'Legend of Zelda' wins big, 'Soul Calibur' returns at The Game Awards 2017

Dec. 8 (UPI) -- The 4th annual Game Awards, which took place Thursday evening in Los Angeles, celebrated the greatest video games of 2017.

Geoff Keighley, former video game journalist and creator of the show, hosted the event which was livestreamed online across various channels including YouTube, Twitter, Facebook Live, Playstation Network, Xbox Live, Steam and Twitch, just to name a few.

Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was the night's big winner as it took home the coveted Game of the Year Award despite facing stiff competition from titles such as Super Mario Odyssey, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Persona 5 and Horizon Zero Dawn.

Breath of the Wild also won Best Game Direction and Best Action/Adventure Game.

Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma was on hand to announce that the game's eagerly awaited expansion, The Champions Ballad, would be released that night for the Nintendo Switch and Wii U.

Aonuma also presented a gameplay trailer of the expansion which featured Link driving a motorcycle around Hyrule that was named the Master Cycle Zero.

Cuphead was another big winner with the indie run and gun shooter taking home the award for Best Art Direction and Best Independent Game.

Other award winning games included Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, which won Best Action Game; What Remains of Edith Finch, which earned Best Narrative; and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, which was given the award for Games for Impact and Best Performance to actress Melina Juergens who played the title character.

The Game Awards also released a number of new trailers for upcoming titles including a teaser for Bayonetta 3 for the Switch, a cinematic trailer for famed video game auteur Hideo Kojima's next title Death Stranding, which once again featured actor Norman Reedus and a gameplay trailer for the next entry in Bandai Namco's long-running weapons-based fighting game, Soulcalibur VI.

Soulcalibur VI came as a surprise as the last proper entry in the series was released back in 2012. The new Soulcalibur will be releasing in 2018 for the Playstation 4, Xbox One and PC.