The Wildest Moments From The 2022 Game Awards
The annual Game Awards ceremony hosted by Geoff Keighley gets bigger and bigger every year, and 2022 was one for the books. This year the competition was fierce, with critically acclaimed "God of War Ragnarok" and "Elden Ring" leading the pack with multiple nominations. But developers and content creators patting each other on the back for their hard work isn't the only content on offer from the Game Awards.
Gamers also got some sneak peeks from a few upcoming games. The biggest reveal was probably the world premiere of the long-awaited "Death Stranding 2," while other fans were fawning over the news that "Hades 2" is finally on the way. But that wasn't all of the entertainment to come from this year's ceremony.
A few unscripted events during the awards show had gamers buzzing, including unexpected celebrity guests and acceptance speeches that seemed to get out of hand. Here are the wildest moments from the Game Awards 2022.
Bewildering celebrity guests
The Game Awards began with a bang, with special guest Al Pacino taking the stage to present the Best Performance award. Seeing a legendary Oscar-winning actor arriving at a video game awards show was surprising for many, and the folks in live audience erupted with applause.
However, some fans noted that Pacino seemed pretty out of place at The Game Awards, especially after he admitted that he doesn't even play video games. And after stumbling over some of his words, he looked off-stage and jokingly said, "It's hard for me to see the teleprompter." To many, Pacino appeared a bit lost and uninformed about gaming in general.
Pacino wasn't the only celeb who seemed to be a bit out of sorts. "Reservoir Dogs" star Michael Madsen likewise seemed shocked by the turnout for the event, leading to quite a few jokes and remarks online about his somewhat bewildered appearance.
Christopher Judge's big speech
Luckily for Pacino, after he announced Christopher Judge as the Best Performance award winner, he had ample time to reflect on what video games are actually all about. The "God of War" star's heartfelt acceptance speech was lengthy, coming in at around eight minutes. During his speech, Judge took time to collect his thoughts and didn't seem to be in a rush as he gave thanks to his long list of supporters and told stories from the production of "God of War Ragnarok" and its predecessor.
The one-two punch of Pacino's appearance and Christopher Judge's monologue was enough to get the crowd talking for the rest of the night. Even Geoff Keighley couldn't stop bringing it up, as viewers noticed he made a few jokes about the length of the speech.
Though Judge was eventually played off the stage by raucous music, the actor confirmed on Twitter that he had so much more he wanted to say, including a shoutout to his wife. Kratos may be a man of few words, but his performer certainly is not.
Game of the Year gets crashed
The biggest and strangest moment arrived at the end of the night, when the developers at FromSoftware began making their way up to the stage to accept their Game of the Year award. Somehow, among all of the excitment, a mysterious individual slipped past security and joined them. Once Hidetaka Miyazaki and the team wrapped up their speech, the individual leaned into the mic and bizarrely stated that they would like to nominate Bill Clinton for the Game of the Year award.
Unorthodox rebel bill clinton???
I'm sorry what?#TheGameAwards pic.twitter.com/K1SjwubhSq— Devin roopnarain (@TurbosnipeOne) December 9, 2022
Fans on the internet immediately started trying to figure out what this person was talking about, resulting in a ton of memes and conspiracy theories. Shortly after the ceremony, Game Awards host Geoff Keighley tweeted that the individual had been quickly apprehended and arrested.
As of this writing, there is no word on whether or not Bill Clinton is prepared to accept the supposed "nomination." One thing's for sure, though: This Game Awards ceremony was one to remember.