All The Best Trailers, Game Reveals, Winners And More

The Game Awards 2022 was a fun—if overly long—celebration of the past year in video games. You can see a full list of winners at the bottom of this post. My personal favorite video game of 2022, Elden Ring, took home top honors. Sony’s excellent God Of War: Ragnarök won a bunch of awards as well.

All told, despite some awkward moments and hiccups, the show was a success. And best of all, we have a bunch of delightful new trailers to watch! Some of these are for games we knew about already, others are brand new reveals. All of the trailers in this post are worth watching. I didn’t include everything, but these are my top picks and honorable mentions.

Let’s jump in!

Top Picks

Hozier Performs ‘Blood Upon The Snow’ from God Of War Ragnarök

I’ll open things up with this tremendous performance of Blood Upon The Snow from God Of War Ragnarök. Hozier performs alongside composer Bear McCreary (rocking the Hurdy Gurdy!) and The Game Awards Orchestra and holy crap this is just tremendous. No wonder McCreary won Best Score this year! What a treat. Definitely a high-point of this year’s show.

Hades II — Supergiant Games

This was a fun surprise! Hades is getting a sequel where you play as the princess—rather than the prince—of the Underworld. According to the devs, in the roguelite “you’ll explore a bigger, deeper mythic world, vanquishing the forces of the Titan of Time with the full might of Olympus behind you, in a sweeping story that continually unfolds through your every setback and accomplishment.” Count me in! The game is slated to release sometime in 2023.

Armored Core VI: Fires Of Rubicon — FromSoftware

I’m ashamed to admit, despite being a massive Dark Souls fanboy and having played every Souls game including Bloodborne, Sekiro and Elden Ring, I never got into the Armored Core series. I plan to remedy that with Armored Core VI: Fires Of Rubicon, which FromSoftware revealed at The Game Awards. It comes out in 2023, and the trailer looks amazing. It’ll be fun to play some sci-fi mecha from the best game developer on the planet. And the music!!!

Diablo IV Release Date Trailer — Blizzard

Guaranteed to be one of the biggest (and likely most controversial) games of 2023, Diablo IV finally has a release date: June 6th, 2023. That’s my daughter’s 16th birthday! I’ll have to get her into Diablo before then so we can spend the day playing. I absolutely adore how much darker this game looks than Diablo III. That’s the way the devil intended it.

Judas — Ghost Story Games

From the creator of Bioshock, Ken Levine, and his new studio Ghost Story Games, comes Judas. It definitely has that classic, dystopian Bioshock feel and it looks absolutely fantastic. I miss those games! It’s been nearly a decade since BioShock Infinite came out (when I first met Levine) and that’s many years too long. It’ll be cool to see what they come up with in a totally new franchise. Coming to PC, Xbox Series X|S and PS5 . . . in the future.

Super Mario Bros. Movie Clip

This looks super cute. I mean look at all these Toads! Definitely a day-one theatrical viewing for me when this hits theaters on April 7th, 2023.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor — Respawn

I really enjoyed Respawn’s Star Wars Souls-like Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order but the sequel, Jedi: Survivor, looks much better, bigger and more refined. The trailer shown off at The Game Awards is as epic and badass as I’d hoped it would be. Coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on March 17th, 2023. I can’t wait.

Crime Boss: Rockay City — INGAME STUDIOS

A collaboration between developer INGAME STUDIOS, publisher 505 Games and Epic Games, this is the most star-studded video game I think I’ve ever seen. The official description lists the cast: “From the charismatic Travis Baker (Michael Madsen) and his team of planners and handlers (Michael Rooker, Kim Basinger, Danny Glover and Damion Poitier), to rival gang bosses (Danny Trejo and Vanilla Ice) and the righteous Sheriff Norris (Chuck Norris): it’s not what you know, but who you know.”

This is a video game with Chuck Norris and Vanilla Ice in it. But also Danny Trejo and Michael Madsen. It’s like a first-person shooter version of Grand Theft Auto meets Quentin Tarantino set in Florida in the 90s’. I have no idea if it’ll be any good but I’ll definitely be giving it a shot on March 28th, 2023 when it hits the Epic Games Store (releasing later on other platforms).

Exciting Entries

Death Stranding 2 – Kojima Studios

A sequel to the weirdest game I’ve played in a very long time. More creepy babies. More scary black goo. More of everything that made Death Stranding . . . so unique. Also, you get to see what Norman Reedus looks like with gray hair! Still a handsome devil.

Lords Of The Fallen (Reboot) — CI Games

I enjoyed the original Lords of the Fallen, but the 2014 Souls-like left a lot to be desired. The rebooted Lords of the Fallen looks much darker and much more like its own thing. We don’t see a ton of gameplay in this trailer, but I’m definitely excited to play it when it comes to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S sometime in 2023.

Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon — Nintendo

A lovely painterly-style 2.5D platformer that gives us a glimpse into Bayonetta’s past. What a surprise! Coming to Nintendo Switch on March 17th, 2023.

Atomic Heart — Mundfish

The zany, crunchy, Russian-folk-metal music by Mick Gordon in this trailer for Atomic Heart is enough to make me want to play the game. Gordon has taken the song Arlekino by Soviet singer Alla Pugacheva and turned layered some DOOM on top. Wild. This game looks absolutely bonkers!

REPLACED — Coatsink / Sad Cat Studios

REPLACED is described as “a 2.5D sci-fi retro-futuristic action platformer where you play as R.E.A.C.H. – an artificial intelligence trapped in a human body against its own will.” That description, plus the incredible pixel-art, make this one of the more unique reveals at The Game Awards. This one’s headed to PC and Xbox Game Pass in 2023.

Post Trauma – Raw Fury

This one definitely has my attention. Creepy, fixed camera, retro horror with terrific graphics just oozing atmosphere? Yes, please.

Hellboy: Web Of Wyrd — Upstream Arcade

I’m pretty surprised at how awesome this trailer for Hellboy: Web Of Wyrd looks. The game has a comic book art-style that just really clicks for me. The fact that Mike Mignola and Dark Horse Comics are working on this with the game developers is awesome. No release date yet.

Earthblade — Extremely OK Games

From the creators of Celeste—which is a damn fine 2D platformer—comes Earthblade, which looks great!

Final Fantasy XVI Release Date Trailer — Square Enix

Final Fantasy XVI comes out just a couple weeks after Diablo IV on June 22nd, 2023. I think it looks terrific and I’m not even a huge Final Fantasy fan. I like the dark Medieval vibe. Also, now I just want to shout “JOSHUA!” randomly at people. JOSHUA!!!

Viewfinder — Sad Owl Studio

A clever-looking picture-based first-person puzzler that’s coming to PS5 and PC next year.

Immortals of Aveum — Ascendant Studios

We don’t get many first-person magic shooters so I’m definitely keeping an eye on Immortals of Aveum, an Unreal Engine 5 game from a brand new studio comprised of former Call Of Duty, Dead Space, BioShock and Halo devs and published through EA Originals. We don’t get any gameplay in the trailer, sadly, but it’s cool looking!

Meet Your Maker — Behaviour Interactive

A first-person ‘build and raid’ game from the Dead By Daylight crew. One player designs “devious maze-like outposts filled with traps and guards” and the other players raid the player-created dungeon. Cool idea!

Idris Elba Joins Cyberpunk 2077

I’m not gonna lie: I never did get into Cyberpunk 2077. It was so buggy at launch and I just didn’t enjoy the combat, so I gave it up and never looked back. As much as I like Keanu Reeves—and Idris Elba, who joins the game in the Phantom Liberty DLC—I’m still not sure I have any interest in returning. We’ll see. The expansion comes in 2023.

Baldur’s Gate 3

Larian’s sprawling RPG has been out in Early Access for a while so a new trailer isn’t that exciting but it does appear to be shaping up very nicely. I played some of the game early on but I think I’ll wait until its August 2023 release to dive into the finished product.

Modern Warfare II Raids Gameplay — Activision

Three-player raids are coming to Modern Warfare II next week. These are being released as episodes across seasons and continue the story from the campaign, but with up to three players. I’m stoked! The first raid drops with the Season 1 Reloaded update on December 14th.

The Bill Clinton Kid

We can’t leave out the bizarre teenage troll who interrupted the Elden Ring GOTY award moment spouting nonsense. Paul Tassi has more on this wild security breach.

List Of Winners

GAME OF THE YEAR

Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)

BEST GAME DIRECTION

Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)

BEST NARRATIVE

God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)

BEST ART DIRECTION

Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)

BEST SCORE AND MUSIC

Bear McCreary, God of War Ragnarök

BEST AUDIO DESIGN

God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)

BEST PERFORMANCE

Christopher Judge, God of War Ragnarök

GAMES FOR IMPACT

As Dusk Falls (Interior Night/Xbox Game Studios)

BEST ONGOING GAME

FINAL FANTASY XIV (Square Enix)

BEST INDIE

Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)

BEST DEBUT INDIE

Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)

BEST COMMUNITY SUPPORT, PRESENTED BY DISCORD

FINAL FANTASY XIV (Square Enix)

BEST MOBILE

MARVEL SNAP (Second Dinner Studios/Nuverse)

BEST VR/AR

Moss: Book II (Polyarc)

BEST ACTION

Bayonetta 3 (Platinum Games/Nintendo)

BEST ACTION/ADVENTURE

God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)

BEST ROLE PLAYING

Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)

BEST FIGHTING

MultiVersus (Player First Games/WB Games)

BEST FAMILY

Kirby and the Forgotten Land (HAL Laboratory / Nintendo)

BEST SIM/STRATEGY

Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope (Ubisoft Milan/Paris/Ubisoft)

BEST SPORTS/RACING

Gran Turismo 7 (Polyphony Digital/SIE)

BEST MULTIPLAYER

Splatoon 3 (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)

MOST ANTICIPATED

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)

CONTENT CREATOR OF THE YEAR

Ludwig

BEST ADAPTATION

Arcane: League of Legends (Fortiche/Riot Games/Netflix)

INNOVATION IN ACCESSIBILITY

God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)

BEST ESPORTS GAME

VALORANT (Riot Games)

BEST ESPORTS ATHLETE

Jacob “Yay” Whiteaker (Cloud9, Valorant)

BEST ESPORTS TEAM

LOUD (Valorant)

BEST ESPORTS COACH

Matheus “bzkA” Tarasconi (LOUD, VALORANT)

BEST ESPORTS EVENT

2022 League of Legends World Championship

Players Voice

Genshin Impact (miHoYo)