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Shadow Of Mordor And Hearthstone Lead List Of Nominations For 2015 GDC Awards
The Game Developers Choice Awards is in it's 15th year, and it's not done giving away awards yet. The peer-based video game award celebration has picked it's lineup for the best titles of 2014. Leading the pack are titles like Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Hearthstone and Destiny.
Monolith Productions' open-world action game Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor earned five nominations for awards for Game of the Year, Innovation, Best Design, Best Narrative, and Best Technology. Creative Assembly's Alien: Isolation and Bungie's Destiny were also nominated for multiple awards. Check out the full list below.
Winners in all categories will be announced at the Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony on Wednesday, March 4 at 6:30pm inside the San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center as part of the 2015 Game Developers Conference. Online voting for The Audience Awards will open to all finalists in February.
Game of the Year
- Bayonetta 2 (Platinum Games/Nintendo)
- Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Monolith Productions/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
- Destiny (Bungie/Activision)
- Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (Blizzard)
- Alien: Isolation (Creative Assembly/Sega)
Honorable Mentions: Titanfall (Respawn/Electronic Arts), Valiant Hearts: The Great War (Ubisoft Montpellier/Ubisoft), Far Cry 4 (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft), Dragon Age: Inquisition (BioWare/Electronic Arts), Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (Sora Ltd. and BANDAI NAMCO/Nintendo)
Innovation Award
- Bounden (Game Oven)
- Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Monolith Productions/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
- This War of Mine (11 bit studios)
- The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (The Astronauts)
- Monument Valley (Ustwo)
Honorable Mentions: Crypt of the Necrodancer (Brace Yourself Games), Extrasolar (Lazy 8 Studios), Elite: Dangerous (Frontier Developments), Elegy For A Dead World (Dejobaan Games), 80 Days (Inkle Studios)
Best Debut
- Yacht Club Games (Shovel Knight)
- Respawn Entertainment (Titanfall)
- The Astronauts (The Vanishing of Ethan Carter)
- Stoic Studio (The Banner Saga)
- Upper One Games (Never Alone)
Honorable Mentions: Dynamighty (CounterSpy), Hinterland Games (The Long Dark), 1337 & Senri (Leo's Fortune), MachineGames (Wolfenstein: The New Order), Hipster Whale (Crossy Road)
Best Design
- Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Monolith Productions/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
- Shovel Knight (Yacht Club Games)
- Dragon Age: Inquisition (BioWare/Electronic Arts)
- Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Nintendo EAD Tokyo and 1-Up Studio/Nintendo)
- Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (Blizzard)
Honorable Mentions: Mario Kart 8 (Nintendo EAD Tokyo/Nintendo), Alien: Isolation (Creative Assembly/Sega), Destiny (Bungie/Activision), Monument Valley (Ustwo), Far Cry 4 (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
Best Handheld/Mobile Game
- Threes! (Sirvo)
- Super Smash Bros. 3DS (Sora Ltd. and BANDAI NAMCO/Nintendo)
- Hearthstone (Blizzard)
- 80 Days (Inkle Studios)
- Monument Valley (Ustwo)
Honorable Mentions: Bounden (Game Oven), Bravely Default (Silicon Studio and Square Enix/Nintendo and Square Enix), Desert Golfing (Blinkbat Games), Velocity 2X (FuturLab), Fantasy Life (Level-5/Nintendo)
Best Visual Art
- Monument Valley (Ustwo)
- Hohokum (Honeyslug and Sony Santa Monica/Sony)
- Child of Light (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
- Bayonetta 2 (Platinum Games/Nintendo)
- Alien: Isolation (Creative Assembly/Sega)
Honorable Mentions: Never Alone (Upper One Games/E-Line Media), The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (The Astronauts), Transistor (Supergiant Games), Broken Age: Act 1 (Double Fine Productions), Destiny (Bungie/Activision)
Best Narrative
- 80 Days (Inkle Studios)
- This War of Mine (11 bit studios)
- Kentucky Route Zero: Episode 3 (Cardboard Computer)
- Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Monolith Productions/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
- The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (The Astronauts)
Honorable Mentions: Dragon Age: Inquisition (BioWare/Electronic Arts), Valiant Hearts: The Great War (Ubisoft Montpellier/Ubisoft), Tales From The Borderlands: Episode 1 (Gearbox Software/Telltale Games), D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die (Access Games/Microsoft), Hatoful Boyfriend (Mediatonic/Devolver Digital)
Best Audio
- Alien: Isolation (Creative Assembly/Sega)
- Hohokum (Honeyslug/Sony)
- Destiny (Bungie/Activision)
- Transistor (Supergiant Games)
- The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (The Astronauts)
Honorable Mentions: Child of Light (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft), Far Cry 4 (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft), D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die (Access Games/Microsoft), Bayonetta 2 (Platinum Games/Nintendo), Crypt of the Necrodancer (Brace Yourself Games)
Best Technology
- Destiny (Bungie/Activision)
- Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Monolith Productions/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
- Wolfenstein: The New Order (MachineGames/Bethesda)
- Elite: Dangerous (Frontier Developments)
- Far Cry 4 (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
Honorable Mentions: Assassin's Creed Unity (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft), The Last of Us: Remastered (Naughty Dog/Sony), Sunset Overdrive (Insomniac Games/Microsoft), Alien: Isolation (Creative Assembly/Sega), Infamous: Second Son (Sucker Punch Productions/Sony)
Our Take
If you're still reading this, way to stick in there. There are a lot of great games on there, and I'm interested to see what the Game Developers Choice Awards pick for Game of the Year. Personally, I'm rooting for Shadow of Mordor. What about you?
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