A Short Summary of the Events of the 2018 Game Awards

The Game Awards were last night, and boy howdy a lot of stuff went down. Not only did it celebrate all the best games of the year (according to a panel of judges, anyway), it’s also a platform that studios use to announce all kinds of new stuff. So instead of breaking all that crap into a dozen or so articles, we’re gonna do one big ol’ deep dive. So strap yourselves in, kids.

Award Winners

There are a lot of categories within the Game Awards, so we’re just going to go over the highlights to keep this from going on too long.

Game of the year winner: God of War

God of War was the surprisingly emotional and mature return of the angry god-slaying killing-machine Kratos. Now rocking a beard, a son, and something resembling a conscious, he travels the snowy realms of Asgard looking to spread the ashes of his dead wife, and maybe kill a whole lot of crap on the way. God of War beat out Celeste, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Monster Hunter: World, and the only real competition, Red Dead Redemption 2.

God of War, for the record, also won “Best Game Direction” and “Best Action/Adventure game.”

Best Narrative: Red Dead Redemption 2

Red Dead Redemption 2, the latest open-world sadness generator from Rockstar Games, was the real big winner this year, taking home a majority of the awards. But the most prestigious award – and likely the one Rockstar is proudest of, is best narrative, where it beat out God of War, Life is Strange 2: Episode 1, Marvel’s Spider-Man, and Detroit: Become Human, which really didn’t belong on that list.

But Red Dead Redemption 2 also won “Best Score”, “Best Audio Design”, and “Best Performance” with Roger Clark as Arthur Morgan,

Best Art Direction: Return of the Obra Dinn

It’s not hard to see why Obra Dinn won this prestigious prize: its amazing black-and-white style made an innovative murder-puzzle game into a feast for the eyes and proved that Papers, Please developer Lucas Pope is more than just a one-hit wonder. It beat out Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (it didn’t win anything), God of War, Octopath Traveler (which probably would have been a shoo-in otherwise), and Red Dead Redemption 2.

Best Ongoing Game: Fortnite

This was kind of a gimmie: it’s hard to deny Fortnite is currently an earth-shaker in the games industry, and it’s not showing any signs of slowing down. Especially when compared to the other runners-up, Destiny 2, No Man’s Sky, Overwatch, and Rainbow Six Siege.

Fortnite also won “Best Multiplayer Game.”

Best Indie game: Celeste

Celeste is basically Super Meat Boy with better mechanics, an interesting and thoughtful story, and a cuter protagonist: why wouldn’t it win? In this category, Celeste beat out Dead Cells, Into the Breach, Return of Obra Dinn, and The Messenger.

Celeste also won the “Games for Impact” award.

Best Esports Event: League of Legends World Championship

The only reason I’m talking about this one is because I really agree: despite an extremely disappointing final and semi-final, the League of Legends World Series was a circus of upsets, turnarounds, and nail-bitingly close matches.

The League of Legends Worlds Championship actually showed up twice in the “Best Esports Moment” category, but it ultimately was beaten by “C9 Comeback Win In Triple OT vs FAZE, ELEAGUE”.

Anyway. The awards are swell and all, but what people are really chomping at the bit for is the announcements. And whooo boy — this year had some mighty fine announcements to show. So get ready for some YouTube links!
 
Game Announcements



It’s been 10 years since we’ve seen an Ultimate Alliance game, but now they’re back with “The Black Order”, which is looking to be a Switch exclusive. That said, it’s not hard to see why the series is making a comeback now: heck, even the plot of this game is based off the movies, with the heroes racing to get the infinity stones before Thanos and his cronies can. Still, that doesn’t mean it’s bad: in fact, I’m sure there are a lot of people excited for this bad boy.



In what appears to be the first case of a Far Cry game being a direct sequel, Far Cry New Dawn takes place sometime after the (spoiler alert) apocalyptic nuclear explosion in Far Cry 5. Also in a series first, the main villains are actually ladies, which is a step forward for gender equality if I’ve ever seen one. Also, the dog can ride in the car now, which is about 10000 percent more important.

Also – kinda looks like Rage 2, doesn’t it?



I did not know that Supergiant, developers of Bastion, Pyre, and Transistor, was working on a new roguelike dungeon crawler. But apparently they are, and it’s called Hades. I’m a big fan of their earlier work, and if this game is even half as good as Pyre, it’s worth my time, attention and money. Fingers crossed.



There’s a remake of Crash Bandicoot Racing coming out and it’ll be released June 21. That’s all I have to say about that.



Obsidian said they’ll probably never work on another Fallout game. So they decided to make their own Fallout, in space, and call it The Outer Worlds. There’s literally nothing to not like here, especially now that Bethesda has soiled their golden throne.



I’m not too proud to admit I was wrong when I predicted Bethesda wasn’t working on Dragon Age 4. Hell, I’m excited to be wrong. That said, it’s looking as if this game is still a long ways away: largely because Bethesda has said, “the team has been hard at work exploring ways to push BioWare’s storytelling to the next level.”



Mortal. Kombat. 11. Considering how good the last remake was, I’m actually fairly excited for this one. Not so much for myself as for the fans, who I know always enjoy having new opportunities to eviscerate and execute their friends. And it looks like Mortal Kombat 11 isn’t skimping on that.



*deep breath*

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

So yeah. Good event. Worth watching. Looking forward to next year's.