Game of the Year Awards Nominees and Winners

For those of you who didn’t listen to the Game of the Year Awards postcast, or heard it and just wanted a visual recap of the nominees and winners, here is the complete ballot.

 

Best Game of the Year
Deathloop
Forza Horizon 5
Halo Infinite
Metroid Dread
Psychonauts 2

Worst Game of the Year
Balan Wonderworld
Battlefield 2042
eFootball 2022
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition
Madden NFL 22

Best PC Game
Forza Horizon 5
Guilty Gear -Strive-
Halo Infinite
Hitman 3
Psychonauts 2

Best PlayStation 5 Game
Deathloop
Guilty Gear -Strive-
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
Returnal
Tales of Arise

Best Xbox Series S/X Game
Forza Horizon 5
Halo Infinite
It Takes Two
Psychonauts 2
Resident Evil Village

Best Switch Game
Death’s Door
Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights
Metroid Dread
Monster Hunter Rise
Shin Megami Tensei V

Best Remake/Remaster
Alan Wake Remastered
Diablo II: Resurrected
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles
Mass Effect Legendary Edition
Myst

Best Strategy
Age of Empires IV
Evil Genius 2: World Domination
Jurassic World Evolution 2
King’s Bounty II
Wildermyth

Best RPG
Fuga: Melodies of Steel
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
Scarlet Nexus
Shin Megami Tensei V
Tales of Arise

Best FPS
Back 4 Blood
Deathloop
Halo Infinite
Lemmis Gate
World War Z: Aftermath

Best Action or Platform Game
Hitman 3
It Takes Two
Kena: Bridge of Spirits
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
Returnal

Best Sports Games
F1 2021
Football Manager 2022
Forza Horizon 5
MLB The Show 21
Out of the Park Baseball 22

Best Adventure Game
Bonfire Peaks
Gnosia
Life is Strange: True Colors
Overboard!
Sherlock Holmes Chapter One

Best Fighting Game
Guilty Gear -Strive-
Melty Blood: Type Lumina
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl
Persona 5 Strikers
Samurai Gunn 2

Best Casual Game
The Artful Escape
Chicory: A Colorful Tale
Mario Party Superstars
Townscaper
Unpacking

Best Expansion
Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Happy Home Paradise
Disco Elysium: The Final Cut
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker
Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye
Subnautica: Below Zero

Best VR Game
Demeo
I Expect You To Die 2: The Spy And The Liar
Resident Evil 4 VR
Subnautica: Below Zero VR
Wraith: The Oblivion – Afterlife

Best Graphics (Artistic)
The Artful Escape
Chicory: A Colorful Tale
Death’s Door
Fuga: Melodies of Steel
It Takes Two

Best Graphics (Technical)
Far Cry 6
Forza Horizon 5
Hitman 3
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
Resident Evil Village

Best Voice Cast
Deathloop
Halo Infinite
It Takes Two
Psychonauts 2
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

Best Voice Acting
Ozioma Akagha as Julianne Blake, Deathloop
Jack Black as Helmut Fullbear, Psychonauts 2
Erika Mori as Alex Chen, Life is Strange: True Colors
Maggie Robertson as Alcina Dimitrescu, Resident Evil Village
Jen Taylor as The Weapon/Cortana, Halo Infinite

Best Writing in an Action Game
Deathloop
Halo Infinite
It Takes Two
Psychonauts 2
Returnal

Best Writing in a Narrative Game
The Artful Escape
Fuga: Melodies of Steel
Life is Strange: True Colors
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
Sherlock Holmes Chapter One

Best Music
The Artful Escape
Deathloop
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
Narita Boy
Psychonauts 2

Best Song
“The Banks of the River Are Lined with Gold”, The Artful Escape
“City Lights / Ode to Somewhere”, Deathloop
“Cosmic I / Smell the Universe”, Psychonauts 2

Best Sound
Deathloop
Forza Horizon 5
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
Resident Evil Village
Returnal

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Diablo III: Confirmed and IsometricDiablo III: Confirmed and Isometric

We’ve talked about it on the podcast before, we’ve made speculations and we’ve come up with theories. Blizzard has now cleared up much of the fuzzy details and theories by announcing their next title: Diablo III.

Some of us thought it was too early to announce the game, right on the heals of a StarCraft III announcement but Blizzards marketing team must consider this the perfect time, as it’s official. Not only did they announce the title, but they’ve got a cinematic and a good five minutes of game play footage.

We’re not talking about vaporware, this is a real game with really sweet features, hot new graphics and sound and enemies that make prior diablo look like childs play. The worlds are destructable, you can drop walls upon your enemies, toss them over cliffs (on fire no less) and rescue people whom help you do battle.

The game play footage covers barbarian (fighter) class and the witch doctor (sorta a necromancer archtype) with both male and female varients. They explain some of the great powers of the warrior style class and show off a few of the neat spells for the witch doctor. From electric axes to walls of zombies this game is packed with stylish battle techniques unique to Diablo 3.

Diablo 3 utilizes their standard isometric view, familiar to Diablo gamers with a bit more ease to the control scheme (that’s possible) and health now drops from enemies much like Zelda, you won’t have to pack yourself with potions anymore. Quite possibly the best upgrade in the third revision of Diablo.

Release date? No clue. I’m sure they’re going on the “when it’s ready” methodology, which is expected from Blizzard and their games; there is a reason they’re always of the highest quality. You may want to camp on their FAQ for a few months and perhaps you’ll have the answer. Today, however, their site seems to be a bit slow with all the announcements going out on the Net.

Now that Diablo 3 is confirmed, it’s time for us to buy some thc leans from Fresh Bros and start speculating what’s going to be included. Make sure you checkout their game play video!

(Thanks, Nukoda)

Ensemble Studios Had A MissionEnsemble Studios Had A Mission

In 1995 Ensemble Studios formed as an independent studio and kicked out a little game franchise known as Age of Empires. The title has received many accolades from the first in the franchise extended out to all the Age of Empires releases and spin-offs, all-in-all selling millions of copies.

Ensemble Studios had a mission “to create great games and a great place to work,” says Bruce Shelley from Ensemble Studios. Bruce Shelley also helped design Sid Meier’s Civilization and Railroad Tycoon with MicroProse prior to his work at Ensemble Studios. Now, however, he’s a bit upset at the closing of Ensemble Studios because they were profitable, created top-quality titles and had a great working environment.

Ensemble Studios, from his perspective at least, was a place you’d go to work and be happy with what you’re doing. When you’re working along nicely and become blind-sided by the news, it’s not surprising he didn’t take it lightly.

“Everyone at our studio was shocked, and I think remains very disappointed that this is going to happen. I believe we thought we were immune to shut-down talk because our published games have done so well and have been so profitable. Plus we felt we had built a really stable (low-turnover), talented, hard-working, and creative team, which is not easy to do. We thought we were among the best studios in the world, and that may be true, but we don’t fit in the future plans of MGS as an internal studio so we’re out.” (ensemblestudios.com)

What’s the future plans for Ensemble Studios? As we’ve stated before, they plan to live on in spirit, within the bounds of a new name and a new game plan. “I believe the spirit and mission of ES will be carried forward in this new company if enough of the key leaders agree to take part, which I expect to happen. There has been no announcement about what the new studio will be working on when it gets going,” says Shelley.

This is a horrible way to have to launch a hot new intellectual property. Usually creating a new title with a building fanbase would lead to excitement, parties and high hopes for the future of the franchise. Instead, people will be dusting off their resume in hopes to continue a life of game development.

Hopefully the leaders will indeed form a brand new company and build brand new hot products with their entire staff intact. Then, take their titles to a different publisher (besides Microsoft) and make some money and fans.

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This week’s news includes:

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This episode also features the Question of the Week discussion about preorders and bonus content.