The DICE Awards, run each year by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, has just concluded, and once again, Sony is walking away with a number of trophies to pop in its cabinet. The most awarded game at this year's event is Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, which claims four awards — Outstanding Achievement in Animation, Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction, Outstanding Technical Achievement, and Family Game of the Year.
Elsewhere, Returnal wins a pair of awards for Audio Design and Original Music. It Takes Two claims the top nod, though, securing another Game of the Year gong. Other titles taking home trophies include Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, Resident Evil Village, and Deathloop.
Below are all the nominees and winners (in bold) for each award. What do you make of these results? Keep your speeches short and snappy in the comments section below.
Game of the Year
- Deathloop
- Inscryption
- It Takes Two
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
- Returnal
Outstanding Achievement in Animation
- Call of Duty: Vanguard
- Deathloop
- Kena: Bridge of Spirits
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
- Resident Evil Village
Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction
- Call of Duty: Vanguard
- Deathloop
- Kena: Bridge of Spirits
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
- Resident Evil Village
Outstanding Achievement in Character
- Deathloop – Colt Vahn
- Kena: Bridge of Spirits – Kena
- Life is Strange: True Colors – Alex Chen
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart – Rivet
- Resident Evil Village – Lady Dimitrescu
Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition
- Deathloop
- It Takes Two
- Kena: Bridge of Spirits
- Psychonauts 2
- Returnal
Outstanding Achievement in Audio Design
- Forza Horizon 5
- Halo Infinite
- It Takes Two
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
- Returnal
Outstanding Achievement in Story
- Before Your Eyes
- Inscryption
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Psychonauts 2
- The Forgotten City
Outstanding Technical Achievement
- Battlefield 2042
- Forza Horizon 5
- Moncage
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
- Returnal
Action Game of the Year
- Deathloop
- Halo Infinite
- Metroid Dread
- Returnal
- The Ascent
Adventure Game of the Year
- Death's Door
- It Takes Two
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Psychonauts 2
- Resident Evil Village
Family Game of the Year
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Happy Home Paradise
- Cozy Grove
- Mario Party Superstars
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
- Warioware: Get it Together
Fighting Game of the Year
- Guilty Gear Strive
- Melty Blood: Type Lumina
- Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl
Racing Game of the Year
- F1 2021
- Forza Horizon 5
- Hot Wheels Unleashed
Role-Playing Game of the Year
- Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker
- Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
- Shin Megami Tensei V
- Tales of Arise
- Wildermyth
Sports Game of the Year
- FIFA 22
- Mario Golf: Super Rush
- NBA 2k22
- Riders Republic
- The Climb 2
Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year
- Age of Empires IV
- Gloomhaven
- Griftlands
- Inscryption
- Loop Hero
Immersive Reality Technical Achievement
- Lone Echo II
- Puzzling Places
- Resident Evil 4 VR
- Song in the Smoke
- Yuki
Immersive Reality Game of the Year
- Demeo
- I Expect You To Die 2
- Lone Echo II
- Resident Evil 4 VR
- Song in the Smoke
Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game
- Death's Door
- Inscryption
- Loop Hero
- Sable
- Unpacking
Mobile Game of the Year
- Behind the Frame
- Fantasian
- League of Legends: Wild Rift
- Moncage
- Pokémon Unite
Online Game of the Year
- Back 4 Blood
- Call of Duty: Vanguard
- Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker
- Halo Infinite
- Knockout City
Outstanding Achievement in Game Design
- Deathloop
- Inscryption
- It Takes Two
- Loop Hero
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction
- Deathloop
- Inscryption
- It Takes Two
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
- The Artful Escape
[source ign.com]
Comments 35
Battlefield 2042 nominated for Outstanding Technical Achievement???? 🤣🤣🤣
It Takes Two winning is a sign of what a weak year 2021 was. The gameplay, whilst hit and miss, is fantastic but the story is so bad the cutscenes continually drain all the fun from the game. I've been playing with a friend and we're pushing ourselves to the end just for the sake of it.
It's only February and there have already been at least 3 releases in 2022 that would blow any 2021 game out of the water.
Sports Game of the Year - Mario Golf: Super Rush?
Seriously? I’m a huge Mario Golf fan and that must’ve been the biggest let down of last year.
@BRT15 Wow... just wow, I would not have noticed that if you hadn't pointed it out, that is awful!
Never really understood the difference between “action” and “adventure” games. Most are a combination of both.
Adventure games traditionally were the point and click puzzle solving games, which are actually not very common now. I think the term has evolved and now we don’t really know what it means. Clearly the DICE awards has their own definition.
@BRT15 I think it's complicated. Battlefield 2042 really IS a technical achievement in so many ways. From the huge dynamic weather systems changing the maps to smaller details it really tries to push the bar forward.
Yes it's true it fails to stick the landing and fails in other key areas like stability and performance. But remember this is voted for by DEVs who likely know that they bit off more than they can chew here but are still amazed at the things they did get right.
Always loved the DICE awards. Dev's appreciating and awarding other Dev's. Congratulations to all the nominees, you're all winners one way or another.
Very happy to see Ratchet and It Takes Two get the recognition they deserve. Rift Apart was the first Ratchet game I ever played and loved it so much that, after beating it, I immediately started playing the ps4 remake. Yesterday, I decided to give the ps3 games a chance thanks to PSNOW.
After winning nothing at the game awards, it feels good to see this game fully appreciated at an awards show. It’s an incredible game.
These awards do make me feel like last year was poor. I've played a number of incredible games but I assume they were from previous years. Deaths door and Hades were easily my favourite games this year but guess they were 2020. Saying that I still haven't played Resident Evil Village or Returnal as they still aren't in my price range yet.
It takes two probably my favourite experience over the last year due to the co-op side of it. Story was pretty poor but the co-op gameplay just oozed fun. Could do with a local co-op award to perhaps push more of these experiences. Feels like we've lost those over the years.
@Th3solution I think action bares down to who has the better gameplay.
Such a shame Kena didn't receive anything, I loved that game. Congratulations to Ratchet & Clank though!
Congrats to ratchet & Returnal on the wins. Also happy to see that guardians won awards also-superb game.Also lol at how Halo infinite won best action game. Returnal, Metroid and Deathloop were far superior to infinite-which I found to be very overrated & terrible.
Also really enjoyed Ratched. First one ive completed let alone enjoyed it enough to get the platinum. Deserves all the praise it gets and more.
Played It takes two with the wife but we kept arguing because she kept dying so we stopped. Reminds me of the time when she hit me on the head with her controller because i messed up playing overcooked and set fire to the soup 🔥😂😂😂
@RevGaming Yeah, it looks like they differentiate action vs adventure based on whether the emphasis is heavier on the combat part of the game or on the storytelling part of the game. Like you say — what is the “better” aspect of the game.
That said, even though I haven’t played it, it seems like It Takes Two is pretty heavily action and the story is mostly secondary. Likewise, although I agree Returnal is more action than adventure, the storyline and puzzle solving aspects were really good, imho, and one could argue it’s as much an adventure game as Guardians or RE Village. I wonder what is Rift Apart — action or adventure?
It’s a little like the term “RPG.” Nearly every game now could be considered an RPG, technically speaking. As could almost all games be called “adventure” games.
I think gaming needs to have a standardized international nomenclature and classification system. 😅
Glad to see Guardians of the Galaxy get some awards love, especially for it's story. Some of the best writing in years.
It's a shame Rivet didn't get chosen for the Outstanding Achievement in Character Award. She would have easily been my choice from the nominations, but Lady Dimitrescu was a mainstream fascination before the game even came out, so oh well.
Great to see the game get so much love otherwise though. It still probably stands as my Game of the Year, with it bringing me back to more wondrous times when I got my PS3 in the middle of that console generation and experienced some of those amazing exclusives for the first time (like some Ratchet & Clank of course).
It Takes Two GOTY? Laughable…
@Th3solution
I think Action is mostly games like DOOM, DmC, Returnal.
I think Adventure is mostly having both gameplay and story equally as important (although I always say Gameplay should come first).
Ironically enough, when people say they like RPGs, I think they like games with simplistic/turn your brain off gameplay and let the stats of your character do the talking. Fallout and ES come to mind. My brother also said if there's no choice and consequences, it's not an RPG.
I think Action RPG fits more games like GOW, HZD, Souls games and W3 and RPG fits more Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Outerworlds and Dragon Age.
I think It takes Two is more of a story is as important type of game.
I hate that Geoff Keighley is an idiot when it comes to not having an award for best gameplay/combat. Basically the most important award, yet there's two awards for narrative (narrative and best character).
Ratchet and Clank was really good. It was short and a fairly easy platinum (not that I'm complaining about that!), but deserves the awards it got.
The animation was fantastic. It feels like you're playing a Pixar movie. The technical achievement I most rate, however, would be the 120hz@40FPS mode, enabling full graphical fidelity at a surprisingly effective framerate.
Kena should have won art direction or animation.
DICE is normally the one to watch, but some of these choices seem pretty phoned in.
I love R&C, and I really enjoyed this game, but while just as short, it never hit the highs of the PS4 game for me for some reason. Kind of surprised to see it winning so much here.
Then again it really won for animation and art direction, which does make a lot of sense, since it doesn't evaluate the actual gameplay experience at all. Also won for "best family game" which.....in some ways belittles the game from the shooter/action game it is and shoeboxes it in what I feel is a lesser category. It was up against Mario Party, Wario Ware that's basically a DS game with better gfx, and a freaking Animal Crossing expansion pack, of course it won!
The only really contestable win then is "technical achievement", which seems a little sketchy/phoned in. The only technical achievement I could think of is the rifts/quick loading, but there's been controversy and skepticism from devs about how high tech that really is. The rest of the game is pretty conventional by any standard.
still can't get close to forza horizon 5 awards which are 52, or halo infinite 29 awards, or psychonauts 2 15 awards. sorry maybe next year?
@NEStalgia oh man, if this game had been released by Nintendo you'd be creaming your pants over it!
It's a really good game, not sure what your problem is.
Same goes for Kena as well.
@BRUTALSAM ha, first time in ages Xbox have some decent games. Well done Microsoft!
😝
@Col_McCafferty lol. Remove Halo infinite from that list & then you have good games.
Eh, I am just happy for Guilty Gear Strive.
@BRUTALSAM Way to go champ, that’s some real progress there. Give Big Green another 20 years and maybe you’ll be able to enjoy three more award winning series.
I always thought that games like Halo and Deathloop where FPS games?
@Col_McCafferty IDK why you're always so convinced I'm some sort of Nintendo fanboy, I've been more critical of Nintendo than of Sony the past year or two, lol. My biggest complaint about Sony is how much they keep emulating Nintendo, and that's never a good thing.
I do really like Rift Apart, I just don't think it hit's the same highs the PS4 remake did. The pacing, balance, and variety just gelled perfectly. It's prettier, and better animated, it's just not as polished in terms of the flow of the game. The PS4 game you could replay a few times, rack up the upgrades and it fells "too short" each time compelling another playthrough. Rift, I played it once, and half another time through before I got all the Omega upgrades got burned out on it more.
A big part of that is the scripted environments like the underwater lab world, lava world, etc. They make up a big chunk of the game but have a fixed pacing that makes it really fun the first time through, but makes it really drag for any attempt to replay it. Which is weird for a game with speedrun options in the menu.
I don't get how halo infinite won online goty when it only officially released in December & even then the multiplayer is basically still a beta
It seems all the same 7 games won every award this season. With no clear GoaT being obvious. Guess the collection will be complete with these seven: ITT, DL, R&C:RA, RE8, Rtn, FH5 and MGoG.
Although KBoS and ToA are also tempting.
@RevGaming That’s a fair assessment.
I haven’t played It Takes Two yet. Don’t have a partner to play with. But from descriptions it didn’t seem much of a narrative backdrop, more of an excuse to have the co-operative gameplay be the focus. But perhaps it’s a real tear-jerker or has an impactful storyline.
Whereas when I played Returnal, the story, as crazy and disjointed and cryptic as it was, was really provoking. Made me think long and hard about it for days.
In the end, it’s arbitrary through. But I agree that the “action” part of a game — whether it be shooting mechanics, punching, dodging, platforming, swimming, driving, setting traps, using magic, riding dragons, or whatever is the action part of the game should be rewarded if it’s innovative, crisp, deep, and satisfying. Absolutely true.
@Th3solution Yeah. Returnal's story is up to interpretation.
Such little love for Inscryption makes me sad, that was by far my GOTY last year. Nothing really comes even close to that.
And no nomination for Dread's animations and action? Absolutely crazy. Not saying it should've won both (or any), but at least be nominated cause it has some of the smoothest animations and gameplay I've ever played.
Halo Infinite is the most barebones online game I have ever played. Not much Content to keep the Player engaged, the campaign was just good but not GOTY good. Glad Ratchet and Clank and It Takes Two were recognised though but surprised Returnal didn't win anything.
Crazy Mario Golf won anything at all. Metroid Dread should have won something and I can't believe it didn't, I agree with the guy above.
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