2023 was an interesting year for ongoing series. The writer's and actor's strikes cast a long shadow over everything that came out. Concerns about AI, fair pay, streaming residuals and more combined with market fragmentation and price hikes made everything around ongoing series a challenge. Still,...
This is it. After a record nineteen award categories this year, we come at last to Game of the Year. The Game of the Year was a two-horse race from the moment voting opened. You'll see why in the write ups below. The amount of passion that was felt by the staff about games this year was unmatched...
Graphics are great. Everyone loves 4K, ray tracing, dynamic shadows, and every other technical buzzword. All those graphics don't mean anything if they aren't also paired with art direction. It is art direction that takes pretty pictures and makes them into a cohesive vision. Graphics without art...
New IP are the lifeblood of the industry. They provide creators the maximum amount of flexibility to bring artistic visions to life. They are inherently risky. To create something from nothing always is. That is what makes it so critical to celebrate them though. New IP are dreams come to life. New...
Immersion is difficult to achieve. In games more than any other medium due to the sheer volume of information that has to be passed on to the player at any given time. Health status, ammo quantity, item selection, party makeup, there is so much that a player needs to know. Game developers are set...
Despite the bevy of awards that were given out this year at Lords of Gaming, Character of the Year was the one that brought about the most discussion. The conversation revolved around the fundamental question of the definition for this category. After all, it would be exceedingly difficult to argue...
In a year like 2023, it is easy for smaller games to get lost amid the deluge of AAA games and their marketing dollars. When seemingly every month there was a game from a studio with several hundred people and $100+ million dollar budget, the small team labors of love have to fight even harder for...
We generally do not do genre-based awards as part of our year end celebration of gaming. This year, though, a few games kept coming up that didn't have a place in our regular categories. These games were exemplars in their fields. It was clear that they stood head and shoulders above any other...
Games are nothing without the people behind them. In this time of uncertainty surrounding the ethical usage of AI, it has become increasingly critical to celebrate and acknowledge that the games we love aren't made by a nameless corporate structure. They are made by people. Sometimes a single...
Immersion comes in many forms. These days it is all to common to have Discord or group chat, or even a podcast playing in the background while gaming. However, some games just demand you give them your full attention. Not just with your hands or your eyes, but with your ears. They call for you to...