the game awards keeps getting worse year after year, not because of the cringe getting worse, years like 2013 were infinitely more cringe, not even because the announcements or the games involved are getting worse, they kind of are but theres still a lot of good there, both with nominees and announcements, it isn't even that its getting more bigoted, if anything it was mostly improving there up until this year, no, it's that it lacks things like the cringe, the bad games, the weird nominations, the out of left field moments and awful celeb moments (vin diesel and tek ken fighting game or everything from 2013), TGA feels like as the years have went on, they've realized the flaws in the event and they've tightened it up, its lost all its soul and fun and it's been left a sterile husk that cant even produce a funny moment in a 3 hour compilation, a glorified ad read and tribute to the worst of the industry practices with some barely considered awards for people who don't get nearly enough respect inbetween.

it felt like the year the show went the most mask-off, like the vaneer of genuine care they tried to portray slipped away to show the corpo husk that was really there, they talk a big deal about diversity and inclusion and then go on to prominantly showcase games like black myth wukong, a game who at this point has been more than well known to be made by misogynistic bigots (i will link an IGN article below on this, please read it if you can) and the people running it had to know this, same with other games showcased like pizza tower, where the known racist devs got a direct shoutout and ready or not, a game with very problematic origins that also features levels based on some pretty vile real life events, that for the sake of content warnings i will not discuss, just know that it's vile, we even had an extended segment promoting a game using generative AI content here (the finals), it became very clear that they did not care what they shilled, as long as they got paid. the mask of it being an awards show also slipped a lot this year, because it really wasn't, major awards were skimmed over and theres the now infamous "please wrap up" billboard ever looming with a countdown, the devs barely had the time to accept it, while celebs were given extended timeframes to shill tv shows and movies, and not even in the funny way like many years prior, though the twisted metal guy did bring that primo awkwardness that makes me keep watching, he seemed cool, even the one chance they had to do some genuine good here by giving PMG the content creator award which they deserved for being the best journalists in the industry right now, got shafted for a more marketable vtuber, which sums up the whole show, really.

now there was some good games here, the sega pentology all look great, golden axe, crazy taxi and JSR have me super hype, the DNF hack and slash will be a fun time, more honkai reveals are always good, the new dontnod game looks fantastic, visions of mana and FF7 show that square still have some great stuff lined up (though seeing more foamstars would have been nice) , elphelt and monhun were cool, as was the FF dlc, though i'm not a big fan of that game and blade, rise of the ronin and kemuri could all be a very good time, but there was also a lot here that had me, a little upset about where the industry is headed, kojimas new game being a cloud project is, in short, scary, this isn't a future i want and i will not be supporting this game, i've joked in places that this is the first game that will be exclusive to 40K60FPS no commentary youtube letsplays and for me it will be, regardless of how good it will turn out, the problematic games i mentioned earlier also play a role, as does the sheer homogyny of many games, go back and count how many near future scifi shooters with exosuits we had, i don't even remember them all and i have watched this showcase twice now, things like the brothers remake show us that remake culture is not only alive and well, but maybe worse than ever, this remake may be even more pointless than the one for the last of us, things can look a little bleak, basically, but at least starfield didn't win any awards.

of course in some ways much of this is good, many people just watch for the ads and the fact thats all it is will be fun for some as i've seen by the fact this seems to be the most well recieved one yet in some places, but i'd argue that thats missing the point, this is supposed to be more than that and as it is rn it isn't, it doesn't have the memorable moments of a VGX 2013 or even anything as good as last years, no big cringe or funny mess-up, there wasnt even any real humour or charm, you will not remember this show like you would many others, it will all blend into one moment and nothing will stand out, it won't even be worth re-watching because there's basically nothing here, things like the bill clinton kid or joel mchale made it worth revisiting and talking about, but as of a day on people have already forgotton most of the show, i mean really, people who read this weeks and months from when i write this, what *do* you remember, probably not much, the old shows for better and for worse make me smile and think "hey video games are cool and for all its flaws this indusry has its fun and bright spots" but here i don't think i can say that, because this show makes me question if i even still like being involved with this industry.

+ wukong and sexism
+ wukong followup