It’s October 5th, which means that most of this Fall’s major new releases are still ahead of us. But that hasn’t stopped CNET from selecting the games they believe best represent “The 30 Best Video Games of the Decade.”
Category: More Lists
Not every Best Games list fits neatly into the Video Game Canon. That’s why I’m collecting these unique perspectives on the Best Games of All Time in More Lists.
Former IGN Editor Jared Petty Launches “The Top 100 Games Podcast”
As a former video producer for IGN and Kinda Funny, Jared Petty has been around video games for a long time. In addition to his editorial work, he’s also dabbled on the development side as a social content editor at Electronic Arts.
But Petty is also an avid podcaster, and now he’s breaking into “Best Games” analysis with a new series. The Top 100 Games Podcast launched earlier this week with episodes devoted to Resident Evil 2 Remake (#100), Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (#99), and The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask (#98). But please take those numbers with a grain of salt. Petty stressed that The Top 100 Games Podcast would probably end up being a “horrible list” as the topic of each episode will be chosen by a wide-raning series of guests. Sound like fun though:
Counting down the top 100 video games of all time! Host Jared Petty and a series of guests travel through the history of classic gaming and take a close look at the most important contributions to electronic entertainment over the last 50+ years.
More episodes of The Top 100 Games Podcast will be produced in the coming days and weeks, and you can subscribe to it on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and other podcast services.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Eurogamer Editors Will Debate “The Best Games of the Last 20 Years” at PAX East 2019
Eurogamer‘s Johnny Chiodini and Aoife Wilson (and a bunch of special guests) will debate “The Best Games of the Last 20 Years” during a special panel at this year’s PAX East convention:
Eurogamer turns 20 this year, and to celebrate we’re coming to PAX East to figure out what the best games of the last 20 years are. Eurogamer hosts Johnny Chiodini and Aoife Wilson will be joined by a panel of special guests, each of whom will make a case for their favourite game released since 1999 – and we’ll need YOUR help deciding which of these is the best of the best!
As always, PAX East 2019 will take place at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, and the “Eurogamer 20th Anniversary Celebrations: The Best Games of the Last 20 Years” panel will be held in the Dragonfly Theatre on Thursday, March 28.
UPDATE (4/1/19): The book has closed on another PAX East, so now we finally know which games were chosen by the panel.
Making the cut as part of “The Best Games of the Last 20 Years” were 1999’s Shenmue, 2000’s Deus Ex, 2000’s The Sims, 2001’s Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, 2011’s Dark Souls, and 2017’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
A replay of the discussion can be viewed on Twitch.
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.
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.
Mashable Launches “Games To Play Before You Die” Podcast
The staff at Mashable will be exploring some of the greatest games of all time in a brand new podcast known as “Games To Play Before You Die.“
The staff at Mashable will be exploring some of the greatest games of all time in a brand new podcast known as “Games To Play Before You Die“:
Which video games were so far ahead of their time, so much pure fun, that they stand apart? Since we love games we decided to answer this question once and for all in a new podcast series simply named “Games to Play Before You Die.”
Our host Jordan Minor, Senior Editor at Geek.com, breaks down the video games you MUST play before you kick the bucket (or get carpal tunnel). With the help of rotating experts and Mashable Editors, each episode dives into the development and launch of a video game that has impacted our host and guests personally as well as the industry.
Hosted by Geek.com’s Jordan Minor, the first episode of “Games To Play Before You Die” is all about Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog 2. More specifically, the panel discusses, “How is Sonic 2 the only good Sonic game?”
Future episodes of “Games To Play Before You Die” should appear every week (or so), and I’m very interested to see where the series goes from here.
UPDATE (10/29/22): “Games To Play Before You Die” appears to be no more, but you can still watch the video versions of each episode on Mashable’s YouTube channel.
In the end, nine titles were part of the final tally of games featured on the podcast. Here they are for posterity…
Mashable – Games To Play Before You Die
- Assassin’s Creed II
- Diablo III
- Kingdom Hearts III
- Myst
- Pokemon Blue/Red/Yellow
- Red Dead Redemption
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2
- Super Smash Bros.
- Tetris