The Game Awards 2023 was packed with wall-to-wall game announcements, from surprise DLC to copious amounts of world premieres. There were so many reveals, in fact, that hardly any time was left over for the actual awards. If you’re anything like me, the deluge of trailers may already feel like an undifferentiated mass of flashing lights and studio logos, despite the number of exciting games on display.
With the dust now settled on the show, here’s a reminder (as much for myself as for you) of the best announcements that may have flown under your radar.
Big Walk
Big Walk will test your friendships in 2025.
Things started strong with the reveal of Big Walk from developer House House. The trailer opens with lingering shots of wilderness backed by wild bird calls before the camera pulls back and we see… a couple of weird little guys looking through binoculars at their friends on a distant hill.
Where House House’s Untitled Goose Game was about being a menace, Big Walk is about having a nice time with your friends exploring and solving puzzles in the Australian bushlands. The puzzles require a mix of logic and communication, and they’re only possible to solve by working together.
Add Big Walk’s phenomenal visual design — a mix of realistic environments and extremely silly characters that look like rough clay models — and you’ve already got one of the most intriguing games of 2025.
Dredge x Dave the Diver
As if there wasn’t already enough to do in Dave the Diver, a free DLC adds content from Dredge.
Dave the Diver’s nomination for Best Indie Game may be controversial — because it’s definitely not an indie game — but its Game Awards DLC reveal was much more welcome. Launching December 15, the free DLC brings the cosmic horror of fellow nominee Dredge into the game.
It’s a perfect match, in a way. Both games feature unique twists on typical fishing games, and both were major hits this year.
If you’ve ever wanted to make sushi out of unholy abominations, the Dredge crossover will let you do that. Catching the cursed fish will also bring new challenges, and the DLC even brings some of Dredge’s gameplay into Dave the Diver, letting you drive your boat to find new fishing spots.
Mecha Break
Mecha Break will fill the Armored Core-shaped hole in your heart.
If Armored Core VI stoked a love for giant murder robots in your heart, Mecha Break will help keep it burning. Revealed at The Game Awards, Mecha Break is a fast-paced action game with so much action onscreen it’s honestly kind of hard to keep track of.
Don’t go in expecting the same brand of mech action that you got from Armored Core VI, though. Rather than a story-based single-player game, Mecha Break is built around multiplayer. In addition to a co-op mode for three to six players, there’s also a competitive mode for teams of three or six and a massive 48-player battle royale mode. Mecha Break doesn’t have a release date yet, but it’s certainly one to watch.
Visions of Mana
The first brand-new Mana game since 2006 looks like an absolute joy.
I’m gonna be honest with you — the only moment I actually gasped out loud during The Game Awards was over the reveal of Visions of Mana. We saw very little of the game proper during the show as its trailer is mostly pre-rendered cutscenes, but some very enticing gameplay is sprinkled in. Like 2020’s Trials of Mana, Visions of Mana will be a 3D action game rather than the top-down style of the original series.
What we saw should be familiar to Mana fans, from new takes on some classic enemies and abilities to the instantly recognizable character designs of the series. While there have been plenty of Mana remakes and spinoffs over the past decade, Visions of Mana will be the first new game in the main series since 2006’s Dawn of Mana.
Visions of Mana is set to release in 2024.
Light No Fire
The game looks great, Sean, but you can’t keep doing this to yourself.
While No Man’s Sky has grown into a fantastic game through seven years of updates, it was a different story at launch. Director Sean Murray famously overhyped the game’s features, leading to massive disappointment upon its release, and an unfortunate wave of hate from pissed-off gamers. So surely the studio head wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. Right, Sean?
Well, sometimes you just can’t help yourself, I guess. Light No Fire is the next release from developer Hello Games, and it’s already getting the No Man’s Sky treatment. Appearing onstage, Murray hyped the exploration game, which is supposedly set on a simulated planet the size of Earth.
There’s frankly too much going on in the trailer to even track. Multiplayer survival, vast landscapes stretching to the horizon, rideable dragons, city building, anthropomorphic rabbits. It’s impossible to say what Light No Fire will be just yet, but it’s bound to be interesting.
A Whole Mess of Sega Games
Fans of old-school Sega games have a lot to look forward to soon.
Emblematic of the breakneck pace of the entire show, Sega managed to reveal five new games from some of its most beloved series over 90 seconds, and it still got lost in the shuffle. In one short trailer, Sega announced new Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi, Golden Axe, Shinobi, and Streets of Rage games.
These aren’t just simple re-releases, either. Shinobi has a gorgeous new hand-drawn look, while Streets of Rage and Golden Axe are going 3D. Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi look like spiffier versions of their Dreamcast origins, which is also exactly what fans want. The whole announcement was a nostalgia overload for retro game fans, with the only letdown being there’s no release date in sight yet for any of them.
