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Gaming Globes 2000 results

Gaming's answer to the Oscars!

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Image credit: Eurogamer

The movie industry has the Oscars, music has the GRAMMYs, journalism has the Pulitzers, and now the gaming industry has the Gaming Globes!

EuroGamer is proud to unveil the first Gaming Globe awards, recognising excellence in a range of different fields within PC game development, from sound and visual effects, to storyline and overall game design.

Over the past week well over 1,000 gamers from around the world have voted for the Gaming Globe awards, picking from five nominees in each of the fifteen categories. And now it's time to announce the winners, as well as presenting our own staff picks in each of the categories. We also have acceptance speeches from some of the companies that picked up awards this year.

Results

Best Game

Designer

Male Lead Character

Female Lead Character

Male Supporting Character

Female Supporting Character

Art Direction

Cinematography

Character Design

Visual Effects

Original Score

Sound

Adapted Storyline

Original Storyline

Best Foreign Language Game

Summary

Nominees List

Acceptance Speeches

Best Game

The nominees for the Best Game of 1999 were -

Asheron's Call Outcast Quake 3 Arena System Shock II Unreal Tournament

And the winner is... Asheron's Call!

Asheron's Call is a highly addictive massively multiplayer role playing game, featuring a huge dynamic game world to explore, an on-going storyline to keep you hooked, and some of the best graphics seen in a 3D RPG to date.

  Staff Pick

EuroGamer's pick for Best Game of 1999 is .. Unreal Tournament. This multiplayer first person shooter from Epic Games has proven to be a firm favourite with the EuroGamer staff, with a range of innovative game modes, maps and weaponry.

 

Designer

The nominees for the Best Designer category were -

Bruce Shelley (Age of Empires II) Toby Ragaini (Asheron's Call) Franck Sauer, Yann Robert, Yves Grolet (Outcast) Chris Avellone (Planescape Torment) Cliff Bleszinski (Unreal Tournament)

And the winner is... Chris Avellone for Planescape Torment!

Planescape Torment took a darker, more adult approach to the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons system, with an unusual setting, an involving storyline, and a range of bizarre characters. A welcome breath of fresh air for the traditional RPG genre.

  Staff Pick

EuroGamer's pick for the Best Designer category is .. Cliff Bleszinski for Unreal Tournament.

 

Male Lead Character

The nominees for the Best Male Lead Character category were -

Marcellus Faust (Faust) Squall Leonhart (Final Fantasy VIII) Indiana Jones (The Infernal Machine) Cutter Slade (Outcast) The Nameless One (Planescape Torment)

And the winner is... The Nameless One from Planescape Torment!

An amnesiac immortal covered in scars might not be the most obvious choice for a hero, but The Nameless One stood out as one of the most original and involving lead characters of the year.

  Staff Pick

EuroGamer's pick for the Best Male Lead Character category is .. Cutter Slade from Outcast. A sarcastic special forces officer who finds himself alone on an alien world surrounded by people who believe he is their messiah, Cutter was an instant favourite amongst the EuroGamer staff.

 

Female Lead Character

The nominees for the Best Female Lead Character category were -

Lara Croft (Tomb Raider 4) Claire Redfield (Resident Evil 2) April Ryan (The Longest Journey) D'arci Stern (Urban Chaos) Eleyna (Wheel of Time)

And the winner is... Lara Croft from Tomb Raider : The Last Revelation!

Love her or loathe her, you can't ignore her - Lara is everywhere these days. Some would argue that her biggest asset is her sizeable bust, and that more effort went into shaping her buttocks than her character, but Lara picked up both the people's choice and staff pick awards for her starring role in the latest Tomb Raider.

  Male Supporting Character The nominees for the Best Male Supporting Character category were - Horny (Dungeon Keeper 2)Mephistopheles (Faust)David Bowie (Omikron : Nomad Soul)Anthony Xue (Outcast)Morte (Planescape Torment) And the winner is... Morte from Planescape Torment! Planescape Torment picks up another award, this time for the abusive floating skull known as Morte who is the first of the Nameless One's companions to join him in the game.   Staff Pick EuroGamer's pick for the Best Male Supporting Character category is .. Mephistopheles from Faust. A suave and sophisticated demon, Mephisto offers seven people living in the Dreamlands amusement park a range of temptations .. in exchange for their souls.   Female Supporting Character The nominees for the Best Female Supporting Character category were - Mistress (Dungeon Keeper 2)Rinoa Heartily (Final Fantasy VIII)Svetlana Lupescu (Nocturne)Marion Wolfe (Outcast)Annah (Planescape Torment) And the winner is... Annah from Planescape Torment! A streetwise young tiefling woman with a twitching tail and a sharp tongue, Annah is one of only two major female characters in Planescape Torment, but also one of the game's most interesting supporting characters.   Staff Pick EuroGamer's pick for the Best Female Supporting Character category is .. Rinoa Heartily from Final Fantasy VIII. A beautiful and free-spirited young woman who becomes involved with trainee mercenary Squall Leonhart.   Art Direction The nominees for the Best Art Direction category were - Age of Empires IIOutcastPlanescape TormentQuake 3 ArenaUnreal Tournament And the winner is... Planescape Torment! The gritty, grimy, and at times grisly settings for Planescape Torment were beautifully designed and rendered, as well as being highly imaginative, ranging from the chaotic city sprawl of Sigil to the pits of hell itself.   Staff Pick EuroGamer's pick for the Best Art Direction category is .. Outcast. One of the few games released last year to feature a voxel graphics engine, it took full advantage of it to produce a vast and beautiful alien world, with deserts, towns, temples and forests.   Cinematography The nominees for the Best Cinematography category were - FaustFinal Fantasy VIIINocturneOutcastPlanescape Torment And the winner is... Final Fantasy VIII! It's perhaps no surprise that Final Fantasy VIII's gorgeous computer rendered cutscenes picked up both the public choice and staff pick awards.   Character Design The nominees for the Best Character Design category were - NocturneOutcastPlanescape TormentQuake 3 ArenaUnreal Tournament And the winner is... Planescape Torment! After picking up three of the four best character categories, it's perhaps no surprise that Planescape Torment also got Best Character Design. The game featured a wide range of interesting and beautifully drawn and animated characters.   Staff Pick EuroGamer's pick for the Best Character Design category is .. Quake 3 Arena. Quake 3 sported dozens of interesting and intricately detailed player models with a range of beautiful high resolution skins, from hoverboarding punks to eyeballs with legs.   Visual Effects The nominees for the Best Visual Effects category were - Freespace 2NocturneOutcastQuake 3 ArenaUnreal Tournament And the winner is... Quake 3 Arena! In a not entirely unexpected result, Quake 3 Arena won the visual effects category, thanks to its advanced 3D accelerated engine, curved surfaces, and an array of over-the-top weapons effects, as well as the most spectacular gibs yet seen in a game.   Staff Pick EuroGamer's pick for the Best Visual Effects category is .. Outcast. The mix of voxel landscapes and polygonal characters allowed for some beautifully detailed settings and spectacular explosions, and the full-screen anti-aliasing and depth of focus effects made it all look smooth and cinematic, without needing a $600 graphics card to make it work!   Original Score The nominees for the Best Original Score category were - Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy VIII)Paul Ruskay and Roger Savoie (Homeworld)David Bowie (Omikron : Nomad Soul)Lennie Moore (Outcast)Mark Morgan (Planescape Torment) And the winner is... Homeworld! The eerie and atmospheric music of Homeworld made up for the total lack of atmosphere in the rest of the game (it was set in space). [You're fired - Pun Editor]. Seriously though, the music was great and fitted the game perfectly. Staff Pick EuroGamer's pick for the Best Original Score category is .. Lennie Moore for Outcast. The music from Outcast is amongst the best to ever feature in a computer game, and was performed by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. Sound The nominees for the Best Sound category were - David Levison (The Infernal Machine)Kyle Richards (Nocturne)Franck Sauer (Outcast)Tim Haywood (Shadow Man)Epic and Digital Extreme (Unreal Tournament) And the winner is... Unreal Tournament! With its deep chunky weapon sounds, rumbling explosions, and a constant flood of taunts and commentary, Unreal Tournament put your subwoofers to good use and was the clear winner in this category. Staff Pick EuroGamer's pick for the Best Sound category is .. Tim Haywood for ShadowMan. The game might have been something of a disappointment in many ways, but ShadowMan's sound effects and ambient melodies certainly helped reinforce the game's eerie atmosphere. Adapted Storyline The nominees for the Best Adapted Storyline category were - Stephen Carriere, Beryl Chanteux and Hubert Chardot (Faust)Hal Barwood (The Infernal Machine)Chris Avellone (Planescape Torment)Guy Miller and Simon Phipps (Shadow Man)Glen Dahlgren (Wheel of Time) And the winner is... Chris Avellone for Planescape Torment! Set in the bizarre AD&D world of the Planescape, last year's hit RPG featured an involving plot featuring an immortal amnesiac trying to rediscover his past and his identity. Staff Pick EuroGamer's pick for the Best Adapted Storyline category is .. Hal Barwood for Indiana Jones and The Infernal Machine. We've always had a soft spot for Indiana Jones here at EuroGamer, and his latest PC adventure wasn't a disappointment, with Indy searching for an ancient artifact against the backdrop of the Cold War. Original Storyline The nominees for the Best Original Storyline category were - Kazushige Nojima (Final Fantasy VIII)Jason Scott and Mike Breault (Freespace 2)Dave Williams and Marcus Skyler (Homeworld)Franck Sauer, Yann Robert, and Yves Grolet (Outcast)Tom Clancy (Rogue Spear) And the winner is... Dave Williams and Marcus Skyler for Homeworld! Alright, so the plot of Homeworld bore more than a passing resemblance to cult 80s TV series Battlestar Galactica, but the storyline about your base ship searching for the birthplace of your species after your home planet is obliterated was gripping, and kept you guessing as to what you would discover next. Staff Pick EuroGamer's pick for the Best Original Storyline category is .. Franck Sauer, Yann Robert, and Yves Grolet for Outcast. Featuring secret military experiments, an alien culture, black holes, and time dilation, Outcast's story was a firm favourite with the EuroGamer staff. Best Foreign Language Game And last and not least, the nominees for the Best Foreign Language Game category were - Earth 2150Final Fantasy VIIIOdium (aka Gorky 17)The Longest JourneyX : Beyond The Frontier And the winner is... Final Fantasy VIII The process of porting the game from the Playstation to the PC and translating its seemingly endless dialogue from Japanese to English might not have gone as well as it could have done, but the latest entry in the mighty Final Fantasy franchise was a sure-fire favourite, picking up both the public choice and staff pick awards in this category. Summary The biggest winner of the night was undoubtedly Planescape Torment. It had been nominated in nine of the fifteen categories, and at the end of the week it won seven Gaming Globe awards! Meanwhile Outcast dominated the staff pick awards, taking five of them including Best Visual Effects and Best Original Storyline. Here at EuroGamer we feel that the game's relatively poor showing in the public voting was probably mostly due to the game being rather less well known than the other nominees, which is a shame because it truly is an excellent game. Other success stories included Homeworld (which won both of the Gaming Globes it had been nominated for), Final Fantasy VIII (which took two Gaming Globes and three staff picks), and Unreal Tournament (which won Best Sound and a pair of staff picks). The inaugural Gaming Globes have been a big success, and we'd like to thank everybody who took part in them or supported them. We are always looking for suggestions as to what we can do better next year though, so if you have an opinion why not head over to our forums and let us know? Nominees List Here's a full list of all the games that were nominated for Gaming Globe awards this year, with details of their developers and publishers - Age of Empires II Ensemble and Microsoft Asheron's Call Turbine and Microsoft Dungeon Keeper 2 Bullfrog and EA Earth 2150 Topware Faust Arxel Tribe and Cryo Final Fantasy VIII SquareSoft and Eidos Freespace 2 Volition and Interplay Homeworld Relic and Sierra Indiana Jones Lucas Arts Longest Journey Funcom Nocturne Terminal Reality and GOD Odium Metropolis and Topware Omikron : Nomad Soul Quantic Dream and Eidos Outcast Appeal and Infogrames Planescape Torment Black Isle and Interplay Quake 3 Arena id Software and Activision Resident Evil 2 Capcom and Eidos Rogue Spear Red Storm Shadow Man Acclaim System Shock 2 Looking Glass and EA Tomb Raider : TLR Core Design and Eidos Unreal Tournament Epic and GT Interactive Urban Chaos Mucky Foot and Eidos X : Beyond The Frontier EgoSoft and THQ Wheel of Time Legend and GT Interactive Black Isle Studios - Planescape Torment On behalf of the entire Torment Team, we sincerely thank all of you gamers who've voted for us and played Planescape: Torment. We are extremely honored to be nominated for the EuroGamer Gaming Globe Awards, let alone be selected to win them. The games that we were nominated with are fantastic games in their own right, and each just as deserving, if not more so. Lastly, I'd like to say that this game wouldn't have been possible without each and every person on Team Torment: Chris Avellone, Steve Bokkes, Eric Campanella, John Deiley, Jake Devore, Tim Donley, Scott Everts, Yuki Furumi, Jim Gardner, Adam Heine, Guido Henkel, Dave Hendee, Robert Holloway, Derek Johnson, Chris Jones, Nick Kesting, Dave Maldonado, Colin McComb, Brian Menze, Aaron Meyers, Kihan Pak, Gary Platner, Dennis Presnell, Dan Spitzley, Jason Suinn, Scott Warner, and Feargus Urquhart, our tireless Division Director. Then there's the great QA Teams that helped us immensely, kick-ass Audio team, Video, and PR. It was a blast making the game. Thanks to EuroGamer and everyone who's played the game! Kenneth Lee Producer, Planescape: Torment Black Isle Studios Turbine Entertainment Software - Asheron's Call All of us at Turbine are delighted that the Gaming Globe Awards have recognized Asheron's Call as the Best Game of 1999. We couldn't imagine a more powerful endorsement than the votes of individual gamers. Just as the Gaming Globes recognize the influence of gamers, Turbine is committed to letting players participate in the ongoing world of Dereth, as in the latest episode of AC's evolving saga, "Thorns of the Hopeslayer". Thanks to all of our supporters. We couldn't have done it with you. Toby Ragaini Design Director Turbine Entertainment Software Related Features Gaming Globe nomineesAge of Empires II reviewAsheron's Call review (first look) Dereth Diary Earth 2150 previewFaust reviewFinal Fantasy VIII review Freespace 2 review Homeworld reviewIndiana Jones and the Infernal Machine reviewNocturne reviewOdium review Omikron : Nomad Soul reviewOutcast reviewPlanescape Torment reviewQuake 3 Arena review Rogue Spear review Shadow Man reviewUnreal Tournament reviewUrban Chaos reviewX : Beyond The Frontier review -- John "Gestalt" Bye

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