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Aion rewarding decorating skills with contest
As one of 3.0's most anticipated features, player housing brought a whole new facet of gaming to Aion. Along with the studios, houses, and estates, housing provided Daevas the opportunity to demonstrate their creativity and decorating flair, and players have been taking full advantage of the system. Now, NCsoft wants to reward players for sprucing up their Atreian homes with a contest titled Decorate Your Space. Think you have a pretty snazzy pad? Then show off those mad decorating skills! All Daevas over level 20 are eligible; just submit up to three unaltered screenshots of your living space via the contest thread or by email to community_aion_en@ncsoft.com by 12:59 a.m. EDT on May 19th. The top three homes judged best decorated will win special 60-day, two-drawer cabinets with an extra 18 slots of storage space. For full rules, conditions, and the winner release form, visit the official announcement.
Electronic House hands out its Home of the Year awards, offers yet more excess and inspiration
Just as it does each May, Electronic House magazine has selected a handful of integrated homes and home theaters that it's deemed to be the best of the best and awarded them Home of the Year awards in categories that range from $50k or less to $150k or more. The winner of the latter is pictured above -- a garage that's gone from storing farm equipment to a top-end 3D Runco SC-50 projector and equally high-end sound system (to say nothing of the change in decor). Other winners include a completely hands-free home that's also energy efficient (at a cost of $48k), another home that's largely iPad-controlled, and a blood red nightclub-inspired home theater that's not too far removed from a David Lynch movie. Hit the source link below to take a tour of each.
Jonathan Ive wins British Visionary Innovator award
Jony Ive can add British Visionary Innovator to his long list of design awards. The Apple design head was given the award by Britain's Intellectual Property Office as part of its World Intellectual Property Day celebration. As noted in a Macworld UK report, Ive won with 46.6 percent of the vote. He was followed by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the man behind the HTTP protocol and the World Wide Web, who grabbed 18.6 percent. Ive certainly has earned the award. Since he joined Apple permanently in 1997, the UK-born designer has played a prominent role in the design of the iMac, iPad, iPhone, Mac Pro, MacBook Pro/Air and other recent Apple products. [Via Macworld UK]
Jony Ive nominated for British Visionary Innovator award
Apple's senior VP of Industrial design, Jony Ive, was nominated for a British Visionary Innovator award by the UK's Intellectual Property Office. This list includes other notable innovators including Sir James Dyson who created the dual cyclone vacuum cleaner, Sir Tim Berners-Lee who played an integral role in the early development of HTTP and the World Wide Web, J. K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame and others The competition honors World Intellectual Property Day 2012 which is celebrated on April 26. Voting in the competition begins today and ends Tuesday 24 April at 17:00. The person with the most votes will be announced April 26. [Via Macworld UK]
The winners of the 2011 Engadget Awards -- Editors' Choice (and enter to win an unlocked Galaxy Nexus!)
<!--BODY--><h1 id="awards-header" style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011editorschoice/"><img alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2012/02/eng-awards-11-editors-choice-1330010562.png"/> </a></h1><p>Yesterday, we announced <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011readerschoice/">your selections</a> for the 2011 Engadget Awards, and now we're back with our picks. Editors' Choice awardees are designated for each of the same 15 categories that you voted in <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011awards/">earlier this month</a>, but these results represent our own opinions, and are not influenced by your nominations. Naturally, there's some overlap here and there, but there are plenty of newcomers as well. As you can see in the teaser just below, we've included a brief summary for each product to give you an idea of what motivated our decisions, which you'll find just beside the rest of our favorite products once you click past the break.</p><p> Also, be sure to leave a comment for your chance to win an unlocked <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/24/galaxy-nexus-hspa-review/">Galaxy Nexus</a> -- courtesy of the folks at <a href="https://negrielectronics.com/">Negri Electronics</a>. All the rules for entering await beyond the list of winners on the other side of the break.</p>
Roll out the red carpet -- Distro Issue 29 presents the Engadget Awards
<div style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/24/distro-issue-29-engadget-awards/"><img alt="Roll out the red carpet -- Distro Issue 29 presents the Engadget Awards" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2012/02/022412announce.jpg" style="border-width:0px;border-style:solid;margin:4px;"/> </a></div>You won't see our nominees flashing smiles and diamonds on a step and repeat, but the <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011readerschoice/">2011 Engadget Awards</a> are here and we've got all the winners in this week's issue of Distro. Alongside these champions of consumer electronics, we'll be scrutinizing Pantech's waterproof tablet, the Element, and its budget-friendly LTE handset, the Burst, as well as Sony's Walkman Z. We'll also give Apple's latest OS refresh a thorough once over in our in-depth preview of <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/16/apple-os-x-mountain-lion-10-8-in-depth-preview/">OS X Mountain Lion</a>. In addition, the Godfather of Nerdcore, MC Frontalot, answers our burning questions, we bring you our latest Recommended Reading and Box Brown takes Cupertino's big cats to task for Last Word. So, if you've been wondering who (or what) played second fiddle to Honda's ASIMO for robot of the year, there's only one way to find out: get to downloading!<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://stadium.weblogsinc.com/engadget/distro/022412_DISTRO_book.pdf"><em>Distro Issue 29 PDF</em></a></strong><br /><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/distro/id459434195?mt=8"><em>Distro on the iTunes App Store</em></a><br /><a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.aol.mobile.engadget.weekly"><em>Distro in the Android Market</em></a><br /><em><a href="http://stadium.weblogsinc.com/engadget/files/Distro-1.0.13.1.apk">Distro APK (for sideloading)</a></em><br /><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Engadget-Distro/224012260990317"><em>Like Distro on Facebook</em></a><br /><a href="http://twitter.com/#!/engadgetdistro"><em>Follow Distro on Twitter</em></a>
The winners of the 2011 Engadget Awards -- Readers' Choice
<div class="author_landing_top"><h1 id="awards-header" style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011readerschoice/"><img alt="" border="0" hspace="4" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2012/02/eng-awards-11-readers-choice-1.png" vspace="4"/> </a></h1>The results for the 2011 Engadget Awards are in! With more than <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011awards/">250,000 total votes</a>, the response this year has been tremendous -- and no, that's not just another name for the <a href="http://www.engadget.com/tag/GalaxyNote/">Galaxy Note</a>, which garnered just 3.5 percent of tallies in the Smartphone category. Instead, the <a href="http://www.engadget.com/tag/iPhone4S/">iPhone 4S</a> took top prize for Smartphones, followed by the <a href="http://www.engadget.com/tag/SamsungGalaxySII/">Samsung Galaxy S II</a> as the runner up. The <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/21/asus-zenbook-ux31-review/">ASUS Zenbook</a> was the first pick among this year's Laptops, with the <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/09/apple-imac-spring-2011-review/">Apple iMac</a> besting the rest of 2011's Desktops. Canon and Nikon battled it out till the end, but the former eventually came out ahead, earning 17.9 percent of the Digital Camera vote for its <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/07/canon-introduces-canon-rebel-t3-and-rebel-t3i-dslr-cameras/">T3i</a>, while the <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/04/nikon-d5100-dslr-surfaces-with-16-2-megapixel-sensor-1080p-vide/">Nikon D5100</a> represented a very respectable 17.6 percent. That's just a small sample of this year's top gadgets -- there are 15 categories in all, and we're crowning both Readers' and Editors' Choice winners for each. Jump past the break for an unabridged look at your selections for the 2011 Engadget Awards, and check back tomorrow for the Editors' Choice. And if you're wondering who came in almost-first place, you can find the runners up for each category in this week's issue of <a href="http://www.engadget.com/tag/EngadgetDistro/">Engadget Distro</a>.</div>
'A MAZE. Indie Games Award' is open for submissions, amazement
The A MAZE. Indie Games Award 2012, held during the Deutsche Gamestage in Berlin from April 26 to 27, is now taking submissions and will award one single indie game the "Most Amazing Indie Game" title, which would be a pretty awesome thing to put on your resume. The winner is selected by a "high-profile international jury" to be revealed in March, and will receive €5000 ($6,599) and a suitably "amazing trophy."Submissions are open to anyone and everyone, for a fee of €45 ($59) through March 30, with finalists announced in mid-April. This is just a hunch, but now might be the time to build that rat-maze game you were thinking of at 2 a.m. that one night -- the one with the makeup-testing and cancer-treatment levels. Again, just a hunch.
BAFTA nominates Arkham City, L.A. Noire, FIFA 12 for best of 2011
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has released its nominations for the 2012 Video Game Awards, which honors the top games from 2011 as chosen by the charity. The British stand-outs differ from our Yankee choices slightly, stressing the brilliance of Batman: Arkham City, which also made our Top 10 of 2011 list, but also including L.A. Noire, which hit our Best of the Rest, and FIFA 12, which... well. Just because we share a language doesn't automatically mean we share interests.Check out the entire list below:
Reminder: Vote for the 2011 Engadget Awards!
Emmys? Check. Grammys? Check. Engadget Awards 2011? Almost there. Now that we've gone through the nomination process, it's time for you to let us know who deserves to be crowned king of its category, which in some special cases, might not be something to be completely proud of. The clock's ticking and you have until 11:59PM ET on Monday February 20th to drop your precious ballot in. We'll let you know soon thereafter who's walking away a winner and who's heading back to the shelves empty-handed, as well as who earned our Editors' Choice picks. Who's got your vote? Fill us in by hitting up our voting page here.
Skyrim snags another best of show gong at 15th annual AIAS awards
Like the sun rising in the East or our daily tribute to the almighty caffeine deity, we've come to expect writing a post at least once a week announcing yet another award for Skyrim. This week is no different, with Skyrim taking top honors at the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences 15th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards in Las Vegas last evening.The studio took home five awards in total for the dragon-infested, open-world RPG, alongside fellow multiple award winners Uncharted 3 and Portal 2. We've dropped a full list of winners after the break, but before you head there allow us to be outraged for you that Skyward Sword didn't win any awards. Outrage! How could they? Etc.
GANG announces nominations for 10th annual awards in game audio
The Game Audio Network Guild (which translates to the convenient acronym of GANG) has announced its nominees for the 10th annual GANG Awards to be held at GDC, honoring the best music and audio in interactive entertainment over the last year. You can see all of the nominees in the press release after the break. As you might imagine, Battlefield 3, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and Portal 2 are all nominated, all of which boasted very excellent and memorable aural experiences.Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, however, leads the pack in nominations, with nine total, including Audio, Music, and Sound Design of the Year. Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary also got a nod for Best Soundtrack Album, despite the fact that most of the music is as old as the awards ceremony itself. And while most of the choices are obviously worthy, there's one more worth mentioning: Bastion was only nominated for one category, for Best Audio in a Casual/Indie/Social Game. Shame that it's relegated to just that category -- <a aiotitle="Build that Wall" "="" data-cke-saved-href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8cELTdtw6U" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8cELTdtw6U">"Build that Wall"</a> is one of the best listens our ears have had all year, video game-related or otherwise.
Vote for the 2011 Engadget Awards!
<div style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011awards/"><img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2012/02/eng-2011-awards.png"/> </a></div>With the <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011awardsnom/">nomination stage</a> now complete, it's time for the real fun to begin -- let's get to voting! We've gathered your recommendations, adding the tops picks from each category in the 15 polls you'll find past the break. While we realize you may have several favorite gadgets for each award section, you're only permitted to vote for one in each category. You can, however, vote in as many different categories as you'd like, though you need to vote in each category individually. You have until <strong>11:59PM ET</strong> <strong>on</strong> <strong>Monday February 20th </strong>to cast your vote. We'll be announcing your top selections alongside our Editors' Choice picks before the month is out, so head on past the break to get started!
2011 Best App Ever winners announced
Jeff Scott of 148 Apps has announced the winners for the Best App Ever for 2011, and you can review at the official site right now. Jetpack Joyride from Halfbrick was the overall winner in the iOS devision (which is a great app, but probably also benefited from actually promoting the Best App Ever vote inside the app itself). There are several other winners across various categories like Most Innovative (Codea), Most Useful (Amazon Mobile) and Best Time Killer (Tiny Wings). Scott tells us that 148 Apps received a record 1.5 million votes this year, which is three times the total of last year's choices. Before voting began, there were 287,643 nominations across 7,243 apps. This year also featured Android winners in many categories, but Scott says that iOS topped the Android votes by a factor of 10:1. The Best App Ever awards are always an excellent check of what's available on the App Store, so review the list and find some great new apps. Congratulations to all of the winners, and thanks to 148 Apps for putting the whole thing together.
Nominate your favorite gadgets for the 2011 Engadget Awards!
<div style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011awards"><img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2012/01/eng-2011-awards.png"/> </a></div><br />Welcome to the 2011 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 4-6 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.<br /><br />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 <font color="red">you are required to answer at least one question</font> in order for your form to be processed. You've got until 11:59PM ET on Wednesday, February 1st, 2012 to get your entries in. Now, go nominate!
Cliff Bleszinski to host GDC Awards, Schatz returns for IGF Awards
Planning to attend GDC? If you are, you'll get to see everyone's favorite design director of Epic Games, Cliff Bleszinski, host the 12th annual Game Developers Choice Awards, replacing Double Fine's Tim Schafer as host. The Independent Games Festival Awards is kicking it old-school with 2007-2009's host, Andy Schatz of Monaco, winner of the Seumas McNally Grand Prize and Excellence in Design awards in 2010's IGF. Peruse the list of finalists for both award shows right here, and look for winners to be announced March 7 from GDC.
Star Wars: The Old Republic wins Guinness award for most voice acting
Star Wars: The Old Republic might not have picked up too many "Game of the Year" awards in 2011 (due mostly to the fact that it was out for about 10 days when the year ended), but that hasn't stopped EA from getting some awards declared for the game anyway. First, the company declared its own title the "fastest-growing subscription MMO" around, and now it's worked with the Guinness Book of World Records to declare SW:TOR the "Largest Entertainment Voice Over Project" of all time. The 2012 Gamers' Edition of the famous world record publication has a whole guide to Star Wars video games over the years, and also heralds BioWare's Knights of the Old Republic as the best game with Jedis ever made. True, KotOR is great, and the MMO has over 200,000 lines of quest dialogue spoken by a couple hundred voice actors, so Guinness hasn't missed its mark. But it sure seems like EA's fishing a little far out in the bay for compliments on this one. How about giving us a call when the game is ready to win the Guinness award for most polished Mac release, guys?
Voting now open for Best App Ever awards
Voting has been opened up for the 2011 Best App Ever nominees. These awards have been put on every year for a few years now by our friends over at 148 Apps, and they feature many of the greatest apps you'll find on the iOS store, chosen by users. To vote on this year's awards, head over to the Best Apps Ever page, and choose your favorites from all of the various different categories from Best Overall App to the various technical choices in each category. For the first time I can remember, the awards also talk about Android apps this year, so if you have an Android device and some favorites on that side of the fence, be sure to represent over there as well. But despite the fact that Android is being honored, Best App Ever is still planning to announce the final winners later this month at Macworld, as usual. Voting is open until January 25, and be sure to put your votes in. We're curious to see which of these great apps is crowned with a win.
Massively's Best of 2011 Awards
2011 was an interesting year for MMOs. Some of the most anticipated games were launched, one of the strongest MMO communities was left in the cold, and a seemingly untouchable indie developer quickly realized that it needs to listen to its players more than anything else. As is often tradition this time of the year, we, the Massively staff, have compiled our top picks in nine different categories to celebrate what 2011 was for us. Every MMO on this list was either launched, re-launched (as free-to-play), or had some game-changing event affect it in 2011. Read along after the cut for our choices and feel free to let us know in the comments what you'd have picked for each category.
Perpetuum devs hand out PvP awards, tournament viewable in video archives
Last week we told you about Perpetuum's impending one-year anniversary and the robot-powered shenanigans that the devs at Avatar Creations were cooking up for the celebration that took place over the weekend. Well, the results are in, and Perpetuum's first official PvP tournament (and a PvE scavenger hunt) went swimmingly according to the latest dev blog. Avatar even handed out a few tongue-in-cheek rewards including the Dale Earnhardt, Jr. prize (for the most laps around the combat arena) and the Baby's First PvP award which was given to the best newb group brave enough to enter the event. If you missed the event, or if you're just interested in a free look at Perpetuum, you can watch the archived video stream at the game's official website.
