2008 Video Game Awards Winners

Another year, another VGA.
I started watching the show last year and wasn’t too impressed. This year, while better, is still disappointing (keep in mind this is all very subjective).
The intro with Jack Black was hilarious! and overall I thought Jack Black was a better host that Samuel L. Jackson last year.
The musical acts were pretty good. LL Cool J rocked and “don’t call it a comeback!”, Weezer was cool. On the other hand 50 Cent was O.K. musically but i had the distinct feeling he was lip-synching.
The in-between skits with Black were so-so, mostly overplayed and barely funny.

But all this is just added stuff because most of us watch the Video GAME Awards for…..*drum roll* the games! and in this I guess you could say it’s not too bad.
Several World Exclusives from highlights GTA IV – The Lost and Damned, God of War III and freaking Mafia II!! to disappointments (mostly one) in Watchmen: The End Is Nigh.
Another worthy discovery was Dante’s Inferno which you can check out on my news here.

Mostly the things that annoys me most with these awards is that they feel empty and over the top. The tone is half childish and half condescending at times. What I mean is that they have to show hot women who come up on stage and actually say “yes I’m here cause I’m hot and you’re lucky to look at me” and the first reaction i had was something between shame, annoyance at our portrayal and wanting to tell her to just “f*ck off”.
To add insult to injury these women pretend in a semi-convincing voice that they “loooooove” video games. I mean come on!
I guess the show is made for prepubescent teens ans it shows.

It is worth mentioning that the best speech of them all was Will Wright. Thank you!

Anyhow I could go on for a while and I’d be happy to discuss it with whomever feels like it but for now let’s move on the the list of winners. BTW while I may not agree with some of these I can respect most BUT how the hell can you have GTA IV as Game of the Year and Best Action Adventure Game but not Best Game on 360????

Game of the Year: Grand Theft Auto IV

Studio of the Year: Media Molecule

Best PC Game: Left 4 Dead

Best PS3 Game: LittleBigPlanet

Best Wii Game: Boom Blox

Best Xbox 360 Game: Gears of War 2

Best Handheld Game: Professor Layton and the Curious Village

Best RPG: Fallout 3

Best Shooter: Gears of War 2

Best Fighting Game: Soul Calibur IV

Best Action Adventure Game: Grand Theft Auto IV

Best Driving Game: Burnout Paradise

Best Team Sports Game: NHL 09

Best Individual Sports Game: Shaun White Snowboarding

Best Game Based on a Movie or TV Show: Lego Indiana Jones

Best Multiplayer Game: Left 4 Dead

Best Music Game: Rock Band 2

Best Independent Game Fueled By Dew: World of Goo

Best Graphics: Metal Gear Solid 4

Best Original Score: Metal Gear Solid 4

Best Soundtrack: Rock Band 2

Best Performance by a Human Male: Michael Hollick – Grand Theft Auto IV

Best Performance by a Human Female: Debbie Mae West – Metal Gear Solid 4

Big Name in the Game – Male: Kiefer Sutherland – Call of Duty: World at War

Big Name in the Game – Female: Jenny McCarthy – C&C: Red Alert 3

for more details and access to the world exclusive footage, head over to GameTrailers.

EA Unveals Dante’s Inferno

The world premiere of the trailer aired during the 2008 Video Game Awards which showed us that the game will be based on the famous first part of the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri.

In the game the player will go through the 9 circles of Hell which are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, wrath, heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. Not much else has been revealed by now but the game is being developed by EA Redwood Shores, the studio who created Dead Space.

This is a great period for Electronic Arts which reminds me of 2001 when the studio released a lot of great new IPs such as American McGee’s Alice and Clive Barker’s Undying.

Be sure to check out the creepy trailer here.

Nintendo Wii Sells 800,000 in One Week!

One has to wonder when it’s going to stop…
I bought my Wii last year right after Mario Galaxy launched and I had to go on a hunt worthy of Samus Aran and Lara Croft put together to find one.
A year later not much has changed, the console is still very hard to come by and over the Thanksgiving week end and Black Friday it has sold 800,000 units!

Analysts predict the unit will sell as much as 1.4 Million units in november adding up to about 37 Million units sold worldwide.