Zuraa, it’s Danial on this week’s newsletter as we get rotated for the upcoming Award season. And while proceedings for our annual Gamer Malaya and Gamer Matters Game Of The Year Awards is going along smoothly, let’s us talk about my part of this proceedings

…But FIRST

So, it is the award season, where this year’s batch video games are celebrated for either the advancement in gameplay, storytelling or being a solid enough package to be celebrated by either the gaming press or by the public in a vote of confidence that is probably more hotly contested than the actual voting processes within the real world. With some of the glitz and glamour of announcing it that you would see in Hollywood, only sometimes interspersed with gameplay trailers at the behest of the director of these “Game awards”.

But for us here in Gamermatters, we like to think a bit more differently. Movie aficionados would know about this small gala that celebrates the WORST in movies, where the worst performances, movies and such, are lambasted for  easy pickings, with most disregard of what the movie is about. Of course I’m talking about the infamous Golden Raspberry Award, aka the Razzies.

It is weird to note that we don’t really have that sort of equivalent (baring Mega 64’s award show) that’s notes the trials and pitfalls of a video game to be so terrible, its as if it was to be banished into obscurity, just appearing in someone’s list for “bad video games” that they can published to the whim of the SEO. So, back in 2018, we went above and beyond to highlight these terrible games in our own feature article, that we kept going until now. We called it the “Trashfire Awards”. 

So what constitutes a trash fire game, in our eyes? Well, unlike the Razzies or even some of those SEO-content dumps, we have to play them to be eligible, by any means necessary. The reason why this existed was due to the dual combo of me having to play Square Enix’s Left Alive and Bethesda’s Fallout 76 launch period back then, So it clicked to me that perhaps people would want to know why these games are the way they are.

And because of my love of both cheesy video games and movies at a young age, it made me be more accepting of the game’s shortcomings, like Voiltion’s Saints Row remake that was panned all across the board but I think it’s a fine sandbox and internally, we think that, while the story of Detroit: Become Human was absolute garbage, it’s a good enough game to get a pass when during its year, there were many other worst offenders.

Really, I would always take a page out of the late Totalbiscuit’s book on how he classifies terrible games and it's usually a case of terrible game engine porting (like the GTA Definitive Editions or even the last gen console versions of Cyberpunk 2077) or just terrible monetization to the point of parody, aka Diablo Immortal. Or even in some cases, a worst off mod that’s just harms a reputation of the original game (looking at you Fallout New Frontiers)

Plus, with the advent of these “AI Gen” games that used thor tools cynically without replacing them after getting to a point that perhaps its usage is more harmful than good, I think it would make my selection far easier by just avoiding talking about them. Because if they couldn’t be asked to contact an artist for something, then surely they don’t mind us bottom feeders ignoring them.

And that’s it really. Our backend stuff isn’t much but we play the bad games from time-to-time to enjoy the good ones, and sometimes even celebrate the ones that crossed the lines, because video games do be volatile at times and that might be the last time they release anything. 

The NEWS From Last Week

• The upcoming Project Mugen now has a sick new trailer and new name, Ananta

• PlayStation 5 users gets to use a limited time 30th anniversary theme that includes the sounds of the previous generation

• And My First Gran Turismo is now out on both PS4 and PS5 if you feel like dipping your toes into racing games

Game Reviews

Here are some of our reviews for this week:

• I got my hands on the incredible Indiana Jones and The Golden Circle

• Meck’s gotten that Hatten Hotel eSports Room feature that we mentioned, out as well

• Also another not a review… but something for my fellow enjoyers of the Shadow

And that’s that! Thanks again for reading or skimming through. The fact that this gets open is already a big deal. But it helps us a lot if you can click through any of those links. And this button down here. It keeps independent media sites with a shoestring budget like us alive and operating. 

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Play games and have fun,

—Danial and the Gamer Matters Team