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

[Encaen]

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

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/encaen/status/563545844947767297]Update:

The 18th Annual D.I.C.E Awards have concluded, with Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor sweeping every category it was nominated for except the overall Game of the Year, which was well earned by Dragon Age: Inquisition. It's not much of a surprise, though, as our own Reader's Choice Game of the Year [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/139252-Readers-Choice-Game-of-the-Year-2014] made exactly the same prediction.

Here's the full list of the category winners:


Outstanding Achievement in Animation - Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction - Monument Valley
Outstanding Achievement in Character - Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Talion)
Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition - Destiny
Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design - Destiny
Outstanding Achievement in Story - Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Outstanding Technical Achievement - Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Action Game of the Year - Destiny
Adventure Game of the Year - Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Family Game of the Year - Little Big Planet 3
Fighting Game of the Year - Super Smash Bros for Wii U
Racing Game of the Year - Mario Kart 8
Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year - Dragon Age: Inquisition
Sports Game of the Year - FIFA 15
Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year - Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
D.I.C.E. Sprite Award - Transistor
Handheld Game of the Year - Super Smash Bros for Nintendo 3DS
Mobile Game of the Year - Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay - Destiny
Outstanding Innovation in Gaming - Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Outstanding Achievement in Game Design - Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction - Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Game of the Year - Dragon Age: Inquisition


What do you think? Was Destiny deserving of the "Online Gameplay" award? Should Dark Souls II have been somewhere on the list? Should they have included a Horror category, if only to give Alien: Isolation some attention? Hop into the forums and let us know!



Original Post:
With D.I.C.E. 2015 behind us, it's time for the annual awards show, celebrating triumphs in gaming in 2014. Last year, The Last of Us taking eight of 11 nominations. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/editorials/10982-The-Last-of-Us-Sweeps-the-17th-Annual-DICE-Awards]

Since they're streaming live this year, we thought you might not want to wait, so check it out right here as it's going on, and we'll update the post after the awards with all of the winners.

What do you think deserves recognition this year? Hop over to the forums and let us know!



Permalink

 

[deathmothon]

The comedian won me over with the Final Fight bit. That's not a fake gamer comic cashing a paycheck.

 

[RJ 17]

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

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.

 

[tzimize]

DA:I? Hahahahaha, what a scam.

I havent played a game that felt that much like an empty mmo since kingdoms of amalur. Both games were extremely tedious and boring. If Dragon Age: Inq is goty in any shape or form that has been a poor year indeed.

 

[The Madman]

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?

Also no Transistor for Music Composition? Utter nonsense.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

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?

Also no Transistor for Music Composition? Utter nonsense.

It kills me to say it, but I kind of agree with you. Inquisition started out strong, but it seemed to lose its focus into the game, and toward the end the story took a sharp left turn that had me going, "Wait, what? No, that's not suppose to happen!" But I can't really think of anything else that was up there. Makes me wonder if part of the reason is because it's still fresh in everyone's minds.

On a side note, Talion got best character? Really? He's so...boring though. He's just another grumbling gruff angry guy from what I've played so far. Were there really no other better characters this year?

 

[Frankster]

Outstanding Achievement in Story - Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Outstanding Achievement in Character - Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Talion)

Outstanding achievement in STORY and Talion for most outstanding character? I want what those judges are smoking.
Don't get me wrong, I quite liked SoM but one doesn't play it for the story or because Talion is that compelling of a character, if anything he is a shoe in for worst protagonist of a good game 2014.

I also disagree big time on the strategy/simulation award considering there was a lot of awesome strategy games released in 2014 ( as well as good RPGs) and hearthstone isn't even the best online CCG, just seemingly the one that's best marketed and therefore popular.

I could go on but those were my personal nitpicks, overall if I didn't regard DICE awards highly before, I ain't gonna be starting now.

 

[Fulbert]

RPGs and MMOs are clumped into one category? That's ridiculous. I mean, that's not the only thing that is ridiculous about this award show but it caught my attention.

 

[Casual Shinji]

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.

 

[BrotherRool]

Outstanding achievement in Animation, Story and _Character_ for Shadow of Mordor??

They seriously won an award for "They killed my family in the tutorial and now I'm angry" as their driving character motivation? And it also won them an award? And they literally just copied most of their animations from Assassins Creed. Watch how Talion walks, or how he climbs a particular ledge etc, and you'll notice it's exactly how Ezio does it. It's not a coincidence either, because Ezio has a very distinct walk that only makes sense in an Assassins Creed setting.

This is the final confirmation that 2014 was a terrible year for games

 

[DSK-]

Inquisition won best game? Wow. From what little I saw of it, Mordor looked infinitely more fun and engaging.

 

[Bat Vader]

Nice to see DA:I and ME: SOM take home awards. I love both but I love DA: I a little more and I am happy to see it won Game of The Year.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Outstanding achievement in Animation, Story and _Character_ for Shadow of Mordor??

They seriously won an award for "They killed my family in the tutorial and now I'm angry" as their driving character motivation? And it also won them an award? And they literally just copied most of their animations from Assassins Creed. Watch how Talion walks, or how he climbs a particular ledge etc, and you'll notice it's exactly how Ezio does it. It's not a coincidence either, because Ezio has a very distinct walk that only makes sense in an Assassins Creed setting.

This is the final confirmation that 2014 was a terrible year for games

Well, I don't know, his cloak was pretty bad ass... Yeah...

And honestly the game did feature so great animation, but nearly all of that was confined to the orc faces. They had some of the best facial animations I've ever seen.

 

[The Madman]

It kills me to say it, but I kind of agree with you. Inquisition started out strong, but it seemed to lose its focus into the game, and toward the end the story took a sharp left turn that had me going, "Wait, what? No, that's not suppose to happen!" But I can't really think of anything else that was up there. Makes me wonder if part of the reason is because it's still fresh in everyone's minds.

I don't think DA:I was a bad game, I certainly enjoyed it and there are some things it did extremely well. On the other hand there were also other things it did pretty poorly and overall it felt like more of an above average title rather than anything 'Game of the Year' worthy.

But again I also try to think of any other major game titles that really deserve the Game of the Year title and I'm left stumped, so I guess it kinda wins by default. No other big budget titles really stand out as anything remarkable this year, though I've yet to have gotten around to play Wolfenstein and I've little to no interest in Mordor and I've heard both of those were good.

 

[laggyteabag]

Shadow of Mordor won best story and character (Talion)? Did we play the same game? I'm actually surprised that SoM won so many awards. The game had solid combat, sure, but there was a huge amount of power creep that just made the game super easy past a certain point, and that made the game super boring.

 

[josemlopes]

Dragon Age Inquisition was terrible in half the systems it launched, and even then it never did much that other RPGs didnt do better like Dragons Dogma (even if that game was also filled with problems).

And I would understand Mordor taking something home for the nemesys system but for everything else? Wolfenstein should have taken for character instead.

As for online even Insurgency would have been a better choice since it mixes the realism and fun so well to make a balanced shooter that needs teamwork that so many others have tried to do and failed (Project Reality 2 is still better though).

 

[Fdzzaigl]

Shadow of Mordor won best story and character (Talion)? Did we play the same game? I'm actually surprised that SoM won so many awards. The game had solid combat, sure, but there was a huge amount of power creep that just made the game super easy past a certain point, and that made the game super boring.

It's pretty ridiculous idd. Shadow of Mordor's storyline and character development could be written down on one side of a piece of toilet paper.

I like DA:I, but I mostly find it troubling that there is so little variation in the awards.

I'm biased of course as I'd only rate SoM a 6/10 at most, but still. There were other great releases that deserve recognition.

 

[Wuvlycuddles]

DA:I? Hahahahaha, what a scam.

I havent played a game that felt that much like an empty mmo since kingdoms of amalur. Both games were extremely tedious and boring. If Dragon Age: Inq is goty in any shape or form that has been a poor year indeed.

And never mind the fact the games performance randomly tanks on machines that by right should be playing on max setting without issue. 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.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

*looks over awards*

Have the DICE awards always been just a prolonged AAA wanking session?

And where the hell is Wolfenstein The New Order? That had good music, good gameplay and a decent story to boot. Easily one of the most purely-entertaining games of the year.