There’s no shortage of exhilarating trailers in this year’s Game Awards 2016. The online-streamed ceremony (which you can watch in its entirety here) returned with lots of awards and, of course, world premiere trailers and gameplay footage. So let’s jump right into it!
Death Stranding
The trailer for Kojima’s Death Stranding has left me (and the audience, probably) in complete confusion and tingling spine. Kojima is back, stronger than ever, and his mastery of trailers is evident in his enigmatic trailer complete with a creepy baby, Guillermo Del Toro, as well as Mads Mikkelsen sporting tentacles (if you thought he was creepy as Hannibal, watch this trailer). Though no release date or gameplay has been revealed, it seems that the trailer is rendered in real time.
Mass Effect: Andromeda
What on Earth–er, Andromeda–is this stunner of a game? Almost everything I have expected from a next-gen Mass Effect game is here. Stunning space? Yes. Impressive-looking aliens? Yes. Ridiculously energetic gameplay mechanics? Yup. Colourful, vibrant, scary, impressive worlds? Absolutely. I am a HUGE fan of the Mass Effect series (I wish someone would make a Netflix series out of it so non-gamers can enjoy it), and I absolutely cannot wait for Andromeda.
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Nintendo is changing up the Zelda formula in significant ways, but they still manage to make this feel like a Zelda game. The new trailer shows a mix of gameplay as well as various locations, but the stuttering frame-rate is something that’s prevalent, unfortunately. I’m hoping that it is being streamed off the Wii U version and not the Switch version; Nintendo has impressed me with the prospect of the Switch but I would absolutely hate if there are frame-rate issues because Nintendo isn’t bothered about performance as much as about gameplay (newsflash: a lot of experience is derived from the performance, too).
Awards
In addition to those trailers, there were others — I particularly enjoyed that Telltale would be making a Guardians of the Galaxy game — but more importantly, here are this year’s awards.
- Game of the Year: Overwatch
- Best Game Direction: Blizzard for the work on Overwatch
- Best Narrative: Uncharted 4
- Best Art Direction: Inside
- Best Music and Sound Design: Doom
- Best Independent Game: Inside
- Best Mobile Game: Pokémon GO
- Best VR Game: Rez Infinite
- Best Action Game: Doom
- Best Action/Adventure Game: Dishonored 2
- Best RPG: Witcher 3 Blood & Wine
- Best Fighting Game: Street Fighter V
- Best Strategy Game: Civilization VI
- Best Sport/Racing Game: Forza Horizon 3
- Best Multiplayer: Overwatch
Here’s to a great 2016 in gaming and an even more spectacular one in 2017!
