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Baldur’s Gate 3 Wins Best Game, Four Other Honors at BAFTA Games Awards 2024: See Full List of Winners

Baldur’s Gate 3 continues to collect year-end honours as the expansive RPG from Larian Studios took home the top award at the 20th BAFTA Games Awards held in London late Thursday. The Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG was crowned as the Best Game, in addition to winning in four other categories on the night. Acclaimed survival-horror sequel Alan Wake 2, Nintendo platformer Super Mario Bros. Wonder and British indie Viewfinder won two BAFTAs each, while Cyberpunk 2077 continued its redemption story with a win in the Evolving Game category.

The prestigious British Academy Game Awards announced its winners in a ceremony at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on Thursday night. In addition to the Best Game award, Baldur’s Gate 3 won in the categories of Music, Narrative, and Performer in a Supporting Role for Andrew Wincott, who plays Raphael in the game. The Larian RPG also emerged on top in the EE Players’ Choice Award, voted by gamers.

Tango Gameworks‘ vibrant rhythm-based action title Hi-Fi Rush won in the Animation category, while Remedy Entertainment’s Alan Wake 2 took home two awards in the Artistic and Audio Achievement categories. In one of the toughest categories on the night, Venba, the narrative-based cooking title, beat off strong competition from acclaimed games like Cucoon, Dave the Diver, Dredge, Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical and Viewfinder to win in the Debut Game category. Dave the Diver, a pixel-art style game about catching fish and serving sushi, did win in the Game Design category, however.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, two acclaimed games from last year that were in the running for several year-end game of the year honours during the awards season, won for Technical Achievement and Performer in a Leading Role (for Nadji Jeter as Miles Morales), respectively. In addition to the win for Tears of the Kingdom, Nintendo bagged two more awards on the night in the Family and Multiplayer categories, both for Super Mario Bros. Wonder.

Here’s the full list of winners from the 20th BAFTA Games Awards:

Animation

WINNER – Hi-Fi Rush Development Team – Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks

Alan Wake 2 Development Team – Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games

Hogwarts Legacy Development Team – Avalanche Software/Warner Bros. Games

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Development Team – Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Development Team – Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts

Super Mario Bros. Wonder Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo

Artistic Achievement

WINNER – Alan Wake 2 Development Team – Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games

Baldur’s Gate 3 Development Team – Larian Studio/Larian Studio

Cocoon Development Team – Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive

Diablo IV Development Team – Blizzard Entertainment/Blizzard Entertainment

Final Fantasy XVI Hiroshi Minagawa, Kazuya Takahashi, Naoki Kurihara – Creative Business Unit III/Square Enix

Hi-Fi Rush Development Team – Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks

Audio Achievement

WINNER – Alan Wake 2 Development Team – Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III Development Team – Sledgehammer Games/Activision

Hi-Fi Rush Development Team – Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Development Team – Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Development Team – Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts

Best Game

WINNER – Baldur’s Gate 3 Development Team – Larian Studio/Larian Studio

Alan Wake 2 Development Team – Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games

Dave the Diver Development Team – Mintrocket/Mintrocket

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Development Team – Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment

Super Mario Bros. Wonder Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo

British Game

WINNER – Viewfinder Development Team – Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful Publishing

Cassette Beasts Development Team – Bytten Studio/Raw Fury

Dead Island 2 Development Team – Dambuster Studios/PLAION

Disney Illusion Island Development Team – Dlala Studios/Disney

Football Manager 2024 Development Team – Sports Interactive/SEGA Europe

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin Development Team – Frontier Developments/Frontier Developments

Debut Game

WINNER – Venba Abhi, Sam Elkana, Shahrin Khan – Visai Games/Visai Games

Cocoon Development Team – Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive

Dave the Diver Development Team – Mintrocket/Mintrocket

Dredge Development Team – Black Salt Games/Team17 Digital

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical Development Team – Summerfall Studios/Humble Games

Viewfinder Development Team – Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful Publishing

Evolving Game

WINNER – Cyberpunk 2077 Development Team – CD Projekt Red/CD Projekt Red

Final Fantasy XIV Online Development Team – Creative Business Unit III/Square Enix

Fortnite Development Team – Epic Games/Epic Games

Forza Horizon 5 Development Team – Playground Games/Xbox Game Studios

Genshin Impact Development Team – HoYoverse/HoYoverse

No Man’s Sky Development Team – Hello Games/Hello Games

Family

WINNER – Super Mario Bros. Wonder Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo

Cocoon Development Team – Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive

Dave the Diver Development Team – Mintrocket/Mintrocket

Disney Illusion Island Development Team – Dlala Studios/Disney

Hi-Fi Rush Development Team – Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks

Hogwarts Legacy Development Team – Avalanche Software/Warner Bros. Games

Game Beyond Entertainment

WINNER – Tchia Phil Crifo, Marilou Lopez-Aguilera, Thoanë Thomadra – Awaceb/Kepler Interactive

Chants Of Sennaar Julien Moya, Thomas Panuel – Rundisc/Focus Entertainment

Goodbye Volcano High Development Team – KOOP

Terra Nil Development Team – Free Lives/Devolver Digital

Thirsty Suitors Development Team – Outerloop Games/Annapurna Interactive

Venba Abhi, Sam Elkana, Shahrin Khan – Visai Games/Visai Games

Game Design

WINNER – Dave the Diver Development Team – Mintrocket/Mintrocket

Cocoon Development Team – Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive

Dredge Development Team – Black Salt Games/Team17 Digital

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Development Team – Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment

Viewfinder Development Team – Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful Publishing

Multiplayer

WINNER – Super Mario Bros. Wonder Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo

Baldur’s Gate 3 Development Team – Larian Studio/Larian Studio

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III Development Team – Sledgehammer Games/Activision

Diablo IV Development Team – Blizzard Entertainment/Blizzard Entertainment

Forza Motorsport Development Team – Turn 10 Studios/Xbox Game Studios

Party Animals Development Team – Recreate Games/Source Technology

Music

WINNER – Baldur’s Gate 3 Development Team – Larian Studio/Larian Studio

Alan Wake 2 Development Team – Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games

Assassin’s Creed Mirage Development Team – Ubisoft/Ubisoft

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 John Paesano, Scott Hanau, Keith Leary – Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Gordy Haab, Stephen Barton – Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts

Narrative

WINNER – Baldur’s Gate 3 Development Team – Larian Studio/Larian Studio

Alan Wake 2 Development Team – Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games

Dredge Development Team – Black Salt Games/Team17 Digital

Final Fantasy XVI Kazutoyo Maehiro, Michael-Christopher Koji Fox – Creative Business Unit III/Square Enix

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Gordy Haab, Stephen Barton – Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts

New Intellectual Property

WINNER – Viewfinder Development Team – Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful Publishing

Chants of Sennaar Julien Moya, Thomas Panuel – Rundisc/Focus Entertainment

Dave the Diver Development Team – Mintrocket/Mintrocket

Dredge Development Team – Black Salt Games/Team17 Digital

Hi-Fi Rush Development Team – Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks

Jusant Development Team – Don’t Nod/Don’t Nod

Performer in a Leading Role

WINNER – Nadji Jeter as Miles Morales in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

Amelia Tyler as Narrator in Baldur’s Gate 3

Cameron Monaghan as Cal Kestis in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

Neil Newbon as Astarion in Baldur’s Gate 3

Samantha Béart as Karlach in Baldur’s Gate 3

Yuri Lowenthal as Peter Parker in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

Performer in a Supporting Role

WINNER – Andrew Wincott as Raphael in Baldur’s Gate 3

Debra Wilson as Cere Junda in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

Ralph Ineson as Cidolfus “Cid” Telamon in Final Fantasy XVI

Sam Lake as Alex Casey in Alan Wake 2

Tony Todd as Venom in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

Tracy Wiles as Jaheira in Baldur’s Gate 3

Technical Achievement

WINNER – The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo

Alan Wake 2 Development Team – Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games

Final Fantasy XVI Ryota Suzuki, Yasuhiro Yanamoto, Kei Honda – Creative Business Unit III/Square Enix

Horizon Call of the Mountain Development Team – Guerrilla and Firesprite/Sony Interactive Entertainment

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Development Team – Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment

Starfield Development Team – Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks

EE Player’s Choice

WINNER – Baldur’s Gate 3 Development Team – Larian Studio/Larian Studio

Cyberpunk 2077 – CD Projekt Red/CD Projekt Red

Fortnite Epic Games/Epic Games

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo

Lethal Company Zeekerss/Zeekerss

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment

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Steam’s Best of 2023 Reveals Its Highest-Selling and Most-Played Games of the Past Year

Valve has unveiled its annual ‘Best of 2023′ list on Steam, revealing which titles dominated sales on PC. The titles haven’t been numerically ranked, but have been grouped into tiers — Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze — based on data collected from January 1 through December 15, 2023. The Top 12 category is populated by both free-to-play multiplayer games and the biggest launches, with the award-winning Baldur’s Gate 3, Starfield, Cyberpunk 2077, and Hogwarts Legacy emerging as the best-selling titles. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which was disliked by both fans and critics alike, also made it to higher echelons, thanks to a dedicated fanbase wanting to experience its multiplayer segment.

The usual suspects like Counter-Strike 2, PUBG: Battlegrounds, Apex Legends, Dota 2, and Destiny 2 also made it to the Platinum rank — the last of them is getting a new expansion, ‘The Final Shape,’ in June, this year. Meanwhile, the Gold tier contains some absolute bangers like the Resident Evil 4 remake, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Elden Ring, for which the last-reported sales number was 20 million copies across all platforms. Its popularity was highly instrumental in plunking Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, a lesser-known FromSoftware franchise, among the top 24 best-selling games on the platform. Even FIFA 23 from last year made the cut, which shouldn’t be surprising considering its follow-up EA Sports FC 24 launched mid-year.

In addition to an overall Top-Sellers field, Steam has additional sections for New Releases by gross revenue, Most Played, Early Access purchases, and more. Multiplatform games that were received poorly seem to be the centre of attention among the latest releases, with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Payday 3 emerging on top, with the latter being criticised for lack of content. As you’d expect, multiplayer games held the highest player count (above 300,000 minimum), though some single-player affairs like Goose Goose Duck and Hogwarts Legacy charted alongside Baldur’s Gate 3, which at one point, peaked at over 800,000 concurrent players on Steam. Developer Larian Studios only anticipated 100,000, given the game had been out for nearly three years in early access. At the time of writing, over 176,000 concurrent players are logged into the expansive RPG, which is placed fourth among the most-played games on the platform.

2023 was also a great year for studios to test out their games in early access and gain feedback on them. The ocean exploration and fishing game from Mintrocket, Dave the Diver, was among the favourites, even turning out to be one of the most played games on the Steam Deck. While it’s only natural to expect less graphically intensive games like Vampire Survivor and Half-Life on there, somehow Starfield made it to the top despite its lack of optimisation causing heavy stutters in crowded areas like New Atlantis and the Wild West-themed Akila. Beat Saber and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR emerged among the favourites in virtual reality gaming, along with Half-Life: Alyx, pitting you in a vicious fight against the alien Combines.

Currently, Steam also has its annual Winter Sale going on, bringing steep discounts on new and returning games. It runs until January 5 at 10:30pm IST.

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The Game Awards 2023 Winners: Baldur’s Gate III Crowned Game of the Year, Alan Wake 2 Bags Four Trophies, More

Baldur’s Gate III took home the top honour at The Game Awards 2023, held early Friday in Los Angeles, besting its lead competitor Alan Wake II. The Dungeons & Dragons-based sprawling RPG, which was strongly revered by both fans and critics alike, bagged six trophies, including Best Community Support and Best Performance. The latter was collected by Neil Newbon, who played Astarion, the silver-haired vampire spawn, holding our attention with his melodramatic persona and the occasional high-pitched screeches. Meanwhile, Remedy’s Alan Wake 2 won four awards across some of the most important categories, with co-directors Sam Lake and Kyle Rowley emerging as the best game directors of the year, alongside a writing/ narrative nod.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which orchestrated most of the gaming craze in early 2023, only won one award — for Best Action/ Adventure Game. Cyberpunk 2077, which saw a resurgence lately, with update 2.0 and its Phantom Liberty expansion, was crowned the Best Ongoing Game, for its commitment to fixing and essentially breathing new life into a title that drastically failed at launch. The indie game slot was a subject of controversy for its inclusion of the Nexon-owned Dave the Diver, though there’s no more room for outrage since another cutesy pixelated game Sea of Stars emerged victorious. The cast of the upcoming Fallout series also made an appearance on stage to present the award for Best Adaptation, which HBO’s The Last of Us series won — no surprise there.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Review

In addition to The Game Awards jury-voted winners, there was a Players’ Voice bracket, which as the name suggests, is completely governed by fan voting. Baldur’s Gate 3 was also a victor in that, beating out Genshin Impact, whose fanbase was called out last year for botting to skew the results in their favour.

With that, here’s the entire list of winners from The Game Awards 2023:

The Game Awards 2023 winners — the full list

Game of the Year

Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios) — WINNER
Alan Wake II (Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing)
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (Insomniac Games/SIE)
Resident Evil 4 remake (Capcom)
Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)

Best Game Direction

Alan Wake II — WINNER
Baldur’s Gate 3
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Super Mario Bros. Wonder
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Best Narrative

Alan Wake II — WINNER
Baldur’s Gate 3
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty (CD Projekt Red)
Final Fantasy XVI (Square Enix)
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

Best Art Direction

Alan Wake 2 — WINNER
Hi-Fi Rush (Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks)
Lies of P (Round8 Studio/Neowiz Games)
Super Mario Bros. Wonder
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Best Score and Music

Masayoshi Soken, Final Fantasy XVI — WINNER
Petri Alanko, Alan Wake 2
Borislav Slavov, Baldur’s Gate 3
Shuichi Kobori, Hi-Fi Rush
Nintendo Sound Team, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Best Adaptation

The Last of Us (PlayStation Productions/HBO) — WINNER
Castlevania: Nocturne (Powerhouse Animation/Netflix)
Gran Turismo (PlayStation Productions/Sony Pictures)
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (Illumination/Nintendo/Universal Pictures)
Twisted Metal (PlayStation Productions/Peacock)

The Last of Us Season 1 Review

Best Audio Design

Hi-Fi Rush — WINNER
Alan Wake 2
Dead Space (Motive Studio/EA)
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Resident Evil 4

Best Performance

Neil Newbon, Baldur’s Gate 3 — WINNER
Ben Starr, Final Fantasy XVI
Cameron Monaghan, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
Idris Elba, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
Melanie Liburd, Alan Wake 2
Yuri Lowenthal, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

The Game Awards 2023: The Biggest Announcements

Innovation in Accessibility

Forza Motorsport (Turn 10 Studios/Xbox Game Studios) — WINNER
Diablo IV (Blizzard Entertainment)
Hi-Fi Rush
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Mortal Kombat 1 (NetherRealm Studios/WB Games)
Street Fighter 6 (Capcom)

Best Ongoing Game

Cyberpunk 2077 — WINNER
Final Fantasy XIV
Apex Legends (Respawn Entertainment/EA)
Fortnite (Epic Games)
Genshin Impact (HoYoverse)

Games for Impact

Tchia (Awaceb/Kepler Interactive) — WINNER
A Space for the Unbound (Mojiken Studio/Toge Productions/Chorus)
Chants of Sennaar (Rundisc/Focus Entertainment)
Goodbye Volcano High (KO_OP)
Terra Nil (Free Lives/Devolver Digital/Netflix)
Venba (Visai Games)

Baldur’s Gate 3 — WINNER
Cyberpunk 2077
Destiny 2 (Bungie)
Final Fantasy XIV
No Man’s Sky (Hello Games)

Best Independent Game

Sea of Stars (Sabotage Studio) — WINNER
Cocoon (Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive)
Dave the Diver (MINTROCKET)
Dredge (Black Salt Games/Team 17)
Viewfinder (Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful Publishing)

Best Debut Indie Game

Cocoon — WINNER
Dredge
Pizza Tower (Tour de Pizza)
Venba
Viewfinder

Best Mobile Game

Honkai: Star Rail — WINNER
Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis (Applibot/Square Enix)
Hello Kitty Island Adventure (Sunblink Entertainment)
Monster Hunter Now (Niantic/Capcom)
Terra Nil

Best VR/AR Game

Resident Evil Village VR Mode (Capcom) — WINNER
Gran Turismo 7 (Polyphony Digital/SIE)
Humanity (tha LTD/Enhance Games)
Horizon Call of the Mountain (Guerrilla Games/Firesprite/SIE)
Synapse (nDreams)

Best Action Game

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco) — WINNER
Dead Island 2 (Dambuster Studios/Deep Silver)
Ghostrunner 2 (One More Level/505 Games)
Hi-Fi Rush
Remnant 2 (Gunfire Games/Gearbox Publishing)

Best Action/Adventure Game

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom — WINNER
Alan Wake 2
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Resident Evil 4
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

Resident Evil 4 Remake Review

Best RPG

Baldur’s Gate 3 — WINNER
Final Fantasy XVI
Lies of P
Sea of Stars
Starfield (Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks)

Best Fighting Game

Street Fighter 6 — WINNER
God of Rock (Modus Studios Brazil/Modus Games)
Mortal Kombat 1
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 (Ludosity/Fair Play Labs/GameMill Entertainment)
Pocket Bravery (Statera Studio/PQube)

Best Family Game

Super Mario Bros. Wonder — WINNER
Disney Illusion Island (Dlala Studios/Disney)
Party Animals (Recreate Games)
Pikmin 4 (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
Sonic Superstars (Arzest/Sonic Team/Sega)

Best Sim/Strategy Game

Pikmin 4 — WINNER
Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp (WayForward/Nintendo)
Cities: Skylines II (Colossal Order/Paradox Interactive)
Company of Heroes 3 (Relic Entertainment/Sega)
Fire Emblem Engage (Intelligent Systems/Nintendo)

Best Sports/Racing

Forza Motorsport — WINNER
EA Sports FC 24 (EA Vancouver/EA Romania/EA Sports)
F1 23 (Codemasters/EA Sports)
Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged (Milestone)
The Crew Motorfest (Ubisoft Ivory Tower/Ubisoft)

Best Multiplayer

Baldur’s Gate 3 — WINNER
Diablo IV
Party Animals
Street Fighter 6
Super Mario Bros. Wonder

Most Anticipated Game

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Square Enix) — WINNER
Hades II (Supergiant Games)
Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth (Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio/Sega)
Star Wars Outlaws (Massive Entertainment/Ubisoft)
Tekken 8 (Bandai Namco/Arika)

Content Creator of the Year

IronMouse — WINNER
PeopleMakeGames
Quackity
Spreen
SypherPK

Best Esports Game

Valorant (Riot Games) — WINNER
Counter-Strike 2 (Valve)
Dota 2 (Valve)
League of Legends (Riot Games)
PUBG Mobile (LightSpeed Studios/Tencent Games)

Best Esports Athlete

Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok (League of Legends) — WINNER
Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut (CS:GO)
Max “Demon1” Mazanov (Valorant)
Paco “HyDra” Rusiewiez (Call of Duty)
Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk (League of Legends)
Phillip ”ImperialHal” Dosen (Apex Legends)

Best Esports Team

JD Gaming (League of Legends) — WINNER
Evil Geniuses (Valorant)
Fnatic (Valorant)
Gaimin Gladiators (Dota 2)
Team Vitality (Counter-Strike)

Best Esports Coach

Christine “potter” Chi (Evil Geniuses – Valorant) — WINNER
Danny “zonic” Sorensen (Team Falcons – Counter-Strike)
Jordan “Gunba” Graham (Florida Mayhem – Overwatch)
Remy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam (Team Vitality – Counter-Strike)
Yoon “Homme” Sung-young (JD Gaming – League of Legends)

Best Esports Event

2023 League of Legends World Championship — WINNER
Blast.tv Paris Major 2023
EVO 2023
The International Dota 2 Championships 2023
VALORANT Champions 2023

Players’ Voice

Baldur’s Gate 3 — WINNER
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Libery
Genshin Impact
Spider-Man 2
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

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Everything You Need to Know About The Game Awards 2023: When and How to Watch in India, Nominees, and More

The Game Awards is back for its 2023 edition, signalling that time of the year when the industry and fans gather together to celebrate the best in video games. Marking the 10th iteration of the Geoff Keighley-hosted show, the annual event is held in high regard by developers worldwide, who will be competing in 31 categories that acknowledge games across genres. As usual, the ceremony will be spruced up by big announcements and trailers for upcoming titles, backed by a dedicated musical orchestra conducted by returning composer Lorne Balfe. There haven’t been as many leaks this year, so anticipation is high as gamers keep their fingers crossed hoping for the biggest reveals.

Given how the trailers and awards are spaced out, host Keighley once again expects The Game Awards to run for around three hours, albeit this year, Valve isn’t giving out free Steam Decks every minute to online viewers. Instead, the company is doing a sweepstake to hand out 100 Steam Deck OLEDs (1TB models) to the lucky few — residing in North America, Europe, and select Asian regions — who can all enter once the show goes live. There aren’t any big changes to the nominations this year, but Keighley has confirmed that the creators are moving away from using the ‘World Premiere’ card at the start of their announcements to treat every trailer or first look as ‘great game content.’

Security is also getting tightened, as we’ve seen two instances of stage crashers walking in to interrupt good moments and making absurd comments — the first one occurred during The Game Awards 2022 when Elden Ring lifted the trophy for Game of the Year, while the other occurred at Summer Game Fest, earlier this year. Understandably, Keighley hasn’t gone into the specifics of the beefed-up measures.

The Game Awards 2023: Date and time

The Game Awards 2023 kicks off on Thursday, December 7 at 4:30pm PT/ 7:30pm ET, just like last time. For India, this translates to early morning Friday, December 8 at 6am IST with plans to end at 9:30am — not the most comfortable time to catch up on the biggest gaming event of the year. The first thirty minutes of that runtime will be dedicated to a pre-show, hosted by Sydnee Goodman, serving as a way for smaller developers to showcase their games and content creators to talk about what they’re expecting from the show.

So if you’re only planning to watch the main show, tune in at 5pm PT/ 8pm ET in the US and 6:30am in India.

The Game Awards 2023: How to watch?

The ceremony will be held live from the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles with an in-person audience, but as always, there’s a simultaneous livestream planned. You can watch The Game Awards 2023 for free on its official Twitch and YouTube channels, in addition to major platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), Facebook Live, Steam, TikTok Live, and Instagram Live. Of course, one could also watch it through other gaming livestreamers’ channels, who will have registered to co-stream the event and react to it. Viewers in India can also stream the show live on Disney+ Hotstar, MX Player, Voot, JioTV, and Loco, and can tune into YouTube Gaming for a Hindi-language feed.

Or you can just watch the embedded stream below:

In case you happen to miss The Game Awards live, a VOD will be published soon after the event ends and there are always 4K uploads of the trailers and biggest moments, available individually on its official YouTube channel.

What to expect from The Game Awards 2023?

One of the biggest reasons players tune into The Game Awards is to learn about any upcoming games and have their unrealistically high expectations checked. Larian Studios will finally unveil when Baldur’s Gate 3 will be coming to Xbox, which is still on track for release this month, as promised. The studio was initially facing trouble with incorporating split-screen co-op on the Xbox Series S due to its technical limitations, so it will be interesting to know whether the team decided to ditch it or maintain content parity. There’s also some exclusive Xbox reveals in store for us at The Game Awards, which many are hoping is a tease for Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II news.

Meanwhile, SEGA has been sending letters to fighting game content creators around the world with the quote ‘New Era New Energy,’ promising some exciting stuff. Supermassive Games — best known for the choice-based horror titles like the Dark Pictures anthology — is collaborating with Behaviour Interactive to develop a single-player game based within the universe of Dead by Daylight. Staying with the horror theme, The Outlast Trials developer Red Barrels has planned an ‘important broadcast’ for us. Then, Epic Games prepares to show a trailer for Rocket Racing, a car racing game mode built within Fortnite, featuring all the exaggerated mechanics from Rocket League such as boosting and taking flight. The mode is expected to launch for free on December 8, but the publisher plans to show something at the awards show.

The Game Awards’ official Twitter account briefly teased a Hideo Kojima announcement using a side-eyes emoji, before getting deleted. This could very well be a trailer for Death Stranding 2, which was revealed at last year’s event via a cryptic teaser with returning leads Léa Seydoux and Norman Reedus. So yeah, its game director Hideo Kojima is also expected to make an appearance, having arrived in Los Angeles earlier this week. Fans also expect FromSoftware to drop a trailer and release date for the much-awaited Elden Ring DLC ‘Shadow of the Erdtree,’ announced last year, with hints pointing at a new explorable region and the presence of the Empyrian Miquella. While it was initially believed that the expansion would be out in early 2024, an interview from last week suggests that it’s ‘a little ways off’ but promises new battles and characters.

Reports claim Arkane Studios will showcase its next title at The Game Awards 2023, which is expected to be Dishonored 3 — details of which emerged from the Microsoft v US FTC court proceedings in September. We might also get another glimpse at Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, the untitled Mass Effect game, Tekken 8, Hades 2, and more.

The Game Awards 2023 presenters

To honour the winners, Keighley loves mixing things up by inviting both game industry titans and Hollywood actors. Christopher Judge, who played Kratos in the God of War reboot games, is returning to the stage to present an award this year — presumably for Best Performance, given he was the winner last year. Other standout presenters include Anthony Mackie, whose show Twisted Metal is also competing in the Best Adaptation category; Respawn Entertainment CEO Vince Zampella; and famous DJ and EDM artist Zedd. Besides them, the lead cast of the Fallout series will be making an appearance at The Game Awards 2023 — specifically Ella Purnell, Walton Goggins, and Aaron Moten.

Alan Wake 2 fans are in for a treat as the Poets of the Fall band will be performing a musical piece live on stage, under its in-game alter ego Old Gods of Asgard. And as we all know, Keighley’s love for Muppets knows no bounds, so The Great Gonzo will also be around as a presenter.

The Game Awards 2023 nominees

As mentioned before, The Game Awards 2023 plays host to 31 categories, from which Baldur’s Gate 3 and Alan Wake 2 are tied for eight nominations each, in addition to competing for the prestigious Game of the Year trophy. Other GOTY nominees include The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Resident Evil 4 remake, and Super Mario Bros. Wonder — Keighley is strictly sticking to his six nominations rule, despite an extremely strong year for gaming. There are some strong contenders for Best Adaptation as well, with favourites being HBO’s The Last of Us and The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

The nominee list also sparked some debate on what constitutes an ‘independent game’ when people online noticed that Dave the Diver, the pixelated roguelike about deepsea fishing and selling sushi, was nominated as ‘Best Independent Game.’ The thing is, despite its aesthetic, the game is developed by Mintrocket, which belongs to a massive South Korean publisher Nexon — making it technically not indie. Keighley addressed these concerns in a live Q&A stating that the word ‘indie’ could mean different to different people — “Does independent mean the budget of the game? Does independent mean where the source of financing was? Is it based on the team size? Is it the kind of independent spirit of a game, meaning kind of a smaller game that’s different?”, he said (via Kotaku), adding that the concern is justified.

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Baldur’s Gate 3 ‘Big’ Third Patch Finally Lets You Change Appearance

Baldur’s Gate 3 is prepared to receive its massive third patch, which will finally allow players to change their in-game character’s appearance. Fans have been desperately requesting this feature since launch, and it’s scheduled to go live later tonight, September 22, alongside fixes for the performance issues in the densely-populated Act 3 segment. When the update goes live, the game will add a Magic Mirror to our camp, a stationary tool that can be interacted with to presumably open up a limited version of the creation menu. Patch 3 was originally due on Thursday, but developer Larian Studios decided to take an extra day for ‘thorough testing.’

The Magic Mirror won’t let you entirely change your Tav, preventing you from altering their race and body type, which makes sense given how much it affects relationships with other NPCs and general world interactions. That said, anything that’s appearance-based — hair, makeup, voice, pronouns, and such — can be changed whenever you like. Previously, you were stuck using whatever looks you picked at the start, with no way of fixing it once your Baldur’s Gate 3 journey began. This also means that if you created a short character, you will continue to remain as such till the end — or unless you start a new run. It doesn’t seem like using the mirror requires that you exchange some form of currency either, which is nice.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Review

Larian added that one cannot alter Origin characters such as Karlach, Shadowheart, Gael, and the ilk. “…they’re all very particular about their hair,” the tweet reads, as a joking remark for Astarion the vampire spawn. Patch #3 is also supposed to bring Mac support for Baldur’s Gate 3. Up until now, it’s been accessible via early access, which lacks a ton of content and changes that were present in the final/ main build released on PC, in August. Meanwhile, Larian has been fixing some quest-related issues, specifically of the murderous drow Minthara, whose 1,500+ lines of dialogue were disabled due to a bug. The team also added an alternate ending to the cheerful Tiefling Karlach’s arc, and there are also plans to expand the ending eventually.

As the PS5 version rolled out earlier this month, Larian enabled cross-saves across platforms, letting players carry over their progression from PC to console and vice versa — albeit only the last five save files would be synced. We can assume that Baldur’s Gate 3’s Mac version will be getting the same treatment. Plans for cross-play are also in the pipeline which should help players on different systems be able to engage in online co-op adventures together.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is out now on PC and PS5, while the Xbox Series S/X launch is slated for sometime later this year.

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Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 2 Coming Soon With Performance Fixes, New Ending for Karlach, More

Baldur’s Gate 3’s second patch is right around the corner, with Larian Studios suggesting that it’s a ‘chonky’ one. In a community update post on Steam, the developer revealed that the patch will be focused on improving performance issues, specifically in Act 3, where players have reported laggy cutscenes and stutters when the camera pans around. In addition to fixing bugs that halted quest progression, our companion, the cheerful Tiefling Karlach, will be getting a new optional ending — a closure that is described as ‘fiery’ and ‘poignant’. The lengthy blog post also touches upon some cut content that was discovered recently by data miners, some of which have now been revealed as a consequence of bugs.

One such case is the ruthless drow Minthara’s reactivity in the game, whose dialogue was seemingly heavily cut down and felt inconsequential. Larian has now isolated the ‘very, very stupid’ bug, which prevented about 1,500 lines of content from triggering when necessary and will soon release a fix. “The game is super reactive and there were a couple of bugs that caused some of the companions to not react as they should. And so that felt like the content was not showing up,” Larian CEO Swen Vincke told IGN, adding that her dialogue triggered in previous versions — early access, I’m assuming — and further development caused it to drown out.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Review

The amount of new information data miners extracted caused some to believe that she was supposed to have an origin quest — similar to companions like Astarion or Shadowheart. Vincke assured in the interview that Minthara was just a side character, though once she’s fixed, they might consider doing ‘something extra’ with her. It also appears as if the team is looking into expanding Baldur’s Gate 3’s epilogue, which felt brief and abrupt to most players. As per Larian, the epilogue was heavily trimmed out of fear that the ending cinematics would’ve played out for way too long. The game already has cutscenes that run for over 174 hours. However, due to popular demand, the team will now expand on it, and we’ll get to see its first results starting with patch #2, which introduces a new ending for Karlach that doesn’t end in misery.

Larian Studios is also adding a new ‘Withers’ Wardrobe of Wayward Friends’ feature, which lets you get rid of co-op party members who join your campaign. The developer dropped a funny advertisement for it, which details that you can place any unwanted party members in our NPC skeletal friend’s closet and they’ll be gone. As for whether Baldur’s Gate 3 will feature a physical wardrobe at our camp or if it’s generated when you speak to Withers, only time will tell. Besides that, Larian is also cooking up the option to customise our character’s appearance midway through the campaign, though there’s no release window for it, yet. With each new hotfix and update, third-party mods have had trouble keeping up. So, support for customisation will be added ‘at some point.’

Baldur’s Gate 3 is out now on PC. The PS5 version releases on September 6, while the Xbox Series S/X version is slated for release sometime this year.

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Baldur’s Gate III Is Coming to Xbox This Year After All, but No Split-Screen Co-Op on Xbox Series S

Baldur’s Gate III will be coming to Xbox consoles this year after all. In a tweet, Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke confirmed that he and Xbox head Phil Spencer had found a solution to bring the critically acclaimed CRPG to Microsoft’s current-gen consoles. There’s one catch though: the game won’t support split-screen co-op on the less-expensive Xbox Series S — a feature the developer has been struggling to enable for months now, thanks to the technical limitations of the console. In fact, to maintain parity of features between Baldur’s Gate 3 on the Xbox Series S and X, Microsoft even sent engineers from their side to help out Larian.

“Super happy to confirm that after meeting [Spencer] yesterday, we’ve found a solution that allows us to bring Baldur’s Gate 3 to Xbox players this year still, something we’ve been working towards for quite some time,” Vincke’s tweet reads. The aforementioned change does not affect the regular online co-op, in which you can invite friends to help out with your campaign. However, rolling multiple characters on the same system (lower-end) is what’s causing the issue for Larian — especially, when all party members run off in four directions, start hurling spells, and stress the console. That’s a lot of on-screen activity on a single screen and in Vincke’s words from a recent interview, “That requires memory.”

That lack of memory has to do with Microsoft making the Xbox Series S more affordable, which naturally comes with the caveat of reduced performance. Larian confirmed, earlier this month, that the lack of an Xbox release date for Baldur’s Gate 3 wasn’t due to some exclusivity deal with PlayStation, but rather because they were struggling to maintain parity between both consoles on the Green Team. Microsoft’s policy enforces gameplay feature parity between Xbox Series S and X, so players with the lower-end console aren’t left out. As for whether Microsoft is making an exception for Baldur’s Gate 3 or lifting the rule entirely for upcoming games in the generation, remains to be seen.

Speaking to IGN, Spencer claimed that he didn’t see a world where his team was going to drop the Xbox Series S any time soon, but added that Microsoft would learn from the situation. “I don’t think you’ve heard from us or Larian, that this was about parity. I think that’s more that the community is talking about it,” he said, adding that parity between systems was more of a developer decision. “It’s a game I want to see on the platform, and we have resources that helped in terms of making sure it’s going to… I think they’ve said it’s going to ship by the end of the year.” In the tweet, Vincke also confirmed that the Xbox version will have cross-progression between Steam and Xbox Series S/X, so you can jump between platforms and continue from where you left off.

Larian Studios also dropped their promised first patch for Baldur’s Gate 3, which addresses over 1,000 bugs and balancing issues, in addition to fixing the kissing contact for shorter races. Earlier, the animation made it look like your short character, who couldn’t reach their romantic interest, was simply leaning in and kissing their chest. Now, if you’re not tall enough, your partner will kneel down to make contact. You can check out the entire list of changes on the official website. Meanwhile, the studio will continue working on a second patch, which will include ‘significant performance improvements’ (for Act 3 content, I’m assuming).

Baldur’s Gate 3 is out now on PC. The PS5 version releases on September 6, while the Xbox Series S/X version is slated for release sometime this year.

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Baldur’s Gate III First Patch Will Include Over 1,000 Fixes, Changes to Character Customisation in Works

Baldur’s Gate III is prepared to receive its first patch and by the looks of it, it seems like a huge one. Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke confirmed a roadmap on Twitter, promising to fix issues and make relevant tweaks to ability balances, based on user suggestions. First up, is hotfix #4, which would make some emergency fixes to crashes and progressions blocks, in addition to any bugs that hinder the general interface. That will be followed by the massive patch, boasting over 1,000 fixes, followed by patch 2, which will ‘incorporate some requests.’ It’s unclear what those requests could be, but we already know that the team is planning an update that would let players change their character’s appearance mid-game.

That claim comes from Michael Douse, Director of Publishing, Larian Studios, who responded to a fan’s tweet requesting the ability to change their look in the game. Once you lock in a suited appearance at the start of your Baldur’s Gate 3 journey, the game simply doesn’t let you change it — forcing you to stick with whatever tattoos, hairstyle, or makeup you chose, leading up to the end game. This does not seem to be the case with character classes, which you can respec by simply interacting with the NPC Withers at your campsite in exchange for 100 gold pieces. It’s a wild anomaly for a role-playing game, considering how much customisation is present in other aspects of the game — some even tied to story elements. I’m going to assume that this has to do with hard coding one’s appearance to work flawlessly with all cutscenes from the moment they were created.

Another reason I could think of why a person would want to change their appearance has to do with its lighting effects, where any punkish colours such as teal or pink might look fine in the character creation screen, but once they’re set against the game’s environment, it ends up looking way too dull or bright. When Larian does implement the update in the future, I feel like there are more creative ways to do it. For instance, instead of opening a menu or interacting with an NPC, we can walk over to the rogue Astarion’s tent and use his mirror to change our appearance — akin to the mirror at the Roundtable Hold in Elden Ring. I think it would also be great if there are no limits to how often you can change your looks or if it doesn’t ask for any in-game currency or consumables for it.

The newest hotfix (#3) makes it so that your dog Scratch now finds digging spots by himself, in addition to resolving several bugs in Act 3, some of which prevented game completion. Since its launch, earlier this month, Baldur’s Gate 3 has become a quick success, garnering 875,343 peak concurrent players on Steam, cementing its position as the ninth-highest-ranking PC game, sitting right beneath Hogwarts Legacy. In an interview, Larian boss Svencke claimed that since the RPG was already playable in early access for three years, he believed that the game had already peaked. For this reason, he was expecting the full launch to break only 100,000 players, only to be surprised with eight times the amount.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is out now on PC. The PS5 version releases September 6, while the Xbox platforms might not see a release before 2024.

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