Friday 8 February 2013

Game of the year announced by Dice Submit


The D.I.C.E. Summit; a large annual event where all the big names in gaming gather to discuss the industry, the games, the successes and failures.




Last night was all about the successes though, as the D.I.C.E. Award winners were announced...



The full list of award winners:

Action Game of the Year - Borderlands 2 (Gearbox Software)

Mobile Game of the Year - Hero Academy (Robot Entertainment)

Handheld Game of the Year - Paper Mario Sticker Star (Intelligent Systems)

Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Outstanding Achievement in Story - The Walking Dead (Telltale Games)

Outstanding Character Performance - The Walking Dead: Lee Everett (Telltale Games)

Downloadable Game of the Year - The Walking Dead (Telltale Games)

Casual Game of the Year - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Web Based Game of the Year - SimCity Social (Maxis, Playfish)

Family Game of the Year - Skylanders Giants (Toys for Bob)

Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year - Mass Effect 3 (Bioware)

Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year - XCOM: Enemy Unknown (Firaxis Games)

Outstanding Innovation in Gaming - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Sports Game of the Year - FIFA Soccer 13 (EA Canada)

Racing Game of the Year - Need for Speed Most Wanted (Criterion Games)

Fighting Game of the Year - PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale (SuperBot Entertainment)

Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Outstanding Achievement in Connectivity - Halo 4 (343 Industries)

Outstanding Achievement in Animation - Assassin's Creed III (Ubisoft)

Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering - Halo 4 (343 Industries)

Outstanding Achievement in Gameplay Engineering - XCOM: Enemy Unknown (Firaxis Games)

Adventure Game of the Year - The Walking Dead (Telltale Games)

Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Game of the Year - Journey (thatgamecompany)

Many games were nominated, and there were some expected winners, such as Borderlands 2 for Action Game of the Year, and Mass Effect 3 as best RolePlaying/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year. However, the real surprise is Journey - winning 8 awards and taking Game of the Year.

The Journey studio, ThatGameCompany, actually went bankrupt before releasing the game, but these awards prove that the game was a fantastic success for the developers.

Launch new version of the console every year by Ouya

The Kickstarter funded Android gaming console OUYA is finally set to go out in the hands of anxious Kickstarer backers and eventually, regular customers. But turns out, a newer version of the console isn’t too far away from now.



Talking to Engadget, CEO of OUYA Julie Uhrman said that “There will be a new OUYA every year. There will be an OUYA 2 and an OUYA 3.” What OUYA is aiming for is a smartphone-like update strategy, where they will update the console every year with newer processors and more memory.

While a yearly update cycle might not seem too different than what phone and tablet companies do, it’s way too fast when compared to traditional game consoles that have a life of 6-7 years. Although it won’t be a major issue with OUYA since the games will be backward compatible, something that is often not possible with traditional consoles and your older games will carry forward since they are associated with your account. Also, with just $99 for the console, there won’t be too much of a buyer’s remorse even if your console becomes outdated a year later.

Still, it would be hard for the makers of OUYA to convince buyers to purchase the current console a few months down the line with the new model just around the corner. Especially since the NVIDIA Tegra 3 in the current OUYA is already pretty outdated.


A New CALL OF DUTY title gets schedules for Q4 2013


Only weeks after the release of Call of Duty - Black Ops 2: Revolution, we have the announcement that another COD game is on the way.



In a Conference Call, CFO Dennis Durkin mentioned that the next title should land this year...

During the conference call Durkin said, "The Call of Duty franchise continues to set the bar for innovation and we expect a new Call of Duty game in development for 2013 to raise that bar even higher".

We don't think the game mentioned is Call of Duty: Online, since the talk of innovation doesn't sound like it will be multiplayer centric. After all, the current multiplayer seems to work well, and why fix what isn't broken?

We can however guess that the mysterious title will be Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, given how Activision normally rotate their title releases. There isn't any firm information however, and probably won't be until we hear about it at E3 or the like.