Sony Santa Monica's God of War has won the Game of the Year award at The Game Awards 2018 ceremony. The acclaimed Norse adventure also picked up awards for best direction and best action-adventure.

Rockstar's smash hit Western Red Dead Redemption 2 won the most awards, riding home with four. The sprawling adventure won best narrative, best performance for Roger Clarke as Arthur Morgan, best music for Woody Jackson and Daniel Lanois' score and best audio.

Indie gem Celeste won two for best independent game and the Game for Impact award. And battle royale phenomenon Fortnite also took two with best ongoing game and best multiplayer.

The Game Awards, organised and hosted by Geoff Keighley, is now in its fifth year and has become a key date on the gaming calendar. As well as handing out awards for the best achievements in the industry across the year, the show has become a hotbed for new game announcements and trailers. This year saw games such as Dragon Age 4, Far Cry: New Age and The Outer Worlds all revealed for the first time. We had the chance to see Ubisoft's Far Cry: New Dawn in action ahead of the announcement with our Far Cry: New Dawn first-look preview and interview.</s>It’s the time of the year that many gamers have been waiting for, the annual Game Awards.

The Los Angeles-based ceremony celebrates all the hard work that gets put into making, developing and creating video games.

While Los Angeles is not the closest place for Canadians to visit, the ceremony streams live on a variety services, including Twitch, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, the PlayStation 4, the Xbox One and more. We also have The Game Awards official YouTube livestream embedded in this story below.

Canadian studio developed games such as Celeste, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Starlink Battle for Atlas are among this year’s nominees. There are also games such as God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man and Red Dead Redemption 2 nominated for the title of ‘Game Of The Year.’

This year’s Game Awards will also feature world premieres and new information about games such as Bioware Edmonton-developed Anthem and even details about Dragon Age 4.

The ceremony kicks off at 9pm ET/6pm PT with an 8:30pm ET /5:30pm PT preshow.</s>Sony Santa Monica's God of War has won the Game of the Year award at The Game Awards 2018 ceremony. The acclaimed Norse adventure also picked up awards for best direction and best action-adventure.

Rockstar's smash hit Western Red Dead Redemption 2 won the most awards, riding home with four. The sprawling adventure won best narrative, best performance for Roger Clarke as Arthur Morgan, best music for Woody Jackson and Daniel Lanois' score and best audio.

Indie gem Celeste won two for best independent game and the Game for Impact award. And battle royale phenomenon Fortnite also took two with best ongoing game and best multiplayer.

The Game Awards, organised and hosted by Geoff Keighley, is now in its fifth year and has become a key date on the gaming calendar. As well as handing out awards for the best achievements in the industry across the year, the show has become a hotbed for new game announcements and trailers. This year saw games such as Dragon Age 4, Far Cry: New Age and The Outer Worlds all revealed for the first time.

The shortlists for the awards are decided by a panel of international media, while the winner is decided by a combination of critic input and public vote.</s>Sony’s PS4 exclusive has beaten Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption II, as Celeste picks up two awards and Ninja wins Content Creator of the Year.

After an exhausting three-and-a-half-hour marathon The Game Awards 2018 have just finished and the winner of the Game of the Year award is not what many would’ve predicted.

The most important award of the night was left until the very end, with even the announcer making it clear that it was really a two-horse race between Sony’s Santa Monica Studio and Rockstar Games.

The Game Award nominations are made by a team of 60 international publications, of which GameCentral is one, but are then are voted on by a mix of those same people and the general public.

You can see a list of all the nominees below, with the winners in bold, but God Of War also picked up Best Game Direction and Best Action/Adventure Game

Red Dead Redemption II didn’t walk away empty-handed though and won Best Narrative, Best Score/Music, Best Audio Design, and Best Performance for Roger Clark as Arthur Morgan.

There were a number of indie winners too, with Return Of The Obra Dinn winning Best Art Direction and Celeste winning Best Independent Game and the Games for Impact Award.

Fortnite also picked up two awards for Best Ongoing Game and Best Multiplayer Game.
• Bryan Dechart as Connor in Detroit: Become Human
• Christopher Judge as Kratos in God of War
• The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories (White Owls/Arc System Works)

Best Student Game (created at high school or college level)

Best eSports Player: Presented by Omen by HP
• C9 Comeback Win In Triple OT vs FAZE at ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018
• G2 Beating RNG at the League of Legends World Championship
• KT vs. IG Base Race at the League of Legends World Championship
• OG’s Massive Upset of LGD at the DOTA 2 Finals
• SonicFox Side Switch Against Go1 in Dragon Ball FighterZ at EVO 2018

Email gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk, leave a comment below, and follow us on Twitter</s>The Game Awards has revealed this year's batch nominees — and it will let fans vote to decide the winners across more than 20 categories.

Fans can vote now for their picks at TheGameAwards.com, and via Twitter direct message, Facebook Messenger, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and the official The Game Awards Discord server.

Rockstar Games' "Red Dead Redemption 2" and Sony's "God of War" lead the pack with eight nominations each, including "Game of the Year" and "Best Narrative." Other Game of the Year contenders include Marvel's Spider-Man (7 nominations), "Assassin's Creed Odyssey" ( 4 nominations) and the indie game hit "Celeste" (4 nominations). Categories like Best Independent Game, Best Student Game and Best VR/AR Game also make space for some lesser- known titles to shine.

The Game Awards will name the winners and celebrate the nominees on Thursday, December 6 at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. The awards show will be streamed at 9 p.m. EST, 6 p.m. PST on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and several other streaming platforms.

First established in 2014, The Game Awards advisory board includes executives from a dozen major gaming companies, including Xbox, Nintendo, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Valve, and Tencent.</s>A new game from Simogo titled ‘Sayonara Wild Hearts’ was announced at The Game Awards on Thursday evening.

Simogo is the developer behind “Device 6,” the unique mobile puzzler.

Excited for The Game Awards? Check out our predictions for the 2018 awards right here. You can watch the ceremony live from the Variety website, as well. And, make sure to check out all of Variety’s Game Awards 2018 coverage as we cover the show live, from the red carpet and inside the awards themselves.</s>There's a tension in the air at most award shows -- but the annual Game Awards are a bit different. Sure, there's still a lot of anticipation over who is going to win game of the year, but the real excitement takes place between the awards: trailers, announcements and DLC reveals.

It's like a mini-E3 with a red carpet, and it's quickly becoming one of the biggest nights of the year in game announcements. It's where we first saw games like Bayonetta 3 and SoulCalibur VI, and got one of our best early looks at Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding.

Here's how to make sure you don't miss the announcements or the awards.

Know when to watch

The Game Awards start at 5:30 p.m. PT/8:30 p.m. ET on Thursday, Dec. 6. If you happen to live on the other side of the planet, the show will start on Friday morning sometime between 1:30 a.m. (GMT) and 11:30 a.m. (GMT+11).

Check the Game Awards website to find your local timezone.

Know where to watch

OK, you know when you need to tune in -- but how do you turn in? That part is easy: The Game Awards will be available to watch for free on almost every major social platform and gaming network, including YouTube, Twitter, Facebook Live, Twitch, Mixer, Caffeine, Steam, PlayStation, Xbox Live and more.

In addition to those streams, you'll find the show on GameSpot. It'll also be streaming on region-specific platforms around the world. You can see the full list on the Game Awards' how to watch page.

Know what trailers to expect

New game announcements and trailers are easily half the draw for the awards show -- and we already know a few big ones are coming. Ubisoft has already announced that it will be showing off something new from the Far Cry franchise at the event, and the official Game Awards Twitter account has said that it will be hosting an exclusive new look at Anthem during the show.

There's also buzz on the web that we might see a Crash Team Racing remake, more details on Death Stranding and more. There's even an off chance we might hear more about that open-world Harry Potter game that was allegedly leaked earlier this year.

On top of those promises, a handful of publishers have very directly hinted their own announcements. Nintendo has been talking up the Game Awards as a pre-game to the release of Super Smash Bros Ultimate, implying it may tease the game's first DLC during the show. Similarly, Obsidian has made it clear that it's gearing up to announce a new RPG, and Epic's Donald Mustard will be on site with a mysterious Fortnite announcement.

According to Game Awards host Geoff Keighley, there will be at least 10 brand-new game reveals in all, not including new trailers for previously announced games or DLC announcements. That's a lot of news to look forward to.

There are a ton of awards being handed out in a staggering array of categories -- this list doesn't include everything, but here are the biggest ones.
• The Missing: JJ Macfield and the Island of Memories</s>Ubisoft revealed a new teaser trailer ahead of “The Game Awards 2018” centered around what appears to be a post-apocalyptic “Far Cry” game.

The developer took to Twitter with the clip, stating “Tune into the Game Awards for the world premiere of the next Far Cry.” The brief teaser trailer begins with a shot of a mushroom cloud extending into the air, seen from a short distance away. An idyllic farm with golden crops is the first shot we see before the blinding light of the nuclear bomb whites out the screen.

“None of us were ready for the end,” a male voice narrates while leaves turn to ash and an unknown party brandishes a crossbow that appears to launch saw blades. “The flames devoured everything, and when death rolled through our valley, our world turned cold and dark. The years of rain and the howling winds gave way to blue skies and a new world in bloom. We felt hope,” the voice continues as the footage reveals lush, flowery landscapes before devolving into violence with the unidentified weapon again. “We were wrong.”

There’s no information about the game other than the a brief tease for its appearance during “The Game Awards,” not even a name to go by. It’s likely it won’t be a follow-up to 2018’s “Far Cry 5,” seeing as it’s only been out in the wild for months, but it could potentially be a spin-off of the core game or set in the same rural area of Montana. Given the way the way “Far Cry 5” can potentially end, a game set in the apocalypse certainly makes sense.

“The Game Awards 2018” is set to kick off on Thursday, Dec. 6 at 8:30 p.m. ET in Los Angeles, California and hosted by Geoff Keighley. There are a number of game reveals expected during the show, including information on what “Fortnite” Season 7 will bring in the future.</s>won Game of the Year at Thursday night’s The Game Awards. Long live the Ghost of Sparta.

Game director Cory Barlog wept when the first glowing wave of game reviews hit the web for his soft reboot to the long-running mythic franchise for Playstation. He teared up again when he won Best Game Direction earlier in The Game Awards ceremony, honoring the year’s highest achievements in gaming. When he took the stage with his team, including actors Christopher Judge (the voice of Kratos) and Sunny Suljic (the voice of Atreus), he was dried-eyed but grateful.

“Please thank the creators,” he said, “and not just creators of games, creators of movies, creators of comic books, creators of every single thing that enriches our lives, that makes us believe that magic is real.”

We’re not saying we toldja so, but check out EW’s Best of 2018 issue to see our pick for Best Video Game.

takes its titular character, Kratos, and moves him into the world of Norse mythology, a change of pace from the vengeful Greek gods. (Not that Viking deities are any better.) There he sets forth on a path with his son, Atreus, to honor his late wife, yielding the most emotionally impactful, character-driven installment in the series.

, Rockstar Games’ 10-years-in-the-making Western release, was a frontrunner for the coveted Game of the Year title. The game still swept multiple categories and received the most wins of the night with four total. received three, but they were pretty big titles.

Nominees for The Game Awards are determined by a jury comprised of more than 60 publications — including ! The winners are then decided upon by a combination of jury voting and fan participation.

See the full list of winners below.

BEST PERFORMANCE

 Bryan Dechart as Connor, 

 Christopher Judge as Kratos, 

 Melissanthi Mahut as Kassandra, 

 Roger Clark as Arthur Morgan, Red Dead Redemption 2 — WINNER

 Yuri Lowenthal as Peter Parker,

GAMES FOR IMPACT

 (Digixart / Aardman Animations / BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment)

 (Matt Makes Games) — WINNER

 (Mountains / Annapurna Interactive)

 (Dontnod Entertainment / Square Enix)

 The Missing: JJ Macfield and the Island of Memories (White Owls / Arc System Works)

BEST VR/AR Game

 (SIE Japan Studio / SIE) — WINNER

 Beat Saber (Beat Games)

 Firewall Zero Hour (First Contact Entertainment / SIE)

 (Polyarc Games)

 (Resonair / Enhance, Inc)

BEST ESPORTS PLAYER PRESENTED BY OMEN BY HP

 Dominique “SonicFox” McLean (Echo Fox) — WINNER

 Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi

 Jian “Uzi” Zi-Hao (Royal Never Give Up)

 Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev (Natus Vincere)

 Sung-hyeon “JJoNak” Bang (New York Excelsior)

BEST ESPORTS EVENT

 ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018

 EVO 2018

 League of Legends World Championship — WINNER

 Overwatch League Grand Finals

 The International 2018

BEST ESPORTS MOMENT

 C9 Comeback Win In Triple OT vs FAZE (ELEAGUE) — WINNER

 KT vs IG Base Race (LOL Worlds)

 G2 Beating RNG (LOL Worlds)

 OG’s Massive Upset of LGD (DOTA 2 Finals)

 SonicFox Side Switch Against Go1 in DBZ (EVO)
• The new West world: signals the era of prestige video games</s>The Game Awards are back, and this year promises the biggest lineup of game announcements to date. Producer Geoff Keighley has revealed that more than 10 new games will be announced at The Game Awards 2018, alongside updates on upcoming titles.

While some announcements have been confirmed, such as the official reveal of the latest addition to the Far Cry series, others are merely rumored. So, let's take a look at what we can definitely expect, and what we hope to see, at The Game Awards 2018.

What are The Game Awards 2018?

The Game Awards are an annual award show hosted and produced by videogame journalist Geoff Keighley – this is the fifth year the show has taken place. Winners are chosen through a mix of public fan votes (10%) and a voting jury (90%).

The Game Awards aims to 'celebrate the best video games and esports of the year', but we can also expect to see world premieres and exclusive announcements of upcoming games. Keighley has promised at least 10 new game announcements this year.

How to watch The Game Awards 2018

The Game Awards 2018 will be streamed live on YouTube, Twitch, Facebook Live, Xbox Live, Mixer, Steam and PlayStation. You can see all the available streaming platforms on the The Game Awards website. We've also embedded the YouTube stream below:

The Game Awards 2018 takes place in Los Angeles on Thursday, December 6 at 5:30pm PST.

This means the livestream will start at 8:30pm EST on Thursday, December 6 or on Friday, December 7 at 1:30am GMT / 12:30pm AEDT.

What announcements can we expect?

The rumor-mill has been working in overdrive around what announcements we can expect at the Game Awards 2018. While we know some of the announcements we can expect, others have only been teased.

So here's what announcements we expect to see:

Ubisoft released a teaser trailer earlier this week teasing a new post-apocalyptic Far Cry game. The trailer also confirmed an official worldwide reveal for the title will be shown during The Game Awards 2018. You can check out the trailer below:

Geoff Keighley has confirmed there will be a big Fortnite announcement. However, a leak by a YouTuber has meant we already know what it was going to be. Fortnite is getting a new Sandbox mode called Creative, which will operate separately from Battle Royale and will allow players to design games and battle friends on their own private island.

Creative Mode will be available week one of Season 7 for Battle Pass owners and will roll out to all players on December 13.

While the full announcement may have been spoiled, there's a possibility this wasn't what Epic Games planned to reveal at all and we could be blown away by something entirely different.

If that's not the case, we can hopefully at least look forward to some more details on Creative Mode. Geoff Keighley has said the Creative Mode announcement is just "part 1 of the story".

We know Fallout: New Vegas developer Obisidan is working on a new RPG, and it looks like we might finally get a glimpse of it at The Game Awards 2018. Obsidian's official website and Twitter page have been counting down to the awards, teasing a "special message" is on the way.

While this hasn't been officially confirmed, all signs point to a CTR remaster being officially revealed at the awards and, with the success of the Spyro and Crash Bandicoot remasters, it wouldn't be a huge surprise..

Several influencers have received teaser items from Activision including Crash cookies and a pair of fuzzy orange dice.

According to a report by Venture Beat (and confirmed by Eurogamer), Dragon Age 4 will be unveiled at The Game Awards. Though we we get a glimpse at the upcoming game, its release date is currently "at least three years away".

We're not really sure what to expect from Nintendo, but we do know the company is planning an announcement of some sort. Nintendo tweeted urging fans to tune into the awards before the release of Super Smash Bros Ultimate next week, so it's likely the announcement will be related to that.

What we hope to see

We're hoping to see more of Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding (especially since he sits on the Advisory Board for The Game Awards). In addition, we're hoping to see more of Anthem and just maybe a look at Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order - though it's a bit of a stretch.

We definitely know we won't be seeing any of The Last of Us: Part II, as Naughty Dog confirmed as much in a tweet.
• The best new games of 2018: everything you should play this year
God of War is named Game of the Year at The Game Awards annual awards ceremony in Los Angeles.