Game of the Year is perhaps the most difficult award to give out. Not everyone has an opinion on Best Technical Audio or Best Style, but everyone has an opinion on the best game they played this year. 2020 was a year unlike any other. The global pandemic affected every walk of life, and gaming was...
We come at last to our top two awards: the award for Indie Game of the Year and Game of the Year. 2020 was a smashing success for smaller games. Everyone had more time to play and these games helped fill the gaps as the larger developers braced for the coming of the next generation. This was a year...
Games are made by people. It is often easy to forget this simple fact. They are made by people just like you and me. People that go to work, work hard, and then go home to their families, their pets, and their gaming consoles. It is easy to see a studio as being one massive conglomeration to be...
Sequels were the tale of last generation. Franchises like Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty, and Need for Speed were perennial hits year after year. Even old franchises with a new coat of paint like God of War and Doom were commercial darlings. It became a rarity to see new IP debut last...
Multiplayer has evolved substantially even in the last few years. Where games traditionally could be defined as cooperative or directly competitive some ambiguity has arisen that has made these definitions more blurry. Regardless of how you define it, there has never been a better year to play with...
One of the things we love most about games is their versatility. Games can be something simple in the vein of Tetris, or they can go the complete other direction and show us the best story of any medium. Games can bring us into the lives of people whom we share no common experiences. They can...
The best live game is a contentious category. There are parts of the community that attest that live games are nothing but a way for developers to milk money out of their fans on a continuous basis. While this may be true for some games, it is not true for all games. When live games are done right,...
Video games have come a long way from the minimalist sprites of the early 80s. Many games feature characters whose faces, voices, and mannerisms are captured straight from the actors. Every aspect of character animation and voice acting can come together to create an experience that conveys a full...
Style over substance is a criticism that has been thrown about in every medium. Yet style all too often has the ability to enhance the substance in truly great works of art. It is the style that makes us give a double-take when we see a screenshot. It is style that shows a new way of approaching a...
Graphical fidelity is the first thing that most players notice about a game. It is what makes us salivate over trailers and cheer at announcements. The polygons, teraflops, and ray tracing are what make a game truly next gen. It separates the truly elite studios. Hair, faces, vistas, and more, we...