by Conan Simmons – December 10, 2021 – 6:27 am
And the winner for Game of the Year is ‘It Takes Two’.
Now imagine that announcement buried under three hours of advertisements, that’s how the 2021 Game Awards felt to watch.
The preshow, hosted by Sydnee Goodman, was an expected mix of video game reveals and a few of the lesser awards handed out. Lasting only a half hour it managed to award twice as many categories than the official first hour of the ceremony, held in person at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles and hosted by the show’s producer Geoff Keighley. That first official hour began promisingly enough with a live performance by Sting live on stage with an orchestra conducted by Lorne Balfe. As Geoff Keighley took the stage, he made vague reference to the ongoing fallout from sexual harassment claims that have rocked the video game industry in recent months as publisher Activision-Blizzard, the company behind the ‘Call of Duty’ franchise, continues to face consequences from the company’s toxic work environment, which includes disturbing reports about a convention hotel room dubbed “the Cosby room” after disgraced comedian Bill Cosby.
After the first hour, only two awards had been handed out and I lost count of how many trailers for video games coming out next year or are in development for the years to come. As most of the video games advertised were fantasy-based action they all just kind of blend together. The reveal for early in development ‘Star Wars: Eclipse’ was the most noticeable standout.
During the second hour the commercials continued with a forced interruption for roughly two minutes to hurriedly hand out about six awards then it was back to the ads. While there were some celebrities included to hand out awards, notably ‘Shang-Chi’ star Simu Liu and ‘The Mandalorian’ star Ming-Na Wen as well as director Guillermo Del Toro and actor Giancarlo Esposito, their inclusion was too sporadic to salvage the sluggishly dense pace of the show.
Aside from the over-abundance of video game commercials, the other big problem with the show is producer Geoff Keighley hosting the ceremony himself. He has the enthusiasm but it’s clear he’s more of a salesman than a master of ceremonies as the near non-stop advertisements for video games rubs that fact in. It’s fine if he wants to make an appearance to open the show or something but he really should hand mc duties over to a larger, less-salesman, personality. Comedic actor Ben Schwartz, who appeared onstage with the assistance of a Jim Carrey video to introduce the movie trailer for ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 2’, would have been a much more compelling host for the ceremony. For such a long, never-ending-feeling event, there needs to be more entertainment and less look-at-this-commercial.
There were so many video-game trailers (and if you think I’m overdoing it with the mentions be thankful you didn’t see the show) that another problem became noticeable. The 2021 Game Awards are supposed to honor the best of the year but there were hardly any showcases for the games nominated as the show was swamped with reveals for upcoming releases or games so early in development they won’t be out until 2023 at the earliest, if that soon.
It is here where I must confess, after watching nearly two and a half hours of the awards show I turned it off. Barely half of the categories had been awarded and as nice as many of the game reveals were, it really began to feel pointless. I don’t remember most of the games that were revealed and as I was watching to see what would win it started to feel like giving out awards wasn’t the purpose of the Game Awards.
Perhaps the show can be improved next year.
THE GAME AWARDS 2021 – WINNERS FULL LIST
GAME OF THE YEAR – It Takes Two
PLAYER’S VOICE – Halo Infinite
GAME DIRECTION – Deathloop
NARRATIVE – Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
ART DIRECTION – Deathloop
SCORE/MUSIC – Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139
AUDIO DESIGN – Forza Horizon 5
PERFORMANCE – Maggie Robertson, Resident Evil Village
GAMES FOR IMPACT – Life is Strange: True Colors
ONGOING GAME – Final Fantasy XIV Online
INDIE GAME – Kena: Bridge of Spirits
DEBUT INDIE GAME – Kena: Bridge of Spirits
MOBILE GAME – Genshin Impact
COMMUNITY SUPPORT – Final Fantasy XIV Online
VR/AR GAME – Resident Evil 4
INNOVATION IN ACCESSIBILITY – Forza Horizon 5
ACTION GAME – Returnal
ACTION/ADVENTURE GAME – Metroid Dread
ROLE PLAYING GAME – Tales of Arise
FIGHTING GAME – Guilty Gear Strive
FAMILY GAME – It Takes Two
SPORTS/RACING GAME – Forza Horizon 5
SIM/STRATEGY GAME – Age of Empires IV
MULTIPLAYER GAME – It Takes Two
CONTENT CREATOR OF THE YEAR – Dream
ESPORTS ATHLETE – Oleksandr “S1mple” Kostyliev
ESPORTS COACH – Kim “kkOma” Jeong-Gyun
ESPORTS EVENT – 2021 League of Legends World Championship
ESPORTS GAME – League of Legends
ESPORTS TEAM – Natus Vincere, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
MOST ANTICIPATED GAME – Elden Ring