Paige FTW: An award show of sound and fury
The movies have the Oscars; TV has the Emmys. Video games have … The Game Awards?
OK, so it’s definitely not as prestigious as its primetime kin, but it’s something, I guess. While the show does tend to be modestly dominated by new trailers and release dates, it does spend a considerable amount of time honoring the best of the year’s game releases.
I don’t want to totally rehash the show, but let’s examine a few highlights and … questionable areas.
FAVORITISM FOR DEATH STRANDING?
It’s no surprise that Death Stranding both reaped and was nominated for so many awards. However, there was some controversy that Hideo Kojima is just friends with too many people who were in a position of power and able to influence the vote. He won in the Game Direction, Score and Music, and Best Performance categories (the latter was to Mads Mikkelsen for his role in the game).
I mean, Death Stranding is certainly an interesting game, but I can’t say it isn’t also tedious. There probably was some favoritism or “going with the crowd” here, but what can you do?
On that note though, the soundtrack does spank.
THE ONLY CORRECT CHOICE
Fire Emblem: Three Houses was absolutely the Strategy Game of the year. It is the most correct answer anyone could have given.
THE CATEGORIES SUCK
At a glance, the categories are woefully vague. Role-Playing Game, for example, just combines all types into one mushy category, which is how Final Fantasy XIV qualifies in just about every single category. It’s an entirely different experience than Kingdom Hearts III. Should they really be judged together?
The same rules apply for Mobile Game. There are so many! How can you compare them to one another?
This isn’t that outlandish a request given that they have a category for Esports Host …
