Lots of exciting news to look forward to at The Game Awards tonight

At 00:30 GMT / 1:30 CET tonight (technically Friday) the pre-show for The Game Awards will start, ahead of the main event at 1:00 GMT / 2:00 CET. In addition to the awards ceremony, both parts will also feature exciting news from new games, and some from the ones we already know about. So we thought it might be appropriate to write a little about what we're expecting.

Host and producer Geoff Keighley, and in many cases the developers themselves, have as usual both revealed and hinted at some of what will be on show at The Game Awards. Therefore, we know for sure that the following games will appear:

• ARC Raiders - Is the first game from former EA boss Patrick Söderlund's new Embark Studios, and we can look forward to the first proper trailer with some gameplay.


• Chrono Cross Remastered/Remake - Hasn't even been confirmed, but Square Enix has done so much to indicate that the long-awaited remake/remaster will be revealed this month that we dare say we're relatively sure it will show up.


• CrossfireX - Had its Twitter account conveniently come to life with cryptic messages the past few days, and a percentage meter was raised from 21 to 63 percent counted from December 3 to 6. Simple math suggests it reaches 100 percent around December 9. Coincidence? Hardly.


• Destiny 2: The Witch Queen - This major expansion gets a new trailer. We don't know if it's a movie edit or gameplay though.


• Dying Light 2 Stay Human - Will show a new CG trailer to hype us up for February.


• Paramount's Halo series - We got to see a few seconds from it when Xbox turned 20 on November 15, but a much more comprehensive trailer is promised with a closer look at the soldiers in the iconic armour during The Game Awards.


• Homeworld 3 - This is promised to resurface late tonight.


• Saints Row - The game recently got pushed back a full six months, from February to August, but we'll still get to see more from the reboot during the show tonight.


• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movie - Here we can look forward to the first trailer from the upcoming theatrical release. At the same time, Sega will give us the first proper trailer from the new game, which many believe is called Sonic Frontiers.


• Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League - So far we've gotten two cinematic trailers, but this Friday is finally the time to see gameplay from the Batman: Arkham Asylum creators' upcoming title.


• The Lord of the Rings: Gollum - Gollum's adventure was one of the first to be confirmed for The Game Awards. We'll see a new trailer here, but only time will tell if it'll include some gameplay with the cinematic sequences.


• The Matrix Awakens - This isn't really a game, but a project to show what the future of interactive storytelling and entertainment with Unreal Engine 5 can bring to the new consoles. Sounds promising!


• Tiny Tina's Wonderlands - A new gameplay trailer is on the schedule and reportedly there will be some ray-tracing included.


• Xbox Game Pass - Keighley doesn't usually like to focus on hardware or services during The Game Awards, but the Xbox Game Pass Twitter account makes it clear that four of the games being showcased will be launching directly to the PC version of the service.

So the above are the things we know, or know with extreme certainty, will show up at The Game Awards, but Keighley has also promised us four or five secret announcements on par with the hysteria that Elden Ring created last summer. There will be a number of surprises, so let's name a few good candidates:

Alan Wake 2 - The rumours were already flying before Alan Wake Remastered released a couple of months ago, and it's now been almost two years since Epic said they'd back the Finnish developer's next secret game. That leads us to believe we're closing in on the unveiling, something usually reliable Jeff Grubb says he also believes in the latest episode of the Nate the Hate podcast.
Bioshock 4 - This adventure was confirmed two years ago, but 2K Games and Cloud Chamber have been extremely quiet since then. Recently, however, some good rumours have surfaced, including gossip that the game will be released next year. Surely an announcement would be a good way for Take-Two to round out 2021 in style?
Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course - We've barely heard a peep since this was postponed until 2021 last year, and Studio MDHR has refused to say anything the times we've tried to ask for an update. In any case, we're choosing to hope for some news during the show.
Senua's Saga: Hellblade II - It's already been two years since the sequel was announced at the 2019 edition of The Game Awards. Time for an update and gameplay perhaps? We hope so.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge - The Turtles' upcoming escapades got a new trailer during Keighley's Gamescom Opening Night Live broadcast in August, where we learned that April is playable. That Keighley also gets the honour of revealing the launch date would make sense as well.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - The RPG was basically announced last summer, and savvy Imran Khan of Fanbyte claimed at the time that the game will be released early next year. Nintendo and Keighley are known to be good friends, so this could very well be the latter's big surprise at the show.

Given that we're expecting more than twenty big and small news at The Game Awards, these are just a few examples of what we can expect or at least hope to see tonight. However, we can say that we already know about a few other big surprises that we think many will get hyped by.

What do you hope and think will turn up - and will you be following The Game Awards?