The Game Awards take place live in Los Angeles this evening, and in addition to 10 game reveals, the show will hand out awards to some of 2019’s best games.

The nominees for Game of the Year this year include Control, Death Stranding, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Resident Evil 2, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and The Outer Worlds. Nintendo’s mascot fighting game was released in December 2018, but it falls within the award show’s timeframe for consideration.

You can see the full list of categories and nominees below. We’ll update this post as the show goes on by bolding the winners as they’re announced. The Game of the Year award is expected to be announced last.

The Game Awards begin at 5:30 PM PT / 7:30 PM CST / 8:30 PM ET on December 12 (and 1:30 AM BST / 12:30 PM AEST and on December 13) and can be streamed here on GameSpot and on Mixer, Twitch, YouTube, and elsewhere.

The Game Awards 2019 Full Nominees List

Game of The Year

• Control (Remedy/505 Games)
• Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/SIE)
• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Bandai-Namco/Sora/Nintendo)
• Resident Evil 2 (Capcom/Capcom)
• Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (From Software/Activision)
• The Outer Worlds (Obsidian/Private Division)

Best Game Direction

• Control (Remedy/505 Games)
• Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/SIE)
• Resident Evil 2 (Capcom/Capcom)
• Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (From Software/Activision)
• Outer Wilds (Mobius Digital/Annapurna)

Best Narrative

• A Plague Tale: Innocence (Asobo/Focus Home)
• Control (Remedy/505)
• Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/SIE)
• Disco Elysium (ZA/UM)
• The Outer Worlds (Obsidian/Private Division)

Best Art Direction

• Control (Remedy/505)
• Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/SIE)
• Gris (Nomada Studio/Devolver)
• Sayonara Wild Hearts (Simogo/Annapurna)
• Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (From Software/Activision)
• The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (Grezzo/Nintendo)

Best Score/Music

• Cadence of Hyrule (Brace Yourself Games/Nintendo)
• Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/SIE)
• Devil May Cry 5 (Capcom)
• Kingdom Hearts III (Square Enix)
• Sayonara Wild Hearts (Simogo/Annapurna)

Best Audio Design

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward/Activision)
• Control (Remedy/505)
• Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/SIE)
• Gears 5 (The Coalition/Xbox Game Studios)
• Resident Evil 2 (Capcom)
• Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (From Software/Activision)

Best Performance

• Ashly Burch as Parvati Holcomb, The Outer Worlds
• Courtney Hope as Jesse Faden, Control
• Laura Bailey as Kait Diaz, Gears 5
• Mads Mikkelsen as Cliff, Death Stranding
• Matthew Porretta as Dr. Casper Darling, Control
• Norman Reedus as Sam Porter Bridges, Death Stranding

Games for Impact

• Concrete Genie (Pixelopus/SIE)
• Gris (Nomada Studio/Devolver)
• Kind Words (Popcannibal)
• Life is Strange 2 (Dontnod/Square Enix)
• Sea of Solitude (Jo-Mei Games/EA)

Best Ongoing Game

• Apex Legends (Respawn)
• Destiny 2 (Bungie)
• Final Fantasy XIV (Square Enix)
• Fortnite (Epic Games)
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)

Best Independent Game

• Baba Is You (Hempuli)
• Disco Elysium (ZA/UM)
• Katana ZERO (Askiisoft/Devoler Digital)
• Outer Wilds (Mobius Digital/Annapurna)
• Untitled Goose Game (House House/Panic)

Best Mobile Game

• Call of Duty: Mobile (TiMi Studios/Activision)
• GRINDSTONE (Capybara Games)
• Sayonara Wild Hearts (Simogo/Annapurna)
• Sky: Children of Light (Thatgamecompany)
• What the Golf? (Tribland)

Best Community Support

• Apex Legends (Respawn/EA)
• Destiny 2 (Bungie)
• Final Fantasy XIV (Square Enix)
• Fortnite (Epic Games)
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)

Best VR/AR Game

• Asgard’s Wrath (Sanzaru Games/Oculus Studios)
• Blood & Truth (SIE London Studio/SIE)
• Beat Saber (Beat Games)
• No Man’s Sky (Hello Games)
• Trover Saves the Universe (Squanch Games)

Best Action Game

• Apex Legends (Respawn/EA)
• Astral Chain (Platinum Games/Nintendo)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward/Activision)
• Devil May Cry 5 (Capcom/Capcom)
• Gears 5 (The Coalition/Xbox Game Studios)
• Metro Exodus (4A Games/Deep Silver)

Best Action/Adventure Game

• Borderlands 3 (Gearbox/2K)
• Control (Remedy/505 Games)
• Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/SIE)
• Resident Evil 2 (Capcom)
• The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (Grezzo/Nintendo)
• Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (From Software/Activision)

Best RPG

• Disco Elysium (ZA/UM)
• Final Fantasy XIV (Square Enix)
• Kingdom Hearts III (Square Enix)
• Monster Hunter World: Iceborne (Capcom)
• The Outer Worlds (Obsidian/Private Division)

Best Fighting Game

• Dead or Alive 6 (Team Ninja/Koei Tecmo)
• Jump Force (Spike Chunsoft/Bandai Namco)
• Mortal Kombat 11 (NetherRealm/WBIE)
• Samurai Showdown (SNK/Athlon)
• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Bandai Namco/Sora/Nintendo)

Best Family Game

• Luigi’s Mansion 3 (Next Level Games/Nintendo)
• Ring Fit Adventure (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
• Super Mario Maker 2 (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Bandai Namco/Sora/Nintendo)
• Yoshi’s Crafted World (Good-Feel/Nintendo)

Best Strategy Game

• Age of Wonders: Planetfall (Triumph Studios/Paradox)
• Anno 1800 (Blue Byte/Ubisoft)
• Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Intelligent Systems/Koei Tecmo/Nintendo)
• Total War: Three Kingdoms (Creative Assembly/Sega)
• Tropico 6 (Limbic Entertainment/Kalypso Media)
• Wargroove (Chucklefish)

Best Sports/Racing Game

• Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled (Beenox/Activision)
• DiRT Rally 2.0 (Codemasters)
• eFootball Pro Evolution Soccer 2020 (PES Productions/Konami)
• F1 2019 (Codemasters)
• FIFA 20 (EA Sports)

Best Multiplayer Game

• Apex Legends (Respawn/EA)
• Borderlands 3 (Gearbox/2K)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward/Activision)
• Tetris 99 (Arika/Nintendo)
• Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 (Massive Entertainment/Ubisoft)

Fresh Indie Game

• ZA/UM for Disco Elysium
• Nomada Studio for Gris
• DeadToast Entertainment for My Friend Pedro
• Mobius Digital for Outer Wilds
• Mega Crit for Slay the Spire
• House House for Untitled Goose Game

Content Creator of the Year

• Jack “Courage” Dunlop
• Benjamin “Dr. Lupo” Lupo
• Soleil “Ewok” Wheeler
• David “Grefg” Martínez
• Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek

Best Esports Game

• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (Valve)
• DOTA2 (Valve)
• Fortnite (Epic Games)
• League of Legends (Riot Games)
• Overwatch (Blizzard)

Best Esports Player

• Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf (Immortals, Fortnite)
• Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok (SK Telecom, League of Legends)
• Luka “Perkz” Perkovic (G2 Esports, League of Legends)
• Oleksandr “S1mple” Kostyliev (Natus Vincere, CSGO)
• Jay “Sinatraa” Won (SF Shock, Overwatch)

Best Esports Team

• Astralis (CS:GO)
• G2 Esports (LOL)
• OG (DOTA2)
• San Francisco Shock (OWL)
• Team Liquid (CS:GO)

Best Esports Event

• 2019 Overwatch League Grand Finals
• EVO 2019
• Fortnite World Cup
• IEM Katowice 2019
• League of Legends World Championship 2019
• The International 2019

Best Esports Coach

• Eric ‘adreN’ Hoag (Team Liquid, CS:GO)
• Nu-ri ‘Cain’ Jang (Team Liquid, LOL)
• Fabian ‘GrabbZ’ Lohmann (G2 Esports, LOL)
• Kim ‘Kkoma’ Jeong-gyun (SK Telecom T1, LOL)
• Titouan ‘Sockshka’ Merloz (OG, DOTA2)
• Danny ‘Zonic’ Sørensen (Astralis, CSGO)

Best Esports Host

• Eefje “Sjokz” Depoortere
• Alex “Machine” Richardson
• Paul “Redeye” Chaloner
• Alex “Goldenboy” Mendez
• Duan “Candice” Yu-Shuang

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-game-awards-winners-revealed-here-tonight/1100-6472169/

Over the years, Bungie has filled its Destiny games with limited-time events to celebrate various holidays. One of the longest-running is the Dawning, Destiny 2‘s version of a holiday celebration, in which you give in-game gifts to NPCs and earn winter-themed items, weapons, and armor. The Dawning is nearly upon us, with Bungie releasing a new trailer and some details about the upcoming event.

As Bungie detailed on its website, the Dawning kicks off on December 17 with the Tuesday weekly reset, and runs until January 14, a total of four weeks. Like last year, to celebrate the holiday in Destiny 2, you’ll visit Eva Lavente and collect a Holiday Oven item, which you’ll use to bake various Destiny-themed cookies to give to characters. Making those cookies requires gathering various ingredients from around the solar system, usually by killing enemies, and discovering the recipes to make each one.

Like every year, the Dawning has a few specific timed rewards to earn as you play through it. Bungie’s site teases a Dawning-specific ship and sparrow you’ll unlock by baking a bunch of cookies, and there’s Dawning-themed armor to earn along the way as well. The big prize of the season, however, is the Dawning weapon, a submachine gun called Cold Front. And you can expect the Eververse store to feature a whole bunch of holiday items to buy with premium currency.

The Dawning is a free event, so you don’t need to have purchased a season pass for the Season of Dawn in order to take part in it and earn its rewards. You can see what else is on tap for the season on Bungie’s Destiny 2 content calendar.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/destiny-2s-dawning-holiday-event-starts-next-week/1100-6472167/

NetherRealm has issued a new Mortal Kombat 11 update that appears to include a significant new feature–though it is nowhere in the official patch notes. The version 1.13 update history when viewed on PS4 has a note that it “Add cross-play.”

That would suggest that the update allows PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch players to battle it out without platform restrictions, but the official patch notes for PS4 aand Xbox One strangely make no mention of the feature. Those notes, which you can read in full below, focus on some minor gameplay adjustments and Towers of Time fixes, among other tweaks.

The reason for the disparity isn’t clear. The feature could be incoming sometime in the future. GameSpot has contacted NetherRealm for clarification.

Mortal Kombat 11 most recently added Sindel as a DLC character, and the Nintendo Switch version is on sale now.

MK11 December 12 Patch Notes

General Gameplay Adjustments

• Fixed an issue causing several Krushing Blows to do slightly increased damage
• Added an Newsletter Subscription option which rewards players with a Raiden Announcer Voice for signing up
• Fixed an issue that was causing Nightwolf, Sindel, & Terminator Augments to not work as intended

Kombat League / Online

• Reduced the Kombat League Point Cap that a player can lose in a match to 50

Towers of Time

• Fixed an issue with certain attacks killing the opponent at the same time a modifier activates during an Endurance Match causing a long delay before the next opponent appears
• Fixed a rare issue that could cause the camera to get out of bounds when a Fatal Blow or Krushing Blow occurs while the Ice Totem is active

Character Specific Adjustments

• Baraka – Blood Lunge’s Krushing Blow works correctly again in all situations

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/mortal-kombat-11-may-be-getting-cross-play/1100-6472163/

The Final Fantasy VII Remake is due out next spring, and Square Enix will show off another fresh look at tonight’s Game Awards. In a tease issued on Twitter, the official account promised a new trailer that will focus on the main story character, Cloud Strife.

As the tweet acknowledges, Cloud is well-known among fans of the classic RPG, since he’s the character that most of the story revolves around. But it’s been more than 20 years since the original release of FF7 on the very first PlayStation, so Square Enix appears to be looking to capture a new generation with this remake as well.

We recently learned that the FF7 remake is a timed exclusive on PS4, though other platforms haven’t been officially announced. It will pay homage to the classic with an option that makes it more closely resemble the turn-based original, though the active combat that we’ve seen in previous trailers has its own ways of adapting those mechanics for modern times.

The Game Awards will begin at 5:30 PM PT / 8:30 PM ET. This year the award show is also introducing a “Game Festival” promotion through Steam that will let you try limited-time demos of some featured games.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/final-fantasy-7-remake-teases-new-game-awards-trai/1100-6472159/

We’re a few hours away from The Game Awards, which streams live tonight at 5:30 PM PT / 8:30 PM ET. In conjunction with the fifth annual event, the Nintendo Eshop is holding a sale on a bevy of Switch games.

The Game Awards Eshop sale is live now and runs till Wednesday, December 18. It includes an assortment of Nintendo Switch games, from huge open-worlds like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt to popular indies such as Celeste and Crypt of the NecroDancer. Not every game on sale is nominated at this year’s awards ceremony, but the sale features up to 50% off on a bunch of excellent Switch titles.

Of the games on the list, five are nominated for an award or two. This includes Gris (Best Art Direction, Games For Impact, and Fresh Indie Game), Katana Zero (Best Independent Game), Mortal Kombat 11 (Best Fighting Game), Sayonara Wild Hearts (Best Art Direction, Best Score/Music, and Best Mobile Game), and Wargroove (Best Strategy Game). You check out the list below, along with their original and discounted price.

Nintendo Switch Eshop Deals for The Game Awards 2019

• Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer Featuring The Legend of Zelda — $17.49 ($25)
• Celeste — $10 ($20)
• Crypt of the NecroDancer: Nintendo Switch Edition — $4 ($20)
• Doom — $30 ($60)
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim — $30 ($60)
• Gris — $8.49 ($17)
• Katana Zero — $9.74 ($15)
• Mortal Kombat 11 — $30 ($60)
• Octopath Traveler — $36 ($60)
• Sayonara Wild Hearts — $10.39 ($13)
• Super Mario Odyssey — $42 ($60)
• Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes — $15 ($30)
• Wargroove — $14 ($20)
• What Remains of Edith Finch — $12 ($20)
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition — $42 ($60)
• Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus — $30 ($60)

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/huge-nintendo-switch-eshop-sale-live-now-for-game-/1100-6472157/