The Game Awards returned last night. The show, hosted by Geoff Keighley, featured the year’s best games. Some of those titles earned more accolades at last night’s event, such as Best Independent Game, Best Action Game, and the coveted Game of the Year. Multiple trailers from upcoming games also made their debut at the show.
If you weren’t able to see The Game Awards last night, we have you covered: Below are some of the highlights from the show, including the new trailers as well as a portion of the list of award winners.
Coming To The PC
The future is bright for PC gaming. This includes Telltale Games, which showed off new gameplay from its latest season of The Walking Dead. The same studio also teased a brand new adventure in the Guardians of the Galaxy universe. Lawbreakers, which we previewed earlier this year, also showed another trailer that featured a new map and character role. Current Halo franchise developer 343 Industries showcased a trailer for Halo Wars 2, which featured Atriox, the game’s main antagonist. Yacht Club Games, the studio that created Shovel Knight, the highly-praised 2D side-scroller from 2014, revealed that a prequel titled Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment is in the works and presented an accompanying gameplay trailer. Phoenix Labs, a brand new Canadian-based studio revealed its first game: a co-op role-playing game called Dauntless. Details are somewhat slim, but we know that you and your friends will have to band together and fight large creatures called Behemoths in order to survive. The game will be free-to-play and is expected to come out in 2017.
However, the show also saved some room for a few major games. Bethesda and Arkane Studios pulled the curtain back a bit on the studio’s upcoming project, Prey. This time around, we saw more gameplay footage. You play as protagonist Morgan Yu, who is on the Talos I space station. However, he’s not alone; dark beings called Typhons threaten to take over the station. In order to stay alive, Yu must fight the Typhons with both weapons and his newfound alien powers.
One of the main attractions of the night belonged to Bioware, which showed off gameplay video of Mass Effect Andromeda. This time around, you control the Pathfinder, a soldier-slash-explorer tasked with the mission to find a new home for the human race. With the aid of a new ship called the Tempest, as well as some alien allies, you’ll have to venture to parts unknown to find a suitable home. As usual, combat returns to the series, but there are some new tools to use in the game such as the six-wheel Nomad vehicle and a scanning tool that provides information about specific plants or species. We’ll undoubtedly learn more about the game before its spring 2017 release, but now at least we have a taste of what to expect from Mass Effect Andromeda.
Kojima And Link
Because of the issue surrounding his departure from Konami, Hideo Kojima wasn’t able to accept the award last year for his work in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Keighley obviously didn’t forget about this and presented the night’s first award, the Industry Icon, to Kojima. The Metal Gear Solid creator returned the favor with a new trailer for his upcoming game, Death Stranding. Initially revealed at E3, Kojima’s latest trailer for the game featured a digitized version of Guillermo del Toro as well as a new cast member--Mads Mikkelsen of Casino Royale and Hannibal fame. The actual story in Death Stranding is still unknown, so watch the trailer below and try to make sense of what is actually going on in Kojima’s strange world.
Nintendo also made an appearance to show off the next chapter in its ever-popular Legend of Zelda series. The latest entry, sub-titled Breath of the Wild, was a popular attraction at E3 this year. The game doesn’t come out until some time in 2017, so the company decided to reveal more gameplay footage. The video showed Link fighting new monsters with a vast array of weapons on his way to a shrine. After a quick mini-boss fight, though, the purpose of the shrine wasn’t revealed, which undoubtedly will leave fans clamoring for more info. The game will be available for the Wii U and for Nintendo's upcoming console, the Nintendo Switch.
Awards And Tears
The majority of the night was spent on awards. Games like Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Dishonored 2 took home the title of Best Narrative and Best Action/Adventure Game, respectively. The rise of virtual reality also prompted a Best VR Game category, and the PlayStation VR's Rez Infinite took home the title. Unsurprisingly, Blizzard Entertainment’s Overwatch was voted as the overall Game of the Year. The full list is available on the show’s website.
One moment that stood out during the show was when Numinous Games’ Ryan Green accepted the Games for Impact award for That Dragon, Cancer. As Green spoke he fought back tears. The game, which focused on Green’s family, specifically on his son Joel who had cancer, was an emotional experience. Green, along with his wife and other developers, turned the tragic story into a game so others can see through their perspective during Joel’s short life. Needless to say, the award was well-deserved.
The Game Awards signal the end of yet another successful year for video games. Multiple titles in both the triple-A and independent scenes had success. Esports continues to grow as a thriving industry, and the first wave of virtual reality games are already out for consumption. The year 2017 is a few weeks away, and because of what was revealed at the show, fans are already excited for what’s to come.
