Published , by Dennis White
Published , by Dennis White
What a week it has been. There's plenty to talk about this week so let's get into a jam-packed edition of Weekend Discussion!
We got a few announcements during Thursday's The Game Awards presentation that truly surprised me in a good way. And I wish that I could gush about them. But instead, I have to take a moment to discuss the disappointment I felt after watching the trailer for Star Wars: Eclipse only to see the studio developing the game was Quantic Dream, a studio known for it's photorealistic visuals and decision making gameplay mechanics but also it's reliance on racist tropes and halk-baked storytelling fueled by a crude mysoginist and overall creep, David Cage.
Geoff Keighley started the show by addressing the audience and stating that there is no tolerance for harrassment in the industry. This statement came after The Game Awards faced criticism for allowing Activision-Blizzard games to be a part of the show.
While I can point a finger at Geoff for putting the Star Wars: Eclipse reveal on the show, which is extremely hypocritical after making the statement above, I think that this is also a prime example of how much work is still left to be done when it comes to the entire gaming industry. The fact that a lot of money is being spent to make something like this happen and that nobody higher up stepped in is very telling. Even before the actual show, news came out of more reports of misconduct at Bungie, with the company's CEO releasing a statement trying to get ahead of the controversy.
Also, as pointed out by others, the advisory board for The Game Awards is a list of people that were complicit when it came to the reports of abuse and harrassment from within their own companies.
I want to maintain a positive outlook about the work being done and I am happy that people are standing up to the terrible workplace culture that has remained unchecked for so long. When it comes to events like this moving forward, I need more than just a statement by the head honcho before getting into the fun stuff. The industry needs to do better, and that doesn't mean just speaking on uncomfortable situations when it is convenient. Walk the walk and be consistent. Integrity is still important to some of us and I'm sure that the people working at these studios are watching. If you want to be a part of this ongoing change, consider supporting ABetterABK, the community of workers from Activision-Blizzard who are currently on strike.
We at Shacknews stand in solidarity and will continue to report on the movement in 2022.
I do want to say that there were plenty of great new games revealed at The Game Awards by incredible developers. We have plenty of reveal discussion from the Shack crew for this week's Shack Chat!
Also, DOOM turned 28 this week and our very own David L Craddock put together an awesome Twitter thread with links to his Shacknews long read about the classic game.
Halo is back and definitly worth your time. Watch our video review from Greg Burke & Sam Chandler above.
Sonic is back and I gotta say, the new movie actually looks prety good! Knuckles looks amazing and I'm glad that they brought in the voice actor for Tails. What did you think of this first look at the sequel?
This is kinda meta but another variant has been discovered so I guess we are heading into global pandemic Season 3.
Shout out to Shackpets!
Keanu had some interesting comments recently during an interview, including some thoughts on Facebook's Metaverse and NFTs.
Kermit needs to be in a fighting game at some point.
Don't let the innocent look fool you.
Totally been there.
Pot guy was one of the best parts of the night. Surprised that Kojima didn't pop out of there and announce Death Stranding on Switch.
Well this situation was not on my 2021 bingo card but here we are. In case you were under a rock on Thursday night, Kanye West and Drake performed live on Twitch and Amazon Music in front of 270,000 online viewers and a stadium full of fans. These two were definitely vibing out on a stage that slowly started to look more and more like a Dune deleted scene as the show went on. Is the beef officially squashed? Only time will tell.
Tierra Wack delivers some new visuals and a flow that was reminiscent of Andre 3000 at his peak. She's a very creative artist and she's dropped a few tracks with videos from her new "Pop?" EP.
Alright that's going to do it for me this week. We've had quite the week as the Shack crew focused on some high-spirited Game of the Year deliberations. Thanks for reading and I'll see you all next week for a special edition of Weekend Discussion. Feel free to drop us a Mercury subscription if you like this content!