8 must-see moments from The Game Awards 2017

Just as the Golden Joystick Awards give us a glimpse at upcoming games like Code Vein and Ni no Kuni 2, The Game Awards brings with it a bevy of surprise reveals and new trailers. Geoff Keighley's annual awards show is often rife with highlights, but let's face it - there's plenty of padding in there as well, and not everyone has time to watch the full stream and see all the winners. So we've done the sifting for you, giving you the biggest and best moments from the show in one easy-to-parse place. These are the trailers, teasers, and clips you need to see if you missed The Game Awards 2017 - or just want to relive all the most memorable bits.

An extremely brief glimpse at From Software's next game

Is this Bloodborne 2? That's the big mystery behind this fleeting teaser courtesy of From Software, the famed studio best known for Dark Souls and Bloodborne. We got a shot of a bizarre-looking weapon(?) consisting of a giant bone and a cord tightening around a strange device. The following teaser text - "Shadows Die Twice" - would suggest a sequel, but that could be a mischievous bit of misdirection. Hopefully we'll learn more at the PSX presser tomorrow.

In The Valley of Gods looks stunning

Firewatch is easily one of the best games of 2016, weaving a gripping, choice-laden narrative with a gorgeous, highly stylized vision of Wyoming wilderness. So when studio Campo Santo showed off its sophomore effort, we were delighted to see that it looks just as stunning. In The Valley of Gods has a similarly striking aesthetic as you explore Egyptian ruins in first-person, chronicling your journey alongside a fellow explorer.

Get to know Industry Icon award winner Carol Shaw

For all the exciting trailers and big-name awards, it's often the more human moments that really stand out at The Game Awards. This year's Industry Icon award was the perfect example, honoring Carol Shaw, one of the first female game designers. She got her start during the heyday of the Atari 2600. If you didn't know her work already, a lovingly crafted video highlighted her historic contributions to the Atari library, including the million-plus-seller shmup River Raid (which was developed solely by Shaw).

Soul Calibur 6 brings blades back to one-on-one brawls

Bandai Namco is bringing back a fan favorite with Soul Calibur 6, complete with sweeping camera shots, intense close-ups, and melodramatic narration before battle. In a particle-effect-filled duel between Mitsurugi and Sophitia, we got a glimpse of the crisp Unreal Engine 4 visuals in what is likely the same engine as Tekken 7. Looks like Soul Calibur 6 is also borrowing the ingenious 'sudden slow-mo' flourish from Tekken 7 that injects extra hype into close-call hits or dodges.

Bayonetta 3 is happening, exclusively on Nintendo Switch

Reggie Fils-Aime, lovable spirit animal of all Nintendo fans, brought a nice one-two combo of Bayonetta reveals to The Game Awards. If you missed it on Wii U - highly likely, due to the limited install base - then you'll be happy to know that Bayonetta 2 is being ported to Switch, which includes the an upgraded version of the first Bayonetta. But why stop at a simple port? Through a brief teaser, we got confirmation that Platinum Games is hard at work on Bayonetta 3, showing a brief battle in which Bayonetta seems to have met her match against a mysterious figure.

Death Stranding continues to mesmerize and confuse the hell out of us

Hideo Kojima's impossibly enigmatic PS4-exclusive Death Stranding still manages to shock us with its sheer weirdness. In a new cinematic trailer, which clocks in at whopping eight minutes, we finally learned the name of the protagonist played by Norman Reedus: Sam, who finds himself in a terrifying situation involving rapid aging, invisible monsters, and colossal cosmic horrors. But nothing can prepare you for that surprise thumbs-up from the infant nestled snugly inside Sam's esophagus.

Josef Fares steals the show (practically by force)

Josef Fares is an accomplished developer, having directed the phenomenal Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, and he has a right to be proud. But he might've gone a bit overboard during his passionate rant / speech / drunken revelry that is undoubtedly The Game Award 2017's most memorable moment, for better or worse. Fares went way over his allotted time while an increasingly irritated Keighley looked on, managing to give the camera the finger and shout 'Fuck the Oscars!' before a trailer rolled for his promising co-op prison escape game, A Way Out. It now has a confirmed release date: March 23, 2018, provided EA doesn't incinerate it as punishment for Fares' rowdiness.

Dreams looks like a delightful head-trip

It's tough to top the wonder and creative whimsy of something like the LittleBigPlanet, but Media Molecule looks to have outdone itself with its upcoming game Dreams. The Sony-owned studio had gone quiet on this nebulous PS4 project, but a new gameplay trailer broke the silence with a fantastically psychedelic look at the possibilities in Dreams' build-it-yourself world. It looked like a sizzle reel for at least a dozen completely different games - yet they were all made with the evidently rich creation tools that Dreams has to offer.

Lucas Sullivan is the former US Managing Editor of GamesRadar+. Lucas spent seven years working for GR, starting as an Associate Editor in 2012 before climbing the ranks. He left us in 2019 to pursue a career path on the other side of the fence, joining 2K Games as a Global Content Manager. Lucas doesn't get to write about games like Borderlands and Mafia anymore, but he does get to help make and market them.