2016 Game Awards

[scotland]

For what any award show is worth, here were the winners at the 2016 Game Awards:

Game of the Year: Overwatch (nominees included Doom, Titanfall 2, Inside, Uncharted 4)
Best Game Direction: Overwatch (nominees included Doom, Titanfall 2, Battlefield 1, Uncharted 4)
Best Narrative: Uncharted 4 (nominees included Firewatch, Inside, Mafia III, Oxenfree)
Best Art Direction: Inside (nominees included Firewatch, Abzu, Overwatch, Uncharted 4)
Best Music: Doom (nominees included Inside, Battlefield 1, Rez Infinite, Thumper)
Best Performance: Winner was main voice actor for Uncharted 4
Best Indie: Inside: (nominees included Firewatch, Hyper Light Drifter, Stardew Valley, the Witness)
Best Mobile / Handheld: Pokemon Go (others Clash Royale, Fire Emblem Fates, MH Generations, Severed)
Best VR Game: Rez Infinite
Best Action Game: Doom (nominees included Battlefield 1, Gears of War 4, Overwatch, Titanfall 2)
Best RPG: Witcher 3 - Blood and Wine (nominees included Dark Souls 3, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, WOW: Legion, Xenoblade X)
Best Fighting Game: Street Fighter V
Best Strategy Game: Civilization VI
Best Family Game: Pokemon Go (others Skylanders: Imaginators, Lego Force Awakens, Ratchet and Clank)
Best Sports / Racing: Forza 3
Best Multiplayer: Overwatch
Most Anticipated: Legend of Zelda: Breadth of the Wild

With Pokemon Go credited as a Niantic game, then the only Nintendo game on the list - Legend of Zelda - and it was for 'most anticipated' - a category for unreleased games! (Last year, Super Mario Maker was a nominee for game of the year, but lost to Witcher 3, and won for 'Best Family Game'. Nintendo also won 'Best Shooter' and "Best Multiplayer" for Splatoon)

The trophy looks like a sexy hood ornament - with a low polygon count.

Last Year's 2015 "Best Game" was Witcher 3 - Wild Hunt. What won 'Best RPG' in 2015 was DLC Blood and Wine for it.

Not sure why Mobile games and Handheld games are lumped together. They should be separate.

The 'Best Shooter' category disappeared in 2016. Interesting.

Another thing is No Man's Sky nowhere on this list. It won for 'Most Anticipated Game' in 2015, but this year - nada.

Any great games not on the list? Any games on the list you think are not so great?

[Rookie1]

I have watched lets-plays for overwatch, I dont get the hype. Then again, thats not really my genre of game.

Has Nintendo even put anything out in 2016 that was worth a darn? Starfox was a stinker. Other than that, what else was there?

The Zelda win doesnt surprise me, even with the massive titles that are coming out in 2017. That game resonates with so many people, and is a franchise that is probably only seconded to Mario in terms of notoriety.

[JustLikeHeaven]

It's telling where the industry is/where it is heading when I look at that list and there is almost nothing that I find noteworthy or worth my time.

The most disappointing category is Game of the Year. None of those games strike me as anything worthy of BEST of the year. Maybe Inside, but since it's not released on a physical disc I can't be bothered with it. It might as well not exist.

These award shows are almost always the same. They're all focused on AAA big publisher games. It would be like watching the Oscars and seeing a Transformers film win best picture. I'm not knocking Transformers. It's big, dumb, fun. However, it really isn't some unique vision or passion project. Videogames have yet to move on from this "big publisher is the end all be all" mentality. Part of the problem is that the journalists, game designers, and publishers are all intertwined. Many of them are friends and the industry as a whole doesn't seem interested in moving away from this. It's sort of depressing.

Then again, I haven't had my morning cup of coffee and I might just be extra cranky.

[Sonicx9]

It's telling where the industry is/where it is heading when I look at that list and there is almost nothing that I find noteworthy or worth my time.

The most disappointing category is Game of the Year. None of those games strike me as anything worthy of BEST of the year. Maybe Inside, but since it's not released on a physical disc I can't be bothered with it. It might as well not exist.

These award shows are almost always the same. They're all focused on AAA big publisher games. It would be like watching the Oscars and seeing a Transformers film win best picture. I'm not knocking Transformers. It's big, dumb, fun. However, it really isn't some unique vision or passion project. Videogames have yet to move on from this "big publisher is the end all be all" mentality. Part of the problem is that the journalists, game designers, and publishers are all intertwined. Many of them are friends and the industry as a whole doesn't seem interested in moving away from this. It's sort of depressing.

Then again, I haven't had my morning cup of coffee and I might just be extra cranky.

I agree, many of the awards where rigged for many reasons, and here are two highlights!

Best Mobile / Handheld: Pokemon Go winning over Fire Emblem Fates/Monster Hunter Generations/Severed, and even Pokémon Sun and Moon, which was not on the nominees list, and only had Pokemon Go because having both GO and Sun and Moon would be redundant/went with the more popular Pokemon game over the objectively better game!

And this one made me mad Street Fighter V, a buggy broken incomplete mess at launch wins out both the far better The King of Fighters XIV/Pokkén Tournament, both of which are more deserving of that award compared to Street Fighter V! And if you noticed the Best Fighting Game list it only had 4 nominees, and had a DLC expansion Killer Instinct Season Three as one of the nominees! And it sucks that they did not have a 5th entry, where they could have added games like BlazBlue: Central Fiction/Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator, and even underrated games like Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel who should have replaced the Killer Instinct Season Three DLC for new games/removed Street Fighter V, but they did it this way so Street Fighter V could win automaticly which I think that Capcom/Sony/EVO did a good job on rigging this category big time!

Thoughts?

[velcrozombie]

I have watched lets-plays for overwatch, I dont get the hype. Then again, thats not really my genre of game.

I don't think it's the type of game that necessarily makes a lot of sense when you're just watching footage of it - you're only seeing one view of the action in a game with a dozen people playing simultaneously. Also, the teamwork and communication between a squad of people is at the heart of the game and that's hard to convey from footage. I do think the art and character designs are cool, especially the work that's gone into making all the characters distinctive in both how they look and how they play and the way their roles compliment each other. There are rumors that a single-player campaign is being made - if that happens I'll definitely check it out.

As far as the awards go, I've never heard anyone treat them with anything more than either indifference or derision. However, this video of composer Mick Gordon performing a medley from the soundtrack to the new Doom game with help from Periphery drummer Matt Halpern is pretty cool, even though I wish they'd been able to play longer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a9E3n_VZRQ