Dragon Age: Inquisition Takes Game of the Year at DICE Awards

[major_chaos]

Well personally I loved DA:I and Destiny so I'm happy to see them take home awards. Inb4 "OMG YOU LIKE VIDEOGAMES? HOW MUCH IS EA PAYING YOU, YOU HOLLOW CORPORATE SHILL!!!"

Although I'm forced to agree that SoM winning for story/character is... rather odd. The only way that really works is if we are counting the nemesis system as "emergent story". From that perspective I can see why it won, even if I don't agree.

 

[mjharper]

I refuse to acknowledge the credibility of any award ceremony that includes the category "Best Mobile Game of the Year".

At least it went to Hearthstone, and none of the Superbowl nonsense...

That said, I fully agree with Mordor taking home a bundle of trophies and Inquisition being game of the year...with that said, I don't really see how GotY could be the only trophy you take home. Considering all the accolades Mordor received, you'd think that would make it the obvious GotY.

Come now, that's unfair. DA:I also won best RPG/MMO. Which doesn't affect the gist of your argument at all

 

[tzimize]

DA:I? Hahahahaha, what a scam.

Well, who else are they gonna give it to really? 2014 has been one of the most unremarkable gaming years in history.

Kinda bummed to not even see Wolfenstein: The New Order in there. That game stands head and shoulders above anything else I've played in '14.

Well, you kinda answered your own question there I guess. Wolfenstein TNO was a LOT better.

And I'm sure I could think of others as well, if I could muster the need to.

 

[Uncle Comrade]

I came to this thread expecting to see multiple variations on a theme of "Wah! [Game I Like] didn't win and [Game I Don't Like] did! Why doesn't everyone have the same opinion as me?!" I was not disappointed.

Having said that, I do agree that giving SoM awards for story and characters is a pretty strange choice.

 

[kasperbbs]

This list is kinda messed up. I loved SOM, but it wasn't that great in the story department, and Talion is pretty much a dude who dislikes orcs starring in a story where he kills orcs because they are evil. It's funny how they merged MMO and RPG categories together and DA:I won that because it basically is a fucking MMO without online interactions and i would rather see anything else as the overall game of the year than that abomination, but thats not my list so complaining is pointless.

 

[Machocruz]

I'd argue that I don't think DA:I deserves it, but then I try to think of any major AAA games to really compete against it and I'm left with a nothing. I can think of plenty of games *I* think were better but they were by and large niche titles or small indie games that largely aren't really meant to appeal to a wider audience.

So, erm, yay Dragon Age: Inquisition?

I'm not familiar with the Dice selection process, so: Why are only western AAA games contenders? Why does niche matter? If a game is the better executed game, what does budget or audience have to do with it, in a legitimate awards show? I know you're talking about the conventional wisdom that pervades the media, but that's the problem. If people are going to act like these awards have any critical value -and many seem to believe they do since they leverage awards won and review scores in their arguments- there needs to be an honest discussion on just what values in games are being considered and why certain values are given more weight than others. Because often it seems that craft and execution take a backseat to demographic appeal and visibility.

Well, who else are they gonna give it to really? 2014 has been one of the most unremarkable gaming years in history.

Not my personal favorite (which was Dungeons of the Endless, which even I admit was too limited to represent the year), but Bayonetta 2 excelled at nearly everything the designers tried to do. It was far and away the best in its genre, and possibly one of the best in its genre ever. Insane level of polish. The skill and craft that went into producing the game are second to none.

Edit: a quick search found me this little nugget

http://techraptor.net/content/game-awards-judge-reveals-bias-bayonetta-2

 

[Robyrt]

Also, Destiny had the best music? Really? So I guess a good soundtrack has to be entirely forgettable these days. Furthermore, just did a little search on youtube, the Transistor OST has like 600,000 more views than Destiny with some of the individual tracks at 400,000+ views.

Yeah, I liked Destiny's music but it didn't blow me away. Destiny definitely deserves Best Sound Design though, that game has some of the best FPS sound effects in the past ten years. You can close your eyes in a PVP game and figure out everyone's loadout by sound alone.

 

[crispskittlez]

Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year - Dragon Age: Inquisition

Wow, for real? If Inquisition sets standards for multiplayer than that time I fractured my arm must have set the standard for best feeling ever.

 

[Frankster]

Well, who else are they gonna give it to really? 2014 has been one of the most unremarkable gaming years in history.

Respectfully disagree here unless we are only talking about AAA games.

I'd have given the RPG award to Divinity:Original Sin (it has COOP for crying out loud! that's like super rare in an rpg that isn't a diablo clone) or failing that, Shadowrunragonfall and my personal pick for strategy would have been Xenonauts (a more faithful remake of the original xcom that together with the firaxis version makes for the complete alien hunting package)
If we have to stick to CCGs alone, Infinite Wars is a damn good one and heads and shoulders above Hearthstone.

On the rpg and strategy front, this has been a decent year for gaming, especially compared to 2013.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Well, who else are they gonna give it to really? 2014 has been one of the most unremarkable gaming years in history.

Kinda bummed to not even see Wolfenstein: The New Order in there. That game stands head and shoulders above anything else I've played in '14.

Well, you kinda answered your own question there I guess. Wolfenstein TNO was a LOT better.

And I'm sure I could think of others as well, if I could muster the need to.

Yeah, but Wolfenstein was a very early release, and those games hardly ever get much exposure come awards season. Unless they're Resident Evil 4.

 

[Encaen]

Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year - Dragon Age: Inquisition

Wow, for real? If Inquisition sets standards for multiplayer than that time I fractured my arm must have set the standard for best feeling ever.

For reasons I'm not clear on, they simply combined the RPG and MMO categories, so it's not being awarded for its multiplayer, rather for its being a great RPG.

 

[crispskittlez]

Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year - Dragon Age: Inquisition

Wow, for real? If Inquisition sets standards for multiplayer than that time I fractured my arm must have set the standard for best feeling ever.

For reasons I'm not clear on, they simply combined the RPG and MMO categories, so it's not being awarded for its multiplayer, rather for its being a great RPG.

In that case, it's a very unnecessary distillation of genres. I would think MMOs and RPGs are different and numerous enough to warrant having separate categories.

 

[Irridium]

Wait Talion from Mordor got best character? What? The guy was about as interesting as Aiden Pierce. And if you don't remember who Eiden Pierce was, he was the main character of Watch Dogs. Yeah remember that game?

Wish Wolfenstein won more. That game was a genuine surprise.

 

[zinho73]

It is sad when absolute gems like the Binding of Isaac Rebirth are not remembered.

It is even worse when a just above average game like Dragon Age gets so much praise. Empty space, filler quests, dumbed down combat, poor pc interface, poor performance on last gen consoles (and on a lot of pcs). It is a big game with some interesting characters and dialogue (and somewhat pretty graphics), but if this is the best we got, the year was really terrible for games.

 

[Ishigami]

There's no accounting for taste but these two really stand out to me:

Action Game of the Year - Destiny
Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay - Destiny

You got to be kidding me.
The sound awards are okay for Destiny but these two are a joke.

 

[Jake Martinez]

I don't get this at all.

Dragon Age: Inquisition was a boring piece of drek that played like a single player MMO. The plot was turgid, the voice acting spotty and frankly, I was immensely bored with it. The other person who compared it to Kingdoms of Amalur was spot on. Both games feel like they were developed to be a MMO and just had some crappy narrative spaced in between endless fetch quests and collectable side missions.

This is a game that has a 5.6 user rating on Metacritic and I think that mediocre score is entirely justified because while this outing on the Dragon Age franchise might not be as shit-tastic as Dragon Age II - it's STILL NOT AS GOOD AS ORIGINS. Aside from the nerfing of the game play mechanics, the second biggest issue with this game is that they have gone and ruined the bloody feel and mood of it. Dragon Age: Origins was a dark game. Not as dark as say, The Witcher series, but it definitely had that "dark European fantasy" feel to it. However, the latest incarnation, Inquisition, feels like I am reading Tolkien as written by hipsters. They took all of the moral ambiguity out of the game and turned it on it's head to create utterly boring and pedantic moralizing that would be more fitting for a San Franciso coffee house. Dragon Age: Origins was a game that left you some what off put by the fact that civilization and order in that world were maintained only through violence and repression, but as shitty as it was, the alternatives were far, far, worse. It was a game where even the bad guys had reasons for doing what they were doing and you couldn't outright say they were wrong.

Meh. It's depressing to me to see "games journalists" fawn over this. It's ironic since I know most of them aren't actually journalists, but instead took English or creative writing in school, so you'd think they'd be more hip to plot and theme. Hell, I don't think most of them are gamers either due to the fact that they don't seem to care much about how bad the play mechanics are to boot. I honestly have no idea why they rate it so high. It beggars belief.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

I strongly disagree with Mario Kart 8 winning Racing Game of the Year. You have games like Forza Horizon 2 which are technically brilliant and also a lot of fun to play and that I think are greater representations of the racing genre. While MK is "technically" a racing game, it's apples and oranges when the competition is the likes of The Crew, Drive Club, FH2, etc.

Other than that, the rest were spot on.

 

[Kazinski]

Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year - Dragon Age: Inquisition

Wow, for real? If Inquisition sets standards for multiplayer than that time I fractured my arm must have set the standard for best feeling ever.

For reasons I'm not clear on, they simply combined the RPG and MMO categories, so it's not being awarded for its multiplayer, rather for its being a great RPG.

Hey it makes sense seeing as Dragon Age Inquisition is pretty much a single player MMORPG...