Do It On The Day: A Video Game Podcast by Jess McDonell · Jessica McDonell

The Unfortunate Case Of Highguard At The Game Awards & A Game Unlike Anything You've Ever Played

·1 hr 2 min·5 clips

Jess says she meant to keep the episode to two topics, then quickly admits there are really three. Overwatch gets the opening aside. She thinks it is very funny that Overwatch is becoming a thing again, even if she is not trying to present herself as any kind of authority on it. Her experience with it is simple: she liked it when she played with friends, and that is enough to make the joke land. From there she shifts to a new PvP hero shooter that was revealed at the Game Awards. Her point is straightforward. The game may have been set up to land better if it had just been announced cleanly on its own, because that would have made the headlines write themselves and probably drawn at least neutral attention. Instead, the reveal showed up in the biggest, longest, most overstuffed awards show in games. That changes the mood right away. Jess says the live reaction was disappointment, because the trailer felt generic and looked like something people had already played. She notes that the reaction was not only about the trailer itself. It was also about the expectation around it. The show had been framed like a major moment, so the underwhelming reveal hit harder. She also says the Game Awards are too damn long, which does not exactly make anyone more generous. Even so, she can see the upside. The game is getting attention, and if it keeps improving, that attention may still count for something. After the industry talk, Jess pivots back to her own stream plans. She talks about a climbing game that sounds like a glorious disaster, probably the kind of thing viewers will enjoy watching her fail at. She compares it to Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy, so the shape of the joke is clear right away. A viewer vote leaned toward more Fallout, and she leaves room for that first before trying something new. The episode closes the way her show often does: casually, a little tangentially, and with the sense that the next stream is part of the same conversation.

As heard by us

A candid take on hype, reveal backlash, and a host who keeps the conversation loose.

Jess MacDonald threads the episode through a familiar games-industry frustration: a reveal can be so loudly framed that it ends up feeling flat. She argues it would have landed better with a simpler introduction, and says the live reaction felt generic and oddly familiar.

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Why you'd press play

You want the Game Awards mess without the polish.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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