Scalzo

Way back in 2006, Microsoft gave Xbox 360 fans a chance to try a limited-time demo of one of their E3 offerings, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, as part of their “Bringing It Home” marketing campaign. The campaign was such a success that the consolemaker repeated it in 2007 and in 2008. Now, more than a decade later, Geoff Keighley is bringing the concept back to coincide with this year’s Game Awards.

Dubbed “The Game Festival,” Steam users will be able to download more than a dozen limited-time demos this week, including highly-anticipated upcoming releases such as System Shock, SkateBird, Carrion, and more:

Demos Available During The Game Festival

  • Acid Knife (Powerhoof)
  • Carrion (Phobia / Devolver Digital)
  • Chicory (Greg Lobanov)
  • The Drifter (Powerhoof)
  • Eastward (Pixpil / Chucklefish)
  • Haven (The Game Bakers)
  • Heavenly Bodies (2pt Interactive)
  • Moving Out (SMG Studio / Devm Games / Team17)
  • Röki (Polygon Treehouse / United Label)
  • SkateBird (Glass Bottom Games)
  • Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus)
  • System Shock (Nightdive Studios)
  • Wooden Nickel (Brain&Brain)

“Six years ago I bet everything I had to create The Game Awards as a way to celebrate our passion for gaming,” Keighley said. “Now feels like the right time to take the next step with The Game Festival, a completely digital approach to the consumer event space. Let’s face it: Not everyone can attend a physical trade show or consumer event. The Game Festival is designed from the ground-up as an event without barriers, extending the benefits of a physical event to the global gaming community that watches The Game Awards.”

The demos included as part of The Game Festival will be available to play through Steam beginning on Thursday, December 12, at 1:00 PM (Eastern Time). The demo period will end two days later on Saturday at 1:00 PM (Eastern Time).

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NetEase will unveil Naraka: Bladepoint at the 2019 Game Awards

Posted on December 10, 2019 by John Scalzo

We’re getting closer and closer to the 2019 Game Awards, and host Geoff Keighley continues to tease the World Premiere Trailers he has lined up for this year’s show.

Last night, he revealed that Naraka: Bladepoint, a new game from publisher NetEase Games and developer 24 Entertainment, will be announced during the ceremony.

Naraka: Bladepoint is still shrouded in mystery, but artwork found on the game’s official Twitter account points to a game about warring groups in Ancient China. And though publisher NetEase is famously known for working in the mobile space, they’ve recently provided funding to console developers such as Quantic Dream and Bungie, so we shouldn’t jump to conclusions about Naraka’s destination just yet.

Thankfully, we won’t have much longer to wait, as the 2019 Game Awards will be held this Thursday, December 12.

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Geoff Keighley has announced the nominees for the 2019 Game Awards

Posted on November 19, 2019 by John Scalzo

We’re getting closer and closer to the end of the year, and that’s means that it’s finally time for the Game Awards. The nominations for the annual awards show were announced earlier today, and Remedy’s Control, Kojima Productions’s Death Stranding, Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds, Capcom’s Resident Evil 2, From Software’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will all be competing for “Game of the Year.”

Host Geoff Keighley isn’t involved in the nominating process, but it still feels strange to realize that he actually appears as a non-player character in Death Stranding. Hideo Kojima’s latest game, and first as an independent developer, ultimately received nine nominations across eight categories (both Norman Reedus and Mads Mikkelsen were nominated for “Best Performance”).

Fans are once again encouraged to vote for their favorite games at the award show’s official website, and fan votes will have a real effect on the outcome, as they’ll count for a 10% share of the voting jury.

The 2019 Game Awards will be held on Thursday, December 12. In addition to all the winners, we can also expect to see a lot of World Premiere Trailers for upcoming games, some of which will be announced in the coming days.

In the meantime, you can find a complete list of all the nominees after the break. (more…)

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