DICE Awards 2016 - results

http://www.vg247.com/2016/02/19/dice-summit-2016-awards-watch-live-here/

Action game of the year: Star Wars Battlefront
•Fighting game of the year: Mortal Kombat X
•Family game of the year: Super Mario Maker
•Mobile game of the year: Fallout Shelter
•Outstanding achievement in character: Lara Croft (Rise of the Tomb Raider)
•Lifetime achievement: Satoru Iwata
•Outstanding achievement in original music composition: Ori and the Blind Forest
•Outstanding achievement in sound design: Star Wars Battlefront
•Outstanding achievement in story: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
•Outstanding technical achievement: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
•Outstanding achievement in animation: Ori and the Blind Forest
•Outstanding achievement in art direction: Ori and the Blind Forest
•RPG and MMO game of the year: Fallout 4
•Strategy and simulation game of the year: Heroes of the Storm
•Hall of Fame inductee: Hideo Kojima
•Sports game of the year: Rocket League
•Racing game of the year: Forza Motorsport 6
•Outstanding achievement in online gameplay: Rocket League
•Handheld game of the year: Helldivers
•Technical impact: Visual Basic (Microsoft)
•Adventure game of the year: Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain
•Sprite award: Rocket League
•Outstanding achievement in game design: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
•Outstanding achievement in game direction: Fallout 4
•Game of the year: Fallout 4

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On surface everything looks okay, logical and deserved, but there is one oddity. The action award went to SW:Battlefront?
Excuse me. A game with total of 20 minutes different content that repeats so much I can't understand anyone who'd play it for more than one afternoon? Was that supposed to be a joke up there like with Destiny? Are both majority of critics and users idiots:
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/star-wars-battlefront

Outstanding achievement in character: Lara Croft (Rise of the Tomb Raider)

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What kind of award is this?

I didn't buy Rise of Tomb Raider, season pass scamware reason.
So I'm waiting for the complete game.

But the first game was basically this - every few minutes Lara gets hurt. Not surface wounds! Wherever she goes, she busts her plugger (so to say ).
But she started as a fragile lil' girl and in the process she toughens up smallsteps and in the end she gets very close to FU attitude towards any hostile that threatens her.
I don't know what happens in the sequel, but I assumed character evolution continues in there thus that kind of award doesn't feel wtf.

In detail:

Outstanding character takes into consideration the marriage of voice acting and performance (motion capture work), character design and execution, and writing.

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Nominees were:
Assassin's Creed Syndicate — Evie Frye
Her Story — Hannah Smith
Life is Strange — Max
Rise of the Tomb Raider — Lara Croft
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Geralt of Rivia


Btw, past winner was Talion from Shadow of Mordor, never even heard about that game nor that character and because it's title there is no way I'm gonna buy cashgrab on Tolkien's masterpiece chapter title.
IMO the winner should have been the deadly mistress of doom you bring to her knees and turn into your personal pawn (if you're not fastrunner, or you abuse her ashes, or don't explore possibilities) - the grand duchess Florianne from DA:I. But I guess I just adore those bitchy character types, for example the best ME trilogy character in my case was always Aria.

Outstanding character takes into consideration the marriage of voice acting and performance (motion capture work), character design and execution, and writing.

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So the more the character feels like it's in a movie, the more likely it is supposed to win the award.

Joke awards would be better name to call this...some here are the worst examples for respected category.
Rpg: PoE, Adventure: RoTR, Technical Achievement: MGS V, Game direction: PoE, Game Design: Bloodborne, Goty: Witcher.

You're forgetting that awards, any, just show the taste of a certain group of people.
And FO4 got GOTY, hell why not. Billions of people out there don't even know games without grinding exist, and excuse me but FO4 is at least an INTERESTING grinder.

To DICE it wasn't choredom and it's okay, they're still young and they'll maybe learn.

Personal taste only works to a certain point.
DOS and Wasteland II can be compared to Pillars, when comparing rpg mechanics and everyone's bias will have a final say here.
But Fallout IV? That's madness.

BoboTheMighty said:

Personal taste only works to a certain point.
DOS and Wasteland II can be compared to Pillars, when comparing rpg mechanics and everyone's bias will have a final say here.
But Fallout IV? That's madness.

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Look at the award it got:
Outstanding achievement in game direction: Fallout 4

The way I see it, DICE is trying to be the Oscars and gives awards using the same parameters. The more movie-like (or anime-like going by Ori and Heroes of the Storm) the game is, the more likely it is to win something.

The only gameplay award is for online game. lol

Yep, every award should replicate the likes and diskiles of a select few members of the Watch. Everything else is rubbish and misses the point. If Fallout 4 had lost everything I bet there would be a much more active thread full of rejoice...

Any person that puts Fallout 4 above The Witcher 3 is just either smoking bad crack or was paid a lot of money.

…but, but, but you can play dressup while you build homes for copy/pasted NPCs, in between adventuring in copy/pasted locales! It's so amazing!

Just another mainstream, numbers=quality set of awards. Truly given up caring. But that award for game direction to Fallout4? WTF, man! Howard casually dismisses all the advancements that Obsidian engineered in a mere 18 months and gets an award for it. All the more reason not to give a crap about such a list of awards.

wolfing said:

Any person that puts Fallout 4 above The Witcher 3 is just either smoking bad crack or was paid a lot of money.

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There are folk who enjoyed Fallout 4 more than the Witcher. Some of us even post here!

Pongo said:

There are folk who enjoyed Fallout 4 more than the Witcher. Some of us even post here!

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And some of us (myself included) still post here, but not that much, or would get an ulcera by reading threads fiiled with so much arrogance and pedantry disguising a geeky taste in games (and most surely not only games) and the obvious utter lack of versatibility: for some of these people (the REAL Witcher fans excluded, the Witcher is a good trilogy, and I just happen to prefer the second entry - what a sin!) a good game is the same game they have been playing since the 90s, but with another cast of silly characters and an alternative crappy story. But no, no, they are the enlightened ones, I'm just a stupid peasant who was brainwashed by the PR machines of AAA developers (not being dramatic, just quoting some BS I frequently read when this kind of subject is discussed).
Oh my, the silliness of all this!

It seems you only get two types of responses to these kind of articles…either petty hatred or blind lack of criticism from others.
You're saying that Fallout IV is a better crafted rpg than PoE, MigRib? Give me an example in how it's rpg mechanics ( stats, skills, dialogue options, quest choices, etc…) give a more reactive response throughout game play than in other competitive titles.
And the same can be said for other winners here…Fox Engine is a league ahead of Redkit in technical performance and Ori completely above others when it comes to game design.

This thread is about the DICE awards and suddenly (and as was expected) it turned into a Fallout 4 bashing party. As most threads end in the Watch for the last couple of months, I might add.
My posts were about a game getting awards (and causing much butthurt), and not about the game itself, so excuse me for not feeding too much that kind of discussion. Besides I never played (nor did I mention it in my posts) PoE. I'm pretty sure it would bore me out of my socks, but the only competition Fallout 4 had was The Witcher 3. PoE wasn't even among the nominees, as far as I know.
About the technical performance I do believe you are right. Metal Gear Solid did not get the deserved acclaim, though it did very good on reviews. I wouldn't blame that on Fallout 4, though, The Witcher 3 has been the critics darling of the year, in spite of the DICE Awards winners.

Pongo said:

There are folk who enjoyed Fallout 4 more than the Witcher. Some of us even post here!

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That's because gamers don't prefer the same things in games. Also, enjoyment isn't always tied to quality…which is what awards are supposed to reward as far as I know. Except the GoTY award at DICE: The single game, without regard to system or delivery mechanism, voted by the membership of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences that best utilizes the chosen medium to entertain users.

My comment about the "Outstanding achievement in game direction" was more about the fact that it's just another Bethesda game in the same mold as their previous games. There is nothing outstanding about, it is expected of them. The award description: The individual or small group of individuals who are responsible for directing and driving an interactive game and its team through a combination of skills that include vision, management execution, aesthetics, and game craft. This award recognizes the role of the Creative Director, Design Director, or Lead Designer in guiding all elements of a title and shaping the final outcome of a game.

For people who don't know, the DICE awards are nominated and voted by people in the industry and I believe, like the Oscars, you need to promote your stuff for it.

Fair point about the outstanding game direction award. It would be interesting to hear the rationale behind the award. I'm happy enough with F4 winning RPG / GOTY though. It wouldn't have been my personal choice but it is a solid and enjoyable title, despite the regular bashing.

As a matter of interest, what would you have given the outstanding game direction award to? Most of the other games last year also suffered from generic settings or an over-reliance on cut scenes etc. I mean, I loved underrail but it basically a fallout game set underground without the humour. PoE was probably my personal favourite from last year, but definitely generic and "done before". I hear undertale was pretty unique, not tried it myself though.

Pongo said:

As a matter of interest, what would you have given the outstanding game direction award to?

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I'm not even sure where to start to give that award. How can you say that the final output of a game was the result of the Game Director, Creative Director or Lead Designer when you are totally blind to the production process and they might have had their idea overridden by publishers or other people in the company?

That basically leave Undertale, it was made by like one guy.

The "od man out" here is to me rather "Ori And The Blind Forest", because it ain't no mainstream game.