Also known as quite possibly the biggest disgrace to gamers in popular media, of all time.
I was really excited to see this, mostly just to see the "epic world premieres" of several games (I'll get to that soon) but also because I had never really watched them before.
It started out with a pretty funny skit starring Jack Black, the only even remotely entertaining performance he gave all night which led into a slightly humorous song. The level of humor throughout the rest of the show just drops every few moments from there, until by the end I was literally forcing myself through it. The awards were interesting enough to watch with short clips and followed by very short acceptance speeches but it seems like each awards were filled with at least ten minutes of absolute crap between each. By crap I mean terrible rap "artists" plugging when their new album drops, and a whole cornucopia of people plugging movies, albums and other non-video game related media.
The only highlights were Neil Patrick Harris' very brief appearance (let's face it, he should have been the host and that would have greatly improved everything about the show) and the game premiere's; even though they should have noted that every single premiere, albeit yes a first time look at these games, were very much incredibly short teaser trailers. Very few of them even showed game play and each one was remarkably short. Overall, the show was not worth watching, one part I don't understand at all and really ruined the experience for me was at one point, without a warning or further explanation of any kind it rushed through the winners (not mentioning the nominees) of at least dozen awards (new ones that had not been shown yet) in some sort of frenetic 30 second montage. WHAT? Apparently between the horrendous music performances and constant plugging of completely non-video game related media they ran out of time for awards and did some utterly despicable prioritizing. The only plug I was okay with was Neil Patrick Harris' which was of a game (Eat Lead) anyway.
Honestly, this should have been called "Spike Tv's Commercial Extravaganza: featuring Jack Black making an ass out of himself, terrible music and maybe some game awards (if we have time)."
Disgrace, utter disgrace. That's all that really needs to be said.
So let's now move on to the one good thing to come out of that exhausting experience, a few teasers of upcoming games.
God of War III
Although it was a bit short I was of course, really psyched to see a few snippets of God Of War 3 game play footage. At first I thought it didn't look that impressive graphically, but upon watching it again after downloading it from the Playstation Store in 1080p it's easy to see how much smoother and crisp the graphics look. Regardless, it's no surprise I'm really excited about this game as I've loved the first too. I don't usually love hack and slash game play but GOW is so much more than that; the story in particular has always stood out so much to me. It doesn't hurt that I'm a huge Greek Mythology Buff.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Another premiere I was looking forward to was Uncharted's sequel Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Uncharted's biggest and possibly to some, only flaw, was it's length. It was a very gorgeous, cinematic game that had very classic platformer feel while still maintaining a sleek modern polish. The second game will surely be good and I'm looking forward to it, though it's premiere is a pre-rendered trailer that really shows me nothing about the new game except that it will maintain the same visual style and humor. Decent enough, I'm looking forward to reading more about this in the new issue of Game Informer that is most likely waiting for me in New Hampshire.
The Watchmen: The End is Nigh
I was extremely excited, ever since I first heard of the conception of a Watchmen video game; The Watchmen: The End is Nigh. I read the graphic novel my senior year in high school and it is the graphic novels that made me appreciate graphic novels (in tandem with Arkham Asylum, also being made into a great looking game). If you haven't read it, stop reading and purchase it immediately. It is indescribably epic. I was in awe when I saw the trailer for the upcoming movie and as I soon as I heard about a premiere of the game being shown on this show, I was overwhelmed with anticipation. I was pretty impressed with the how the characters looked; especially Rorschach one of my favorites, my other favorite wasn't shown in the trailer though he will undoubtedly be awesome; and also the pretty nifty looking combat in the trailer right away although I was taken aback by something shown at the end: "Download The Game March 2009." Wow, it's not a full game. Although my initial reaction was disappointment, it does seem to be shaping up quite well and there are a lot of really great downloadable games. I don't know much about it yet but it looks like it be some sort of brawler and hopefully follow the amazing story to some extent. Anyways, here's the first glimpse at a game that will hopefully do justice to the incredible graphic novel that inspired it.
Dante's Inferno
When I first saw the name of this title on the screen I was somewhat confused. I've read the divine comedy a few times and I wasn't quite sure how to react to news of it's video game adaptation. I still don't really know too much about it yet and all the trailer really shows is the look of the game and some and a few glimpses of some characters so I'll just show the trailer.
Brutal Legend
Ugh, Brutal Legend. This is the game Jack black stars in that was plugged for an unnecessarily long amount of time towards the end of the show. Now Brutal Legend may be a decent game (to someone out there) but I was so incredibly annoyed with Jack Black by the end of this show that the last thing I was interested in was some gimmicky-looking game where I have to hear him spitting out "yeah ha ha's" and woo hoo's" left and right. No thanks. But here it is.
GTAIV: The Lost and the Damned
Now at first I thought , oh cool the GTA IV expansion that Rockstar has been working on since June. But no, this new "game" is just the Microsoft exclusive downloadable content, the "mission pack" that Microsoft paid 50 million dollars for. Of all the great characters in GTA IV they had to make it based on that stupid biker gang? I respect Rockstar a lot so I'm sure it will be pretty decent, but it's not something I'll lose sleep over not being able to play. I can wait for the expansion/sequel. I don't think it looks very exciting but here it is:
Mafia II
The original Mafia game was probably most popular on PC but I remember playing it on console and although there were some porting issues and some flaws in general it was a game with some great features and a really great atmosphere. Unfortunately, like a lot of the other trailers shown, this only shows a pre-rendered sequence with no gameplay; though that's no reason not to get excited about this second installment in a very promising franchise. With the Godfather games (which were great) nearing completion of their next iteration, it will be interesting to see what features each game will use to set them apart from one another.
Fight Night Round 4
I have never really been into many sports games or even a lot of 1 on 1 fighters like this but fight night was a pretty great franchise. The graphics, unique controls (that worked remarkably well) and overall fun factor made this game a must play. I'm hoping that this next iteration will have more to offer as I don't remember 3 as being much of a step up, but this trailer shows absolutely nothing of value. (Unless I'm supposed to be jumping with joy that Mike Tyson is in the game because that's all the information this pre-rendered trailer offers.)
Terminator: Salvation
Last but probably not least, is a new terminator game based on the new movie. With that said it's already going to have a really hard time proving itself. There has not been a great terminator game ever (though there is so much potential for one) and thus far, this one isn't screaming "I will renew the Terminator franchise's place in video games as something worth buying" but then again that is a mouthful. With that said, the few snippets of gameplay in this look pretty promising and the graphics are definitely looking nice. At first glance I didn't have a whole lot of interest in this but on second thought, I'll be keeping my eye on this title.
Well that's all for now, that concludes my brief critique of the "game awards" and a a few notes on the premieres it showed. My next update will likely be about either dead space which is a must play, or a preview of some of the upcoming games I'm most excited about.
Oh and wish me luck, from tomorrow night until January 12th I'll be gaming not in 1080p but,.. Standard definition..on a small TV. Ugh, I'll do my best to persevere.
-Ben
