Hunter- Well, nominations for The Four Star Gaming Awards have been open for about a month now, let's see who's submitted.
Hunter Red checks his email.
Hunter- Huh. No one. No one has submitted their nominations for this years The Four Star Gaming Awards. Huh. So, I guess this year's awards will reflect only my feelings about the best video games of the year. Then again, some would argue that's always been the case. Okay, let's get this started.
The Third Annual The Four Star Gaming Awards
Wii Game of the Year-
Nominees- Epic Mickey, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Metroid: Other M, NBA Jam, Super Mario Galaxy 2
Of all the games released for the Wii this year, two games in particular stood out. These were games that brought classic, iconic characters to new audiences in ways that no one had imagined. These games revolutionized these characters, updated them for the modern day, and, most importantly, brought a whole new level of fun to the gaming public. To say that one game was better than the other is simply disingenuous. Both of these games are award caliber efforts. That is why, the winner of The Four Star Gaming Award for Wii Game of the Year is
Epic Mickey and Kirby's Epic Yarn
Xbox 360 Game of the Year-
Nominees- Battlefield Bad Company 2, Bioshock 2, Fable 3, Mass Effect 2, Red Dead Redemption
In recent years, we've seen a resurgence in the western genre. Movies like 3:10 To Yuma, No Country For Old Men, and True Grit, have brought good, serious, traditional western films back to the forefront. Rockstar Games is known for bringing a cinematic flair to their video games. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is reminiscent of Scarface, the upcoming LA Noir is reminiscent of the film noir of the Twenties and Thirties, and Red Dead Redemption reminds the connoisseur of television series like Gunsmoke, Maverick, and Deadwood. Red Dead Redemption is a game that gripped audiences from the first railcar scene to the final showdown. That is why The Four Star Gaming Award for Xbox 360 Game of the Year goes to
Red Dead Redemption
Playstation 3 Game of the Year-
Nominees- Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Final Fantasy XIII, God of War 3, Heavy Rain, RUSE
In a year where motion gaming was touted as the next big thing, a game came out that may actually signal where video games are going in the future. This is a game with no heads up displays, driven purely by contextual clues, and is a different experience for every gamer. Some people dismissed Heavy Rain as not really a game but more an interactive movie. This is a comment that can be made about a lot of games. So, to dismiss a great game Heavy Rain for that reason is simply ignorant. Besides, what other game gave us the internet meme "Press X To Jason".
The Four Star Gaming Award for Playstaion 3 Game of the Year is Heavy Rain
Downloadable Game of the Year-
Nominees- Dead Rising 2: Patient Zero, Death Spank, Limbo, Sonic 4, You Will Die
This year was really weak for downloadable games. There wasn't a game the caliber of Shadow Complex, 'Splosion Man, or Flower. Gaming online was more defined by games like Battlefield: Bad Company 2, the Blur Beta, and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. The best thing I can say about this year's winner of The Four Star Gaming Award for Downloadable Game of the Year is this: It's the kind of emo love story that would make Ian Curtis proud.
The Four Star Gaming Award for Downloadable Game of the Year is Limbo
Best Original IP of the Year-
Nominees- Alan Wake, Bayoneta, Blur, Epic Mickey, Heavy Rain, Limbo
This year was filled with sequels. Seven of the ten games nominated for The Four Star Gaming Awards Game of the Year are sequels. So, I felt it necessary to shine a light on a new game, a new property, a new thing in the realm of video games. The winner of this award not only represent a new intellectual property, it represents a new way to play survival horror games. The idea of attacking someone with light is something that is only seen as a threat to people who suffer from albinism or are made of water. However, the way that this game mechanic is pulled off in Alan Wake amazingly well. Alan Wake is a game that captivated audiences long after the blatant plugs for Energizer left their TV screens.
The Four Star Gaming Award for Best Original IP of the Year is Alan Wake
Gaming Disappointment of the Year-
Nominees- Fallout: New Vegas being mad buggy, Final Fantasy XIII being a B grade game instead of an A grade game, Gran Turismo 5 being delayed AGAIN (Chinese Democracy), Ubisoft E3 Press Conference
Fallout 3 was, for many people, a stunning breakout game of 2008. Upon announcement, Fallout: New Vegas was a hotly anticipated game. The gaming public was expecting somethings that, like Fallout 3, would blow them away. What they got was a game that blows. Fallout: New Vegas is a game so riddled with bugs it's now included in many entomological text books. Even the massive update, released slightly before Christmas, could not cover up the memory that is only reinforced by YouTube videos like this:
The Four Star Gaming Award for Gaming Disappointment of the Year is Fallout: New Vegas being mad buggy
Non-Gaming Thing Most Deserving of an Award-
Nominees- Broken Bells- Broken Bells, Conan O'Brien, The Dead Weather- Sea Of Cowards, Elizabeth Edwards, Inception, Mad Men, The Social Network, Toy Story 3, The Walking Dead, Wikileaks
Danger Mouse came to prominence in 2004 when he released The Grey Album, which combined acapellas from Jay-Z's The Black Album with instrumentals from The Beatles' The White Album. While still dealing with the legal fallout from The Grey Album, Danger Mouse formed Gnarls Barkley with Cee-Lo Green and produced their albums St. Elsewhere and The Odd Couple. He produced the second Gorillaz album, 2005's Demon Days, as well as Beck's 2008 record, Modern Guilt. In 2009 he collaborated with James Mercer of the indie rock band The Shins to form Broken Bells. James Mercer's musical influences include The Smiths, The Cure, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Beach Boys and The Jesus and Mary Chain. These influences are on full display on Broken Bell's self titled first album, released on March 9, 2010. This acclaimed but often overlooked album is the winner of The Four Star Gaming Awards Non-Gaming Thing Most Deserving of an Award.
Game of the Year-
Nominees- Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Epic Mickey, God of War 3, Heavy Rain, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Limbo, Mass Effect 2, Red Dead Redemption, Super Mario Galaxy 2
All of the games listed above have received acclaim, from gamers and critics alike, throughout the year. However, one must be chosen to be game of the year. Unlike the other awards, this is one that cannot be shared. There is one game that, upon it's release, stuck out in my mind as something truly special. This is a game that changed the way I thought storytelling can by conveyed in video games. This is a game that changed how I felt characters con be portrayed in video games. This is a game, the only game, that I played through in it's entirety twice. The Four Star Gaming Award for Game of the Year goes to
Heavy Rain
So, there you have it, the third annual The Four Star Gaming Awards. By the way, I added the extra "the" to sound arrogant. How will Heavy Rain figure into next week's Best of the Decade awards? Find out next week on The Four Stars Blog. Or don't. Whatever. You'll all probably care about as much about the Best of the Decade awards as you did about The Black Robin Christmas Carol, which sold all of one copy. Sigh.
(This is a picture of Ian Curtis. If you don't know who Ian Curtis is, go fuck off.)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment