GAMEScom Awards, Part 1

GAMEScom is over, and people will continue to go on with their lovely lives. AT LEAST UNTIL TOKYO! Anyway, here is the first part of the awards for the first GAMEScom. I felt the convention was better that the Games Convention, and its new venue in Cologne and the size make it a great public expo. That being said it still is not comparible to E3 or Tokyo. But it does have potential. Enough with the small talk. On to the awards!

Best Moment: The reveal of the PS3 Slim by Kaz Hirai. This was the announcement everyone was expecting, and the news everyone wanted. Not only is the PS3 cool and slim. Not only is it $100 cheaper. Not only is the stupid Spider-Man font gone. But Kaz did all of it. A cool guy showing off cool things. This announcement brings great news to current and future PS3 owners, and it finally puts Sony back into the race for console supremacy.
-Runner Ups: Tim Shaffer giving Brutal Legend a demo, Assassin's Creed II given Prince of Persia-like crypts.

Worst Moment: The 2 day news slumber. GAMEScom was great, but the news was done after a day and a half. No reveals. No big awesome trailers save a couple. It was dissapointing. For those of us who couldn't go to Cologne in person, these two days were torture.
-Runner Ups: Crytek waits 2 days to reveal nothing, GRIN was making a Final Fantasy action game.

Best Announcement: PS3 Slim. Yes, this deserves another award. The announcement is just so monumental. The PS3 was too expensive. The PS3 was not competing with Wii or Xbox 360. With the announcement of the Slim, Sony can now rejuvinate its stance. It can compete. Sony basically announced that they found their balls from the PS2. Now they can be Sony.
-Runner Ups: Naughty Dog wants to continue Jak, Abbey Road DLC release date.

Worst Announcement: Fable III. Peter Molyneux is dissapointing. After the big tease on Lionhead's website with people such as Aristotle and Abraham Lincoln, it was all for another Fable title. Don't get me wrong. Fable is great. But the fact that Peter can't do anything besides Fable is sad. No one needed his overexaggeration either. With every game he reveals, no one knows what is true and what is stretched. I'm sure Fable III will be great. But Molyneux isn't.
-Runner Ups: Ubisoft "Just Dance" game, No Modern Warfare 2 public beta

Best Trailer: Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. Another epic video from the mind of Hideo Kojima. This was an awesome trailer. It showed how Kojima is really making this a Metal Gear Solid 5 title in length and atmosphere. The co-op looks great, and this trailer did the best in showing how it works. It was worth the nine minutes it took to watch. Then again, it's Kojima. He can make a 40 hour game worth it.
-Runner Ups: Army of Two: The 40th Day, Mass Effect 2

Best Gameplay Footage: Star Wars: The Old Republic. The 20 minute gameplay demo that IGN posted was phenominal. It showed that BioWare isn't messing around. They are serious when they say they want to change the face of MMO's forever. Everything about this gameplay footage is awesome. It shows a variety of classes, all who look awesome. It shows the variety and scope of landscape, all of which looked awesome. It showed how story is the core of the game, and that was awesome. This can turn a sceptic into a supporter, and and more importantly, give the WoW player a possible alternative...
-Runner Ups: Halo 3: ODST, Mass Effect 2

Best Conference: Sony. They pleased the public, and in a public conference that is the most important. The conference was only an hour long and yet brought news that could have satisfied the public at a bigger show, like E3 or Tokyo. The speakers were great and the use of Kaz Hirai was only practical.

Worst Conference: Microsoft. Or should I say Lionhead Studios. From a billion-dollar company like Microsoft, a press conference isn't hard. Using the hour to put Molyneux on stage was stupid. This talk would have been more appropriate in a closed session with members of the press, like Fable II was handled. This was wasted money. This was wasted time. Microsoft should have done better.

Most Pleasing Release Date: Dante's Inferno for February 9th. A legendary poem turned game which has garnered much applause comes out only 1 month and 9 days into they new year. A game developer that said that a game was going to come out in early 2010 actually kept their word? NO WAY.
-Runner Ups: Dark Void, Abbey Road DLC

Most Revealing Interview: IGN interview with Assassin's Creed II developers. So many things revealed in such a small interview. The interview shows once again that Ubisoft Montreal (all 400+ of them) really want to fix the inconsistencies of Assassin's Creed with things like more mission types and no repetitiveness. It also showed they want to improve and introduce new things, like all citizen cover, taunts, historical accuracy, animus changes, and Prince of Persia-like crypts with secret treasures. Amazing. Contender for game of the year.

Most Uninteresting Thing: Crytek waits till Thursday instead of Tuesday for a big Crysis 2 announcement. In fact, this was just to show off the new 3D model of the Crysis suit. WTF? Who cares. First of all, waiting till Thursday for "look at this. Isn't it cool? That's it!" was stupid. Second of all, who cares about the new suit? It looks the same as Crysis 1. It has the same functionality as Crysis 1. And it's a first-person shooter, so you don't even see the suit in the game. Wow. Crytek, you upset me.

That is it for part 1. Part 2 will finish them off. Who will get Game of Show?