On the 5th of February, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences ran its 18th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards in Las Vegas. The rumoured game to be going home with the Game of the Year award was Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, but surprise was around the corner.
The game that took home this prestigious title was in fact Dragon Age: Inquisition. This was a big shock to those who believed that Shadow of Mordor was taking the gold. What is even more confusing is that Shadow of Mordor won 8 out of the 9 awards it was nominated for, whereas Dragon Age was only nominated for 2.
Pete Holmes hosted the event which is designed to honour the mainstream and independent video games industry across 23 categories. The Academy is made up of publishers, developers and members of the Independent Game Developers Association, and they also had the pleasure to celebrate some of the pioneers in the gaming industry. Allan Alcorn, creator of Pong, along with Ralph Baer, who created the Apple’s App Store, won its inaugural Technical Impact Award.
Below are the winners of each category. Special mention needs to go to Destiny who picked up 4 awards, and Hearthstone who bagged 2 of their own.
- Game of the Year Award – Dragon Age: Inquisition
- Outstanding Achievement in Game Design – Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
- Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction – Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
- Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay – Destiny
- Outstanding Innovation in Gaming – Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
- Mobile Game of the Year – Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
- D.I.C.E. Spite Award – Tansistor
- Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year – Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
- Fighting Game of the Year – Super Smash Bros. Wii U
- Racing Game of the Year – Mario Kart 8
- Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year – Dragon Age: Inquisition
- Sports Game of the Year – FIFA 15
- Family Game of the Year – LittleBigPlanet 3
- Adventure Game of the Year – Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
- Action Game of the Year – Destiny
- Outstanding Technical Achievement – Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
- Outstanding Achievement in Story – Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
- Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design – Destiny
- Outstanding Achievement Original Music Composition – Destiny
- Outstanding Achievement in Character – Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Talion)
- Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction – Monument Valley
- Outstanding Achievement in Animation – Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Do you agree with the awards? How does the future of gaming look like with Dragon Age winning game of the year? Let us know in the comments below.
