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2015 DICE Award nominations led by Shadow of Mordor
The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for this year's DICE Awards, recognizing a total of 56 games. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor received nine nominations, including the Game of the Year award. The other Game of the Year nominees are Destiny, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Far Cry 4 and Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. Far Cry 4 received seven nominations, one being for Action Game of the Year. Destiny and Hearthstone each had six nominations, whereas Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Monument Valley received five apiece. The 18th Annual DICE Awards ceremony will be held at the The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas following the 2015 DICE Summit, which runs from February 3 through February 5. The event will be livestreamed on DICE's Twitch channel, starting at 10:00 p.m. ET (7:00 p.m. PT). Head past the break for a partial list of nominees; the full list can be found on AIAS' website.
GDCA 2015 finalists led by Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
The finalists for the 2015 Game Developers Choice Awards were revealed today, led by Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, which received five nominations. Monolith's third-person action game was nominated for Game of the Year, Innovation, Best Design, Best Narrative and Best Technology awards at the ceremony (on top of also being Joystiq's favorite game of 2014). The other nominees for the 15th annual GDCA's Game of the Year award are Bayonetta 2, Alien: Isolation, Destiny and Hearthstone. Blizzard's collectible card game received three nominations in total, the other two for Best Design and Best Handheld/Mobile Game. Destiny also received two other nominations for Best Audio and Best Technology. The ceremony for this year's Game Developer's Choice Awards will be held during the Game Developers Conference on Wednesday, March 4 at 9:30 p.m. ET (6:30 p.m. PT) at San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center. Head past the break to see the full list of nominees.
Metareview: GOTY Edition
Over the weekend the Joystiq hive mind concluded its annual hive dance and deemed Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor the top dawg of 2014. Monolith's action-RPG may have hacked and slashed its way to the top of our list, but a glance at The Rest of the Internet makes one thing clear: When it comes to 2014's GOTY awards, there isn't One Game to rule them all. With that in mind, we've taken the Metareview format we use to collate other outlets' reviews and given it a GOTY paint job. As ever, it's just a sampling of all the publications out there and plenty of places have yet to dole out their awards. Nonetheless, here's a wee look at the best games of 2014 according to everyone else.
Joystiq Top 10 of 2014: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
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. One game to rule them all, one game to find them; one game to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor brilliantly defies so much of its own definition – it's a game based on a movie franchise based on a beloved series of books, a description that is normally worthy of a grimace and a passing glance. Instead, Shadow of Mordor is not only a truly excellent fantasy-action game, it introduces an innovative and playful enemy-character system that is sure to be replicated in the industry for years to come.
Shadow of Mordor rings in Lord of the Hunt DLC today
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor today welcomes into its fellowship the "Lord of the Hunt," Warner Bros. informs Joystiq. The DLC will be available to purchase on its own for $10, or you can acquire it through the $25 you-shall-not season pass. Lord of the Hunt is already available on Xbox One, and should hit PS4 and PC in North America later today. As previously detailed, the DLC offers new story content courtesy of Dwarven Hunter Torvin, as well a bunch of extras. There are Uruk Beastmaster Warchiefs to fight, new beast-hunting challenges to take on, an Ultimate Beastmaster skin for Talion, five new epic runes for mounts, and more. But, most importantly of all, you get a toxin-puking Wretched Graug to mount and make your friends sick with jealousy. Or sick with something, at least. Hunt down the DLC's rather bloody, perhaps NSFW launch trailer below the break.
Weekend deals include GOG bundles, Shadow of Mordor, Wii U bundles, 3DS XLs
Should you be looking for a few good gaming deals, this weekend holds plenty of promise. For starters, Good Old Games is finishing off its Big Winter Sale with an encore offering of every daily bundle that was featured in the two-week sale. Deals focused on The Witcher, Rayman, Prince of Persia series and others can be had, with titles ranging in support for PC, Mac and Linux platforms. Flash deals and general discounts will also be offered until the sale's conclusion later today at 2pm GMT. If you're willing to deal with limited availability of physical goods, deals on several notable console games are also available to the swift; Among Amazon's batch of sales is Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Xbox One) for $27.99, Driveclub (PS4) for $34.99, Halo: The Master Chief Collection (Xbox One) for $44.99, The Last of Us: Remastered ($29.99), Forza Horizon 2 and Sunset Overdrive (Xbox One) for $39.99, and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13 (Xbox 360, PS3) for $14.99. Xbox owners can also snatch up Destiny (Xbox 360) and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (Xbox One) for $30 apiece from the Microsoft store. Lastly, leaked details concerning Target's weekly ad suggest that starting on Sunday, the retail chain will offer the 32 GB Wii U with Super Mario 3D World and Nintendo Land for $250. Shoppers should also be able to pick up a 3DS XL for $149.99. [Image: GOG]
Humble Winter Sale: Shadow of Mordor, Lego Batman 3
Just like last year, the Humble Store has kicked off the Humble Winter Sale, an annual promotional event that offers big discounts on a huge swath of games, then donates 10 percent of the proceeds to charity. From now until December 22, you'll find over 500 games discounted at the Humble Store, most to a sizable degree. Highlights include Joystiq-favorite Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor for $30, Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham for $20 and Tomb Raider: Game of the Year Edition for $7.49. Additionally, those whose tastes run toward the indie side of gaming will find Kentucky Route Zero available at $12.49, Road Rash spiritual successor Road Redemption at $12 and the Humble Deluxe Edition of This War Of Mine at $17. The Humble Winter Sale offers discounts for the PC, Mac, Linux and Android platforms and the majority of featured games are offered without any attached DRM. For a full list of discounts, visit the Humble Store. [Image: Humble Store]
Joystiq Streams: Will Shadow of Mordor on Xbox 360 break us?
The Xbox One and PlayStation 4 have, for all their technological advancements, returned the gaming world to a place few expected it would go: the land for the down port. Way back when, PC and arcade games too beefy for consoles would be adapted to run on older, less capable machines, hence why you'd end up with a version of Double Dragon on Commodore 64 that looks like it's made of wood chips or Atari Donkey Kong. With games coming to both Xbox One and PS4 as well as their predecessors, Xbox 360 and PS3, the art of the down port has come back to the fore. The question, then: What happens to Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, so reliant on its processor-pushing Nemesis system, when it's crammed into the nearly decade-old Xbox 360? Let's find out! Starting at 4:00PM EST on Joystiq.com/Twitch, we'll be playing the Xbox 360 version of Shadow or Mordor to see how it stacks up to the current gen version. Join us ahead of time for a bonus stream of Geometry Wars 3 and some pre-show banter! [Images: WBIE]
Free Shadow of Mordor DLC drops today on PC, PS4, Xbox One
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor players will be able to put their warrior skills to the test in a free batch of DLC launching today, publisher Warner Bros. announced. Today's "Power of Defiance" DLC pack includes a new character skin (seen above), introducing Lady Marwen's daughter Lithariel as a playable character. The bundle also adds the new Test of Defiance Challenge Mode, which disables Wraith powers during battles with Sauron's Warchiefs. If you're looking to take an easier route through Shadow of Mordor's storyline, the DLC additionally includes an Epic Rune that grants players an additional Last Chance after falling in battle. Power of Defiance is available as a free download for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC versions of Shadow of Mordor. Additional expansions will launch in the coming months as part of Shadow of Mordor's Season Pass. [Image: Warner Bros.]
Shadow of Mordor is the ultimate Beastmaster in new DLC screens
Monolith detailed the first expansion to Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor today, Lord of the Hunt. The upcoming DLC introduces "more tales from Torvin, the Dwarven Hunter, as you work together to tame the beasts of Mordor and fight Sauron's minions." Lord of the Hunt also features new monsters and nemeses to face off against, as well as new missions and beast-hunting challenges to take on. The DLC adds a "Test of the Wild" skill challenge mode and a character skin that turns Talion into the "ultimate Beastmaster." Lord of the Hunt will be available for purchase later this year and will be part of the game's $25 season pass program. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor launched in late September for PS4, Xbox One and PC, and the game's Xbox 360 and PS3 versions will arrive on November 18 after being delayed last month. The game's season pass also includes an exclusive Guardians of the Flaming Eye mission as well as another piece of story DLC, The Bright Lord. [Image: WBIE]
No one man should have all that Power of Shadow Middle-earth DLC
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor received a free DLC pack today that adds three new runes and a playable character skin to the game. The Power of Shadow add-on introduces the Black Hand of Sauron skin for protagonist Talion. Players can also toy with the One with Nature, Ascendant and Elven Grace runes. One with Nature grants players immunity to poison attacks from Uruk captains and Ghuls. Likewise, players get double focus time for ranged combat with the Ascendant rune. Finally, Elven Grace increases players' defense, cutting the damage taken by enemy strikes in half. Monolith recently introduced a new photo mode to the game via an update. Shadow of Mordor will get a few other content packs as part of its season pass program that add new story missions. [Image: WBIE]
Joystiq Weekly: Mordor's photo mode, The Evil Within review, Devolver's appeal 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. As the Smash Bros. and Halo series have taught us, stopping the action to play around with in-game cameras can be oddly compelling (and gleefully annoying to rivals/co-op partners). If The Last Of Us: Remastered and Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor's inclusion of similar features are the start of a trend, we'd welcome it with open shutter arms. Repositioning the camera for the perfect shot of an epic summon in Final Fantasy 15? Showcasing the full scope of a crazy moment in the time-defying Quantum Break? Yes please! There was plenty more to this week than snapping photos of an orc squadron's downfall though – Halo: The Master Chief Collection is expected to have a ~20GB day one patch, there were reviews for The Evil Within, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and Bayonetta 2, and we got a full-frame perspective of publisher Devolver Digital. Check all that out and more after the break!
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor sees all with new photo mode [update]
A patch available now for Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One introduces a new photo mode, letting users play around with some camera tech to get just the right image of Monolith's action-RPG. For all its magic and mystery, we're not sure the ancient art of photography has ever reached the shores of Middle-earth until now. Toggled on and off, the mode lets you adjust things like the angle, depth of field, zoom, texturing, shading, frames, filters, borders, logos and so on. For example, trigger-happy types can apply a film grain texture or a saturated filter, very much comparable to the Photo Mode introduced to The Last of Us on PS4.
Uruk betrayal times 19 in Shadow of Mordor video
Some days, you just need to hear an army of Uruk that all sound like teeny-tiny, English-speaking mice. Other days, it's nice to see the well-orchestrated on-screen betrayal and slaughter of those same Uruk. Today, you get both of these things.
FIFA 15 holds off Mordor, Forza, Smash in this week's UK charts
FIFA 15 survived a three-way attack to score a second week as the UK No. 1, despite a 70 percent drop in sales. EA's soccer sim shimmied its way past multiplatform action-RPG Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Xbox-only racer Forza Horizon 2 and porta-brawler Super Smash Bros 3DS, placing second, third and fourth respectively. While the trio of new releases couldn't topple the UK's love of FIFA (and let's face it, few can), they did do enough to outplace Bungie shooter Destiny, which dropped from second to fifth in its fourth week on sale. Minus the PS4 retail edition of Minecraft (which UK databod Chart Track denotes as another platform for Minecraft: PlayStation Edition), the other new release in the top 40 was Crimes & Punishments: Sherlock Holmes in 27th. Finally, while Chart Track tends to hold back specific sales figures, it did release some interesting platform differentials for a few of this week's big hitters. For example, the Shadow of Mordor split is 56 percent PS4, 41 percent Xbox One and 3 percent PC (that doesn't include download sales), while Forza Horizon 2 geared in with a 73:27 ratio between Xbox One and Xbox 360. As ever, the full top ten and increasingly traditional music video are below the break.
How Shadow of Mordor PS4 stacks up to PC's huge textures
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is a great action game, and a pretty (gruesome) one at that. Those playing on consoles will get a good sense of Monolith's interpretation of the Tolkien universe, but high-end PC players have access to an even more detailed version of Middle-earth. Players with beefy computers can download the HD content pack on Steam, which patches Shadow of Mordor with the "highest resolution textures available." The content pack requires a 64-bit version of Windows 7 or Windows 8 as well as a minimum of 8 GB of system RAM and a video card with at least 6 GB of RAM. Digital Foundry put together a comparison video with the PC version's ultra textures and a PS4 copy of the game, found after the break. For more footage of Shadow of Mordor in action, check out Tuesday's hour-long archived Joystiq Streams. [Image: WBIE]
Shadow of Mordor roundtable with Joystiq on Google and Twitch
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor has, like its Gondorian ranger hero, been quietly sneaking around the outskirts of the video game world for the past year. Studying weaknesses. Plotting routes of destruction. Revealing itself only when it's far too late to resist its vicious attacks! As discussed in our review of Shadow of Mordor, developer Monolith has turned in an open world game that is both deeply familiar and seductively inventive. All that sneaking and brawling sure looks like Assassin's Creed and Batman, but the Nemesis System makes it something else altogether. Is it different enough, though? Will hardcore Arkham City fans find new things to love? How about people burnt out on open world games? What about people who don't like Tolkien? Joystiq will discuss all that and more in our roundtable discussion. The staff will host a Google Hangout starting at 2:30PM EST. Want to chat with the crew? Follow along on Google Plus, right here in this post, or at Joystiq.com/Twitch. [Images: WBIE]
PSN Tuesday: Shadow of Mordor, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax
Today's PlayStation Store update rolls out with a large selection of featured games, marking the digital debuts of Monolith's stealthy action-RPG Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Atlus' 2D fighter sequel Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. The PlayStation 4 and PS3 share a number of premiering titles this week, including NIS America's tactical RPG Natural Doctrine, Koei Tecmo's large-scale brawler Warriors Orochi 3, and Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments. Notable Cross-Buy releases include the retro-styled RPG Pier Solar ($14.99) and vibrantly colorful rail shooter Futuridium EP Deluxe ($12.49). This week also brings a handful of retro arcade compilations to Sony platforms, marking the PSN debuts of featured classics like Pole Position, Mappy, Gaplus, and The Tower of Druaga. Today's five Namco Museum releases are priced at $5.99 apiece. [Image: Warner Bros]
Joystiq Streams: Casting a fiery eye on Shadow of Mordor
JOY-STIQ! JOY-STIQ! JOY-STIQ! STREEEEAAAAAMMMMMMMMS! One day, when we're all War Chiefs in Sauron's army of Uruks, that's what they'll chant. From high and low, they'll call our names out, afraid of our endless wrath and prowess in battle! Then again, it seems like being an Uruk is hard work. You're outside literally all the time, giant pig-wolf things are always trying to eat you, and there is almost always a bearded dude carrying half a sword skulking in the shadows waiting to stab you. Forget it. Joystiq Streams may not be ready for war chiefdom, but we're certainly ready to play Shadow of Mordor for your viewing pleasure. Starting at 4:00PM EST on Joystiq.com/Twitch, Richard Mitchell (@TheRichardM) will be playing through Mordor's early missions. Alexander Sliwinski (@Sliwinski) and Anthony John Agnello (@ajohnagnello) will be around to talk about the game's subtleties and hang in the chat. Show up early for the pre-show tomfoolery. Joystiq Streams airs every Tuesday and Thursday at 4:00PM on Joystiq.com/Twitch, but if you want to catch all our streams make sure to follow us on Twitch. [Images: WBIE]
Shadow of Mordor season pass trailer tastes a little Sauron
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment may have revealed its $25 season pass for Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor last month, but it's now offering a closer look at the add-ons that pass holders are guaranteed access to. The DLC includes an exclusive Guardians of the Flaming Eye mission and two story missions, Lord of the Hunt and The Bright Lord. The latter quest has players controlling Celebrimbor, "the great Elven smith of the Second Age," eventually encountering the Tolkien universe's primary antagonist, Sauron. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor will launch tomorrow for PS4, Xbox One and PC. The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game were delayed to November 18 earlier this month. It received good marks critically, including our five-star review that praised the Mordor's Nemesis system. Head past the break to see the game's season pass trailer. [Image: WBIE]
