Reminder: Spike VGX Streaming Gaming Goodness Today

The most important night of the year for video games is finally upon us as Spike prepares to kick off the 2013 VGX extravaganza, formerly known as the Video Game Awards. We can only assume that the X stands for either “X-perience” or “X-treme.”

Okay, all sarcasm aside, Spike's annual video game show has sort of grown into its own over the past few years. Yes, it's still dumb as a brick the majority of the time, super sexist from time to time and, all things considered, inconsequential. But at least they're trying to have a good time and give video games a bit of time in the spotlight, right? If nothing else, they do at least deliver on their standard promises of new games announcements, trailers, etc.

This year's show is being handled quite a bit differently, though, as is explained on the official VGX website. Beginning at 6 p.m. ET and 3 p.m. PT, this year's show is being touted as an all-day gaming extravaganza, ditching the usual pomp and circumstance to instead provide an extended drip feed of gaming goodness.

“While its roots lie in the Video Game Awards, VGX will abandon the traditional Hollywood-style award show to feature more world premiere game trailers than ever before, plus extended deep dives into the next generation of games, new looks at gaming culture, one-on-one interviews with the industry's most visionary creatives and expert panels digging into what's coming to consoles in 2014 and beyond,” reads the site.

So less star pretending to be hanging around for purposes of promoting their new show, movie or album? I can certainly get behind that. And the show is going to be streaming this year through a number of sources rather than airing on Spike which, according to my local guide, will instead be showing a never-ending chain of Cops reruns throughout the afternoon so as not to compete with its own video game show.

Hosting this year's shindig will be Joel McHale (see above) and Geoff Keighley which, again, is pretty much a big plus in my book. There will also be an interactive feature involving Twitter, a special “music of Grand Theft Auto V” performance and a behind-the-scenes look at South Park: The Stick of Truth. And, just to name a few games being shown off during the three hours of broadcast, you can expect to see games like Titanfall and Quantum Break, as well as Dying Light and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

To watch, either head to the VGX official site at VGXLIVE.com, or catch the live stream on either the Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Twitch, iOS and Android devices. You can also tune in on Hulu, Yahoo Screen and the Yahoo Screen app. If, however, you miss out on the show, you can catch the VGX Replay on Monday, Dec. 9, at midnight, showing off a bunch of the live show's highlights.