The 2017 D.I.C.E. Awards Nominees: Check Out The Complete List Here

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences announced the nominees for their 20th annual D.I.C.E., awards. No, this has nothing to do with Swedish game studio DICE, but their critically acclaimed and commercially successful World War I shooter, Battlefield 1 did manage to get nominated.

Gamespot caught wind of the complete list of D.I.C.E., 2017 award nominees. The awards will be handed out on February 23rd, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada and will also be available via live-stream. You can check out the full nominees and their categorical listings below.

Game of the Year

• Battlefield 1

•Inside

•Overwatch

•Pokemon Go

•Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction

• 1979 Revolution: Black Friday

• Battlefield 1

• Inside

• The Last Guardian

• Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

Outstanding Achievement in Game Design

• I Expect You to Die

• Inside

• Overwatch

• Owlboy

• Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay

• Battlefield 1

• Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

• Overwatch

• Titanfall 2

• The Division

Handheld Game of the Year

• Dragon Quest Builders

• Fire Emblem Fates

• Kirby: Planet Robobot

• Pokemon Sun and Moon

• Severed

Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year

• The Banner Saga 2

• Deus Ex Go

• Fire Emblem Fates

• Civilization VI

• XCOM 2

Sports Game of the Year

• FIFA 17

• Madden NFL 17

• MLB The Show 16

• NBA 2K17

• Steep

RPG/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year

• Dark Souls III

• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

• Hyper Light Drifter

• The Division

• World of Warcraft: Legion

Racing Game of the Year

• Forza Horizon 3

• Driveclub VR

Fighting Game of the Year

• EA Sports UFC 2

• Guilty Gear Xrd - Revelator

• Killer Instinct Season 3

• Pokken Tournament

• Street Fighter V

Family Game of the Year

• Dragon Quest Builders

• Lego Star Wars The Force Awakens

• Ratchet & Clank

• Rock Band Rivals

• Super Mario Maker 3DS

Outstanding Technical Achievement

• Battlefield 1

• No Man's Sky

• Overwatch

• Titanfall 2

• Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

Outstanding Achievement in Story

• Firewatch

• Inside

• Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

• Oxenfree

• That Dragon, Cancer

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design

• Battlefield 1

• Inside

• The Last Guardian

• Quantum Break

• Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition

• Doom

• Abzu

• Battlefield 1

• The Last Guardian

• Titanfall 2

Outstanding Achievement in Character

• Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare - Reyes

• Firewatch - Delilah

• Firewatch - Henry

• The Last Guardian - Trico

• Uncharted 4: A Thief's End - Nathan Drake

Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction

• Battlefield 1

• Firewatch

• Inside

• The Last Guardian

• Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

Outstanding Achievement in Animation

• Inside

• The Last Guardian

• Overwatch

• Street Fighter V

• Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

D.I.C.E. Sprite Award

• 1979 Revolution: Black Friday

• Firewatch

• Inside

• Superhot

• That Dragon, Cancer

Adventure Game of the Year

• Firewatch

• Inside

• King's Quest: The Complete Collection

• The Last Guardian

• Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

Action Game of the Year

• Battlefield 1

• Doom

• Gears of War 4

• Overwatch

• Titanfall 2

Mobile Game of the Year

• Clash Royale

• Crashlands

• Gardenscapes - New Acres

• Pokemon Go

• Reigns

Some of the nominees caused an absolute fracas amongst gamers. For one, everyone ragged on Pokemon Go for being nominated for a GOTY. While Niantic Labs has done impeccable work as far as network engineering an impressive, global infrastructure for connecting and topographically mapping real world locations into a virtual space, Pokemon Go is more of an impressive feat as far networking engineering is concerned but it's no where near being an actual game comparable to other titles released this year. It essentially boils down to collecting data entities (Pokemon) across data nodes (real world locations); that's the extent of the gameplay depth.

I can certainly understand why some people would be offended that it's even in the same category with a technically profound game like Battlefield 1.

Others were also a little ratcheted that Overwatch was in the technical achievements category. While the game plays well and launched without any major faults due to its simple design, it's actually its simple design that makes you wonder how it was nominated for a technical achievement? It actually has less gameplay depth than Team Fortress 2 (which features crafting, modding, looting, etc.,) and the latter is a decade old.

Also, it seems blasphemous to have No Man's Sky nominated for a technical achievement when it launched broken and missing half of its features. How on Earth did that game get nominated over the far more technically proficient Astroneer? I mean, Astroneer is literally No Man's Sky but it actually works, and it has working multiplayer, and it didn't launch broken.

Another thing is how did Abzu not get nominated for a technical achievement? They literally designed an all new procedural AI module within the Unreal Engine 4 to get thousands of fish to swim and swirl on-screen without using coded skeletal animation data. That alone is a monumental achievement for AI grouping, skeletal-free animations, and behavioral physics. Very astounding work from Giant Squid Studios. How they managed to get passed over for what they achieved in Abzu for No Man's Sky is absolutely beyond me.

Anyway, you can watch the live-stream on February 23rd to see which titles walk away with what awards.