VGA 2023 | The Game Advertisements

[@W0lfenstrike]

Neil pouring his heart out for the award and getting cut off is the most "Games Industry" thing I've ever seen.

[@byproductofcheese]

Clearly deserved. Personally would have banned him for 10 years

[@CollegeDroputPowerpoints]

Its the most awards show thing you can ever see

[@aidensnow5017]

It was giving modern Activision/Blizzard.

[@tonybippitykaye]

What are you talking about? It was TOTALLY deserved! After all, we need to make time for Shang Chi to vamp endlessly about his broken leg and his rts game that EVERYONE is dying to play. No but seriously, that was so stupid that they cut him off in under a minute.

[@MrProthall]

Need someone to man up and just ignore them. They don't have security, the moderator won't push anyone off stage. Just keep talking. Talk louder once the music comes in. Pull out a megaphone after the mic is cut off. Fuck 'em.

[@Scrimbus_Ross]

The industry can’t establish itself as something to take seriously when it so often tries to undermine what makes it special to begin with

[@rykerm4249]

The industry seems embarrassed by itself, and video games as a whole

[@fireguardianx]

Hot take, mb. I actually like that the vg industry doesn't take itself seriously. Like, sure, it's not on purpose that it's not taken seriously but still...

[@HotTaiCurry]

@@rykerm4249well it’s what happens when frat tech bro suits run the industry. The devs, the people who actually make this art, they have no shame. They are proud to take part in and expand this art form because they truly care about it. They care when nobody else does. The frat boys are embarrassed that when they visit daddy’s golf club this Christmas, they have to say their recent 400 million salary was made off of wimpy video games and not enslaving Congolese Children in Cobalt mines.

[@ivyivyyiivvvyyyyvy]

@@HotTaiCurry I'm currently going to school for game development and this is my impression almost exactly. Really well said.

[@leithaziz2716]

Can this stigma that Video Games are a way to pass time without much artistic nuance please die? This is a medium that's just as valid as any art-piece, be that films, paintings or books.

[@Randomplaceinruralamerica]

Neil Newbon and the head of Larian getting cut off is insane. These guys are essential to this year’s and possibly this decade’s most revolutionary game. They made a whole niche genre get the spotlight but it wasn’t enough to even get a 2 minute speech. The game awards won’t be taken seriously when they’re constantly plugging the industries people see as more legitimate.

[@doodooahtarkov9809]

This comment took to long to read. Wrap it up.

[@omppusolttu5799]

@@doodooahtarkov9809 That's not even a fucking paragraph. Read a book.

[@fireguardianx]

​​@@omppusolttu5799wooooooosh

[@Delritho]

@@omppusolttu5799 It's memeing on the recent VGA where they flashed "Wrap it up" during one of the speeches.

[@Jurgir09]

Muppets and C-tier Hollywood > all gaming. Also: Kojima is Hollywood now.

[@gabrielloko30000]

Please wrap up is basically the Gaming scene on a nutshell. Even if you getting congratulated, companies wants you to hurry the fuck up.

[@dropkickpherby6994]

When even the winners can't escape crunch while winning...

[@TheModdedwarfare3]

​@@dropkickpherby6994lol

[@SoldierSpiderx]

Best part about Game Awards was when Larian won the GOTY and Swen was talking about the employees that dying during covid while the prompter showed "Please, wrap it up", truly one of the moments of all time and I thought the game awards was supposed to present video games as a legitimate medium, equivalent to movies. And yet they showed way more respect to movie celebrities than people of the game industry when it was supposed to be their moment. Not even a word about how terrible this year has been for the industry. Treating game devs like an inconvenience. This was downright insulting.

[@saltylemon4436]

Fr like if there was any award speech to flash wrap it up on the screen GOTY is not it.

[@HeavyMetalPootis]

Not in the industry, but I assume sales & marketing types are usually calling the shots at these events. Their primary concern is in the audience perception of whatever product they're pushing. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if there was also some weird shit in the contracts for the celeb. speakers that would've required the other speakers to be more flexible. (As in cut their speech if other segments ran too long.)

[@tonybippitykaye]

It was beyond insulting. These guys created a game that rocked the game industry to its core with a lot of AAA devs coming out to say “this isn’t the standard, don’t expect this” and still came out on top, yet they’re not allowed to at least revel a bit in the victory. But thank God Shang Chi could vamp endlessly about his broken leg and rts that no one asked for. I feel complete with that…

[@SoldierSpiderx]

@@tonybippitykaye agreed and he talk about nobody believe in them and they lost people during cov19 and they rush this man off stage that I won't be surprised he don't come back I won't

[@samf.s.7731]

I feel like YT should introduce a highlighter feature so that I can highlight some of that solid gold stuff you typed there. But I'll do my best "Swen was talking about the employees that dying during covid while the prompter showed "Please, wrap it up", truly one of the moments of all time " "I thought the game awards was supposed to present video games as a legitimate medium, equivalent to movies" "Not even a word about how terrible this year has been for the industry." So many layoffs, great games but so many layoffs. And " This was downright insulting."

[@DeathTempler]

"You're not alone in this, none of us are." Words many need to hear, blasted over by music to get to the advertisements faster.

[@DeathTempler]

Also, I went out of my way to find the 3rd award of Alan Wake 2 for art direction. I could not find it until a video was posted of specifically just the awards with time stamps. Best Art Direction was a rapid fire list of awards. Fucking disgraceful.

[@artemiscrimson]

@@thewholething430 it can be y’know. Nice to see parts of yourself reflected in something other people love? Like, the man in question was voicing an explicitly queer character in the biggest game of the year. Not a polite subtle queer, not a one line mention of a husband or wife kind of gay, a character who was very upfront and blatantly queer, and loved for it. In a cast of similar characters, also loved for that. It’s not the videy game escapisms ™ that’s the point.

[@Moaiticus]

Please wrap it up Bricky, this video is too long

[@meloncito7020]

Average tiktok user on KZbin:

[@tatzecom]

@@meloncito7020 you did not get the reference. Larian was talking about losing a team member to covid during the development of BG3 and the event guys told them "please wrap it up" because they were only alotted 30 seconds of speaking time. 30 seconds. for the highest award of the ceremony.

[@driftershideout7854]

Still... Longer than the MW3 campaign

[@Moaiticus]

@@driftershideout7854 this is facts

[@jonatanrobledo9812]

@@tatzecom r/woosh for u

[@TheChrisSW]

Yes. The Brick Awards. We need it. All the winners get a brick. Not a trophy, not a plushy, a brick.

[@ChenAnPin]

A plushy of a brick, at least.

[@void-creature]

Based and Ferrixpilled

[@mrjtfang2]

@@ChenAnPinNo.

[@RedEyesBlackKnight]

​@@ChenAnPinisn't that just a sponge?

[@TheModdedwarfare3]

To commit vandalism. 😈

[@DJmooseS117]

It really sucks that they didn't get to pick up an award for music since it's 100% 1 of the most important aspects in games since music is perfect for setting the tone of the scene. There is a reason why people still listen to their favourite OST, because you kind of relive the moment when you hear that music playing again. Myself included, like when I listen to old halo music such as listening to the songs from new mombasa in halo 3:ODST. I still remember the when I played it the first time and the naked and afraid kinda feeling you had when you trecked alone through the city. That music still gives me chills.

[@leithaziz2716]

I finished Outer Wilds last week. Listening to the OST right after beating the game made me tear up again. I was a mess, but in a good way.

[@blue_1206]

Wish we could've seen soken be on stage Dude went through cancer and still made exceptional music for ff16

[@DJmooseS117]

@@leithaziz2716 yeah that game has some really good OST as well.

[@tiredman99]

ODST has a great OST

[@RaxiazRedux]

1 of the only reasons i still play video games is for their soundtracks. with hand issues developing and the risk of losing eyesight in my future, well, i'm trying to enjoy as much as i can

[@CocaineJedi]

It's not gaming as art, it's gaming as a product

[@teleitda8805]

Exactly. AAA studio board of directors dont care abt making a quality product, they just want any product that can drive profits, no matter if it's unfinished or the reputation that the developers might be left with (lookin at u activision)

[@Jurgir09]

Corpos not out friends.

[@steelbear2063]

Always has been. I don't know how much copium people huffed in order to not see it. "Oh I miss when companies took risks" - yeah they fucking died because of that.

[@apophis7712]

"It's called capitalism." -Michael de Santa

[@lennyw7840]

​@@apophis7712that doesn't make it any better

[@christianholbrook2686]

I understand that Keanu Reeves and Idris Elba gave great performances, but twice now they have overshadowed both of V's voice actors. Gavin Drea and Cherami Leigh gave amazing performances in both Cyberpunk and Phantom Liberty, but the VGA's would rather nominate celebrities over them.

[@chronovac]

At least for Keanu, it could be argued he was one of the game's main characters, and was the primary on-screen character seeing as you play as V in first-person.

[@riverroth3688]

​@@chronovacI can 100% understand nominating Keanu, and Elba did amazing too but yes. Both of V's voice actors did amazing (I'm personally of the opinion female v is the best, but that seems typical considering femshep)

[@leithaziz2716]

If you decide to play Cyberpunk, I recommend giving female V a shot. The male actor does a good job, but I think Cherami Leigh goes the extra mile when it comes to the performance.

[@bf5175]

I love Keanu, but his was not a great performance.

[@Cavemanner]

​@@bf5175I agree. He did well for a film actor making the turn to VA, but on the whole of gaming VA his performance was exceedingly mid. Imagine having Nolan or Troy or Steve Downs as Johnny....

[@Qballiz2kool]

You know it’s bad when Larian couldn’t even announce that BG3 was already on Xbox, and we had to find out after the show.

[@sanisaeed3725]

Was Larian (Sven in this case) supposed to announce it at the VGAs? I thought it was supposed to be a stealth/surprise drop. I primarily game on Xbox and have been following Larian’s development for bg3’s Xbox release so I knew it was supposed to come out soon and Xbox’s social media team made it seem like a surprise release as well.

[@claireelyse5992]

@@sanisaeed3725he tweeted after the show that he “forgot” to do his his one job which was announce it during his speech, but really I think he would have been able to announce it if he was given more time

[@samf.s.7731]

yep, as an Xbox owner, can confirm

[@bubbasbigblast8563]

Todd Howards embarrassment at the awards was a great thing to behold. Your Magnum Opus was too boring to even meme, Todd: hope you're happy.

[@username1660]

Much as I'm down to clown on Toddert, at this point I feel like Emilio Paggles should be the face of Bethesda's failings instead

[@Viper3-1.8th]

Bethesda is dommed to fail with all the bad decisions that Todd and other higher ups make all the time… Like starfield and 76

[@Booty_WarriorGaming]

Dudes still riding on the success from 2011

[@coye9r]

I agree. He said writing like Fallout New Vegas is a waste simce not everyone will see it. The stories have always been bland. But they made boring gameplay and exploration, so it made it worst.

[@Jurgir09]

Glad that Todd knows his place now. Hope Kojimbo is next...

[@trik6979]

people who honestly thought Spider-man was gonna win any awards only played Spider-man the whole year.

[@badasscrusader]

It's more funny that it was nominated for what feels like every category and won nothing

[@OneBiasedOpinion]

I saw it all over the nominations and I could not for the life of me fathom why. My best guess was because it was literally the only console game that was even remotely competitive this year and is one of the few remaining superhero franchises people will flock to play.

[@glens2019]

Miles has got to be one of the most astroturfed video game superheroes in recent memory.

[@kaladinstormblessed8790]

I find it kind of disgusting that Masayoshi Soken, who composed the soundtrack for Final Fantasy XVI which I believe won, didn’t get to accept his reward for the thing he wrote while going through goddamn chemotherapy and composing FFXIV’s soundtrack *as well*

[@samf.s.7731]

Holy f^&k!

[@Bannschwert]

Even before finishing the video: God damn thank you Sk8ter for this editing. This is perfect, it's peak. You outdid yourself. And that's already a high mark.

[@sk8erclone25]

Thank you bb

[@TrilainaBloodwind]

I will absolutely push for that "Art and Music Need More Attention" statement. Music can make or break a game for how memorable it is. Hell, it can sometimes take a mediocre game or a game that isn't as great as people might realize and make it absolutely amazing.

[@georgegarner-hale1388]

Halo 3 ODST is music with a game on the side. Lots of games where the music makes them.

[@readyjoe6427]

The persona games are great but get even more heightened because of their terrific ost, hell it’s half the reason I go in for another play through.

[@SxfetyPin]

It made me so sad to not be able to hear the Winner's full thoughts. I hated knowing that within seconds, the Winners were being told to "Wrap it up!" Recently, Peter Cullen (you may know him as the voice for Optimus Prime in Transformers) won a Lifetime Achievement Award. It felt so, so good to see him stand there and take his time with his speech. He talked about his brother who was in the Marine Corp. How before Peter went in to audition for Optimus, his brother told him,"If you're going to be a leader, be strong enough to be gentle." and how much that struck Peter to his core. It was beautiful to see, and it felt so deserved. I hated watching The Game Awards this time around because the time these Winners deserve was outright pushed away. That's unbelievably sad.

[@ProfaneVestige]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make a small awards show. More games needs to be recognized. Small indie games like Gris, Dead Cells, Potion Craft and more need to be in the spotlight.

[@Mr.Crow1984]

Spiderman: you can call me 007 0 awards 0 mentions 7 nominations

[@universeoftoast-bh3ik]

WE MADE IT OUT OF RUBICON WITH THIS ONE BOYS!!!

[@timpage9424]

One of the few people that genuinely likes awards shows and was also frustrated. By this show. BALDUR'S GATE 3 WON GOTY LET THEM TALK

[@Ineedgames]

BG3 is a game that shouldn't have been made because it shows the impossible can be done.

[@BucklingSwashes]

The only non-awards things that belong at this show are the things that celebrate the games. The live performance of "Herald Of Darkness" from Alan Wake 2 is honestly one of the coolest things I've ever seen done at any awards show. That's the ONLY kind of stuff I want taking time away from nominees and winners.

[@IngviD]

Honestly, Kojima san also had more time than he deserves. Yes, Metal Gear and everything but this is not the place for him to be on stage this long

[@Jurgir09]

He is the single most overrated person in history of entire humanity.

[@marks7484]

​@@Jurgir09 in gaming, maybe, in the whole world? Nah, I we seen worse

[@RecliningWhale]

Kojima spent all that time saying basically nothing.

[@ninakore]

He really does like showing off his Hollywood friends.

[@noxlunesia]

Y'know now that I think about it I realize that my baby Hi Fi Rush just wouldn't have gotten enough attention from these awards anyway. That game is practically full of anti-industry satire and criticisms that aren't even too far off from the mark LOL

[@thatonenerd9252]

I think Christopher Judge's speech was so long last year because he had no clue he would win. He probably thought he wasn't going to get the award and then when he did, he couldn't believe it. My personal theory but going from 8 min to 30 seconds is way too much. 2 - 3 minutes I think would have been better

[@RepstarVixen]

also... 8 minutes isnt even that long? i'd say asking people to keep it to 3 minutes and then allowing overflow to max 5 minutes would be best, but i wouldnt mind 10 minute long acceptance speeches, it's a livestreamed show, you're not bound by cable network scheduling, you can just... run into overtime?

[@pintolerance785]

Whoever came up with 30 seconds is a nut job.

[@phant0mdummy]

​@@RepstarVixen2-3 minutes max, for any award. 8-10 minutes for someone to say thanks is absurd and the show would drag ass.

[@RepstarVixen]

@@phant0mdummy guess they have to keep the zoomers engaged so everything has to be max 3 minutes long

[@phant0mdummy]

@@RepstarVixen bro tell me you want to watch an entire award show where everyone stand there waffling on like the kratos voice actor did. You do not. This is not something any age group wanna see for 3 hours. Your ass never sat and watched the credits to a movie but pretending you want to hear 40 award recipients recite them for 8 minutes at a time. Gimme a break son.

[@suspecthalo]

I’m surprised there isn’t more awards for specific genres or tones specifically given how varied those actually are in games.

[@leithaziz2716]

I'm actually surprised to find out Horror games don't get a genre of their own. Roguelikes are also popular nowadays.

[@blue_1206]

Considering the many horror games that are being released I'm shocked there's no award for it

[@randomguy6679]

Where the hell was Best Puzzle Game in 2023? So much competition in that category: Cocoon, The Talos Principle 2, Jusant, Terra Nil, etc.

[@fartpunch3937]

It isn't about the awards, it is a medium for companies to advertise. That is it.

[@randomguy6679]

@@fartpunch3937 Doesn’t mean we have to like it

[@alexkhosrowshahi5863]

I was so sad that they just made the indie category one of the short awards-it was always my favorite part of the show

[@bf5175]

The irony of this video starting with an advertisement shouldn't be lost on anyone.

[@benisbonus]

It's nice to see someone offering criticism of TGA from the perspective of someone that actually likes award shows and understands the necessity of a certain amount of corporatisation in a free awards show instead of the usual cynical "lol its just ads who cares" shit that you see from so many. Good suggestions to, enjoyed the video

[@rykerm4249]

I think it was Alanah who said "the game awards seem to be embarrassed by video games." Yep, that sums it up.

[@MarcusFenix291]

That hype Bricky got at AC6 win gave me goosebumps, how fucking epic that was

[@ChizFreak]

22:26 Bricky, he WAS cut-off, proven by how he admitted on Twitter later that he ''had one job'' and he ''forgot'' to do it, which was ANNOUNCING the port for Xbox of Baldur's Gate 3 released that same day. It is very clearly implied it was because of it. Yeah, cutting off the announcement isn't as important, but it's fair to assume that wasn't the only thing cut-off specially when the music started playing mid-speech while he was talking about those lost along the way...

[@AC03115]

I definitely agree with the VA aspect towards the end, or just having veterans of the industry being the presenters. Like next year have Same Lake present the best narrative or game direction award or have Neil Newborn or Ben Starr present the best performance award. It just feels off having random-ass celebrities who don't have much connection to the industry presenting gaming related awards. I also couldn't agree more when it comes to needing more emphasis on awards like music or art direction, I haven't played Final Fantasy XVI but I've listened to the music from it and it's absolutely phenomenal, not to mention how apparently Soken (The composer for FF16) apparently wrote some of the music for this game while in his hospital bed undergoing chemotherapy is just incredible and it would've been great to see him go up onstage to accept the award for best score and music and hear what he'd have to say

[@aKalishnacough]

Thank you for being one of the few video game youtubers that makes a genuine effort to be positive. You should review the VGAs every year. Loved the takes bro.

[@Drunkle2552]

Bricky's the embodiment of "I ain't gay but $20 is $20".

[@quotenpunk279]

What?

[@TheModdedwarfare3]

​@@quotenpunk279He's out of line, but he's right.

[@verdurite]

Someone give me 20 bucks, I have something I need bricky to do

[@HoundVII]

ever since keanu reeves showed up and every other celebrity wants to do their " breathtaking " moment

[@CharlieFillmore]

Unfortunately for them they aren't Keanu

[@shawklan27]

​@@CharlieFillmore yep

[@sev1120]

For the voice acting, you could split it as follows: 1. Best leading Voice (for a VA playing a main character, typically a protagonist or deuteragonist) 2. Best Antagonists Voice (self explanatory. Best performance for a villain) 3. Best supporting voice 4. Best background dialogue

[@OnlyRoke]

I wouldn't do antagonist voice actors, because you will run into the issue of spoilers for games. Either actors get snubbed because they won't spoil things, or nobody gets snubbed but we get spoiled about twists

[@RandomVenezuelan]

Best score not getting time was a crime Dude wrote that music while bedridden fighting against cancer AND writing the music for another game Yet they game him no time on stage but Kojima can ramble about his new weird thing while giving no info for more than 5 minutes

[@Caliburnblack]

17:23 I mean I got the same impression from seeing who exactly was whining about it losing and you nailed the description perfectly.

[@panzerloli2719]

You owe us a Bricky Bodypillow

[@void-creature]

It's filled with bricks!

[@shiengenjilepassolitaire1394]

PS: the Flute chad as mentionned by Mr Bricks is the same flute chad that played the master oogwway theme. Indeed, chad flute man is one of Hans Zimmer's musicians.

[@KingUltimateX]

The reason I think why people feel Pizza Tower got robbed by Cocoon is because the category was specifically Best Debut Indie Game. A debut, to me, means that this is your first ever game release. Cocoon's description on Steam specifies how it's made by the lead gameplay designer of LIMBO and INSIDE, so I am confused as to why this won let alone was even nominated for this category.

[@ianbyrne465]

To be fair, I doubt any of the games in that category can really boast to being the first game any major player on the team has developed. I think “first release by a team/studio/individual” is perfectly fair

[@DudesterGX]

It's still the teams debut though. It'd suck to be part of a fresh team of people with prior experience, then to be told, "Actually, it's not your first game as a studio because the leader did previous work."

[@robotlixgaming4135]

This video is longer than mw3 campaign

[@MauaCedeiros]

Even accessibility in games could've gotten its own segment. This year a blind man played SF6 at EVO, didn't make it far in the bracket, but he whooped some ass, what about the other games? Would've loved to see them

[@d_p_k_]

What pisses me off the most is that Masayoshi Soken, the winner for best music is fighting against cancer and wrote the score for FF16 on a hospital bed as well as writing music for FF14 at the same time, didn't get to speak at all

[@Merlithemimic]

I just watched it for a new Warframe ngl, because already knew it was a Baldur's Gate sweep, but oh my god AC6 and Hi-Fi Rush getting awards made me so happy and then I jumped out of my seat for that Monster Hunter announcement. The celebrities was too much and I really really wanted to see what all the winners had to say this year because it just feels right to support people for putting out their extremely hard work and then getting recognized for it, to just let them talk. I genuinely hated seeing so many people say Spider-Man 2 was game of the year (Oddly enough a lot of streamers started Baldur's Gate 3 in the days after and are still streaming it) but it also caused a backlash that makes Spider-Man 2 feel like it is being hated waaaay more than it ever should have.

[@papasalvo]

The indie section just needs to be split into multiple sub catagories and itd resolve ur issues. 1. Self Published Indie (yes itd put baldurs gate three in that category but who cares) 2. Pixel Indie 3. Small studio indie (less than 100 people) 4. Solo dev indie (this may not be an every year entry but if there was ever like 4 or 5 games that came out and made a splash and were solo dev entries hey itd be pretty awesome to recognize them) 5. Low budget indie (less than like $200,000 so its big enough that u can still get the small studio indies in there but small enough ur not getting baldurs gate level games in there)

[@knavenformed9436]

With how much awareness Geoff has for what is a "big hitter" in the gaming scene, the awards were loaded with so much white noise trailers and most just following current_year_art_trend

[@KhunShawn]

Can you review the VTuber awards by Fillian next? I’m interested in your take on the show as a whole and if you could compare and contrast it with this award show as well it would be dope! Great content like always Brick-boi!

[@AS-lf7rg]

That ad at the beginning alone was worth a like.

[@tiredman99]

With the way it was done, it brought back Saturday morning cartoon vibes

[@BucklingSwashes]

One thing I really think could help to not only fill time between awards, but help to elevate the awards as a celebration of the medium, is to have mini-documentaries. We have so many talented documentary teams now working in the industry and helping to preserve games in general. Having short docs about nominees, major figures in the industry, or even classic games and their influence could go a long way toward shining a light on the art form and the people that contribute to it.

[@mota478]

I would love to see GABEN to just appear in the game awards

[@dracotoy]

Gaben hates the modern industry too much to show up at an award show

[@davidebononi8121]

Gaben comes on stage in his Hawaiian shirt, shorts and flip flops, takes the microphone and says "Hi, I'm Gabe" and then walks off stage.

[@deathmastersnikch4365]

​@@davidebononi8121 the crowd would be going wild.

[@Jurgir09]

He is almost as overrated as Kojima. Screw him

[@Mattznick]

cope @@Jurgir09

[@treeninja8924]

For character performances, I think you could do best Protagonist, Supporting, Antagonist, Comedic, and overall best character performance. Also possibly a “player character performance” award since some games don’t have a real good/bad guy.

[@typo_3148]

Armoured Core 6 winning is genuinely the only part that i care about VGA, especially since i went out of my way just to place my vote on AC6 and nothing else

[@BrotherVoidBomber]

I doubt anyone else could have won with ravens like you and me literally only voting for it.

[@Eon233]

i was all in with Ben Starr since he did a FANTASTIC job but Neil winning wasnt a bad choice either

[@proy3]

Yeah. I will jokingly say he was "robbed" but it was always going to be a BG3 sweep.

[@biboofers6390]

that whole category was absolutely STACKED this year. Cameron Monaghan made me cry at the end of Jedi Survivor.

[@Eon233]

i agree@@biboofers6390

[@leithaziz2716]

That award specifically was one where it was hard to be mad at any of the potential winners. Yuri Lowenthal killed it in his role, as did Ben Starr.

[@biboofers6390]

@@leithaziz2716 thankfully I think Ben Starr already won a golden joystick so he got recognition elsewhere. I think the BAFTAs are the ones to look out for in terms of prestige, though they tend to heavily favour british works (unsurprisingly)

[@acecombat2shill]

Yuri Lowenthal should've won best voice talent of the year for a game from 17 years ago (Larry Foulke, Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War)

[@VoermanIdiot]

As someone who used to listen to his old "mini-podcast" and read Geoff's old articles on GameTrailers, it's absolutely wild to see how far he's come. From the meek little nerd who avoided asking anything but soft-ball questions in interviews to the monolith within the gaming sphere that he is now. He has come so far from the flouride stare dorito pope he used to be.

[@worldlinezero4783]

I think bringing in Timothy Chalamet as the guy to present GOTY was at least partially a joke of him looking kind of like the Bill Clinton Kid from last year

[@WaltDevil060]

Timothy is also a huge gamer

[@marinenukem]

Idk if I’m just an outlier, but as a capital g GAMER, I do not, and have never, given a single shit about “celebrities.” Like there are some celebrities I kinda like, but only a handful of celebrities I actually care about. This is the GAME Awards, it’s the night for gamers. Dumping in random celebrities because “wow, famous person” gives me the same feeling as companies forcing memes into their ads to give an artificial sense of relatability. We all know those ads never work, and the only thing they achieve is further alienating themselves from the demographic they were specifically targeted for. It’s the same with this. A lot of the guest celebrities usually say something along the lines of “I’ve always loved games, I’ve always been a gamer,” and like, that’s cool dude, but it is very clearly not the reason why you got a slot in the performance schedule, and it definitely shows.

[@unscblackbeltgi5893]

I have to say, I don't care about the game awards that terribly much. I agree that the concept is great, gotta love people in the videogame industry actually getting recognition, but that core concept is usually lost under corporate advertisements and people (for lack of a better term) shilling upcoming games to add to their hype cycle before we even know what the game even is going to be. That being said, I was so, SO fucking happy that Armored Core VI took home Best Action Game. To the point that I had to sit back and think, why? Why is this so impactful to me when I consider award shows, in general, to be self-aggrandizing and in a lot of ways useless hot air? And I realized it was because I legitimately loved AC6. It's one of my favorites, heck possibly my favorite game of all time. It's from my favorite studio of all time. Created by a team that deserves to be a household name, deserves to be incredibly successful, who know their design and know their games and are completely uncompromising when it comes to their artistic vision. Seeing something that, in a lot of ways, was a genuine passion project for them reach such heights after being stuck in SoulsBorne purgatory for a decade was inspiring. And my hope is that people who hadn't heard of AC6, or had written it off because they don't like Big Robots, will take a look at it because of this. They'll say "Huh, I wasn't planning on trying this but - it won action game of the year, I wonder what it's really like?" They'll maybe buy it immediately, but more likely they'll look into the community that's built up around it, the videos analyzing the lore and the story, the variety of different builds and customization, heck for a lot of people even being able to custom-paint your Core and create a custom decal are genuine selling points. I agree that the show needs to get better. Awards should be what your "award show" is about, especially when there are other shows that are dedicated to showing off upcoming games and/or announcement trailers. Maybe there should be a Winter Game Fest or some such, or you could even have a Game Awards pre-show and segment them up that way - get a good chunk of the advertisements out of the way before the awards themselves actually begin, and then be able to have The Game Awards proper be about, y'know, awards.

[@NrettG]

That's how I felt seeing the Herald of Darkness performance and see Pikmin 4 win any award. Pikmin 4 was easily GOTY for me and I just wanted to see it get recognized on something and it felt great, a series (like armored core) that gets shadowed by the other bigger games from the same creator finally get some sort of spotlight to go "Hey! I'm still as good as the other games". For Herald of Darkness I legit could not care about Alan Wake 2. But after that performance I looked into it more and now I'm halfway through Control just so I understand the story of AW2. Being able to celebrate your favorites and hopefully being able to highlight other people's favorites should be the goal of these awards. I was so ready to hear "Find your Flame" from the FF16 soundtrack get played and instead FF7 Rebirth, a game that hasn't even came out yet, got that spotlight instead, even though mainline titled final fantasy games don't come out often and get made over the course of close to a decade now.

[@R3Fl3CT_]

Please do your own awards game show! I would recommend doing like a “fan vote for game of the year” and then do a “game of the year” of your opinion just in case if there’s a lot of people that cream all over a decent game next year over a game that’s like Baulder’s Gate 3! I’d love to watch though and maybe even help because I’m a huge game enthusiast and love to talk about all games of all genres and scores and characters and scripts! Love ya bricky

[@CryonisVT]

I feel like award winners should be getting 5-10 minutes of time to give a speech. That's what I came to the AWARDS show for. That's what the awards show should be about.

[@deathsyth8888]

5-10? Are you serious? 2-3min, 5min at most for Game of the Year; would be plenty amount of time depending on the award category. I don't need a 10 min speech from "Best E-Sports Team/Manager" or something like that to ruin the pace for all the other awards/presentations.

[@Za_Ra_bruh]

Ironically, one of the most common notion of TGA is that people watch it for the world premiere and nobody cares about the award. Been following tga from 2018 and God dang everytime tga is about to start, that is the loudest voice I see online. Regarding winning speech, 3-5 minute max is enough.

[@liammcnicholas918]

Seeing this in contrast to this year’s Game Awards is such a sea change.

[@TheComander5]

You gotta start a BG3 run on stream, man. It'd be do much fun

[@soopsoop111]

Agree with everything you said. Stand out for me is the Orchestra in the beginning playing all the theme songs in tandem. Really cool to see and flute guy is always killing it.

[@maiconemmerick5856]

Fun fact Valhalla free dlc was actually longer than this year cod campaing

[@drphdmd7064]

Honestly, Bricky, contact them and offer your services and help them make this shit better. You knocked this out of the park, you have the vision these people need.

[@ninjahedgehog5]

It's crazy how the VG industry keeps trying to valdite itself with the industry it's outgrown superhard

[@jonafen5504]

I'm of the controversial view that the Video Game Awards should be about games and the people who made them

[@ExtradaemonYT]

This goes to show that even though his image has been sanitised since his early meme days. Geoff is still at his heart the Dorito Pope.

[@DRGEngineer]

unrelated to the game awards but Heilung is awesome. ive seen them live , my dad was a performer at one of their shows (he signed up after he got the tickets and he got to stand on the stage shirtless and sing Hakkerskaldyr). whenever they play a show somewhere, theyll collaborate with local religious groups to help them bless the stage and make the show more accepting and open to everyone of all beliefs. for example when touring through America, theyll usually contact and collaborate with Native American tribes in the area to gain their acceptance and approval.

[@shaunakdeshpande3837]

I played cocoon day 1. Was super excited for it since it was revealed in 2022, its an Annapurna game made by ex-Playdead devs. Highly recommend it, its actually my favorite game of 2023. It definitely deserved the best debut indie VGA!

[@snoulbora2050]

Yes Bricky I would love you to do your own game awards and I hope it becomes a bigger thing because honestly I think you have the mindset and skill and understanding to pull this off so do it up man.

[@Atoll-ok1zm]

Music really ought to play a bigger part in these awards. The format is immensely difficult to work with and criminally underappreciated. Look at something like the ori games. Were the music only average, they probably would have been forgotten about. Sure they're visually stunning, but mechanically there's nothing super innovative and the narratives while excellent are still extremely simple. Without gareth coker, moon studios may not still exist. Or something like journey, final fantasy, monster hunter, doom, all of the zeldas, darktide, etc. All these games would be shadows of their current selves without music. They should be awarding for best game music overall, best game composer, best sound design and effects, I mean fuck how many games these days can dynamically mix their music in real time? Or even procedurally generate it? Make an award for music tech too. How many games are experimenting with using music as a mechanic? From the classic magic ocarinas to new horror games where the monster listens to your fucking microphone surely that sort of thing deserves recognition too. Nintendo, square, capcom, etc, their composers have created some of the most famous music ever written. How many people can recognize the zelda theme who have never played a video game before? And we barely even acknowledge them? Its bullshit.

[@Carsonogenics]

As someone who didn't watch the game awards and never has, this was a great video to put a lot of aspects of it in better context. That said, the little green hat on bricky's hoodie freaking out from the green screen was also making me giggle every time i noticed it.

[@powerhouse6165]

Ironically Ironmouse winning was the only thing my parents cared about, they're big fans of hers. They have merch XD

[@Hellacious-Blue-Liquid]

Bricky has only gotten better and better with his video essays, I think he'd make a solid host

[@AlfaWolf777]

I havent followed the Game Awards a lot, but I always got the idea that people didnt watch the show for the awards. Or at least that was a general sentiment. It feels to me like the showrunners took note of that and pushed way to hard in that direction.

[@spectrobeshakozorax1092]

I was loading elden ring as the armoured core bit was playing, the music dropped HARD as bricky said it... made the best part of the video even BETTER

[@sizablekoala6879]

Exodus, the game Matthew Mcconaughey is in, is being made former Bioware members. Drew Karpyshyn and/or James Ohlen could've easily presented the game and be more fitting like Brickey is saying.

[@NrettG]

Dude you know how big that would have made that announcement as well? I didn't even know old Bioware was even involved. Castillo Protocol did the same tatic and that worked incredibly well. (Even if the game wasn't that great, alot of people remembered it purely because the guys from Dead Space made it)

[@hijous]

16:54 the best part. Armored Core 6 rules baby!!!

[@ztk3294]

There is too much money in video games now, but like most industries now, it's about making money and not a quality product that will make money.

[@pineapplefantastico3079]

Hoooo, oh my kidneys, that intro/ad killed me. Well done skat8r, and Bricky. Addendum: “what’s up, forehead gang…?”

[@wotwott2319]

I think it's a little fucked up that the year where so many developers were unfairly laid off to cover company profit margins, is also the year where the awards show treated it's nominees and winners very poorly in favor of advertising for profit.

[@BladeBlur]

1:39 this is stuck in my brain now, thank you

[@zukinu12skinnyp4]

I’m just happy Armored Core got a W. My personal game of the year for sure. One hell of a game. Fromsoftware doesn’t miss

[@alexfrost2799]

I'm glad you talked about people saying Spiderman 2 was 'robbed'. It's a similar problem people who bitch about each other in COD have. They will say that a particular playstyle is scummy or 'takes no skill', but they never try to change their play styles aka expand their horizons. They play one style and nothing else. They also expect the game to cater to _only_ their playstyle as well, which leads to whining and complaining. TLDR: people who only have one experience will always complain about a different experience does better simply because they never try it. It happens in COD, it happens in movies, it happens in gaming. There's a reason the most popular movie or game isn't always an award-winner or GOTY.

[@benmccarroll117]

I played Cocoon, it was absolutely fantastic. The guy behind it was one half of the duo that made Inside and Limbo. Highly recommend it!

[@ImSamsquanch]

Remember when Master Chief assassinated the pong paddle on live television?

[@TheAHuman]

A well done award show recently was, and I know Bricky is not going to like this, Filian’s Vtuber Awards. Well put together (especially from the physical embodiment of ADHD herself) most of the awards felt earned (Hololive did have a bit too much and there wasn’t much from other languages). A little bit of advertising, but not the VGAs. Altogether a good show.

[@necroplayer97]

What do you mean he wouldn't like this? He mentioned that multiple times, he has no problems with vtubers. he may not watch them, but their streamers, people, just like he is.

[@Volgalist]

Bricky doesn't have any problem with Vtuber as he stated in live. He do have problems with those cringey annoying one.

[@itsluger6278]

We cannot remove the game "ads" + the actual commercial ads because then The Game Awards will become just like the Oscars with bad out of touch comedy skits that don't hit for the audience its for. If you disliked the Gonzo segment this year, taking out the ads will turn TGA into 2 and half hours of Gonzo segments. But absolutely, lessening the reliance on traditional celebrities and more on in-industry developers, actors, and so on is a must.

[@floriandebontdelbarre2700]

Hey I get it, No Man's Sky was No Man's Lie at launch but let's also acknowledge that Hello Games delivered on just about all of their initial promises and even went beyond that. All through free updates, instead of selling these promised features as paid DLC, which is more than we can say about other companies.

[@Hypergen-]

You literally cannot give Hello Games more money beyond buying NMS unless you want to buy something from their merch store I have immense respect for Hello Games for being able to dig themselves out of the hole they were forced into back when NMS launched, continuing to deliver to the players all these years later and even beyond that, all while asking for nothing in return. I have high hopes for their new game considering that it's built on what they learned from NMS, and that they lack the constraints they had during the development of NMS originally. I don't think Sean Murray is lying at all about it from what they showed with the trailer, it all seems really realistic and truthful about the scope.

[@jenkinsuu]

Well the only thing about Cocoon is that the dude who directed or produced I don’t really remember but he’s an indie veteran whereas Pizza Tower was truly a debut game, thats the main reason it shouldve won

[@MarkAndrewEdwards]

I enjoy your commentary, Bricky. You got your finger on a good pulse

[@danelyman]

Great vid Bricky and i can't recommend the Burback Channel's video on the Spike Game Awards enough. Its kind of crazy to see how much Jeff Keely (and others) have legitimized the industry in many people's eyes and I dont think hes done it perfectly but I trust that Jeff will likely keep improving the program.

[@mourningstar760]

Best ongoing game going to Cyberypunk should be an honorable mention of rewards going to not where they should. That shit gave me psychic damage.

[@CheeseTriangles]

I can respect a man who pulls off a cape in 2023.

[@NoxMonstrum]

Video games becoming mainstream came with a lot of side effects lol.

[@Start3rPack]

I'd love to see a supporting award that isn't like a supporting role but a person who does a multitude of voices through the years in different games. Maybe even one game if that seems too daunting. There's a lot of voice actors that do NPC work or random characters here and there and don't give appreciation. I mean, Dee Bradley Baker is my hero as a VA and he voices random fish in Spongebob and some named characters in it like Bubble Bass.