The Game Awards 2020 Highlights

The Game Awards 2020 were last night, and as usual, I mainly tuned in for the announcements (although I was pleased to see Final Fantasy VII Remake and Hades win some awards).

Let’s start with a few things that weren’t at the Game Awards.

There was no new trailer for Bayonetta 3. It has been three years since Bayonetta 3 was announced, without a single trailer or update since then beyond assurances that it’s going well.

There was no new trailer for Elden Ring, either, despite the game being far enough along in development that Phil Spencer was able to play “quite a bit” of it last month.

And the highly-rumored new Silent Hill game did not make an appearance. You’d think this would quiet down the rumors, but I’ve already seen supposed insiders who reported it would be at the Game Awards now claiming Sony decided to postpone the news.

Anyway, let’s move on to the biggest highlights from what was shown at the Game Awards 2020.

Once again, there was no clear distinction between the pre-show, which included award announcements and world premiere trailers, and the actual Game Awards show, which included award announcements and world premiere trailers. Both also had concerts, with the pre-show having a Persona 5 Strikers performance of “Last Surprise,” which I enjoyed.

We got to see a new trailer for the Nier Replicant remaster (which I’ve linked instead of embedding because the trailer is age-restricted and can only be viewed on Youtube, for some reason), and it looks so good. The combat looks fast and fluid and the game just looks great overall.

Moving on, I’m not a Super Smash Bros. player, but the surprise announcement of Sephiroth as the next Smash character was interesting, to say the least.

A new Perfect Dark game is in development, the first new entry since 2005, although there was a remaster of the original in 2010. I’ve never played them, but it’s neat to see a series like that being revived.

There’s also a new horror game coming out called The Callisto Protocol. It’s from the creator of Dead Space, and it looks like it could be interesting. Some sites are reporting that it’s set in the same universe as PUBG, which is a bit of an odd choice if true.

The next big highlight for me was when we finally got a trailer for the next Dragon Age!

Apparently “Dragon Age: The Dread Wolf Rises” isn’t its title after all, since the trailer just calls it Dragon Age. It still doesn’t really show a lot, but this is the most we’ve seen from it so far. Varric is back, and it sounds like we’ll have a new protagonist again.

After a lot of game announcements and updates that don’t particular interest me, we got a new trailer for Scarlet Nexus. My interest in Scarlet Nexus has been steadily increasing, especially because the team working on it previously worked on Tales games such as Vesperia (which I still need to play).

For some reason, the Game Awards trailer only shows Xbox, even though Scarlet Nexus is also coming to PS4, PS5, and PC. I guess Xbox has the marketing rights or something. Scarlet Nexus is due out in Summer 2021, and I’m looking forward to it!

Eventually there was a montage of games coming to Xbox Game Pass, and there near the end was Yakuza 3 Remastered, Yakuza 4 Remastered, Yakuza 5 Remastered, and Yakuza 6. No big announcement, just quietly included in the Game Pass trailer, and RGG Studio confirmed that yes, Yakuza 3-6 are coming to Xbox and PC.

(It’s kind of funny that we got more Yakuza news from the Game Awards than from the anniversary live stream.)

I have them all on PS4, but I was excited to see this announcement because now even more people can play the Yakuza series!

Getting back to the game announcements, I’m still somewhat intrigued by Ruined King: A League of Legends Story, despite having no interest in League of Legends. It’s being developed by the same team that made Battle Chasers: Nightwar, and it pretty much looks just like it. Since I enjoyed Battle Chasers, I might get this one as well.

And finally, the last big reveal was a teaser trailer for the next Mass Effect game.

It’s very short, but it seems to imply this game will be a direct sequel to one of the Mass Effect 3 endings. That’s curious, especially since the previous Mass Effect tease showed what appeared to be an angara.

I’m not sure how to feel about the new Mass Effect (which has no official title so far). If Dragon Age is in my “cautiously optimistic” category, Mass Effect fits in there even more firmly.

I want to believe they’ll both be good games, but I just don’t know.

Anyway, Nier and Scarlet Nexus were the major highlights for me despite being already announced, and I was pleased to see the Yakuza news. What were your favorite parts of the Game Awards 2020? Did we all collectively hallucinate Bayonetta 3 three years ago? Do you think the new Dragon Age and Mass Effect games will be good? Share your thoughts in the comments!