Continue reading »]]> The Game Developers Choice Awards are the premier accolades for peer-recognition in the digital games industry, celebrating creativity, artistry and technological genius. Industry professionals from around the world nominate for the awards, free of charge, ensuring that the recipients reflect the community’s opinions.

Awards in thirteen categories will be given at a ceremony produced by the Think Services Game Developers Conference (GDC) and presented by Gamasutra.com and Game Developer Magazine, on Wednesday, March 25, 2009 at GDC. The gala event, held in conjunction with the Independent Games Festival, will be hosted in the Esplanade Room in the South Hall of San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center. For further details about the Choice Awards, visit www.gamechoiceawards.com.

The Game Developers Choice Awards recognize excellence in the art of game creation regardless of genre or platform. 2008′s award categories are:Game Developers Choice Awards

Lifetime Achievement Award

The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes the career and achievements of a developer who has made an indelible impact on the craft of game development and games as a whole.

Pioneer Award

The Pioneer Award (formerly known as the First Penguin Award) celebrates those individuals who developed a breakthrough technology, game concept, or gameplay design at a crucial juncture in video game history – paving the way for the myriads who followed them.

• Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy

Ambassador Award

The Ambassador Award honors an individual or individuals who have helped the game industry advance to a better place, either through facilitating a better game community from within, or by reaching outside the industry to be an advocate for video games and help further our art.

• Tommy Tallarico

Game of the Year

The Game of the Year Award recognizes the choice of game developers for the overall best game release during 2008.

• Fable II (Lionhead Studios)
• LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
• Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
• Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
• Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar North)

Innovation Award

The Innovation Award recognizes the single game that demonstrates true innovation, advances the state of the art, and pushes the boundaries of games as an expressive medium.

• SPORE (Maxis)
• World Of Goo (2D Boy)
• Boom Blox (EA Los Angeles)
• Braid (Number None)
• LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

Best Debut Game

The Best Debut Game Award recognizes the best game from any development studio which released its first publicly available title in the year 2008.

• Braid (Number None)
• Sins of a Solar Empire (Ironclad Games)
• LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
• World of Goo (2D Boy)
• Soul Bubbles (Mekensleep)

Best Audio

The Best Audio Award recognizes the overall excellence of audio in a game – including, but not limited to, sound effects, musical composition, sound design, orchestration, etc.

• Dead Space (EA Redwood Shores)
• LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
• Metal Gear Solid 4 (Kojima Productions)
• Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
• Gears of War 2 (Epic Games)

Best Game Design

The Best Game Design Award recognizes the overall excellence of design in a game – including, but not limited to, gameplay mechanics, playability, play balancing, and level design.

• Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft Montreal)
• Braid (Number None)
• Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
• Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
• LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

Best Technology

The Best Technology Award recognizes the overall excellence of technology in a game – including, but not limited to, graphics programming, artificial intelligence, networking, and physics.

• SPORE (Maxis)
• Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar North)
• Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
• LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
• Gears of War 2 (Epic Games)

Best Visual Arts

The Best Visual Arts Award recognizes the overall excellence of visual art in a game – including, but not limited to, art direction, animation, modeling, character design, texture creation, and so on.

• Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
• Metal Gear Solid 4 (Kojima Productions)
• Prince of Persia (Ubisoft Montreal)
• LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
• Gears of War 2 (Epic Games)

Best Writing

The Best Writing Award recognizes the overall excellence of storytelling in a game – including, but not limited to, scenario, plot construction, story, dialogue, and other major factors.

• Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft Montreal)
• Braid (Number None)
• Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
• Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar North)
• Metal Gear Solid 4 (Kojima Productions)

Best Downloadable Game

Best Downloadable Game Award recognizes the overall best game released on console or PC platforms specifically and solely for digital download – with an emphasis on smaller, more ‘casual’-friendly titles.

• Castle Crashers (The Behemoth)
• Braid (Number None)
• World Of Goo (2D Boy)
• N+ (Metanet/Slick Entertainment)
• PixelJunk Eden (Q-Games)

Best Handheld Game

Best Handheld Game Award recognizes the overall best game commercially released on any handheld platform during 2008.

• Advance Wars: Days Of Ruin (Intelligent Systems)
• God Of War: Chains Of Olympus (Ready At Dawn Studios)
• Echochrome (SCE Japan)
• Patapon (Pyramid/SCE Japan)
• The World Ends With You (Jupiter/Square Enix)

Game Developers Conference 2009: March 23-27, San Francisco – Game Developer Choice Awards

Continue reading »]]> At this year’s Tokyo Game Show, executives from Square Enix, Capcom, and Namco Bandai engaged in a roundtable discussion about Japan’s diminished role in the gaming industry. As a result, the publisher and many of its fellow Japanese outfits are putting a greater emphasis on the West, both in selling and developing their games there.

Square Enix recently set up a development studio in Los Angeles. Capcom is “actively pursuing friendly acquisitions and partnerships” with foreign outfits, and developing games like Dead Rising and Lost Planet with a more Western audience in mind. And today Namco Bandai established Surge, a new publishing label “dedicated to providing cutting-edge, genre-defining games that are targeted at satiating the appetite of western gamers.” Surge will produce games across a variety of genres and platforms.

The first game to carry the Surge label will be Afro Samurai, scheduled for release on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 January 27. Based on the animated series of the same name, Afro Samurai features the voice of Samuel L. Jackson and a hip-hop-influenced soundtrack composed by The RZA.

Continue reading »]]> Last month we learned exactly how the connectivity between the Wii and DS would work in the upcoming Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time, but if the latest rumor from Quartermann in the the January issue of EGM is to be believed, Square Enix will not stop there with the new technology. Our favorite gossip master has heard that the RPG giant will be bringing Dragon Quest IX: Protectors of the Starry Sky to the Wii as well as the DS.

While Dragon Quest IX being announced for the DS rather than a home console was a big enough surprise in the first place, fans of the long-running series were even more shocked to discover that this latest entry will sport faster-paced gameplay and a surprising MMO-lite option to play with up to four friends. Assuming this multiplayer mode works similarly to the DS-and-Wii-linking Echoes of Time, it makes sense that Square would bring DQIX to the console as well.

The only question that remains is whether or not the Wii port will receive a graphical upgrade – the Wii and DS versions of the new Crystal Chronicles are going to be identical, after all. Hopefully Square will confirm this news soon and give us more details.

In the mean time, check out 1UP’s most recent preview of Dragon Quest IX for information on how the multiplayer team-ups will work and what else sets this apart from previous games in the franchise. And stay tuned for more Quartermann rumors throughout the week!

Continue reading »]]> Earlier today, Square Enix unveiled their release line-up for 2009 which included 28 titles. Unfortunately, only 7 of these titles are related to the world of Final Fantasy.

It’s great that they are releasing all three Fabula Nova Crystallis titles in the same year, but they have seemingly merged Japanese, North American and European release dates all into one, so it’s difficult to tell if any will see the light of day outside of Japan this year.

There is also no news on Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers and even though Square Enix recently announced that the game hadn’t been cancelled, it seems to be stuck in development hell.

The 7 Final Fantasy Games:

• Final Fantasy XIII (Playstation 3)
• Final Fantasy Versus XIII (Playstation 3)
• Final Fantasy Agito XIII (Playstation Portable)
• Dissidia: Final Fantasy (Playstation Portable)
• Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (Wii, DS)
• Final Fantasy IV: The After (Mobile)
• Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete (Blu-ray)

Continue reading »]]> Square Enix Ltd., the publisher of Square Enix® interactive entertainment products in Europe and other PAL territories, today announces that DRAGON QUEST®: The Hand of the Heavenly Bride™ will be released across PAL territories in Spring 2009, exclusively on the Nintendo DS™ handheld system.

Following the fun and colourful path set by DRAGON QUEST: The Chapters of the Chosen™, the second instalment in the Zenithia Trilogy, DRAGON QUEST: The Hand of the Heavenly Bride now journeys onto the Nintendo DS as a high quality remake of the classic DRAGON QUEST V, packed with exciting new features and a truly genre defining story.

Considered to be one of the best games in the entire DRAGON QUEST series; DRAGON QUEST: The Hand of the Heavenly Bride will finally make its much awaited debut in Europe. Look out for the next adventure in the trilogy – DRAGON QUEST: Realms of Reverie™ – coming to Nintendo DS soon.

John Yamamoto, president and chief executive officer of Square Enix Ltd. comments, “With this new entry in the DRAGON QUEST series, we hope game players of all ages will enjoy the DRAGON QUEST experience, following our hero through a lifetime of limitless adventures and great surprises.”

Continue reading »]]> The German organization of game classification, USK, has assigned a rating to Persona 4 on PlayStation 2.

Its European publisher will be Square-Enix and that the game will be in English. The release date should be near the beginning of 2009.