Everything from The Game Awards 2016 - all news and trailers, plus winners and highlights
Here's everything from The Game Awards 2016: world premieres. Exclusive new gameplay. Awkward moments. Oh, and some prizes or something.
The Game Awards pre-show kicked off with a chat with host Geoff Keighley about the show's structure and intentions, followed by an awkward comedy segment. There are some traditions too sacred to disrupt, apparently.
Nintendo of America's Bill Trinen turned up to introduce a new look at The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This new trailer was less focused on Link and the Plateau environment shown in E3 footage, instead giving us a glimpse at the populated world beyond.
Still in the pre-show, Rocket League produced a new trailer showing off the December update.
Gearbox and People Can Fly then turned up to announce Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition. Gearbox is publishing the remastered game, so if you pre-order you can play through the whole game as Duke Nukem. Digital pre-orders have opened already.
Several awards were handed out in the pre-show, but then things officially kicked off with a rousing speech from Keighley in honour of Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima, saying that this year's award is in some ways a compensation for the one Kojima couldn't accept last year due to contractual difficulties with Konami.
Kojima accepted the award and said he loves Keighley, The Game Awards, and everyone who supported him - then introduced a new Death Stranding trailer. The trailer confirmed the rumour about Mads Mikkelsen being in Death Stranding, which caused immediate nosebleeds in the VG247 office.
After this we got an update from from Warframe, Digital Extremes' popular free-to-play shooter, and then saw a few ads. After that came some new footage from the Assassin's Creed movie and some chat about the Assassin's Creed Oculus Rift experience on show in Los Angeles at the moment.
Then it was time for Run the Jewels, whom you may recall are now playable in Gears of War 4 multiplayer thanks to a recent DLC pack. They were great.
The next major beat was the announce of a Marvel Telltale game - Guardians of the Galaxy. The teaser started off looking a lot like Mass Effect: Andromeda, which was very cruel, Telltale.
After a few more ads we got a couple of awards, and there was a real highlight here: That Dragon Caner won in the games for impact category, and although hearing that title screamed out enthusiastically was weirdly upsetting, the emotional acceptance speech from Ryan Green, father of Joel Green, the boy featured in the game, was absolutely beautiful and disarming.
Next we had the announce of Dauntless, a game from Phoenix Studios. This indie was founded by three former Riot members, including two BioWare veterans, and this was our first peek at what it's been working on.
Cliff Bleszinski then turned up to give us a new trailer for Lawbreakers and encourage us to sign up for the beta.
The next segment was a live performance of the DOOM soundtrack from composer Mick Gordon, which was terrific. Nolan North then arrived to receive the Nolan North Award (best performer), and gave a speech thanking Amy Hennig for casting him in a role that's been hugely important. He also thanked Naughty Dog as a whole for promoting the art of performance in games; the studio was one of the first to embrace motion capture and promote performance artists.
The Prey gameplay debut was next, and I was pleased to see you can chuck random s**t around. This is important for first-person immersive sims. Everything else is optional.
Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime arrived next introducing a video message from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild producer Eiji Aonuma, ahead of a Nintendo Treehouse Breath of the Wild gameplay presentation.
Next we got a look at the upcoming Shovel Knight prequel, Specter of Torment.
Ubisoft then gave us a decent slab of Assassin's Creed movie footage, which was nice. It had a horse in it.
Back to games next with Halo Wars 2, and word that Halo Wars: Definitive Edition will be free for owners of Halo Wars 2: Ultimate Edition. Or something. Honestly getting a bit frazzled by this stage.
Rae Sremmurd turned up to perform Black Beetles. It seemed like maybe their levels were a bit off, or maybe that's just the newfangled kid sound.
The extended trailer for The Walking Dead: Season 3 Telltale brought next was actually pretty tense.
Finally, it was time for Mass Effect: Andromeda, with a bunch of gameplay footage including combat, exploration and more.
The show then ended with the presentation of game of the year to Overwatch.
The Game Awards 2016 - winners and nominees
The Game Awards are supposedly an award night - it's right there in the name - but of course most of us are in it for the reveals. Still, it's always fun to argue about who "should" have won, so here's the full list of nominees, with winners in bold.
Game of the Year
- Doom (id Software / Bethesda)
- Inside (Playdead)
- Overwatch (Blizzard Entertainment)
- Titanfall 2 (Respawn / Electronic Arts)
- Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (Naughty Dog / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Best Studio/Game Direction
- Blizzard (Overwatch)
- DICE (Battlefield 1)
- id Software (Doom)
- Naughty Dog (Uncharted 4)
- Respawn (Titanfall 2)
Best Narrative
- Firewatch (Campo Santo)
- Inside (Playdead)
- Mafia 3 (Hangar 13/2K Games)
- Oxenfree (Night School Studio)
- Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (Naughty Dog/Sony)
Best Art Direction
- Abzu (Giant Squid/505 Games)
- Firewatch (Campo Santo)
- Inside (Playdead)
- Overwatch (Blizzard)
Best Music/Sound Design
- Battlefield 1 (DICE/EA)
- Doom (id Software/Bethesda)
- Inside (Playdead)
- Rez Infinite (Enhance Games)
- Thumper (Drool)
Best Performance
- Alex Hernandez as Lincoln Clay (Mafia 3)
- Cissy Jones as Delilah (Firewatch)
- Emily Rose as Elena (Uncharted 4)
- Nolan North as Nathan Drake (Uncharted 4)
- Rich Summer as Henry (Firewatch)
- Tory Baker as Sam Drake (Uncharted 4)
Games for Impact Award
- 1979 Revolution (iNK Stories)
- Block’Hood (Plethora Project/Devolver Digital)
- Orwell (Osmotic Studios/Surprise Attack)
- Sea Hero Quest (Glitchers)
- That Dragon, Cancer (Numinous Games)
Best Independent Game
- Firewatch (Campo Santo)
- Hyper Light Drifter (Heart Machine)
- Inside (Playdead)
- Stardew Valley (ConcernedApe/Chucklefish)
- The Witness (Thekla)
Best Mobile/Handheld
- Clash Royale (Supercell)
- Fire Emblem Fates (Intelligent Systems/Nintendo)
- Monster Hunter Generations (Capcom)
- Pokemon Go (Niantic)
- Severed (Drinkbox Studios)
Best VR Game
- Batman: Arkham VR (Rocksteady/Warner Bros.)
- EVE: Valkyrie (CCP Games)
- Job Simulator (Owlchemy Labs)
- Rez Infinite (Enhance Games)
- Thumper (Drool)
Best Action Game
- Battlefield 1 (DICE/EA)
- Doom (id Software/Bethesda)
- Gears of War 4 (The Coalition/Microsoft)
- Overwatch (Blizzard)
- Titanfall 2 (Respawn/EA)
Best Action/Adventure Game
- Dishonored 2 (Arkane Studios/Bethesda)
- Hitman (IO Interactive/Square Enix)
- Hyper Light Drifter (Heart Machine)
- Ratchet & Clank (Insomniac Games/Sony)
- Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (Naughty Dog /Sony)
Best RPG
- Dark Souls 3 (From Software/Bandai Namco)
- Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (Eidos Montreal/Square Enix)
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine (CD Projekt RED)
- World of Warcraft: Legion (Blizzard)
- Xenoblade Chronicles X (Monolith Soft/Nintendo)
Best Fighting Game
- Killer Instinct Season 3 (Iron Galaxy Studios/Microsoft)
- The King of Fighters XIV (SNK/Atlus USA)
- Pokken Tournament (Bandai Namco Studios/The Pokemon Company)
- Street Fighter 5 (Capcom)
Best Family Game
- Dragon Quest Builders (Square Enix)
- LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens (TT Fusion/Warner Bros.)
- Pokemon Go (Niantic)
- Ratchet & Clank (Insomniac Games/Sony)
- Skylanders: Imaginators (Toys for Bob/Activision)
Best Strategy Game
- Civilization 6 (Firaxis Games/2K Games)
- Fire Emblem Fates (Intelligent Systems/Nintendo)
- The Banner Saga 2 (Stoic Studio/Versus Evil)
- Total War: Warhammer (The Creative Assembly/SEGA)
- XCOM 2 (Firaxis Games/2K Games)
Best Sports / Racing Game
- FIFA 17 (EA Canada/EA Sports)
- Forza Horizon 3 (Playground Games/Microsoft)
- MLB The Show 2016 (SIE San Diego Studio/Sony)
- NBA 2K17 (Visual Concepts/2K Sports)
- Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 (PES Productions/Konami)
Best Multiplayer Game
- Battlefield 1 (DICE/EA)
- Gears of War 4 (The Coalition/Microsoft)
- Overcooked (Ghost Town Games/Team17)
- Overwatch (Blizzard)
- Rainbow Six Siege (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
- Titanfall 2 (Respawn/EA)
Most Anticipated Game
- God of War (SIE Santa Monica Studio/Sony)
- Horizon: Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games/Sony)
- Mass Effect: Andromeda (BioWare/EAs)
- Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar)
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo)
Fans’ Choice
Best eSports Player
- Faker – [Lee Sang-Hyeok] SK Telecom T1, League of Legends
- Coldzera – [Marcelo David] SK Gaming, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
- Byun-Hyun Woo – Starcraft 2
- Infiltrator – [Lee Seeon-woo] Team Razer, Street Fighter 5
- Hungrybox – [Juan Debiedma] Team Liquid, Super Smash Bros.
Best eSports Team
- SK Telecom T1 – Game: League of Legends
- Wings Gaming – Game: DOTA 2
- SK Gaming
- ROX Tigers – Game: Leauge of Legends
- Cloud 9
Best eSports Game
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (Valve)
- DOTA 2 (Valve)
- League of Legends (Riot)
- Overwatch (Blizzard)
- Street Fighter 5 (Capcom)
Trending Gamer
- AngryJoeShow
- Boogie2988
- Danny O’Dwyer
- JackSpeticeye
- Lirik
Best Fan Creation
Project A2MR- withdrawnPokemon Uranium- withdrawn- Brutal Doom 64
- Endereal: The Shards of Order