
‘Dragon Age: The Veilguard' Leads 2025 Gayming Awards Nominations
'Dragon Age: The Veilguard' is the frontrunner at this year's Gayming Awards, but it's an open ... More field.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard has claimed a narrow lead in the nomination stakes going into the 2025 Gayming Awards, including a coveted place on an incredibly close Game of the Year list. Still, the show's stars-in-waiting appear to be some truly spectacular indie titles, which have long deserved their time in the limelight.
The fifth annual Gayming Awards, which will be broadcast on July 8 via WOW Presents Plus following an exclusive deal announced earlier this year, celebrates excellence in LGBTQ+ video games and queer representation in the industry.
The Veilguard is one of six titles nominated for Game of the Year, and it'll duke it out with Dragon's Dogma 2, Life is Strange: Double Exposure, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, The Last of Us Part II Remastered, and the fantastic Fear The Spotlight. It's also shortlisted for the Gayming Magazine Readers' Award and Best LGBTQ+ Character, with lead character Rook earning a nomination.
It's also a great year for indies, with the superb Sorry We're Closed and Caravan SandWitch among smaller-studio hopefuls going into the ceremony.
Last year, Baldur's Gate 3 unsurprisingly claimed the biggest award of the night, while Thirsty Suitors rightly took home the Authentic Representation and Best LGBTQ Indie Game awards.
'Fear the Spotlight' more than deserves its place on the list.
'Caravan SandWitch' is one of the most underrated games of 2024, and you really should play it.
Public voting is now open in four categories, including the Readers' Award, Content Creator of the Year, Geek Entertainment of the Year, and Community Impact Award. Winners of the yet-unannounced Gayming Icon and LGBTQ+ Streamer Rising Star Class of 2025 will be revealed closer to the event, at some point in June.
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Axios
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4 newish rooftop bars in Denver
The sunset views. The creative cocktails. And the city skyline at night. This is why Denver's rooftop bars are the place to be when the weather warms. If you go: We have four soaring spots for you to visit. Kisbee on the Roof (Jacquard Hotel, Cherry Creek) The vibe: Think elevated nightlife that matches the luxury hotel's sophistication. Enjoy live DJ sets Fridays and Saturdays and a pool where you can reserve cabanas. Rook (Catbird Hotel, RiNo) The vibe: The former Red Barber space is transformed into a social clubhouse that blends "curated chaos with irreverent energy." Try daily riddles to unlock drink specials, join 9-ball pool parties and play popular games like Scrabble or Gin Rummy to keep the mood playful. Hey Kiddo (Tennyson Street)

Business Insider
19-05-2025
- Business Insider
Gaming Industry is calling for Renaissance: How illustrator, designer and game creator is reshaping the global stage
Monsters, zombies, vampires, dark souls wandering the dark halls, prophets of doom and gloom - you name it, he drew it. Several generations of PlayStations, XBox, Microsoft Windows games feature the characters drawn by Dmitry Parkin, an award-winning illustrator, designer, and game creator who started his journey in a provincial Russian town. Almost three decades in the game-developing industry won Dmitry Parkin wide acclaim and various awards varying from many Games of the Year to Best RPGs, Best Art Direction, Best Storytelling, and even the Most Violent Game to Make It Past Aussie Censors. Whatever best-selling post-apocalyptic-world action role-playing video game you are choosing in PlayStore, it is highly likely to feature his characters or images. Monster Darlings Reaping Awards His pensive paintbrush created the Ghost of Tsushima, Mortal Shell, Metro: Exodus & Last Light, Fallout 3, Doom 4, The Order: 1886, Aliens, Halo: The Master Chief Collection to name a few. Some, like the open-ended Fallout 3 with its flexible character-leveling system, marked a major shift in the series by using 3D graphics and real-time combat, replacing the 2D isometric graphics. It is still considered one of the greatest video games of all time, with 18 international awards it got coverage by many national media: CNN, BBC, New York Times, Hollywood Reporter etc. Others, like Ghost of Tsushima, became the first American game to earn the Famitsu 's Game of the Year award. Some (Aliens: Colonial Marines) revamped the old film classics like James Cameron's 1986 film Aliens; others (Order: 1886) won rewards for outstanding visual effects in a real-time project. His games bring about nostalgia, allowing one to have the first impression the second time. Much like his Mortal Shell released in 2020 that many reviewers claimed to resuscitate the same emotions experienced when they played the good old Dark Souls. Hitting 1,6 million views on its YouTube debut trailer and thus being nominated as the Best Trailer of Gaming Awards 2020, Mortal Shell sold over million copies by 2023 ploughing in the gross revenue of about $29 mln. It was nominated for Best Debut Game at The Game Awards 2020. With a well-established reputation in the industry and extensive expertise in character art, Sony extended Dmitry a job offer and facilitated his relocation to work on Ghost of Tsushima as a Senior Character Artist. In two and a half years, the game was officially released, becoming an overnight sensation. It sold over 2.4 million copies within the first three days. As of 2023, the game had generated an impressive $397 million in total revenue. Not only that. Ghost of Tsushima received 38 nominations and won 26 awards, including some of the most prestigious honors in the industry — Best Art Direction, Outstanding Character Design and Game of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction, Best Visual Art and Audience Award Winner, and it was just in 2020 alone. Even four years after release, Ghost of Tsushima continued to dominate the market. In May 2024, it was the best-selling game in the U.S., reaffirming its status as a modern classic. How can a man have his thumb in all those many pies? Where does that creative passion come from? Allure of the Dangerous The answer is simple. 'I never went with the flow, yet created the waves by myself', says Dmitry. The wave started with a ripple. Staring at the shallow waters of a small river, the young Dmitry was mesmerized by newts slowly paddling by, weirdly crawling crustaceans, slimy leeches and hissing snakes. 'All those amphibians evoked thoughts about the ones living in constant danger, the coldness and the darkness, hunting some and hiding from others, all those spiky shapes and wriggly tails were scary, hypnotizing, and irresistible', describes Parkin. Vivid illustrations found in the home library encyclopedias nurtured the passion for studying the structure and the movement of those unearthly-like creatures. The inexplicable allure of death and fear drove him to explore the mechanisms and images that cause these emotions. In general, it formed the foundations for the perception of fear, death, domination, the cruelty of nature where one animal eats another, the incomparable suffering of the devoured compared to the feeling of satiation of the other, there has always been a feeling that there is something wrong with it. 'Reading Nietzsche and listening to the deafening rumble of dense bass-and-drum metal rock solidified the idea that art should challenge and evoke emotions, otherwise, it is a meaningless doodling', explains Dmitry Parkin. Not by Art Alone Born and raised in Saratov, a city in the Russian 'midwest', Parkin could have become a local Banksy, drawing graffiti on the grey city walls. Yet, being inspired by H.R. Giger's works, he would have added more to Saratov's blues if his monsters had ever appeared there. Instead, he dived into polishing his techniques, experimenting with materials in the dire quest to discover a formula, a combination that would trigger a certain emotion. 'Eventually, it was acrylic or pencil that let add more layers in post-processing hence making the image more complex and allowing hiding technical nuances, brush strokes or touches to get away from the feeling that it was a drawing', he said. Back in the 1990s, when he was 14-15, Dmitry met a friend who was into programming, they started hanging out together — the guy programming, Dmitry drawing basic visuals for the games. This was the dawn of the era of the first 3D editor software, the best time to dive into the unknown and grow. Dmitry mastered some software, plunged into several projects which brought handsome pocket money for a schoolboy; he had got a solid portfolio and 4 years of working experience by the time he left school. Dmitry never studied design or art in high school. After graduating from school he made an attempt to study programming at a polytechnical university in his hometown but soon dropped out. 'Soon I realized that university lectures were too boring for me. On the other hand, drawing and creating my own gaming worlds enchanted me', Parkin recalled. Starry-eyed and passionate, he got project after project usually without test assignments, his works being the best proof of eligibility. The Way to the USA Building up his technical expertise, Dmitry made a perfect partner for programmers as few could do both - create art for the game and help develop it. The first job in Moscow in the early 00s was with a publishing house Buka where Dmitry worked as an artist, not limited by narrow frameworks. 'Working there, I realised the power of freedom and eventually moved to freelance which allowed taking up more projects. I went really global in the mid 00s, doing jobs for XBox, Microsoft, Sony, indiebrands, etc.', he says. By the time Parkin engaged in 3D graphics professionally, he had chiselled his art techniques and style — the fundamentals for any creator. Digital tools are just tools to enhance one's technical prowess, it is the idea and the message that gets the project skyrocketing. And sometimes luck. Hardly could Dmitry fathom when he agreed to participate in Liquid Development 's startup project, that it would turn out to be the Fallout 3 game he was signing up for. It was his favourite game, now being part of the art team, it felt legit. Winning the War of GameDev Dominance Winning 2008 Dominance War 3 was like 'fire meet gasoline'. 'In the art world, a benchmark for fame is not the amount of paintings you produced, but the amount of replicas and 'spin-offs' you generated', explains Parkin. The Imrod character after the personal award of 2008 Dominance War 3 became the most popular and replicated character, often copied by 3D artists. The original version was made freely available and became often used for various tests and demonstrations, indie game projects, youtube tutorials and even SIGGRAPH 2008 presentation. That victory brought an avalanche of job offers. When the focus within the game industry shifted to creature design, character art and 'digital sculpture', Dmitry's full potential became unleashed. The early passion for amphibious creeps coupled with advanced technical expertise raising the detail and quality to a new level helped to get as close as possible to hyper-realism, and become a key element that set the trend in the modern (at that time) game industry. Over years, he has been putting skins on, adding light, assembling the settings in games, reviving somewhat lame code into sturdy demos that went viral overnight and generated millions of views. Some games like Mortal Shell became great career boosters as working there he combined art and art-directing, thus getting the ultimate freedom of expression. 'I once did what turned out to be a life-saving project for Playstack who was virtually on its last legs and looking for a flagship project that would champion a good market share', recalls Parkin. With his vast portfolio of monsters, Dmitry happened to find himself in the eye of the storm, always trendy, regardless of the fleeting fashions in the industry. There has always been a place where he belonged. Dmitry's creed is to create characters with a mission, vision and message. Quite a refreshing view on the over-commercialised game-developing industry that churns out gazillions of games 24/7. 'The generic games developed now are mostly like a stack of books on a railway station stall - identical bland time-killing amusement. The industry is calling for Renaissance bringing about something tangible, real, savoury and wholesome. Everybody is getting tired of the trite eviscerated visuals and ideas that lack finesse and, most importantly, message. There is no art in it. The much-hailed AI cannot provide a valid substitution for human creative spirits. It might in the future, but now it is up to a human with a solid set of art skills to generate the ideas and navigate the art projects from concept to fruition', Parkin shares his thoughts about the industry development.


Business Mayor
07-05-2025
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Why Even User Video Game Scores Can't Be Trusted Any More – How-To Geek
Review bombing skews ratings with irrelevant negativity, harming a game's reputation and affecting future projects. It's hard to trust negative reviews due to review bombing, which only makes it harder to judge a game. Reviews should focus on gameplay, but outside influences often lead to unfairly low scores and mistrust. Review bombing occurs when a group of people works together to flood online review sites with many negative reviews. This is commonly a retaliatory tactic that's used even if the game itself is good. This practice damages the trust in user review systems by skewing a game's overall rating and shaping how people see it, usually for reasons that have nothing to do with a game's overall quality. Review Bombing Has Become Too Common Marcus Mears III / Review Geek The process of review bombing sees a bunch of people, often driven by outside issues, all post bad reviews at the same time. Many use bots or automated tools to make their attack even bigger. This wave of low scores drowns out real criticism and pulls down the game's average rating, which can hurt sales and even affect whether future projects get made. Many games have been hit by review bombing. Big-name games can face backlash over comments made by those involved in production and receive negative reviews that have nothing to do with how the game played or how well it worked. Other games with controversial characters or storylines have also been targeted, like Dragon Age: The Veilguard , showing how easily review systems can be abused because of social or political disagreements. Related Imagine a world where PC game reviews are just reviews. These attacks aren't always about politics. Sometimes, players organize negative review campaigns because they're unhappy with changes to gameplay, feel like the game pushes too many microtransactions, or believe the developers aren't listening to their complaints. For example, Infinity Nikki was recently review-bombed due to a launcher error. A launch error is a bug that would likely have been fixed by reporting it regularly. Players don't need to go to the review section to get attention when developers build games with bug report systems and have X accounts to receive feedback. Many go overboard just because they want others to see that they are angry. These are calls for attention, not a real reflection on the gameplay or quality of the game itself. Review bombing is an overused tactic to show disdain. If anything, the review bombers look like they're just whining when using this technique to complain over a minor issue or the servers going down for a day. Bad Reviews Lose Their Believability Over Time Jorge Aguilar/Activision The growing problem of review bombing has greatly hurt the trustworthiness of negative user reviews for video games. This issue happens when organized groups overwhelm review platforms with large numbers of extremely negative ratings, often for reasons that have nothing to do with the game's actual quality. As a result, it can cause many to distrust negative reviews more than ever. At first, negative reviews might appear to be honest, showing real disappointment from players. However, these get mixed in with many review bombers who want to vent their frustration over something unrelated to the gameplay itself. This makes it very hard to distinguish between real criticism and planned attacks meant to harm a game's reputation. It's gone so far that you can expect negative reviews even if you know the game is good. Related These games occupy a special place in my mind. When Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was released, there was a sudden flood of negative reviews. The game had plenty of issues and a very short campaign. This was expected and warranted because the quality of the game didn't surpass Modern Warfare 2 ; it was more like an expansion pack at full price. When Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 came out, it was a real improvement and did a lot well. However, it faced a similar wave of negativity, where bad reviews at first far outnumbered positive ones, likely because of organized efforts. Even though many of the issues were quickly fixed, players seemed to be focused on bashing a new game in the series for their own personal reasons, not so much on the game's quality. While many people updated their reviews to be more positive, the initial wave of negativity had a lasting effect. This makes you question whether early reviews can be trusted, and reviews matter most when a game first comes out, and there's not much information on them available. Reviews Should Reflect the Game, Not Public Opinion Bioware While it's nice to think reviewers try to stay fair, outside influences often twist how a game's true quality is judged. A review itself is subjective because it's an opinion, so that's okay. What's less than okay is how often reviews lead away from the game itself. Reviews should look at the gameplay, story, visuals, and overall design. However, review bombers often get swayed by the drama around how the game was made or the company's reputation behind it. Sadly, this means the ideal review is often ignored, leading to scores that don't truly show how good or bad a game really is. One big issue is how hard it is to differentiate between professional criticism and public opinion. If people dislike a game's publisher because of issues that aren't directly related to the game itself, like shady business deals or accusations against the developers, such negativity can hurt the reception of a new game. This creates a situation where a well-crafted game gets low scores because people already dislike the company behind it. There are valid reasons not to purchase a game that's embroiled in these sorts of problems, but whether a review score should be reflective of outside drama is another question entirely. Related These action games are hiding some great puzzles. Players' distrust, often fueled by news stories about these controversies, directly shapes how critics see the game. For example, even if a game gets mostly good reviews and has solid gameplay, a title from a company dealing with accusations of ethical issues could still be judged harshly by some players before they even try it, dragging down the final average score. I firmly believe that a publisher should be held to account for unethical and predatory practices. But it's arguably better not to buy the game than to mess with the review system. A lack of sales will kill a great game. Guardians of the Galaxy is a great example of a great game with good reviews that just didn't sell well because of the public's view it had before release. The publisher wasn't trusted, so the game wasn't bought, and the game died—no fake bad reviews needed. Reviews From Individuals Are as Unbelievable as Big Sites Steam The trustworthiness of video game reviews, whether from big review websites or regular players, has become more doubtful over time. Big review sites often give out fairly high scores, often between 7 and 9. This trend makes people worry that issues have been glossed over. I've reviewed and edited reviews of games at professional sites for years. It's not easy to make a real game review, but burning a bridge with a publisher is not smart. I'd say that when it comes to the big review websites, read the review and not the score. Even considering bias or fear of hurting reputation, it's arguable that user review scores can be more untrustworthy than those on big sites. While they seem like they should reflect real player experiences, they can easily be manipulated or influenced by bias. A Minecraft Movie and Five Nights At Freddy's movies are great examples of this. Plenty of regular watchers hated them, but some of that is because they expect Oppenheimer quality from kids' movies. If you go in without the expectation of an adult target audience, you enjoy those movies much more. The growing problem of review bombing has made it much harder to tell the difference between honest criticism and planned, harmful attacks. It makes user reviews less believable and has already hurt the user review system far more than it ever hurt any publishers.