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Sacred Symbols, Episode 180: The Lame Awards

Have the Game Awards officially lost their charm? For as likable as Geoff Keighley is, this year's offering was a gratuitously advertisorial affair, and we simply have to call it like it is. What's the purpose of holding an audience captive for three hours, only to bombard them with commercial after commercial... other than bean-counting, of course? Still, through it all, it was still cool to see Quantic Dream's Star Wars: Eclipse, hear about Monolith's Wonder Woman game, get an official reveal of Alan Wake II, receive a release date for PS5 console-exclusive Forspoken, and more. Plus, there's everything else we need to talk about unrelated to the gala. Uncharted 4 and Lost Legacy finally have a release date on PS5, but buying them may be a more complicated situation than you may have anticipated, while a new Bill has been cast in HBO's The Last of Us, and it may not be who you expect. Plus: Ubisoft launches an NFT program, GTA Online gets story DLC, Activision-Blizzard continues to play with fire, and more. Then: Listener questions, ranging on issues like the use of social media in the industry, the advantages and disadvantages of using fake languages in fiction, the endless potential of a LEGO PlayStation game, and the fact that Chris accidentally outed Santa as being fake to a listener's kid. C'est la vie.


Timestamps:

0:00:00 - Intro

0:05:16 - Join us on Patreon!

0:08:00 - Coin Moriarty can’t watch his own destruction.

0:10:14 - Shoutout to MrMattyPlays!

0:24:23 - The Game Awards: Overall thoughts.

0:36:49 - The Game Awards: Persona 4 Arena Ultimax

0:39:18 - The Game Awards: Star Wars: Eclipse

0:43:43 - The Game Awards: Wonder Woman

0:48:32 - The Game Awards: Alan Wake 2

0:53:23 - The Game Awards: Horizon: Forbidden West

0:54:12 - The Game Awards: Destiny 2: The Witch Queen

0:57:36 - The Game Awards: Slitterhead

1:01:41 - The Game Awards: Gollum

1:03:23 - The Game Awards: Somerville

1:04:57 - The Game Awards: Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course

1:08:08 - The Game Awards: Sonic Frontiers

1:12:40 - The Game Awards: Warhammer Vermintide II Warrior Priest, Tchia

1:13:14 - The Game Awards: Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

1:18:52 - The Game Awards: Forspoken

1:23:17 - The Game Awards: Saints Row

1:23:39 - The Game Awards: Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands

1:25:01 - The Game Awards: Among Us VR, Metal Hellsinger, Genshin Impact

1:26:18 - The Game Awards: Star Trek Resurgence, Rumbleverse

1:29:09 - The Game Awards: A Plague Tale Requiem

1:30:58 - The Game Awards: Dying Light 2 Stay Human

1:31:56 - The Game Awards: GTFO

1:32:47 - The Game Awards: Elden Ring

1:33:38 - The Game Awards: Arc Raiders

1:36:30 - The Game Awards: The Matrix Awakens

1:40:53 - Masyuki Uemura, chief engineer of the NES and SNES, has died.

1:41:37 - 2K has signed a new studio.

1:42:29 - Sony has fired a PlayStation executive after allegations resulting from a pedophile sting video.

1:51:28 - Spider-Man Remastered on PS5 is getting a No Way Home tie-in suit.

1:54:46 - Gran Turismo 7 has been rated by the ESRB.

1:55:03 - Sony has quietly shown off an 8K VR unit.

1:58:57 - The DualSense has a Scuf alternative.

1:59:41 - Garfield is coming to Nickelodeon’s All-Star Brawl.

2:00:32 - What have we been playing?

2:15:35 - Details are now available about Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Uncharted: Lost Legacy’s PS5 and PC ports.

2:25:01 - HBO’s The Last of Us has secured Nick Offerman to play Bill.

2:29:28 - Ubisoft has revealed a new NFT-centered initiative.

2:43:54 - Rockstar has revealed new content for GTA Online.

2:49:33 - Activision-Blizzard has new controversy centered around layoffs.

2:59:00 - Tencent has officially established Level Infinite, it’s AAA-centered label.

3:12:34 - Sony has revealed the top-downloaded games for the month of November.

3:17:52 - PlayStation Now’s additions for the month have been announced.

3:18:42 - News Wrap-Up

3:19:12 - Was Kingdoms of Amalur underrated or have our standards dropped?

3:26:04 - How do we feel about video game languages?

3:31:57 - Would the games industry be better without social media?

3:40:02 - Does Spartacus change our minds about Game Pass coming to PlayStation?

3:44:16 - Could an Astro Bot game where you can swap between different characters work?

3:50:17 - Should reviews consider price points and business models?



Sacred Symbols, Episode 180:  The Lame Awards

Comments

Embrace the JOY, Magic and wonder that is the spirit of Santa... face the reality at a later time when they're better equipped to comprehend it. There are so rare few of those moments in life. It'll make you all the happier while it's going on. Just try to use it as a message of giving, than receiving... even though that's pretty much lost on the little ones.

Manny M

Colin and Chris, I know it's easy to use that logical reasoning and general goodness in you to not want to deceive your own kids some day with the fable that is Santa... but you will. It's hard to comprehend what it is... but when you have your own little mounds of flesh, created from a part of you that wasn't thrown away into a tissue this time... there'll be an overwhelming sense to just do whatever it takes to bring them joy. And the magic of Santa is pure joy for these kids. Yes, you'll wrestle with the moral dilemma of having deceived them... what will they do when they find out... what will they think of you? It's horrible... but the unbridled JOY in their little faces both on the 25th of Dec and in the lead up to it will be worth every bit of it. And when the time comes that they discover the truth, you'll see a bit of the magic of Christmas will be dead along with the fable.

Manny M

That's cool. Sounds like something he'd do.

Colin Moriarty

25% of Tencent's employees are members of the Chinese Communist Party, several times higher than the percentage at an average Chinese firm.

Colin Moriarty

I wasn't too happy with the show, but I noticed that Geoff afterwards was doing a Twitter spaces answering questions and responding to any criticisms thrown at him so I definitely respect that he's willing to listen to feedback. Enjoyed the podcast, guys 👍

Wyvborn

Hey, great episode but this talk about Tencent is misguided. China is bad for sure but the U.S. isn't this place of 100% morality and so are our companies. There had and is alot of misconduct on our end. Tencent is a Chinese company, but I am sure it employees people that just want to make games. Just like at Activation, there are people who make games who have nothing to do with the issues surounding the company. So dial it back a little because it really is impossible to live a morally correct life anyway with this intangled world economy.

Joseph Cerini

Thank you! That fixed my issue as well! Was driving me crazy!

Jdummann92

For anyone else with this issue, I managed to fix the problem by going into the settings for the CLS Podcast Feed in the Podcast Republic App. From there change the setting for 'Episode unique criteria' to 'Episode GUID'.

Clayton Taylor

I have the same issue. Also using Podcast Republic. I can see episode 180 on the free feed in Podcast Republic, but not through my personal Patreon feed link.

Clayton Taylor

Nah I agree dude! It's "Fantasy Infamous" to me too. Looking forward to it now though :-)

Ryan H

Just an FYI I'm not seeing the podcast on my normal podcasting app (Podcast Republic), I can only listen through the Patreon app

Jdummann92

Am I the only one that got infamous vibes from this game play of Forspoken? Specifically second son with the rock shooting like the cement power and the running similar to neon.

Joshua Fielder

The Lame Awards! Omg!! LMAO 🤣😂

Aurang

Thanks what can you do you can’t get the staff these days can ya 😂

Wayne Moss

I just fixed it because someone is slacking.

Colin Moriarty

You would.

Colin Moriarty

Not rude. Honest.

Colin Moriarty

Awesome, LOL.

Colin Moriarty

Chris will never play those games, so I'm in no rush.

Colin Moriarty

<3

Colin Moriarty

I believe it's on Discord.

Colin Moriarty

I'm personally not interested in it either.

Colin Moriarty

Oh, I never once went.

Colin Moriarty

Sure. It's all speculation, but at least some items are useful and valuable intrinsically.

Colin Moriarty

Micah and I are talking about never pretending Santa is real for our kids.

Colin Moriarty

Will the video edition be up soon it’s still locked for the $1 tier ? But has just gone up on YouTube.

Wayne Moss

If Sonic was in Forza I would play it more

Sweeney's Girlfriend Archive

man i loved the games awards... why were you guys so rude. it was fun and enjoyable

Hey, Colin. Not sure if you know this but the Sony alleged pedophile story was a good opportunity to let you know Chris Hansen follows you on Twitter! If you didn't know.

Sergio Pina

I get why the show is the way it is, Geoff has to pay for it somehow, but this year was definitely worse than the last 2 which were working upwards. Colin, I don’t know anything about P4G but start 5 already geez. At this rate, Chris will have played it before you. 😄

NeO JD

Fucking eh on the glassjaw shout-out! As an almost 40 year old bald Canadian, I've worn my toque to a few glassjaw shows in downtown Toronto. 🤘

Andrew Betteridge

Anyone know where I can find this video of Ben owning Colin? Thanks in advance

Alex Watson

I almost spilled my drink when Chris said that Wonder Woman is uninteresting. Fair enough people have different tastes, but cmon Chris, Wonder woman has a lot of potential. Think Indiana Jones but with superpowers, and with the Nemesis system included. That sounds amazing to me and i cant wait to see it.

Xtian

I can only imagine IGN Colin having to suffer through the VGAs live in person in the audience! Almost 4 hours? I'd probably walk out. I dislike award shows overall so that would be my personal hell.

htr0ns

It seems like to me, If you're buying oil stocks or raw materials stocks you're betting on society improving If you're buying NFTs you're betting on society becoming more stupid

Jack Sibert

First, you have to do the Santa thing. It puts some magical mysticism in their world and their world needs it. You slowly morph it in to the “Mom and Dad are Santa” angle. Then, very importantly, you don’t let them find out from other kids at school. These are the only acceptable tactics. Don’t deprive your kids, or yourselves, of injecting some magic in to Christmas. The idea that if you’re good then your consumerist dreams can come true.

Greg Hommel

I suppose.

Colin Moriarty

Another argument to be made for buying physical is if you can buy a game used you're not giving a penny of your own money to a Chinese entity or an entity that you maybe don't agree with their practices. I have started doing this for Activision and I've been doing this for years with Electronic Arts

Wayde

Yea its definitely weird when you catch it. Like I’m not even looking for it, it’s just something that when i was watching it, I was like “wait a second…” 😆

Jeff Caseres

It's so weird people are noticing that. I'm not observant enough to notice these things.

Colin Moriarty

Tweet at him!

Colin Moriarty

You're him.

Colin Moriarty

Thank you. Glad you got to skip around.

Colin Moriarty

Take a seat.

Colin Moriarty

=)

Colin Moriarty

Too many ads.

Colin Moriarty

Way too much work, man. It's a cool idea, but we don't have that kind of heft. We can barely do six shows a week repeatedly. LOL.

Colin Moriarty

Yes.

Colin Moriarty

About 100% too long.

Colin Moriarty

How much of those four hours were ads?

Colin Moriarty

I support tariffs. If people want to embargo China and squeeze the life out of them, I'm all about that, but it comes at great cost.

Colin Moriarty

I didn't notice any of this.

Colin Moriarty

Yes, that's where I saw it.

Colin Moriarty

Yeah, maybe we can cover it in more detail next year. I spoke to 4A at E3 in 2014 during the first conflict with Russia, and how they were basically finishing I guess what was Metro Exodus at the time under some duress. They ended up moving most of the operation out of Kiev after that.

Colin Moriarty

Roger that.

Colin Moriarty

I love Quantic Dream, they rule. Can't wait to see this one.

Colin Moriarty

I'd be surprised if there wasn't an inspiration to be drawn there, indeed.

Colin Moriarty

I felt bad for the dude on-stage.

Colin Moriarty

That rules.

Colin Moriarty

I brought it up and acknowledged it. How's that disrespect?!

Colin Moriarty

Yes.

Colin Moriarty

Thanks for listening.

Colin Moriarty

I'm sure you'll get in there one day.

Colin Moriarty

That was a surprise. I had the first one on disc on PS3, but never played it.

Colin Moriarty

What’s funny about Chris catching that women thing on Saints Row, I too caught something similar in the new Siege update anime trailer thing they do. You never saw the new operator (woman) get hit by the male op she was fighting. You saw her landing hits against the man but you never saw the hits by the man land. 🤔 very interesting.

Jeff Caseres

I don’t know if your aware of this Chris, or even care for that matter but MarbleItUp is actually on apple arcade. I doubt it feels as good to play on a phone then on any console but it feels pretty good to me.

MethHaven

I'm sorry guys, yes I bought Skyrim again (3rd time for me) because I wanted those sweet sweet PS5 trophies. And to, of course, play one of the greatest RPGs of all time, again. I remember playing it on PS3 and every hour and a half or so the game would crash and I would just reset it and start it again because I loved it. Sad I won't get to play 6 on PlayStation

David

I appreciate the intelligent critique of TGA. Just condemning it and saying it sucks doesn’t actually foster intelligent thought. So thank you for once again proving that LSM is the home to thoughtful and intelligent discourse … sometimes (turkey jokes bring it down!) seriously, thank you I am thankful that I started an hour late and I could just fast forward through the parts I was not interested in. I actually enjoyed watching with my wife, who is not a gamer but watches me play a lot, I think primarily because I could skip sections. It also helped me gauge what she might be interested in watching in the future. Unless you are streaming to generate revenue, there probably isn’t a real need to watch in real time. I’m excited for where games are going!

Raymond Stuart

Robin Williams would like a word Tom Hanks Saturday night live black jeopardy clip is still one of the funniest things I have ever seen

Wayde

Santa's a fat old man that sneaks into your house to give presents to your kids and decides to have some cookies and milk if that isn't a predator I don't know what is

Wayde

"I've got three Etherium on the block chain!" ...and they immediately enslave me...

James McGivern

I completely agree with the scathing criticism of the game awards last night. I turned it off, after about 25 minutes. Between the commercial breaks that literally made me cringe because they were so shameless and the pandering. I just couldn't take it.

Tonys_Always_Write

The best transition from an actor doing comedy to drama, still is Tom Hanks. Best of luck to Offerman, I don't think I've seen anything he's in though.

Angel DeJesus

It probably could've been done in 4 episodes, but it was good, thought provoking Garland nonetheless.

Jake Z

I think you have a fair point, I’m not really involved with the community but it’s usually just the case that loud voices don’t necessarily represent the reality. Hope you don’t let it put you off! From a fly on the wall view it seems like there’s some really great people here :)

NJ

Good day to you gents! Great show as always - long concept outline ahead… Possibly an overly simplistic thought but have you really, genuinely, seriously considered issuing your own awards at some point in the new year? I know you’ve discussed why you aren’t planning to but none of the reasons really seem like they’d stop you. After all, it’s your platform! I appreciate that relationships with devs, publishers, and even actors would make their involvement impractical but, would it be so hard to ask your supremely talented design contacts to knock together some crests as awards? Could be physical or simply a digital representation as a proverbial toe in the water! The show itself could be a combination effort between SS and DD hosts. Possibly continuing the almost historic naming themes in your show titles with a name like “The LSM Honours” (American spelling also acceptable I suppose). To include it into your current platform and benefit from the relationship with the LSM community, you could have a set of awards from yourselves covering the genres you have expertise and experience with, while also passing a shortlist of other nominees out to the community to be voted on. Awards could take a format of: The Crest of Honour for Outstanding Achievement in Gameplay Design goes to… The Community Crest for Outstanding Achievement in Accessibility goes to… Just a concept I’ve been mulling over while listening to you lambast overly politicised, sponsored, and marketing focused approaches. I know this would take considerable effort to deliver but I have a nagging feeling that it’s also a potentially huge opportunity and I can’t get it out of my head. All the best, and please leave that poor chicken in peace!

NJ

"People will be a lot more forgiving of a game, now, if it's pretty & broken than if it's ugly & great." The same can be said about dating.

Kenneth Koepnick

In my opinion of course

Jett Misko

Didn't watch the whole awards. Only last half. And I have to say it has been the best VGAs from a production stand point. The cringe was minimal which was surprisingly refreshing.

Jett Misko

Alan Wake is one of my favorite games ever so finally getting a sequel is so exciting. Other than that the show had some cool stuff but was way too long

Walker Simmons

Colin: The Game Awards doesn’t respect my time Also Colin on a 4 hour podcast: Do you think furries want to fuck the Easter bunny? Lol I kid mostly, love the show guys

Knightsofray

Colin, you've been suggesting people boycott Chinese-influenced companies for a while now as you do in this episode and then you make fun of this sort of virtue signaling because you know it's a collective action problem. It's in everyone's self-interest to not care about the ethical implications of their purchases. Maybe you should be advocating for laws that forbid Chinese money if you're really as serious as you say. I never moralized about people eating factory farmed meat, but I'm happy there are laws that mitigate factory farming to solve the collective action problem.

Jake Z

Not even one woman was punched in that god awful trailer.

Travis B

Somerville was at the Xbox E3 showcase, and some of the footage was definitely the same, but some was new as well. IDK how it got advertised as 'world premiere'

NotSkyWalker

I’m really glad that Dustin mentioned Nick Offerman’s role on D.E.V.S. He was excellent in it and I definitely can see him portraying Bill. It’d also be worth mentioning to Colin that it was a limited series so it’s just 8 episodes. I’d definitely recommend it. It’s really trippy and touches on very thought provoking subjects.

Michael Vecchio

Colin, I had no clue about those companies from Ukraine being forced out in a sense. I was hoping you could offer up where you learn so much of this information from so that I'm reading what you're reading, and I can stay as informed as possible on these topics. It's fascinating in a horrible way.

PuppiesOnParade

Well, I set a record and watched 32 minutes of the Game Awards before the need to preserve neurons required I shut it off.

WreckItRoush

Quantic Dream and Star Wars is a very exciting combination. There is something super enticing about this pre-film era of the SW universe we have seen some of with the Old Republic. I think this High Republic era has some of the same intrigue. I get a feeling this combo could be a refreshing, Mass Effect-esque choice based title, (not in terms of gameplay) that gives QD insane creative flexibility. They aren’t reinventing the wheel with imagining a new sci fi universe, so I get a sense the gameplay and narrative have tremendous potential in that regard.

Kickstand

I think wonder woman game should obviously be done in the style of God of War. She's a child of the gods, strong just like kratos, with a weapon with some reach. Now would it actually be good? Wtf knows. But that's the direction I would go

Angel DeJesus

To me GTFO fills a pretty good nishe within these kind of co-op games. It's a lot more hardcore than the trailer let's on. It's extremely difficult, relies heavily on stealth, item management and timing. Each room is more like a puzzle where you and your buds just try to control the enemy mobs and not let things get out of hand. Runs can end within minutes of an alerted horde or you could just die by a thousand cuts by running out of ammo, health packs, or tools. It's a really fun co-op game if you're up for the challenge.

Explosivebob

I’ll never forget how my little brother found out about Santa Claus. My dad’s company party had a Santa Claus for kids to tell what they wanted for Christmas. After my brother’s turn was finished, one of my dad’s coworkers working the event said “ok Frank we have another one coming in”. We look back on the memory fondly.

Stephen Forgione

As a Canadian I am greatly offended by the total disrespect towards the toque. What am I twelve years old calling my hat a beanie. Get outta here with your beanie babies you Americans!

Adam

I have yet to listen to the full episode since it is longer then the Avengers, but man Guillermo Del Toro did a pretty heavy tongue and cheek Silent Hill dig

Kenneth Oms

Completely echo your sentiment on The Game Awards. What a shit show! Thanks for always keeping it real.

Martin Donelan

Sweet thanks for answering my question. Now I just need a question read on Knockback, and I would have made it onto all of the LSM shows. Knockback is probably the hardest one though - especially since I've missed a ton of movies and games over the years.

"Have the Game Awards officially lost their charm? " No they haven't. No one if forcing anyone to watch them. People that watch them and then complain are just weird. People should do something better with their time if the show doesn't appeal to them I find the people that watch and complain or shit post strange. The show isn't going to appeal to someone start to finish either and that's okay. https://deadline.com/2021/12/the-game-awards-geoff-keighley-leveling-up-gaming-ceremony-celebrate-ever-evolving-industry-1234882427/ *In 2020, The Game Awards jumped 84% in viewership to earn 84 million livestreams, up from 2019’s 42.5 million.* those numbers aren't exactly specific as to watch time etc but the show is huge worldwide and it's why things like the Kpop thing which doesn't appeal to me at all, are a part of the show this year. Yesterdays show (English version, don't know if it was broadcast in other language) is over 3 million views on YouTube. Add all the restreams, the twitch stream, and the show looks to be already a massive success when you compare it to any other show of its kind. I feel like I'm becoming an outlier in LSM lol. So much negativity and shit posting all the time. The podcasts are great don't get me wrong. I'm gonna listen to this one soon and I'm sure you guys are fair and balanced like you guys usually are. Excuse my...ornery? grump? behaviour. Feels good to get this off my chest.

Andrew

I am STOKED for Space Marine 2 but man it was rough.

Noah Friscopp

You should hit us up with a thank you Tweet for sitting through that.

Colin Moriarty

You got over 80 minutes of content out of that show so maybe hit Geoff up with a thank you tweet.

Piston Pants

LOL.

Colin Moriarty

Ugh. =D

Colin Moriarty

Thanks. =)

Colin Moriarty

<3

Colin Moriarty

Be safe.

Colin Moriarty

Glad you liked it!

Colin Moriarty

=)

Colin Moriarty

Holy shit, my mother did the same thing to me when I was a kid! I was so scared, and. Also, I knew a girl who was 13 and still believed in Santa. Thankfully, she turned out okay.

Forrest Hunter

I'm so glad you guys watched this so I didn't waist MY time...lol

drew

Perfect Title

Trevor Myers

I’m only here for the Glassjaw and The Movielife reference

I’m about to drive 12 hours to go home for the holidays. A 4 hour episode is exactly what I need, thank you Colin!

Adam Barnes

I thought the awards show was pretty great overall personally. It was nice to see It Takes Two win best game, hopefully that means more people will pick it up now :)

Shaun Wilkinson

Best part about the show https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RxhMHjrhNX8

SeanG123


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