The Game Awards are always one of the most unhinged events of the year. Not only are fans subjected to dozens of trailers for games with ridiculous titles (Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon!), but last night’s celebration of 2022's video games included a 10-minute-long acceptance speech, an interaction between Animal from The Muppets and God of War: Ragnarok composer Bear McCreary, and someone from Elden Ring giving a shoutout to "my reformed orthodox rabbi, Bill Clinton."
While I don't understand many (read: every single one) of the events that transpired at this year’s Game Awards, the most surprising appearance of the night came from acting legend Al Pacino.
Yes, Scarface himself was inexplicably at the 2022 Game Awards. Pacino presented the night’s first award for Best Performance by declaring that he doesn’t play video games at all. "This is an experience for me. One I didn’t expect, but here I am as usual, doing my surprising thing to myself," he said. Looking a little bit lost up there, Pacino eventually grounded himself, found the teleprompter, and spoke about how he’s impressed by what video games can do nowadays because he watches his kids play them.
“And of course, naturally, by the perfoooormance!” Pacino suddenly bellowed, as if Oprah was giving away a PlayStation 5 to everyone in the audience. “As an actor, I’ve learned that whether you’re on the stage, in front of the camera, or inside the audio booth, always, fundamentally, we’re the same... We’re all trying to tell a story.” Winner Christopher Judge, who won the award for voicing Kratos in God of War; Ragnarok, then spoke for what felt like an eternity as Pacino waited patiently behind him.
I, for one, think Al Pacino would have a wonderful time playing video games. Someone set Pacino up with Grand Theft Auto and just watch him go wild.
Josh Rosenberg is an Assistant Editor at Esquire, keeping a steady diet of one movie a day. His past work can be found at Spin, CBR, and on his personal blog at Roseandblog.com.
