Hideo Kojima, renowned video game creator and director of iconic sagas like Metal Gear Solid, has expressed his admiration for James Cameron’s latest film, Avatar: Fire and Ash. In his most recent post on the Twitter platform, Kojima praises Cameron’s attention to detail and highlights the visual experience the film offers in IMAX 3D format, describing it as a true “digital spectacle.” Kojima, in love with Avatar: Fire and Ash The Japanese director did not limit himself to commenting on Cameron’s work, as he also took the opportunity in his analysis to defend the value of video games as […]
Hideo Kojima, renowned video game creator and director of iconic franchises like Metal Gear Solid, has expressed his admiration for James Cameron’s latest film, Avatar: Fire and Ash. In his most recent post on the Twitter platform, Kojima praises Cameron’s attention to detail and highlights the visual experience the film offers in IMAX 3D format, describing it as a true “digital spectacle”.
Kojima, in love with Avatar: Fire and Ash
The Japanese director did not limit himself to commenting on Cameron’s work, as he also took the opportunity to defend the value of video games as a narrative medium, especially after his recent loss in the best direction category at the Game Awards. Kojima, who has been a pioneer in storytelling within video games, points out that digital creation is often undervalued compared to other forms of audiovisual art, a topic that has gained relevance in the contemporary narrative context.
Additionally, Kojima shared that the influence of Avatar: Fire and Ash has allowed him to regain the “pride” and “courage” necessary to continue creating new works in the digital world. His enthusiasm for the film reflects a renewed perspective that could influence his future projects in the field of video games.
Despite the fact that the film has been the subject of criticism for its narrative weaknesses, Cameron’s visual and technical vision has been enough to captivate Kojima, who has always valued aesthetic presentation in his own works. Thus, the interrelation between cinema and video games remains a hot topic, where creatives like Kojima seek synergies that enrich their respective mediums.
Last night was the Game Awards, a gala that aspires to be the Oscars of video games. And among all the announcements made, of which we have highlighted the most important of the night, they also gave out a few awards. Giving them different weight and importance, it still isn’t the Oscars, but it has become the big gala of video games. And it is also an awards show where it is easy to attend to discover what is being cooked up in the industry at all levels. Before diving into the big winners and losers of each category, it is important […]
Last night was the Game Awards, a gala that aims to be the Oscars of video games. Among all the announcements made, of which we have highlighted the most important of the night, several awards were also given. Giving them different weight and importance, it still isn’t the Oscars, but it has become the major gala of video games. And it is also an awards ceremony where it is easy to attend to discover what is being cooked in the industry at all levels.
Before diving into the big winners and losers of each category, it’s important to provide a brief summary. Knowing how many nominations each of the involved parties had is essential.
The big favorite of the night was Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. With 13 nominations, the French game had a hard time not leaving as the big winner of the gala, especially when no one had received so many nominations in the history of the Games Awards. Following closely were Death Stranding 2: On The Beach and Ghost of Yotei, with 7 nominations, and Hades II and Hollow Knight: Silksong, with 6 respectively. Among the surprises were Split Fiction, which only had 4 nominations, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II and Silent Hill f, which only managed 3.
How did it turn out for everyone? With few surprises, to be honest. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was the biggest winner with 9 statuettes out of the 13 that could be won, leaving no room for anyone else. In that sense, Death Stranding 2: On The Beach and Ghost of Yotei are the big losers of the night, as they went home empty-handed despite all their nominations. A big disappointment for Sony.
Creators, players, and online
Among the most unique categories are those of esports and creators. Here, Counter-Strike 2 stood out particularly. Winning both the award for best esports and having a Counter-Strike 2 team, Team Vitality, win the award for best esports team, Valve has been the big winner in this category. Although there were no surprises, Jung “Chovy” Ji-hoon took home the title of best esports athlete for League of Legends after an excellent Worlds.
For his part, MoistCr1TiKaL has won the award for best content creator of the year. With tough competition from Kai Cenat, it is quite likely that being a much more likable figure in public outside of the streaming fandom itself has had an impact.
Among the awards separated from the rest of the categories, Wuthering Waves won the Players’ Voices largely due to the rewards offered by Kuro Games for players to vote for their game. In the most anticipated game category, GTAVI won, much to absolutely no one’s surprise, and for best adaptation, the second season of The Last of Us took home the big prize. Similarly, Doom: The Dark Ages achieved its only award by winning innovation in accessibility for its numerous difficulty options.
A game that has eclipsed all others
Entering the major categories, it is evident that there is a clear winner above all others. That does not take away from the fact that there have been some quite interesting awards. Mario Kart World won best sports game, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles won best strategy game, and Donkey Kong Bananza won best family game.
In the field of action-focused games, Hades 2 won best action game and Hollow Knight: Silksong won best action-adventure game. The highly questionable Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves won best fighting game, not without controversy.
As no surprise to anyone, ARC Raiders won the award for best multiplayer game. And its main competitor, Battlefield 6, won best sound design, rightly taking the award from Expedition 33. In the impact games category, the interesting South of Midnight won, and No Man’s Sky won for best support. Additionally, The Midnight Walk won best VR game and Umamusume: Pretty Derby won best mobile game, resulting in a well-distributed set of secondary awards.
But at the end of the day, there was only one big winner. A game that took it all. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won the awards for best role-playing game, best indie game, best indie debut, best soundtrack and music, best art direction, best narrative, best direction, and game of the year. Accumulating all the technical awards, except one, and all the big awards, becoming the grand prize of the year according to the Game Awards. Even if there has been some controversy over whether it should be considered an indie game or not.
With this, the Game Awards concluded, much less distributed than usual, although with great announcements and a clear winner. Something that gives us a clear perspective on the situation of the mainstream video game industry.
Bethesda is considering remastering some of its most iconic titles, such as Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, in response to the success of the Amazon television series, which will return with its second season on December 17. Todd Howard, director of Bethesda, has hinted in interviews that plans are underway for these remasters, although he has not provided specific details about what players can expect. They are working on it. In a recent conversation, Howard confirmed that the company is attentive to the strong desire expressed by fans to revive these classics on modern hardware. “We see all those […]
Bethesda is considering remastering some of its most iconic titles, such as Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, in response to the success of the Amazon television series, which will return with its second season on December 17. Todd Howard, director of Bethesda, has hinted in interviews that plans are underway for these remasterings, although he has not provided details about what players can expect.
They are working on it
In a recent conversation, Howard confirmed that the company is attentive to the strong desire expressed by fans to revive these classics on modern hardware. “We see all those comments,” he stated. “We are working on plenty of things, and we look forward to the day when we can reveal them.” This statement suggests that fans may soon see concrete news about the future of these games.
Howard also expressed his preference for ‘shadow-drop’ type releases, similar to what was done with Oblivion Remastered. This strategy allows players to rediscover the gaming experience immediately, which has proven to be effective in the past. “The idea is to make people dive back into the game world,” Howard explained, highlighting the importance of nostalgia when revisiting these virtual worlds.
While definitive details about the remasters cannot be confirmed, everything indicates that Bethesda is in an active development phase. The combination of renewed interest due to the television program and Howard’s intentions proposes that it’s not a matter of if these remastered versions will be released, but when they will be officially announced. With high expectations among the gaming community, many hope that the announcement will come before the end of the year, possibly during the Game Awards.
During the past Game Awards, we had great announcements. Although it’s hard to deny that, for many, the biggest announcement of all was the announcement of a new IP from Naughty Dogs. Creators of franchises like Crash Bandicoot, Jak & Daxter, Uncharted, and The Last of Us, people have high expectations for this new game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. But what do we really know about the game? Because the game didn’t reveal much. But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been talked about. And today we are going to tell you all the details we know so far. What is Intergalactic: The Heretic about […]
During the past Games Awards we had great announcements. Although it’s hard to deny that, for many, the biggest announcement of all was the announcement of a new IP from Naughty Dogs. Creators of franchises like Crash Bandicoot, Jak & Daxter, Uncharted, and The Last of Us, people expect a lot from this new game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. But what do we really know about the game? Because the game didn’t reveal much. But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been talked about. And today we are going to tell you all the details we know so far.
What is Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet about?
Intergalactic follows a bounty hunter named Jordan A Mun who ends up stranded on a planet called Sempiria. No one has been able to communicate with the planet for 600 years, and no one has escaped its orbit in all that time. Jordan has gone to Sempiria in search of the members of the crime syndicate Five Aces, although we do not yet know the specific details of why. However, if we are to believe the trailer and the fact that Jordan has a photo of herself with a member of the group on her ship, it seems she has some kind of prior relationship with the syndicate.
Why does it have such a particular aesthetic?
According to Neil Druckmann, the game’s director, the art direction of Intergalactic is defined by the fact that the game takes place in an alternate future where space travel has become very advanced by 1980. That doesn’t mean all technology is equally advanced. That’s why on their ship they have a CD player or a tube television, creating an interesting aesthetic contrast.
While they are very explicit in the trailer, Druckmann has confirmed that his biggest inspirations for Intergalactic are the animes Akira and Cowboy Bebop. The first is apparent in Jordan’s jacket and the CD player. The second in the design of the ship, the fact that she is a bounty hunter, and her general attitude. It is possible to see other quite evident nods throughout the trailer, but these are the ones that have been explicitly confirmed by its creator.
Who is working on the project?
Neil Druckmann serves as the creative director, while Matthew Gallant and Kurt Margenau serve as game directors. Gallant has been working at Naughty Dogs since The Last of Us and Margenau since Uncharted 2, both as game designers, while Druckmann is one of the studio’s founders. The soundtrack will be handled by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, soundtrack composers and two-time Oscar winners.
What are your future plans?
Sony has confirmed that they see the potential for Intergalactic to become a franchise. This means that it is perfectly possible for it to be adapted into a movie, series, or other media. In any case, none of this is confirmed. And the game doesn’t even have an approximate release date. Considering that we don’t have more information about the game, it seems we will still have to wait quite a while to learn more.
You wouldn’t believe the number of players who have already tried this wonderful indie game on Game Pass, reaching huge numbers for any game.
It is always welcome for an indie game to be a success. The effort required to bring a game to the market as a small team, without the resources of a big company behind, is monumental. That’s why, every time exorbitant numbers appear for an indie game, they feel even more special than when they do for a big production. Because, in the end, they always had it harder.
The latest case has been Sea of Stars, winner of the best indie game award at the Game Awards. The game by Sabotage, released on August 26, has surpassed 4 million players in less than four months. Completely insane figures for a game of this size.
Of course, there’s a catch. Sea of Stars was available on Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium, so everyone who has a subscription to those services has been able to play it. But that doesn’t exclude the fact that it’s still an obscene number of players. Or the fact that, in the launch week, they managed to sell 250,000 copies. Which is what they expected to sell in the game’s first year, not in the first week.
That’s why Sea of Stars has a lot of life ahead. Their studio is working on a DLC, named Throes of the Watchmaker, although it doesn’t have a release date yet. Similarly, they have recently removed a cameo from the YouTuber The Completionist, who had helped promote Sea of Stars, because he has been accused of defrauding tens of thousands of dollars through his charity organization, The Open Hand Foundation.
If you haven’t played Sea of Stars, it is a classic J-RPG in the style of Super Mario RPG or Chrono Trigger. The game is available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, and PC.
The documentary about Hideo Kojima already has a release date and platform, although it will no longer be this year, and it may not be exactly what you expect
There’s no game developer more renowned than Hideo Kojima, except perhaps Shigeru Miyamoto, solely due to his historical significance. The only person who has managed to craft an aura of a creator comparable to figures in other fields has been Kojima. And it makes sense. He has made a conscious and continuous effort throughout his career to position himself as precisely that: an author. Someone whose significance to the medium is indisputable, and whose video games are understood by understanding the person behind them.
That’s why it’s big news that “Connecting Worlds,” the documentary about Hideo Kojima, who unveiled a new game at The Game Awards, will have a worldwide release next spring. While it would be ideal for it to hit theaters, it’ll be available for viewing on streaming platforms. Specifically, it’ll be on Disney+.
This documentary about the Japanese creative initially premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York last June. Directed by Glen Milner, known for his work on the making of Rogue One, the synopsis highlights that the documentary delves into Kojima’s ideas and creative process, featuring famous collaborators such as Norman Reedus, Guillermo del Toro, Nicholas Winding Refn, Grimes, George Miller, Woodkid, and Chvrches. It’s a testament to the Japanese author’s ability to surround himself with other great creators.
That doesn’t prevent the criticisms that the documentary has received from those who have been able to see it, which are, at best, rather lukewarm. Focusing especially on the development of his latest game so far, Death Stranding, and delving more into the person’s mythology than their creative processes or how they got to where they are, it’s more of a tribute to the person and their ability than any kind of in-depth investigation into who they are or how they became what they are.
In any case, we’ll have to judge for ourselves. And for that, we’ll have to wait until spring 2024, when we can watch it on Disney+.
Baldur’s Gate 3 on Xbox already has a date, or almost, because what they have given us is the date on which they will tell us the final release date, this December
Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the games of the year. It’s probably going to win the award for Best Game of the Year at the Game Awards. At the very least, it’s already nominated to win it. And even though PC and PlayStation 5 players have been able to play it, Xbox players are still waiting for their turn. However, it seems they might not have to wait much longer.
Larian Studios, the developer of Baldur’s Gate 3, has announced that the Xbox version’s release date is progressing smoothly for its launch in December. While they haven’t provided a specific date, they encourage us to watch the Game Awards ceremony on December 7th for more information about the exact release date.
Since this announcement, the internet has been filled with speculations about when exactly the game will be released. A popular theory is that the game might launch on December 7th during the ceremony, which is why the studio prompts us to watch it in the first place. However, this is just a theory, and nothing has been confirmed.
If the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S version is released in December, it’s because despite initially planning to launch alongside the PlayStation 5 version, they encountered several technical issues with the game. Specifically, they couldn’t maintain the parity between versions that Xbox demanded, particularly struggling to achieve optimal split-screen cooperative play on the Series S. They ultimately resolved this by removing this feature from the Series S version.
That’s why if you’re interested in playing Baldur’s Gate 3, you’ll still have to wait until December 7th to know the definitive date. And who knows, maybe you’ll be playing that very night.
