News
‘Hellblade’ Lone Genre Winner at 21st DICE Awards
Well, the 21st DICE Awards have come and gone, and despite all of the genre nominations, horror fans only had one winner.
Genre nominees including Bethesda’s Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Giant Sparrow’s What Remains of Edith Finch, Tarsier Studios’ Little Nightmares, and Epic Games’ Fortnite were all shut out. The only winner was Ninja Theory’s Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, which picked up the award for “Outstanding Achievement in Character”.
The main winner was (not surprisingly) Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which racked up four wins, including “Game of the Year”. Nintendo won big overall, with Fire Emblem Heroes, Metroid: Samus Returns, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Mario Odyssey and Snipperclips all earning awards.
As for Hellblade, as the numerous developer diaries reveal, it’s a remarkable achievement for a game like this. We’ve covered how the studio’s gamble paid off in terms of its release, but how the game also cleaned up with awards from numerous publications. It most certainly deserves your attention if you’re a fan of character development and psychological horror.
In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war, but it was a cheerful illustrator from England who helped to define the terrifying war-torn imagery that inspired what we now know as Grimdark (a hybrid genre combining horror with sci-fi/fantasy).
Unfortunately for fans of Warhammer 40,000, Trench Crusade and countless other sources of Grimdark thrills, veteran artist John Blanche passed away this week after struggling with health issues for the past few years.
While the artist retired back in 2023, he leaves us with an enormous legacy of iconic artwork that continues to inspire gamers and storytellers around the world to this very day.
The news is especially gloomy as it was only last year that Daniel Lowman and Napoleon Dynamite himself Jon Heder released The Grim & the Dark: The Search for John Blanche, a documentary following Heder’s exploration of the Grimdark genre culminating in a heartwarming encounter with Blanche in his own home.
Below is one of my favorite pieces by Blanche, his highly influential depiction of Warhammer 40k’s God-Emperor of Mankind on his Golden Throne.
We send our deepest condolences to John Blanche’s family, friends, and fans.
You must be logged in to post a comment.