The Game Awards 2018: 7 Ups & 6 Downs

Downs...

6. The Bloated Runtime & Terrible Pacing

Probably the biggest problem with the show overall is just how inconsistently paced the three-hour broadcast was.

One minute Geoff Keighley is racing through awards at a geometric pace, and the next he's slowing things down to allow time for the requisite blocks of commercials, overbaked musical performances, unfunny skits and so on.

Granted, even more "prestigious" awards shows such as The Oscars suffer with the bloat problem, but so little service was paid to the actual awards here that it sometimes felt like this was basically a marketing opportunity for the industry with a few statues attached.

A tight two-hour show that sticks mostly to the awards with a few trailers in-between would be a far more tolerable format, especially for those Europeans who stayed up until almost-breakfast time to watch it.