The gaming year used to follow a predictable rhythm: we’d have a flurry of announcements in the summer, around the gaming trade event E3, then a rush of releases between September and the end of November – and then absolutely nothing would happen until March at the earliest. But now E3 is gone for good, and the Game Awards – the industry’s most glamorous and also most intensely commercial awards show – takes place in early December, so we suddenly have an eye-watering number of new trailers and debuts right as we’re all preparing to hibernate.
I didn’t watch this year’s show live (it started at 12.30am UK time last Saturday morning and was over three hours long) and I’m betting that most of you didn’t watch it either, so here are the headlines: Baldur’s Gate 3 won nearly everything; as ever the awards felt like something that had to be squeezed in around all the trailers; there was not very much time given to developers to speak, which rankled; The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Spider-Man 2 were snubbed in several categories (Zelda won best action adventure game, Spider-Man won nothing).
In the interest of giving games and developers appropriate airtime, then, instead of going over the merits and problems of the Game Awards again, here are some of the announcements that stood out.
Pony Island 2: Panda Circus
If you’re into unsettling vibes, ghost stories about haunted arcade machines, and having your expectations put into a blender and served back to you as a milkshake, Daniel Mullins’ games should be on your radar. This is a good excuse to play his previous games, the first Pony Island and the eerie, subversive Inscryption, if you haven’t already.
Rise of the Golden Idol
A sequel to one of the best puzzle games of recent years promises 15 cases of “crime, death and insanity in the 1970s”.
Usual June
I absolutely love the art style in this 3D action game from the makers of Tunic and several other favourite games of mine – it reminds me of the Spiderverse films.
Exodus
A very big-budget, very Destiny-esque science-fiction affair here, with the big star draw of Matthew McConaughey.
Windblown
This mad, ultra-violent cartoon action game caught my attention because it’s from the people behind Dead Cells, which I loved.
Big Walk
From the Untitled Goose Game people, this is another surreal and amusing Australian puzzle game involving birds – this time strange surreal bird-people explore an abstract deserted island.
Sega’s nostalgia-fest
Sega appears to have decided to remake my entire childhood and adolescence: go-overs of Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi, Shinobi, Golden Axe and Streets of Rage.
OD
Of course Hideo Kojima would use this occasion to unveil a new game with the typical array of Hollywood talent attached. It’s only a teaser, leaving us understanding next to nothing about the game (as is tradition), but it’s quite disturbing enough.
Marvel’s Blade
The inimitably stylish Arkane Lyon is the ideal studio to take on this vampiric adaptation. (Nobody mention how badly Arkane’s last project involving vampires went.)
Light No Fire
Hello Games has a thing for expansive games whose titles comprise three one-syllable words. The No Man’s Sky studio has spent many years fixing and then expanding and improving its sci-fi game, but it’s clearly been busy on a similar fantasy game behind the scenes.
Monster Hunter Wilds
This is a big one for me: another fully-fledged Monster Hunter game. I spent about a year playing almost nothing but Monster Hunter World, so I am very excited about it – there’s no other action series that quite captures the thrill of Capcom’s hunt.
Have your say
For the last few newsletters of the year, we’re asking readers to share your favourite games of 2023 and your most anticipated game of 2024 (Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, anyone?). Let us know by emailing us on pushingbuttons@theguardian.com.
What to play
A surprise announcement at the Game Awards was some DLC for the excellent God of War Ragnarok – it’s called Valhalla and it came out yesterday. Muscular, furious, borderline emotionally illiterate hero Kratos and talking-head Mimir take on new trials in a new realm. I haven’t had time to give it a try yet, but I’ll take any excuse to revisit this world.
Available on: PlayStation 5
Estimated playtime: Who knows?
What to read
The Entertainment Software Association has chosen to close the book on E3, which for 20 years was the centre of the gaming world. It’s safe to say this isn’t entirely unexpected, but it’s still a sad moment.
The fictional band in Alan Wake 2, a game about a writer who can bend reality with his stories, is based on a real Finnish band. In a delightful case of life imitating art, that band has now entered the top 10 albums chart after performing live at the Game Awards (worth a watch for the choreography alone) – meaning Alan Wake 2’s fiction really has altered reality.
The real-life Florida Joker is annoyed that a character who looks a lot like him appears in the Grand Theft Auto VI trailer. He’s demanding compensation from Rockstar – which he’s unlikely to get, as US laws protect parody.
We spoke to some of the people behind seminal shooter Doom for its 30th anniversary. Here’s John Romero: “It was a high speed multiplayer death fest. I was just like, obviously this will be all-consuming. This is going to be the best game that has ever existed on the planet. I thought, this could really be the killer mode for any game, and it’s only going to get better because at that time, networking cards and cables were just barely being sold … This was the future.”
A court has ruled against Google in its battle with Epic Games, makers of Fortnite, who challenged Google’s 30% cut of all games sold through its store under monopoly laws. This is an enormous deal: it could change how all app developers make money from their products, and have huge implications for Apple as well, which won out against Epic in a different trial in 2021.
What to click
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora review - welcome to the jungle, it’s yours to reclaim
Grand Theft Auto: every game and controversy explained
Doorman’s holiday: a security guard’s take on stealth games | George Bass
Christmas saviours: testing five new party video games … at an actual party
Building blocks of a new metaverse: Lego Fortnite is a delight to play
Question Block
Thanks to @horrolivia on Twitter for this banger of a question:
“Which iconic gaming scenes would work better if set to Mr Brightside?”
I’ve spent far too much time thinking about this and laughing to myself. How about the two-minute ladder climb in Metal Gear Solid 2? Ideally it would fade in after about 30 seconds. John Marston’s last stand in Red Dead Redemption. Imagine if Mordin busted out The Killers instead of Gilbert and Sullivan in Mass Effect when he talks to you about his love of singing. Blowing up Megaton in Fallout 3.
