Elden Ring and God of War: Ragnarok win big at

The 2022 DICE Awards (opens in new tab) were handed out last night, and much of it came down to a slugfest between two predictable behemoths, Elden Ring and God of War: Ragnarok. In the end, it was basically a draw: God of War won seven awards compared to five for Elden Ring, but Elden Ring came away with the gold for Game of the Year.

Tim Schafer of Double Fine Productions was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences’ Hall of Fame at the event “for his amazing contributions to the video game industry over his illustrious 30+ year career,” the AIAS said. Schafer apparently biffed his acceptance speech.

And now I spelled Klingon wrong. This just keeps getting worse. February 24, 2023

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Most of the award winners aren’t surprising, given the way 2022 was dominated by Elden Ring and God of War, although I do have to wonder how God of War ended up classified as an adventure game—and, to a (slightly) lesser extent, take issue with Elden Ring taking the RPG of the Year title. Games aren’t automatically RPGs just because they’ve got swords and some magic, you know?

(And yes, Elden Ring is in our list of the Best RPGs in 2022 (opens in new tab), too. I’m taking that up with management.) 

Vampire Survivors claimed Action Game of the Year, a big win for a tiny indie, and Dwarf Fortress, which has been around since 2006, won Strategy/Simulation of the Year on the strength of its 1.0 release that landed in December. 

The one mildly disappointing outcome was in the Fighting Game of the Year category, which went to MultiVersus. I have no beef with MultiVersus, for the record, but I was really pulling for Rumbleverse (opens in new tab), the pro rasslin’ battle royale that’s being shut down on February 28, just six months after it launched. The shutdown is inevitable at this point but it would have been nice to see Iron Galaxy get some public kudos and a little gold before it happens.