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The Last of Us wins Game of the Year at 2014 GDC Awards
The 2014 Game Developers Choice Awards were handed out last night and The Last of Us took home “Game of the Year.” Naughty Dog’s unquestioned dominance in this year’s awards season really makes you wonder, does it ever get boring for Neil Druckmann and company? I’m guessing no, but after winning several BAFTAs, multiple DICE Awards, the Writer’s Guild Award for Videogame Writing, and a Warp Zoned Golden Pixel Award, it stops being surprising. In addition to being selected as “Game of the Year,” The Last of Us was also honored with the “Best Game Design” and “Best Narrative” awards.
But The Last of Us wasn’t the only winner last night. Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds was picked as the “Best Handheld/Mobile Game” while IGF darling Papers Please took home the award for “Best Downloadable Game” as well as the “Innovation Award.”
The only other multi-award winner of the night was BioShock Infinite, which was recognized for its sights and sounds with the “Best Visual Art” and “Best Audio” awards. Finally, the low-key Gone Home (and its developer, The Fullbright Company) was picked as the “Best Debut” while the bombastic Grand Theft Auto V took home “Best Technology.”
The full list of this year’s winners can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged BioShock Infinite, GDC 2014, Gone Home, Grand Theft Auto V, Papers Please, The Last of Us, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
Papers Please wins big at the 2014 Independent Games Festival
Lucas Pope’s Papers Please was the big winner during last night’s Independent Games Festival. The 2014 edition of the annual awards show honoring independent games gave three awards to Pope’s game including “Excellence in Design,” “Excellence in Narrative,” and the “Seumas McNally Grand Prize.” Who knew taking control of a border control agent living under a harsh dictator could be so fun?
Five other games were also honored with awards last night. The “Excellence in Visual Art” award went to Jason Roberts for his puzzler Gorogoa. If you’re more of a sound guy, you’d probably like to know that Simogo was given the “Excellence in Audio” award for their beguiling mobile game, Device 6.
The “Nuovo Award,” which recognizes “abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development,” was given to Tale of Tales for Luxuria Superbia. According to the IGF, Luxuria Superbia is “a musically and visually resplendent title that uses the player’s touch to stimulate in-game sensations of pleasure and joy. Absent any characters or underlying narrative, the game is focused entirely on the experience of traveling through a series of tunnels to make them “feel good” and affect their colors and plumage through the player’s tactile inputs.” Certainly sounds unconventional to me.
The final two awards of the night went to Hopoo Games and Galactic Cage. Hopoo Games is made up of students from the University of Washington and, obviously enough, they took home the “Best Student Game” award for Risk of Rain. Finally, the “Audience Award” went to Galactic Cafe for their work on The Stanley Parable, their heavily-narrated first-person game.
Congratulations to all of this year’s winners.
Posted in Mobile, News, PC
Tagged GDC 2014, Papers Please
The Last of Us, GTA5 lead 2014 BAFTA nominees
The nominees for the 2014 BAFTA Awards have been announced and… drumroll please… The Last of Us and Grand Theft Auto V both racked up a ton of nominations.
Both games will be competing for the coveted “Best Game” award against Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Tearaway, Super Mario 3D World, and Papers Please. Due to its British origins, GTA5 is also competing in the “British Game” category against Tearaway, The Room Two, Lego Marvel Super Heroes, Gunpoint, and DMC: Devil May Cry.
In addition to “Best Game,” The Last of Us was nominated for nine awards including “Artistic Achievement,” “Audio Achievement,” “Game Design,” “Original Music,” “Story,” “Action and Adventure,” and “Multiplayer.” Two “Performer” nominations (one each for Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson) round out the game’s honors. As for GTA5, it received seven additional nominations including “Audio Achievement,” “Game Design,” “Game Innovation,” “Story,” “Action and Adventure,” “Multiplayer,” and “Performer” (for Steven Ogg as Trevor Phillips).
The 2014 BAFTA Awards will be awarded on Wednesday, March 12. The complete list of nominees can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Grand Theft Auto V, Papers Please, Super Mario 3D World, Tearaway, The Last of Us
2014 Independent Games Festival finalists announced
The Independent Games Festival announced the finalists for their 16th annual awards yesterday. This year, six titles will vie for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize including The Stanley Parable (Galactic Cafe), Don’t Starve (Klei Entertainment), Jazzpunk (Necrophone Games), Papers, Please (Lucas Pope), Device 6 (Simogo), and Dominique Pamplemousse in “It’s All Over Once the Fat Lady Sings!” (Deirdra Kiai Productions).
The Festival jury found a lot to like about all six of those games as they show up again and again throughout the full list of finalists. You can find the complete list of finalists after the break, including the selections for the Nuovo Award, which honors “Abstract and Unconventional Game Development.”
The IGF Awards will be held on Wednesday, March 19 at the San Francisco Moscone Convention Center, directly preceding the disbursement of this year’s Game Developers Choice Awards during the 2014 Game Developers Conference. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC
Tagged GDC 2014, Papers Please