We’ve Moved!

It’s official, we have our own website now!

Check us out right away at http://www.weaselreport.com !!

Thanks for sticking with us everyone!

Welcome to the next step!!

Video Game Terms: Debate

When it comes to terms used in video games, or to describe them, everyone has a different opinion on what they mean. For those of you that may not have known, I am currently going to college at ITT Technical Institute for Digital Entertainment and Game Design. In a nutshell, it means I want to become a video game designer. The problem is, what we are being taught, and what we have always thought have been the definition of terms used in the industry, tend to clash with each other greatly. Take the following examples for instance, and tell me what you think of these.

Our latest assignment we were given involved creating an interface design for a fake squad-based tactical game called “Chain of Command“. Of course it isn’t that simple, there are many stipulations to it. You play as the squad leader, giving commands to three other commandos under your control. You are a player in this game, so you still have control over yourself. You play in a third-person viewpoint, and most of the combat is fought in outdoor environments.

The target audience for this game is 18-34 year olds, who are into a casual-gaming experience. Here’s where my first argument came into play. What is the difference between casual and hardcore, if we’re going to get into using these terms? In society, most people who think “casual” when it comes to video games think of people who enjoy playing something like the Nintendo Wii, or being able to pick up a game and play it without having too much trouble. That definition is actually close, looking back, but it’s wrong. When I think of a shooter game at all, though, the last thing I think of is a “casual” audience. Yet, supposedly my teacher tells me that more and more casual game players have been picking up shooter games since September 11th, because it makes them feel like they’re in the action and helping. I don’t believe a word of that, because I haven’t heard one person say that that is the reason why they would play a shooter game, if anything, I’ve heard people be more against shooters since that day. In the end, I was explained that a casual game player is someone who is able to pick up a game, learn the controls quickly, and be able to play for a short amount of time without being tied down by it. Once again, I bring up my point that I don’t agree that any shooter game, especially one with squad tactics, can be considered “casual”, but I was forced to do this assignment with that mindset.

In this game, you need to have the choice of which squad member you want to select, individually, or as a group. You also need to be able to designate a waypoint for your units, and finally, be able to issue an order movement. The three order movements are Check Position, which makes your team approach the target cautiously; Double-Time, which makes your team move to the target in the fastest speed possible; and Patrol, which makes your team follow the series of waypoints that you’ve previously set down. Using all of this, you are to create a button combination that would be best for a casual game player.

Now, just to argue semantics, for fun, I would never have an order in a game called “Double-Time”. Unless you’re making a military-specific hardcore game, where the people who play know exactly what that order means, you will never use an order like that. And the military-specific games have never been huge popular sellers anyways.

The main problem with this is that you can’t just map one button to be exactly one thing. You still need to be able to move your own character properly, and have actions for them, as well as being able to issue commands to your squad, meaning that you will have some buttons that will actually have multiple functions. The line between “casual” and “hardcore” I felt was tread very hard in this aspect, because the way we were taught, we were made to believe that having a player press multiple buttons at once was too much for a simple game to have, yet in this example, we were requiring the player to remember that one button would actually have two different actions depending on the situation that it was used in. Also, I can’t remember the last squad based shooter that I’ve played where you’ve actually been able to just control one or two of your squad mates, without being forced to move them all to the position that you designate.

My issue with all of this is simple. I feel that the curriculum is either old, and doesn’t make sense in today’s modern game-creation norm; or it is just made by someone who makes a book, and doesn’t know anything about the industry itself anymore, nullifying my interest in learning something that doesn’t actually have any hold in the industry now. Yet, our teacher has been in the industry, and claims that most of this is true, and that game companies actually will use such an idea for a game. I argue that greatly, because I can’t remember the last time I’ve ever seen a game use any of these kinds of tactics recently. Unfortunately, I’m just here to learn what they are teaching me, and therefore I need to abide by their rules. Anyways, enough of my rambling. What is your opinion on this assignment, and the terms and wording used?

By the way, here is the control interface that I came up with in the end:

Click for larger image.

Losing That New Internet Smell

The night is dark, and the cold is chilling to the bone. Grabbing my briefcase, laptop bag, and runners bag, I quickly run into the house into it’s warm safety. Trying to be quiet since the family is asleep, I quietly walk upstairs to my bedroom, where I then flop on my bed. It had been a long school day, filled with boredom, and a little bit of homework, which created a stir in me (but that will be another entry in the very near future). Laying there for a moment, I decided to get up and head over to my computer, as I did daily. Sitting down and turning on my monitor, I went to my Opera Browser to check my RSS feeds. I had a lot of them since I had been gone all day at school, and hadn’t bothered to log in to my home computer to check them. Boy was I surprised to find…

The internet just can’t be the internet unless someone wants to ruin something for other people. MacRumors was the target this time, as some skilled hackers (or so they say, but, I have my doubts more and more as time goes on) decided to make a massacre of their Live Blog from MacWorld’s keynote. Let’s just put it this way, they said some pretty rough things in it. To this story, I just have to shake my head.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10132749-2.html

The story that I found to be shocking, though, is the fact that 1UP.com was acquired by UGO Entertainment on January 6, 2008. Most people will just shake their heads and go, “So what? It’s just a video game journalism site. This happens all the time.” That may be true, but when a lot of great journalists are now out of a job because the new parent company doesn’t want to keep them, then things start to go wrong. Many of 1UP’s show producers were in the midst of those layoffs, basically terminating any future episodes of their famous video podcast The 1UP Show, as well as their regular podcast 1UP Yours. Not only that, but at least 30, if not at least 40 other 1UP employees have been let go after this ordeal. Beyond all this and that, though, is that the last of Ziff Davis‘ print magazines, EGM, also known as Electronic Gaming Monthly, has been completely closed down, and will no longer be printed. EGM was one of the last impartial video game review magazines on the market. It was one of the most influential video game magazines for readers for many years, and has affected many game players, including 1UP creator Sam Kennedy, to do what they do in their life now, relating to video games.

Source: http://www.ugo.com/facelift/html/static/ugo-to-acquire-1up.asp

Now let’s be honest, I read a lot about all of this from many different sites, as this has been a big uproar from the gaming community. And the problem is, this has all happened before to other sites. GameSpot is one who is not a stranger to controversy such as this, and lost many of their loyal fan base over the past year due to the unexpected and highly controversial firing of Jeff Gerstmann, which led to the quitting of mostly all of the higher end editors from their site. Based off of the comments I’ve read to news stories from both 1UP.com and UGO.com, it is obvious that members from both sides are skeptical of this acquisition. One controversial quote from UGO’s news post about the recent events is as follows, “… 1UP is all about its personalities…”. This comes after news of many of the highest end personalities from 1UP were let go. Obviously, someone needs to learn to choose their words a lot better. While this is big, I was enlightened to something that I hadn’t realized before. Most of the major video game journalism sites are now owned by major corporations, who I have a feeling have no idea anything about them, but are in it for the money, which is highly disappointing. Quoting Sam Kennedy’s Blog, creator of 1UP.com, “GameSpot is now part of CBS, IGN is owned by FOX, GameDaily is owned by AOL, and now 1UP is owned by UGO and its parent Hearst Corporation, one of the largest and long running publishers in the nation.” It’s amazing to think that all of these once small, privately owned video game journalism sites have become so big that they were bought out by these gigantic entities. I also wonder what in the world good it does for the video game site’s side of the coin.

Source: http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=8977607&publicUserId=4561231

A little bit of a shakeup in the world of the internet has sent a lot of people spiraling around, wondering what’s next for the gaming community! Personally, I just so happen to be losing some faith in the world of video game journalism. I mean, I understand, we’ll never know if a game is good or bad unless we rely on these websites and their opinions to tell us as such, but with all of this marketing and big corporation stuff going on, I wonder how much of it is unbiased anymore. We’ll just have to keep watching to see what happens coming up here in the next year.

Life 2009

One thing I hate to do the most nowadays is to Blog about my life. I feel that my life and my writing are two separate entities. The biggest problem with that thought process is that when my life isn’t going quite the way that it should be, I tend to not have the drive to write as much. Writing is one of my favorite things to do, because it pushes me to do research on something I may not have much knowledge about, or has me talking about something that I DO know a lot about, and helps inform others. Sitting here unable to write a true entry, though, has me down. Let me explain, briefly.

I, as you know, enjoy video games a lot. But, I will admit right now, I haven’t played a video game since the start of 2009. Many of you may be thinking, “Hey, that’s great, you’re breaking the addiction!”. That’s exactly what I’m NOT thinking. Video games are my leisure fun activity. Everyone has them, that one is mine. To have not played any in a week is killer. Basically because it means I haven’t had much time to actually enjoy the last of my time off.

Then, yesterday, I woke up after a terrible, short night of sleep to find myself dizzy as all hell, and throwing up. So I was forced to call in sick to work. I slept 18 hours yesterday, and then woke up today ready to take on the world. I start up my truck, and find that there is a layer of ice thicker than anything I’ve ever had before on it, and my defroster isn’t working properly. Scraping it did no good whatsoever. So I, once again, had to call in to work. That’s two days in a row. If they don’t kill me the next time I work, it’ll be a miracle. Plus, I now have to bring my truck in to get it fixed, which, I will bet, will cost me a pretty penny.

There’s a saying: “People who are always upbeat have more friends. Be depressed, and you lose them all.” I heard it not more than a week ago, and I hated to hear it, because I seem to be more downbeat in my life than anything. I know that I’m paying for it, but, I see life differently than others. I see it for what it is, not what it should be. And I will always pay for that.

Give me a day or two. I have the next two days off from work, since I have school again (and I’m not sure if being off from work is exactly the best thing to happen right now). Just bear with me a little bit longer.

Community Activity: 20 Questions

Happy New Year everyone! Yes yes, I did already say that, but it really is 2009 now, so don’t forget to date everything with “09″ now instead, okay? Actually, I’m posting today to try something a little new, something to get the community more involved in the Blog process. While page views of Weasel’s Weblog aren’t terrible, comments and such are lacking a bit. I would love to see a bit more from the community with my Weblog here. I feel that it has so much potential, yet is just untapped still. And so, I present to you the first Community Activity: 20 Questions!

As you know, I like video games. A lot. So if you like video games as well, post anywhere from 1 to 10 questions in the comment you leave on this entry. Out of everyone’s questions, I’ll choose 10 to answer, and post them up here on Monday, January 5, 2009. If you want an idea of some questions that are, well, OKAY to use, check out my old entry, 10 Questions, 10 Opinions, 1 Blog.

Now there are still a lot of you out there who may read this who could care less about video games. In that case, post 1 to 10 questions about anything else, and I’ll pick 10 to answer on Monday as well! They can be anything from anime, movies, music, my opinion, etc. Just pick a handful of things that interest you that you’d like me to answer, and I’ll get right on that!

Again, the deadline for this is Sunday at Midnight, obviously, so that I have time to answer them. The response Blog will be up on Monday, January 5, 2009, so check back then! I really hope this works to get some of you more involved in my Blogging process. Also, I’ve added a new page where you can submit ideas for new entries in case you want to hear a review for a certain video game, know my opinion on something, or just want to hear about something that’s going on. Please don’t hesitate to contribute, it’s just on the Blog Ideas page! Hopefully I get a handful of you to participate a little more so that I can get this up by Monday! Thanks for reading!

The Future of Rhythm & Music Games

Before I begin, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and all of those other holidays which all seem to happen to fall in to this time of the year, including my 21st birthday, for those of you who were unaware. Yes, check that About Weasel page if you are curious to finally see the first picture of me on my Blog, and with my first drink no less. It’s a month of firsts, let me tell you. Oh, and 2009 will be a year of firsts as well. I’m starting work on a secret project, which you’ll be able to find information about on the Project Source page I’ve just created. And don’t forget to check out my Video Games page, which, I promise, I’ll get around to fully updating soon enough. But, without further ado, let’s get to the real meat and potatoes of this entry. Mmmm… meat and potatoes… I’m hungry, damn.

Music and rhythm games come in all shapes and sizes these days. Obviously, some of the most popular are games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, or one of my personal favorites, Dance Dance Revolution. They can also be karaoke, SingStar and Lips being examples of those, or even more different, Elite Beat Agents and Wii Music. But a handful of more unique, non-mainstream rhythm games have been put out on the PC, the most notable now being Audiosurf. I’ve always personally been a fan of Audiosurf, and it’s available on Steam for $4.99 until the end of their sale, so I’d recommend it.

Audiosurf

Audiosurf created something new and different that captured people quickly. The premise of Audiosurf is that it takes your music, any song that you have in an MP3 format, and scans it for it’s beat and tone. Then, it creates a highway based on the pitch the music takes, and you, playing as the vehicle on this highway, are made to run over colored blocks to create combinations, depending on which mode you play in. There are many different modes, which range from the simple mode of picking up the color blocks and avoiding gray ones, to harder modes which force you to match up at least three of each color to acquire points from it. This game can be played with your keyboard, but is the most fun when played with your mouse. This game had me hooked from the beginning, because, as stated earlier, it can be used with any song you could possibly happen to have in your entire library.

There are more than just that, though, that you can find on the internet. Take for example a game that is nothing but a Flash demo still so far, yet very advanced to begin with. The game is called Auditorium, and it’s made by a company called Cipher Prime. Even by checking out their Website and their Blog, it’s easy to see that they know a thing or two about creativity. Auditorium features a completely original orchestrated soundtrack, and it is what drives the game. The idea of the game is extremely simple. The “Flow” is a stream of white lines that come from a starting point. The objective is to change the direction of those lines using “Controls”, which range from simple directions, to the most advanced control in the demo being the “Attract” control, which makes the flow wrap around in circles around it. The destination for this flow is “Containers”, which are bars, like you would find in a recording studio. When all of the varied containers in the level are filled up to the top, you are taken to the next level. There is a lot to explain about this game, but I would recommend just heading over and trying it out yourself. The demo only contains three stages, some of which can be difficult and annoying, but with time, each one can be figured out.

Auditorium

The market for rhythm games is vast, but more unique ideas, such as the one used in Auditorium, are needed to keep it as alive as it is right now. The constant rehashes of Guitar Hero games will eventually lead to over saturation, and the amount of sales they will get will eventually fall. For my personal self, I’ve ceased buying any of the Guitar Hero games due to the fact that it is continuously being milked for all that it’s worth. There comes a point where I feel disgusted that they’ve made so many of the same thing, that I’m just torn away from wanting it anymore. Many people could come back and say that the Final Fantasy series has done the same thing, but I would like to point out that every Final Fantasy game is a unique storyline, with unique features and elements built in to them, and even if some of the mechanics are similar, the story is always many, many hours different than the others. Ideas like this, and quite possibly flOw as well, will shape the direction that music-related games will go in the future.

Also, semi-related, in the aspect of music, check out the band that did the soundtrack for the video game Mirror’s Edge, Solar Fields. They have an area where you can listen to music directly on their website, and if you love instrumental music as much as I do, you will definitely enjoy many of their tracks that they’ve created over the time.

Christmas Thoughts

With Christmas literally right around the corner, many people are getting pumped up for the onslaught of gifts that they’re about to receive from their friends and family. I, of course, am excited as well, although, I’m a little more excited that I get these days off from work. I’m not trying to be a Scrooge or anything, but to me, Christmas isn’t the same anymore. I don’t get as excited for it as I used to around this time of the year. Gifts and presents just don’t interest me like they used to. I still get into the spirit and everything though, I have Christmas music on right now, and we’ve got the tree lit.

Most of the reason that I think I’m not in to Christmas as much as I used to it the fact that Christmas has become so much of a retail holiday. Then again, which holiday isn’t these days, but that’s not my point. When asked what I wanted for Christmas this year by my parents, I literally told them “nothing”. While I enjoy giving gifts for the holiday, and have spent a small fortune on gifts for my family, I just can’t think of anything that I would want in return. I would rather that they save their money for something more important, something more that we, as a family, needs to live, instead of some “want” that I may have. This usually doesn’t end with a good response.

My USB-Powered Christmas Tree!

In my opinion, I just want a Christmas where I’m home with the family, spending time together, and then we have an excellent home cooked Christmas dinner. If that were all my holiday was, I’d be happier than a clam, or so the saying goes. Heck, to offset what they may have been thinking about getting me, I actually asked for clothes. Yes, you heard me right, I actually asked for my parents to get me clothes, both everyday and work clothes. I don’t expect that I’m going to get any of those homemade Christmas sweaters or anything, because my parents don’t do that, but I’m hoping and expecting more of my gifts to be that, if they listened to my request of course.

I love Christmas, I’m not going to say that I don’t. But, I just never get the excitement that I used to when I was younger over it now. To me, it’s just another holiday, where you’re expected to go out and spend your hard earned money on everyone that you know. While I am okay with that, getting something back for that isn’t something that I like seeing. I’d be more than happy seeing a smile on the person’s face, and hearing how happy they are to have gotten the gift, more than I would want something back from them which cost them who knows how much. I know, I’m an odd duck, you don’t have to tell me twice, but, that’s just the way that I am!

Happy Merry Chrismahanakwanzika!

Weasel’s Weblog Presents the SPIKE 2008 Video Game Awards Live Blog!

Welcome to the Live Blog of the SPIKE 2008 Video Game Awards!

Tonight, Sunday, December 14, 2008, is the night of the 2008 VGAs, presented by Spike TV. This marks the fifth anniversary of the awards, and the first year that they’re doing the show live, instead of pre-recorded. In the past, the results have leaked onto the internet much before the show airs, ruining most of the point of it. This year, they decided to do it live, opening up many new opportunities, including using their website to show extra camera angles, and a special pre-show.

In the past, the Spike TV Video Game Awards have been mediocre. Starting out with the first year, the results of their awards were met with many questions and controversy on why such games won. As the years have gone on, the winners have improved and been more understandable. Sadly, Spike still hasn’t figured out what video game players want to see, and have just missed the mark. It will be interesting to see what they bring to the table this year, and if they can successfully come up with a presentation that’s interesting to the viewers.

Due to the fact that the winners have yet to be announced yet, I’ve decided to do this Live Blog during the show, which starts at 8 PM CST on SPIKE TV. In this Blog, you will see a list of potential winners, as well as my choices on who I want to win, who will probably win, and, as they occur, who actually won. Please feel free to enter into discussion in the comments section, and I will gladly join in as well. The following is the list. Please check back often for updates, and as the winners are announced live on the show, check back for updated results and comments on the winners.

---

Comments on The Rediculously Awesome VGA Preshow:

7:01 PM CST – Well, here we begin. Visit http://www.spike.com/event/vga/page/live-pre-show to watch the VGA Preshow LIVE. Wonder how good this year’s show will be?

7:07 PM CST – So far, they just have celebrities talking about why they’re there at the VGAs, what they like to see… and seeing if they can make it through the first level of Super Mario that they downloaded on the Wii.

7:24 PM CST - Let’s be honest, some of these celebrities just don’t know anything about video games… except if it’s a super shooter, and then they love it. Listening to some of this is just disappointing, I’ll admit. Like I said, SPIKE kind of misses the mark, once again. Luckily, this is just the Preshow.

7:27 PM CST – Did I mention that all of these media venues seem to choose the most annoying person to speak for them? This woman is just abnoxious. And, wait a second, the Preshow was only a half hour? That doesn’t make much sense. Oh well, 30 minutes to go!

7:53 PM CST – One great way to keep up to date Live as well, other than just plain ol’ watching the awards on TV, is Twitter @ http://www.twitter.com . I’ve seen a lot of popular people, including the famous Jeff Gerstmann, updating his Twitter page with Live updates!

---

Comments on the SPIKE 2008 Video Game Awards:

8:02 PM CST – I’ll admit, the stage looks beautiful. In fact, so does the entire theater! Wow, NOW I’m envious. Hope the show is as good as the local!

8:09 PM CST – World Premiere #1 – New map pack for Gears of War 2. Available tonight! What do you think? Cool? Three new maps.

8:18 PM CST – LL Cool J performed, kind of. And now, footage of the new UFC game. Personally, not interested. Kinda wish I was there though, even though it doesn’t look like a too terribly interesting show so far.

8:21 PM CST – World Premiere #2 – God of War III. Didn’t really announce, well, ANYTHING about the story, no in-game footage, no, uh… anything. Also, there is more commercials than there is show. Plus, did anyone else catch that Gears of War 2 ALSO won Best Xbox 360 Game in the middle of that there? Once again, SPIKE is rushing through this. Final comment for now, advertising pre-ordering on the end of the trailer? This really is COMPLETELY an advertising show.

8:29 PM CST – World Premiere #3 – Fight Night Round 4 by EA. And, Muhammed Ali? This is just a celebrity fest as well. And, once again, they advertised pre-ordering it from GameStop! How disappointing.

8:34 PM CST – So we can really tell it’s Live. Wish they knew what they were doing. Now it’s becoming even more unprofessional. And, once again, they just showed a celebrity, with no real reason.

8:42 PM CST – All-American Rejects playing. I don’t mind them at least, haha.

8:51 PM CST – World Premiere #4 – Dante’s Inferno. Seriously, Kim isn’t really that smart, is she… oh, and Tony Hawk and Will Wright are up now! Talking about the wonders of Spore. And he’s won an award for being a “Gamer God”? I really don’t like the word “gamer”, thanks to the old GameSpot, but still. Yes, he is a God, I’ll agree with that.

8:56 PM CST – World Premiere #5 – Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned. Hey, it’s an actual interesting trailer. And I hate to say that, because I’m really not a fan of the GTA series, to be honest.

9:05 PM CST – HEY LOOK, ANOTHER AWARD! Which, by the way, was a great choice. Best RPG. And now, Busta Rhymes. Who announces World Premiere #6 – Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Excellent trailer! Really says a lot about the game actually, and has already been interesting enough to make me want to play it!

9:15 PM CST – World Premiere #7 – Terminator Salvation. Well, the graphics are good, but the gameplay looks WAY too much like Gears of War though. Third person, with a cover system way too similar.

9:17 PM CST – World Premiere #8 – Mafia II. I actually wonder what the gameplay will be like. The trailer looks pretty cool, on it’s own. But, as before, I’m just not personally a fan of that kind of game. And now, 50 Cent. I’ll admit, during the Preshow, he seemed nice, but, sounds like his song is WAY too filled with swear words. It’s getting muted left and right.

9:26 PM CST – World Premiere #9 – Watchmen: The End Is Neih. At least, I think that’s how you spell it. They fly through these trailers like they’re nothing. Still, the game looks interesting. It would be nice to know the background of the Watchmen comic series first.

9:31 PM CST – Once again, another built-in advertisement. This time for the movie Mall Cop. Honestly, what does this have to do with video games again? Oh, that’s right, nothing.

9:38 PM CST – As I was updating with who won, they decided to basically give out every other award that they could. This completely ticks me off. Basically, they just wanted to get their ad time in, and give up on the rest of the show. So, it looks like I’ll be looking up the winners later on tonight, eh? Oh well, whatever. As I said, this show is disappointing. They don’t disappoint to be disappointing, haha!

9:44 PM CST – World Premiere #10 – Brutal Legend. I love how they’re calling this the best game ever. I don’t like that at all. Ah, I see, since Jack Black is in it, they’re pushing it to no end. Again, not a fan of that at all. I think that alone has made me lost a lot of interest in this game. And, seeing the trailer, I see why I have no interest in this game. It doesn’t look entertaining at all.

9:49 PM CST – Game of the Year time! Time to see where this lands. Aaannnddd… that’s not where it should have landed. At all. I’m terribly disappointed. Looks like I’m finished with the VGAs from now on. As I should have already been years ago it seems.

9:56 PM CST – Weezer is closing out the show. I guess I got my hopes up about the show again, eh? How sad. Check the bottom of the page for my final closing comments later tonight!

---

Best Independent Game Fueled By Dew

Game	Personal Favorite	Probable Win	Winner
World of Goo			X
PixelJunk Eden
Braid		X
Audiosurf	X

Comments: Really? Huh. I guess I’m shocked. Well, if the people chose it, then so be it.  Thing is, I really haven’t heard many things, well, at all about World of Goo. That’s why it’s so shocking.

Studio Of The Year

Studio	Personal Favorite	Probable Win	Winner
Media Molecule	X		X
Rockstar North		X
Harmonix
Bethesda Game Studios

Comments: A well deserved win for Media Molecule! They worked their butts off for this, and they did it.

Game of the Year

Game	Personal Favorite	Probable Win	Winner
Gears of War 2
Grand Theft Auto IV		X	X
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots	X
Fallout 3
LittleBigPlanet

Comments: Exactly like I called it this afternoon, Grand Theft Auto IV won Game of the Year. I completely disagree with this choice, but, based on the way that popularity goes around these parts, it was a given from the very beginning. At least that’s it, now that the year is over, we can end the love for it.

Best Team Sports Game

Game	Personal Favorite	Probable Win	Winner
FIFA Soccer 09
NBA 2K9
Madden NFL 09	X	X
NHL 09

Comments: So, what, did SPIKE forget that they had this catagory in the first place? I’ve been searching and looking for the past half hour, and there really was no winner announced. How lame.

Best Name In The Game Female

Female	Personal Favorite	Probable Win	Winner
Dame Judi Dench As “M”
Eliza Dushku As “Shaundi”
Liv Tyler As “Betty Ross”
Jenny McCarthy As “Tanya”	X	X	X

Comments: Let me just be honest. I think Jenny McCarthy is probably one of the only most well know of them all, first of all, and secondly, Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 had more of a famous cast than any of them yet. I found it an easy choice.

Best Name In The Game Male

Male	Personal Favorite	Probable Win	Winner
Liam Neeson As “Father”
Kiefer Sutherland As “Sgt. Roebuck”	X		X
Ricky Gervais As “Himself”		X
Daniel Craig As “James Bond”

Comments: How much does this rock, my favorite won! Kiefer Sutherland has an awesome voice for an action character, in TV or in a video game. He deserved this award.

Best Performance By A Human Female

Female	Personal Favorite	Probable Win	Winner
Debi Mae West As “Meryl Silverburgh”	X	X	X
Keeley Hawes As “Lara Croft”
Paula Tiso As “Silvia Christel”
Nathalie Cox As “Juno Eclipse”

Comments: I do agree with this choice greatly, as you can see by my earlier prediction as well! She did an excellent job as Meryl, and that also was a huge game, so it really stood out above the rest I feel.

Best Performance By A Human Male

Male	Personal Favorite	Probable Win	Winner
Stephen Fry As “The Narrator”
David Hayter As “Old Snake”	X
Jason Zumwalt As “Roman Bellic”
Michael Hollick As “Niko Bellic”		X	X

Comments: Sadly, I knew that the voice of Niko Bellic from Grand Theft Auto IV was going to win this. I’m sure that he did do a good job, but out of this list, I just don’t feel that he fit right as the best male voice in a video game.

Best Multi-Player Game

Game	Personal Favorite	Probable Win	Winner
Call of Duty: World at War		X
Resistance 2	X
Left 4 Dead			X
Gears of War 2

Comments: I’m actually kind of surprised by this choice. While I know that Call of Duty: World at War wasn’t as popular as Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was, I still thought that in the popular eye it would have won. I wouldn’t have expected Left 4 Dead to take this prize though.

Best Original Score

Score	Personal Favorite	Probable Win	Winner
LittleBigPlanet		X
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots	X		X
Spore
Fallout 3

Comments: While my favorite was the one chosen as the winner, and the one I wanted to win, I just had a feeling that they weren’t going to select it. None the less, the Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots OST is one of my personal favorites of all time, and will be for quite some time I’m sure.

Best PC Game

Game	Personal Favorite	Probable Win	Winner
Left 4 Dead			X
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
Crysis Warhead
Spore	X	X

Comments: I’ll be the first to admit that I’m completely floored by this decision. I just didn’t think Left 4 Dead was THAT good of a game that it would warrant Best PC Game, but obviously I haven’t played it enough to know. Sadly, Steam is not something I enjoy using.

Best PS3 Game

Game	Personal Favorite	Probable Win	Winner
Grand Theft Auto IV
LittleBigPlanet			X
Resistance 2
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots	X	X

Comments: I’ll admit, I love LittleBigPlanet, this is a great game, but, the greatest game on the PlayStation 3 for the year of 2008? I’m sorry, I just can’t agree with that.

Best Wii Game

Game	Personal Favorite	Probable Win	Winner
Super Smash Bros. Brawl	X	X
No More Heroes
Wii Fit
Boom Blox			X

Comments: I’ve heard nothing but good things about Boom Blox. While I wonder if it’s the Best Wii Game of the year, I just can’t go that far just yet, but, it looks like in the public’s eye, it’s better than the others.

Best Xbox 360 Game

Game	Personal Favorite	Probable Win	Winner
Fallout 3
Grand Theft Auto IV		X
Gears of War 2			X
Fable II	X

Comments: So, okay, this was a little bit of a shock to me actually, but, GTAIV isn’t necessarily an exclusive to the system. Although, I’ll admit, I expected the stereotypical results for this show. I’m happily surprised.

Best Soundtrack

Soundtrack	Personal Favorite	Probable Win	Winner
Guitar Hero World Tour		X
Rock Band 2	X		X
Grand Theft Auto IV
LittleBigPlanet

Comments: This was a rough choice on my “Probable”. I have a feeling that the Guitar Hero franchise just has more of a following than the Rock Band one does now. But I was obviously wrong, and my favorite won instead! About time.

Best Action Adventure Game

Game	Personal Favorite	Probable Win	Winner
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots	X
Mirror’s Edge
Grand Theft Auto IV		X	X
Dead Space

Comments: This one was tough to decide who my “Favorite” one. I really liked all but Grand Theft Auto IV, but since I had to choose one, I chose the one I’ve put the most time into. And naturally, they chose Grand Theft Auto IV as their favorite, which I’m totally not surprised about.

Best Driving Game

Game	Personal Favorite	Probable Win	Winner
Mario Kart Wii
Midnight Club: Los Angeles		X
PURE
Burnout Paradise	X		X

Comments: Once again, I was wrong in thinking that my Favorite wouldn’t win! This is definately a game that I say should win this catagory. With how much support and free add-on content that Criterion has given it, it’s worth more than it was when people bought it, which is a great thing to be able to say.

Best Music Game

Game	Personal Favorite	Probable Win	Winner
SingStar
Wii Music
Guitar Hero World Tour		X
Rock Band 2	X		X

Comments: Once again, with the following of each of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises, this was not an easy choice, but I have a feeling it will be one of those two. And, of course, I was right, except, and I’m not complaining, but my favorite won, and my probable didn’t!

Best Game Based On A Movie Or Tv Show

Game	Personal Favorite	Probable Win	Winner
Naruto: The Broken Bond
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed	X
Quantum of Solace
LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures		X	X

Comments: Wait… there’s a good game made based on a movie or tv show? Yes, I AM told, though, that the LEGO games are quite entertaining. Oh, and I had a feeling that would win, too.

Best Graphics

Graphics	Personal Favorite	Probable Win	Winner
LittleBigPlanet
Gears of War 2
Fallout 3
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots	X	X	X

Comments: Here’s a much deserved win for Kojima! Without a doubt, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots was an absolutely beautiful game, and therefore succeeded in a catagory that it was built to win in.

Best Handheld Game

Game	Personal Favorite	Probable Win	Winner
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia		X
Patapon
Professor Layton and the Curious Village	X		X
God of War: Chains of Olympus

Comments: Once again my favorite won. I’m better at this than I thought. None the less, I still figured others wouldn’t think the same way that I did. It’s an awesome win for these guys, they made an excellently deep DS game.

Best Individual Sports Game

Game	Personal Favorite	Probable Win	Winner
Skate It
Wii Fit
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09	X	X
Shaun White Snowboarding			X

Comments: Honestly, I have no idea which direction this one is going. All of these games are pretty popular to the masses. And it went to the one that I thought deserved it least, based on the fact of how horrible it was. But, as I’ve said before, whatever they say…

Best Fighting Game

Game	Personal Favorite	Probable Win	Winner
Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit
Super Smash Bros. Brawl	X
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe		X
Soul Caliber IV			X

Comments: Shocking, actually! Definately not my first choice, or my second even for that matter! I’d be interested in hearing why they thought Soul Caliber IV was better than Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. The character creation maybe?

Best RPG

Game	Personal Favorite	Probable Win	Winner
Fallout 3		X	X
The World Ends with You
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
Fable II	X

Comments: Hey look, my first prediction I got right! I had a really big feeling that people would like Fallout 3 better. I’ll admit, it’s huge, lots of content, and it’s good.

Best Shooter

Game	Personal Favorite	Probable Win	Winner
Gears of War 2			X
Left 4 Dead		X
Resistance 2	X
Far Cry 2

Comments: I’ll admit, I don’t know what I was smoking when I thought about who the “Probable” was, haha. But, yeah, I’m not surprised, Gears of War 2 was an excellent game, I still have a better favorite.

Most Anticipated Game

Personal Favorite	Winner
Killzone 2

Comments: My choice was Killzone 2 for the PlayStation 3, releasing February 27, 2009. Problem is, they never announced if there was an answer to what the fans thought was their most anticipated game. So make this your homework in the comment you’re going to leave. What is YOUR Most Anticipated Game?

---

Final Thoughts: I’m sure we’re all in agreement when I say that this year, they followed through perfectly with exactly how they’ve done it before. Once again, they completely missed the mark on what us game players want to see in avideo game awards show. Honestly, I’ve heard it be called many things in the past hour or so, but the one that I think was the closest to true, is that the past two hours was just like watching one giant commercial. And, in the end, all they did was have Jack Black promote his own game as if it’s the best game ever made in the entire world. I really hope that I watch that game crash and burn when the reviews come in. But anyways, overall, this production was mediocre, at best. While there were some understandable winners, and some that weren’t, that’s the same with any award ceremony. It’s not up to just you, it’s up to a group of people who have possible different tastes than you do. Still, I truly have my wonders. I’m looking forward to not watching next year’s performance. Although, while I say that now, I’ll put money on the fact that I’ll be sitting and watching it again next year. Except, unlike this year, I won’t be Blogging about it and being so gleeful about it, haha.

Thank you for reading this Live Blog of the SPIKE 2008 Video Game Awards!

PlayStation® Comes Home for the Holidays

PlayStation® Home, years in the making, finally entered Open Beta today for all PlayStation 3 owners. For anyone connected to the internet on Tuesday, December 11, 2008, they were greeted with a new icon under their PlayStation® Network menu. PlayStation® Home was automatically downloaded to everyone’s PlayStation 3, and the flood ensued as early as the servers would let them in. Millions of people flocked to their PlayStation 3’s to be able to be one of the first to see the brand new Home that they’d been waiting over two years to finally see. Unfortunate for many, errors plagued the sign in process making it very difficult for most people to log on through the early hours of it’s release. Luckily, by the end of the day, most diligent users were able to check it out for themselves. While there is a lot more to do in it than there was with the Closed Beta, it’s still lacking some of the key features that they had shown off in past events.

If you were in the Closed Beta, the first thing you’ll notice is the brand new renovated Central Plaza, which looks nothing like it used to. The Central Plaza is basically the center of the world. From here, you’re given access to most of the main city areas, including the Mall, the Home Theatre, and the Bowling Alley. Within the Central Plaza is many places for sit and chat with your friends, the Listen@Home station, which features ten varied tracks from artists that no one’s heard of, and a mini-game called Saucer Pop. Saucer Pop, while just a silly mini-game within PlayStation® Home as a whole, is still quite addiciting, and features you flying a miniature flying saucer and popping bubbles with stars in them to earn points.

The Mall now finally has items that you can purchase in it. Unfortunately, unlike a few other virtual worlds which offer both an in-game method of paying for things as well as a real life cash method (see: vSide), everything that you want to purchase, down to a shirt for your back, will cost you something, and give you nothing in return, except for a prettier looking virtual avatar. General clothes for your avatar will pretty much cost you about $0.49 for each piece, furniture for your apartment will cost you around $0.99 a piece, and a new personal space itself will run you about $4.99. Right now, there still isn’t a whole ton of stuff for you to choose from, but with time, we should expect to see a full collection of items to stock the shelves.

The Home Theatre, not the one at your actual home, but the Theatre inside the city of Home, has not changed. Within the Closed Beta, it was used to show a behind the scenes video from SOCOM: Confrontation, which usually wasn’t a packed house. Now it’s being used to show the movie trailer for Twilight, followed by an exclusive music video for a song within the movie performed by Paramore. Sony has advertised the Theatre as a place to “watch game and movie trailers”, but with the internet being a very easy place to access these things as well, it will be interesting to see what this spot can offer that people can’t see anywhere else. If they can’t come up with something unique to keep peoples’ attention, then this will be one of the least used spots of the entire world.

Probably the most happening spot of the main area in Home is the Bowling Alley. Featuring five lanes with matches containing up to four people, the game of bowling is one of the most entertaining games in the area. It takes some skill, or at least some practice to get good at this, but when you are, it’s entertaining to play. There are three steps to bowling. The first is the aim, which way you’re throwing the ball. The second is speed, how fast you’re rolling it. The third and final step is spin, which allows you to spin the ball either left or right, which can be the deciding factor with some of your shots. Bowling isn’t the only thing you can do at the Alley though. Arcade machines line the two sides of the alleys, featuring Ice Breaker and Carriage Return which are unique games to the world, and an arcade version of the popular PlayStation® Network game echochrome. Not to disappoint people looking for a different challenge, pool tables are also lined across the back end of the room, allowing for two people to be able to play a game of Solids and Stripes. The Bowling Alley is definitely the area of Home that’s meant to be the most interactive, and it’s usually pretty packed because of it. None the less, everything in this room is well made, and brings peoples’ interest.

Finding an actual real screenshot for PlayStation® Home on the internet is near to impossible right now. This is one of the few I found. Currently I am running too low on time to take one myself. Expect more screenshots in the near future.

Outside of the main area of PlayStation® Home is the specific areas reserved for certain games. As time goes on, Sony plans on releasing more of these rooms for more games, but as of the opening of the Open Beta there were only areas for the games Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and Far Cry 2. These areas feature multiple rooms which are based around areas within the game itself, and are made with great detail. The Uncharted room features an outdoor seating section as well as an indoor one, a special arcade game only found within that area, and three doors, each with a door code that one has to decipher to be able to enter the special restricted room. Inside each of the restricted rooms is more lore and other game-related props, but other than that, there aren’t many other special features to them. The Far Cry 2 area is a little more plain, just being an area to hang out that looks like locations from the actual Far Cry 2 game. In the second room, though, is interactive action points where you can view a full-scale map of the world of Far Cry 2, as well as dossiers of the characters from the game scattered about the room. Unfortunately, there isn’t really much else to do within these areas, other than having a place with a varried atmosphere to sit and hang out.

Everyone who is in the world also is given an apartment, where they are able to decorate with furniture, or have a private location to invite their friends over to sit and chat. Your apartment is completely customizable with furniture and accessories that you have purchased, including couches, armchairs, tables, lights, and more. Many of the more notable features from demos at past events, though, are still missing from the lineup, although Sony has been quick to say that Home will be ever evolving, meaning we’ll often see updates to it.

Clubs are another feature that Sony has tried to push on PlayStation® Home. Clubs are basically a group of people under the banner of a club name. Clubs can also have a clubhouse, in which they are able to post announcements to a cork board for other members to see, as well as it’s customizable with furniture just like your personal apartment is. Different from the Closed Beta though, club leaders will now have to pay a one-time fee of $4.99 just to be able to receive a clubhouse for their club, and rumor has it that Sony will begin charging people a monthly upkeep for their club starting mid-2009. All of these things taken into account, clubs are not notably high peoples’ priorities list. Another thing that isn’t high on the list is Game Launching from within Home. Currently, only one game is confirmed to be able to launch from directly within Home itself; Warhawk. Sony has said that they will be adding support for most, if not all games in the future, including LittleBigPlanet, SOCOM: Confrontation, and more.

It’s time for the opinion side of things now. While PlayStation® Home is a very cool and unique piece of software, right now the value of it compared to the rest of the PlayStation® Network, or even other virtual worlds, is still lackluster. With the only way to upgrade being to pay cash for it, it takes away from the experience and limits users as to what they are able to do with it. I’ve found this in many virtual worlds, but it’s always the people who pay more from their pocket that are able to use that creative freedom to the fullest. If you don’t like chatting with random strangers, or meeting new people who you just bump into, you’re restricted as to what you’re able to do within the world. The mini-games scattered throughout the world are a fun escape, but with little to no value to them, and a limited amount of replayablitity, as with the arcade machines, I can see how Home will become a fad that will wearing off quickly for people. I have my hopes for it; this is just the first days of it’s release, so I expect to see many more updates to it coming soon even. But for right now, the launch has just left me wondering what they can do to get more of us interested in spending our spare time in it.

Verdict: Disappointed, but hopeful.

Console Wars – Why?

The “console wars” have been an interesting, and usually quite stupid thing to watch. For those of you who don’t exactly like video games, know nothing about video games, or just haven’t visited a section of the internet dealing with video games ever, let me catch you up to date real quick. There are two video game systems out there that are mainstream and deal with everything from graphical power to high focus gaming. Those two are Sony’s PlayStation 3, and Microsoft’s Xbox 360. The Nintendo Wii is also in the “next generation” system of consoles, but they aren’t trying in any way to compete with the PS3 or 360. They lack the graphical power, and care to want to be better, and try to focus more on interactivity and group gaming, of which they succeed in. Unfortunately though, that leaves the other two systems, both vying to show that they are better than the other, to fight for the market and consumers to buy them.

Both systems carry a wide variety of similar features that are standard for this generation of gaming. Both carry an online store in which you can buy and play downloadable games, watch downloadable movies, buy add-ons for games that you’ve purchased and much more. They both have an online system which allows you to have a friend’s list, play online, send messages, etc. Both systems have a hard drive, minus the Xbox 360 Arcade, which can store and play music, photos, and videos. They each can play DVDs, CDs, and other media. Both use wireless controllers, both use headsets, both have typing pads for their controllers, both can have webcams. So, as you can see, the market standard for video games has been upped with this new group. But in the hardware sector, there are some notable differences between the two.

Microsoft's Xbox 360

The Microsoft Xbox 360 comes in three different bundles, each of which comes with multiple games to get your collection started. Each bundle comes with a different sized hard drive, and different accessories included. Which the arcade just comes with a Composite cable and 256 MB worth of external memory, the Xbox 360 Pro, now just the standard Xbox 360, comes with a 60 GB hard drive, a headset, a network cable, and Component cables. Finally, the Xbox 360 Elite comes in the color black, has a 120 GB hard drive, the headset and cables, but also includes an HDMI cable for true high definition output. Software-wise, the 360 comes with the exclusive Dashboard, now upgraded to the NXE, or New Xbox Experience.

On the other hand, the Sony PlayStation 3 comes in two different bundles. The 160 GB PlayStation 3 which comes bundled with Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and a voucher for Pain, and the 80 GB system which comes standalone. Unlike the 360, the PS3 has a few more special nuggets that comes standard within it. Compared to the 360, the PlayStation 3 has free online through the PlayStation Network, while with the Xbox, you are required to pay $20 for 3 months, or $50 for a year, just to be able to play with your friends online. Also, the wireless controllers for the PS3 come with a built-in rechargeable battery pack, which the 360’s use AA batteries, or, sold separately, a rechargeable battery pack of their own. The PlayStation 3 comes built-in with Wi-Fi, meaning if you have a wireless internet point nearby, you can connect automatically. The Xbox 360 is wired-only, or you can purchase a wireless adapter which will set you back $100 to give you that function as well. Also, the PlayStation 3 has built-in Bluetooth, so if you have any Bluetooth headset, you can use that for your online gaming and chatting; the 360 only allows Microsoft headsets to be used with it. One of the biggest differences, though, is that the PlayStation 3 is also a Blu-Ray player, and all games made for it are put onto Blu-Ray discs, which contain up to four times the space of the DVDs that are used in the Xbox 360.

Out of all of that, the PlayStation 3 is a clear-cut winner, looking at the hardware side of things. But most people tend to look past that and look towards the software side of things, which is an extremely understandable thing to look at. This is what sparks most of the console wars that turn up in discussions. The most talked about issue is that of “exclusives”. The Xbox 360 has notably more exclusives than the PlayStation 3, including such titles as Halo, Gears of War, Fable, and more. The PlayStation 3, on the other hand, carry titles such as LittleBigPlanet, Resistance, and Killzone. A few games, though, have brought up much controversy in the land of gaming due to them being put out multi-platform, which used to be format exclusive games. Final Fantasy was the big shocker as it was announced for the Xbox 360 as well, while there is also a teaser that shows a possibility that Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots may also be porting over (source: http://www.konami.jp/kojima_pro/mgst/?ref=kjp_eng). The problem is, most people tend to think that the system with more exclusives, or “better” exclusives, as a matter of opinion, is the better system overall. While Final Fantasy XIII is coming over to the 360 as well, SquareEnix has announced that they are creating the PlayStation 3 version first, and porting the game to the 360 afterwards. While this doesn’t necessarily mean that the game will be worse, hands down, on the 360, it does mean that they are looking to not sacrifice the quality of the game just so that it can be made for both systems.

Sony's PlayStation 3

Another issue that I’ve found with porting games over is the fact that Blu-Ray discs hold at least four times more space on them than the DVDs used for the 360. If they were to port a game such as Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots over, they’d have to “dumb” the game down, and take out a lot of extra content just to make it fit on a disc to be played on it. While exclusives is a big part of having a good console, in the long run, making a good game isn’t just looking at the system it’s played on. If a game is good, it will be good on it’s own, not just because it’s on the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360. Another issue that turns people to one system or another is it’s user base. The Xbox 360 has been around for longer, therefore meaning there are more people who play online with it. Even though that’s true, the PlayStation 3 online service has been picking up steam with the holidays approaching, and the longer it’s out, the more it sells. Also, being a free service, having built-in Wi-Fi, and including new features such as PlayStation Home into the mix, it creates a more easily accessible and immersive experience for players.

One thing I understand is that people are going to take this as a biased rant of a fanboy for Sony. The fact is, yes, I only own a PlayStation 3, but, I know a good game when I see one. I am currently in college for Multimedia, Digital Entertainment & Game Design, so I look at the quality of a game in general, not the fact that it’s exclusively on the system that I own. I am also a video game journalist, I write about video games, review them, and talk about them all of the time. My honest opinion does boil down to the fact that I believe the PlayStation 3 is better when it comes to a hardware perspective, and a software perspective as well, but I will not be so naive to say that the Xbox 360 does not have good games, is a very well made system, and has a fan base just as large, if not more, than the PlayStation 3 does. Surfing forums of sites that I regularly visit, and seeing threads ranting about how one system is better than the other, though, get to me, because “fanboys” and “fangirls” tend to put their blinders on, and only look at how the system that they own and use is the ultimate video game machine ever made. The fact of the matter is, video games in this day and age… are cool.