Defining Duke, Episode 98 | Are The Game Awards Worth the Scrutiny? (Patreon)

The Game Awards, or as some may call them, The Lame Awards, are the subject of ire year in and year out. 2022 has proven to be much of the same as the Game Of The Year list is out with contentious picks aplenty. While it may be the home of things like nepotism and recency bias, many folks such as Cog have accepted it as the way things shall be. From snubs to perplexing categorization such as Elden Ring in the Best Narrative category, we (along with the audience) have many questions to ask. Perhaps the biggest one is, is it worth our frustration or should we just take our game announcements and go? Beyond that, we get into a busy week for Xbox releases as we dive deep into Pentiment along with Somerville. It may not be nearly on the level of God Of War, but Xbox fans will take it! Furthermore, we mull over the comments of Phil Spencer as he firmly closes the door on any Call Of Duty doubts, but raises key points on the future of both mobile games and Project Keystone. That plus The Witcher 3's next gen update, Dave Bautista's Gears Of War casting, and Starfield's uncertain marketing cadence round out our discussion.

Timestamps:
0:00:00 - Intro

0:06:08 - LIVE SHOW IN HOUSTON

0:08:50 - Are there any special plans for Episode 100?

0:10:09 - Bethesda responds to Mick Gordon

0:19:09 - Pentiment and Somerville reviews are out!

0:20:44 - Microsoft Flight Simulator 40th Anniversary update is out

0:21:00 - Battlefield 2042 is coming to Game Pass

0:23:44 - 200 fixes are coming to Saints Row

0:23:59 - Remedy and 505 have entered an agreement to work on Control 2

0:26:00 - Xbox is working on more changes to the dashboard

0:28:15 - Dave Bautista throws his hat in the Gears of War ring

0:31:15 - A trailer for the Netflix Dragon Age Absolution adaptation has dropped

0:37:18 - The Witcher 3’s Next Gen Update is coming soon

0:38:10 - Evil West performance check?

0:43:31 - Rainbow Six Siege is getting a NieR crossover

0:45:39 - The Winter Soldier is coming to Marvel’s Avengers

0:47:27 - PlayStation may be playing with the blockchain

0:53:07 - Baldur’s Gate 3 is nearing milestones

0:55:14 - What we’ve been playing

1:20:56 - What studio would we like to see make a passion project?

1:25:39 - How do the first two years of each Xbox console compare?

1:30:18 - Why do Xbox releases not feel like big events?

1:35:48 - The Game Awards nominees are in

2:00:17 - Phil Spencer reaffirms Call of Duty will stay on PlayStation, and more

2:12:58 - Neon Giant has been acquired by Krafton

2:15:40 - Coming soon to GamePass…

2:21:15 - Game Pass Pick of the Week

2:29:17 - When will we hear more about Starfield?

2:35:34 - Do we have a log of games we’ve finished?