The Game Awards Event

Hosted by critic Geoff Keighley, The Game Awards 2015 were held on Thursday.

At the event various awards and gameplay reveals were announced. “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” won Game of the Year in a competitive field, while breakout games like “Rocket League” won Best Independent Game. Furthermore, Westwood Studios the creators of the “Command and Conquer” series and pioneers of the real-time strategy genre were honored with the Industry Icon award.

For a list of the nominees and winners head over to any major gaming publication or The Game Awards website.

Telltale Games’ next game features Batman

During the award show, Telltale Games announced its next game will be Batman themed. The game was premiered in a teaser trailer and will release in 2016.

On Telltale’s official blog, Co-Founder and CEO Kevin Bruner said, “At Telltale, we’ve been honored to bring our unique approach to interactive storytelling to some of the biggest entertainment franchises in the world, and we’re excited to announce that we’ll soon be exploring what it means to be Batman in an all-new series starting next year. This iteration of Batman will give fans a first-hand opportunity to dive deeper into the complex life and mind of Bruce Wayne, the duality of his own identity, and the struggle of responsibility in saving a city overcome with corruption and villainy.”

This is a clever idea. Telltale Games excels at telling creative stories within established franchises. Their success boomed when they released “The Walking Dead” in 2012 and they have maintained a solid track record since with games set in various universes such as “Game of Thrones” and “Borderlands.”

Batman is a great setting for the decision heavy storytelling of Telltale Games and I am looking forward to seeing they can do with the brand.

Konami bans Hideo Kojima from Video Game Awards

Host of The Game Awards 2015 Geoff Keighley announced Hideo Kojima was not permitted to appear and receive any awards for his work on “Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.”

“As you noticed Hideo Kojima is not here with us tonight and I want to tell you a little bit about that. Mr. Kojima had every intention of being with us tonight but unfortunately he was informed by a lawyer representing Konami just recently that he would not be allowed to travel to tonight’s awards ceremony to accept any awards,” Keighley said.

“He’s still under an employment contract and it’s disappointing, and it’s inconceivable to me that an artist like Hideo would not be allowed to come here and celebrate with his peers and his fellow teammates.”

“Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain” won best action/adventure game at the show. Kiefer Sutherland was at the event to receive the award on behalf of Kojima.

If you were not already upset with Konami for their controversy with Kojima or their rumored mistreatment for their employees, you should be now. Even if a company is not on good terms with an employee it is unacceptable that they are not allowed to receive awards for their work, especially if the product earned the company a large sum of money.

Konami has become one of the worst gaming companies in the industry.

Far Cry Primal gameplay reveal

Gameplay for the upcoming “Far Cry Primal” was shown during The Game Awards 2015. The game was revealed in October and will release Feb. 23. 2016.

Many critics believed this game would be delayed because we had seen much about the game, implying it was not far a long enough in development and therefore would not be ready to be shipped on its release date. That has changed overnight and given the sheer amount of content available now it is looking as if the game will be ready in February. 

More gameplay videos can be found over at IGN.com

Grant Meyer can be reached at [email protected]