DICE Awards: The full list of winners from gaming's Oscars
Oh, and they locked us in a room and force-fed us chicken on a stick, so basically it was your standard awards show.
First, for the awards that mattered: Both Al Alcorn and Ralph Baer were honored with the Academy of Interactive Arts and Science's Pioneer Award. Alcorn nabbed his for his work at Atari (namely on Pong) and Baer's son accepted a posthumous award for the invention of the home video game console. Both wins were long overdue.
Other than that the night was pretty much cinched up by a trifecta of Shadow of Mordor (eight awards), Destiny (four), and Hearthstone (two). Oh, and Dragon Age: Inquisition, which swooped in to pull off a last-minute Game of the Year upset victory. The crowd literally gasped.
It was a big booming spectacle of an awards show that had some spot-on choices and some that were pretty questionable. (Destiny beating Wolfenstein: The New Order for Action Game Come on. Come on.)
Basically, it was an awards show. Here's the full list of winners:
Adventure Game of the Year--Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor Family Game of the Year--LittleBigPlanet 3Mobile Game of the Year--HearthstoneHandheld Game of the Year--Super Smash Bros. 3DSOutstanding Achievement in Animation--Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor Outstanding Achievement in Art--Monument ValleyOutstanding Technical Achievement--Middle Earth: Shadow of MordorOutstanding Achievement in Online--DestinyRPG/MMO Game of the Year --Dragon Age: InquisitionStrategy Game of the Year--HearthstoneOutstanding Achievement in Music Composition--DestinyOutstanding Achievement in Sound Design--DestinyOutstanding Achievement in Narrative--Middle Earth: Shadow of MordorOutstanding Achievement in Character--Middle Earth: Shadow of MordorOutstanding Innovation in Gaming --Middle Earth: Shadow of MordorSports Game of the Year--FIFA 15 Racing Game of the Year--Mario Kart 8Fighting Game of the Year--Super Smash Bros. WiiUAction Game of the Year--DestinySprite Award--TransistorOutstanding Achievement in Game Design--Middle Earth: Shadow of MordorOutstanding Achievement in Game Direction--Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year--Dragon Age: Inquisition
Reminder: The DICE Awards are voted on by members of the Academy and sort of directly compete with The Game Awards in December and the GDC Awards in March to see who can come out the most prestigious. We'll have corresponding coverage of said GDC Awards (and the IGF Awards) in a few weeks.
In the meantime, check out PCWorld's best PC games of 2014 for the PC-exclusive games we loved.