DICE: God of War wins Game of the Year

by James Ransom-Wiley { Feb 10th 2006 at 5:00PM }

Just hours after David Jaffe criticized the industry for a lack of creativity, his acclaimed action/adventure title, God of War, took home top honors at the 9th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards. The AIAS Game of the Year award had been called into question last month after Resident Evil 4 and Psychonauts were not nominated due to a technicality.

In January, Jaffe wrote on his blog that he hoped his game would win one or two awards, noting that "the D.I.C.E. Awards (along with the GDC Awards) really are the Oscars of gaming in that they are awards that peers give to peers." God of War did not win two awards. It won seven.

List of all award winners (via GameDailyBIZ):

Overall Game of the Year
God of War (SCEA, SCEA-Santa Monica)

PC Game of the Year
Battlefield 2 (Electronic Arts, Digital Illusions)

Console Game of the Year
God of War (SCEA, SCEA-Santa Monica)

Outstanding Innovation in Gaming
Guitar Hero (Red Octane, Harmonix)

Outstanding Achievement: Animation
God of War (SCEA, SCEA-Santa Monica)

Outstanding Achievement: Art Direction
Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment America)

Outstanding Achievement: Soundtrack
Guitar Hero (Red Octane, Harmonix)

Outstanding Achievement: Original Music Composition
God of War (SCEA, SCEA-Santa Monica)

Outstanding Achievement: Sound Design
God of War (SCEA, SCEA-Santa Monica)

Outstanding Achievement: Story and Character Development
Call of Duty: Big Red One (Activision, Treyarch)

Outstanding Achievement: Gameplay Engineering (TIE)
Nintendogs (Nintendo, Nintendo EAD)
Guitar Hero (Red Octane, Harmonix)

Outstanding Achievement: Online Game Play
Battlefield 2 (Electronic Arts, Digital Illusions)

Outstanding Achievement: Visual Engineering
Shadow of the Colossus (SCEA, SCEI)

Outstanding Achievement: Game Design
Guitar Hero (Red Octane, Harmonix)

Outstanding Character Performance: Male
God of War (SCEA, SCEA-Santa Monica)

Outstanding Character Performance: Female
Jade Empire (Microsoft, BioWare)

GENRE AWARDS

Sports Game of the Year
SSX On Tour (Electronic Arts, EA Canada)

First-Person Action Game of the Year
Battlefield 2 (Electronic Arts, Digital Illusions)

Role-Playing Game of the Year
Jade Empire (Microsoft, BioWare)

Fighting Game of the Year
Soul Calibur III (Namco)

Action/Adventure Game of the Year
God of War (SCEA, SCEA-Santa Monica)

Racing Game of the Year
Need for Speed: Most Wanted (Electronic Arts, EA-Vancouver)

Children's Game of the Year
We Love Katamari (Namco)

Downloadable Game of the Year
Wik: Fable of Souls (Microsoft, Reflexive)

Family Game of the Year
Guitar Hero (Red Octane, Harmonix)

Simulation Game of the Year
The Movies (Activision, Lionhead Studios)

Strategy Game of the Year
Civilization IV (2K Games, Firaxis)

Massively Multiplayer/Persistent World Game of the Year (TIE)
City of Villains (NCsoft, Cryptic Studios)
Guild Wars (NCsoft, ArenaNet)

Handheld Game of the Year
Nintendogs (Nintendo, Nintendo EAD)

Cellular Game of the Year
Ancient Empires II (Glu Mobile)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jesse @ Feb 10th 2006 5:13PM

im sorry mr Jaffe but Resident Evil 4 is better than God of War

Dan Choi @ Feb 10th 2006 5:15PM

Five wins for Guitar Hero. Sweet. Now for the GDC Awards! =)

Tony @ Feb 10th 2006 5:19PM

WTF??!!! Where's Resident Evil 4!!! All together now....LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAME!

Black Guy @ Feb 10th 2006 5:38PM

If he is a "God of War", why is he wearing butterfly bandages?

osrevad @ Feb 10th 2006 5:46PM

Where is RE4 on that list? wtf kind of awards who is this?

Robert @ Feb 10th 2006 5:55PM

"He" isn't a god of war. "He" needs bandages because he's mortal. And "He" was in an awesome game that I really hope goes multi-platform for its next iteration. Although it would be a great excuse to buy a PS3...

kizza @ Feb 10th 2006 6:21PM

"im sorry mr Jaffe but Resident Evil 4 is better than God of War"

I'm sorry mr jesse, thats your opinion...Your entitled to it & I will agree that resi evil 4 is a classic.... But basically it has a 4 on the end of it....God of War is an original title, & in my humble opinion, a new classic should be rewarded over an old classic.....

After all resi evil 4 may have faster enemies & better graphics...... but the awkward, non instinctive, non fluid gameplay has remained the same for too long.

God of war is better for mine, & the character is one of the best, meanest anti heroes I've seen in a game or movie for a while. (excluding marve from sin city)

2mellow @ Feb 10th 2006 6:32PM

resident evil 4 wasn't submitted by capcom. If it was i'm sure it would have won

distrbnce @ Feb 10th 2006 6:47PM

God of War is part of Sony's brilliant first-party lineup.

It's not going anywhere.

(Same with Guitar Hero and Shadow of the Colossus)

elmer @ Feb 10th 2006 6:47PM

Neither of those mentioned titles were nomianted because this award requires companies to pay to enter.

That's right, pay to get your credit.

Majesco I believe didn't have enough money at the time and Capcom to paraphrase said "Why the hell should we? Our games don't have to be merrited by this arbitrary society, as their quality speaks for themeselves"

I wonder which other companies aren't members

Mike @ Feb 10th 2006 6:55PM

God of Invisible Walls. God of In-game Camera Issues.

Good game, but it's not in my top 5 for this past year. The game starts off so strongly, but by then end, it felt like I was ready for it to be over.

Elle @ Feb 10th 2006 7:03PM

I rented it, but it's just another action platformer. Are there some sort of sick unlocks or something that I missed?

Elle @ Feb 10th 2006 7:06PM

Also, how did Jade Empire win outstanding female character performance? Which character were they talking about? It can't be the non-speaking three female main characters.

Sean D. @ Feb 10th 2006 7:22PM

#5, as the game was produced by Sony, I don't think God of War has a chance to go multiplatform.

I personally prefered God of War to Resident Evil 4- great old school feel, great story to tie it all together, awesome graphics, great replayability, compelling bonus features, and the best first level ever.

James @ Feb 10th 2006 7:46PM

What is the sales figures and review ratings for God of War in Japan?

BlackYoshi @ Feb 10th 2006 8:35PM

"13. What is the sales figures and review ratings for God of War in Japan?

Posted at 7:46PM on Feb 10th 2006 by James "

Famitsu gave it a total of 35 out of 40 (a damn good score from them.) Sales, I don't know where to find. But this was a mortal lock. With Zelda pushed out into 2006 and RE4 not eligible due to technicalities (not being a member of the academy. Oops, Capcom.), this was just a foregone conclusion.

Pince @ Feb 10th 2006 9:01PM

It is simply disappointing that throughout the whole list of awards, God of War and Guitar Hero took almost all that they could. This is not to say that they are not amazing games, but, because of technicalities that have been brought up, there are a lot of games which seem to have been completely overlooked. It just looks like they were dealing with a very small list of nominees when there have been many more great games that were simply never ellible. It makes the competition seem a little shallow.

Pince @ Feb 10th 2006 9:03PM

* that were simply never eligible

I couldn't see it any other way @ Feb 10th 2006 11:42PM

There's really very little competition. And yes, I have RE4 (for Gamecube).

I played God of War through on regular level, expert level and even God mode. I only did so because each time I'd bring it out to show it to someone how good it was, I'd begin a game on the new level and I couldn't stop playing it. One friend even stayed and watched me play for 5 hours. The only other time I saw that happen was when I was the one watching for 5 hours as a friend played Civilization (I). God of War is about in that league.

RE4 is good, don't get me wrong. But it's not nearly as good.

I'm not sure which has better graphics. I guess the polys are smoother in RE4. But the monsters in general are better looking in GoW, and the bosses are FAR better. And the monsters are just so interesting to look at and fight in GoW. And did I forget to mention you can grab a monster and swing him round in circles, taking his cohorts out too? That never gets old. If I didn't have my copy of GoW out on loan right now, I'd go play it again.

I guess I'll play Psychonauts instead. Looking forward to that one.

And that comment that single player gaming is dead? Wow, the industry is going to have to do without my dollars then. I do almost nothing else.

rblaa @ Feb 11th 2006 1:34AM

> 19. ...RE4 is good, don't get me wrong. But it's not nearly as good.

Wierd. I played both and I think the opposite. I liked GoW, knew its excellence intellectually, but couldn't get around to finishing it after first seeing Ares for the first time. There was something about the animation that abruptly seemed cheesey to me.

I still mean to finish it one of these days.

For me the style of RE4 was cooler. I think its horror-movie vibe, its fanatical attention to detail throughout, from beautiful imagery to corny dialog to the loud and varied weapons, was a sign of true love by its creators. The variety of game play was simply overwhelming and excellently done every step of the way.

OTOH, GoW gets those blades just so *right*.

hello world @ Feb 11th 2006 6:27AM

outstanding animation? god of war? gimme a break!!!that game has the worst animation i've ever seen! jeez... have you ever seen kratos double-jump? *vomits*

okay, maybe i over reacted a bit there... but still, that just can't get a best animation awards, it's just not right, and it's plain disturbing not seeing RE4 nominated as anything... cos eventhough i had a blast playing GoW, i personally think that RE4 is lot better.

Joe @ Feb 11th 2006 8:55AM

david jaffe seriously is the biggest douchebag in the entire gaming industry. The only reason his game won anything is because Sony had enough money to be apart of the academy.

i'm sorry, but if the AIAS awards must be figuratively bought (I wonder what Sony would do if they didn't win, pull funding? Such a conflict of interests), then Spike's VGA awards are FAr more credible. I actually give Spike a lot of credit because not only did they give RE4 game of the year, but they even had Hiroyuki Kobayashi come to the show, with a Japanese translator.

Even with Spike, I think the biggest teller of GotY is the GameFaqs poll. And guess who won: RE4.

James @ Feb 11th 2006 6:04PM

Famitsu may have given GoW a 35/40, they also gave DoA4 a 39/40. I think that may be the highest score given to a game by Famitsu all of last year and this year.

Rare Hare @ Feb 12th 2006 1:03PM

ok.. when i'm playing either God of War or Resident Evil 4, i'm thinking at the time that the one i'm currently playing just HAS to be better than the other. they're both just so awesome.

but God of War is the one that really game me that old sense of _gaming_. i mean.. there's nothing to describe what i felt after stringing together a 70 hit combo on Medusa on Hard difficulty.

GoW also throws in what interests present day gamers as well. the environments, while not free-roaming, don't have the feeling of being so offensively linear as do those of RE4.

don't get me wrong.. Resident Evil 4 is definately one of the most intense experiences ever created for a console, but it just doesn't *quite* match up to the gaming greatness that is God of War. In my opinion, of course.

moving on. for those of you saying that RE4 wasn't up for nomination because of Capcom's lack of money.. *REALITY CHECK*. Capcom is a huge company. they have lots of money. the only thing keeping Resident Evil 4 out of the nominations was Capcom itself. they decided against it. so obviously it doesn't mean that much to them, anyway.

Adam @ Mar 8th 2006 5:46PM

God of War is a technical marvel for such an aged system (by today's standards). The sheer amount of artwork and action make it hands down the game of the year. I applaud David Jaffe's work, and look forward to the sequel. The story is brilliant, and the voice acting superb.