E3 Critics Award Winners Announced

The winners of the E3 critics awards have been announced, and a list is available on the Newsweek LevelUp blog. To the surprise of no one, Rock Band took the top spot. Media Molecule's LittleBigPlanet was awarded Best Original Game, while Mass Effect and Crysis took best console and PC game respectively. A few more awards: "Best Action Game - Call of Duty 4, Best Action/Adventure Game - Bioshock, Best Role Playing Game - Mass Effect, Best Racing Game - Burnout Paradise, Best Fighting Game - Virtua Fighter 5, Best Strategy Game - World in Conflict."

Comments

content?

[Turn-X Alphonse]

Where is the article content? All I see is a list of awards and names under them, no reason is given for each award or anything. Why is a platformer with customisable characters even remotely original let alone the most original game this time round?

This article is horrible, it's like a ten top best games at E4 post on the Gamefaqs forum.

Re:content?

[Anonymous Coward]

"platformer with customisable characters"? you sound like a real expert to me

Re:content?

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft $$$

Best Online Multiplayer

Halo 3

Putting aside the horrendously last gen and gaudy graphics, the only game with a worse online I can think of is Gears of War and its infamously bad online play.

Halo 3's online:

1) Can't handle more than 16 players per match - while most other games easily handle 32,40,64 players per match

2) Has no dedicated servers - no dedicated servers means lag, lag, lag as people with crappy net connections ruin matches for everyone

The Halo 3 multiplayer beta and E3 fiasco was so bad Xbox fans have started to latch onto Call of Duty 4 as their game to hype.

The list is, of course, garbage.

Re:content?

[MeanderingMind]

Marathon > All.

Frog Blast the Vent Core!

Re:content?

[antek9]

Compare that to the one prize Zonk and the original poster (maybe) failed to mention:

Special Commendation for Graphics

Killzone 2

(Guerrilla Games/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe for PS3)

If Microsoft at least had the kind of humour that made them include an unlockable chairthrower weapon in Halo 3, then I might reconsider (Whatever I might reconsider. It won't be my choice to not buy a 360, though).

Re:content?

[ShawnMcCool42]

Little Big Planet isn't just a platform with customizable characters. It's a sandbox game with a powerful creation interface and well integrated multiplayer.

What is making you so bitter about this anyway? It's pretty obvious to people who keep up with the news and media on these games that their choices make solid sense.

I agree that the article could have ANY amount of depth, but the results make solid sense.

hrm...

[B00yah]

Only 1 Nintendo title, and it wasn't for the wii (I'm not counting madden, as it's coming out for EVERYTHING). Not sure how to take that, as the new mario galaxy stuff looks really good, as does smash brothers, and wiifit looks fairly intriguing.

Re:hrm...

[ShaggyIan]

From TFA:

given to the best playable games shown I haven't checked, but how many of the big Wii games were playable at E3?

They also seem to have a thing for graphics, not Nintendo's strong point right now.

Also from TFA:

showing a sharp divergence between the tastes of critics and the console purchasing public Bah, who needs critics really?

Re:hrm...

[Anonymous Coward]

> They also seem to have a thing for graphics, not Nintendo's strong point right now.

Nope, if that was the case then it would have been all PS3 titles.

They seem to have a thing for Microsoft marketing money.

Re:hrm...

[captain_cthulhu]

I agree, Mario Galaxy and Smash Bros. look really good! I'm really looking forward to these.

when I saw Wiifit though, I thought, 'wow that's cool, my Mom might like that'.
I never even considered it for myself.

Re:best first post

[captain_cthulhu]

best D'oh! --> D'oH!

Missing award

[Sciros]

Scariest person to freeze-frame mid-speech in 2007: *still* Reggie

Go Reggie! I swear this is how he got to be President of NOA.

Rock Band?

[Anonymous Coward]

Can someone explain to me the appeal of Rock Band? I really love guitar hero, and play it all the time. I have two guitars and duel with my friends and it's a blast.

I might be persuaded that adding some drums into the mix would also be fun. However there is no way - evar - that I would want to hear anyone I know butchering the lyrics to great songs in my livingroom.

Also the cost is looking to be fairly rediculous. Will people really shell out $200-250 to get all the intruments? And if it sells badly, with Harmonix keep up with their promise to continue providing new content for it? I still have a sour taste in my mouth from the promises for lots of regular xbox 360 downloadable content for GH2 that never materialized (12 songs from GH1 is a piss poor effort, boys).

Re:Rock Band?

[dj_tla]

I'm inclined to agree with you, I don't think Rock Band will be as successful as many seem to think it will be. In addition to your points, there's also history: Konami's already done this. Guitar Freaks/Drummania machines are still being linked together, but there was a time (if memory serves) when you could link together Guitar Freaks, Drummania, DDR (I think it was 3rd mix?) and Beatmania. Obviously this didn't work out too well, as they only tried such a lofty proposition once. And it's not because arcade operators are cheap: they already owned the machines separately, to link them together would not have cost much extra, people just weren't interested. I have a feeling that Harmonix will find, like Konami did, that this will have limited appeal in practice, despite sounding awesome in theory.

Re:Rock Band?

[RamblinLonghorn]

Do any of those games have quality soundtrack that the GH games have had? I've never played or read up on them, but I always got the vibe that the Konami games were heavy on the techno/pop junk. I think the focus on Rock is what made GH so popular, and Rock Band seems to be staying with that genre.

Re:Rock Band?

[dj_tla]

Guitar Freaks/Drummania's soundtrack is quite similar to GH's in its quantity of rock, though it obviously features more recent Japanese rock and fewer new North American bands (licensing issues and whatnot). Problem is it was never released in North America, so you either had to import or play at the arcades. It's true that DDR and Beatmania focus heavier on techno-esque music, though. Unfortunately, you can't really compare the appeal of DDR's soundtrack to GH's by looking at game sales, as the gameplay is different enough that music taste isn't the only decider.

Re:Rock Band?

[xero314]

Can someone explain to me the appeal of Rock Band? Rock Band is going to appeal to children that aren't old enough to get a real rock band together yet, and to ex-rockers that never got their lucky break when they were in their teens. So there will be some good vocalists out there interested in ripping out the lyrics for their favorite songs, but need to get up for work of school the next day. And it will also be an interesting way to relax for those that are making music professionally.

But more importantly it's 3 rhythm games and a karaoke game all at once, and both of those styles of entertainment have been shown to be very successful through history.

Re:Rock Band?

[FleaPlus]

> However there is no way - evar - that I would want to hear anyone I know butchering the lyrics to great songs in my livingroom.

The number of people who do karaoke is probably at least an order of magnitude larger than the combined number of people who play Guitar Hero, DDR, DrumMania, etc.

Five Xbox 360 exclusives

[Anonymous Coward]

Of the titles in the "best" list, five are exclusive to the Xbox 360. One is exclusive to the PS3. It looks like the "console wars" may already be over: the Xbox 360 has the best games, and many of them are exclusives.

Won't be official until after the holiday shopping season, but I know which side I'd bet to win...

Re:Five Xbox 360 exclusives

[necro2607]

An Xbox 360 was the first current-generation console I bought, followed by a Wii given as a gift. I haven't considered at any time purchasing a PS3. Just my $0.02 CDN. ;)

Re:Five Xbox 360 exclusives

[Anonymous Coward]

What is so funny is Microsoft still thinks buying these awards gains themselves anything. Ever since the first Xbox hit the market Microsoft has been focusing their marketing money on making sure Xbox versions of games get higher review scores or win the types of awards.

And gamers continue to not give a damn.

Knowing the people who have run and do run the Xbox project up their in Redmond, it is understandable that this type of strategy is what they naturally gravitate to. PR sites like Major Nelson, 'community reps' out spreading FUD in gaming discussion boards, MS employees spending their evenings trolling gaming discussion boards, extending job offers to the gaming media at places like EGM or 1UP.

After 7 billion dollars and some 5 or 6 six years in the market the 360 is selling worse than the first Xbox.

So high five Xbox fans and the Redmond Xbox team!

Re:Five Xbox 360 exclusives

[RamblinLonghorn]

MS employees spending their evenings trolling gaming discussion boards

I've got a piece of cookery that would like to have a chromatically themed discussion with you.

Re:Five Xbox 360 exclusives

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey wimp, can you explain why Halo 3 looks like a last gen game?

Re:Five Xbox 360 exclusives

[RamblinLonghorn]

I haven't seen it in full action yet. You see, I'm reserving judgment until I can see the final product in action, rather than taking a prejudiced attitude. It's a philosophy that has worked for me in gaming and life.

And I don't see my being a wimp mattering to the discussion Mr. AC.

Re:Five Xbox 360 exclusives

[Anonymous Coward]

From the linked article:

Meanwhile, there was just one win for the Wii, showing a sharp divergence between the tastes of critics and the console purchasing public.

Unless the critics are the ones who will be buying all those consoles, it's not over yet.

Re:Five Xbox 360 exclusives

[necro2607]

How is this flamebait in any manner? Sorry for adding some personal perspective to the discussion... :P Sure, this comment is offtopic, but seriously, why am I being modded down for offering firsthand related experience in response to the comment I was replying to? Jeez...

Re:Five Xbox 360 exclusives

[Anonymous Coward]

The 360 is dead in both Japan and Europe. And the 360 is getting outsold by both the PS2 and the PS3 monthly in the US.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/videogames/

360 exclusives? Yeah, wow, millions of gamers are going to suddenly start giving a shit about a mediocre fps like Halo 3 that looks and plays like a last gen game.

Re:Five Xbox 360 exclusives

[Anonymous Coward]

then why is the PS3 currently outselling the xbox360? why is the ps2 outselling the 360? The 360 and PS3 are both doing pretty bad, but the ps3 has a strong force that has yet to be unleashed, which is the vast userbase of the ps2, which will cause many sells later on.
The Wii on the other hand is doing brilliant, but for the largest part is a different market than the consoles of Microsoft and Sony's PS3 (because the PS2 ofcourse, is in the same market).

Re:Five Xbox 360 exclusives

[MeanderingMind]

The anonymous poster had mod points on his full account, and laid a careful trap for intelligent discoursers. Anyone who disagrees/says anything he doesn't like gets modded down. /tinfoilhat

Re:Five Xbox 360 exclusives

[MeanderingMind]

My best seller list.

1. Pants.
2. Exploding Dentures.
3. Xbox 359.4s.
4. Incomplete Roller Coasters.
5. Xbox 360.6s.
6. PS4.

Obviously my list is gospel truth, and we can infer from it that Mr. T will win the 2008 Presidential elections.

More seriously, the amazon bestseller linking is getting rather tiresome. It's one retailer in relation to one continent whose focus isn't even video games. We've got the NPD to give us numbers to cite, if the PS3 is really trouncing the 360 it will be reflected there. Speaking of which...

April:
360 - 174,000
PS3 - 82,000

May:
360 - 155,000
PS3 - 82,000

June:
360 - 198,400
PS3 - 98,500

Alone, the PS3 is not outselling the 360 in North America. If you're lumping the PS2 and the PS3 together, then combined they are outselling the 360. However, that was not the implication your sentence gave.

Re:Five Xbox 360 exclusives

[Zero1za]

Your math is off, and so is the list.

There are 2 exclusive Xbox games on that list. One was given two awards (Mass Effect).

VF5 is availalbe on the PS3, so it's not exclusive. Games availalbe for both the and 360 don't count as exclusive imo either. So, 2 exclusive games (Halo 3 and Mass Effect).

Re:Five Xbox 360 exclusives

[Anonymous Coward]

The PS3 has been outselling the 360 by a huge margin in the US since the drop down to 499. We are seeing the natural progression of the existing 115-120 million PS2 owner make the leap to next gen as the PS3's price hits their personal trigger point.

Unless something dramatic happens soon for Microsoft, at the current rate of sales the 360 isn't going to make Xbox worldwide sales numbers by the time Microsoft either leaves the console market of moves on to something new.

Re:Five Xbox 360 exclusives

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, I accidentally counted Mass Effect twice. I was going back over to make sure I didn't accidentally count any non-exclusive games twice and readded it then.

VF5's online component is exclusive to the Xbox 360. So that counts - you get a severely crippled game if you buy the PS3 version. No one plays fighting games to play against the computer.

I'm assuming that "[g]ames availalbe[sic] for both the and 360" was supposed to be "games available for both the PC and 360" and I disagree. In terms of the console wars, the PC port doesn't count. In this case, exclusive to the Xbox 360 means the PS3 won't be getting a version.

So the number is reduced to either three or four, depending on how you look at it. But still - at least Microsoft didn't need a "participation" award created to try and prevent the awards from being a complete slaughter.

Do a Google news search on the console wars. Quite a few places are already saying it's over for Sony, and I agree with them.

Re:Five Xbox 360 exclusives

[Anonymous Coward]

One of the most wonderful pleasures of doing game development over the past 15 years has been watching miserable little fucks like have their pathetic little fanboy worlds crushed like a cigarette butt by Sony.

See those sad little fucks who still hang around in gaming forums crying about the Dreamcast? That is you +5 years from now.

Re:Five Xbox 360 exclusives

[tb()ne]

The Amazon numbers may be tiresome but at least they are current. The problem with your NDP numbers is that the most recent numbers you show are for June - before the PS3 price cut, before E3, and before the public acknowledgment of the $1 Billion RRoD debacle. Speaking of which, NDP states that as of two weeks after the price cut, PS3 sales were up 135% at Sony's top 5 retailers.

Re:Five Xbox 360 exclusives

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry about that mods. I didn't mean to be so crass, I'm just upset that I only have one good game on my ps3 and the 360 has dozens, not including the 12+ AAA's due in the next few months.

Re:Five Xbox 360 exclusives

[Anonymous Coward]

To those reading my parent post, I pulled those numbers out of my ass because there's no real evidence of more sales yet, but I'm crossing my fingers so I think that will help. So it will be a natural progression by way of crossing my fingers. HEHE pretty funny huh? I also made up "personal trigger point". Pretty cool huh? I came up with it last night while once again laying awake trying to reconcile the $800 I just spent on a ps3, extra controller (for my friend who said maybe he'll come over and play and wash me in the shower) and game.

Re:Five Xbox 360 exclusives

[Slothy]

Just to clarify, SONY said that, not NPD. NPD will have their July report in a couple of weeks and then we'll know what actually happened.

Re:Five Xbox 360 exclusives

[tb()ne]

Yes, thanks for the correction.

Re:Five Xbox 360 exclusives

[KDR_11k]

I don't get your logic. What does the PS2's userbase have to do with the PS3? I have a PS2, why does that make me likely to buy a PS3?

Re:Five Xbox 360 exclusives

[powerlord]

VF5's online component is exclusive to the Xbox 360. So that counts - you get a severely crippled game if you buy the PS3 version. No one plays fighting games to play against the computer.

Do you actually own, or have you played VF5 on the 360? Sega itself has said that there is no on-line play, and they don't plan on releasing it.
The Arcade cabinet for VF5 is basically a PS3 in a box, so the 360 version is a port of it.

I don't mind a discussion, but at least get your facts straight.

Re:Five Xbox 360 exclusives

[MeanderingMind]

What you say is true, but the post I replied to specifically said "monthly". It's hardly monthly if it's only happened for one month, especially one that finished not three days ago.

If Sony sales have risen as described and the 360 sales have not risen significantly then for July the PS3 will have outsold the 360. However, until the PS3 outsells the 360 in August "monthly" is a misleading term.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to July's NPD. If the price cut did boost PS3 sales and give them momentum, things might finally get interesting.

Re:Five Xbox 360 exclusives

[MeanderingMind]

That's an interesting assertion, potentially backed up by a sibling post, but I'd still like to see some numbers. It also doesn't change that the PS3 was not outselling the 360 "monthly". One month, especially one that only just finished, does not count as "monthly".

Now, it would be interesting if the PS3 did start consistantly outselling the Xbox 360. I'd like to see some shakeup in the current norms because the pencil-straight sales rates of the three consoles are positively boring. I can only be excited about console X beating console Y by Z margin for so long before hearing the exact same news every day/week/month is "meh". It would be nice to see Microsoft or Nintendo put on the ropes for a while, because that's what brings customers the best products.

What? No MGS4?

[Red Samurai]

This is ridiculous.

Re:What? No MGS4?

[nlitement]

Yeah, MGS4 or GTA4 deserve it. Halo/CoD came around like one year ago, pfft.. MGS and GTA have been around for well over 10 years and don't rely on a beowulf cluster of 10-year-old Xbox players who have no taste for FPSs (PC FPSs > * > console FPSs) to make themselves famous.

Better link. (What's with the Newsweek link?)

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

Here's a better link:
http://www.gamecriticsawards.com/winners.html

(What moron posted a "Newsweek" link for God's sake?)

Yeah - I need the karma. ;)

Mass Effect?

[spocksbrain]

"Best RPG"? The categories are useless and should be done away with, given the results. Rather, these awards should be: "Most Hyped #1", "Most Hyped #2", "Most Hyped #3", etc... Basically, it's whatever got the most coverage from G4 this year.

I wonder how closely this matches booth costs.

[Glytch]

Perhaps E3 is just making sure its customers get their money's worth?

action/adventure?

[rpillala]

Why are there separate categories for Action and Action/Adventure? This seems like a crass attempt to squeeze in more awards just for marketing reasons. Of course the whole thing is just marketing reasons so I guess I shouldn't complain.

Re:action/adventure?

[tsa]

I looked up Bioshock, and it seems like yet another FPS to me. Something that most avid adventure gamers are not at all interested in.

Re:Four Xbox 360 exclusives

[Anonymous Coward]

As I pointed out the last time someone posted that link, that's only true on Amazon.com. If you look at US-wide statistics, you'll find the Xbox 360 outselling the PS3 by over 2:1. (NDP figures for the first half of 2007)

Amazon.com is an outlier.

By the way, the "five exclusives" is wrong, it counts Mass Effect twice.

Re:Four Xbox 360 exclusives

[tb()ne]

No, Amazon is not an outlier. Your NDP numbers are old. See this post.

Re:Better link. (What's with the Newsweek link?)

[JFMulder]

What the heck man? N'Gai Croal is one of the best profesionnal bloggers about videogames.

Adventure games?

[tsa]

No adventure game category. Shame, the genre is doing so well compared to a few years ago.

Re:Adventure games?

[captain_cthulhu]

>> Best Action/Adventure Game - Bioshock

notice it's not 'action adventure', it's action/adventure.

anyway I think I know what you meant but Adventure games are all but extinct - there's also no Best Shooter, Best Text Adventure, Best Rail Shooter, etc...

Re:Better link. (What's with the Newsweek link?)

[tsa]

Wow that link contains almost less info than the original link! Thanks man!

Did the people who assigned the prizes not use criteria, or was the prize distribution a random process?