It was a big night at the D.I.C.E. Awards last night, especially if you happen to be working for a little studio by the name of Naughty Dog. While this annual video games award presentation is always a nice showcase of some of the best games the previous year had to offer, Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us brought home 10 awards (From 13 nominations), including the top honor for Game of the Year.
“Tonight’s big winner, The Last of Us, is a prime example of how today’s modern video game studios expertly blend art, game play and storytelling to transcend the traditional notion of video games,” said Martin Rae, President of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, in a press release. “This year’s winners range from deep, story-driven epics and massive interactive worlds to realistic sports action and engaging mobile experiences. They paint a broad picture of the new golden age we’re currently experiencing in the video games industry.”
The D.I.C.E. awards were hosted out of The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and broadcast live through Twitch.tv. All around nerd goddess Felicia Day co-hosted the event with fellow gamer and filmmaker Freddie Wong. During the presentation, Rockstar Games’ Leslie Benzies, Dan Houser and Sam Houser were induced into the AIAS Hall of Fame for their studios’ work on such games as the Grand Theft Auto series, Red Dead Redemption and Bully.
The AIAS also honored Eugene Jarvis for being a “trailblazer” in the industry during the ceremony with the Pioneer Award. “Jarvis is known as a key player from the golden age of arcade games, who was instrumental in establishing the interactive industry with such seminal games as Defender, Robotron: 2084, Narc and Smash TV” reads the announcement.
Along with The Last of Us’s 10 big wins, other movers and shakers during the 17th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards included a pair of wins for BioShock Infinite and Plants vs. Zombies 2, as well as FIFA’s fifth consecutive win as Sports Game of the year.
Along with the Game of the Year award, The Last of Us was honored in the areas of Outstanding achievement in Art Direction, Outstanding Achievement in Animation, Outstanding Character Performance (for Ellie), Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design, Outstanding Achievement in Story, Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering, Adventure Game of the Year, Outstanding Innovation in Gaming and Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction.
BioShock Infinite’s awards were for Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition and Action Game of the Year. Plants vs. Zombies 2 won for Casual Game of the Year and Mobile Game of the Year.
Outstanding Achievement in Gameplay Engineering went to Grand Theft Auto V while Injustice: Gods Among Us took home the award for Fighting Game of the Year. Diablo III was the Role Playing Game/MMO of the Year while XCOM: Enemy Within took the honors for Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year.
Super Mario 3D World earned the award for Family Game of the Year while Forza Motorsport 5 took the lead spot as Racing Game of the Year. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons earned the Dowloadable Game of the Year honors while The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds was crowned the Handheld Game of the Year.
Finally, the first ever recipient of the Online Game of the Year award went to World of Tanks.
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