Spike To Air E3 Critics Awards

SpikeTV has announced that they will be airing the E3 Critics Choice awards, the first time that the awards will have an officially televised ceremony. The awards are set to be aired on Tuesday the 7th of June. That evening will feature other gaming-related programming, such as E3 highlights and a showing of "The Ultimate Gamer". From the article: "This original special will take viewers for an inside look at the E3, the world's largest video game industry convention and will offer a sneak peek at some of the games that will start hitting stores later this year. THE ULTIMATE GAMER specials present some of videogame's hottest and most anticipated game titles."

Comments

My Bias

[Metaphorically]

Maybe I'm biased, but I see Age of Empires 3 as nominee for Best PC Game and I can't think of any other PC games that stood out.

Okay, Quake 4.

Oh yeah, and Unreal 2007...

What other great titles are there on PC?

Re:My Bias

[Leroy_Brown242]

Half-Life 2

Re:My Bias

[kaellinn18]

Off the top of my head:

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Prey
Fear
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
Dungeon Siege 2
Call of Cthulhu
Battlefield 2
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey


And that's just what I can think of at the moment.

Re:My Bias

[UWC]

Battlefield 2, apparently. And Company of Heroes (I think that was the name). And several MMOGs.

I guess it's time I cobble together a PC that can run even current games well. My XP 1800+ and GeForce3 Ti200 just don't cut it any more, and my Mac mini barely handles World of Warcraft well.

Re:My Bias

[th3space]

I'm facing the very same sad realization...I'm going to see if I can swindle my bank into including the cost of upgrades into my new car loan...if not, I'll have to put it together one piece at a time. Of course, I may do both...and just use the money from the loan to get a Powerbook like I've been needing (for purposes of work).

Re:My Bias

[Blackwulf]

I personally would go with The Movies, but I'm biased against FPS's so that's why.

Re:My Bias

[Master Asia]

Morrowind 4: Oblivion most definitely for me... I'm curious about F.E.A.R., mainly because Monolith makes good games generally. I thought the Quake4/Unreal2K7/Huxley/Gears of War stuff looked nice, but pretty much all the same...basically going onto my demo list. Ah, I;m kinda looking at Spore as well.

Everything I've heard...

[jeblucas]

...says the E3 is a big fat bust. Bunch of vaporware titles, bunch of "hardware" "demos" that were neither the hardware in question nor a demonstration (more like a glitzy PowerPoint presentation of what this system maybe could almost practically half-do in two years!) I understand that it's a big show, but I thought it was intended to convey actual information and facts rather than wishes and dreams.

What does "best of" even mean for a show where most of the stuff isn't real? Do they have a "Probably Best Game of 2007" award?

Re:Everything I've heard...

[Ford Prefect]

What does "best of" even mean for a show where most of the stuff isn't real? Do they have a "Probably Best Game of 2007" award?

Don't forget Valve's Team Fortress 2 won Best Action Game at E3 - in 1999!

Okay, so there was probably more actual game there than with some of this year's E3 'demos', but still there doesn't appear to be much correlation between year of award and year of release.

Has a certain Mr. Nukem won any trade awards for his forthcoming release yet?

Re:Everything I've heard...

[superpulpsicle]

It means the Phantom console will win every year.

Awesome

[Ian Action]

More hype for games everbody already knows all about.

Re:Awesome

[Leroy_Brown242]

Maybe they will pick up some new gamers, or bring some games to a wider market with it being on TV though.

Not many new people, but a few.

Re:Awesome

[th3space]

Spike wouldn't be the channel of choice, if that were the case...but it does go a long way towards showing exactly how little regard the gaming industry has for G4 at this point.

If they really wanted to bring in new gamers, and expose the future titles to a broader market, picking a channel that has been in constant flux for over 5 years now, has no flagship programs, and recently lost the only ratings draw they had (wrestling) wouldn't be a wise decision...

My guess is that they decided to go with Spike simply because they pitched a better offer than the other channels that would've been interested - if there even were other channels interested.

Re:Awesome

[British]

Spike wouldn't be the channel of choice, if that were the case...but it does go a long way towards showing exactly how little regard the gaming industry has for G4 at this point.

If I were in charge of G4's programming, i would be looking for a new job. Here's a (crappy, but I digress) self-serving awards show regarding video games, and here's a video games channel not covering it exclusively.

Is G4 too busy to air this?

Is G4 too busy answering emails from greasy 15-year olds to be read out on tv by models?

Is G4 just not interested? Is it too video-gamey for G4's audience?

Again this station gets more egg on its face as time goes on.

Re:Awesome

[mconeone]

My guess is that SpikeTV coughed up more money than G4 could.

Re:Awesome

[th3space]

And the reason for this is that more people get (and, as a result, watch) Spike, given that it is included in most basic packages (a holdover from when it was still The Nashville Network), than they do G4...this market saturation directly affects the types of advertisers they are attracting, and the amount of money that the station can demand in return for airing the ads...this then influences how much they can toss at event organizers for the right to broadcast said event...

G4 is screwed when it comes to getting junk like this, partly because they are only included in more costly programming packages, and partly because their target demographic - at least the one they pander to - isn't sufficient enough to attract anything more than game commercials, peppered with the odd beverage commercial...

The game industry, in its quest for legitimacy, is faltering left and right, evidenced by the fact that the left hand (game companies) ignores the right hand (game press), and they both slap the head (game players).

5 Minutes long?

[Anonymous Coward]

I can understand not wanting to have a long drawn out award show but it looks like they are just going to spend 5 minutes announcing the results surrounded by two other SpikeTV shows.

Re:5 Minutes long?

[asleepathemouse]

after the video game awards show they ran before..would them cutting this down to 5 min sound like a bad idea. I woudl rather 5 min of crap than an hour of crap

Yo Lords

[turbopunk]

Is there anything Spike TV WON'T do to ruin gaming and the image of gamers?

How they might judge their games

[Neronix]

I can guess how the so-called judges will do their judging, and it'll be pretty accurate.

They send their 11 year old sons to logon to the IGN forums, all posting a thread with the following content:

"Hay there! Can u guyz tell me what games u all liek from E3? No GHEYcube or FAGolution plzzz lolol"

They then harvest their replies, (Such as, "Maden roxxorz! Driv3r to!") and tweak their data (Read: Remove mentions of good games and replace them with cliche licensed games). They give the data back to their fathers and the totally wrong people end up with awards!

If I'm successful, this should get modded up as funny, but there's a chance of it being modded as informative too since this is possibly true :P

Hey,,, not that bad.

[AzraelKans]

Considering is spike tv I was almost sure DOA4 and True Crime 2 would get all the prizes, but If you actually go and check the nominees here:
http://www.gamecriticsawards.com/nom.html
They (at least apparently) took the nomination seriously, actually only playable games were nominated.

The obvious problem is the hardware section were x360 and ps3 were nominated. considering they were both "faked" we never actually saw prototypes of both of them. So its a contest of "who faked their system better"

Oh well... the rest does seem ok. I just hope soulcalibur 3 gets the fighter award (is better than the rest) Nintendo will probably get some awards thanks to Zelda. (sorry but I dont really see nintendogs winning an award) and you dont need to be a genious to realize spore is going away with a big prize home .

Re:Hey,,, not that bad.

[Anonymous Coward]

You're aware that there are people out there who've played games on the 360, right?

Sony's showing was mostly prerendered stuff, but XBox360 had a few playable games (Perfect Dark, for example, though the game wasn't finished)

OK, so "Spike" is airing more video game garbage..

[BTWR]

Judging from their video game "awards" show (Sponcered by EA!), lemme guess what you'll see:

-Ohmigod! XBox 360 is amazing! Look at the boobs on these girls! Volleyball is T3H AWESOME!!!

-Oh wow! I'm too stupid to realize that's just a cutscene, but look how realistic the new Madden looks!

-7 new FPSs that all look identical! YEEEEEEEEES!!!!

-Nintendo? They make games for 6 year-olds.

Host?

[MrRoarkeLovesTattoo]

Let me guess, Kelsey Grammer.

Zoe's hosting the program

[R.Pad]

Go Zoe!!!

Should I Go Next Year?

[L202]

Is it worth it to go to E3? I live on the east coast, so it's a bit of a trek. It seems like a trip to Mecca - or is it not worth it? Too much commercial crap? What are the cool indie gaming conventions (if any exist)?

Re:Should I Go Next Year?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not sure you'd call it a convention, but there is the Independent Games Festival Awards Ceremony that takes place during the Game Developers Conference. From what I can tell from their registration page you only need to pay the money to get in. The price of admission is relatively steep ranging from $150 to $1500 depending on the level of access you want (panels, keynotes, workshops, special events, parties).

While you are highly unlikely to see some game that you will be able to brag about to all of your friends, you might hear some pretty good presentations about meaty game bits from the experts.

Latest Update

[wynterwynd]

To be hosted by Paris Hilton, Jay-Z, and Carrot Top, with categories to include "Tightest Hottie in a Leading Role", "Best FPS that is not Halo 2", and "Game of Show as Chosen by Limp Bizkit". With special guest presenters from the covers of Maxim and a live performance of classic video game themes performed by Justin Timberlake.

If it's anywhere near the fiasco Spike's video game awards show was, just watch TRL for an hour and you'll get the gist of it.

*yawn*

Wynter

Re:Latest Update

[Pxtl]

Lets not forget, watch The Rock and Vin Diesel and see who wins the award for Best Videogame Character.

More "videogame" programming on SpikeTV

[Frodo Crockett]

Wow, I'd better cancel my date with Gillian Anderson so I can stay home and watch!

Inside Look

[Torgo's Pizza]

Ooo... can't wait for the inside look at E3!

Best Buy Exec: We like the look of your product.
EA Exec: We plan to have 500,000 units ready for your store by Oct 25th.
Best Buy Exec: Could you help us with the design of the end caps?
EA Exec: We'll even do the art for in-store banners if you'd like.
Best Buy Exec: Excellent! Oh, could I have some more of those crackers with the spicy cheese dip?

Thrills! Chills! Excitement! It's the inside look at E3!