game-of-the-year
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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 Weekly: Intel's diversity initiative, IGF awards, GOTY roundtable and more
Welcome to Joystiq Weekly, a "too long; didn't read" of each week's biggest stories, reviews and original content. Each category's top story is introduced with a reactionary gif, because moving pictures aren't just for The Daily Prophet. Talks of diversity within the technology and gaming industries has amplified over the past several months, encouraging a consideration for walks of life that are unfamiliar to personal perspectives. Intel added a noteworthy talking point to the discussion during CES 2015, announcing plans to invest $300 million into increasing diversity among its staff and within the general tech space. It's easy to forget about humans when we're closing the gap on robot chefs, but sometimes the basic stuff that has nothing to do with pretend wardrobes and curved screens is just as cool. Plenty happened outside of CES 2015 however, including the announcement of nominations for the IGF awards, the Joystiq staff's video (and audio)-based roundtable Game of the Year discussion, and a potential end to the "Who's the true Commander Shepard" debate. All this and more is waiting for you after the break!
Ask Massively: The one where we talk about our 2014 awards
Massively's 2014 awards series is over, but we like to go back and take a look at the reader polls and some of the big questions and neat comments that arose during the course of our rollout because many of our awards were contentious, as they are every year. It'd be no fun if they weren't, I suppose. Allow us to pontificate, and in the course of the review, we'll try to answer some frequently asked questions as well.
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...
Massively's Best of 2014 Awards: Most Anticipated for 2015 and Beyond
Massively's end-of-the-year awards continue today with our award for the Most Anticipated MMO for 2015 and Beyond. Pretty much every MMO that isn't out yet or is planning a major content update in 2015 was eligible for this award. 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 Most Anticipated MMO for 2015 and Beyond is...
Massively's Best of 2014 Awards: Best Update or Expansion of the Year
Massively's end-of-the-year awards continue today with our award for the Best Update or Expansion of the Year. Every patch, be it small freebie update or traditional paid expansion, was eligible for this category, as long as it released in 2014. 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 Update or Expansion of 2014 is...
Massively's Best of 2014 Awards: Most Likely to Flop
Massively's end-of-the-year awards continue today with our award for the Most Likely to Flop in the coming years. This'd be a released or announced MMO that we think has little chance of performing to expectations, even if it may not capsize completely (though we're happy to be proven wrong!). 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 Most Likely to Flop in 2015 and Beyond...
Massively's Best of 2014 Awards: Biggest MMO Blunder of 2014
Massively's end-of-the-year awards continue today with our award for the Biggest MMO Blunder of the year. This is also not a fun award to give or receive, but criticism is a necessary element of growth. This category focuses on a mistake made by a game or developer or the genre as a whole, something that has far-reaching negative consequences for the industry. 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 Biggest MMO Blunder of 2014 is...
Massively's Best of 2014 Awards: Best MMO Trend of the Year
Massively's end-of-the-year awards continue today with our award for the Best MMO Trend of the year. We're not talking about a single article or game here; we are looking for trends, memes, and ideas that have seen a rise to prominence and have the potential to influence our genre for the better. 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 Trend of 2014 is...
Massively's Best of 2014 Awards: Best Pseudo-MMO of the Year
Massively's end-of-the-year awards continue today with our award for the Best Pseudo-MMO of the year. This is always a difficult category since it forces us to define MMOs. This year, we opted to make eligible any online game that isn't a pure and traditional MMORPG, games we'd cover in Not So Massively: mobile MMOs, console MMOs, OARPGs, MOBAs, MMOFPS titles, MMORTS titles, and so on. And of course, the game must have launched in 2014. 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 Pseudo-MMO of 2014 is...
Massively's Best of 2014 Awards: Biggest MMO disappointment of the year
Massively's end-of-the-year awards continue today with our award for the Biggest Disappointment of the year -- not exactly one of the more coveted awards, admittedly. For this category, we focused on single games rather than concepts, and every MMO that launched in 2014 was eligible. 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 Biggest Disappointment of 2014 is...
Massively's Best of 2014 Awards: Best MMO Studio
Massively's end-of-the-year awards continue today with our award for the Best MMO Studio of the year. Every studio that runs an MMO in 2014 was eligible, even those who didn't launch anything this year, but whatever the studio did to impress us should have occurred this year. 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 Studio of 2014 is...
Massively's Best of 2014 Awards: Most Improved MMO
Massively's end-of-the-year awards continue today with our award for the Most Improved MMO of the year. Pretty much all MMOs were eligible for this particular award, even if they didn't launch in 2014, as long as they improved significantly in 2014. 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 reader poll at the very end. The Massively staff pick for Most Improved MMO of 2014 is...
Massively's Best of 2014 Awards: Biggest Story of the Year
Massively's end-of-the-year awards continue today with our award for the Biggest MMO Story of the year. We're not talking about a single article or a game's plot here; we're looking for dominant, ongoing news arcs in the MMO space that had a big impact on the genre. 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 Biggest MMO Story of 2014 is...
Massively's Best of 2014 Awards: Most Underrated MMO
We're breaking with tradition this year when it comes to the Massively end-of-the-year awards. Instead of lumping them together into one huge article that no one reads because everyone's busy cheering and jeering over the GOTY down in the comments, we're going to pace ourselves so the little ones get some attention too. We'll also be explaining our votes so you can see the split and the rationale behind our picks. And because we know you want to have your say too, we'll throw in a reader poll just for fun. Please don't cheat. Today's award is for the Most Underrated MMO of the year. As will be the case for many (though not all) of this year's awards, games must have launched in 2014 to be eligible, which makes the list of eligible games fairly short. All of our writers were invited to cast a vote, but not all of them chose to do so for every category, so some games will literally win by a hair. The Massively staff pick for Most Underrated MMO of 2014 is...
Joystiq's Games of the Year 2006-2008
Those who don't learn from their past are doomed to replay it again and again. In the case of these games from Joystiq's "Best Of" lists from 2006 through 2008, that's not really a bad thing. As we celebrate our decade of existence, it seemed like the right time to look back at the games we thought were the greatest in their respective launch years. (The 2004 and 2005 lists remain classified.) In some cases, our selections are part of franchises that have stood the test of generations, while others are like trying to recall what happened after that fourth Red Bull with a Mountain Dew chaser. Here are our selections and links to explanations to the best ghosts of Joystiq's past.
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]
Final Fantasy 14 spawns Game of the Year edition only on PC
Square Enix's revamped massively multiplayer roleplaying game Final Fantasy 14 will soon see a Game of the Year edition re-release, though it's only coming to the PC. Tucked within a unique Book of Diamonds Grimoire box will be five collectible art cards, 90 days of subscription time and Final Fantasy 14 itself, along with all of the MMO's updates and content expansions. Though Square Enix recently announced plans to add the ninja and rogue classes to Final Fantasy 14 in the game's upcoming 2.4 patch, there's still no word on when that update might appear or if any of its content will be included in the Game of the Year release. Square Enix plans to release Final Fantasy 14 Game of the Year edition on November 14, but has yet to establish a price for the new bundle. [Image: Square Enix]
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.
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.
