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What is a ‘Game of the Year’ edition, anyway?
Every year, game publishers put out Game of the Year editions, typically chock full of all the downloadable content that's come out since the initial release along with new packaging to proclaim its "of the year" status. Some titles even get new content to entice customers into buying an older game. But what, exactly, does it mean to be a Game of the Year? And according to who exactly? Is there a regulating body that protects consumers from games that were not, in fact, that good? You might think of the "Game of the Year" term as an implication of quality, right? It turns out that — like most marketing — it's largely meaningless. And countless gaming outlets name their own "Games of the Year," further confusing things.
DICE Awards nominate 'Fallout 4,' 'Ori' and more for GOTY
The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences has revealed its finalists for the 19th annual DICE Awards, with Rise of the Tomb Raider and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt leading the pack at eight nominations each. Finalists for Game of the Year are Bloodborne, Fallout 4, Ori and the Blind Forest, Rise of the Tomb Raider and The Witcher 3. On the other side of the development spectrum, the DICE Sprite Award recognizes innovative games from small studios -- nominees this year are Her Story, GALAK-Z, Rocket League, Undertale and Kerbal Space Program.
These are our favorite video games of 2015
Different strokes, different folks -- never has this been more true in gaming. And so, it's with that spirit of varied perspective that we at Engadget bring you our favorite video games of the year. There is no one-size-fits-all winner here. Instead, we're highlighting the best games to suit specific tastes and who better to make those calls than our very own staff of trusted gaming editors. So if you're still looking to make that list for Santa, get a gift for someone you know or just dedicate a chunk of holiday vacation to quality play time, consider our selections for 2015's greatest gaming hits.
PlayStation players proclaim their picks for games of the year
So you didn't agree with our picks for the top 10 games of 2014. You didn't like our Best of the Rest selections either. That's okay! Different strokes for different folks and all that. If you're a PlayStation user, perhaps you'll find more like-minded individuals among fellow owners of Sony consoles. The PlayStation Blog has posted the results of its game of the year survey, which raked in a solid 400,000+ votes. And the winners are: Best PlayStation 4 Game: Destiny Best PlayStation 3 Game: Dark Souls 2 Best PlayStation Vita Game: Child of Light Best Digital Release: Infamous: First Light Best PlayStation Plus Game: BioShock Infinite Studio of the Year: Naughty Dog Most Anticipated of 2015: Uncharted 4: A Thief's End To see the runners-up and PS Blog editor picks (as well as tell everyone how wrong they are), check out the full post. [Image: Sony]
Joystiq Top 10 of 2014: Shovel Knight
ATTENTION: The year 2014 has concluded its temporal self-destruct sequence. If you are among the escapees, please join us in salvaging and preserving the best games from the irradiated chrono-debris. Retro-inspired platformers are practically synonymous with the indie scene, and the genre's almost as active nowadays as it was back in the early console era. With so much competition already on the market, what makes Yacht Club Games' throwback platformer, Shovel Knight, worth a spot in our list of the best games of 2014? It has a rare devotion to authenticity, for one thing. Similar in premise to Capcom's NES classic DuckTales, Shovel Knight stars an unlikely hero equipped with an unconventional but multifaceted weapon. Making the most out of simple mechanics is a staple of the 8-bit era, and Shovel Knight himself is a shining example, showcasing a robust moveset in spite of his seemingly limited capabilities. Like the best games from the last millennium, it won't take you long before you've mastered Shovel Knight's initial learning curve and find yourself chaining carefully timed pogo bounces in order to reach faraway platforms. It's also incredibly faithful to its source material. Like its ancient 8-bit brethren, Shovel Knight is built with hardware limitations in mind, mostly adhering to standards with its tile-based backgrounds, limited color palettes, and exceptionally catchy soundtrack that never exceeds its limited number of allotted sound channels. These are the sort of details that you won't notice unless you're specifically looking for them, but working together in concert they legitimize the experience, and complete the illusion that Shovel Knight escaped from the flannel clutches of the early '90s.
Joystiq Top 10 of 2014: Sunset Overdrive
ATTENTION: The year 2014 has concluded its temporal self-destruct sequence. If you are among the escapees, please join us in salvaging and preserving the best games from the irradiated chrono-debris. Some days you just can't catch a break. Your apartment sucks, your job sucks and thanks to the greed of corporate fat cats, your technicolor city (which also generally sucks) has just been overrun by bloodthirsty mutants. Other people might flee in terror, but not you, the desensitized, self-aware, modern twenty-something. You see this horrible turn of events as a cathartic excuse to splatter creatures with unwieldy weapons while spouting cool one-liners. "How hard could the action hero schtick really be?" you think to yourself before setting off, flaming shotgun in hand, to save the world. That's all the story given in the first few minutes of Sunset Overdrive, but it's all you need. This isn't some somber, dragon-infested role-playing epic, nor is it the latest dour, paint-by-numbers futuristic military shooter. Instead, Sunset Overdrive is a vibrant rainbow smile; a game made by people who want you to share in their glee. Sunset Overdrive is an explosion of giddy rebellion in an industry obsessed with the stereotypical teenage boy's grim, overwrought idea of what's cool.
Joystiq Top 10 of 2014: Valiant Hearts: The Great War
ATTENTION: The year 2014 has concluded its temporal self-destruct sequence. If you are among the escapees, please join us in salvaging and preserving the best games from the irradiated chrono-debris. War is a common theme throughout video games, usually granting you a trigger to pull and later reminding you of the true cost of battle. Ubisoft Montpellier's approach to one of history's deadliest conflicts in Valiant Hearts: The Great War eludes those narrative methods, instead spinning an endearing tale about a period of sustained malice and sorrow. Set during the events of World War 1, Valiant Hearts' four playable humans (and one canine) get swept in the waves of global catastrophe practically by circumstance. The side-scrolling adventure game begins with the German-born Karl stripped from his family in France, then injected into the side of conflict opposite that of his father-in-law, Emile. As the world around them collapses, they meet the Belgian medic, Anna, who is drawn in for the good of others, and the voluntarily enlisted American, Freddie, who has a personal mission at heart.
Massively's Best of 2014 Awards: MMO of the Year
Massively's end-of-the-year awards come to a close today with our 12th and final award, this one the biggun (and usually the most contentious): our MMO of the Year. To be eligible for this award, MMOs must have launched in 2014, full stop. (If you want to know what would win the staff's best-MMO-ever vote, it's Star Wars Galaxies, and now I've saved us all that discussion, and you're welcome.) All of our writers were invited to cast a vote, but not all of them chose to do so for this category. Don't forget to cast your own vote in the just-for-fun reader poll at the very end. The Massively staff pick for Best MMO of 2014 is...
The Last of Us' GOTY edition hits European PS3s next month
Those that have yet to tag along with Joel and Ellie and would prefer to do so on PS3 will have a fresh opportunity to bash bricks on the skulls of clickers, presuming they live in Europe: PlayStation Blog Europe has revealed that The Last Of Us: Game of the Year Edition will be priced at 39.99 when it arrives on November 11. Game of the Year Edition will include the base game, its Left Behind DLC, eight extra multiplayer maps and Grounded Mode, a single-player difficulty setting that strengthens enemies, removes the HUD and strips the ability to track enemies by sound. There's currently no word on a comparable release reaching North American PS3s, but there's always The Last Of Us: Remastered for PS4. Survival might be gruesome and bleak in The Last Of Us, but Naughty Dog's emotional tale had nothing to cry about during last year's Game of the Year season, where it bested The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons to take home Joystiq's top honors. [Image: Naughty Dog]
The Walking Dead PS4, Xbox One listings just won't die
You can ignore the approaching horde for only so long – listings for The Walking Dead Game of the Year Edition on PS4 and Xbox One have popped up at online retailers over the past month or so, and recently the listings hit Amazon UK. This puts next-gen The Walking Dead Game of the Year Edition listings at GameFly, GameStop and Amazon. According to the Amazon description, the bundle includes the complete first season of Telltale's The Walking Dead, plus the 400 Days DLC and a download of the original soundtrack. GameStop lists it as $30, while Amazon UK puts it at £30. GameStop and GameFly note release dates of July 31, while Amazon has a release date of July 25. It's up for pre-order across the sites. We've reached out to Telltale for comment. The Walking Dead season one and 400 Days DLC both have big impacts on season two, which is currently in its third (and perhaps best) episode.
The Last of Us leads 2014 DICE Awards nominations
Nominations for the 17th Annual DICE Awards are led by The Last of Us, which received 13 total nods. The peer-based video game awards hosted by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences spans 24 categories and recognized 61 separate games this year. The five games nominated for the Game of the Year award are The Last of Us, Grand Theft Auto 5, BioShock Infinite, Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. Both GTA 5 and The Last of Us are joined by Papers, Please, Tearaway and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons for the Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction award. The awards ceremony will cap off the 2014 DICE Summit on Thursday, February 6 at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Head over to the AIAS' site to view the full list of nominees in PDF form.
Joystiq Top 10 of 2013: Gone Home
Team Joystiq is barging into 2014 with a celebration of last year's best games. Keep reading throughout the week to see our assembly of ingenious indies and triple-A triumphs. Gone Home breaks gaming conventions to the point that critics (and some fans) hyperbolically question if it's even a video game, really. It's not narrative-driven – it is narrative. Much of the game plays out in the sparks of the player's synapses, filling in the story told by the notes that Kaitlin, our protagonist, finds scattered around her family's abandoned home. The notes come from her sister, Sam, in 1995 as she enrolls at a new school and meets the love of her young life. Each note is heartfelt and raw, as if ripped from the pages of a best friend's diary, and reading them becomes an almost-guilty obsession and the crux of the gameplay. Though we never play as Sam, she becomes the main character, and her tormented teenage life – complete with feminist rock, Street Fighter arcade cabinets and self-discovery – becomes the game's stage, though we never leave the walls of her deserted home.
Best of the Rest: Mike's picks of 2013
Team Joystiq is barging into 2014 with a celebration of last year's best games. Keep reading throughout the week to see our assembly of ingenious indies and triple-A triumphs. FIFA 14 Regardless of any indicator that 2013 was a "tune-up" year for EA Canada's ongoing soccer sim series, FIFA 14 arguably remains the best sports gaming has to offer for another year. Retaining the elements of unpredictability with the game's ball physic, introduced in FIFA 13, the developer improved teammate AI and slowed the game's pace to force more deliberate, tactical on-field play. The result couldn't be any clearer in the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game, which saw significant improvements graphically, particularly in the crowd's character models. While it may not be a top-ten game of the year, FIFA 14 was easily one of the most enjoyable.
PlayStation Blog reveals Game of the Year winners, as chosen by readers
It's that time of year again! No, not when we gather with our loved ones and take a break from working. It's Game of the Year season, meaning we've got a great excuse to look back on games we played in 2013 and tell everyone about our favorite experiences. The PlayStation Blog finished tallying up votes from its readers yesterday, announcing the Platinum through Bronze-worthy victors in a blog post. In regards to their shiny new PS4s, readers most enjoyed their relaxing, sing-along journeys on Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag's Caribbean seas. The Last of Us won over the hearts of PS3 users, presumably for the knee-slappers that came out of Ellie's joke book. Vita fans were most enamored with Tearaway, Media Molecule's crafty platformer made out of paper. Lastly, Housemarque's voxel-jumbling shooter Resogun was voted as the year's best digital release. Looking forward to 2014, fans are most anticipating Infamous: Second Son, the smoky super hero story based in Seattle, which you can expect on March 21. If you're curious about more than just the winners, the full post also lists runners up for each category as well as personal picks from the PlayStation Blog staff.
The Daily Grind: What's your MMO of the year?
Yesterday, we published Massively's 2013 awards, including our pick for MMO of the year, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, which carried off that top award in something of a landslide, even if it was tempered by the recent housing patch debacle. Wizardry Online, Defiance, Darkfall Unholy Wars, Age of Wushu, Neverwinter, DUST 514, Marvel Heroes, MechWarrior Online, and a slew of other smaller games were all in the running for MMO of the year, being the short list of MMOs that formally launched in 2013. Did we nail it, or would you have voted for another title? What's your MMO of the year? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
PSA: Harley Quinn's Revenge begins today on PSN and Xbox 360 [Update]
Harley Quinn's rampagement begins today on PSN and Xbox 360, and runs through PC in early June. The DLC is part of the Batman: Arkham City Game of the Year Edition, which includes previous packs featuring Catwoman, Nightwing and Robin.Harley Quinn's Revenge is a plotty affair, beginning with players as Robin as he tracks down Batman, who has gone missing after Arkham City's final moments. Control shifts between Robin and Batman, but is contained to the DLC's world and any previously released challenge maps.We assume the closed-world setting is a metaphor for the psychological cage that Harley constructed during her time with The Joker, but hey, we're not the psychiatrists here. She is.Update: Yes, it looks like Harley has made her way to Xbox 360 today as well. Also, Spoiler: There are clownish thugs in Harley Quinn's Revenge.
SWTOR receives AbleGamers' Accessible Mainstream GOTY award
The AbleGamers Foundation, an organization focused on providing disabled peoples with information and technology that allows them to more easily enjoy video games, has awarded Star Wars: The Old Republic its 2011 Accessible Mainstream Game of the Year Award for launching with "colorblind friendly options, full subtitles, and control options to let those with mobility impairments play the game as easy as possible.""BioWare did a wonderful job including a large number of options right at launch with the promise of including more as soon as possible," said AbleGamers Foundation president Mark Barlet. "It's very rare to see a game of this caliber initially released with so many accessibility options." The Old Republic is actually BioWare's second title to receive this award; Dragon Age: Origins was dubbed Accessible Mainstream GOTY 2009.
Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate Edition hits on Oct. 26
Not content with delivering some of this year's most promising games, October has also decided to become a haven for new versions of last year's standout titles. Living a year behind the rest of us has its benefits, as illustrated by the (now officially announced) "Ultimate Edition" of Dragon Age: Origins. Okay, so perhaps the actual illustration on the cover -- depicting slightly smaller cover illustrations -- isn't entirely elegant, but how else do you convey such an impressive amount of value for a $60 video game? Launching on October 26 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, the Ultimate Edition packs in BioWare's acclaimed fantasy RPG, the Awakening expansion, all 7 downloadable add-ons (including Witch Hunt) and 37 billion hours of tactical party management, intriguing conversation and moral handwringing. If the folks at BioWare really want to pile on the pressure, they'll slip in a note that says, "Hey, try to wrap this up by March, 2011."
Plants vs. Zombies GOTY Edition available on Steam for Mac and PC
Steam is growing regular ol' Plants vs. Zombies into the "Game of the Year edition." The free update is available for existing PC copies of PvZ. In addition, PvZ is now available in its GOTY incarnation on Mac for $10. Remember, with Steam, if you own the game for Windows and are a closet Mac user (or vice versa), you also own it for the other system. The update adds 20 Steam Achievements, Steam Cloud support and the "Zombatar" -- a custom zombie creator. You can also try out the Zombatar on PopCap's site and use the image for any of your social networking sites. In only a few minutes we made what we imagine to be a rabid transvestite b-boy.
Batman: Arkham Asylum GOTY Edition not coming to North America
Uh, remember how we kind of got your hopes up with the promise of Batman in 3D earlier today? Well, we hope you North American readers didn't rush to your local game emporium to pre-order the "Game of the Year" edition, as you probably would have gotten laughed at. Warner Bros. confirmed to Joystiq that Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition -- with the 3D feature -- is only coming to Europe, Asia and Australia. We also learned that, no matter what territory you live in, 3D is not a feature that's being added to existing copies of the game. If you want all three dimensions, you're going to have to pony up for the GOTY edition. This may seem tough now, but if you, Charlie Bucket-style, convince yourself that it's better just by itself (the third dimension standing in for golden Wonka ticket here, of course) we're sure you'll pull through.
