Author: Game Infliction

DICE Awards 2024 Winners: The Full List (Updating Live)

The 27th D.I.C.E. Awards have arrived and are here to celebrate the best of the best in the world of video games from 2023. The show, which is put on by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) and takes place at the Aria Resort in Las Vegas, will feature 23 categories and 56 games that were nominated by and voted on by game developers.

Going into the show, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is leading the way with nine nominations, Alan Wake 2 is close behind with eight, Baldur’s Gate 3 is at seven, and Cocoon is at six. Anything can happen when D.I.C.E. begins, however, and we’ll be gathering all the winners here below and updating it live throughout the night, so be sure to keep checking back to see who took home the ultimate prizes!

You can also watch the show above if you’d like as IGN is the official media partner of this year’s D.I.C.E. Awards, which is hosted by IGN’s Stella Chung and Kinda Funny CEO and IGN alum Greg Miller. Good luck to all the games and incredible people behind them!

Outstanding Achievement in Animation

  • Final Fantasy XVI
  • Hi-Fi RUSH
  • Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
  • Mortal Kombat 1
  • Super Mario Bros. Wonder

Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction

  • Alan Wake 2
  • Hogwarts Legacy
  • Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
  • Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
  • Starfield

Outstanding Achievement in Character

  • Alan Wake 2 – Saga Anderson
  • Baldur’s Gate 3 – Astarion
  • Baldur’s Gate 3 – Karlach
  • Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 – Miles Morales
  • Thirsty Suitors – Jala

Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition

  • Alan Wake 2
  • Diablo IV
  • Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 – WINNER
  • Planet of Lana
  • Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

Outstanding Achievement in Audio Design

  • Alan Wake 2
  • COCOON
  • Hi-Fi RUSH
  • Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 – WINNER
  • Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

Outstanding Achievement in Story

  • Alan Wake 2
  • Baldur’s Gate 3
  • DAVE THE DIVER
  • Thirsty Suitors
  • Venba

Outstanding Technical Achievement

  • Alan Wake 2
  • Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
  • Hogwarts Legacy
  • THE FINALS
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Action Game of the Year

  • ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON
  • Dead Space
  • Hi-Fi RUSH
  • Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 – WINNER
  • Remnant II

Adventure Game of the Year

  • Alan Wake 2
  • COCOON
  • DAVE THE DIVER
  • Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – WINNER

Family Game of the Year

  • Disney Illusion Island
  • Fae Farm
  • Hello Kitty Island Adventure
  • Midnight Girl
  • Super Mario Bros. Wonder

Fighting Game of the Year

  • Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising
  • Mortal Kombat 1
  • Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2
  • Pocket Bravery
  • Street Fighter 6

Racing Game of the Year

  • F-ZERO 99
  • Forza Motorsport
  • Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 – Turbocharged
  • LEGO 2K Drive

Role-Playing Game of the Year

  • Baldur’s Gate 3 – WINNER
  • Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
  • Diablo IV
  • Final Fantasy XVI
  • Starfield

Sports Game of the Year

  • EA SPORTS FC 24
  • MLB The Show™ 23 – WINNER
  • WWE 2K23

Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year

  • Against the Storm
  • Cobalt Core
  • Dune: Spice Wars
  • The Last Spell
  • Wartales

Immersive Reality Technical Achievement

  • Asgard’s Wrath 2
  • Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR
  • Horizon: Call of the Mountain
  • Vertigo 2
  • We Are One

Immersive Reality Game of the Year

  • Asgard’s Wrath 2
  • Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR
  • Horizon: Call of the Mountain
  • Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice
  • Vertigo 2

Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game

  • COCOON
  • DREDGE
  • El Paso, Elsewhere
  • Thirsty Suitors
  • Venba

Mobile Game of the Year

  • Gubbins
  • Hello Kitty Island Adventure
  • Honkai: Star Rail
  • Terra Nil
  • WHAT THE CAR? – WINNER

Online Game of the Year

  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III
  • Diablo IV – WINNER
  • Omega Strikers
  • Street Fighter 6
  • THE FINALS

Outstanding Achievement in Game Design

  • Baldur’s Gate 3
  • COCOON
  • DAVE THE DIVER
  • Super Mario Bros. Wonder
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction

  • Baldur’s Gate 3
  • COCOON
  • Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
  • Super Mario Bros. Wonder
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Game of the Year

  • Alan Wake 2
  • Baldur’s Gate 3
  • COCOON
  • Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Sakurai Acknowledges End Of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Development

The final major update arrived yesterday.

It’s been a long development cycle for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with the team not only celebrating the initial launch of the game but also multiple updates and DLC fighters over the past five years.

Now that the Sora (Kingdom Hearts) amiibo has arrived, the game’s director Masahiro Sakurai has taken to social media to thank the team for their hard work on this latest amiibo, and acknowledge the fact this is the last of his work on Ultimate. It’s officially the end of an era!

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Surprise! System Shock Is The Latest Pinball M & FX DLC Table

It’s a pinball Shodan.

Zen Studios has teamed up with retro specialists Nightdive Studios to bring us an unexpected collaboration — System Shock Pinball. This is the latest DLC table for Pinball FX and Pinball M on the Switch eShop, and it’s available today.

The M version will give you the complete gory experience, while the FX table is a little more age-appropriate. Regardless of which version you’re grabbing, the DLC will cost you USD $5.49 / GBP £4.99 on the Switch eShop.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Phil Spencer on Helldivers 2 Not Being on Xbox: ‘I’m Not Exactly Sure Who It Helps’

Amid a flurry of Xbox news today, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer confirmed that four Xbox exclusives are headed to other platforms. He’s not, however, expecting other companies to take the same approach.

In an interview for Stephen Totilo’s Game File newsletter, Spencer specifically brought up Helldivers 2, Sony’s first simultaneous PS5 and PC release, while touching on the subject.

“I will say, when I look at a game like Helldivers 2 — and it’s a great game, kudos to the team shipping on PC and PlayStation — I’m not exactly sure who it helps in the industry by not being on Xbox,” he said. “If you try to twist yourself to say, like, somehow that benefited somebody somewhere.”

Still, Spencer relents a little bit, saying, “but I get it”: “There’s a legacy in console gaming that we’re going to benefit by shipping games and not putting them on other places. We do the same thing.”

He also pointed out that that Helldiver 2’s simultaneous release on PC and PS5 is “doing really well,” and he’s not wrong. The cooperative action sequel notched Sony’s biggest-ever game launch on Steam when it debuted last week.

The state of exclusive games

While Spencer doesn’t expect every other publisher to take Xbox’s approach, he did say during an Xbox podcast today that he has a “fundamental belief that, over the next 5 or 10 years, exclusive games – games that are exclusive to one piece of hardware – are gunna be a smaller and smaller part of the game industry.”

“That’s not some great insight, because if you look at the last 10 years and what the biggest games are today, it’s a natural place,” he said. “Whether it’s one console and PC; multiple consoles and PC; mobile, console, and PC; you see big games landing on multiple platforms, and we wanna be a great platform for creators that are trying to realize that potential.”

Spencer didn’t reveal what four Xbox games are headed to other platforms, but he did confirm that that number does not include Starfield and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Even then, in a separate interview with The Verge, he wouldn’t say they’ll never come to PS5, adding “I don’t think we should as an industry ever rule out a game going to any other platform.”

Altogether, it’s all spawned even more discourse about platform exclusivity, Xbox’s strategy, and a whole lot more. You can see everything we learned from today’s Xbox announcements right here.

This refurbished 850W Corsair Shift PSU is £84 vs £150 new from Scan UK

Corsair’s Shift series of power supplies are one of my go-to recommendations, thanks to their reliable power delivery and convenient side-mounted connectors, and now you can pick up a factory refurbished 850W 80+ Gold unit for just £84 from Scan, versus £145 for the very same PSU new at Amazon or £150 at Scan. That’s a huge, nearly 50% saving, and well worth it – even for a factory refurb unit with a 12-month warranty.

Read more

Starfield and Indiana Jones Are Still Xbox Exclusives, but Phil Spencer Doesn’t Rule Out PS5 Release

In a blog post and podcast today, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer made waves by confirming four Xbox exclusives will be going multi-platform. While he didn’t reveal what those games would be, he did confirm a couple of games that won’t be included in those four titles.

When asked directly by moderator and former IGN editor-in-chief Tina Amini if any of those four exclusives going multi-platform were Starfield or Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Spencer replied, “They are not Starfield or Indiana Jones.”

Spencer, however, is still leaving Xbox’s multi-platform options open. In an interview with The Verge, he stopped short of ruling out Starfield and Indiana Jones ever coming to PS5.

“I don’t think we should as an industry ever rule out a game going to any other platform,” he said. “We’re focused on these four games and learning from the experience. We don’t have work going on, on other franchises. But for anybody to stand up and say something’s never going to happen, I think it feels like creating more certainty in a world of gaming where you really want to respond to what customers want and what our players and creators are looking for.”

“We’re focused on these four games and learning from the experience.

Today’s update comes after weeks of reports and speculation swirling about Xbox’s future, particularly surrounding first-party exclusivity. Earlier this month, The Verge reported that Xbox was “weighing up which titles will remain exclusive and others that will appear on Switch or PS5 in the future.” Indiana Jones, per the report, was being considered as the kick-off to this new strategy, with the possibility of it debuting on PS5 shortly after its launch on Xbox and PC this December.

Around the same time, XboxERA reported that Microsoft was considering releasing Starfield on PS5 shortly after the release of the previously announced Shattered Space expansion later this year. Other reports, meanwhile, suggested the Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Thieves would be headed to other platforms.

So what are the four games?

We don’t know what those four newly multi-platform games will be for sure at the moment. However, The Verge reports that they’ll be Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves, and Grounded.

Spencer himself dropped a few hints during the podcast, saying they looked at games that were over a year old. Two of them, he said, are “community-driven games,” “first iterations of a franchise that have reached their full potential, let’s say on Xbox and PC.”

The other two, he added, “are smaller games that were not really built to be platform exclusives and all the fanfare that goes around that, but games that our teams really wanted to go build.”

“We love supporting creative endeavors across our studios regardless of size,” he went on. “And as they realize their full potential on Xbox and PC, we see an opportunity to utilize the other platforms as a place to just drive more business value out of those games, allowing us to invest in future iterations of those, sequels to those, or just other games like that in our portfolio.”

With that, let the speculation commence.

For more, check out everything we learned about Xbox’s future today, including hints about the next-generation console.

Logitech’s excellent G915 TKL low-profile wireless mechanical gaming keyboard is 55% off at Amazon UK

The Logitech G915 Lightspeed TKL is a phenomenal gaming keyboard with low-profile mechanical switches, reliable Lightspeed wireless and a compact layout, yet Logitech normally ask well over £100 for it – and double that when it first launched! Today though, the G915 TKL Lightspeed is 55% off, dropping it to the more reasonable price of £99.

Read more

Microsoft To Bring Four Xbox Exclusives To Other Consoles, But Won’t Name Them

Platforms also haven’t been confirmed.

After weeks of rumours, Xbox has finally confirmed that it will be bringing more Xbox exclusives to other consoles. What consoles, and what games, is anyone’s guess.

During today’s Official Xbox Podcast, the Head of Xbox and CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer confirmed that four titles that are currently exclusive to Xbox and PC will be coming to “other consoles”. Weirdly, the games haven’t been named, and Spencer is leaving it up to the developers behind those games to make the announcements.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Xbox’s Promise to Bring More Games to More Players Around the World

Xbox’s Promise to Bring More Games to More Players Around the World

  • Jeff Rubenstein, Xbox Wire

Today, on a special edition of the Official Xbox Podcast, we shared an update on plans to continue to bring more games to more people around the world, with the exciting news that the first Activision Blizzard game on Xbox Game Pass will be Diablo IV, beginning March 28.

Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond, and Matt Booty also shared the vision on game exclusivity, the future of Xbox hardware, and the overall Xbox promise. There’s a lot to talk about, so we encourage you to watch the full episode here:

With the combined creativity across Team Xbox, players can expect an incredible 2024 with the likes of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Avowed, Ara: History Untold, Towerborne and more coming your way, alongside continued updates for our blockbuster franchises Call of Duty, Minecraft, Forza, The Elder Scrolls Online and Microsoft Flight Simulator.

There will be even more to play as we begin to fulfill our commitment to offer Activision and Blizzard games with Game Pass, both new releases and classic games from its legendary catalog. We’re happy to share that Diablo IV will be available to play by the 34 million Game Pass subscribers on both PC and Xbox consoles beginning March 28! This is only the start of Xbox players being able to enjoy Activision and Blizzard games on Game Pass – we look forward to sharing more soon.

Our combined studio teams already ship some of the biggest franchises and critically-acclaimed adventures across multiple platforms: Minecraft, Call of Duty, Overwatch, Diablo, The Elder Scrolls Online, and more have built communities across consoles, PC, and mobile. Likewise, Xbox Game Studios and Bethesda have brought dozens of games to Steam alongside Xbox consoles on launch day; the teams at Xbox have extensive experience supporting multiple platforms, while continuing to invest heavily in our studios, our consoles and services.

Indeed, our games are reaching more players than ever; across Activision, Bethesda, Blizzard, King, and Xbox Game Studios, we reach hundreds of millions of players across console, PC, and mobile.

To ensure long-term success for both Xbox and the industry as a whole, we must continue to evolve. Today we announced that we will expand the communities we reach: we are currently in the process of bringing four Xbox games to other platforms. These are titles which have been available to Xbox players for at least a year, including hidden gems that deserve to be experienced more widely, and live service games whose communities will benefit from welcoming even more players. We will share more details on these titles soon.

By bringing these games to more players, we not only expand the reach and impact of those titles, but this will allow us to invest in either future versions of these games, or elsewhere in our first-party portfolio. There is no fundamental change to our approach on exclusivity. 

Likewise, our commitment to game preservation is unwavering. Xbox players should have confidence in building your digital library in the Xbox ecosystem.  We will continue to reward that with the most robust, player-friendly experiences, including backwards compatibility, cross-play, cross-save progression, convenient cloud gaming, and more. Xbox consoles will continue to provide a flagship experience for players; it’s where you get the best value and convenience, it’s where Game Pass provides unprecedented access to an ever-evolving library of games. To be clear: Game Pass will continue to be only available on Xbox platforms. 

This is what it means to be part of Xbox:

  • The biggest games in the world will be on Xbox.   
  • Our games will come to Game Pass day one. 
  • A robust and innovative multi-year hardware roadmap
  • Compatibility with your library is a priority, inclusive of cross-play, cross-save, and robust cloud features.  
  • Xbox will continue to help game creators find the biggest audience possible.

Whether you’ve been with us since 2001, recently joined Game Pass to enjoy games like Starfield or Palworld, or are looking forward to the next season of Call of Duty, the creative teams at Xbox are stronger together – no matter where you play. Xbox will be around for decades to come – we hope you’ll join us on this journey.

The post Xbox’s Promise to Bring More Games to More Players Around the World appeared first on Xbox Wire.

Beat the Beats VR lets you groove like a boxing champ on PS VR2 February 27

Hello! I’m Josef, one of the creators of Beat the Beats VR, coming out February 27 on PlayStation VR2. It is a rhythm VR game you play with your fists and all about learning actual boxing moves like jab, dodge, and uppercut.

In this article I would like to share with you how the natural feeling boxing moves in our game came to fruition.

At Parallel Circles, we’re huge rhythm game fans. And VR? We love it. It immerses you like nothing else. I’ve always been captivated by the agility, coordination, and precision of boxers. So, blending these passions felt like a no-brainer. Thus, Beat the Beats VR was born.

Boxing greenhorn to boxing champion

Pulling off energetic boxing moves in real life takes years of training. But in Beat the Beats VR, we wanted players to feel like pros from the get-go. Jabs, hooks, uppercuts — they should all flow naturally. 

After lots of experimentation, we realized the traditional rhythm game approach didn’t quite fit boxing’s fluidity. So we switched it up. Instead of the “notes” (we call them beats) coming straight at you, they come from different directions in arcs challenging you to move exactly in the same way you would in a boxing fight.

You can’t help but make perfect jabs for beats from the front, hooks from the side, and uppercuts for ones coming from above.

Punching through the whole game

As soon as we nailed the boxing punches we brought other aspects of the sport into the game. You can also evade (called a “roll”) and block beats.

You can also unlock new levels/albums by punching them.

Mix all of the boxing action with some exhilarating music and you have a rhythm game that’s the best of both worlds: a fun experience for casual players and a full-throttle workout for the ones that want to go the extra mile.

We hope you have as much fun with our game as we had creating it. Maybe you’ll sweat as much as we did, too. Beat the Beats comes to PS VR2 on February 27!