ISSUE 17 — 7 April 2019
by Shahan Ahmed and Dale Hurst
Special Feature: BAFTA GAMES AWARDS 2019
The 15th British Academy Games Awards was held this week at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. The event was hosted by comedian Dara Ó Briain. This year, a new category was introduced: the EE Mobile Game of the Year award. It may be similar to the Mobile Game award, but unlike it and the other categories, this one is voted for by the public instead of the BAFTA committee and the trophy is a solid yellow rather than the standard golden mask.
God of War took home the most awards (with a total of five) including the coveted Best Game award. The list below shows the winner of each category. Check this page for all of the nominees that came close to winning an award.
|
Award |
Winner |
| Artistic Achievement | Return of the Obra Dinn |
| Audio Achievement | God of War |
| Best Game | God of War |
| British Game | Forza Horizon 4 |
| Debut Game | Yoku’s Island Express |
| Evolving Game | Fortnite |
| Family | Nintendo Labo |
| Game Beyond Entertainment | My Child Lebensborn |
| Game Design | Return of the Obra Dinn |
| Game Innovation | Nintendo Labo |
| Mobile Game | Florence |
| Multiplayer | A Way Out |
| Music | God of War |
| Narrative | God of War |
| Original Property | Into the Breach |
| Performer | Jeremy Davis |
| EE Mobile Game of the Year (voted for by the public) | Old School Runescape |
Shahan’s Opinion: It has reminded me to try and get around to certain games (God of War and A Way Out) as well as putting some on my radar (Return of the Obra Dinn and Florence).
Dale’s Opinion: Working for or at least being involved with BAFTA is something of a dream job for me so it has been good to look at the Games section of their awards. I’ll be keeping a close eye in future…
New Character Spotlight: KOLLECTOR (Mortal Kombat 11)
The newest fighter to join the day one roster of Mortal Kombat 11 has been shown. Kollector will make his debut in MK11, which releases on the 23rd of this month. He is said to value his own wealth and status.
Kollector works for Shao Kahn and collects tributes for him like a form of tax. Similar to Goro and Kintaro, he has four arms. Two are out in front while the other two are in his backpack ready to bring out what he has collected to fight his opponent with. Not afraid to get close while also having ranged attacks plus the ability to teleport? Kollector will no doubt be a strong fighter to contend with.
Right before Kollector, another character was shown this week. Namely, Cetrion – an Elder Goddess with control over the elements. Her power to use ice, fire and earth comes from her bond to the Earth. Check her out on this GameInformer video.
Shahan’s Opinion: Kollector is one of the more unique characters in the MK11’s roster and Cetrion’s fatality is out of this world!
Dale’s Opinion: He is definitely a character I can see me playing a lot. That is, if I get the game when it comes out…
BORDERLANDS 3 IS AN EPIC STORE EXCLUSIVE
After the positive reactions to Borderlands 3’s unveiling, some bad news has arisen. Epic Games continues to upset PC gamers as they acquire exclusivity rights to Borderlands 3’s launch. Steam users will still be able to obtain the game, but they’ll have to wait six months after BL3’s release date of 19th September 2019. To be clear, console gamers are unaffected.
Shortly the review bombing was underway on Borderlands 2’s Steam page. However, for the first time, Valve is now actually taking action against it. They have introduced a system to mark ‘off-topic review activity’ that excludes reviews that are deemed to be review bombs. Users are able to disable this feature in their settings. Valve has promised to manually check detected review bombs for any reviews that shouldn’t be hidden.
Going back to some good news for Borderlands. After the trailer for Borderlands 3 dropped, the player count on all Borderlands games on Steam increased by over quadruple. Also BL3’s box art and its different editions have been revealed and ready for pre-orders.
Shahan’s Opinion: Even though I’ll be getting this on console for the split-screen co-op, the Epic Store exclusivity is a bummer. This is likely going to be a continuing trend for PC releases in the near-future. Will Valve do anything to entice publishers and developers and prevent delayed releases to Steam…? Time will tell.
BIOWARE’S ISSUES WITH ANTHEM AND THE PRESS
Kotaku has done an impressive article covering Bioware’s woes regarding Anthem. Stemming from the project initially being named Beyond; a name with meaning that was relevant to the premise. Changing it to Anthem caused confusion amongst those who worked on the game. The article goes on to discuss more last-minute changes like this, as well as the game’s being panned by fans and critics alike, plus many more issues. From understaffed departments to tension between two studio locations, difficulties with EA’s Frostbite engine and much more. Staff went on stress leave and some never came back; they were termed as ‘stress casualties’. It was also quoted that:
“Depression and anxiety are an epidemic within Bioware…”
Read the story for more — it’s a long but fascinating read.
In response to the article, the studio’s management did not discuss the topic with members of staff. Rather, the company sent out emails saying, “Don’t talk to the press.” Following this revelation, Bioware’s Casey Hudson sent out an email to all in the studio that an all-hands meeting will take place discussing all of the raised issues.
Bioware has written a response to the article that you can read here. But it has been speculated that the time they had posted their response means that they must not have read the lengthy piece. Polygon have also weighed in on the issue.
Shahan’s Opinion: Revealing such damaging work environments is important otherwise nothing will be done for the well-being of those who work in the gaming industry.
ENTER THE GUNGEON: A FAREWELL TO ARMS LAUNCHES
Dodge Roll’s bullet hell dungeon crawler got its final update: Enter the Gungeon: A Farewell to Arms. The update is free and available on all platforms you can play the game on (PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One). New features include:
- Two new characters: The Paradox and The Gunslinger.
- New guns, items and synergies.
- Rainbow Mode – community inspired mode where each floor offers a rainbow chest but only one gun/item can be picked.
- New secret floor w/ unique enemies and boss.
- Starting weapons have new alternate art to unlock.
- New Beholster shrine.
- Pet the dog!
Various changes and improvements have been made to the gameplay as well.
Shahan’s Opinion: I don’t have the precision or reflexes for bullet hell games like Enter the Gungeon. Nevertheless, it is awesome to see games getting additional content without the devs charging for every new character or weapon. Excited to see what their next project will be.
GLOSSING OVER…
Netflix Announces “Playing Hard”
A documentary will be released on Netflix later this year entitled Playing Hard. It will be an in-depth look into the four-year production process of the game For Honor.
Yet Another UK Game Setting
Not only will the setting for the upcoming Pokémon games be loosely based on the UK; Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs 3 has also been announced to be set in London.
Microsoft to Investigate Historic Sexual Harassment Claims
A recent employee uproar and human resources nightmare has gone on at Microsoft recently. Relating to historic and otherwise-overlooked sexual harassment complaints. In response, Microsoft has begun investigations into these claims.
PLAYING THIS WEEK…
Dale has been playing…
PIKMIN (2001) (GAMECUBE)
On a real GameCube nostalgia trip these days. When I found and played ZooCube a couple of weeks ago, I also found the disc for Pikmin in there, which to my amazement worked just fine. It had been aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages since I played it last so it was virtually all new to me again. And then I remembered it is so addictive, so fun and so infuriating all at the same time.
Warp Point Weekly 