Dragon Age: Inquisition Wins More Awards

If you come to this site frequently enough, you know as well as I do that we’re not exactly the kind to be drawn in by game hype or pay much mind to award season. That said, I mentioned off-hand how baffling it was for Destiny to have won a Game of the Year award from BAFTA and I figured I would balance the karmaic scales by reporting on a more worthy game winning the same award at a different show.

Because, let’s face it, last year wasn’t a great one for gaming. We had Shadow of Mordor, we had Dark Souls 2 (which is so far the weakest of the Souls games, although that still puts it head-and-shoulders above everything else) Far Cry 4 (which was more like a next-gen expansion pack for Far Cry 3) and Super Smash Brothers, which is so far the definitive Smash Brothers experience.

And then we have our SXSW Game of the Year Winner, Dragon Age: Inquisition. Who, without a doubt, deserves it more than any other game on the above list. Which depresses me, as a Souls fanatic, but I got high hopes for Bloodborne.

Here’s a list of all the awards and the winners of each.

Game of the Year: Dragon Age: Inquisition - Electronic Arts/BioWare
Mobile Game of the Year: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft - Blizzard Entertainment
Table Top Game of the Year: Star Realms - White Wizard Games
Excellence in Gameplay: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor - Warner Bros. Interactive/Monolith Productions
Excellence in Art: Child of Light - Ubisoft/Ubisoft Montreal
Excellence in Animation: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor - Warner Bros. Interactive/Monolith Productions
Excellence in Technical Achievement: Destiny - Activision/Bungie
Excellence in Visual Achievement: Far Cry 4 - Ubisoft/Ubisoft Montreal
Excellence in Narrative: The Wolf Among Us - Telltale Games
Excellence in Design and Direction: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor - Warner Bros. Interactive/Monolith Productions
Excellence in SFX: Alien: Isolation - SEGA/The Creative Assembly
Excellence in Musical Score: Transistor - Supergiant Games
Excellence in Multiplayer: Super Smash Bros. Wii U - Nintendo
Excellence in Convergence: South Park: The Stick of Truth - Ubisoft/Obsidian Entertainment
Most Valuable Character: Ellie, The Last of Us: Left Behind - Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog
Most Valuable Esports Team: Cloud9
Most Valuable Online Channel: Rooster Teeth
Most Valuable Add-On Content: The Last of Us: Left Behind - Sony Computer Entertainment/Naughty Dog
Most Anticipated Crowdfunded Game: Star Citizen - Cloud Imperium Games
Matthew Crump Cultural Innovation Award: This War of Mine - 11 Bit Studios
Gamer's Voice Award: Speedrunners - tinyBuild

A nicely diverse list, and with the exception of Cloud9 being the most valuable Esports team (TSM! TSM!) I can’t disagree with any particular award. Still, congrats to the winners, I’m glad the majority of the world still agrees Dragon Age: Inquisition is a great game, now can we please forget about 2014 already?