Tag Archive: Fallout 4


Fallout 4 reigns supreme at 19th annual D.I.C.E. Awards

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February 25, 2016

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Fallout 4 surprised many when it took home Game of the Year at the 19th annual D.I.C.E. Awards last night in Las Vegas.

The win was Fallout 4‘s third of the night out of the eight categories it was nominated in, tying it for the most total hardware of the evening with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Ori and the Blind Forest, and Rocket League. It also marks the second year in a row that a game that also won Best RPG/MMO took home the big prize of the night after Dragon Age Inquisition pulled off the same feat last year.

Surprisingly, the game with the most nominations—Rise of the Tomb Raider with nine—only picked up one win, which was for Outstanding Achievement in Character for Lara Croft.

Aside from the 22 awards given out in specific categories, the D.I.C.E. Awards also recognized Visual Basic with the second ever Technical Impact Award, Hideo Kojima was inducted into the show’s Hall of Fame, and Satoru Iwata was posthumously given the Lifetime Achievement award.

For all of the nominees in each category, you can check out the list below. Winners have been bolded.

Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition
Batman: Arkham Knight
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
Ori and the Blind Forest
Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design
Destiny: The Taken King
Ori and the Blind Forest
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Star Wars Battlefront
The Order: 1886

Outstanding Achievement in Story
Fallout 4
Her Story
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Tales from the Borderlands
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Outstanding Technical Achievement
Just Cause 3
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Star Wars Battlefront
The Order: 1886
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Outstanding Achievement in Character
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate — Evie Frye
Her Story — Hannah Smith
Life is Strange — Maxine Caulfield
Rise of the Tomb Raider — Lara Croft
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Geralt of Rivia

D.I.C.E. Sprite Award
Galak-Z
Her Story
Kerbal Space Program
Rocket League
Undertale

Outstanding Achievement in Online Gaming
Destiny: The Taken King
Halo 5: Guardians
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Rocket League
Splatoon

Mobile Game of the Year
DomiNations
Fallout Shelter
Lara Croft GO
PAC-MAN 256
The Room Three

Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year
Bloodborne
Fallout 4
Pillars of Eternity
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Undertale

Sports Game of the Year
FIFA 16
Madden NFL 16
MLB 16 The Show
NBA 2K16
Rocket League

Racing Game of the Year
Forza Motorsport 6
Need for Speed
Project CARS

Fighting Game of the Year
Dead or Alive 5 Last Round
Mortal Kombat X
Rising Thunder

Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year
Cities Skylines
Fallout Shelter
Grey Goo
Heroes of the Storm
Kerbal Space Program

Family Game of the Year
Guitar Hero Live
LEGO Dimensions
Rock Band 4
Super Mario Maker
Tearaway Unfolded

Handheld Game of the Year
Earth Defense Force 2: Invaders from Planet Space
Helldivers
Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon
Yo-Kai Watch

Adventure Game of the Year
Batman: Arkham Knight
Life is Strange
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Ori and the Blind Forest
Rise of the Tomb Raider

Action Game of the Year
Destiny: The Taken King
Helldivers
Just Cause 3
Splatoon
Star Wars Battlefront

Outstanding Achievement in Animation
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
Batman: Arkham Knight
Ori and the Blind Forest
Rise of the Tomb Raider
The Order: 1886

Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction
Lara Croft GO
Ori and the Blind Forest
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Star Wars Battlefront
The Order: 1886

Outstanding Achievement in Game Design
Fallout 4
Her Story
Lara Croft GO
Massive Chalice
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction
Fallout 4
Life is Strange
Rise of the Tomb Raider
The Witcher: Wild Hunt
Undertale

Game of the Year
Bloodborne
Fallout 4
Ori and the Blind Forest
Rise of the Tomb Raider
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

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2016 D.I.C.E. Award nominees announced; Rise of the Tomb Raider leads

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February 5, 2016

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The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences have announced the nominations for their 19th annual D.I.C.E. Awards.

Fifty-three different games have received a D.I.C.E. Award nomination this year across 22 different categories. Leading the way is Rise of the Tomb Raider with nine nominations, including one for Game of the Year. The other Game of the Year nominees are The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Bloodborne, Fallout 4, and Ori and the Blind Forest. Voting across all categories begins tomorrow and is peer-voted on.

You can check out the entire list of nominees and awards here.

Besides the game nominations, the D.I.C.E. Awards also announced their individual awards. The Lifetime Achievement Award will be given to former Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata. Mr. Iwata sadly passed away last year after complications from a tumor.

Hideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear series, will also be honored this year with an induction into the D.I.C.E. Hall of Fame. We’re pretty sure Konami won’t be able to stop him from receiving this award.

The winners will be announced on Thursday, February 18th, at the annual awards show being held this year at The Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas after the conclusion of the annual D.I.C.E. Summit. The show is being hosted for the second year in a row by comedian Pete Holmes. Stay tuned for more information about the D.I.C.E. Awards as we get closer to the big day.

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EGM’s Best of 2015: Ray Carsillo’s Editor Awards

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Introduction

By the numbers, 2015 was a down year for games overall. However, it finished ridiculously strong, with one of the more jam-packed holiday seasons I’ve seen in a long time—keeping all of us here on the EGM crew insanely busy. As my list hopefully proves, quantity did not necessarily affect quality, though, and there were still some great games that came this year that I felt would come to define 2015.

Ray’s Top Five Games for 2015

Assassin's creed syndicate giant clock

#05: Assassin’s Creed Syndicate

Publisher: Ubisoft
 Developer: Ubisoft Quebec
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC

Ray’s Take

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate didn’t exactly have a high bar to surpass considering the lackluster entry in the franchise that was Unity. Still, not only did Syndicate provide a more coherent story, but it injected much needed life and wonder back into the series. Whether it was scaling the beautifully-rendered Victorian Era London, laughing at the banter back and forth between main characters Jacob and Evie Frye, or surprises like the fully fleshed-out World War I scenario that followed Jacob’s granddaughter, Syndicate was the return to form Assassin’s Creed so desperately needed. If they had included a few more old-school puzzles or a modern day scenario that allowed us to step outside the simulation, this might have been even higher on my list.

Tales from the Borderlands Episode 2 (1)

#04: Tales from the Borderlands

Publisher: Telltale Games
 Developer: Telltale Games
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC, OS X, PS3, Xbox 360, iOS, Android

Ray’s Take

When you first think of Borderlands, story doesn’t exactly fall on its list of strengths. While subsequent games in the series have added a little more to the lore of Pandora, there were plenty of unexplored opportunities that were perfect for Telltale to come in and exploit. Plus, this doubled as a chance for Telltale to really stretch their comedic muscles for the first time since the days of Sam & Max (or maybe their foray into Homestar Runner). The result was what I believe to be Telltale’s best effort yet. Serving up a rollercoaster of emotions, Tales from the Borderlands gives the most life to any characters that universe offers, while also making your decisions have some real weight come the game’s finale. Now, we just need to figure out where that cliffhanger ending will lead.

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#03: Fallout 4

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
 Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC

Ray’s Take

At this point, it’d be more surprising if Bethesda made a bad game. Fallout 4 once again creates a beautiful, dynamic world out of the smoking crater of an apocalyptic disaster. No interaction in the world happens the same way twice, and the new gun crafting and S.P.E.C.I.A.L. skills system extends an already deep pedigree of customization. Despite this, I can’t get past the sense that Fallout 4 is more like Fallout 3.5. The largest new attraction the game brings—the ability to create and link settlements—honestly bored me. Managing people and resources became a chore, and was quickly relegated to “afterthought” status even just 20 hours into my near-100 hour playthrough. Still, there are few experiences more complete, or as satisfying, as Bethesda’s latest adventure in the wasteland.

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#02: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
 Developer: CD Projekt RED
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC

Ray’s Take

I never played the first two Witcher games, and in the end, that kept it from being my personal game of the year. You see, my number one pick last year was Dragon Age Inquisition—and I felt you could jump into that adventure not having played the previous two games and gotten the same amount of enjoyment out of it. My caring about Witcher 3’s characters and world took a hit because of my unfamiliarity. That said, CD Projekt Red crafted an absolutely spectacular adventure, and an even more epic world for it to take place in. Geralt of Rivia is one of the most perfect examples of an anti-hero I’ve ever met in games, and the people he interacts with portray an incredible amount of depth. The most telling thing about Witcher 3’s world, though, may be how much time I spent in it: 212 hours on my first playthrough.

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#01: Ori and the Blind Forest

Publisher: Microsoft Studios
 Developer: Moon Studios
Platforms: Xbox One

Ray’s Take

There are no games this year that grabbed my attention from beginning to end quite like Ori and the Blind Forest. The first thing that catches your eye is the hand-painted art style, but once you begin rolling around Ori’s dying world, you soon realize how tight handling the game is. In fact, it’s easily the best playing metroidvania we’ve seen in years. The heart of the game—its story—builds on this, with a heart-wrenching tale that pulls you through the beautifully diverse world Ori must explore in order to restore the natural balance of things. Combine all this with a steadily increasing degree of difficulty all the way until the climactic finish, and I can only wish more games were as polished as Ori and the Blind Forest.

Ray’s Off-Topic Awards for 2015

The 5th Annual “The Colors, Duke! The Colors” Award for Most Colorful Game, brought to you by Popsicle (not really)
Kirby and the Rainbow Curse
kirby
This has become a tradition for me during the EGM end of the year awards, and we’ve gone too long to stop now. There were some strong candidates this year, and while the aforementioned Ori and the Blind Forest could’ve easily taken it, I wanted to show some other great looking games some love—and lo and behold, Nintendo had quite a few of them. I’ve got to tip my hat to the good folks at HAL Laboratory, whose beautiful looking Claymation in Kirby and the Rainbow Curse impressed me just a slightly bit more than Good-Feel’s work with yarn in Yoshi’s Woolly World. Congrats Kirby on looking as bright and as wonderful as ever.
The “Fashionably Late” Award
Kalimba

kalimba02

I really shouldn’t be giving a game an award for 2015 when it came out in 2014, but let me explain. Although we here at EGM wait as long as possible before doing our Game of the Year voting to insure we give as many games as possible the chance the qualify, there are still occasionally titles that miss deadline. Rarely, however, are they as fun as Kalimba, which released on December 17, 2014. Available on Xbox One and later for PC, Kalimba is an addictive, fun little puzzle platformer that only gets better when playing co-op with a friend. Although we did end up reviewing it for EGM post-holiday break, it was ineligible for last year’s voting. So here is your well-deserved spot in the limelight, Kalimba.

The “Somehow Made Me Fall In Love with a Genre” Award
Super Mario Maker
supermariomaker
I hate world creation games. When I drop $60 on a game, I’m doing so for the express purpose of playing someone else’s creation—not so I can spend time making my own. Minecraft, LittleBigPlanet, Project Spark? Throw them all in the trash as far as I’m concerned. Then came Super Mario Maker. Leave it to Nintendo to turn my pre-conceived notions on their head and throw them in the trash instead. Maybe it’s the nostalgia or familiarity that Mario Maker brings to the table, but there is something about it that has me testing out other people’s levels and building my own on a far too regular basis. And, with a steady stream of updates that only expands our potential toolset, there may be no single greater reason to own a Wii U than this.

EGMNOW’s Best of 2015 Awards Schedule

http://www.egmnow.com/wp-content/themes/egmnowv3/christmas_links2015.php

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Fallout 4 fan mods Red Sox slugger into game, MLB wants him to nuke it

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November 17, 2015

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I don’t think this was the baseball news most expected to come out of Boston this off-season.

I am apt to scouring the Hot Stove reports to see what new moves had been made, if any, when baseball free agency starts (always during my lunch break, of course). Imagine my shock when David Ortiz’s name came up, though, in my feeds. But it hadn’t been because the infamous Red Sox slugger had been shipped from Beantown. Instead, he was still entrenched in Fenway Park—200 years from now.

Richie Branson, an independent game developer out of San Antonio, Texas, decided he wanted to put his skills to good use and make the post-apocalyptic Boston setting of Fallout 4 feel a little more authentic. Fenway Park was already a central part of the game—its ruins house one of the largest survivor settlements in Fallout 4—but Branson felt it was missing something. So, like many fans do with immensely popular games, he created a mod.

In this case, his mod inserted Boston Red Sox uniforms into the game, allowed players to dress up like Big Papi, and he could swing a massive baseball bat to defend himself from the dangers of the Wasteland. Maybe it was a bit of virtual karma for Ortiz, who now could be attacked by big green monsters after spending the better part of his career pelting a Big Green Monster with line drives (and yes, I understand that most of Ortiz’s batted balls actually go to right field because he’s a power-hitting lefty, but you get the idea). It was a fun little add-on, given to the gaming community for free by Branson, to be enjoyed by all, and which you can see in action in the video at the bottom of this article.

As reported originally by Steve Annear of the Boston Globe, however, not everyone did enjoy the mod—specifically, Major League Baseball. “The use of these marks is an infringement of our rights. We plan to enforce those rights,” a MLB spokesman said in an e-mail Thursday in a curt statement to the Globe.

This shocked Branson, as it would any sane person.

“I’m not trying to sell this counterfeit Red Sox jersey. I’m putting a free Red Sox graphic into a game that already insinuates the Red Sox are in the game, at Fenway Park,” Branson told the Globe.

Major League Baseball would not elaborate further on what action it would take, but frequently in cases like this, cease-and-desist orders are issued, and as Branson admits, he’d begrudgingly have to comply. Thus denying everyone Branson’s hard work.

It is the opinion of this gamer that if Major League Baseball knew what was good for them, they’d reconsider any action against Branson. Not only does this come off as another overly sensitive knee-jerk reaction that has become commonplace nowadays, but it further perpetuates the idea of how out of touch baseball is with the world around them.

As revealed earlier today, Fallout 4 had not only the best launch for a game in publisher Bethesda’s history, but one of the best overall launches in history, making $750 million dollars in just a couple of days, and shipping around 12 million copies worldwide. Instead of embracing this pop culture phenomenon, especially amongst a demographic that baseball is slowly aging out of as it continues to find it difficult to connect with young potential fans, MLB is trying to bully someone for having fun. Great way to show you’re exactly what people want to sign up for and be a part of, Baseball. Then again, this is the sport that still vilifies gambling more than drug abuse. Someone should let baseball know that it’s 2015, not 1915.

Fallout 4 is available now for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. But if the numbers above are any indicator, you probably knew that, and are unlikely to be a part of Major League Baseball.

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Fallout 4’s protagonists each have over 13,000 lines

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August 4, 2015

Todd Howard recently revealed in an interview with the Telegraph that both the male and female protagonist in Fallout 4 read over 13,000 lines of dialogue for the game.

Fallout 4 marks the first time in the series where the protagonists will have speaking roles. In order to make sure players didn’t lose that sense of choice, Howard put his voice actors to work on this project.

“We had the same worry as everyone else. A lot of games have voiced characters, but what they don’t want to give up is all the dialogue options. So for us a lot of it was logistical. The voice actors have been recording for 2 years, they’ve each done over 13,000 lines of dialogue. So to be able to do that makes the difference; you still have choice.”

And even though many lines were repeated between the scripts, you can still get completely different scenes depending on if you’re playing as a man or a woman because each actor interpreted the script differently Howard continued.

“We were lucky to find two great voice actors and it’s interesting because she may read things or act things differently than he does. So scenes play out differently depending on whether you are playing the game as male or female.”

The voice actors who had to work those grueling hours delivering all those lines are Brian T. Delaney and Courtney Taylor. Brian is also playing Roland in Halo 5 and Mighty No. 5 in Mighty No. 9 this year. Courtney is probably best known for her work as Jack in Mass Effect 2 and 3 and Amanda Holliday in Destiny.

Fallout 4 will be out on November 10 for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

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Just Cause 3’s mods might make their way to consoles

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Just Cause 3 may try to bring mods to consoles at some point according to an interview Avalanche Studios game director Roland Lesterlin had with GameSpot.

Just Cause as a franchise has some hardcore modding communities and it’s part of the reason why even though its first two games might not have shipped in the best of conditions, they still hold a strong place in people’s hearts. In fact, as many as 500,000 people still consistently play Just Cause 2 every month.

Because of this, when asked if Just Cause 3 would go the Fallout 4 route and also try to bring their mods to the new generation of consoles, Lesterlin didn’t rule out the possibility.

“We’ve been wanting to do that stuff for a while,” he responded. “We’re not announcing anything there yet, but… we would want to support [mods] as much as possible.”

Hard to say for sure as Lesterlin was intentionally vague, but it sounds like something may be in the works. For more on Just Cause 3, check out my hands-on preview of the game from E3.

Just Cause 3 will drop December 1 for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

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Bethesda may be one and done with E3 press conferences after this year

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Although Bethesda stole the show at E3 2015, it may have been a one-time affair according to Bethesda’s VP of marketing and PR Pete Hines in an interview with The Telegraph.

Hines talked about how this year “felt like the right time” for Bethesda to hop on stage and have a presser. After all, how often do they have as many as seven games on the docket to announce? Battlecry, Dishonored: Definitive Edition, Dishonored 2, DOOM, Fallout 4, Fallout Shelter, and The Elder Scrolls Legends is one heck of a line up.

“I don’t know if we’ll do one next year. I don’t know if we’ll do one again,” said Hines. “It felt like more than we could accomplish in a booth.”

Bethesda tends to take their time when it comes to what they publish, especially with properties like Fallout and Elder Scrolls, so the odds that the stars align and this many games could be on the horizon again from the company is indeed a longshot. It makes sense then that Bethesda is wary of making this an on-going tradition.

This isn’t to say they’ll never kick off E3 again, but at least for the foreseeable future, Bethesda is happy it seems to have had their moment in the sun. Now, time for them to get back to work on Elder Scrolls VI. 

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Everything you need to know about Fallout 4 in 60 Seconds

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July 6, 2015

After Bethesda’s E3 2015 press conference, I geek out in front of the Dolby Theatre letting you know everything we know so far about Fallout 4.

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Voice actors behind Fallout 4’s protagonists revealed

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A recent tweet by Fallout 4 lead designer and writer Emil Pagliarulo has revealed the voices behind the game’s male and female leads.

 

Players get to choose at the very beginning of the game whether or not they play as a male or female while creating their character in the prologue section before the bombs drop.

Should players choose to play Fallout 4 as a male character, they’ll hear the voice of Brian T. Delaney for the duration of their adventure. 2015 looks like players will get a chance to hear a lot of Delaney as he’s also credited as Mighty No. 5 in Mighty No. 9, and Roland in Halo 5. He’s also provided additional voices for Batman: Arkham Knight, Evolve, and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.

If players choose a female lead for Fallout 4, though, they’ll hear Courtney Taylor, who is best known most likely for playing Jack in Mass Effect 2 and 3, Ada Wong in Resident Evil 6, and Amanda Holliday in Destiny. Decisions, decisions.

Fallout 4 will be out for Xbox One, PS4, and PC on November 10.

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