Category: Gamespot

The winners for the 2017 SXSW Gaming Awards have been announced.

Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End took home the coveted Game of the Year award, earning it because voters decided the gam “exemplifies overall excellence and creates a distinct gaming experience across all platforms and genres.”

Dishonored 2, Doom, Overwatch,and Titanfall 2 were also nominated for Game of the Year.

There are 23 categories in all for the SXSW Gaming Awards. The Mobile Game of the Year award went to Pokemon Go, with Overwatch winning Esports game of the year, Excellence in Multiplayer, and Trending Game of the Year. The Fan Creation of the Year award was given to the Brutal Doom 64 mod.

You can see a list of all the categories, nominees, and winners below, with descriptions written by SXSW. The winners are in bold.

Video Game of the Year

Awarded to the game that exemplifies overall excellence and creates a distinct gaming experience across all platforms and genres.

• Dishonored 2 – Bethesda Softworks / Arkane Studios
• Doom – Bethesda Softworks / id Software
• Overwatch – Blizzard Entertainment
• Titanfall 2 – Electronic Arts / Respawn Entertainment
• Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End – Sony Computer Entertainment / Naughty Dog

Mobile Game of the Year

Awarded to the game that exemplifies overall excellence and creates a unique gaming experience on any handheld device.

• Clash Royale – Supercell
• Pokemon Go – Niantic
• Pokemon Sun and Moon – The Pokémon Company / Game Freak
• Reigns – Devolver Digital / Nerial
• Severed – DrinkBox Studios

Tabletop Game of the Year

Awarded to the game that exemplifies overall excellence and ingenuity of any tabletop game in any genre.

• Arkham Horror: The Card Game – Fantasy Flight Games
• Captain Sonar – Asmodee North America
• Inis – Asmodee North America
• Mechs vs Minions – Riot Games
• The Others – CMON Inc.

Esports Game of the Year

Awarded to the online game with the best competitive scene, growth, and entertainment value.

• Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare – Activision / Infinity Ward
• Gears of War 4 – Microsoft Studios / The Coalition
• Killer Instinct: Season 3 – Microsoft Studios / Iron Galaxy Studios
• Overwatch – Blizzard Entertainment
• Street Fighter V – Capcom

Trending Game of the Year

Awarded to the game that consistently entertained and kept us watching on social platforms with its humor, stories, and more.

• Dead by Daylight – Starbreeze Studios / Behaviour Digital Inc.
• Job Simulator – Owlchemy Labs
• Overwatch – Blizzard Entertainment
• Superhot – Superhot Team
• Who’s Your Daddy – Evil Tortilla Games

Fan Creation of the Year

Awarded to the most compelling fan-made piece of work across all games and platforms. This includes, but isn’t limited to, artwork, writing, videography, special effects, and more.

• Brutal Doom 64 – Sergeant_Mark_IV
• Enderal – The Shards of Order – SureAI Team
• Fallout 1.5: Resurrection – Resurrection Team
• Fallout: Revelation – MechanicalCakeTV
• Jack – A Stanley Parable Short Film – Vesio Productions

Matthew Crump Cultural Innovation

Awarded to the game that best challenges the “norm” of everyday gaming and offers a culturally innovative view of a game world, character, or gameplay.

• 1979 Revolution: Black Friday – INK Stories
• Fragments of Him – Sassybot
• Orwell – Surprise Attack / Osmotic Studios
• Quadrilateral Cowboy – Blendo Games
• That Dragon, Cancer – Numinous Games

Excellence in Narrative

Awarded to the game with the best storyline and dialogue.

• Firewatch – Panic Inc. / Campo Santo
• The Last Guardian – Sony Interactive Entertainment / SIE Japan Studio
• Oxenfree – Night School Studio
• That Dragon, Cancer – Numinous Games
• Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End – Sony Computer Entertainment / Naughty Dog

Excellence in Design

Awarded to the game with the best overall design concept and best execution.

• Dishonored 2 – Bethesda Softworks / Arkane Studios
• Inside – Playdead
• Overwatch – Blizzard Entertainment
• Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End – Sony Computer Entertainment / Naughty Dog
• The Witness – Thekla, Inc.

Excellence in Gameplay

Awarded to the game with the best gameplay mechanics.

• Dark Souls III – BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment / FromSoftware, Inc.
• Dishonored 2 – Bethesda Softworks / Arkane Studios
• Doom – Bethesda Softworks / id Software
• Firewatch – Panic Inc. / Campo Santo
• I Expect You To Die – Schell Games

Most Fulfilling Community-Funded Game

Awarded to the game that was primarily produced via crowdfunding platforms and had excelled beyond the expectations set before it.

• Darkest Dungeon – Red Hook Studios
• Hyper Light Drifter – Heart Machine
• Starbound – Chucklefish Games
• Superhot – Superhot Team
• That Dragon, Cancer – Numinous Games

Most Promising New Intellectual Property

Awarded to a new property that risked creating something fresh and that excelled within its genre or category for the year.

• Firewatch – Panic Inc. / Campo Santo
• Overwatch – Blizzard Entertainment
• Stardew Valley – Chucklefish Games / ConcernedApe
• Superhot – Superhot Team
• Tom Clancy’s The Division – Ubisoft / Ubisoft Massive

Most Memorable Character

Awarded to the best game character that left an overwhelming impression.

• Firewatch – Henry & Delilah
• The Last Guardian – Trico
• Overwatch – Tracer
• Titanfall 2 – BT-7274
• Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End – Nathan Drake

Excellence in Multiplayer

Awarded to the game with the best player-to-player interaction experience.

• Battlefield 1 – Electronic Arts / EA DICE
• Gears of War 4 – Microsoft Studios / The Coalition
• Overwatch – Blizzard Entertainment
• SpeedRunners – tinyBuild / DoubleDutch Games
• Titanfall 2 – Electronic Arts / Respawn Entertainment

Excellence in Convergence

Awarded to the game that excels in crossover to other entertainment mediums such as film, music, toys, animation, sports, and more.

• Batman: Arkham VR – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment / Rocksteady Studios
• Batman: The Telltale Series – Telltale Games
• FIFA 17 – EA Sports / EA Canada
• NBA 2K17 – 2K Sports / Visual Concepts
• Total War: Warhammer – SEGA / Creative Assembly

Excellence in Art

Awarded to the game with the most expressive and creative artistic style.

• Abzu – 505 Games / Giant Squid
• Firewatch – Panic Inc. / Campo Santo
• Inside – Playdead
• Overwatch – Blizzard Entertainment
• The Witness – Thekla, Inc.

Excellence in Animation

Awarded to the game with the most outstanding animation effects and graphics.

• Doom – Bethesda Softworks / id Software
• Inside – Playdead
• The Last Guardian – Sony Interactive Entertainment / SIE Japan Studio
• Overwatch – Blizzard Entertainment
• Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End – Sony Computer Entertainment / Naughty Dog

Excellence in Visual Achievement

Awarded to the game with the most well-designed and stunning visuals.

• Battlefield 1 – Electronic Arts / EA DICE
• Doom – Bethesda Softworks / id Software
• Final Fantasy XV – Square Enix
• Titanfall 2 – Electronic Arts / Respawn Entertainment
• Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End – Sony Computer Entertainment / Naughty Dog

Excellence in Technical Achievement

Awarded to the game that pushed the capabilities of technology and programming.

• Battlefield 1 – Electronic Arts / EA DICE
• No Man’s Sky – Sony Interactive Entertainment / Hello Games
• Overwatch – Blizzard Entertainment
• Pokémon GO – Niantic
• Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End – Sony Computer Entertainment / Naughty Dog

Excellence in Musical Score

Awarded to the game that best exemplifies artistic excellence in musical score and how it progresses the narrative of the game.

• Doom – Bethesda Softworks / id Software
• Final Fantasy XV – Square Enix
• Hyper Light Drifter – Heart Machine
• The Last Guardian – Sony Interactive Entertainment / SIE Japan Studio
• Thumper – Drool

Excellence in SFX

Awarded to the game with the most outstanding and impactful sound effects.

• Battlefield 1 – Electronic Arts / EA DICE
• Dishonored 2 – Bethesda Softworks / Arkane Studios
• Inside – Playdead
• Titanfall 2 – Electronic Arts / Respawn Entertainment
• Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End – Sony Computer Entertainment / Naughty Dog

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Conan Exiles, the new sandbox action game from Funcom, is unlikely to get a Nintendo Switch version, it seems. Game director Joel Bylos told DualShockers that the studio currently has no plans to bring Conan Exiles to Nintendo Switch and has had no conversations with Nintendo.

Also in the interview, Bylos confirmed that Conan Exiles is already running on Xbox One internally. The game “looks pretty good,” DualShockers reported, though Bylos apparently said the control system still needs work.

An in-development version of Conan Exiles is due out for Xbox One through the console’s Game Preview system later this year. The game is already available on PC through Steam Early Access; it sold 320,000 copies in just one week after it was released earlier this year.

Conan Exiles is also coming to PlayStation 4, but a release date for Sony’s system has not been announced.

For lots more on Conan Exiles, you can watch every video and read all of our written content here.

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Auto-selfies in Final Fantasy XV were one of the game’s more memorable features. Whether party member Prompto completely messed up a shot or took a pic suitable for framing, it was always entertaining sorting through his pics when the party took a camping break. The video below features an in-depth talk at GDC 2017, where FFXV party AI lead designer Prasert Prasertvithyakarn spoke at length about the game’s photography system.

By 2016, selfies were not uncommon in games since you can trace its use at least as far back as The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD and Grand Theft Auto V. Final Fantasy XV and this talk illustrates that there’s still a lot of room for evolution.

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No series captured the pre-millennial gaming zeitgeist quite like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. 18 years and 30 million Tony Hawk game sales later, an enterprising filmmaker is looking to tell the story of Tony Hawk’s involvement in video games.

Along with accounts from Tony Hawk himself, this film will also feature developers and skaters who helped create everything from the first Pro Skater to the most recent fifth installment and the many games in between.

Titled Pretending I’m A Superman, this documentary is being produced by Ralph D’Amato, who was also a producer on Tony Hawk’s earlier games. His personal experience and inside line to the many others involved with the franchise should add considerable credibility to this project, which you can learn more about here.

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Mass Effect: Andromeda‘s day one patch will not include any animation or character model improvements, despite widespread fan criticism of the way characters look and move.

Andromeda’s lead designer, Ian Frazier, responded to a Tweet asking if the day one update will improve the character models by saying, “At day 1? No, that ship has sailed.”

The deadline for enhancements included in that patch has already passed it seems, as the update is included in the now-playable EA and Origin Access early trials. The game releases in full on March 21 (March 23 in Europe).

Frazier went on to confirm that there will be “more patches later on,” but he said “exactly what goes into them is still in discussion.”

Since the game went live for EA and Origin Access Members on March 15, reaction has been mixed when it comes to the game’s animations and facial models in particular. The game’s Subreddit, for example, has multiple posts from fans disappointed by those aspects of Andromeda.

Meanwhile, Frazier also confirmed that developer BioWare is looking to add new skin tones to the game’s character creation mode in a new patch. He went on to multiplayer sound issues are “under investigation.” BioWare is encouraging players experiencing any further problems to report them on EA’s troubleshooting page.

In other Andromeda news, BioWare has announced a new companion app for the game’s multiplayer mode. Called Apex HQ, it will track your progression in the mode, displaying information like which characters you’ve unlocked and what items and rewards you’ve collected.

We’ve played Andromeda’s multiplayer–check out what we thought here. Or for more on the upcoming sci-fi adventure, keep an eye out for our Story of Mass Effect documentary series. Episode 1 will drop on Satuday, March 16, with Episode 2 to follow a day later. Take a look at a teaser for the minidoc here.

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