Shadow of Mordor Takes Home Game of The Year at GDC

[Steven Bogos]

Shadow of Mordor Takes Home Game of The Year at GDC

Ustwo's Monument Valley took home three of the GDC's nine awards.

Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/middle-earth%20shadow%20of%20mordor] has taken home the coveted Game of The Year prize at this year's Game Developer's Choice Awards. The 15th annual award ceremony was held tonight in San Francisco as part of this year's Game Developers Conference, and as well as Shadow of Mordor taking the top prize, newcomer Ustwo's Monument Valley took home three of the GDC's nine awards. The full list of categories and their winners are as follows:

Game of the Year:

Bayonetta 2 (Platinum Games/Nintendo)
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Monolith Productions/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
Destiny (Bungie/Activision)
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (Blizzard)
Alien: Isolation (Creative Assembly/Sega)

Innovation Award:

Monument Valley (Ustwo)
Bounden (Game Oven)
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Monolith Productions/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
This War of Mine (11 bit studios)
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (The Astronauts)

Best Debut:

Stoic Studio (The Banner Saga)
Yacht Club Games (Shovel Knight)
Respawn Entertainment (Titanfall)
The Astronauts (The Vanishing of Ethan Carter)
Upper One Games (Never Alone)

Best Design:

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (Blizzard)
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Monolith Productions/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
Shovel Knight (Yacht Club Games)
Dragon Age: Inquisition (BioWare/Electronic Arts)
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Nintendo EAD Tokyo and 1-Up Studio/Nintendo)

Best Handheld/Mobile Game:

Monument Valley (Ustwo)
Threes! (Sirvo)
Super Smash Bros. 3DS (Sora Ltd. and BANDAI NAMCO/Nintendo)
Hearthstone (Blizzard)
80 Days (Inkle Studios)

Best Visual Art:

Monument Valley (Ustwo)
Hohokum (Honeyslug and Sony Santa Monica/Sony)
Child of Light (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
Bayonetta 2 (Platinum Games/Nintendo)
Alien: Isolation (Creative Assembly/Sega)

Best Narrative:

Kentucky Route Zero: Episode 3 (Cardboard Computer)
80 Days (Inkle Studios)
This War of Mine (11 bit studios)
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Monolith Productions/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (The Astronauts)

Best Audio:

Alien: Isolation (Creative Assembly/Sega)
Hohokum (Honeyslug/Sony)
Destiny (Bungie/Activision)
Transistor (Supergiant Games)
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (The Astronauts)

Best Technology:

Destiny (Bungie/Activision)
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Monolith Productions/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
Wolfenstein: The New Order (MachineGames/Bethesda)
Elite: Dangerous (Frontier Developments)
Far Cry 4 (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)

What do you guys think of their decisions? Going from our own reader's choice awards [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/139252-Readers-Choice-Game-of-the-Year-2014], you guys put Dragon Age: Inquisition over Shadow of Mordor, a sentiment that I can agree with.

However, I only play the games, I don't make them, and from a game developer standpoint, I'm sure things look quite different.

Permalink

 

[PerfectDeath]

What is the criteria for "Best Technology"?

 

[immortalfrieza]

The hardest part I've found in voting for an game awards list is the fact that wildly different games end up competing on it. Saying Shadow of Mordor is better or worse than Dragon Age: Inquisition is a incredibly tough call to make because they aren't even remotely similar except maybe in the sense that they are both part of the swords and sorcery fantasy genre. It's not like trying to compare apples and oranges, more like comparing apples and Mountain Dew.

 

[Skeleon]

Don't worry, I will get it eventually... maybe as a GOTY Edition and when it's on sale. For now it's still too expensive and my backlog too large, anyway.

 

[Steven Bogos]

Don't worry, I will get it eventually... maybe as a GOTY Edition and when it's on sale. For now it's still too expensive and my backlog too large, anyway.

It's currently 40% off on steam FYI

 

[BakaSmurf]

After beating this game and hating the first half, while finding the second half merely above average at best, I just do not understand why everybody loves this game so much... But eh, what ev's. You guys can like whatever you want to like, I'll just continue to be dissapointed in this particular release and refrain from pooping on everybody's parade.

 

[LysanderNemoinis]

I honestly don't know why anyone still gives a percentage of a fraction of an iota of an inkling of a micron of a shit about GDC considering that last year they gave She Who Must Not Be Named an award. In my opinion, they have absolutely zero credibility and until they apologize for that moment of stupidity, they can pull their collective bottom lips over their heads and swallow.

 

[Grumman]

After beating this game and hating the first half, while finding the second half merely above average at best, I just do not understand why everybody loves this game so much...

Shadow of Mordor was Least Bad Game of 2014. That doesn't mean it was good, just that the likes of Assassin's Creed and Titanfall made it look good in comparison.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Now granted I only played for about 5 hours or so, but Shadows of Mordor really didn't impress me all that much with its Nemesis system. Though apparently this only really shone whenever you got killed, which I never did since the combat made it pretty hard to actually fail in battle. As for the rest, there really wasn't much else to the game except for the orcs' terrific facial animations.

 

[weirdee]

If those five games represent the forefront of gaming technology, wake me up in another decade or so.

 

[Adultratedhydra]

About time Shadow of Assassins creed: Mordor got some recognition over Dragon age: We hope you like loading screens, memory leaks and buggy patches.

Was it amazingly deep and complex? Nope but it atleast attemped to innovate with the Nemesis system in an industry where the pool of ideas has long since stopped being stagnant and is simply a dry pool with a thick layer of scum on the ground.

 

[ron1n]

Was easily my GotY. Yeah the ending and the story were lackluster, but the combat was super fun, nemesis system innovative and it had the polish one would expect of a proper AAA (Something that cannot be said of most releases these days)

 

[Skeleon]

It's currently 40% off on steam FYI

Maybe I've been spoiled, but 40% off 50 ? is still too expensive for my taste. I'm willing to literally wait a few years, as I'm currently still stuck in the middle of Skyrim with all DLCs... ;-)

 

[Dendio]

It's currently 40% off on steam FYI

Maybe I've been spoiled, but 40% off 50 ? is still too expensive for my taste. I'm willing to literally wait a few years, as I'm currently still stuck in the middle of Skyrim with all DLCs... ;-)

I'm with this guy. I'll get it for $10 or $5 eventually. It's a hack and slash at the end of the day.

 

[Arawn]

I could never do those award things. While I do play alot of games narrowing down what did what better or best is truly difficult. I have played some of the games that won, and wonder who they beat out in their nominated fields. I do have a question;best debut? It does mean the studio Respawn right? I thought they had made more games, but I might be mistaken. For a first try TitanFall wasn't bad. Here's hoping for more exciting things in the future.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

In a developer's perspective, the creation and implementation successfully of the Nemesis AI system is a great achievement and may affect loads of games in the future. I'd choose that over Inquisition any day because as nice as DA:I is, it doesn't advance development of games much, if at all.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I'm glad to see Alien: Isolation on a lot of those lists. I think that game deserves more recognition that it seems to be getting.

I took a look at the Narrative selection. Is it bad that I haven't heard of most of those games? Story is my driving factor in games, and I've only really heard about Mordor. I think I remember hearing about This War of Mine, but I had no idea it was out already. I guess there just wasn't that much kicking around in 2014.

 

[elvor0]

I'm glad to see Alien: Isolation on a lot of those lists. I think that game deserves more recognition that it seems to be getting.

I took a look at the Narrative selection. Is it bad that I haven't heard of most of those games? Story is my driving factor in games, and I've only really heard about Mordor. I think I remember hearing about This War of Mine, but I had no idea it was out already. I guess there just wasn't that much kicking around in 2014.

Yeah, War of Mine came out quietly a little while back, I remember seeing it being announced but nothing after that. Kinda wished Valiant Hearts was in there, unless it actually means NARRATIVE and not writing. I've never heard of Kentucky Route Zero or 80 days though. Nor Monument Valley, Threes! Bounden, Hohukum or Captain Toad.

But aye, 2014 has been a rather poor year. Not terrible(aside from AC Unity), but just meh.

And I do wish Mobile/Handheld weren't the same catagory, I know were getting there with mobile and it's not a dodgy list, but c'moon. No idea what Farcy 4 or Wolfenstien were doing on the list for best technology though, good games to be sure, but they hardly did anything new technologically. The AI systems in Ground Zeros deserve some recognition, I actually felt like I was playing against something approaching a human opponent in the guards rather than a goldfish piloting a human body.