The Game Awards: winners, trailers, and news from the event

The Game Awards 2016 took place last night, and, much like the recent Golden Joystick ceremony, the event was dominated by Overwatch. The multiplayer shooter was the winner in four different categories, including the coveted Game of the Year.

In addition to GoTY, Overwatch won Best Multiplayer Game, Best eSports Game, and Best Studio/Game Direction (Blizzard). Other big winners on the night included Doom, which took the prize for Best Music/Sound Design and Best Action Game; Uncharted 4, winner of Best Narrative and Best Performance (Nolan North as Nathan Drake); and the brilliant Inside, which won Best Independent Game and Best Art Direction.

In the other categories, Pokémon Go was the unsurprising winner of Best Mobile/Handheld; Dishonored 2 took Best Action/Adventure Game; Civilization 6 won Best Strategy Game; and I was very happy to see what I consider to be the greatest game/expansion in years, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Blood and Wine, win Best RPG.

The Game Awards aren’t usually known for containing moments that can make people cry, but last night was an exception. That Dragon, Cancer, the story of developer Ryan Green’s young son’s battle against the disease, won the Games for Impact award. Sadly, Joel passed away on March 31, 2014, at the age of five. A very emotional Green accepted the award, which you can watch below.

Hideo Kojima was another big talking point of the ceremony. Host Geoff Keighley opened the show by slamming Konami for not allowing the Metal Gear Solid creator to attend last year’s awards, where it was left to Kiefer Sutherland – who voiced the main character in the game – to pick up the Best Action/Adventure Award for MGSV.

Last night, Kojima accepted the 2016 Industry Icon Award, saying the split with Konami left him feeling as though he had "lost everything." We also got to see a second trailer for his mysterious Death Stranding game. It turned out to be just as bewildering as the first one, which stars Norman Reedus and a vanishing baby.

In the new clip, we see movie director Guillermo del Toro, who was collaborating with Kojima and Reedus on Silent Hills before it got canned, hiding another baby from fleshy tanks and skeletal soldiers. The video also confirms the rumors that Mads Mikkelson will appear in the game.

There were plenty of other trailers on the night, including this five-minute gameplay clip from Mass Effect: Andromeda, which looks fantastic.

Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild won the night’s Most Anticipated Game Award. To get fans even more excited, there was a new trailer aired during the pre-show and some actual footage of the game in action (skip to 2:35 in the lower video to see it.)

We also saw an impressive new trailer for Prey, which looks very Bioshock-like - by no means a bad thing.

Here’s a complete list of nominees and winners (in bold)

GAME OF THE YEAR:

• DOOM (id Software/Bethesda)
• Inside (Playdead)
• Winner: Overwatch (Blizzard)
• Titanfall 2 (Respawn/Electronic Arts)
• Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (Naughty Dog/Sony Interactive Entertainment)

BEST GAME DIRECTION:

• Winner: Blizzard (for Overwatch)
• DICE (for Battlefield 1)
• id Software (for DOOM)
• Naughty Dog (for Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End)
• Respawn (for Titanfall 2)

BEST NARRATIVE:

• Firewatch (Campo Santo)
• Inside (Playdead)
• Mafia III (Hangar 13/2K)
• Oxenfree (Night School Studio)
• Winner: Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (Naughty Dog/SIE)

BEST ART DIRECTION:

• Abzu (Giant Squid/505)
• Firewatch (Campo Santo)
• Winner: Inside (Playdead)
• Overwatch (Blizzard)
• Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (Naughty Dog/SIE)

BEST MUSIC/SOUND DESIGN:

• Battlefield 1 (DICE/EA)
• Winner: DOOM (id/Bethesda)
• Inside (Playdead)
• Rez Infinite (Enhance Games)
• Thumper (Drool)

BEST PERFORMANCE:

• Alex Hernandez as Lincoln Clay, Mafia III
• Cissy Jones as Delilah, Firewatch
• Emily Rose as Elena, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
• Winner: Nolan North as Nathan Drake, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
• Rich Summer as Henry, Firewatch
• Troy Baker as Sam Drake, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

GAMES FOR IMPACT:

• 1979 Revolution (iNK Stories)
• Block’hood (Plethora Project/Devolver Digital)
• Orwell (Osmotic Studios/Surprise Attack)
• Sea Hero Quest (Glitchers)
• Winner: That Dragon, Cancer (Numinous Games)

BEST INDEPENDENT GAME:

• Firewatch (Campo Santo)
• Hyper Light Drifter (Heart Machine)
• Winner: Inside (Playdead)
• Stardew Valley (ConcernedApe/Chucklefish Games)
• The Witness (Thelka, Inc.)

BEST MOBILE/HANDHELD:

• Clash Royale (Supercell)
• Fire Emblem Fates (Intelligent Systems/Nintendo)
• Monster Hunter Generations (Capcom)
• Winner: Pokemon Go (Niantic)
• Severed (DrinkBox Studios)

BEST VR GAME:

• Batman: Arkham VR (Rocksteady Studios/WBIE)
• EVE: Valkyrie (CCP Games)
• Job Simulator (Owlchemy Labs)
• Winner: Rez Infinite (Enhance Games)
• Thumper (Drool)

BEST ACTION GAME:

• Battlefield 1 (DICE/EA)
• Winner: DOOM (id Software/Bethesda Softworks)
• Gears of War 4 (The Coalition/Microsoft Studios)
• Overwatch (Blizzard)
• Titanfall 2 (Respawn/EA)

BEST ACTION/ADVENTURE GAME:

• Winner: Dishonored 2 (Arkane Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
• Hitman (IO Interactive/Square-Enix)
• Hyper Light Drifter (Heart Machine)
• Ratchet & Clank (Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (Naughty Dog/Sony Interactive Entertainment)

BEST RPG:

• Dark Souls 3 (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco Entertainment)
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (Eidos Montreal/Square-Enix)
• Winner: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt -- Blood and Wine (CD Projekt RED)
• World of Warcraft: Legion (Blizzard)
• Xenoblade Chronicles X (Monolith Soft/Nintendo)

BEST FIGHTING GAMEFor a game designed primarily around head-to-head combat.

• Killer Instinct Season 3 (Iron Galaxy Studios/Microsoft Studios)
• King of Fighters XIV (SNK/Atlus USA)
• Pokken Tournament (Bandai Namco Studios/The Pokemon Co.)
• Winner: Street Fighter V (Capcom)

BEST STRATEGY GAME:

• Winner: Civilization 6 (Firaxis Games/2K)
• Fire Emblem Fates (Intelligent Systems/Nintendo)
• The Banner Saga 2 (Stoic Studio/Versus Evil)
• Total War: Warhammer (Creative Assembly/Sega)
• XCOM 2 (Firaxis Games/2K)

BEST FAMILY GAME:

• Dragon Quest Builders (Square Enix)
• Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens (TT Fusion/WBIE)
• Winner: Pokemon Go (Niantic)
• Ratchet & Clank (Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Skylanders: Imaginators (Toy for Bob/Activision)

BEST SPORTS/RACING:

• FIFA 17 (EA Canada/EA Sports)
• Winner: Forza Horizon 3 (Playground Games/Microsoft Studios)
• MLB The Show 16 (SCE San Diego Studio/SIE)
• NBA 2K17 (Visual Concepts/2K Sports)
• Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 (PES Productions/Konami)

BEST MULTIPLAYER:

• Battlefield 1 (DICE/EA)
• Gears of War 4 (The Coalition/Microsoft Studios)
• Overcooked (Ghost Town Games/Team 17)
• Winner: Overwatch (Blizzard)
• Titanfall 2 (Respawn/EA)
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)

MOST ANTICIPATED GAME:

• God of War (Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Horizon: Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Mass Effect: Andromeda (Bioware/EA)
• Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar Games)
• Winner: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo)

TRENDING GAMER:

• AngryJoeShow
• Winner: Boogie2988
• Danny O’Dwyer
• JackSepticEye
• Lirik

BEST FAN CREATION:

• Brutal Doom 64
• Enderal: The Shards of Order

(Editor’s note: no winner was announced during the show for this award, which also had two fan-created games removed from the nominee’s list after they were announced.)

BEST ESPORTS PLAYER:

• Faker – Lee Sang-hyeok (SK Telecom T1, League of Legends)
• Winner: Coldzera – Marcelo David (SK Gaming, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive)
• ByuN –Hyun Woo (Starcraft 2)
• Infiltrator – Lee Seeon-woo (Team Razer, Street Fighter V)
• Hungrybox – Juan Debiedma (Team Liquid, Super Smash Bros.)

BEST ESPORTS TEAM:

• SK Telecom T1 (League of Legends)
• Wings Gaming (DOTA2)
• SK Gaming
• ROX Tigers (League of Legends)
• Winner: Cloud 9

BEST ESPORTS GAME:

• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (Valve)
• DOTA2 (Valve)
• League of Legends (Riot)
• Winner: Overwatch (Blizzard)
• Street Fighter V (Capcom)