PC port? Halo: Reach?

South by Southwest (or "SXSW" or just "South by" if you're particularly with-it) has put an increasing emphasis on video games over the past few years. The famous Austin-based festival has its roots in music, but it eventually expanded to film and other mediums. Video games are now a very regular part of SXSW.

Halo and developer 343 Industries will be at SXSW with a Halo Championship Series Invitational tournament. However, 343 has non-esports plans too. On its SXSW events page, 343 says (in intentionally-bolded font) "We've also got some exciting [Master Chief Collection] news to reveal during the show."

The Master Chief Collection has been steadily improving after a rocky launch. Now that it has 4K resolution, HDR support, and LAN support, what could be on the horizon? Feasibly, just two things: A PC release or the inclusion of Halo: Reach. Let the speculation run rampant??. We'll get the a??nswer on the weekend of March 15.

HCS Invitational at SXSW [Halo Waypoint]

The post 3?43 Industries has a Master Chief Collection announcement saved for S?XSW appeared first on Destructoid.

Screen time

(This review was originally published as part of Flixist SXSW 2018 coverage.)

Blumhouse is on a roll right now. They're making some of the biggest hits in horror, and, of course just pulled in an Academy Award nomination for Get Out. That's why I was really excited when an untitled Blumhouse horror film was going to open the midnight?? screeners at SXSW. 

What the untitled surprise film was was a spiritual sequel to Unfriended, the horror film that took place entirely on a laptop screen. That movie turned out surprisingly well despite being based entirely on what can only be called a gimmick, but it looks like Blumhouse wants to take this gimmick and turn it into another anthology of horror films about people getting murdered while on their computers. After seeing the new film, Unfriended: Dark Web, I'm not entirely against the idea.

Unfriended: Dark Web
Director: Stephen Susco
Rated: R
Release Date: July 20, 2018

The movie plays much like its predecessor, completely locked into a single computer screen where chat videos, social media, and other apps pop up as terror is struc?k on an unwitting group of friends. Other than thematically, the movie is completely separate from the original. In this film Matias (Colin Woodell) finds a laptop at a coffee shop he works at, and after it isn't claimed he decides to take it home so he can have a computer that doesn't suck, and also finish working on an app that helps him talk with his deaf girlfriend. However, upon opening it to start up game night with his friends over Skype he discovers its actually owned by a killer who works for a group of people that pay to watch murders live. You can imagine how things unfold from there.

The key to these films, it is now clear, is to keep them short and sweet so that the gimmick doesn't wear thin, and the single screen focus doesn't get old. Dark Web understands this clearly and plays short and sweet. There are moments, much like in the first one, where the hackers ability are somewhat godlike, and don't make much sense, but that's a pretty standard trope in most horror films. In fact the limited views, and fixed cameras actually add to some of the horror that is going on. Your inability to know what??'s happening anywhere but on the screen ramping the horror up since, as many horror movies forget, its often what you can't see that's the scariest.

The film plays out in real time, and the actors basically did everything in one continuous shot, which is impressive. It adds an air of a horrific stage play to the proceedings or maybe even a Hitchcockian element. Not that the tension or quality ever rises to the level of the greatest suspense director in?? history, but it has flavors of his work that are quite welcome. This functions more as a thriller than a horror really, with the suspense built around the situation and not impending death (though there is plenty of that).

The unfolding mystery of who is behind everything and why they're terrorizing this group of friends is the films weakest point. While it starts out somewhat compelling things start to get a little silly by the end, and the bare bones narrative struggles as they try to put meat on it. But it really doesn't need the meat, it's bones are strong enough. As such things get a little too contrived by the end, and the film loses both its narrative and structural components. Despite this it can still stick with you a bit, especially when you come home and boot up your computers. The ubiquity of the computer screen in our everyday lives leads to a level of simmering fear from the film that you don't fi??nd that often.

Dark Web is a surprisingly welcome sequel. It's not going to be a horror classic, but it plays with its concept enough to feel lik??e its different from the original. I'm not sure how long Blumhouse can stretch the idea out into a full fledged horror franchise, but for now the gimmick still works. 

The post Review: Unfriended: Dark Web appeared first on Destructoid.

Insert nerdy culture reference here

I've used the "insert X here" sub-header joke before, and now I really wish I hadn't because in other instances it was just a joke, but in the case of Ready Player One, Stephen Spielberg's new film based on the insanely popular book of the same name, it is so insanely appropriate that it isn't a joke at all. The film is nothing but inserted cultural references, a mash of quick cuts to all your favorite ch?aracters that you're supposed to freak out seeing next to each other on screen.

That's not always a bad thing. There can be a certain magic to using cultural references, pulling in something that makes the audience connect because they know that you get a joke, know a character or are just showing off your nerd cred. That can be fun and even emotionally effective. Ready Player One is none of these things, really, and it suffers instead of succeeds because of its desperate need to show off that it "gets it??." It's kind of like that time in [insert culture ?reference here].

Ready Player One
Director: Stephen Spielberg
Rated: PG-13
Release Date: March 29, 2018

The book and the film Ready Player One are two very different beasts, which was probably necessary, ??but makes the film function very differently. I enjoyed the book, and tore through it. It's kind of like a nerdy, early Dan Brown novel; its not high art, and you see the tricks its pulling, but you can't put it down. In the film version, the world has fallen onto hard times, and everyone has basically given up and are using a VR system called Oasis to escape from r??eality. In Oasis, you can be anyone and do anything, so obviously people want to do that instead of live outside in the crappy real world.

Enter Wade Owen ??Watts (Tye Sheridan), better known in Oasis as Parzival. He's a Gunter along with his friends Art3mis (Olivia Cooke), Aech (Lena Waithe), Daito (Win Moriski), and Shoto (Philip Zao). Gunters are people searching for the Oasis's creator's Easter egg, a hidden item in Oasis that will give the winner complete control over Oasis itself and a crap-ton of money. There's also an evil c??orporation after this Easter egg as well. See James Halliday, the creator of Oasis, was a reclusive nerd who loved the pop culture of the 80s, so instead of bequeathing his company to someone, he set this game up in Oasis to give it to the right person who also loved what he loved. Thus all the cultural references.

Or so you would think. The film doesn't really play with this idea as well as the book does. While the book could be easily accused of also simply inserting cultural references, it was hooked into Halliday's character as a reason all these things would be there. The movie never has enough time to do so, and a lot of the throwaway cultural references come from things not connected to Halliday at all, and range in time ??periods and genres that don't always seem to make sense. I get that the movie is supposed to be all about these references, but it sadly feels forced for a large chunk of it. Halliday's love of the 80s, and our cultural need for nostalgia, grounded much of the book's prolific references, but the film never builds that world in any way, instead just assu??ming we'll accept the characters inserted in seemingly by a computer programmed to randomly look up things on the Internet.

Forced cultural references aren't the only issue, though. The movie has some pretty serious structural problems. The first, and most obvious, is the fact that its set up needs a ton of exposition to get it going. Spielberg makes the odd choice of front-load??ing almost of all it, meaning the movie doesn't pick up until the first action sequence, and the characters don't really enter in until far too late into the movie. This in turn forces our five heroes to be woefully underdeveloped even for an action movie of this type. Parcival and Art3mis' romantic relationship, for example, is never given the chance to grow, and, much like the cultural references, feels forced in itself.

This isn't to say that everything feels this way. At times the references and pop culture moments work brilliantly. There's an extended sequence inside Stanely Kubrick's The Shining that really has to be seen to be believed. In moments like that the film perfectly blends its story and pop culture into something more. Spielberg almost seems to be struggling against a screenplay that's determ??ined not to help him make the movie work the way it should when this occurs. When he's on point the film can fly, but the movie never lets it take off thanks to its structural issues and dependence on cliche (obviously a bit of an irony since everything about the move is a reference).

Everything is what you'd expect from Spielberg in terms of action as well. The director obviously knows how to handle his blockbuster movies in that sense and this is no different. A race sequence that stands as the film's opening action set piece is visually mind? blowing. It's a tour de force of action crammed full of little (and not so little) movie, gaming, and nerd references, including Spielberg giving a nod to his own movies themselves. The ??action throughout the film works, but its often hampered down by a feeling that the rest of the movie doesn't hold it together very well.

The lead actors are charming enough, though none of them fit into the mold of their book's counterparts. Everyone kind of feels like a Hollywood actor trying to play a nerd. Sheridan and Cooke feel especially out of character as they're both good looking Hollywood stars, not two imperfect nerds. One of the main thrusts of the book is accepting yourself outside of the Oasis's perfection, but a ??lot of that gets lost with these casting choices. It doesn't feel all that dif?ferent for the two characters inside or outside of the Oasis, and there is plenty of action outside of Oasis as our group of heroes fight for their actual lives from IOI, the evil corporation wanting to gain control of the platform.

Maybe I'm being too harsh on a summer blockbuster, but I really wanted the film to work. The cultural references crammed in everywhere should have given the movie heart, but instead they feel like contractual obligations. There are moments that work, and it is in those moments that you get the feeling that Spielberg is actually nerding out with you, that he too cares about the things that are on screen in a deep way. Those moments though are too fa?r between each other, with the rest of the movie feeling like it has to hit a quota of characters from other sources to fulfill the requests of fandom.

I can't say that Ready Player One is a bad movie given Spielberg's ability to deftly weave his action together, and the moments of true nerd fun that do work, but the rest of it just doesn't hold together. By the end of the movie, as Twisted Sisters' "We're Not Going to Take It" burst out of the speakers while the Iron Giant battled MechaGodzilla on the frozen wastelands of DOOM planet and the Delorian from Back to the Future weaved around their feet, all I could think of?? was the fact that most of these references made no sense contextually.

Maybe you won't care,? and can check your brain at the door and just enjoy Spawn running into battle alongside Freddy Kruger. For me, I wanted to feel like the movie cared about these things as much as I do, and it just doesn't for the most part. This obviously can come across as "Angry nerd doesn't like how his beloved things are used,"?? but it isn't that they weren't used in the right way, it's that they weren't used with much care. Nostalgia only works if you care.

The post Review: Ready Player One appeared first on Destructoid.

2017 was one hell of a year

The South by Southwest festivals and conferences have been goi?ng down this past week, once again in Austin, Texas, which includes thi??s year's SXSW Gaming Awards, co-hosted by IGN's Alanah Pearce and Blizzard’s Richard Campbell.

The highlight of the night -- and to be expected at this point -- was definitely the Game of the Year award going to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and, of course, Playerunknown's Battlegrounds going home with a few awards as well. But, my personal highlights include the musical performance going on for f??ive minutes too long and watching the incredible pre-recorded videos ?from Yoko Taro and friends.

As for the awards themselves, it ??was broken down into 24 categories this year and down below you'll find the full list of winners:

Video Game of the Year

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

• Publisher: Nintendo
• Developer: Nintendo

Excellence in SFX

Super Mario Odyssey

• Publisher: Nintendo
• Developer: Nintendo

Excellence in Musical Score

NieR: Automata

• Publisher: Square Enix
• Developer: PlatinumGames

Excellence in Technical Achievement

NieR: Automata

• Publisher: Square Enix
• Developer: PlatinumGames

Excellence in Visual Achievement

Horizon Zero Dawn

• Publisher: Sony Computer Interactive
• Developer: Guerrilla Games

Excellence in Animation

Cuphead

• Publisher: StudioMDHR
• Developer: StudioMDHR

Excellence in Art

Cuphead

• Publisher: StudioMDHR
• Developer: StudioMDHR

Excellence in Convergence

Star Wars Battlefront II

• Publisher: Electronic Arts
• Developer: EA DICE

Excellence in Multiplayer

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds

• Publisher: PUBG Corporation
• Developer: PUBG Corporation

Most Promising New Intellectual Property

Horizon Zero Dawn

• Publisher: Sony Computer Interactive
• Developer: Guerrilla Games

Most Fulfilling Community-Funded Game

Night in the Woods

• Publisher: Finji
• Developer: Infinite Fall

Excellence in Gameplay

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

• Publisher: Nintendo
• Developer: Nintendo

Excellence in Design

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

• Publisher: Nintendo
• Developer: Nintendo

Excellence in Narrative

What Remains of Edith Finch

• Publisher: Annapurna Interactive
• Developer: Giant Sparrow

Matthew Crump Cultural Innovation Award

Doki Doki Literature Club!

• Publisher: Team Salvato
• Developer: Team Salvato

Gamer’s Voice Award Video Game

Battlesloths 2025: The Great Pizza Wars

• Publisher: Rooster Teeth Games
• Developer: Invisible Collective

Gamer’s Voice Award Mobile Game

Tiny Bubbles

• Publisher: Pine Street Codeworks LLC
• Developer: Pine Street Codeworks LLC

Gamer’s Voice Award Tabletop Game

Sol: Last Days of a Star

• Designer: Elephant Laboratories

Gamer's Voice Award Virtual Reality Game

SUPERHOT VR

• Publisher: SUPERHOT Team
• Developer: SUPERHOT Team

Trending Game of the Year

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds

• Publisher: PUBG Corporation
• Developer: PUBG Corporation

Esports Game of the Year

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds

• Publisher: PUBG Corporation
• Developer: PUBG Corporation

Tabletop Game of the Year

Gloomhaven

• Designer: Issac Childres

Virtual Reality Game of the Year

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

• Publisher: Capcom
• Developer: Capcom

Mobile Game of the Year

Fire Emblem Heroes

• Publisher: Nintendo
• Developer: DeNA, Intelligent Systems

For those of you curious what the "Matthew Crump Cultural Innovation Award" is for, it's named after and dedicated to Mat?thew Crump; a SXSW Gaming Expo coordinator and game developer who passed away in 2014. The category is awarded for games that challenge the “norm” of gaming and can deliver a culturally innovative view of the game world, characters, or gameplay.

The post Nintendo cleans house at this year’s SXSW Gaming Awards appeared first on Destructoid.

Rumour refuses to crash 'n' burn

Last week, screen-grabs from a document, purportedly leaked from Sumo Digital, turned up on Resetera. The document showed the British developers were working on a "kart racer" featuring a "Global IP". This led many to surmise that Sumo were in the process of making another Sonic & Sega All-Star Racing title.

Sega's community manager Aaron Webber was quick to squash the rumour, taking to twitter to denounce that a new SART (Sonic/Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed) game was en route. The plot thickens with German website Spindash' recent visit to the Spielwarenmesse toy fair in Nuremberg. At said event, British toy firm Zappies reportedly told Spindash that they were working on a brand new range, to tie-in with an upcoming Sonic racing game.

Of course, none of the above is official confirmation of anything. Some fans have suggested that Webber was being sneakily literal with his tweet, and although he specifically said there wasn't a new "SART" game in the works, perhaps a similar racer??, but with a totally different name, is in development.

At any rate, Sega are holding a Sonic the Hedgehog panel next month at SXSW 2018. So if Sonic, Rose and chums are preparing to hit ??the racet??rack once again, I'm sure we'll be hearing about it soon enough.

Toy firm Zappie suggest new Sonic racer in development [Spindash.de / Sonic Stadium]

The post Toy??-makers add fuel to Sonic All-Star Racing speculation appeared first on Destructoid.

What follows Forces?

Sega have stated that, at March's SXSW conference, a panel will be held to give a "World-exclusive first-look at what comes next" for the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.

The panel, taking place in Austin, TX this Spring, will feature Sega's Jason Hernandez, Aaaron Webber, Takashi Iizuka and Austin Keys, alongside animator Tyson Heese. The panel will look back at the response to 2017's Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces, before unv??????????????????????????eiling plans for the spiky blue blur, for 2018 ??and beyond.

Gotta Go Fast: The Official Sonic the Hedgehog Panel, will take place on March 16 at 15:30 CT. SXSW 2018's gaming section takes p?lace between March 15 and March 17.

The post ‘What comes next’ for Sonic franchise to be revealed at SXSW 2018 appeared first on Destructoid.

Who? Who? Who? Who? Who? Who? Who?

Ohhhh Austin, Texas, don't yo?u d?are be sour! Clap for your South by Southwest Gaming Awards co-host and feel the power! It's Xavier Woods, yes it is!

The New Day's Xavier Woods is?? one half of the hosting team of this year's SXSW Gaming Awards. Woods and Twitch streamer Sonja "OMGitsfiref??oxx" Reed will anchor the event, which takes place on March 18.

Woods is a natural selection for this kind of thing. His YouTube channel UpUpDownDown where he highlights WWE superstars playing video games has grown to be immensely popular. Also, he's a natural?? at talking on the mic, certainly helped in part by the fact th??at he cuts promos to an audience of millions every week.

Picking Woods for the SXSW Gaming Awards almost guarantees that the show will be entertaining. Expect references to Booty-Os and unicorn horns. And, don't be surprised if Francesca 2, Woods' faithful trombone??, shows up as the third co-host.

Xavier Woods to co-host SXSW Gaming Awards [WWE]

The post WWE’s Xavier Woods is co-hosting the SXSW Gaming Awards appeared first on Destructoid.

Motion control for everyone, literally

Are you ready to have a sad? The SXSW Gaming Awards had Banjo and Kazooie on screen being flown through the air via audience participation with the use of motion controls. No new game has been announced from Rare just yet, though the studio is working on something, and this was an experience created just for the show by Audience Entertainment. 

At least we can eventually play the spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie that is currently being developed by ex-Rare staff. Meanwhile, if you're jonesing for other Rare characters you can look forward to playing as Conker in Project Spark, and fighting the Battletoads in Shovel Knight, both good uses of Rare properties ?and just what everyone has been hop?ing for, right?

You can check out the SXSW Gaming Awards replay here about 3 minutes in if you'd like to see the Banjo-Kazooie segment in full, though the audio has bee?n muted by Twitch for copyright purposes.&n?bsp;

Geoff Keighley [Twitter]

The post New Banjo-Kazooie shown at SXSW appeared first on Destructoid.

All of them unannounced, of course

Ubisoft Toronto has five unannounced games in development, two of which are being co-developed with other studios, managing director Jade Raymond revealed at SXSW. "There are def??init??ely a lot of plates spinning," she said at the Austin, Texas-based event.

Previously, Ubisoft Toronto worked on Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist. According to The Star, it sounds like more AAA franchises with transmedia potential are on the cards, which comes as no surprise given that there are multiple movies based on Ubisoft properties in the works, including Assassin's Creed and even the unreleased Watch Dogs.

Still, Raymond said "Our business is making games, so we have to make sure we're making goo??d games, first and foremost. I don't think we can think out the gate, 'How is this going to be a good movie?' I don't know anything about movies. I'v??e never made a movie in my life."

SXSW: Tor??onto videogame queen Jade Ra?ymond won't reveal secrets [The Star]

The post Ubisoft Toronto has five games in production appeared first on Destructoid.

More details on the Telltale and Gearbox mashup

Telltale and Gearbox are talking Tales from the Borderlands at their SXSW panel. From the alcohol fueled conception (just like most of us) to talking protagonists, this lengthy chat has it all. Which is good because the episo?dic adventure is coming out this year.

You'll play as the two characters shown off in the reveal trailer, con artist Fiona and Hyperion man/Handsome Jack-alike Rhys. Because both characters are recalling Tales from the Borderlands in alternating flashbacks, you'll quickly find both narrators to?? be unreliable.

"You never really play what actually happened, you're playing this Big Fish version of what happened," Telltale's Kevin Bruner explained. Telltale's Harrison Pink explained that, like The Walking Dead, you're constantly choosing between awful options in Pandora's amoral frontier. The team is trying to preserve Borderlands' sense of action -- just in a Telltale way, probably more punctuated. Similarly, Telltale is able to go back to its comedic roots, which The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us were lighter on than Borderlands' zany world.

I'm behind on season 2 of The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us, so I'll likely be playing sporadic catch up up until Tales from the Borderlands' release, but I'm still fairly excited for it, even if I never finished Borderlands 2.

The post Tales from Tales from the Borderlands from SXSW appeared first on Destructoid.

Gearbox and Telltale to host

Are you going to SXSW next month? Then you should make it out to Telltale's and Gearbox's panel as they're going to reveal the very first details on Tales from the Borderlands, the?ir recently announced team-up title. Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford, our old friend Anthony Burch, and direc??tor Matthew Armstrong will be there, as will Telltale's Kevin Bruner and Harrison Pink.

The whole shebang will be narrated by The Nerdist N??etwork's Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon. 

The panel i??s scheduled for Saturday, March 8 at 5:30 p.m., on the Geek S??tage.

See you there?

The post Tales from the Borderlands: first details at??? SXSW panel appeared first on Destructoid.

Get in there: voting open now

The first-ever SXSW Gaming Awards have announced the first finalists. These were picked from games that were released in 2013, by industry judges and cool folks such as yours truly. You'll see the usual suspects in the Game of the Year Award, including The Last of Us and Super Mario 3D World. While I know it's not cool to let the world know your nominations, know that I had Fire Emblem Awakening's back on this ballot. 

You can see the full list below or here.

Fans vote on the winners of these awards. The online ballots are open now, and run through February 21. Do your part!

The SXSW Gaming Awards take place on  March 8 at Long Cente?r in Aus??tin. 

Game of the Year Award
Awarded to 2013 indie or mainstream game that exemplifies gaming exce??????????????????????????llence. These games represent the penultimate of gamine achi??evement.

• Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag, Ubisoft
• Bioshock Infinite, Irrational Games
• Grand Theft Auto V, Rockstar Games
• Gone Home, The Fullbright Company
• The Last of Us, Naughty Dog
• Super Mario 3D World, Nintendo of America
• Tearaway, Sony Computer Entertainment America
• Tomb Raider, Square Enix Inc.

Excellence in Gameplay Award Awarded to the 2013 indie or mainstream game that exemplifies excellence in gameplay mechanics. These games are amon?gst the most memorable and fun; the cream of the crop.

• Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, 505 Studios
• The Last of Us, Naughty Dog
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Nintendo of America
• Super Mario 3D World, Nintendo of America
• Tearaway, Sony Computer Entertainment America

Excellence in Art Award
Awarded to the 2013 indie or mainstream game that exemplifies excellence in art. These titles are beautiful, ?engaging, and visually amazing.

• Bioshock Infinite, Irrational Games
• Kentucky Route Zero, Cardboard Computer, LLC
• Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc
• Rayman Legends, Ubisoft
• Tearaway, Sony Computer Entertainment America

Excellence in Animation Award
Awarded to the 2013 indie or mainstream game that exemplifies excellence ?in animation?.

• The Last of Us, Naughty Dog
• Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc
• Super Mario 3D World, Nintendo of America
• Tearaway, Sony Computer Entertainment America
• Tomb Raider, Square Enix Inc.

Excellence in Technical Achievement Award
Awarded to the 2013 indie or mainstream game tha??t exemplifies excellence in technical achievemen??t.

• Antichamber, Demruth
• Grand Theft Auto V, Rockstar Games
• Papa Sangre II, Somthin’Else
• Super Mario 3D World, Nintendo of America
• The Swapper, Facepalm Games

Excellence in Narrative Award
Awarded to the 2013 indie or mainstream game that exemplifies?? excellence in game narrative.

• Bioshock Infinite, Irrational Games
• Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, 505 Studios
• Gone Home, The Fullbright Company
• Kentucky Route Zero, Cardboard Computer, LLC
• The Last of Us, Naughty Dog

Excellence in Design and Direction Award
Awarded to the 2013 indie or mainstream game that exemplifies excellence in design and dir??ection.

• Bioshock Infinite, Irrational Games
• Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, 505 Studios
• Gone Home, The Fullbright Company
• Grand Theft Auto V, Rockstar Games
• Tearaway, Sony Computer Entertainment America

Excellence in Gaming Marketing Award
Awarded to 2013’s most memorable marketing campaign for a game title or hardware or compa??ny.

• Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag, Ubisoft
• Call of Duty: Ghosts, Activision
• Ridiculous Fishing, Vlambeer
• Saint’s Row IV, Deep Silver
• The Stanley Parable, Galactic Café

Excellence in SFX Award
Awarded to the 2013 indie or mainstream game that exemplifies excellence ?game sound effects.

• Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, The Chinese Room
• Battlefield 4, Electronic Arts
• Grand Theft Auto V, Rockstar Games
• Forza Motorsport 5, Microsoft
• The Last of Us, Naughty Dog

Excellence in Musical Score Award
Awarded to the 2013 indie or mainstream game that exemplifies artistic excellence in musical score?? and how it is used to progress the narrative of a game.

• Bioshock Infinite, Irrational Games
• The Last of Us, Naughty Dog
• Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc.
• Tearaway, Sony Computer Entertainment America
• Tomb Raider, Square-Enix

Convergence Award
Awarded to the 2013 indie or mainstream game that exemplifies excellence and pure crossover appeal through?? multiple mediums.

• Injustice Gods Among Us, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
• The Last of Us, Naughty Dog
• LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
• The Walking Dead: Season Two, Episode One: All That Remains -Telltale Games
• The Wolf Among Us, Episode One: Faith - Telltale Games

Cultural Innovation Award
Awarded to the 2013 indie or mainstream game that most challenges the “norm” of everyday gaming and offers a culturally innovative view of a gam??e world, character or gameplay.

• Bioshock Infinite, Irrational Games
• Gone Home, The Fullbright Company
• Guacamelee, Drinkbox Studios
• Papers, Please, 3909 LLC
• Year Walk, Simogo

Best Multiplayer Game Award
A?warded to the 2013 indie or mainstream game that exemplifies excellence in multiplayer gaming.

• Battlefield 4, Electronic Arts
• Call of Duty: Ghosts, Activision
• DOTA 2 (Defense of the Ancients 2), Valve
• StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, Blizzard Entertainment
• Super Mario 3D World, Nintendo of America

Texas Arts Achievement Award Annual ?award a Texas-based studio or company for their achievements in game development, and its role in progressing game development awareness in Texas.

• Arkane Studios
• Galactic Café
• Gearbox Software
• Semi Secret Software
• Bioware / Electronic Arts
• Devolver Digital

SXSW Gamer’s Voice Award
Awarded to the favorite indie game in the Indie Corner Showcase, by gamers on the SXSW Gaming Expo floor

• BROFORCE, Free Lives
• CAVE! CAVE! DEUS VIDET: Episode 0, We Are Müesli
• Deck Around, Deck Around
• Disorder, Swagabyte Games
• Doggins, Brain&Brain
• Drei, Etter Studio
• Ephemerid, SuperChop Games
• Extrasolar, Lazy 8 Studios
• Framed, Loveshack
• Gorogoa, Jason Roberts
• Hermid Crab in Space, Golden Ruby Games
• ibb & obb, Sparpweed
• KAMI, State of Play
• Lost Toys, Barking Mouse
• MirrorMoon EP, Santa Ragione
• Mushroom 11, Untame
• Nidhogg, Messhof LLC
• The Novelist, Orthogonal Games
• Paper Sorcerer, Ultra Runaway Games
• Quadrilateral Cowboy, Blendo Games
• Rollers of the Realm, Phantom Compass Inc.
• Secrets of Rætikon, Broken Rules
• Spin the Bottle: Bumpie’s Party, KnapNok Games
• Sully: A Very Serious RPG, Breadbros Games
• Tengami, Nyamyam
• TYPE: RIDER, ARTE France

The post SX??SW Gaming? Awards finalists announced, fan vote open appeared first on Destructoid.

"We're going to have inventive, creative, exciting content that no one else has"

Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect and Call of Duty may be all the rage these days, but Ouya, the $99 Android-based console, is going after a different market, according to founder Julie Uhrman. When asked if the co??nsole coul?d play current-gen blockbusters, at a SXSW panel, she responded: "Yes, and why would we?"

Ouya, which runs on 1GB of RAM and an Nvidia Tegra 3 chip, has nearly 500 titles confirmed for it, but you're not likely to recognize any of the names. Of the major publishers, only Square Enix stands out which will bring Final Fantasy III (currently available on Android d??evices) to the system. Don't expect any current blockbusters at launch, in other words

"Those experiences are great on those devices. You wouldn't want to  play those games anywhere else,"&?nbsp;? Uhrman said. "But we are going to have exclusive games. ... We're going to have inventive, creative, exciting content that no one else has. At $99, it's not an either-or decision."

And games it certainly will have, though I have concern whether they will be exclusive and noteworthy. Taking a look at the Ouya trailers that are out there, Uhrman will have to show something more impressive than Car Jumper (above) before I invest.

"We're going to have our version of those games, but it's going? to be different," she said. "We will have a first-person shooter ... game that you are going to want to play for hours on end."

Even if the system is just an Xbox 360 that only has access to Xbox Live Indie Games, there may be some fun in plummetin?g into the dept??h of weird, busted games that I'd never hear about otherwise (probably for good reason).

Were you expecting current-gen blockbusters on the Ouya? Is that somet?hing that matters to you?

Here comes Ouya, the $99 gaming console [CNN]

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But that won't stop consoles from selling big

[Update: Keighley has produced another slide in which Pachter p??redicts that "Durango" will be the generation leader because it has a TV tuner and Skype. Also, there?? will be no more publisher bankruptcies. Yeah, fat chance.]

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter most definitely has sweet side, but it's his sour side that's so much fun to talk about. The latest stop in his carnival of flavors is SXSW 2013 in Austin, Texas, where he made the oft-repeated prediction that this latest round of home consoles will be the last we ever see. Of course, he said the exact same thing about this past generation, ??but I'm sure his number is bound to come ?up eventually.

GT.TV's Geoff Keighley was in attendance, snapping photos of Pachter's PowerPoint presentation and uploading them to Twitter. In addition to claiming that PS4 and Xbox "Durango" games will likely retail for $70, despite what Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Jack Tretton insists otherwise, Pachter also offers his thoughts on the quality of tech. Clearly, Wii U is nothing more than a DS split in half and offers no significant potential for software innovation, while the PS4's large RA?M pool means games on that machine will probably be super innovative.

At #SXSW panel @michaelpachter says PS4 and next Xbox games will likely cost 70 dollars, 10 dollars more th??an current gen.

— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) March 9, 2013

Even though console gaming's days are numbered, total hardware sales will remain steady. The Wii U is projected to only hit 30-50 million, down from Wii's roughly 100 million. Based on all its inn??ovative RAM, PS4 will achieve 85-95 million, up from PS3's 73 million. And we know absolutely nothing about "Durango" -- it'll have a TV tuner maybe? -- so of course that ensures another 85-95 million, up from 360's 75 million.

If that's the future of this market sector, it's totally obvious why all the major console manufacturers will jump ship. Those numbers sound terri-bad! Where would?? we be without your awe-inspiring insight, Mr. Pach?

@geoffkeighley [Twitter via NeoGAF]

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More than 10 new games shown at event

Don't you hate people that say "South By" when referring to popular film, music, and interactive festival SXSW? I do. That's kind of like those people that say they have a Facebook. A Facebook what? Account? A ??book of faces? 

Nintendo will be showing off their latest wares at SXSW 2013 this year, and they plan to show off many unreleased Wii U and 3DS games alongside currently available offerings. The event will serve as the U.S. debut for anticipated games like Animal Crossing: New Leaf, HarmoKnight, and Kersploosh!, among others.

The SXSW Gaming Expo is open to the public. It will be open March 8-10 at t??he Palmer Events Center in Austin, Te?xas. Nintendo's booth there will host these demos as well as give away prizes to attendees. 

See? below for the full list of titles to be shown at SWSX.

Wii U game??s and applicat?ions scheduled to be shown include:

• Pikmin 3 from Nintendo
• The Wonderful 101 from Nintendo
• LEGO® City Undercover from Nintendo
• Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate from Capcom
• Need for Speed Most Wanted U from Electronic Arts
• Wii Street U powered by Google from Nintendo
•  New Super Mario Bros. U from Nintendo
•  Nintendo Land from Nintendo

Nintendo 3DS games scheduled to be shown include:

• Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon from Nintendo
• Animal Crossing: New Leaf from Nintendo (guided demonstration)
• LEGO^® City Undercover: The Chase Begins from Nintendo
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity from Nintendo
• Kersploosh! from Nintendo
• HarmoKnight from Nintendo
• Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate from Capcom
• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate from Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc.
• Fire Emblem Awakening from Nintendo

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It's fairly standard: You go to a convention, you get a ton of swag. One of the most pimped-out swag items we've seen so far, though, is this hotness from Killer -- they make high-end network interface cards that help hardcore gamers,? allegedly. So, of course, we want to give this away to you. Here's what y??ou gotta do:

Create a photoshop using any videogame character or personality and put them in a sort of blingy Icy Hot Stuntazz kind of outfit/situation -- post all images below in the comments section, if you can't then send entries my way to robert (dot) summa (at) destruc??toid (dot) com. Top winners get this Killer swag and probably some other extras. Holla! 

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