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Prepare yourself… to not be shocked in the slightest… Zelda: Breath of the Wild won “Game of the Year” at 2018 GDC Awards

gdcawardsThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild continues its sweep of this year’s “Game of the Year” awards, as it won the top honor at last night’s Game Developers Choice Awards. Developers for the adventure game also strode on stage to collect awards for “Best Audio” and “Best Design” during the ceremony.

The unique visual stylings of Jason Roberts’s Gorogoa were honored with the “Innovation Award,” and the puzzle game’s portability were also honored as “Best Mobile/Handheld Game.” Studio MDHR also carried home multiple trophies during last night’s GDC Awards ceremony for Cuphead, including “Best Debut” and “Best Visual Art,”

“Every year sees countless amazing games worthy of recognition, but this year in particular has seen some of the strongest titles to arrive this generation. The GDCAs give us an opportunity to reflect on and honor the games that provided us with endless joy,” said Katie Stern, the General Manager of the Game Developers Conference. “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild helped us rediscover a childlike sense of adventure and discovery. Titles like Gorogoa and What Remains of Edith Finch offered us distinct creative visions that can only be experienced in games, and games like Cuphead and Horizon: Zero Dawn crafted worlds we could lose ourselves in. Congratulations to all of tonight’s nominees and winners and thank you for your creativity and dedication.”

A replay of the 2018 GDC Awards ceremony can be viewed at the Twitch channel for the Game Developers Conference. And a complete list of the winners can be found after the break. (more…)

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Night in the Woods wins the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the 2018 IGF Awards

Indie developers from around the world got dressed up last night to fit in with the pomp and circumstance of the the Independent Games Festival’s 2018 IGF Awards ceremony. But it was Infinite Fall’s Night in the Woods that took home the top prize, the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, as well as the IGF Award for “Excellence In Narrative.”

Night in the Woods had plenty of company on the big stage, as Amanita Design’s Chuchel (“Excellence In Visual Art”), Hempuli’s Baba Is You (“Excellence In Design” and “Best Student Game”), Nifflas Game’s Uurnog Uurnlimited (“Excellence In Audio”), and Bennett Foddy’s Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy (the “Nuovo Award”) all took home at least one IGF Award of their own.

A replay of the 2018 IGF Awards ceremony can be viewed at the Twitch channel for the Game Developers Conference.

Congratulations to all the winners, and don’t forget, GDC attendees will be able to try out all the winner and nominees at the IGF Pavilion on the expo floor through Friday, March 23. A complete list is available after the break. (more…)

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Home Run Derby VR will launch for PS VR, Vive this Spring; 2018 update for MLB Home Run Derby Mobile coming March 27

With RBI Baseball 18 now available for the PS4 and Xbox One, MLB Advanced Media is turning their attention to their next two game releases.

With Opening Day fast approaching, Major League Baseball’s interactive arm has announced that MLB Home Run Derby Mobile‘s 2018 update will step up to the plate first on March 27:

MLB Home Run Derby will continue to be available as a free download on the App Store and Google Play and this year includes more than 20 iconic MLB ballparks, highlighted by its HD re-creation of Nationals Park, host of the 2018 T-Mobile Home Run Derby and MLB All-Star Game presented by MasterCard. Fans may play in both single player and multiplayer modes for a chance to capture the Home Run Derby crown, reach the top of the worldwide leaderboards, compete against more than 11.5 million game players in daily tournaments and earn valuable upgrades. This year’s version also includes hi-res renderings of more than 50 participants from the 2010-17 competitions.

The developer also revealed that Home Run Derby VR will make its way to the PC and PS4 later this Spring. Supporting the HTC Vive and PlayStation VR headsets, Home Run Derby VR will let players swing for the fences like never before:

MLB’s first console virtual reality video game, Home Run Derby VR, will be available commercially for the first time – coming to Sony PlayStation VR and HTC Vive (available at launch via Steam) – and will feature three All-Star ballparks from 2017-19. Fans will be able to step into the batter’s boxes at Marlins Park (Miami), Nationals Park (Washington, DC) and Progressive Field (Cleveland) to score as many points as possible in the timed home run competition.

More details about Home Run Derby VR’s upcoming launch will be announced at a later date.

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February 2018’s best-selling game was Monster Hunter: World… and Nintendo Switch set the record for first-year console sales in US

The Nintendo Switch continues to break records, and the consolemaker can now add “Best First-Year Sales in the US” to its trophy case. The news comes courtesy of The NPD Group’s February 2018 report (via GamesIndustry.biz), which estimates that Nintendo sold more than five million Switch consoles in the US over the previous 12 months.

On the software side of the ledger, Capcom’s Monster Hunter: World was the top-selling game yet again. It was challenged by several new releases in February, but while EA Sports UFC 3 (#7), Kingdom Come: Deliverance (#8), Bayonetta 2 (#14), and Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet (#18) all cracked the top 20, none could dethrone Monster Hunter: World.

The NPD Group’s complete top 20 for February 2018 can be found after the break. (more…)

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A Way Out, Ni No Kuni II, Attack On Titan 2, more coming to PS Store this week

It’s time for another PlayStation Store update, and this week, a decent-sized handful of highly-anticipated new games will be available to download from the digital storefront…

Leading the way this week is A Way Out, a co-op prison break for the PS4 from Electronic Arts and Hazelight. A Way Out was directed by Josef Fares, the same developer who shepherded the creation of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons in 2013.

A pair of sequels will also be available to download for the PS4 this week. Bandai Namco will once again team with animators from Studio Ghibli for Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom. And Koei Tecmo will return to the world of Attack On Titan with Attack On Titan 2.

Finally this week, MLB Advanced Media will step up to the plate with RBI Baseball 18 for the PS4, and Ubisoft will give 2014’s Assassin’s Creed: Rogue a second chance on the PS4 with a Remastered re-release.

You can learn more about the rest of this week’s additions to the PlayStation Store after the break. (more…)

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New update adds Brigitte to Overwatch’s roster on PC, PS4, and Xbox One

After a few weeks of testing, Blizzard has added Brigitte to Overwatch‘s Character Select Screen on the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. The complete list of updates included in this patch can be found at the game’s Community Forum, and a new trailer for the melee mechanic has been embedded above:

An engineer with peerless armor-constructing abilities, Brigitte Lindholm is a valiant squire who fights on the front line to protect her allies.

Brigitte’s armor engineering capabilities make her a stalwart support hero, capable of holding her ground in combat while also providing healing and armor for her allies. Her primary weapon is her heavy-hitting Rocket Flail that she swings in a wide arc in front of her to smash multiple enemies at once. Whip Shot enables Brigitte to fling her flail forward, striking enemies at a distance and knocking them backward. With each blow, Brigitte’s passive ability, Inspire, heals nearby allies over time.

Brigitte’s Barrier Shield deploys a frontal energy barrier that can absorb a limited amount of damage and protect any allies directly behind her. Once her Barrier Shield is deployed, she can use Shield Bash to lunge forward and stun the first enemy in her path. Drawing on her engineering prowess, Brigitte can create Repair Packs to instantly heal wounded allies or provide armor to teammates at maximum health. When Brigitte is at her strongest, she can activate her ultimate ability, Rally—a galvanizing call to arms that generates a substantial amount of armor for nearby allies and increases Brigitte’s movement speed so she can lead them into battle.

According to Blizzard, Brigitte will be available in Competitive Play starting with Season 10.

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Gorogoa will “soon” be available to download for the PS4 and Xbox One

Jason Roberts has announced that his visual puzzler, Gorogoa, will “soon” be available to download for the PS4. The developer marked the occasion with an extended essay on “The Power of The Frame” at the PlayStation Blog:

With the notable exception of VR, almost everything we consume is inside a frame, whether that frame is the edge of the TV screen, or the monitor, or the phone, or the movie screen. And we’re generally trained to forget about the frame and what’s outside of it. We want to forget ourselves, the room we’re in, the sorry old world we’re in. The disappearance of the frame is a big part of what we mean by “immersion.” We aim for total suspension of disbelief. Total projection of the mind through the frame.

And if you’re waiting for me to denounce this way of relating to media, I’m not going to! Why would I? It works just fine. But I also think that creatively, the space outside that frame is a huge unexplored frontier–as strange as that might sound at first.

Gorogoa opens with a small framed image of a cityscape, in the middle of an otherwise empty screen. The obvious decision to leave empty space makes the frame visible, and that was done for a reason. The frame itself is part of the message. I find this mysteriously compelling. And I want to poke into that mystery a little.

We don’t have an exact release date for Gorogoa’s PS4 debut other than “soon,” but the developer’s essay is certainly interesting, and I’m sure it’ll keep a lot of people occupied until the game is ready.

UPDATE: Publisher Annapurna Interactive has confirmed that Gorogoa will also “soon” be available to download for the Xbox One as well.

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Lego The Incredibles game teased by Lego

It looks like Lego The Incredibles will be coming to the PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One later this year.

The news comes via Lego fansite The Brick Fan, who spotted an advertisement for the game on the back of the instruction booklet included with an upcoming Lego set based on The Incredibles 2.

It’s unknown if Lego The Incredibles will pull its story solely from the upcoming sequel or both movies in the series, but we do know that TT Games has once again been tapped to develop the Lego-ized adaptation.

I’d guess an official announcement from WB Games will be happening soon.

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