GAMEScom Awards, Part 2

Here is part 2 of the GAMEScom awards.

Best Graphics: Crysis 2. Yes, it is somewhat of a "go figure", but looking at the tech demo they showed off is pretty awesome. The graphics are not notable for their looks but for what they have done with textures. The environment is basically one gigantic texture, so artists can basically do whatever they want with the looks, and make it look damn good. Crytek Engine 3 also reacts differently to situations. Every window is breakable in a different way. If you shoot a pipe, it will steam open. Amazing stuff.
-Runner Ups: Assassin's Creed II, Mass Effect 2

Best Shown Off Multiplayer: Star Wars: The Old Republic. Yes, I picked an MMO. But this one is different. This looks, sounds, and I can only assume feels different that other MMO's. BioWare is one of the best third-party developers these days. Everyone knows they are masters of the single player. And this mastery is what makes there MMO the best. Who knew that the best multiplayer shown off at the show would come from a game that melds multiplayer and singleplayer?
-Runner Ups: Halo 3: ODST, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Best Little Detail: Keith David voicing a character in Modern Warfare 2. Arbiter? Sergeant Arbiter? Keith David is a voice acting legend. His voice reverberates in every game he does, whether that be the tortured but battle ready Arbiter or the concrete straight-lined Captain Andersen. Him being in Modern Warfare 2 makes it better. Immediately.
-Runner Ups: Assassin's Creed II gets Eagle Eye movement, Dante's Inferno has a morality system

Worst Waste of Time: Ubisoft's new title "Just Dance". Do me a favor. Go watch the trailer for this new game. Do me a second favor. Once you watch it, never watch it again. Ever. The lady turns blue when she dances. The grandma doesn't stop dancing. Is she trying to grab her...OH MY GOD. This game should be burned immediately. Don't waste my time Ubisoft. You have James Cameron for that.

The Silent Killer: CCP's new console shooter. This game is unprecidented. CCP a while back created a free-roam galaxy MMO called EVE Online. This game if fairly popular. Now, CCP has announced that this new shooter will impact events and situations in the MMO, and vice versa. This is cool. I think the popularity for this will go up quite a bit when more details begin to emerge.

Best GAMEScom Coverage: Congratulations, IGN. You did really well this time. GAMEScom was complicated. Lots of things going on at the same time. IGN's coverage was the best. The news was constant, and there were no idiotic articles like some things Kotaku had reported on. The best part, however, was the video coverage. Along with the daily fix everyday, the trailers and the walkthroughs were the best looking and the most enlightening. There 20 minute Old Republic gameplay footage is worth noting.

Best PS3 News: The PS3 Slim. Really? Again? Yes again. This is important, and deserves recognition. Face it. This is a gamechanger. This is the best decision Sony has made since the Dualshock controller. This is great news not just to new customers but to old ones, too. For Sony vets, this means the company listens to you. They heard concerns from the public, and listened. This means they want to listen to their public. Yay.

Worst PS3 News: The PSP Go costing only $50 less than the PS3. The price drop for the PS3 is great, but the pricing for the PSP Go is atrocious. No portable should cost only $50 less than a full console. The PSP has so many less features than a full console. This is a given. Sony is gonna sell some PS3s this fall. They won't sell as many PSPs as they will want to, however. People will fork over that amount of money for a full console, namely the Wii. They won't spend it on a portable.

Best Xbox 360 News: Mass Effect 2 is going along pretty smoothly. The new trailer with Grunt coupled with a bit of other news lets 360 owners know they still have Mass Effect. Sure, it's on PC too, but in terms of console, Mass Effect is a 360 entity. This game is one of the few RPGs to do well on Microsoft's platform. To know that BioWare is dedicated to making it run smoothly and improving upon it is news enough.

Worst Xbox 360 News: Final Fantasy is only 70% complete for 360. And this is where all that awesomeness from Mass Effect 2 goes away. No one can deny that one of the best, if not the best RPG is Final Fantasy. It was big news at E3 a year ago that Final Fantasy XIII was going to be on 360. AS A PORT. Not to be against Sony, but they usually end up with the ports. 360 owners without PS3s will have to watch as their friends play one of the best RPGs several months before them. On one disc. Not three.

Worst Game of Show: Fable III. This could have waited till Tokyo Game Show. Look, Fable is great. But it kind of came out of nowhere. Lionhead and Peter Molyneux are known for their closed door demos that leak onto the internet the next day showing the awesomeness of the game. This closed environment allows the game and Peter to show off the awesome aspects of the game. The press conference just didn't work for Lionhead. Fable III is a good game. But so many games can be ruined by poor publicity. I won't judge the game fully until I see more. But first impressions are important. And Lionhead didn't do a good job at all. Here's hoping some improvement and a more traditional Lionhead in the coming months at TGS.

BEST GAME OF SHOW: Assassin's Creed II. Is my pick weird? A bit. You are probably thinking that you really didn't hear much on this game. But the stuff you did here reverberates everywhere. There was no press conference for ACII. There was no showing, no live demo, nothing. There were about 4 interviews with various websites. But as so many other things go in life, the small and focused things often become the biggest and best things. The interview shed some light on yet more improvements in the Assassin's Creed universe. Ubisoft Montreal is working hard on fixing everything, and so many times do we hear the phrase "we are trying to fix everything". Well, come November, Ubisoft Montreal can say something to everybody: "We did fix everything". I can't find one thing in AC1 that they haven't said they have fixed. Not one thing. And on top of that, they are improving the game and adding new things. Think how hard that is. Working on fixing a previously worked on game while adding tons of other things. It is no wonder over 400 people are working on this one title. The Prince of Persia crypts detailed in these interviews sound like such a great addition to AC. I want this game. You should want this game. That is why it gets Game of Show.

Agree or Disagree? Let me know. An award post will be done for Blizzcon, but it will only be one post long. Until then, enjoy your week.