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Death Stranding and Control take control of the 2020 DICE Awards with 8 nominations apiece
The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) has announced the nominees for this year’s DICE Awards, and Kojima Productions’s Death Stranding and Remedy’s Control lead the way with eight nominations apiece. As you might expect, both games were nominated for “Game of the Year,” and they’ll be competing against ZA/UM’s Disco Elysium, Mobius Digital’s Outer Wilds, and House House’s Untitled Goose Game for the big prize.
“On behalf of the Academy, I want to thank our peer panelists, who always dedicate their time, energy, and expertise in evaluating and selecting 2019’s best games,” said Meggan Scavio, the President of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. “To all of the finalists… a big congratulations on continuing to push the boundaries of storytelling, creativity and technical innovation. We can’t wait to celebrate your achievements at the 23rd Annual DICE Awards!”
A complete list of this year’s nominees can be found after the break, and the winners in all categories will be announced during the DICE Awards ceremony (which takes place during the DICE Summit) on February 13. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Tagged Control, Death Stranding, Disco Elysium, Outer Wilds, Untitled Goose Game
Death Stranding connects with 7 nominations at the 2020 GDC Awards
It looks like Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding really connected with the judging panel for the 2020 Game Developers Choice Awards. The developer’s latest game, and his first as the head of an independent team, was nominated in seven categories: “Game of the Year,” “Best Design,” “Best Visual Art,” “Best Narrative,” “Best Audio,” “Best Technology,” and the “Innovation Award.”
The remaining “Game of the Year” contenders gobbled up most of the rest of the nominations, as Remedy’s Control and Mobius Digital’s Outer Wilds were close behind with five nominations apiece. Also in the running are House House’s Untitled Goose Game (which collected four nominations) and From Software’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (which snuck into the conversation with three nominations).
In addition to this year’s slate of competitive awards, Kate Edwards will receive Ambassador Award for her work in “helping video games advance to a better place through advocacy and action.” Edwards is the current Executive Director of Global Game Jam and the former head of the International Game Developers Association.
The 2020 Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony will take place on on Wednesday, March 18, and will be livestreamed on the GDC’s Twitch channel. The full list of nominees, as well as all the Honorable Mentions, can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Tagged Control, Death Stranding, GDC 2020, Outer Wilds, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Untitled Goose Game
Latest update for Doom and Doom II adds Add-Ons, Quick Saves, 60 FPS support, more
As promised back in December, Bethesda has updated the recent re-releases of Doom (1993) and Doom II with a bevy of new features.
The biggest new addition to both titles is support for Add-Ons, which will initially include a number of popular semi-official WADs. The Final Doom campaigns (TnT: Evilution and The Plutonia Experiment) are now available to download for free through either game. Another bonus campaign will be available to Doom players looking to grab John Romero’s Sigil, while Doom II fans will be able to download the previously XBLA-exclusive expansion No Rest For the Living.
More Add-Ons will be added to Doom and Doom II at a later date.
Other new features included in this update are native support for visuals at 60 FPS, a Quick Saves option, and multiple Quality-of-Life Adjustments (including a “Quick Weapon Select feature, improved Level Select function, added Aspect Ratio and Brightness options, a new split-screen HUD, and more”).
You can learn more about everything that was added to Doom and Doom II today by visiting the Patch Notes page on Bethesda.net.
Untitled Goose Game and Slay the Spire lead the nominees at 2020 IGF Awards
The Independent Games Festival, the scrappier sibling to the Game Developer Conference, has announced the nominees for this year’s Independent Games Festival Awards.
Not surprisingly, House House’s Untitled Goose Game stole the spotlight, earning two total nominations (for the “Seumas McNally Grand Prize” and “Excellence In Audio”). However, it was Die Gute Fabrik’s Mutazione that lead the pack. In addition to a nomination for the “Seumas McNally Grand Prize,” the mutant soap opera is also in competition for “Excellence In Visual Art,” “Excellence In Audio,” and “Excellence In Narrative.”
Other games in the running for the IGF’s top prize this year are Mega Crit’s Slay the Spire, Adam Robinson-Yu’s A Short Hike, Zachtronics’s Eliza, and Sean Han Tani and Marina Kittaka’s Anodyne 2: Return to Dust.
The winners of the Independent Games Festival Awards will be revealed on Wednesday, March 18, at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco. League of Geeks’s Trent Kusters will serve as the host of the ceremony, which will be livestreamed for viewers at home on the GDC’s Twitch channel.
The complete list of nominees (and Honorable Mentions) from the 2020 Independent Games Festival Awards can be found after the break. (more…)
Dodge Roll confirms that Exit the Gungeon will be released for PC and consoles in Early 2020
Dodge Roll Games started 2020 off with a big news drop (on Twitter) about all their current and upcoming projects.
First up, Exit the Gungeon will escape its exclusivity deal with Apple Arcade and make its way to “PC and consoles” in Early 2020. The developer didn’t specify which consoles the game would appear on, but Enter the Gungeon has found a lot of success on the PS4, Xbox One, and Switch, so a wide release strategy seems likely for this pseudo-sequel.
Speaking of Enter the Gungeon, Dodge Roll also announced that their first game has now sold more than three million copies across all platforms. Congratulations to the team on reaching that milestone.
Finally, Dodge Roll revealed that Enter the Gungeon: House of the Gundead, a lightgun-powered arcade cabinet developed by Griffin Aerotech, will also be available in Early 2020. The spinoff will offer two-player simultaneous shooting against the “adorable” Gundead horde when it launches sometime in the next few months.
Dodge Roll recently overhauled their website at EnterTheGungeon.com, and you’ll be able to find future updates about all of these games over there.
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Tagged Enter the Gungeon, Exit the Gungeon
Sony unveils logo for PlayStation 5
Jim Ryan, Sony Interactive Entertainment’s President and CEO, took the stage at CES yesterday to talk a bit about the PlayStation 5. During his speech, the executive even unveiled the console’s logo… and it looks about how you’d expect.
But if you’re looking for more substantial PS5 news, you’re going to have to keep waiting. Though Ryan did reconfirm that the console will launch this Fall, and he briefly mentioned that the PS5 will support 3D Audio Sound, Haptic/Adaptive Triggers, Hardware-Based Ray Tracing, an Ultra High Speed SSD, and an Ultra HD Disc Drive.
Ryan actually had more to say about the PS4, and he was happy to report some great numbers for Sony. More than 106 million PS4 consoles have been sold since its launch in 2013, along with 1.15 billion games (for an average, or tie ratio, of 10.84 per console). Sony has also sold more than five million PlayStation VR headsets since the peripheral debuted in 2016. Finally, Ryan revealed that Sony has signed up more than 38.8 million users for their PlayStation Plus subscription service.
Will the PS5 be able to match those figures? Perhaps, but we’ll have to wait until this year to learn more about the next-generation console.
NIS America will release Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories on April 7
NIS America has announced that Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories will be released for the PC, PS4, and Switch on April 7. If you’re unfamiliar with the Disaster Report series, the publisher also passed along a few new details about the game, which was originally released in Japan in 2018:
About Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories
A calm summer day turns into catastrophe when a massive earthquake strikes your city, throwing buildings and lives into chaos. In order to survive, you must navigate familiar locations under unfamiliar circumstances. The fellow survivors you meet and crucial decisions you make will affect the course of your experience and ultimately determine how your journey through this crisis will end.Features
- Stop! Think! Then Act! – Evaluate each perilous situation and make decisions that will impact your own safety as well as that of others.
- Torn From the Headlines – Interact with realistic scenarios within a Japanese city devastated by an earthquake, including scenarios designed in collaboration with the Kobe City Fire Bureau.
- Danger Around Every Corner – Navigate a multitude of crises—from collapsing buildings to raging fires—in a city aplomb with peril.
The Disaster Report series has had something of a shaky history in the US (the third game was never released outside of Japan), but hardcore fans will be able to pick up a special Limited Edition of Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories for the PS4 and Switch. The Limited Edition will be available exclusively through the NIS America Store, and include a copy of the game, the Official Soundtrack, an Emergency Backpack, and an Identification Tag.
In addition to announcing a release date and the Limited Edition, NIS America also revealed a brand new Gameplay Trailer for the survival sim, and it’s been embedded above.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Switch
Tagged Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories
Travis Knight is no longer directing Sony’s film adaptation of Uncharted
Another One Bites the Dust!
Another One Bites the Dust!
Owwwwww!
Another One Bites the Dust!
Hey Hey!
Another One Bites the Dust!
Heeeeeeeeyyy!
Deadline is reporting that yet another director has been dropped from Sony Pictures’s film adaptation of Uncharted. This time around, Bumblebee‘s Travis Knight has been ousted from the position due to scheduling conflicts caused by star Tom Holland’s participation in the upcoming Spider-Man: Far From Home sequel:
Uncharted extends Holland’s relationship with the studio. It remains a priority project for the studio, which has seen several directors come and go. The actor will next shoot the next Spider-Man installment in the summer.
Even with this setback, Holland is still set to star as Nathan Drake in the Uncharted film, which will serve as a prequel to the video game franchise. Mark Wahlberg is also still under contract to portray Drake’s mentor, Victor “Sully” Sullivan. However, the film’s previously-announced December 2020 release date has been pushed back yet again as Sony renews their search for a director willing to take it on.
Knight is the sixth director to leave the Uncharted adaptation, and it’s very possible I already made that Queen joke up top in a previous update to this story.
Posted in News, PS3, PS4
Tagged Uncharted: Drake's Fortune