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The Media's Best of Show for E3 2006

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the awards-are-required dept.

A lot of the big sites have given out their awards for various 'best in show' categories. Bioshock got the nod for 'Game of the Show' from Gamespot, Gamespy, and IGN. From Gamespy's coverage: "I was completely captivated with BioShock like no other game at E3 2006. Is it an RPG? Is it an action game? Is it an adventure? BioShock looks like it has a little of everything: a captivating story, beautiful environments to explore, gorgeous graphics, gameplay that crosses multiple genres... it's hard for me to imagine anyone not seeing the haunting images of a protector escorting that little girl through the unique underwater setting of Rapture and not being immediately hooked. Considering Irrational's history with Looking Glass and the System Shock titles, what I saw of the game at E3 this year vaulted it to the top of my wish list. " 1up gave the nod to Spore.

40 comments

  1. I have to say... by SirBruce · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Spore > ALL

    However, in the MMO space, I gave the nod on my website to Tabula Rasa. There are a LOT of good MMO games in the pipeline, though, so the next few years should be very interesting.

    Bruce

    1. Re:I have to say... by ThatFunkyMunki · · Score: 2, Funny

      Tabula Rasa better not be pay per month, it totally shuts out most of the casual gamers. And without them, a game will not be very successful

      --
      If patriotism is racist, is racism patriotic?
    2. Re:I have to say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Tabula Rasa better not be pay per month, it totally shuts out most of the casual gamers. And without them, a game will not be very successful

      Yeah, I mean look at World of Warcraft, its doing terrible!

    3. Re:I have to say... by paitre · · Score: 1

      Doesn't seem to have hurt any of the current crop very much.

      Unless you think monthly incomes in the millions is a failure...

    4. Re:I have to say... by jvalenzu · · Score: 1
      Tabula Rasa better not be pay per month, it totally shuts out most of the casual gamers. And without them, a game will not be very successful

      Yeah, I mean look at World of Warcraft, its doing terrible!

      You'd be hard pressed to call World of Warcrack junkies "casual."
    5. Re:I have to say... by k_187 · · Score: 1

      I highly doubt that there are 6.5 million WoW Junkies in the world.

      --
      11 was a racehorse
      12 was 12
      1111 Race
      12112
    6. Re:I have to say... by jvalenzu · · Score: 1

      Yeah, at least half are probably gold farmers in the PRC.

      (I kid! I kid!)

    7. Re:I have to say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, there are 2 million plus 4 mill who've quit but keep paying, to either keep their character active just in case or because they've forgotten to cancel.

      I've never met a casual WoW player, that's for sure. Most of them scare me, and I play 20+ hours a week of non-MMO games.

    8. Re:I have to say... by mbourgon · · Score: 1

      Given that NCSoft already has a No-Monthly-Fee MMO, I'd bet this is a Pay Per Month.

      --
      "Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
    9. Re:I have to say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One game I'm disappointed isn't getting more press is Hero's Journey. Maybe because it was stuck in the hall with the other 'indy' game developers - but it looks like it's improving on just about every aspect that sucks about MMOs currently.

      -Consistant updates and new quests from an army of content development GMs, a la Simutronics 17 year old (and still running) MUD, Gemstone
      -Immense character customization - down to the outfit you wear. No more 'every warrior at level 40 has the same armor.'
      -dynamically generated quests, so that no two characters run through the same quest. That's something that bored me about World of Warcraft (besides the instance grinding at end game) - if you started an alt, it was the same goddamn quests all over again.
      -exquisite graphics
      -innovative combat system. Jump off your friend's back to make a dramatic leaping slash attack. Draw firewalls down with your mouse. Dictate the radius of your fireball or mortar attack by dragging the area of effect down.
      -the Wyr system, so that you can constantly upgrade your personalized outfit.

      I'm more excited about Hero's Journey than any other MMO - because all the others look the same. Don't get me wrong, Tabula Rasa looks cool, and Richard Garriot will always have a special place in my heart - but if Simutronics can keep a MUD running and interesting for 17 years, imagine what they can do with a graphical MMO. Also consider that they've entered the middleware market with their turnkey MMO development suite - HeroBlade.

      note: I am in no way affiliated with simutronics, other than a customer of Gemstone IV.

    10. Re:I have to say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hello!

      Now you can say you've known one. I play 10 hours per week.

      In fact I'm just about to hit level 60, and I've been playing for 7 months. (Levelling is more quicker in terms of hours played since I get double xp via "rest xp" at all times)

  2. My Personal Winners by wickedj · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Here are some of my personal winners (not that any one really cares): Best Game: 2K Games Bioshock (what's not to love?) Best Console: Nintendo Wii (affordable and entertaining!) Best Presentation: Nintendo Wii (actually having fun during the presentation!) Best Shot in the Foot: Sony PS3 (I'm sorry, I have to say those prices are ridiculous!)

  3. Bioshock has me reeled in. by kyle+(in+stereo) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ive never played a single System Shock game. Isnt the same studio behind those behind the Thief series as well? I didnt care for Thief either.

    Thing is, also being a huge Nintendo fanboy, Im somewhat biased against other consoles by nature. While I do plan on getting a 360 for Oblivion, until I saw Bioshock, Oblivion was the only game that I simply had to play for the system.

    Bioshock just looks ravishing and deep, and a hugely fresh and original take on a genre that, for better or worse, started to take the familiar path down the road.

    --
    ---space.is.the.place---
    1. Re:Bioshock has me reeled in. by kannibal_klown · · Score: 1

      I'll be honest, I missed the first game. I only played like 2 minutes of it on my friend's PC.

      The second one was pretty good though. Very creepy. Playing it at night scared the living hell out of me at times. Sure, now it's pretty weak but back then it was a good a creepy game.

      I found SS2 to be less "boring" than the Thief games. Don't get me wrong, I liked the Thief games but some parts were a little too "slow" for some gamers. I loved sneaking around, but many of my friends didn't.

      I'm waiting for BioShock. Hopefully it doesn't turn into a Deus Ex 2.

    2. Re:Bioshock has me reeled in. by kyle+(in+stereo) · · Score: 1

      Thief itself isnt a bad game, but the way my friends hyped it really ruined it for me when I actually got a copy.

      I was pretty much told that the game took a back seat to typical FPS gameplay, and that I had to kill in stealth and hide in the shadows. Totally killer, and whatever game inthe series that I played... the first level was IT. Killed guards, hid the bodies, and delved deeper into the castle.

      Then I jumped in a sewer and started taking out zombies.

      Wonk wonk woooooonk.

      --
      ---space.is.the.place---
    3. Re:Bioshock has me reeled in. by GrumblyStuff · · Score: 1

      Do yourself a favor and try either System Shock. The original has some wonky ass interface (that'd be PERFECT for the DS but alas) and that can be diffcult to get use to but the game is like no other. It was amazing in it's time (that prole-feed DOOM over shadowed it for some dumb ass reason) and is still amazing. Fuck uber-res/polycounts/texture sizes. They don't matter.

    4. Re:Bioshock has me reeled in. by Das+Modell · · Score: 1

      I've played both System Shocks, so this should be good.

      However, I'm a little concerned about the Creepy Little Girl in the game. It's been done to death for years now. It's completely uninspired and unoriginal.

    5. Re:Bioshock has me reeled in. by Hogwash+McFly · · Score: 1

      Thief 2: The Metal Age, my favourite of the series, contains far fewer zombies and other undead characters. Less of the crypts and more of the urban settings - mansions, banks, shipping warehouses, city streets etc. - make it, for me, a better title than the first in the series, although the general consensus is the opposite. I played T2 first, FWIW.

      --
      Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
    6. Re:Bioshock has me reeled in. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hm, I liked Deus Ex: Invisible War. Guess I'm the only one.

      In fact, I found the first one to be a letdown after all the hype it got. There's just ammo and shit lying all over the place, in the grass, outside the statue of liberty...

    7. Re:Bioshock has me reeled in. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      True Nintendo fanboys won't be buying 360s at all.

    8. Re:Bioshock has me reeled in. by Rob+Simpson · · Score: 1

      Eh, I'd still say System Shock 2 is very good. While the graphics are outdated and low on polygons, the sound effects and atmosphere are top notch. It also plays very well on modern PCs (you don't need the latest graphic card, heh), so I'd highly recommend giving it a try. SS2 is the only game that has made me shoot randomly out of sheer terror.

    9. Re:Bioshock has me reeled in. by MachDelta · · Score: 1

      Personally what I love about Thief is that you can play it however you like. Its similar to Dues Ex or System Shock in that respect, only it doesn't rely on any real RPG elements to achieve it. You're just presented with a problem and its up to you to figure things out. This can result in a HUGE variety of playstyles... everything from the sexiness of a perfect "Lytha style" or "Ghost style" run where you don't touch any guards, make any noises, or leave any evidence of you ever being there (besides the fact that anything valuable and not bolted to the floor is missing); to the insanity of a no-stealth dagger run where you charge in the front door (if possible) and go flying over guards' heads, looting and killing like you were a pirate in a cloak.

      Man that was a fun series. T1 was great, T2 was amazing (be SURE to check out T2X, a fan made 'expansion' that's suprisingly good!), and I know this is blasphemy, but I even enjoyed T3 even with its taint of Consolitis.

    10. Re:Bioshock has me reeled in. by meringuoid · · Score: 1
      SS2 is the only game that has made me shoot randomly out of sheer terror.

      The worst thing is that you really, really don't want to do that. Shooting randomly means you run out of ammo and your gun breaks down. There never was quite enough ammo in SS2 - how sadly different to the good old days on Citadel Station...

      But yeah, I still do that. Stalking about the place, trying to conserve ammo as best I can... FUCK FUCK FUCK! PSI MONKEY! * blam blam blam blam blam blam blam KLIK *

      --
      Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
  4. Worst description ever... by ivan256 · · Score: 1

    Is it an RPG? Is it an action game? Is it an adventure? BioShock looks like it has a little of everything:

    I actually thought the game looked compelling, but now that I've read that... Sounds like a little something to annoy everybody. Is there a genre you can't stand? Well, perhaps they packed it in there.

    1. Re:Worst description ever... by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 1
      Reminds me of "Space Quest IV." Like the rest of its series it was a comic adventure game, but there were one or two "action" or "arcade" sequences. Just to appease the hardcore adventure game players, they gave the player an option to skip past the action sequences. You'd receive a screenful of jeering text from the creators for chickening out, but the rest of the game was still perfectly playable.

      Even though I liked the ation scenes, it was worth skipping past once or twice on the CD version, just for teh opportunity to be made fun of by narrator Gary Owens.

      --
      Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
    2. Re:Worst description ever... by MaestroSartori · · Score: 1

      Depends - that description could apply equally to Deus Ex, and it was fantastic.

      --
      Game dev and music blog
    3. Re:Worst description ever... by Rob+Simpson · · Score: 1

      Try playing System Shock 2, then get back to me. I think your opinion might change. :D

  5. So many. by ShadowsHawk · · Score: 1

    There are quite a few that I could name off for 'best of show', but the one that I found most disappointing was Fallout 3. I find it rediculous that they've had the license for more than a year and they had NOTHING to show for it.

    1. Re:So many. by MaineCoon · · Score: 1

      Considering this same team took 3 years to do Oblivion and didnt really show much until the last year of development, it really shouldn't be all that surprising. Don't expect to see much until next E3 at the earliest.

      --
      Hunt your preferred prey at Aliens vs Predator MUD. Join the war at avpmud.com port 4000
  6. Best Game of 2006 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The best game of 2006? Sorry, it's still Deus Ex. Someone please call us when there's a game better than Deus Ex released, thanks.

    1. Re:Best Game of 2006 by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      Um, Donkey Kong? For the Super Gameboy?

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  7. DS linux? by tepples · · Score: 1

    Even a Nintendo DS can run Linux.

  8. The first mover advantage starts to play out... by johnny0neal · · Score: 1

    I ignored the 360 at launch because it just wasn't what I wanted out of a generation jump: prettier graphics, more online features, and not much else. But I guess if a system sticks around long enough, it can't help but get some awesome games. Lagging a year behind and packing very little to differentiate itself, how does Sony expect to catch up with the 360's libarary? The Wii is still my must-play system for 2006, but if this keeps up, there may be a 360 in my future.

    1. Re:The first mover advantage starts to play out... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That was the lamest bit of astroturfing I've seen in weeks.

      Go away faggot!

    2. Re:The first mover advantage starts to play out... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      how does Sony expect to catch up with the 360's libarary

      What library, exactly? Surely you're not referring to Bioshock, which is coming out for 360, PC and PS3.

  9. Pffft. Pure silliness by bettyfjord · · Score: 1
    How can a game that isn't finished, released or for sale win a best game of show award? I love the hype machine as much as anyone, but aren't things getting out of hand? Can you imagine an Academy Award going to a movie that's only being filmed or edited?

    I can see it now... "We loved the rushes we saw for Waterworld. It's definitely going to be the best film of the year. Or of any time!"

    Here's a novel thought: let's award game prizes to actual games.