The Game Awards are an annual ceremony to honor achievements in the video game industry, that also serves as a platform for new release announcements and in-depth looks at the gaming year.
The Game Wards was held on December 1st, and was again hosted by founder and producer, Geoff Keighley. There were a ton of great games at the show, from expected titles like Uncharted 4, Overwatch and Doom to even some selected independent titles grabbing a few nominations as well (and even a win). Aside from announcing the award winners, there was also a great deal of world premieres for game trailers. Here are a few of those that stood out for us.
Before we jump into the trailers, the following are the awards and the winners.
- The Industry Icon Award: Hideo Kojima
- Best Art Direction: Inside
- Best Action Game: Doom
- Best Mobile / Handheld: Pokemon Go
- Best VR Game: Rez Infinite
- Games for Impact: That Dragon, Cancer
- Best Performance: Nolan North (Nathan Drake for ‘Uncharted 4’)
- Best Sports/Racing Game: Forza Horizon 3
- Best Narrative: Uncharted 4
- Best Music / Sound Design: Doom
- Best Game Direction: Blizzard (Overwatch)
- Best Action/Adventure Game: Dishonored 2
- Best RPG: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine
- Best Fighting Game: Street Fighter V
- Best Strategy Game: Civilization 6
- Best Family Game: Pokemon Go
- Best Multiplayer: Overwatch
- Most Anticipated Game: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- Trending Gamer: Boogie2988
- Best Esports Player: Coldzera – Marcelo David
- Best Esports Team: Cloud 9
- Best Esports Game: Overwatch
- Game of the Year: Overwatch
While there was some great titles winning awards this year it was a easily predicted race for many of these awards making the categories such as “Games for Impact” and Esports categories all the more interesting if only to give us a break from what at times felt like an extended commercial for already popular games and the Assassin’s Creed movie which also unveiled some exciting new footage than just rolling out the trailer again. This is of course ignoring the baffling Hydro razors promo which saw the host trying to converse with a giant razor and leaving you to wish they took a leaf out of the Playstation Store easter egg heavy trailer.
True some categories did have tougher competition such as Best Action Game and Best Narrative specifically and It is great to see some more independent games getting nominations as the industry only continues recognise the indie game market more with each passing year which only became more evident when Gearbox unveiled during the pre-show their own independent wing which will he hosting the latest remastered title with “Bulletstorm Full Clip Edition” which will also allow you to play this much underrated shooter as Duke Nukem. This new support for developer “People Can Fly” hopefully mean that we might finally see a sequel to this much overlooked classic.
Despite the added attention for the independent scene strongly on this occasion represented by “Inside” this was mainly the playground of the Triple A titles making it more of a pity that more didn’t win still that is a discussion for another post.
Most controversial was the Best Fan Creation category which no winner was announced for during the show and which saw two of its nominations removed from the list after being announced with no reasons being given living this one still kind of in the dark as of the time of writing. Without further ado, let us get to the main draw of the evening which was the new release trailers. Here’s what stood out for us:
Death Stranding
Following a classy presentation of The Industry Icon Award to Hideo Kojima to start off The Game Awards, Mr. Kojima couldn’t leave the stage without giving everyone an early gift in the form of a more in depth look at Death Stranding, the game he teased at the E3 conference. In this one, we know that the cast has two great actors signed on, Norman Reedus (which we knew before) and Mads Mikkelsen even though the plot is still very much under wraps but boy does Mikkelsen still manage to project his creepy presence even in video game form. The big surprise though from this latest trailer was seeing visionary director Guillermo Del Toro showing off his acting abilities. We really can’t wait to find out how this all ties together.
Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series
Telltale Games has adapted a lot of great franchises in episodic choice-based games from The Walking Dead to Game of Thrones to the most recent Batman: The Telltale Series which has an upcoming final episode due for release in December. Guardians of the Galaxy is also getting the Telltale Games treatment. This is more of a teaser than a trailer but it is set for 2017 release supposedly. Hopefully, a longer trailer should be showing up soon.
Halo Wars 2
A title we’ve been excited about since playing the beta released at E3 and this latest trailer only added to that excitement, alongside the news that the original game will be remastered with early access being given to those who pre-order the game. Needless to say it was one of the more epic trailers showcased while also introducing the new lead villain as well as Commander of the banished Atriox.
LawBreakers
LawBreakers is a gravity-based multiplayer first person shooter game. Their trailer looks at the weapons and how the game works. LawBreakers are out of alpha and they also announced that there will be a beta coming out in 2017 as well as the release. You can go to the Lawbreakers website here to sign up for beta.
Prey
Arkane Studios has shown quite a few trailers and talks at their upcoming first person shooter game, Prey, since the announcement at the Bethesda E3 Press Conference. For The Game Awards, they came here with a gameplay trailer, something that hasn’t been revealed yet, plus a bit more of the story as well. This trailer takes us into a more in-depth look of the Talos station and the world and interaction.
Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment
Yacht Club Games brings us the prequel of their iconic game, Shovel Knight next year.
The Walking Dead: A New Frontier
We already mentioned Telltale Games adapting “Guardians of the Galaxy” but they also showcased the latest addition to their popular Walking Dead series with “The Walking Dead called A New Frontier” due out on December 20th where you play as a completely new character as it follows a family trying to survive during the early days The Walking Dead universe as well as boasting a two part opening episode.
Mass Effect: Andromeda
Closing out the show Bioware unquestionably left us excited for this latest addition to the franchise as we got to see some tantalizing gameplay and cutscene footage.
There you have it! Some teasers, a lot of trailers and so much to look forward to. 2017 looks like a great year for gaming. There was a lot more that we didn’t share here. To see the full The Game Awards ceremony, you can check it out here.
What did you think of this year’s awards? Was there a title you felt should have been featured or if any winners were undeserved? Let us know in the comments section below.