The biggest new game trailers and announcements from The Game Awards
Highlights from the biggest gaming awards show of the year
The Game Awards took place in LA on 7 December, a big night for celebrating achievements in video games, especially Baldur’s Gate 3 which took home six awards including the top prize of game of the year.
However, for many of us it’s also a big winter showcase that gets us hyped up for new upcoming games, with its fair share of world premieres, which will be our main focus. Whether just cinematics or visions of gaming several years from now or something you don’t have to wait too long to get your hands on, here’s our highlights from the show.
God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla
Sony may be more focused on remasters or expansions, but you can’t really complain when God of War Ragnarok is getting DLC that’s not only a free update, it’s coming out next week, and is also available for both PS5 and PS4. Valhalla will see Kratos taking on new challenges in the mythical Norse realm that’s structured like a roguelite, and will be sure to test both mind and body with the game’s excellent meaty combat mechanics.
Release date: 12 December
Exodus
Introduced by Hollywood actor Matthew McConaughey, who also has a starring role, this sci-fi game from Archetype Entertainment looks set to be the next Mass Effect, an ambitious opus that sees mankind facing against an alien race called the Celestials. A central core to the story involves lightspeed gates where for one person the passing of a day can mean decades for someone else on the other side, something McConaughey’s no stranger to if you’ve seen Interstellar. If that’s whetted your appetite, there’s an even longer cinematic trailer here.
Release date: TBA
SEGA!!!!!
Trust Sega not to just give us one, but five announcements. One for the old-school fans, the legendary gaming giant is opening up its vault of classics and reimagining them for a new generation. This includes Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi, Shinobi, Golden Axe, and Streets of Rage. Well, the last one did already get a sequel just a few years ago, but we’re excited all the same to know these games are currently in development with plans for release over the next few years.
Release date: TBA
OD
If you weren’t already scared witless by P.T, the PS4 demo for Silent Hills that never was, then legendary game developer Hideo Kojima is making another stab at horror in a collaboration with Get Out’s Jordan Peele and Microsoft, using its cloud gaming technology. Whether it’s actually a game, a film, or something else we’re not actually that sure yet, as this reveal doesn’t tell us much, though it does show us actors Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schafer and Udo Kier captured in remarkable detail with Unreal 5’s MetaHumans tech.
Release date: TBA
Jurassic Park Survival
The Dino Crisis spiritual successor you weren’t expecting (although fun fact, this was also the title of a previously cancelled PS2 game), this first-person survival horror puts you in the shoes of Dr. Maya Joshi, a scientist who’s been left behind in Isla Nublar, the island site of the original Jurassic Park. And of course, she’s got a whole lot of carnivourous dinosaurs for company. Can you be a clever girl and survive?
Release date: TBA
Tales of Kenzera: Zau
Assassin’s Creed Origins and Raised by Wolves actor turned developer Abubakar Salim revealed the debut game from his company Surgent Studios, a single-player 2.5D action platformer set in the beautiful and treacherous lands of Kenzera. You play as Zau, a young shaman who bargains with the God of Death to bring his Baba back from the darkness. It’s an emotional tale that’s also shaped by the actor’s own personal experience with grief after losing his own father. It’s releasing next year as an EA Originals title.
Release date: 23 April 2024
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage
From creators of Life is Strange comes a new ensemble story of female relationships, which has something of a Yellowjackets twist to it. Lost Records: Bloom & Rage’s story is set first in 1995 during an unforgettable summer between high school friends Swann, Nora, Autumn, and Kat. After 27 years of no contact, they’re reunited to confront a long-buried secret they had promised to never speak of again.
Release date: Late 2024
Marvel’s Blade
Okay, so Arkane’s last game Redfall happened to feature vampires and wasn’t very good. However, that was its Austin studio, while this one is from the Lyon studio who made the excellent Deathloop. And this isn’t just any vampire hunting. You’re playing THE vampire hunter, Blade. It’s still very early days of course, though the team was eager to announce this during the Day Walker’s 50th anniversary. What we do know is that it will be set in Paris, albeit one where the city is under lockdown with a vampire invasion.
Release date: TBA
Light No Fire
After No Man Sky, Hello Games has no plans to rest on its laurels for its next game, which it hopes to be just as expansive and evolving. It might not have 18 quintillion planets, but this fantasy and procedurally generated Earth looks no less wondrous in scale or ambition. You and others can explore it at length, be it flying on winged creatures, swimming in deep oceans or climbing mountains higher than anything you’ve ever seen.
Release date: TBA
Monster Hunter Wilds
The last premiere of the night came from Capcom’s gargantuan Monster Hunter franchise, as we first see a hunter with a familiar large sword on their back riding a new feathered creature. They first passing a huge herd of herbivore monsters only to realise they’re being pursued by even larger monsters. Fortunately, this steed isn’t just agile but can also fly, which is also an excuse to better show off the verticality and vastness of the environments, which seems to hint that the game may finally be going full open world.
Release date: 2025
Everything else
In a stacked three-hour runtime, Untitled Goose Game developer House House unveiled its next game Big Walk, an online co-op game where you and your mates explore the Australian bushland solving puzzles and challenges…or just hang out.
We also got a first look at Kemuri, a stylish-looking game where you play as yokai hunters seeking the powers of supernatural yokai creatures hidden in the urban jungle of Tokyo, a fitting premise for a studio called Unseen.
It wasn’t the only virtual Tokyo shown as Lightspeed revealed a cinematic introducing its new sci-fi open world action game Last Sentinel set in a dystopian vision of the city
Moon Studios also announced a new action fantasy RPG, No Rest for the Wicked, which promises to be a bold new take on the genre, not to mention a departure from the indie developer’s acclaimed Ori series.
Fans of real-time strategy will be pleased to see Stormgate, a new take on the genre from StarCraft II & Warcraft III developers that’s currently being funded on Kickstarter, though it’s perhaps no surprise it’s already smashed its funding goal.
After recent years of remakes and re-releases, Square Enix is making a new Mana game with Visions of Mana, which retains the series’ colourful art style and real-time combat, and you can expect it in 2024.
That’s not the only announcement from the Japanese publisher as it also revealed two new expansions for Final Fantasy XVI, and the first of those, Echoes of the Fallen is a shadow-drop that’s out now.
And if you’re itching to play something new now, then there’s also The Finals, a team-based free-to-play arena shooter set inside a game show that’s just kicked off its first season on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
Alan Wen
