In this week’s gaming news roundup, the Game Awards and Cyberpunk 2077 led the pack in gaming news. Gaming’s biggest show of spectacle hosted plenty of exciting new game reveals, as well as an impressive showing from The Last of Us 2 in the award categories. Cyberpunk 2077, perhaps this year’s most anticipated and long-awaited game, has finally released. Reception has been generally favorable, but mileage seems to vary significantly depending on the platform gamers are playing it on. Additionally, the NPD Group unveiled interesting consumer trends from the console launch last month. Here’s a recap of the biggest gaming industry news this week.
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The Last of Us 2 Wins Big at the Game Awards
As the last big show of spectacle from the gaming industry this year, the Game Awards came out in full force on Thursday. 2020 was quite the competitive year for the awards show, with heavy hitters like Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Ghost of Tsushima, and Hades, all competing with The Last of Us 2. As it turned out, The Last of Us 2 edged out most of the awards between all of these games, winning seven of the nine categories it was nominated for. Some of the biggest wins from the awards show included:
Game of the Year: The Last of Us 2 Best Game Direction: The Last of Us 2 Best Narrative: The Last of Us 2 Best Art Direction: Ghost of Tsushima Best Score and Music: Final Fantasy 7 Remake Best Performance: Laura Bailey as “Abby,” The Last of Us 2 Best Indie: Hades Best Action: Hades Best Role Playing: Final Fantasy 7 Remake Best Multiplayer: Among Us
Even in a year with The Last of Us 2 sweeping awards, games like Among Us and Hades still had standout victories in their respective categories. Of course, aside from the awards themselves, like every year the Game Awards was filled with plenty of big game reveals and performances. Lyn Inaizumi and the Persona live band performed a rendition of “Last Surprise” from Persona 5 Strikers, and Eddie Vedder performed “Future Days,” the song used as a narrative element in The Last of Us 2.
Some Surprising Reveals at the Game Awards
As for game reveals themselves, there were quite a few surprise announcements at the Game Awards show this year. Whether it was the familiar face of actors like Vin Diesel or Bruce Campbell, or familiar video game characters like Perfect Dark’s Joanna Dark or Liara from Mass Effect, there were several huge announcements on Thursday. Some of the biggest reveals of the show included:
BioWare teasing both Dragon Age 4 and Mass Effect’s return A new Left for Dead successor, Back 4 Blood, announced alongside a gameplay demo Sephiroth is coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s second Fighters Pass The Initiative’s long-rumored “AAAA” game was indeed a Perfect Dark game Crimson Desert’s gameplay trailer came as an intriguing surprise There’s an Evil Dead game in development with Bruce Campbell’s Ash There’s an Ark: Survival Evolved sequel and animated series coming, starring Vin Diesel Among Us unveils its new map, “The Airship”
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Cyberpunk’s Priase, Cyberpunk’s Glitches
Outside of the awards show, the other major event this week came with the official release of Cyberpunk 2077. Nearly a decade in the making, fan hype for this game has been immense, and it’s finally here. Critical reception of the game has been largely positive, with the game’s PC Metacritic score still hovering at a 90 as of this writing. Although, it hasn’t exactly been flawless user scores, especially for those playing on last-gen consoles.
One recurring problem point across all versions of Cyberpunk 2077 have been the various bugs and glitches in the game. For one thing, the last-gen consoles versions have had some serious issues with texture streaming and loading, resulting in some strange low-poly graphical issues. Outside of that, every version of the game has had some variety of glitches, ranging from minor clipping and texture irregularities to game-breaking NPC behavior and unfinishable quests.
NPD Group Reveals Highest Selling Games and Consoles for November
Lastly, the NPD Group revealed its consumer market research analytics for November, showcasing some interesting consumer trends across the industry last month. Given that November marked the launch of the next-gen consoles, understandably console sales were high. The PS5 had a record-breaking debut as the best-selling hardware platform in terms of spending in November, but interestingly Nintendo Switch still sold the most hardware units of all console makers. Additionally, Nintendo Switch has been the best-selling hardware platform for 24 months straight.
In terms of the games themselves, November’s best-selling game was Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, which in turn also became the best-selling game in 2020 altogether. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Spider-Man: Miles Morales were not far behind for sales, in second and third respectively. After that were many of the usual suspects like Watch Dogs: Legion and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, one of the best-selling games this year.
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