Slashdot Mirror
G-Phoria Awards Out of The Bag
Gamasutra has coverage of the winners of this week's G-Phoria awards. Despite the fact that the show won't be televised until August 9th, they've released the winners via the press. Some of the winners: "Best Adaptation: LEGO Star Wars, Best Action Game: God of War, Best Boss: Halo 2 - Scarab Battle, Best Cinematic: God of War, Best Graphics: Half-Life 2, Best Handheld Game: The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, Best Innovation: Katamari Damacy"
How the hell did Halo 2 really deserve to win for male voice and best boss battle? I loved fighting that Scarab, and David Cross is a great actor with a unique voice and good lines, but God of War was DEFINED by its boss battles, and Cross's character was a bleeding extra! A freaking marine with some clever lines in the middle of battle!
Oh, and madden won, big surprise, even though it was clearly not the best in the category. Hell, it wasn't even the best football game last year!
And the North American made KOTOR 2 won, even though it was horribly imbalenced and clearly unfinished, while a gem of a game, although rather traditional Japanese RPG, Shin Migumi Tensei clearly deserved it.
Hence the problem with online voting by fans: The real good stuff gets overlooked by the really popular stuff.
Beyond the Polygons : Because 50,000 polygo
This awards ceremony will honor Katamari Damacy, so it is legitimate.
Only if it were awarded game of the year, which is what it was.
"Best Innovation"? Come on - that's a copout category if there ever was one. That's the category where you put the games you know are going to be the ones remembered 15 or 20 years from now, but you can't give them "game of the year" because there's some other hot game of the moment. I mean it would be like the music industry giving a "best innovator" award to Beck or Radiohead or something and then giving "artist of the year" to Britney Spears. It's ridiculous.
I think it's time we realized that, like in all forms of media these days, the most popular games are not necessarily the best ones - in fact, they're almost always not the best ones. This list of winners is really just a popularity contest, so almost inherently meaningless. These are just the games that have the most broadbase appeal, even if that means appealing to the lowest common denominator. With the exception of KD's token entry in a category that was obviously created specifically for street cred appeal, there's nothing on that list that did anything special or that anybody is going to much care about in a few years.
It's also pretty striking how many sequels are on the list.
Now, I love Halo 2, but that "boss" is not that great. It's an impressive vehicle - until the Covenant drive it into a dead end and it's effectively stuck. You don't end up having to destroy the Scarab (that's done for you in a cutscene). All you do it clear its decks and kill its crew. It doesn't even shoot at you.
I'd say the Prophet you have to fight is a better boss, since you actually have to resort to something other than your high-tech weaponry to beat him.
Don't blame me, I voted for Durga.
I think the people allowed to vote for winners should be required to play all of the games nominated for each category and then send in paper ballots or something like that (think The Academy Awards). Right now it's just people voting on the games that the same TV show told them to buy and then voting on it as the best game. I doubt many of the people have honestly played through more than a few of the titles in each category.
I would like to take a moment to say that Tina Wood is a walking infomercial and nothing more.
My Xbox Live Gamer Card
Looking through the list, the lack of the words Resident and Evil was clearly obvious.
The problem with G-Phoria being a publicly voted awards show is the public. Resident Evil 4 and God of War were FAR superiour games to Halo 2. However, Halo 2 has an install base in the millions. People are gong to vote for the game they know.
I am glad the Katamari damacy won best innovation, but there was no contest. The simple fact that it did NOT win Best Origianal Soundtrack really cements my point.
First, let me clear. I am a Halo fanboy. I bought the special edition and the map pack. I even shelled out $50 bucks for the headset, cause I broke my communicator.
There, now that I have that off my chest, let me say this: I had to think had to what the scarab battle was. Frankly it wasn't a boss, it was covenent inside a vehicle you had to get into. Admitily it was a 3 story tall vehicle with a plasma cannnon, but still.
That said, Halo 2 deserved the soundtrack award, and the multiplayer one. I'm indifferent on the voice acting.
-schwal "Hanging is too good for punners, they should be drawn and quoted"