This Past Weekend's VGA's (Video Game Awards)

As opposed to years past - though I still did not watch the Spike VGA's this year - I actually agree with a lot of the winners from Saturday night's show. Here is the list copied from 1up.com:

• Best Voice in a Video Game: Jack Black as Eddie Riggs in Brutal Legend
• Best Cast: X-Men Origins: Wolverine
• Best Performance by a Human Male: Hugh Jackman in X-Men Origins: Wolverine
• Best Performance by a Human Female: Megan Fox in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
• Best Indie Game Fueled by Dew: Flower
• Best Downloadable Game: Shadow Complex
• Best Downloadable Content: GTA4: The Ballad of Gay Tony
• Best Graphics: Uncharted 2
• Best Soundtrack: DJ Hero
• Best Original Score: Halo 3: ODST
• Best Game Based on a Movie or TV Show: South Park: Let's Go Tower Defense Play
• Best Multiplayer Game: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
• Best Action/Adventure: Assassin's Creed 2
• Best Driving Game: Forza Motorsport 3
• Best Fighting Game: Street Fighter 4
• Best Music Game: Beatles Rock Band
• Best RPG: Dragon Age: Origins
• Best Shooter: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
• Best Team Sports Game NHL 10
• Best Individual Sports Game: UFC 2009 Undisputed
• Studio of the Year: Rocksteady Studios for Batman: Arkham Asylum
• Best PlayStation 3 Game: Uncharted 2
• Best Wii Game: New Super Mario Bros. Wii
• Best Xbox 360 Game: Left 4 Dead 2
• Best Handheld Game: GTA: Chinatown Wars
• Best PC Game: Dragon Age Origins
• Most Anticipated Game: God of War 3
• Game of the Year: Uncharted 2 

The most exciting presentations of the night were not game awards but were instead game announcements. These were game announcements from Harmonix, LucasArts, and Rocksteady. Most if not all games can be figured out from the naming of their game studios alone but since you have already heard about them from other sources, I will spare you any clever mention of them and just come right out with it.

The first and the one I am most excited for - based solely on the fact that I have have had some time to develop some anticipation for the game - is Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2. The first game was not without it's flaws but it was also a game that captured what it would feel like to wield the force. As long as the game improves upon its predecessor in terms of polish it think we will have another amazing Star Wars game on our hands.

Green Day: Rock Band will also be a fun game if for no other reason other than the fact than I have been a Green Day fan since Dookie released in 1994. There is nothing else to say on the matter but it will be hard, if not impossible, to follow up on The Beatles: Rock Band.

Another game that will be hard to develop a follow-up for is Arkham Asylum and yet Rocksteady has been kind enough to, at the very least, bless us with the announcement for the sequel not six months after Arkham Asylum the first was released. I am a little disappointed that the game is using the "same location" but apparently ArkhamHasMoved.com has other plans in store.
 
In other news Zachary Quinto was announced as a voice for Star Trek Online and that makes for a very happy Nate. I now just need a PC in which to play this on.

Lastly there was a Crackdown 2 video that touted some gameplay but I have to say that despite enthusiasm I have seen for the trailer on Twitter I was not impressed. The game looks to be copying a lot from games that have come out since the first Crackdown dropped (one thing that I noticed in particular was something that looked a lot like a zombie).

If nothing else the VGA's were a good place for announcements in an otherwise barren period of new game announcements.

WAIM: September 2, 2009 - A Week Off

So it has been a week since we have last spoken and what a glorious week it has been. Today is my last day of seven days in a row of work so you can expect more out of this blog in the days to come.

This week I have been playing nothing but Batman: Arkham Asylum and you should expect the review for that tomorrow. You should also expect the review for Shadow Complex on Friday and one last thing that you can expect is a BGE original article.

You should be excited.

I think that I am going to go back through various games this week ranging from Shadow Complex, Batman, Gears of War 2, etc.

Still Stoked for Batman: Arkham Asylum

So way back during the fast pace of E3 this little blog was posting a crazy amount of news. It got to the point where I needed a break for a few hours, days, weeks and because of all of that I managed to skip out on a game that I wanted to mention again.

That game was Batman: Arkham Asylum. From what I can decipher, from what I have heard or read, this game had one of the biggest, if not the biggest, presence at E3. From hotel room card keys to the Batmobile making an appearance it gets my vote for really putting themselves out there. That is how you promote a game and I would be surprised if this game does not fly off of store shelves or at least make back the money that they spent on all of this advertising. I am personally preordering the $100 dollar collectors edition so their ad campaign already worked on me. It apparently worked so well that I am again writing about this game though this time I am writing about it closer to its release date.

There are skeptics though, namely our good friend, and contributor Matt, who despite wanting to like the game are having a problem letting themselves get too excited. Matt is a comic book nerd in every sense of the term so we might all be able to understand his skepticism.

But the more people who get their hands on it, the more people are convinced. Matt got his hands on it at E3 but still is not convinced mainly because it feels like it is trying to foist too many game styles on you at once (IE Bioshock, Splinter Cell).

For myself this is fine because if the game accomplishes half of what those two games originally accomplished and can cleverly mash them together, it will be one of this years greatest games and perhaps the best Batman game in the past decade. I believe that this game will not disappoint because well, seriously, have you looked at it? Look at it again!



I am happy to hear that the controls have felt good from everyone who has put their hands on it because that means that it is only a matter of time before I get to engage in some sweet sweet Batman action. I cannot wait for the free flow combat, the detective mode, and grappling on gargoyles to get that perfect vantage point. Perhaps this time I will not try the hardest difficulty level available first (though it is what I always do).

Entry for Kyle K. Sorry it is a little late buddy got tired. Real work sucks.

Mupdate 2: Batman Arkham Asylum Collector's Edition - Is It Worth It?

Nate said earlier that he is getting excited for the Batman game, and me being the intense comic book reader that I am (I spent almost $50 on comic books alone last week, and I wonder why I'm so poor) also look forward to it with bated breath. I mean, someone said that it'll essentially play like the BioShock of super hero games. Awesome, right? Combine that with Mark Hammil as the Joker and Kevin Conroy as Batman (the guys who did the voices on the 90's animated cartoon... remember that?) and it looks like we'll have a great Batman game.

Now, I'll only pre-order a game if it's got some kind of special limited edition to it, because otherwise I could just go get it normally at any time. What's the rush? But when the Batman: Arkham Asylum special edition specs were released, I came up with a conundrum. Let's break it down.



Here is the $99.99 collector's edition of Arkham Asylum. With it, you get a 14" batarang for your display case, Arkham's journal in a nice leather dust jacket with information on all the inmates, a behind-the-scenes DVD, and exclusive levels. Sounds great... but almost $100 great?

Let's be honest - 9 times out of 10, super hero games fail. Most critics agree the best super hero game was Spider-Man 2, which took GTA sandbox gameplay and let you sling webs around the city. Awesome. I for one am of the opinion that Marvel Ultimate Alliance is the best super hero game, and if Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 has a pre-order package, you can be sure that I'll get it. But outside of this, what do we have? Crappy Batman games, crappy Iron Man games, crappy Hulk games, crappy X-Men games... the list goes on and on. So while Arkham Asylum might be fun, it might also just be worth one play through and then a shelf forever life span. Hell, it might just warrant a rent for a weekend play through and then return it life span. Let's be honest here - in the world of Next Gen gaming, there has never been a good Batman game. Granted, the only attempts were with Justice League Unlimited (which was fun to an extent, but the lack of Hal Jordan annoyed me) and the Batman Begins movie tie-in (let's just not talk about it). Add that to the fact that most TV/movie/comic tie-ins aren't worth the dough (I STILL haven't bought Afro Samurai, even though I loved the demo), the odds are stacked against Batman in this one. So is it really REALLY worth it to spend $100 for a 14" batarang?

I don't think I'd ever call myself a die-hard Batman fan. I know there are some people who are Batcrazy, and I look at them and judge them as I often do (considering I have mountains and mountains of comic books in my closet) and I say, "Ok, we're living in a post-The Dark Knight world now where everyone seems to think Batman is the greatest hero ever (even though he isn't), it's the perfect time to spring a hyper expensive shiny toy for all the nerds to want." And I do want it, I do. But when I hold my $100+ GameStop credits in my hand and I look down the road at all the games coming out (Assassin's Creed 2, Mass Effect 2, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 for sequels; Prototype, Brutal Legend, Darksiders for firstquels) and then I look at my brand new DS (thank you, girlfriend), I gotta say that no matter how shiny and cool that Batarang looks, I don't think I can justify spending $100 on a 14" replica that DOESN'T LOOK LIKE THE ONES FROM THE COMICS.

There. I said it. I'm an elitist comic book snob, and The Joker looks goofy.

In Its Final Stretch of PR, Batman: Arkham Asylum has me Interested

I think every comic book geek (of which I am not as much as I claim to be (Umbrella Academy FTW)) has been looking forward to this game for much longer than I but this trailer is the first time I have even bothered to look at the game.

Despite everyone raving at how amazing the game is coming along I have just been skeptical because it is so rare that I like a game based on comic books (usually because they are based on movies). The last one that I can remember liking was Marvel Ultimate Alliance (of which the sequel I have not yet looked into either) and I did not even get to finish that game.

But more about Batman: Arkham Asylum:

Just from this little demo or "challenge level" I know that I will be playing and probably buying the game. It looks fantastic, the controls look tight, it looks like it is fun to play, and most of all it looks as though this is what it would feel like to BE BATMAN. The game looks crisp and gritty and if the story is as any bit good as this one "challenge level" 'looks' then I am sure that this will be the best Batman game ever. Rocksteady, which is apparently the name of the developer the developer, has officially piqued my interest.

For those who know more about this game than myself, what are you looking forward to about this game? Is anyone remaining skeptical? I know I am not.