Shack Chat: What was your favorite reveal during The Game Awards 2020?

The Game Awards 2020 are over, and with their ending marks another wave of gaming announcements and reveals alongside some interesting award presentations. A big part of the show is always the reveals. Maybe they stick. Maybe they don’t, but there’s at least usually something in there for everybody. With that in mind on this week’s Shack Chat, the Shack Staff talked about what caught our eyes the most during the whole show. Check it out below.

Question: What was your favorite reveal during The Game Awards 2020?

SEPHIROTH! - Ozzie Mejia, Show me your strength

I'm not going to lie, I was a little bit disappointed when I heard that Nintendo revealed in advance that they would be showing a new Super Smash Bros. Ultimate character. I say this as somebody who was in the crowd in 2018 when Joker was revealed and nobody saw that coming. Like, at all!

Having said that, I didn't see this coming, either. I remember playing through the full World of Light campaign and seeing Spirits honoring every single character and the various games they came from. Every character... except Cloud. There was no Final Fantasy presence at all in Ultimate. No Spirits, no new music, no easter eggs, nothing, and it made me wonder if Cloud was just there as an obligation by that point. So, yes, I was very much surprised to see the One-Winged Angel make his way to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. And I thought it was cool as hell!

Dude cut right underneath Mario's overalls! That's just badass, man!

Perfect Dark - Donovan Erskine, Contributing Editor

Perfect Dark is a franchise I’ve been waiting to see make a comeback for several years now. What really gets me excited, is that it’s being developed by The Initiative, Microsoft’s new studio composed of some top industry talent. With a Fable reboot and Halo Infinite on the way as well, we could be heading into a renaissance of classic Xbox properties.

Vin Diesel with his shirt off - Blake Morse,  Fast & Furious

One day, I hope to be embraced by a shirtless Vin Diesel. And as he welcomes me into his bosom like a mother hen embracing her chick I want him to whisper into my ear “When you’re here, you’re family.” As I melt into his warming essence time will lose meaning and I’ll feel as safe as a little spoon with his arms around me. -Uhm...I mean- So yeah, that Ark 2 trailer was okay...

Warhammer 40K: Darktide - Chris Jarrard, Die for the Emperor or die trying

For me, the standout of this year’s edition of the Keighleys was the world premiere gameplay footage of Fatshark’s follow up to the wonderful Vermintide games. Warhammer 40K: Darktide appears to retain the same overall setup as the previous Fatshark games while bringing the series into the 40K universe. I was sold the moment I saw a big metal hammer crush a skull.

Perfect Dark - Sam Chandler, I’m so ready

Perfect Dark is a favorite series of mine. I absolutely adore the original N64 game, even replaying the entire thing on the toughest difficulty in co-op when it was added to the Xbox Arcade. While I wasn’t super pleased with the sequel, I still had some fun playing it.

Cut to the Game Award where we finally get confirmation that The Initiative is working on a new Perfect Dark game. We all kind of knew it was coming, but to actually have it officially confirmed blew me away. I’m so excited to dive back into that world.

As soon as I saw that laptop gun mounted on the wall, I basically yelled with joy.

Oh, and of course, it goes without saying that I’m stoked for a Disco Elysium console release. Sorry-not-sorry to the staff that have to listen to me talking about it for another year.

Back 4 Blood - Bill Lavoy, Night City Resident

There were some cool reveals at The Game Awards last night, but the one that had me most excited was Back 4 Blood. I’m all about co-op games that I can play with my friends, and my friends and I have never really gotten into the Left 4 Dead series. That will change with Back 4 Blood, and I can’t wait.

Perfect Dark - Josh Hawkins, Guides Editor

Seeing the title card for Perfect Dark appear on screen took me back years to my childhood. My brother and I spent countless hours playing through Perfect Dark on the N64 and seeing it coming back, hopefully with a vengeance, has me beyond excited to see what the team has planned for it. I can’t wait to explore the world again and see what Agent Dark has been up to. There’s just something about the look of Joanna’s silhouette in front of the pyramids in the background that has me giddy to jump in and experience the next chapter of the iconic series.

Back 4 Blood - TJ Denzer, Back 4 News

Original Left 4 Dead creator Mike Booth is over at Resolution Games these days (good for him for escaping his follow-up position at Facebook VR) and Turtle Rock Studios hasn’t been heard from since the tragedy that was Evolve. We’ve heard plenty of rumors and begging about a new Left 4 Dead the same way we’ve heard rumors and begging for Half-Life 3 for years. Even when Half-Life: Alyx finally happened successfully, I couldn’t be bothered for a second to believe it meant any hope remained for L4D.

So color me shocked when Back 4 Blood came out of the woodwork with a 4-player zombie horde slaying action cinematic and then finished with a reveal that it was none other than Turtle Rock Studios themselves handling the business. Yes, it’s not technically Left 4 Dead and Mike Booth certainly isn’t at the helm, but dang if Back 4 Blood didn’t grab all of my attention and leave me giddy at the possibilities of what’s in store. There have been a lot of games that took what Left 4 Dead did and put a good spin on it. I think it’s time Turtle Rock did their part to learn from what their competitors have been doing, as well as what made Left 4 Dead so great to begin with, to build a truly fantastic return to form and step forward in the co-op multiplayer zombie slayer format. I’m excited to see what they come up with.

Dead Space 4… er, The Callisto Protocol - David L. Craddock, long reads editor

The Callisto Protocol’s trailer had me at “From the creators of Dead Space.” I’ve been waiting for a spiritual successor to the dearly departed Visceral Games’ Dead Space franchise since the series went on ice, and The Callisto Protocol developer’s ambitious goal of creating the single most terrifying horror game on any platform has me excited. Maybe that makes me masochistic, but there it is.

Sephiroth - Steve Tyminski, Contributing Editor

When a new Smash reveal is mentioned, it makes things a little more interesting. It was one of the main reasons I checked into the Game Awards. Nintendo has a knack for these reveals and Sephiroth being the new character was an interesting surprise as Fortnite has been rumored to be getting the nod for quite some time. The character reveal as well as that nice musical number for Mario’s 35th were the highlights for me.

These were our favorite reveals and announcements from The Game Awards 2020, but what were yours? If you missed them, be sure to check the full recap of awards, announcements, and trailers, and let us know in the Shacknews Chatty comment section below!

Shack Staff

Shack Staff stories are a collective effort with multiple staff members contributing. Many of our lists often involve entires from several editors, and our weekly Shack Chat is something we all contribute to as a group.