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Journey, Dishonored and The Room win big with BAFTA game awards
Journey took top honours at this year's BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) game awards, with five different gongs going to thatgamecompany for Artistic Achievement, Audio Achievement, Best Online Multiplayer, Best Game Design, and Best Original Music.The Unfinished Swan picked up two awards, for Game Innovation and Debut Game. Dishonored won the award for Best Game in 2013, and iOS tactile puzzler The Room picked up an award for the Best British Game.Valve's Gabe Newell was given an Academy Fellowship award for his storied career, while the "Ones to Watch" award (meant to showcase the best young game dev talent) was given to a game called Starcrossed, made by students working with the Dare to Be Digital competition.
Best App Ever 2012 winners announced, Walking Dead takes top prize
Our friend Jeff Scott over at 148Apps has been running the annual Best App Ever awards for five years now, featuring some of the greatest apps on the App Store voted on by popular demand to determine the "Best App Ever." Last year's winners have just been announced, and Telltale's The Walking Dead game has taken the top spot in voting. There's no question at all that it's a great game and a terrific app, though personally I played it on the Xbox 360, and I preferred that platform. But it's a solid choice, and if you don't like that one, there are lots and lots of other categories to go through. Launch Center Pro, for example (which allows you to launch not just apps, but specific functions within them), won for Most Innovative App, while sync/sharing app Dropbox picked up Most Useful App. One of my favorite games, Punch Quest, won both Best Time Killer and Best Free To Play Game, while the great Junk Jack sandbox adventure game won for Most Addicting Game. There are tons of great apps in this list -- some are extremely popular, but there are a few choice gems in there that you may not have tried yet. Congrats to Jeff on a fifth successful year of the Best App Ever awards, and the site says they'll be back at the end of this year to reward the best of 2013.
Hyperspace Beacon: The SWTOR awards
The Oscars were given out two nights ago. Celebrities, actors, and film crews dressed in their red-carpet best to be handed a 13.5-inch golden statue of a naked bald man. As I heard these writers and directors give thanks to various loved-ones and talent agencies, I thought about Star Wars: The Old Republic. (Sad. I know.) SWTOR contains some of the best writing and storytelling in all of MMOs. In my opinion, it's better than some of movies represented on that stage. Sure, it didn't impact the world like Zero Dark Thirty, but it did impact my world, and I'd like to recognize some of the best parts of this MMORPG.
Sir Jony Ive discusses design on Blue Peter show, receives Gold Badge
Blue Peter is the world's longest-running children's television program, broadcast on BBC since 1959, so it's not surprising that Apple Senior Vice President of Industrial Design Sir Jony Ive was an avid viewer of the show as a child. Ive was recently a guest on Blue Peter where he talked about an early design experience tied to the show and then commented on children's designs for a combination school bag / lunch bag / pencil case. As you can see in the video clip below, Sir Jony was also awarded the rare high honor of a Blue Peter Gold Badge. Ive seemed genuinely touched by receiving the award from host Barney Harwood, and reciprocated by having a CNC milling machine make a large "aluminium" badge for the show staff.
Reminder: Vote for the 2012 Engadget Awards!
Your nominations are in, but the vote is still out on the top tech of 2012. Not for long, though; you have until 11:59 ET on Monday, February 18th to cast that ballot -- and who wouldn't want a say in deciding this year's top smartphone, not to mention the worst gadget? Head to our voting page to get in on the action, and check back in the coming days for the Readers' Choice results and our editors' picks!
BBC's Blue Peter honours Jony Ive with gold Blue Peter badge
The BBC's long-standing children's program, Blue Peter, has honoured Jony Ive with a gold Blue Peter badge, the show's highest accolade. The show has a tradition of inspiring and encouraging young children to design, create and make things. As reported by the BBC, a special gadget edition of Blue Peter will be broadcast this Saturday, where a prefilmed segment -- already available on the BBC's Media Centre website -- shows Ive receiving the award from Blue Peter presenter Barney Harwood. Ive, who grew up in London and watched the show as a child, viewed children's designs submitted to Blue Peter of an all-in-one school bag, lunch box and pencil case, and reminisced on one particular episode that had really stuck with him, where a presenter made a paint brush holder from an old plastic bottle. Upon receiving the award, Ive said, "That's absolutely incredible, " and that he was "very grateful." Ive also presented the show with his own rather large design of the Blue Peter badge, made out of solid aluminium, cut on one of Apple's CNC machines. The special Blue Peter show will air tomorrow in the UK at 10 AM GMT on the CBBC channel.
BioWare doctors to receive GDCA Lifetime Achievement award
The Game Developers Conference announced BioWare co-founders Drs. Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk as the winners of this year's Lifetime Achievement Award. At the GDCAs on March 27, the doctors are to be honored with one of the industry's most prestigious prizes, won previously by such luminaries as Shigeru Miyamoto, Will Wright, and Hideo Kojima."The BioWare doctors are truly a unique breed," said Meggan Scavio, General Manager of GDC events. "Not only have they created some of the most emotionally-engaging and beloved games ever made, they are two of the most passionate, engaging, just all-around nice guys anyone could be fortunate enough to meet... There's no denying the deep footprint Ray and Greg have made, and how much their dedication and leadership will be missed in our industry."18 years ago, the two recently graduated Canadian doctors, along with Augustine Yip, forged a studio that went on to shape Western role-playing games for nearly two decades. Under their leadership, BioWare transformed from a close-knit studio of dozens into a worldwide force of hundreds. That's largely been down to the consistent quality and popularity of the games they've made, including the likes of Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age, and Mass Effect.We caught up with Dr. Zeschuk recently to see what beers he'd pair with particular game genres. We're sure he'll have a certain tipple in mind for when he and Dr. Muzyka celebrate their award, and whatever that proves to be, it'll certainly be well deserved.
Journey, Walking Dead, Far Cry 3 lead BAFTA 2013 nominations
Journey scooped eight nominations in the British Academy of Film and Television's Games Awards this year. As if it hadn't won enough of the like, thatgamecompany's PS3 odyssey is a contender for BAFTA's Best Game award, competing with Dishonored, FIFA 13, Mass Effect 3, Far Cry 3, and The Walking Dead for the prize. It's the two latter games that also lead the way in terms of nominations; Far Cry 3 received six nods, while The Walking Dead picked up seven, including two in the Performer category for Melissa Hutchinson and Dave Fennoy's respective portrayals of Clementine and Lee.Dear Esther is also clearly popular at BAFTA HQ. The melancholic game, developed by indie studio thechineseroom, can boast a very impressive five nominations including ones in the British Game and Debut Game categories.The full list of nominees is after the break. BAFTA's Games Awards take place on March 5.
Grammy Awards 2013 ads see Google and Microsoft go head-to... foot (video)
This year's Grammy Awards weren't as packed with gadget advertising -- gadvertising* -- as the Super Bowl, but Microsoft and Google still coughed up to hawk their wares. The former wanted to demonstrate the productivity chops of the Surface Pro with a commercial that implies the device will cause your employees to breakdance involuntarily. Google, on the other hand, wanted to show off the powers of the Nexus 4 and Google Now to help you distinguish between fish and vegetables, in case the smell isn't enough. Curious to know more? We've stashed the clips after the break. * A term we just invented. Hollywood, call us.
Nominate your favorite gadgets for the 2012 Engadget Awards!
Welcome to the 2012 Engadget Awards! This year we've got 15 categories up for grabs, with 30 total awards to be decided. All finalists for Engadget Awards are reader-nominated, and the editors of Engadget will then select the best of those nominations (usually somewhere between four and six devices) as finalists. There are two awards per category: Readers' Choice (voted on by you!), and Editors' Choice (selected by us). The vote will take place in a few weeks once the nominees are picked, and winners will be announced shortly thereafter. Submit your favorite devices for consideration using the form just past the break, and feel free to elaborate in the comments. You don't need to fill in every field, but you are required to answer at least one question in order for your form to be processed. You've got until 11:59PM ET on Friday, February 1st, 2013 to get your entries in. Now, go nominate!
Check out the D.I.C.E. awards finalists
The nominees for the 16th annual D.I.C.E. (hint: It's spelled out right in the image) awards have been listed! While Journey is (deservedly) leading the list with 11 nominations, MMOs and not-quite-MMOs have done their genre proud. Diablo III, Torchlight II, and Guild Wars 2 are all in the running for Role-Playing / Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year. Diablo III also got tapped for a shot at Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay, Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design, and Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition. World of Warcraft's Mists of Pandaria expansion is also in the running for the original music composition award. Winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on Thursday, February 7th. There are oodles of other games in the running for oodles of other titles, so be sure to check out the complete listing of nominees.
The Daily Grind: What MMO are you embarrassed to admit you play?
One of the silly questions I posed the Massively staff during our end-of-2012 awards was about embarrassing MMOs that we play. But we didn't publish the answers, partly because we couldn't come to any consensus. Glitch took my vote; browser games are still looked down on, no matter how creative they are. Among the other writers, Clone Wars Adventures cropped up, as did RuneScape, Free Realms, Habbo Hotel, and Star Stable. It wasn't just "kids games" making the cut, either. Mike lamented the fact that World of Warcraft is a "punch line" in the community and that "serious" MMO players can't play it. Jef said Lord of the Rings Online makes him want to shower after he logs out, while Patrick argued that Champions Online's apparent lack of developer resources makes for a sad experience. But the other reason we didn't publish our responses was that most of us just aren't deeply embarrassed about playing anything. As Eliot put it, If you're playing an MMO, you have absolutely zero ground to make fun of someone else for playing another MMO. This is something that really gets under my skin, the idea that some games are somehow cooler than others. MMOs are just plain fun, and there's no reason to be embarrassed by anything you like to play. I'm happy when anyone finds a fun game, even if it's a game I'm personally not fond of. Follow your bliss, people, and hold your heads high. So where do you stand? Are you embarrassed to play a certain MMO, and if so, what is it? 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!
Ask Massively: The one where we talk about our 2012 awards
Welcome back to Ask Massively. Here's your present: an edit button! What? You say you didn't get us anything? Awww. Well, let's get back to the important things, like your telling us how wrong our opinions are. thatchefdude (and zaithnoc and cbv1020) asked: How can Guild Wars 2 be your game of the year and also runner-up for biggest disappointment of the year? I understand no game is perfect, but I would expect game of the year to not have enough disappointments in it to warrant it a place as runner-up for disappointment of the year. Because voting. OK, also because of a few other things.
Massively's Best of 2012 Awards
When game obituaries and studio layoffs start to pile up in the news, Massively can seem like a herald of doom, but the reality is that the MMO industry is stronger and richer than ever. We've got more features to try, more business models to play with, more studios (and indie Kickstarters) to vie for our favor, and more titles to play than most of us could possibly sample in our lifetimes. Today, Massively's staff honors the best of the best for the year 2012. We asked each writer and streamer to vote in each category with an anything-goes nomination process. No MMO, company, or headline was off the table. Enjoy our picks for the best MMOs, expansions, studios, stories, and innovations of 2012... and our most-anticipated for 2013.
Flameseeker Chronicles: The Guild Wars 2 end-of-the-year awards
The end of the year seems to be a good time for awards -- all the cool kids are doing it, and Massively is nothing if not cool. Guild Wars 2 has been around long enough for me to have made some favorites. I've talked about features and things I loathe and love before, but now it's time to call out specific NPCs and instances, rather than general features. Before we get any further with this: These awards are purely my own opinion. Disagree with me? Great; write your own end-of-the-year awards. The more, the merrier.
Rayman Jungle Run grabs App Store GOTY award
Accomplished auto-run platformer Rayman Jungle Run is the App Store Game of the Year 2012. Ubisoft's iOS evolution of Rayman Origins, which received 10 free bonus levels earlier this month, pipped word game Letterpress to the award.On the iPad-specific front, Fireproof's 3D puzzler The Room came away with the main prize. The runner-up spot went to IGF finalist and Joystiq favorite Waking Mars.There are at least a few pairs of raised Joystiq eyebrows at Super Hexagon being omitted, but Terry Cavanagh's twitch game did at least pick up the Runner-Up award from the App Store's UK branch. To celebrate, Cavanagh slashed 66 percent off the game's price, making it available for a limited time at a bargainous $0.99.
Daily iPad App: Splice is a different puzzle game
Splice is an experimental puzzle game for iPad, put together by a developer called Cipher Prime. It was originally released on Steam and has received several awards. After being selected for PAX 10 and Indiecade 2012, Splice has made the jump over to iPad. Splice is intriguing in that it's not easy to get into, as it's a puzzle game that plays hide-and-seek with its mechanics. But it definitely creates a striking mood, and it wordlessly communicates its principles quite well. The basic idea is that you've got to line up what appear to be biological cells in a certain order, usually in a symmetrical pattern, by splitting and then recombining them (hence the title) a certain number of times. Like most great game ideas, this sounds more complicated to do than it is. In the end, you've just got to look closely for a pattern, and then figure out where the cells need to go. There are some great touches in the atmosphere of the game, too. For example, when you mess up and need to redo your splices, you just touch a timeline on the side of the screen, and the game artfully rewinds to the last cut you made. TUAW got a chance to talk with Cipher Prime at PAX last week, and founder Dain Saint said that the game was originally developed in Unity. Bringing it to the iPad didn't take long at all, but the optimization process took about a month. The company is now working on a sequel to a previous title, Auditorium, after having raised the funds for it via a Kickstarter earlier this year. But Saint also told us that before it makes Auditorium 2, the goal is to make a much smaller title, hopefully with a development time of just about a month, to "work through our production pipeline." After that, it'll be on to the bigger title, but Saint isn't sure whether either game will make it to the iPad just yet. With a team of just five people, there's obviously not a lot of time for extra tasks. At any rate, it's good to see Splice on the iOS platform, and hopefully its success will bring Cipher Prime and other indie developers back in the future. The game's artistic and experimental, so it might not be for everyone (especially with the current $3.99 price, despite the game being even more expensive on Steam). But if you're looking for a really gorgeous puzzle game with some out-there mechanics, Splice is a very interesting experience to try.
Koster, Blizzard to be honored at GDC Online event
Raph Koster and Blizzard may be polar opposites in terms of design philosophy, but both will take home awards at this year's GDC Online convention. Koster, instrumental in the development of sandbox worlds like Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies, will take home the Online Game Legend Award. Blizzard, which turned the MMO space on its ear via World of Warcraft's resounding financial success, will see its flagship title inducted into the Choice Online Awards Hall of Fame. The ceremonies take place on October 10th in Austin, Texas. Don't forget to cast your vote for the GDC Audience Award prior to September 14th! [Source: GDC press release]
Dream Build Play finalists for Xbox 360 and Windows Phone announced, winners soon
Microsoft has announced the 40 finalists in its latest Dream Build Play competition, featuring standout titles developed with the Windows Phone Software Development Kit for the Xbox 360 or Windows Phone operating system.The games entered were judged on qualities like innovation, the production quality, and the fun factor, and all of the entries were narrowed down to these 40, with 20 on each system. The final prize-winning games will be announced in a few weeks from now in early September.The finalists come from developers all over the world, and include games like the zombie fighter RPG Dead Pixels, "fantasy flight game" Windhaven, and the electricity-powered puzzler, Super Volt. The final prizes in the competition include cash prizes and possible publishing agreements, but odds are that we'll see more than one of these titles make it out to public release after the competition, with or without Microsoft's involvement.
Illyriad's revamp adds friends list, medal designer, and more functional UI
Although some people might argue that "less is more," that don't hold up well when it comes to features in an MMO. Who doesn't appreciate more goodies? Illyriad players were treated to just that this weekend as a major update added new features and improved existing ones. The free-to-play fantasy MMORTS now sports a cleaner, more functional UI, a friends list, and a new Alliance medal design system. Illyriad also released a video dev chat with Community Manager GM Luna and Art Director GM Cerberus highlighting these changes. GM Luna explains that "everything has been 'refreshed' from the ground up... to make it more user friendly." The new UI transformed the Herald into an interactive book where players can read the lore of the game. The friends list, a precursor to private chat, is designed so that players must approve all requests. The medal design feature allows players to create personalized awards and titles for others. The video then ends with a community Q&A. You can watch a demonstration of these features in the dev chat after the break. For more about Illyriad, check out Beau's inside look at the game. [Source: Illyriad press release]
