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Who will win at The Game Awards 2021? | Team Talk

22/11/2021

 
Team-Talk-The-Game-Awards-Predictions

It’s awards season, and while every game released in these unusual times deserves extra praise, there’s still an opportunity for a chosen few to rise above the rest at The Game Awards 2021.

The actual ceremony takes place on 9 December, though we already know the nominees. We’ve each picked a couple of categories in order to predict their winners. What are your predictions? Let us know in the comments.

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by James Michael Parry

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@James_Parry

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by Team PTC

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@pass_controller

James

Innovation in Accessibility

  • Far Cry 6
  • Forza Horizon 5 
  • Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
  • Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
  • The Vale: Shadow of the Crown

Most Anticipated Game

  • Elden Ring 
  • God of War Ragnarök
  • Horizon Forbidden West
  • Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
  • Starfield

Accessibility has arguably come on leaps and bounds in the past few years. While standards still aren’t anywhere near as high as they should be, we’ve seen more titles using text-to-speech prompts by default when you first load in. There are also far more customisation options than ever before in many AAA titles.

The nominees in this category include Far Cry 6, Forza Horizon 5, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart and The Vale: The Shadow of the Crown.

The work Ubisoft Milan and Toronto put into Far Cry 6 has created an experience which contains “the most extensive set of options” so far and the results are impressive. Games Accessibility Specialist Stacey Jenkins has put together an excellent accessibility preview which covers it far more effectively than we could.

For Most Anticipated Game, FromSoftware’s Elden Ring stands apart from the rest of the pack (which includes God of War Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West, the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Starfield) partly because it’s coming a lot sooner than the other options.

The recent Closed Network Test sparked a huge amount of conversation and excitement in just a few hours, which definitely points to Elden Ring snapping up this accolade.
Elden-Ring-Goat-Mount-Leaping-Chasm
Move over Epona, there's a new favourite mount in town.

Liam

Best Sim/Strategy

  • Age of Empires IV
  • Evil Genius 2: World Domination
  • Humankind
  • Inscryption
  • Microsoft Flight Simulator

Best Multiplayer

  • Back 4 Blood 
  • It Takes Two
  • Knockout City 
  • Monster Hunter Rise
  • New World
  • Valheim

Skipping over the fact that Deathloop seems to be up for almost every award going (I was half expecting to see it crop up in “Best Family Game”), I think there’s a decent variety of titles vying for the top prizes this year.

​For the Best Sim/Strategy title, I have to go for Microsoft Flight Simulator. I’d already played around with the game on PC but having it available on Xbox has been an even better experience. What I like best about it is it can be as challenging or as welcoming as you want it to be.

Personally, I enjoy the latter option. Picking up a pad and just cruising around distant (or even local) locations for 30 minutes or so has been a great way to unwind. Flying, it turns out, is surprisingly peaceful when it’s not sandwiched between hours of airport tedium.

As for Best Multiplayer, I would have liked to have seen Hell Let Loose get nominated. Yes, I know it’s been out since last year on PC but, like MS Flight Sim, technically it did come out this year for consoles. From the options available, however, I have to go with Back 4 Blood because it was pretty good with friends and had a surprisingly fun PvP mode.
Microsoft-Flight-Simulator-2020-Water-Sunset-Sea-Landing
Tranquillity. In plane form.

Sam

Game of the Year
​
​
  • Deathloop
  • It Takes Two
  • Metroid Dread
  • Psychonauts 2
  • Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
  • Resident Evil Village

Best Game Direction 
​
  • Deathloop
  • It Takes Two
  • Returnal
  • Psychonauts 2
  • Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

As a big fan of the Resident Evil franchise in all its guises, RE Village struck an excellent balance between old and new. It’s a unique blend of classic survival horror and modern action/adventure - each of its acts almost feel like separate games, though they also coexist and complement one another.

Arkane Studios’ titles are typically some of my favourites, including the divisive Prey. It came as a nasty surprise to learn that Deathloop isn’t for me, then; I kept playing in the hopes that it’d finally click, but then the credits rolled... Considering its level of recognition, however, I half expect it to clean up at The Game Awards.

In terms of Best Game Direction, Josef Fares and Hazelight Studios’ It Takes Two would be a worthy winner. Fares’ games so far all share a common thread - that innovation and cooperation are central to the experience. It Takes Two once again achieves that objective, building upon the foundations set by Brothers and A Way Out.

Elsewhere on the list, Deathloop and Returnal already feel like outdated roguelikes by comparison to the superior design of Supermassive Games’ Hades. Psychonauts 2 and Ratchet & Clank are both excellent, though just fall short of matching the directorial prowess displayed by Hazelight.
It-Takes-Two-Split-Screen-Multiplayer
Forget the lovely art style, it has split-screen multiplayer! That's worth an award all on its own.

What nominations would you like to see win? Let us know below or in the forums.
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Taken for a Quickie | Elden Ring Closed Network Test

16/11/2021

 
The Tarnished on a spooky horse beneath a big shiny tree

We were lucky enough to have a quick look at Elden Ring (thanks Bandai Namco) during its Closed Network Test.
James Michael Parry
by James Michael Parry

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​@james_parry

Elden Ring’s the next game from the Dark Souls people, right?
FromSoftware are the creators of Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Sekiro - Elden Ring is their latest adventure, which has creative input from Game of Thrones’ George R. R. Martin.

What’s different about this one?
The biggest differences are a more open-world structure, the ability to jump on command and access to a spectral steed.

Who do you play as?
There were five character classes in the test: Warrior, Enchanted Knight, Prophet, Champion and Bloody Wolf.

We tried out Enchanted Knight first, a class that’s a mixture of magic and strength. Due to the lack of a shield, it proved tricky to get the hang of parrying and evading – though Bloodbourne players might feel at home here.

The Warrior’s default weapons are a pair of scimitars, accommodating some fun combos and a little more of an all-round feel to combat.

In the end, it was the Bloody Wolf that really floated our boat. There’s a definite difference in feel between all the starting classes, so everyone should be able to set off on the right foot.​
The Tarnished exploring a spooky cave with a torch surrounded by eggs
These games make a point of being quite tough to play, how was it?
We only had a few hours to explore, but the game certainly throws a lot at you. Lore is, unsurprisingly, abundant, as are a lot of pop-up menus explaining all sorts of screens and player actions.

In combat, standard enemies can easily take you down with a couple of hits and usually attack in groups. You should fully expect to die a lot – just just like in previous titles. If you’re careful, however, you can avoid or get the jump on enemies by utilising the new stealth system. 

The game’s massive bosses might be too much to take on straight away for most players, though, fortunately, you don’t need to fight alone.

There’s multiplayer then?
Perhaps more overtly than in any of From’s past games. While having players invade your game, or summoning someone to help you, has been a feature of past titles, here there’s a bit more of an emphasis - perhaps because a more open setting lends itself to teaming up.

Messages scrawled throughout the world are here too, plus you’ll see the outlines of others exploring in the immediate area and bloodstains that show how other adventurers met their end.​
A Tarnished adventrurer explores a quiet library/torture chamber
How was it on the whole?
There’s a lot to take in for newcomers, but the swelling soundtrack and beautiful world of Limgrave set the stage for an epic adventure and push you on.

Elden Ring offers flexibility in play style right off the bat, even allowing players to bring some friends along to help out. It’s possibly the most approachable FromSoftware title to date, though we’ll find out for sure when the full game releases on February 25, 2022.
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What’s your most memorable driving game adventure? | Team Talk

7/11/2021

 
Team-Talk-Driving-Memory

Forza Horizon 5​ puts gamers behind the virtual wheel and transports them to Mexico. That got us thinking about some other memorable driving adventures; whether it’s on the track or out in the wilderness, racing games give players an opportunity to visit familiar and exotic locations.

Where have you been? Where would you like to see the Horizon series go next? Let us know in the comments.

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by James Michael Parry

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​@James_Parry

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by Team PTC

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@pass_controller

James | Prague, Forza Motorsport 5

Jumping into a new generation is always exciting, and with the release of the Xbox One came a very shiny and impressive look at Prague in Forza Motorsport 5. Having never been, but heard a lot about this picturesque city, it feels as though the folks at Turn 10 did a great job of bringing the city to life.

The famous Charles Bridge is present and correct, of course. You can drive over it at hundreds of miles an hour, scoffing at historical preservation, before flying through its archways (on a road similar to a modern flyover) and coming back into the city.

In the background as you speed along, St. Vitus Cathedral towers over the city on a hill as part of Prague Castle, and on a hairpin bend you’ll catch a glimpse of the Church of Our Lady before Tyn. No doubt those who are personally familiar with the city would be able to spot many more.

As a cherry on top of it all, the circuit itself is one of the most memorable and enjoyable in the game. It even proved popular enough to get an update in Forza Motorsport 7 a few years later.

While I haven’t been to Prague yet, FM5 definitely makes me keen to explore it in person one day.
Forza-5-Prague
Architecture such as this can only really be appreciated at 150 mph.

Liam | Britain, Forza Horizon 4
 
Forza Horizon 4 came along at a time when I was living in Amsterdam, and though I considered that city home, it was nice to be able to revisit Britain in video game form.

While the Lake District inspired vistas and streets of Edinburgh were well realised, I didn’t feel any emotional connection to them. However, much of the regular countryside you drive through in FH4, particularly in the southern areas of the map, looks remarkably like where I grew up in the south of England.

It was a joy to suddenly be able to tear around a landscape so reminiscent of my home. Basic items that I’d encountered many times over the years, such as barriers, road markings and signposts, were suddenly loaded with nostalgia. I even picked some of the more bog-standard vehicles to fully replicate my youth (my household was (and still is) sadly lacking in the supercar department).

​I’ve since moved back to England, so all those everyday road items once again seem just that, but it was nice to be able to view them through the lens of nostalgia, if only for a little while. Now, if Playground Games could set the next Horizon game in the Netherlands, that’d be great.
Forza-Horizon-4-Backflip
Yep, just like home.

Sam | Paradise City, Burnout Paradise

I’ve never really been into racing games. It’s one of those genres where I’m happy to let entries pass me by, even as they get rave reviews; driving is almost never a central hook, but rather a small component that can complement larger scale projects. One notable exception, however, is Criterion Games’ Burnout Paradise.

In discovering Paradise City I found a playground that was actually fun for my tastes. Speeding down busy roads at breakneck pace, jumping and smashing through billboards, wrecking competitors by ramming them into obstacles - all set to a classic rock soundtrack.

While Paradise City isn’t a real location, like London or Prague, it’s basically an amalgamation of iconic places in the United States. As a result, the game feels like a quintessential North American road trip and is a treat for fans of all things Americana.

Burnout Paradise Remastered makes the modern classic easily accessible, while also presenting the best rendition of Paradise City yet - it’s a win-win situation. Now, if only EA would greenlight a sequel instead of having Criterion helm the middling Need for Speed franchise.
Burnout-Paradise
It must be difficult building brand awareness in Paradise City with all the billboard destroying going on.

What's your favourite driving adventure?
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