E3 Game Critics Nominees Announced

Via Gamasutra, the announcement of the E3 Critics Award nominees. From the list: "Best of Show - Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft for PlayStation 3), Bioshock (Irrational Games/2K Games for PC and Xbox 360), Gears of War (Epic Games/Microsoft Games Studio for Xbox 360), Spore (Electronic Arts for PC), Wii (Nintendo). Best Original Game - Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft for PlayStation 3), Bioshock (Irrational Games/2K Games for PC/Xbox 360), Gears of War (Epic Games/Microsoft Games Studio for Xbox 360), LocoRoco (SCEJ/Sony Computer Entertainment for PSP), Spore (Electronic Arts for PC), Wii Sports (Nintendo for Wii)."

Comments

I wouldn't mind the choices, but -

[Dark Paladin]

How many of these titles were actually playable? It just always bothers me to see games win accolades at E3 (or any other event) using nothing but a movie trailer. (Remember how cool "Daikatana" look at first?)

That's probably the only rule change I'd want enforced: game must be played by the critics doing the voting, not just seen.

Re:I wouldn't mind the choices, but -

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.gamecriticsawards.com/nom.html

Note on software eligibility: Judges were given the option of "hands-on" gameplay with all nominated games. Games shown in non-playable form were not eligible for awards.

If a game is on that list, then judges have played it.

Re:I wouldn't mind the choices, but -

[improbable]

From the noms page:

"Games shown in non-playable form were not eligible for an award"

RTFA

Re:I wouldn't mind the choices, but -

[LoverOfJoy]

How long have they played it? It seems like it would be really hard to rate role playing games based on only a couple of minutes of playing them. 2-3 minutes of playing a puzzle game should be sufficient to have an idea of the quality but that amount of time on some other games would maybe give you a chance to create a character and see the opening scene.

Re:I wouldn't mind the choices, but -

[CriminalNerd]

Judges were given the option of "hands-on" gameplay with all nominated games.

They *HAD* the option. They weren't forced to play it. Always read between the lines.

Re:I wouldn't mind the choices, but -

[Anonymous Coward]

Keep in mind that 2-3 minutes is plenty of time to try out a demo of the battle system used in an RPG.

Re:I wouldn't mind the choices, but -

[interiot]

http://www.gamecriticsawards.com/rules.html

In order to compete, a game be shown in playable format. For the 2006 awards season, playable format is defined as the ability for the judge to manipulate a game in real-time while running on its native platform (i.e. "hands on" gameplay).

Re:I wouldn't mind the choices, but -

[Anonymous Coward]

They have enough time, judges get to play those games a couple of weeks before E3. You're not eligible for awards unless you send a demo.

Of course judges are not forced to play each and every game, but judges aren't likely to give you awards if they don't even think your game is worth trying.

Re:I wouldn't mind the choices, but -

[Anonymous Coward]

You would have to force me to play it, in order to get me to play some of these titles... Utter crap. (besides a few gems here and there)

Looks like the judges are pandering to publishers and devhouses, and completely missing some of the fabulously brilliant indy developer showings.

Also, funny thing about one of the judges: "Todd Mowatt's been covering the gaming industry since '89 -- the early days of the eight-bit Nintendo"

However, 1989 was the END of the eight-bit nintendo, as the 16-bit super nintendo was released the very next year.

No wonder they're nominating crap games. They don't know one console from another.

Re:I wouldn't mind the choices, but -

[patio11]

I think even enforcing "the game must be available for hands-on play", which the show already does, wouldn't help too much. Black&White was certainly Game of the Year for all years measured in two hours or less. It was only after the initial sense of wonder at the control scheme and graphics faded that you realized that they hadn't shipped a game with the tech demo. I'm looking at you, Spore! Prove me wrong, please!

Re:I wouldn't mind the choices, but -

[aichpvee]

Depends on the type of RPG and the nature of the battle system. There are many turn-based RPGs that have pretty complex systems that take a good amount of time to really come to grips with. Even some real-time ones take a while to really get into. Either way, I don't know of any RPG that can really be judged, even by the combat system alone, in 2-3 minutes. Not even the original Dragon Quest, despite the simplicity and high degree of ass kickery.

Re:I wouldn't mind the choices, but -

[LordVader717]

Which is why it's all about "E3 Awards", and not about final games. It just shows which games have impressed the critics the most with their show.

Re:I wouldn't mind the choices, but -

[Mongoose]

Neverwinter Nights 2 was playable in three different booths: Atari, Microsoft, and Nvidia. Had toolset demos too. ;)

Re:I wouldn't mind the choices, but -

[LoverOfJoy]

That's a good point. I guess I'd just imagine that a lot of the impressing when it comes to games like RPGs would come less from actual time playing the game and more from descriptions of the story, key screen shots, etc. I've been excited (and impressed) about puzzle games after I've had a chance to play it a bit. I've been excited about RPGs when I hear a bit of the story, find out the game play will be similar to game X, and see some awesome screenshots from important parts of the game. So if they want to impress critics I would imagine they would show those things rather than giving game time. And if THAT'S the case, it wouldn't matter much whether the game was playable at E3 or not.

MGS4 FTW!

[WeAzElMaN]

I was shocked that I didn't see Metal Gear Solid 4 on that list. I haven't been this excited about any game ever.

Oh, and I'm also shocked that Assassin's Creed was on there - the trailer was neat, but no one knows anything else about it.

Re:MGS4 FTW!

[SirSlud]

MGS4 not in playable form? 0$.

Assassin's Creed, in playable form, by invite only? Price of flight down to E3 by employer.

Videogame fanboy a little confused with Game Critics list of choices? Priceless.

Re:MGS4 FTW!

[faffod]

bust me for being off topic... but I thought that your sig was part of the priceless joke.

Re:MGS4 FTW!

[Doomstalk]

They left the "Games starring men who look like your creepy pedophile uncle" category off the listings.

Seriously, what has the Metal Gear series done that's new and exciting since the original Metal Gear Solid? The last two were the same game with a couple of new gameplay mechanics (and in the case of MGS2 an infinitely dumber story) tacked on.

Re:MGS4 FTW!

[twistedsymphony]

I agree.. seeing some old guy with a mustache and eye-patch putting a gun in his mouth while talking to a robot trying to be cute isn't exactly my idea of a fun time...

No matter how you try to sell it: Geriatric != Bad-ass

Besides after playing Splinter cell I never want to look at another MGS game. Not to mention you can get your SC fix on whatever platform you perfer... and it looks great (or as good as possible) on all of them.

Bu the biggest selling point is I don't even need to buy a $600 next-gen system to get SC's superior gameplay.

Re:MGS4 FTW!

[EwokCommander]

Just as an FYI, Assassin's Creed was the cover story of this months Game Informer. Looks damn nice. Check it out.

Gish?

[ludomancer]

LocoRoco looks great. Underneath though, isn't it just Katamari's art direction with Gish's gameplay?

Re:Gish?

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that supposed to be a bad thing?

I love how this is just a list of games

[Anonymous Coward]

that weren't in Kentia hall.

They completely miss some of the gems - especially in the MMO area.

See: http://www.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=Conte ntExpress&func=display&ceid=191

Also, this game was playable. How many of the above were?

C'mon, guys, Spore??

[Lifelike]

Anyone else a little disappointed that they gave Spore top nominations this year as well even though from what I've heard little more of substance has been released about the game relative to last year's E3, except more of the same? I mean, in lieu of there really being many playable versions of games at E3 I want to see awards of this nature tell me about cool new underhyped games I've never heard about winning nominations, not more of the same from the greats. What's next, Madden 2007 getting nominated?

Re:C'mon, guys, Spore??

[Anonymous Coward]

Best Sports Game
- Madden NFL 07 (Tiburon/EA for PS3 / Xbox 360)
- Madden NFL 07 (Tiburon/EA for Nintendo Wii)
- NBA 2K7 (Visual Concepts/2K Sports for Xbox 360)
- NCAA Football 07 (EA Tiburon/Electronic Arts for X360/PS2/Xbox/PSP)
- Wii Sports (Nintendo for Wii)

:(

I miss Base Wars

Gameplay videos?

[grumbel]

Are there any gameplay videos available for Bioshock and Assassin's Creed? For Assassin's Creed there only seems to be a (realtime?) render movie and in one of the interview videos one can see like 5sec of what might be real gameplay, but nothing more. For Bioshock I couldn't find anything at all beside some screenshots.

Re:Gameplay videos?

[EwokCommander]

http://www.gametrailers.com/gamepage.php?fs=1&id=2 581 All I could find. Hope you haven't already seen it.

Assassin's Creed producer

[Anonymous Coward]

Whoah, the producer of Assassin's Creed is a babe ;)

SOCOM ?!?!?!?!

[Anonymous Coward]

duh.