Overwatch Takes Home GOTY At The Game Awards

[Steven Bogos]

Overwatch Takes Home GOTY At The Game Awards

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Overwatch won top honors at this year's The Game Awards.

This year's The Game Awards had some really cool stuff, like exclusive new gameplay footage [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/168958-The-Game-Awards-Live-Performance-Doom-Soundtrack-Video], but it is, of course, an awards show, and every awards show has a winner. This year, Blizzard Entertainment's Overwatch took top honors, beating out Doom, Inside, Titanfall 2, and Uncharted 4.

Here's the full list of winners:

Best Mobile and Handheld Game: Pokemon GO
Best Family Game: Pokemon GO
Games For Impact Award: That Dragon Cancer
Best Independent Game: Inside
Best Multiplayer Game: Overwatch
Best Esports Game: Overwatch
Best Action-Adventure Game: Dishonored 2
Best Action Game: Doom
Best VR Game: Rez Infinite
Best Fighting Game: Street Fighter V
Best RPG: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Blood & Wine
Best Strategy Game: Civilization VI
Best Sports/Racing Game: Forza Horizon 3
Best Game Direction: Overwatch
Best Art Direction: Inside
Best Narrative: Uncharted 4
Best Esports Team: Cloud9
Best Esports player: Marcelo "Coldzera" David (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive)
Best Performance: Nolan North, Uncharted 4
Best Music/Sound Design: Doom
Trending Gamer: Boogie2988
Most Anticipated Game: The Legend Of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

"While we've been very happy with how the game has been received, we're also extremely proud that this game and the world that we're building has a message and it's a message about heroism. It's a message about diversity. It's a message about a bright and positive and hopeful future. And these are all things that we really believe everyone needs a little bit of right now," said Blizzard's Ray Gresko.

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[sagitel]

i want to go over each award.

Best Mobile and Handheld Game: Pokemon GO

was there any other even passable mobile game this year? no wonder pokemon go won the award even with niantic torpedoing their game

Best Family Game: Pokemon GO

what? pokemon go is a family game? what?

Games For Impact Award: That Dragon Cancer

cant argue

Best Independent Game: Inside

i agree with this. inside was pretty good

Best Multiplayer Game: Overwatch

of course. the only real contender was this and BF1 (and NMS ). and overwatch while not being a better game was a huge success with blizzard's name on it. so yeah. the award

Best Esports Game: Overwatch

again it came out this year so it wins. even though any other big name has a better/bigger esports scene (lol, Dota2, CS:GO,...). overwatch had 2000 viewers on twitch for the finals. thats the number of a small time hearthstone streamer.

Best Action-Adventure Game: Dishonored 2

cant argue

Best Action Game: Doom

doom is a great game

Best VR Game: Rez Infinite

i dont have a VR so i cant comment

Best Fighting Game: Street Fighter V

did anyother fighting game come out this year?

Best RPG: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Blood & Wine

good choice

Best Strategy Game: Civilization VI

im not personally a fan of civ. if it was up to me i would either give it to totalwarhammer or homeworld deserts of kharak

Best Sports/Racing Game: Forza Horizon 3

good choice

Best Game Direction: Overwatch

what? no.

Best Art Direction: Inside

good choice

Best Narrative: Uncharted 4

...... no.

Best Esports Team: Cloud9

eh. not bad

Best Esports player: Marcelo "Coldzera" David (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive)

he is a good player. cant argue

Best Performance: Nolan North, Uncharted 4

eh

Best Music/Sound Design: Doom

yep. doom's soundtrack fit the game perfectly

Trending Gamer: Boogie2988

who?

Most Anticipated Game: The Legend Of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

hype: the award.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Best Game Direction: Overwatch

what? no.

Why not? I'm genuinely curious. Apart from the shit they pulled with the Summer Games loot boxes, they've been consistently putting out great stuff throughout the year. Now I would argue that this was something I knew I was paying for in advance, but I wasn't expecting them to go as far as they've gone. I was expecting new heroes, maps, and skins. Not a massive game mode update and a really fun PvE event too. Not only that, they release videos where the game directors actually sits down and explains their thought process and direction. It's really refreshing.

Anyway, since this is practically the same as a GOTY award, I'd give this to Overwatch and GOTY to Dark Souls 3. I feel like it would be cheating if I called the Witcher 3 GOTY two years in a row (despite that kind of being the case for me considering how stellar Blood and Wine was).

Also, I'm kind of surprised that Dark Souls 3 didn't get a nomination for its music. Though, I suppose soundtrack is even more subjective than most awards (and of course that's not all there is to sound design). Still, this game has one of the best soundtracks I've had the pleasure of enjoying in quite a while. Twin Princes, Soul of Cinder, Pontiff, Abyss Watchers... the list just goes on. So many great boss pieces. The previous souls games were mostly unmemorable when it comes to music (save for Gwyn's theme of course), so it was a very pleasant surprise to enjoy this one's so thoroughly. Regardless, out of the games that were nominated, I would have picked Thumper, but that's sort of cheating since it's a rhythm game. Besides, Doom is still absolutely deserving.

 

[Hawki]

And, already the thread has gone down the path of "stop liking what I don't like!" Or "stop not liking what I like!"

Fine - I'll play. I don't like the new Doom. It might be the most disapointing game I've played. But hey, if it gets awards, more power to it.

 

[Saelune]

And, already the thread has gone down the path of "stop liking what I don't like!" Or "stop not liking what I like!"

Fine - I'll play. I don't like the new Doom. It might be the most disapointing game I've played. But hey, if it gets awards, more power to it.

Awards are opinions made physical. I dont think its fair to fault people for having opinions on such a subjective matter.

 

[sXeth]

Best Game Direction: Overwatch

what? no.

Why not? I'm genuinely curious. Apart from the shit they pulled with the Summer Games loot boxes, they've been consistently putting out great stuff throughout the year. Now I would argue that this was something I knew I was paying for in advance, but I wasn't expecting them to go as far as they've gone. I was expecting new heroes, maps, and skins. Not a massive game mode update and a really fun PvE event too. Not only that, they release videos where the game directors actually sits down and explains their thought process and direction. It's really refreshing.

Anything that was a full-game experience should basically beat Overwatch for default on the Direction side. Putting aside a debate on the quality of it, its a very minimalist design. Worldbuilding, storywriting, the crafting of varying mechanics that wold go into a campaign mode would go a long way into just burying it simply in quantity (along with most games having more then 2 MP modes). And no, the videos that aren't in the game aren't in the game.

Though its probably the most nebulously defined award, you'd think they made it up just so they could pick two games, except they picked the same one.



Goofiness:
Best Esports - OVerwatch: Yeah, no. Blizzard may try and push it, but they've only barely started to get out of the justified criticism of how poorly their game support e-sports, and they still aren't up to standard tech for competitive FPS. AS a poster noted above, they barely had any audience, and they're nowhere near what anyone would consider an actual e-sport at this point.

Best RPG - Witcher Blood & Wine - Its an expansion pack. Its not an entire game. It may be a great expansion pack, but its an add-on for a game, not a game itself.

All the trending/hype stuff.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I have no issues with Blood and Wine winning best RPG award. It's an expansion big enough to be its own game, but CDPR are good guys so instead they released it as just a $20 expansion.

Also if Blood and Wine was nominated, then how the fuck did Nolan North win for best performance? Mark Noble did a fantastic job as Regis.

 

[RealRT]

Overwatch, a mutliplayer game, is GOTY? What is wrong with this bloody world?

 

[Hawki]

Overwatch, a mutliplayer game, is GOTY? What is wrong with this bloody world?

As opposed to a singleplayer game?

 

[Frankster]

*glances at list*

As is the case with most GOTY stuff, i pretty much disagree with almost everything nominated and feel it's just big names/popular games that win rather then true quality. Course you have exceptions like for witcher 3 i guess (haven't played it but enough people are waxing lyrical about it i'm willing to believe it is a worthy contender for its category at least)..

But c'mon for mobile games alone there is an entire ecosystem of awesome games, not all of them freenium either! And you're honestly going to tell me pokemon go is the best game out of all of them? Puh-leaze.
I don't imagine the judges having honestly sampled a selection of mobile games, and all went "you know the one i had most fun playing with? pokemon go!".

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Sad year when a multiplayer-only game wins GOTY. Nothing against games like that, but that just means no one this year managed to make a GOTY-worthy singleplayer game.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Sad year when a multiplayer-only game wins GOTY. Nothing against games like that, but that just means no one this year managed to make a GOTY-worthy singleplayer game.

OK, if we ignore Blood and Wine (even though it won best RPG, which means it could have won GOTY too) there's also DOOM, Dark Souls 3 and XCOM 2. And those are only AAA titles that received very positive reviews from official reviewers and users. There's been a lot of indie titles as well.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Can't believe SFV won best fighter. FFS, one of the updates this year installed a bloody rootkit!

 

[Casual Shinji]

Sad year when a multiplayer-only game wins GOTY. Nothing against games like that, but that just means no one this year managed to make a GOTY-worthy singleplayer game.

This is one of the only times I can remember a multiplayer-only game actually winning GOTY. And nobody can deny Overwatch made a fucking giant splash this year with both critics and consumers.

 

[Imre Csete]

I tried the free Overwatch weekend and it's not my cup of tea, even with a full team of friends, but atleast Overwatch is a new IP in yet another AAA sequel extravaganza year, so I'm not that disapproving.

The Witcher 3 B&W winning best RPG (well deserved) is just admitting that this year was kinda bad for RPGs. Even if it's my new golden standard for expansions from now on, knocking down Mask of the Betrayer from its number 1 spot.

 

[Cowabungaa]

what? pokemon go is a family game? what?

It brought families together like no game has done in a long while. Maybe ever. Kids and their grandparents coming together over a mobile game, either side appreciating something that's considered normal for the other. People of all ages play it and bond together over it. If anything made my pride in humanity swell up this year it was seeing how people came together over something as small and seemingly insignificant as a Pokemon game.

So yeah, if there's any award that's undoubtedly deserved it's this one.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Can't believe a multiplayer-only shooter won GOTY. Was ir that bad a year?

 

[RJ 17]

Bah, we're only 3 years into this award show and already it's becoming an over-commercialized mess. When they started this they said they wanted it to be about the love of games and of the industry, that it wasn't going to become another advertising block like the SpikeTV awards...so much for that idea.

"BAH" I SAY!

 

[sagitel]

Best Game Direction: Overwatch

what? no.

Why not? I'm genuinely curious. Apart from the shit they pulled with the Summer Games loot boxes, they've been consistently putting out great stuff throughout the year. Now I would argue that this was something I knew I was paying for in advance, but I wasn't expecting them to go as far as they've gone. I was expecting new heroes, maps, and skins. Not a massive game mode update and a really fun PvE event too. Not only that, they release videos where the game directors actually sits down and explains their thought process and direction. It's really refreshing.

Anyway, since this is practically the same as a GOTY award, I'd give this to Overwatch and GOTY to Dark Souls 3. I feel like it would be cheating if I called the Witcher 3 GOTY two years in a row (despite that kind of being the case for me considering how stellar Blood and Wine was).

Also, I'm kind of surprised that Dark Souls 3 didn't get a nomination for its music. Though, I suppose soundtrack is even more subjective than most awards (and of course that's not all there is to sound design). Still, this game has one of the best soundtracks I've had the pleasure of enjoying in quite a while. Twin Princes, Soul of Cinder, Pontiff, Abyss Watchers... the list just goes on. So many great boss pieces. The previous souls games were mostly unmemorable when it comes to music (save for Gwyn's theme of course), so it was a very pleasant surprise to enjoy this one's so thoroughly. Regardless, out of the games that were nominated, I would have picked Thumper, but that's sort of cheating since it's a rhythm game. Besides, Doom is still absolutely deserving.

best game direction for me is what the game moves toward. i look back at overwatch post release and compare it with now and see .... very little change. they gave two champs/heroes with generic abilities and new maps. blizzard "balances" the game fuck up by fuck up, fucks up the quick match and ranked. also as seth said, videos that arent in the game arent part of the game and shouldnt add to or substract from a game

what? pokemon go is a family game? what?

It brought families together like no game has done in a long while. Maybe ever. Kids and their grandparents coming together over a mobile game, either side appreciating something that's considered normal for the other. People of all ages play it and bond together over it. If anything made my pride in humanity swell up this year it was seeing how people came together over something as small and seemingly insignificant as a Pokemon game.

So yeah, if there's any award that's undoubtedly deserved it's this one.

it brought them together over walking? i dont know. for me a family game is smash, mario kart and games like that. where you all play on the same device together, in the vicinity and shit talk. i didnt have that experience with go. it was mostly walk here, catch that pokemon and do whatever with gyms. it wasent what I personally consider family game. but of course your mileage may vary

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

*Lights up wooden pipe*
Ahh, memories of when telltale's Walking Dead season 1 won GOTY award. It worked as an advertisement for me to try the experience. I would imagine this would work the same way for others. Very interesting advertisement ceremony indeed. Not sure if the shaving sponsorship was in any way directed towards, say, hair that congregates around the neck area though. Amusing that they contentID'd their own youtube video. Glorious corporate control cannibalising itself, if only briefly.