God of War – Video Game Canon

See the Bracket (and Winner) for IGN’s “Best Video Game of All Time” Tournament

IGN’s editors and contributors have produced multiple Best Games lists over the last 20 years (the most recent, the “Top 100 Video Games of All Time,” was published in 2019), but they’re doing something a little different with their “Best Video Game of All Time Bracket.”

Beginning today, IGN’s readers will guide the process by voting in a March Madness-style tournament that features 64 of “the very best” games, as selected by IGN staff.

To build the bracket, games were sorted randomly into four different regions, and then seeded by IGN’s editors. Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption, Valve’s Portal 2, Nintendo’s Super Mario World, and Nintendo’s Super Metroid were the #1 seeds in each region, but voters will have to make some hard choices in this first round.

I mean, how do you choose between The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim? Or Halo 2 and Mass Effect 2? Or Street Fighter II and Pokemon Yellow? Or The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Final Fantasy VII?

Let’s take a look at the full seeding…

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Mashable Selects Their “15 Favorite Games of the Decade”

Yet another publication has thrown their hat in the ring with a look back at the best games of the decade. This time around, it’s Mashable, and the site’s Entertainment editors have sifted through the past decade of new games and selected “Our 15 Favorite Games of the Decade.”

While the listmakers accepted their charge, they also quickly realized that choosing “the best” in a decade that contains games as varied as Pokemon Go, Papers Please, and Fortnite (among others) was too daunting of a challenge:

It’s nearly impossible to choose the best games of this decade because so many provided us with amazing and unique experiences. There are too many factors to consider when thinking about what makes certain games “the best.” Is it story? Gameplay? Innovation? Cultural impact? So instead of debating endlessly about what makes some games better than all the rest, we chose our favorites.

Mashable – Our 15 Favorite Games of the Decade

Batman: Arkham Knight
Celeste
Destiny
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Firewatch
God of War (2018)
Gone Home
Journey
Just Cause 2
The Last of Us
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Minecraft
Red Dead Redemption
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
Stardew Valley

In the end, Mashable’s list featured 15 unranked selections: Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham Knight, Matt Makes Games’s Celeste, Bungie’s Destiny, Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Campo Santo’s Firewatch, Sony Santa Monica’s God of War (2018), Fulbright’s Gone Home, thatgamecompany’s Journey, Avalanche’s Just Cause 2, Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us, Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mojang’s Minecraft, Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption, Capcom’s Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, and ConcernedApe’s Stardew Valley.

Behind-the-Scenes With A Few PlayStation Classics

Sony’s film division has been attempting to adapt the Uncharted franchise for the big screen for quite a few years now. In that time, a large number of writers and directors have cycled through the production, and several very different actors have signed on to play Drake at one time or another (Spider-Man‘s Tom Holland is currently slated to play a younger version of the character in a film that’ll serve as a prequel to the game franchise).

That protracted process is likely part of the reason why Sony Interactive Entertainment decided to bring their next set of game adaptations in-house under the new PlayStation Productions banner. The studio was formed earlier this week, and its inaugural task will be to create a television show based on the Twisted Metal series, but that won’t be the first bit of filmmaking to bear the PlayStation logo.

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2018 GOTY Scoreboard: God of War, Red Dead Redemption 2, and More

It takes a special game to sweep all five major year-end awards and Sony Santa Monica’s God of War was just such a game. It’s brutal combat was praised by critics, but it also managed to do the impossible by transforming Kratos, previously portrayed as an instrument of pure rage, into a gruff (and almost lovable) father figure.

In addition to its five-for-five run at The Game Awards, the DICE Awards the SXSW Gaming Awards, the GDC Awards, and the BAFTA Games Awards, God of War handily won “Game of the Year” honors from dozens of publications and topped a handful of Reader Polls for good measure.

In any other year, Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2 would have easily galloped away with some of those accolades, but it had to make do with a smaller (though still quite impressive) haul.

Interestingly, the publications that didn’t click with Kratos or the cowboys cast a wide net when making their “Game of the Year” selection. Matt Makes Games’s Celeste, Epic’s Fortnite, Capcom’s Monster Hunter: World, Insomniac’s Spider-Man, Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and many others all earned the admiration of at least one publication.

You can see more of last year’s most-acclaimed titles (and what awards they won) in the 2018 GOTY Scoreboard after the break.

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God of War Wins “Best Game” at 2018-2019 BAFTA Games Awards

It’s a clean sweep for Sony Santa Monica’s God of War. The highly-acclaimed title collected the “Best Game” statuette at this morning’s BAFTA Games Awards ceremony, and the developers can now add it to a stuffed trophy shelf that also includes “Game of the Year” honors from the GDC Awards, SXSW Gaming Awards, DICE Awards, and the Game Awards.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts bestowed four more awards on Kratos’s latest adventure throughout the ceremony, including “Audio Achievement,” “Music,” “Narrative,” and “Performer” (to Jeremy Davies for his portrayal of The Stranger).

Nintendo marched to the stage multiple times during the 2018-2019 BAFTA Games Awards to collect statuettes for Nintendo Labo in the “Game Innovation” and “Family” categories. Lucas Pope’s Return of the Obra Dinn also won two awards, “Artistic Achievement” and “Game Design.” And this year’s BAFTA for “Best British Game” was given to Playground Games’s Forza Horizon 4.

The complete list of winners and nominees from the 2018-2019 BAFTA Games Awards can be found after the break.

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God of War Wins “Game of the Year” at 2018-2019 GDC Awards

Red Dead Redemption 2 may have received the most nominations, but Sony Santa Monica’s God of War walked away with “Game of the Year” at the 2018-2019 Game Developers Choice Awards. But while these two juggernauts battled it out across a half-dozen categories, a parade of independent developers were the big winners of the night.

Mountains’s Florence captured two awards, “Best Mobile Game” and “Best Debut.” The black-and-white world of Lucas Pope’s Return of the Obra Dinn won “Best Narrative” while the wild colors of Nomada Studio’s Gris won “Best Visual Art.” Meanwhile, Subset’s Into the Breach won for “Best Design,” Matt Makes Games’s Celeste claimed “Best Audio,” and Beat Games’s Beat Saber took home “Best VR/AR Game.”

Red Dead Redemption 2 did manage to capture one prize at the 2018-2019 GDC Awards. Rockstar Games can claim to have the “Best Technology.”

The complete list of winners, nominees, and Honorable Mentions from this year’s Game Developers Choice Awards can be found after the break.

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God of War Captures “Game of the Year” at 2018-2019 SXSW Gaming Awards

Sony Santa Monica’s God of War continued its award-winning ways this weekend with a trio of wins at the 2018-2019 SXSW Gaming Awards. The action-adventure title was awarded “Game of the Year” by SXSW’s Gaming Advisory Board, as well as “Excellence In Design” and “Excellence in Visual Achievement.”

The rest of the 2018-2019 SXSW Gaming Awards were spread out among a large number of games, and like Kratos, several managed to secure multiple victories. Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2 was the only other game to win in three categories, and it took home some hardware as the “Trending Game of the Year,” along with “Excellence in Technical Achievement” and “Excellence in SFX.”

Insomniac’s Spider-Man won two awards (“Excellence in Convergence” and “Excellence in Animation”), as did Epic’s Fortnite (“Most Promising New Esports Game” and “Excellence in Multiplayer”) and Beat Games’s Beat Saber (“VR Game of the Year” and “Most Promising New Intellectual Property”).

Congratulations to all the winners, and you can find a complete list of every winning game (and all the nominees) from the 2018-2019 SXSW Gaming Awards after the break.

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Sony Santa Monica’s God of War Wins “Game of the Year” at 2018-2019 DICE Awards

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences announced the winners of the 2018-2019 DICE Awards last night… and Sony Santa Monica’s God of War almost had a clean sweep.

The action-adventure game was competing in an astounding 11 categories, but even more astounding is that it claimed victory in nine of them, including “Game of the Year” and “Adventure Game of the Year.” God of War also picked up “Outstanding Achievements” in “Game Design,” “Game Direction,” “Original Music Composition” “Sound Design,” “Story,” and “Art Direction,” and Kratos himself won “Outstanding Achievement in Character.”

A few other games managed to snag some trophies (mostly in categories God of War wasn’t competing in), and that list included games such as Matt Makes Games’s Celeste (“Action Game of the Year” and “Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game”), Mountains’s Florence (“Portable Game of the Year”), and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (“Fighting Game of the Year”). Not surprisingly, Fortnite won “Online Game of the Year.”

You can find the full list of winners and nominees from the 2018-2019 DICE Awards after the break.

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Sony Santa Monica’s God of War Wins “Game of the Year” at 2018 Game Awards

In what is surely to be the first of many accolades, Sony Santa Monica’s God of War won “Game of the Year” at the 2018 Game Awards. Kratos’s latest adventure also picked up statuettes for “Best Game Direction” and “Best Action/Adventure Game.”

But the biggest winner of the night was Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2, which picked up four wins last night. The publisher’s “Cowboy Game” collected some shiny hardware for “Best Narrative,” “Best Score/Music,” “Best Audio Design,” and “Best Performance” (for Roger Clark’s work as Arthur Morgan).

The all-mighty Fortnite picked up two awards, “Best Ongoing Game” and “Best Multiplayer,” but the most surprising news of the night might be that Insomniac’s Spider-Man was completely shut out. Best of luck next time to the ol’ webhead.

More than a dozen different games went home as winners at the 2018 Game Awards, and you can find them all after the break.

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