NEW YORK, Feb 15 — Australian-made Untitled Goose Game made off with the accolades for Outstanding Achievement in Character, Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game, and Game of the Year at the 23rd Annual DICE Awards held on February 13, 2020.
Players direct a naughty goose in a genteel British village, ticking off a to-do list of daily disruptions.
It debuted on Nintendo Switch, Mac, and PC in September 2019 with a PlayStation 4 and Xbox One release in December.
Also lauded by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences’s game industry membership was Control, the paranormal action game from Finnish studio Remedy Entertainment.
Players are thrust to the frontlines of a war against alien entities that have invaded the Federal Bureau of Control’s shapeshifting headquarters.
Released in August across PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC, Control collected the DICE awards for Game Direction, Art Direction, Original Music Composition, and Game of the Year subcategory Action Game of the Year.
PlayStation exclusive Death Stranding (due on PC mid-2020) was the ceremony’s other multi-award winner, crowned for Technical and Audio Design achievements.
In mobile, Sayonara Wild Hearts won Portable Game of the Year, having debuted as part of Apple Arcade launch on iOS (and also released on PS4, Switch and, later, PC); Nintendo’s Mario Kart Tour for Android and iOS won Racing Game of the Year.
DICE academy members also celebrated Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (PS4 XBO PC) as Adventure Game of the Year, The Outer Worlds (PS4 XBO PC; NS in 2020) as Role-Playing Game of the Year, Fire Emblem: Three Houses (NS) as Strategy or Simulation Game of the Year, Mortal Kombat 11 (PS4 NS XBO PC) as Fighting Game of the Year, FIFA 20 (PS4 NS XBO PC) as Sports Game of the Year, and the free Apex Legends (PS4 XBO PC) as Online Game of the Year.
Nintendo mascot Mario popped up again for Family Game of the Year through Super Mario Maker 2 (NS), and his brother topped the Animation category in Luigi’s Mansion 3 (NS).
The word-swapping, rule-remaking puzzle Baba Is You (PC NS) won Game Design, PistolWhip won Immersive Reality Game of the Year, and Blood and Truth won Immersive Reality Technical Achievement.
Disco Elysium (PS4 XBO PC), an absorbing role-playing game about solving murder cases in a failed city-state, scooped four accolades at the glitzy Game Awards in December 2019 and did not leave DICE empty-handed. It collected the Outstanding Achievement in Story award, and now moves on to contest Best Debut, Best Narrative and the Innovation Award at the Game Developer Conference Awards in March.
There, Untitled Goose Game is once more in the running for Game of the Year, alongside Death Stranding, Control, fellow DICE finalist Outer Wilds, and medieval Japanese action game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. — AFP-Relaxnews
