Category Archives: Awards

Shivering Isles, Fallout 3 continue to appear on lists…

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Well, we made it into 2008, but coverage looking back at 2007 and looking ahead to this year continues to surface.

Looking back at 2007, Robert “Apache” Howarth has put up Voodoo Exteme’s “Game of the Year Awards.” In the “Best Expansion Pack” category, we’re happy to see Shivering Isles came away as the year’s best.

Over at Joystiq, Justin McElroy has put up a post of his favorites games of the last year, and declares that Shivering Isles was his favorite RPG of the year. He writes:

“I’m going to need you to deal with something: TES IV:O:THS [sic] was, hands down, the best RPG released last year. “What? What did he say?” I’ll repeat it. Thanks to its beautiful graphics, engrossing story and overall radness, The Shivering Isles was the best RPG of 2007. I feel much better now with that off of my chest.”

Moving on to Fallout 3, a few more folks are chiming in that they have high expectations for the game. Charles Husemann at Gaming Nexus put together 20 questions for 2008 that concludes with the question: “How awesome will Fallout 3 be?” You can read his thoughts on that question here.

On non-gaming specific sites, Christopher Fong of the San Francisco Chronicle and John Gaudiosi of WRAL (Raleigh-Durham) both declare Fallout 3 to be one of their most anticipated games of the year. To our north, the Canadian Press has also included Fallout 3 on their list.

Finally, Fallout 3 has received mentions of being at the top of folks’ lists for 2008 on a few blogs. A couple of days ago on Gamers with Jobs, Sean Sands declared that Fallout 3 is his “Game of the Coming Year.” In similar fashion, Mark Wilson of Kotaku sees Fallout 3 as being the game he’s most looking forward to this year.

On that subject, what games are you most looking forward to this year?

Around the Web: Looking back, looking forward

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Here’s a few interesting items I noticed while catching up on things after being away the past few days.

Game Informer has listed their top ten games they’re looking forward to in 2008 for the 360. Fallout 3 cracked the list at #3. Here’s a short sample of what they had to say:

“When word got out that Bethesda was working on Fallout 3, critics assumed the worst and the “Oblivion with guns” cry was born. Having sat through a demo of the game, we can’t say who’s right here, if making such a determination is even possible. All we know is that seeing your character step out of the nuke-proof vault for the first time in his life is a breathtaking gaming moment. We’re eager to explore this terrible world all over again, through a new set of eyes.”

On the Elder Scrolls front, both Oblivion and Shivering Isles have picked up some year end accolades and nominations. At IGN, the PS3 release came away with the Best RPG award. Sticking with PS3, it was also a runner-up in the Game of the Year, Best Graphics Technology, Best Original Score categories. In their PC category, Shivering Isles was a runner-up in the Best Expansion category. On 360, Shivering Isles was a runner-up in the Best RPG and Best DLC categories.

Over at Gamespot, Oblivion and Shivering Isles also received some recognition. On PS3, Oblvion is one of five finalists for PS3 Game of the Year. As for Shivering Isles, it was recognized in two categories, Best Expansion and Best DLC, on Xbox 360.

Around the Web: Neapolitan Style

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Little bit of everything in this round up.

Over at Yahoo the YVG crew has put up their list of the 10 Best Games of the Last Decade and has included Oblivion as their pick for 2006, noting:

“There are big games, there are huge games, there are epic games, and then there’s Oblivion.”

Always cool to see your game on a list like this. Head over to see the full list and what else they had to say about their pick of Oblivion and their other nine selections.

I also noticed a note over at TGR that the videogame symphony tour Play! has announced some new dates, and since it features the music from both Morrowind and Oblivion, I thought it was worth nothing it’s headed to Fort Worth and Seattle in January ’08 for two shows at each stop. Visit the Play! site for more info.

Continue reading full article ›

Around the Web (and Print)

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A variety of things going on that I thought I would mention.

Matt did an interview with the folks at Games Radar for an article they were doing on “Are Developers Even Listening?” Matt’s responses are included along with folks from Lionhead, Rare, Epic, and Bungie. Head over to read the full article.

Primotech did their Game of the Year awards and voted Shivering Isles the Best Expansion. From the article:

Bethesda’s last expansion pack does more than throw open the door to a land suffering from a split personality. It adds nearly twenty to thirty hours of new quests, complete with plenty of gear to acquire and the opportunity to find out just how insane a Mad God can really be.

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Fallout “Defines” PC RPGs

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This morning I noticed that over at GamerHelp, they have a feature called “Pinnacle Games: 18 Games That Define Their Genre.” Of these 18 games, Fallout is considered the defining PC RPG game. Here’s a sample of what they said about it:

Most RPG titles have you duking it out as a knight or a mage in a fantasy setting rife with clichéd monsters like dragosn and orcs and trolls, oh my! But not so in Interplay’s Fallout, a breakthrough RPG title that was set in a memorable setting: post-nuclear holocaust Earth. The narrative dirve of the story was nothing new — a ‘chosen one’ ventures forth to save the world — but the presentation was something else: dark, gritty and visceral, the stark landscape of the atomically cleansed landscape was as inhospitable as it was compelling.

In addition to Fallout, there’s some pretty solid choices for other genres: Street Fighter II for fighting games, Ikaruga for the shooting genre, and of course Pete’s probably happy to see that Company of Heroes was their defining RTS game (Pete: I probably would have argued C&C or Warcraft is what got the genre started and established, but COH has changed what they’re about and what they can be).

Around the Web

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Yesterday GamePro put up a feature called “The 48 Best Games of 2008,” which lists the games they’re most anticipating for next year. On the list, Fallout 3 came in as the #3 most anticipated title with Metal Gear Solid 4 and GTA IV being #’s 2 and 1, respectively. To see what they had to say about Fallout 3, jump here.

1Up announced their nominees for their 2007 awards and Shivering Isles was included on the list for Best RPG along with, uh, everything else even remotely RPG-like. Bring a snack before you start to read the list for Game of the Year. You’ll probably need some kind of intermission. I’d put Carcassone ahead of more than half of the 30 games on that list and not think twice about it, but that’s just me. Head over and cast your vote today for your favorites.

Also worthy of mention is the fact that the folks over at ShackNews have started up a blog of their own. Their news site is somewhat blog-like, but I guess this will be a place where they can inject more of their own opinions and commentary than they might normally. Plus, they can curse on the blog, and never underestimate how liberating that can be. I’m green with envy. Anyway, I’ve been reading ShackNews for as long as I can remember, so felt like it was worth pointing it out.

Update: I noticed over on Kotaku that X-Play has Shivering Isles nominated for “Best DLC”

“The Adoring Fan” Really Annoys You

Looking through some stuff on Digg this morning, I stumbled upon a funny post on the site Offer of the Day. One of their writers declares “The Adoring Fan” from Oblivion to be “The Most Annoying Video Game Character Ever.”

Aside from the video we shared a few weeks back showing the him being pummeled by 10,000 watermelons, the Adoring Fan has taken plenty of abuse from other fans. Above is a video of him being used as bowling pins. For a few more examples, take a look here, as well as here.

I’m sure somewhere, Tingle from the Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, is writing the Adoring Fan a letter to let him know how to cope with his “celebrity status.”

Oblivion Shoutouts for Great Weapons and Hard Work

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Here’s two interesting mentions Oblivion received over the long weekend…

Ash pointed me to cool list over on Team Xbox, where they picked their “Top 20 Weapons of All-Time.” Oblivion/Shivering isles made the cut with a mention of the “Dawnfang/Duskfang” blade that becomes available with the Shivering Isles expansion. The sword(s) came in at #5 on the list, and the Team Xbox editors had this to say about its powers:

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Golden Joystick Nominations

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For those that don’t know, the Golden Joystick Awards is an award show out of the UK that honors the best games of the year — as voted by gamers. Last year Oblivion took home three Golden Joysticks: Best PC Game, Best Xbox Game, and Ultimate Game of the Year. Even though none of us were able to attend, it’s still very cool to win and we were all excited.

We got a five nominations this year. Fallout 3 received a nomination for the “Ones To Watch” category, Shivering Isles received two nominations (Best Xbox Game and Best PC Game), and the PS3 release of Oblivion received two nods as well (Best Playstation Game and Soundtrack of the Year).

Want your favorite game to take home a Golden Joystick on October 26? Visit here to vote.

More Coverage Arrives

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A couple more industry sites have added some coverage for Fallout 3…