Ho Hum

Still Having Technical Problems

The blog still seems to not want to work right now. Bleah.

And The Winner Is…

It’s embarassing, stupid, sophomoric, and trying too hard to be funny (which means that it comes off being Not Very Funny At All, Actually) but unfortunately, the Spike Video Game Awards are currently the only thing that games, as a medium, have to an official, televised award event.  Here’s the complete list of nominees, with the winner in bold:

Game of the Year

Gears of War 2
Grand Theft Auto IV
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Fallout 3
LittleBigPlanet

Best Independent Game

World of Goo
PixelJunk Eden
Braid
Audiosurf

Studio of the Year

Media Molecule
Rockstar North
Harmonix
Bethesda Game Studios

Big Name in the Game Female

Dame Judi Dench as “M”
Eliza Dushku As “Shaundi”
Liv Tyler As “Betty Ross”
Jenny McCarthy As “Tanya”

Big Name in the Game Male

Liam Neeson As “Father”
Kiefer Sutherland As “Sgt. Roebuck”
Ricky Gervais As “Himself”
Daniel Craig As “James Bond”

Best Performance by a Human Female

Debi Mae West As “Meryl Silverburgh”
Keeley Hawes As “Lara Croft”
Paula Tiso As “Silvia Christel”
Nathalie Cox As “Juno Eclipse”

Best Performance by a Human Male

Stephen Fry As “The Narrator”
David Hayter As “Old Snake”
Jason Zumwalt As “Roman Bellic”
Michael Hollick As “Niko Bellic”

Best Multi-Player Game

Call of Duty: World at War
Resistance 2
Left 4 Dead
Gears of War 2

Best Original Score

LittleBigPlanet
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Spore
Fallout 3

Best PC Game

Left 4 Dead
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
Crysis Warhead
Spore

Best PS3 Game

Grand Theft Auto IV
LittleBigPlanet
Resistance 2
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Best Wii Game

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
No More Heroes
Wii Fit
Boom Blox

Best Xbox 360 Game

Fallout 3
Grand Theft Auto IV
Gears of War 2
Fable II

Best Soundtrack

Guitar Hero World Tour
Rock Band 2
Grand Theft Auto IV
LittleBigPlanet

Best Action Adventure Game

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Mirror’s Edge
Grand Theft Auto IV
Dead Space

Best Driving Game

Mario Kart Wii
Midnight Club: Los Angeles
PURE
Burnout Paradise

Best Music Game

SingStar
Wii Music
Guitar Hero World Tour
Rock Band 2

Best Game Based on a Movie or TV Show

Naruto: The Broken Bond
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Quantum of Solace
LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures

Best Graphics

LittleBigPlanet
Gears of War 2
Fallout 3
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Best Original Score

Fallout 3
Spore
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
LittleBigPlanet

Best Handheld Game

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Patapon
Professor Layton and the Curious Village
God of War: Chains of Olympus

Best Individual Sport Game

Skate It
Wii Fit
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09
Shaun White Snowboarding

Best Fighting Game

Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
Soul Calibur IV

Best RPG

Fallout 3
The World Ends With You
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
Fable II

Best Shooter

Gears of War 2
Left 4 Dead
Resistance 2
Far Cry 2

Gamer God award given to Will Wright

The only one that really made me nervous was Harmonix versus Neversoft for best music game, but in the end, sanity prevailed.  The music lovers at Harmonix beat out the money lovers at Neversoft/Activision, and I was relieved to see them beat out their rivals for another year.  I find it hard to respect any company that takes a dig at their competitor like “Well, when people are finished playing the crappy Rock Band drums, they can play our good Guitar Hero World Tour ones!” only to end up having a shoddy, defective product that requires constant replacement and is loudly hailed by the gaming industry as one of the more defective products released in recent memory.  Way to put your foot in your mouth, Neversoft.  Sometimes, it seems, good karma does happen in our lifetime.

Oh, and Rock Band 2 went on sale for the Wii and PS2 as of today.

And Done

Powered through Fallout 3 to get to the end.  I’d play it more thoroughly, but with news that it’s going to be patched to include the PS3 trophy feature at some point in the future, I figured I may as well wait until that hits before really diving into the game.

Norse Code

Odin’s Sphere is shaping up to be one of those games I kind of regret not playing sooner.  I’m really enjoying the story now, and the art work, as you can see above is quite gorgeous.  It gets a little repetitive since the game employs the Rashomon technique of putting multiple characters through the same event (thus ensuring you play the same levels over and over) but if you can get past that, there’s actually a neat little game, and very engaging story in this late comer to PS2 action-RPGs.  Basically anyone that doesn’t mind the Kingdom Hearts style of combat and wants a story a little less silly will probably enjoy this game.