AIAS Awards Finalists

[schild]

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences have announced their finalists for the 8th annual Interactive Achievement Awards.

Game Of The Year

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Take2/Rockstar North)
Half-Life 2 (Vivendi Universal Games/Valve)
Halo 2 (Microsoft/Bungie)
Katamari Damacy (Namco/Namco Limited)
World of Warcraft (Vivendi Universal Games/Blizzard)

Console Game Of The Year

Burnout 3 (Electronic Arts/Criterion)
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Take2/Rockstar North)
Halo 2 (Microsoft/Bungie)
Katamari Damacy (Namco/Namco Limited)
Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal (Sony/Insomniac Games)

Computer Game Of The Year

City of Heroes (NCSoft/Cryptic Studios)
Half-Life 2 (Vivendi Universal Games/Valve)
Doom 3 (Activision/id Software)
World of Warcraft (Vivendi Universal Games/Blizzard)
Sid Meier’s Pirates! (Atari/Firaxis Games)

It would seem, with the nomination of Halo 2 and Doom 3, that even the AIAS isn't above whoring. This is truly a sad day for the entire industry.

[stray]

As much as I hated it, perhaps Halo 2 has an excuse to be on the Console Game of the Year list, only for the fact that the consoles are sort of FPS-starved...and it does a better job at that than most. Definitely not Game of the Year material though.

I didn't think Doom 3 sucked, but I'd put Scrapland or Rome: Total War on that list way before I'd even consider Doom 3.
 
Has anyone here played Ratchet and Clank? I was looking at the website and it looks fucking great. With the exception of Alien Hominid, I haven't played a platformer (good or bad) in...years it seems. I'm totally confused on what's good or not.

[Disco Stu]

I didn't think Doom 3 sucked, but I'd put Scrapland or Rome: Total War on that list way before I'd even consider Doom 3.
 

Doom 3 didn't suck. It just wasn't ever ment to be very good. It was exactly what everyone expected. A shallow, boring game with some really cool graphics and sound. There is no way it belongs anywhere near a game of the year award.

[Strazos]

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences have announced their finalists for the 8th annual Interactive Achievement Awards.

Game Of The Year

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Take2/Rockstar North)
Half-Life 2 (Vivendi Universal Games/Valve)
Halo 2 (Microsoft/Bungie)
Katamari Damacy (Namco/Namco Limited)
World of Warcraft (Vivendi Universal Games/Blizzard)

Console Game Of The Year

Burnout 3 (Electronic Arts/Criterion)
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Take2/Rockstar North)
Halo 2 (Microsoft/Bungie)
Katamari Damacy (Namco/Namco Limited)
Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal (Sony/Insomniac Games)

Computer Game Of The Year

City of Heroes (NCSoft/Cryptic Studios)
Half-Life 2 (Vivendi Universal Games/Valve)
Doom 3 (Activision/id Software)
World of Warcraft (Vivendi Universal Games/Blizzard)
Sid Meier’s Pirates! (Atari/Firaxis Games)

It would seem, with the nomination of Halo 2 and Doom 3, that even the AIAS isn't above whoring. This is truly a sad day for the entire industry.

Wow, those are some truely craptacular nominees. The worst part of it is how narrow it is, not even differentiating between different consoles or genre. I've only played 4 of the games on that list (Halo 2, Half-Life 2 [demo], WoW, and CoH), none of which I would give a GotY nod to. For instance, where is KotORII? Except for maybe KD and Pirates!, those are all big-name, big-hype games. /sigh

[stray]

Damn, how could I forget KoToR II? They really do need different genre nominees or something. It deserves at least a heads up for the story.

Half-Life 2 (and by extension, Source) is awesome. I can't imagine why it wouldn't be nominated.

GTA: SA, imho, is well deserved. I don't know about you, but I run into a number of people who've stayed away thinking that it's just another GTA3 in a different setting. It's not. It isn't revolutionary or anything, but it isn't a small evolutionary step in the sense that Vice City was either.

Gameplay-wise, it's basically the same thing as GTA3. Gameworld-wise, there's just so much more depth and breadth added to it that the previous two (or any action game for that matter) could only hope to achieve.

[Calantus]

Has anyone here played Ratchet and Clank? I was looking at the website and it looks fucking great. With the exception of Alien Hominid, I haven't played a platformer (good or bad) in...years it seems. I'm totally confused on what's good or not.

I've played all 3 in the series and I have to say they all rock pretty hard if you dig platformers. I think it's best features are its light-hearted humor, characters that really grow on you, and the multiple weapons bringing alot of gameplay variety (especially in 2 and 3 because you'll use alot of them just to level them up... figuring out how to use an inferior weapon for the situation because you want to level it up is alot of fun). I'll heartily recommend them to anyone who asks.

[Arctic Circle]

Wow, those are some truely craptacular nominees. The worst part of it is how narrow it is, not even differentiating between different consoles or genre. I've only played 4 of the games on that list (Halo 2, Half-Life 2 [demo], WoW, and CoH), none of which I would give a GotY nod to. For instance, where is KotORII? Except for maybe KD and Pirates!, those are all big-name, big-hype games. /sigh

Those are great nominees, except Doom 3 and Halo 2 of course. KotOR 2 or Vampire:Bloodlines are just too bugged and rushed.

It was almost impossible to make a great sequel for Half-Life, but somehow Valve managed to do it. HL2 changed the genre again, although not as much as the the original game. I bet we'll see plenty of gravity gun rip offs in the near future.

GTA:SA feels more like true cRPG than most "real" cRPGs. Many try to create successful hybrid game, but fail constantly (ie. True Crime:Streets of LA or Driver 3). Rockstar seems to be only one with enough talent to do it right.

Katamari Damacy... it takes balls to try something as different as this. What's even more amazing that people actually like it.

World of Warcraft. Pinnacle of this generation of MMOGs, both in good and bad. That's just typical Blizzard.

CoH is worthy attempt to move MMOGs to another direction. While I don't like it very much (I blame my FPS background) a lot of people find it's fast paced action fun.

Sid Meier's Pirates!
What can I say. I spend countless of hours playing c64 version (and later PC version of Pirates:Gold). Not that much new stuff in it, but what the hell, at least I can play Pirates again.

I don't know why AIAS chose Doom 3 and Halo 2. From the hardcore FPS fanatic perspective (yeah, that's me) you'll only see mediocre FPS. Maybe I'm wrong person to say because I've played too many FPS over the last 15 years.

[trias_e]

Half-Life 2 is unquestionably the best PC game that came out this year that I played (haven't played Vampires or Pirates yet).  If you don't think its at least worthy of a nomination for best game of the year, I have to say that your jaded anti-Steam "this game is fuckin gay huhu fuck valve" attitude is probably the only reason why.

While Steam may suck, the game is very very good.

[Rodent]

Half-Life 2 deserves to be nominated asmuch as Doom III, both were awesome engines, not to great games. And source in Vampire proved to be a major trainwreak.

[schild]

Halo 2 won reader game of the year at Gamespot.

Excuse me while I go beat the shit out of every patron at EBGames from here to LA. From there I'll go into E3 and beat the shit out of the AIAS people.

[Paelos]

The fact that Rome:TW isn't on the computer games list is a freaking joke.

[Toast]

I wish video game awards worked more like the Academy Awards.

For the most part, lowbrow derivative movies that do incredibly well in the box-office can and do lose the Oscars to superior, less-popular movies.

Artistry and creativity should be rewarded, even if the games aren't mega-blockbusters like GTA or Halo.

[Rasix]

I wish video game awards worked more like the Academy Awards.

For the most part, lowbrow derivative movies that do incredibly well in the box-office can and do lose the Oscars to superior, less-popular movies.

What fantasy planet do you live on?

Last 5 winners for Best Picture:

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
Chicago
A Beautiful Mind (*pukes*)
Gladiator
American Beauty

[Paelos]

Don't forget the epic that is Titanic.

[Rasix]

Don't forget the epic that is Titanic.

I was saving that for a retort.  Anyhow, I said last 5.  Accuracy must be maintained.

Titanic. Ugggg..  I knew someone that saw that movie 24 times in theatres. He made the news for it.  He maintained that he wasn't gay.  Now he's out and living in Utah (shocker!).  Such a bad, bad movie.  It makes me laugh though when the people were jumping off the ship, hitting the propeller/rails/whatever and jackknifing off at funny angles.

Another funny Titanic anecdote.  My wife was watching it with a friend on a flight coming home from France.  They were cracking up and making fun of the end scene with all of the craptacular acting.  Then they look around and a couple of teary eyed, 12-13 year old girls are staring angrily at them.

[Pineapple]

GTA: SA, imho, is well deserved. I don't know about you, but I run into a number of people who've stayed away thinking that it's just another GTA3 in a different setting. It's not. It isn't revolutionary or anything, but it isn't a small evolutionary step in the sense that Vice City was either.

GTA: SA is not a new engine. However it is far beyond GTA3 in just about every possible way aside from a full graphics engine replacement.

And regarding graphics, it is improved over GTA3. The art is better, it just isnt a totally new game engine. The map is absolutely huge. A lot of quality work went into this game. There are so many side things to do that I have been playing another 20+ hours AFTER I finished the main game, and I'm having a blast.

Doom 3 and Halo 2 better not win.

[HaemishM]

Fuck them, if they wanted a good FPS, they should have nominated UT2k4. Yeah, it was essentially a fun patch on UT2k3, but it still had more original thought than Doom3. Vampire:Bloodlines not being on there is a fucking travesty of a tragedy.

[schild]

Fuck them, if they wanted a good FPS, they should have nominated UT2k4.

Yes.

Vampire:Bloodlines not being on there is a fucking travesty of a tragedy.

Yes.

I don't really mind all the Half-Life 2 nominations. It's pretty much an absolutely spectacular experience. It's not Valve's fault they can't write a story for shit. Well, yes it is. But it's still some of the best fun to be had on a PC.

Katamari should have gotten more recognition. After playing through a lot of Ghost Hunter, I think it's easily the most overlooked game of the year.

Resident Evil 4 will sweep this years GOTY awards. Which is a shame, everyone is competing for second place now.

[schild]

Winners!

- Game of the Year: Half-Life 2
- Console Game of the Year: Halo 2
- Console Platform Action/Adventure Game of the Year: Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
- Console Action/Adventure Game of the Year: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
- Console Racing Game of the Year: Burnout 3
- PC Action/Adventure Game of the Year: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
- PC Strategy Game of the Year: Rome: Total War
- PC Massive Multiplayer/Persistent World Game Of The Year: World of Warcraft

With Halo 2 winning Console game of the year, I feel comfortable saying that the AIAS deserves no recognition whatsoever. Feel free to go on with your day.

[Rasix]

Wasn't Warior Within pretty much universally panned?  Other than that, I'm not sure those choices are THAT bad.  But yah, Halo 2 winning for best console game is a bit sketchy.

[HaemishM]

Halo 2 as best console game can suck my nuts. I'd play ESPN NFL 2k5 and say it was console game of the year over fucking Halo 2. Actually, I'd put a lot of things above Halo 2, Fable included.

[Zetleft]

Awful lot of sequels on that nominee list, hell is Katamari Damacy the only original game that got any recognition.

[Paelos]

R:TW won something, so I'm happy. I can't whore myself out for that game enough, despite the bugs. I haven't played Half-Life 2, as I'm not a shooter guy, but I imagine that they seem to have gotten a lot of love from this judging crew with the HALO nod.

[Lum]

With the AIAS awards, companies can pay to put jurors on the panel.

Generally the least 'suspect' awards are the GDC/IDGA awards.

[Riggswolfe]

Assuming there is some kind of cutoff date I have no problems with Halo 2 winning console GOTY. It was fun as hell and I liked the whole cliffhanger ending.

WoW as MMO of the year? Ok. The only serious contender in my mind is COH and it almost deserves to win just because it's such an underdog and they did so much right out of the gate. That said, I haven't logged onto COH since WoW came out so maybe that says something.

I will say, Resident Evil 4 is possibly the best console game I've ever played besides KOTOR 1&2. This is saying alot considering most other RE games I had a sort of love/hate relationship with. This one is all love baby!

[Malderi]

I don't see what all the hate here is for Halo 2.

I don't think that it deserved best game of year, and maybe not best console game of year, but it certainly deserved the nomination for it and I can understand it getting the award. The single player campaign was awesome, if short, and it's still the only game since Halo 1 that has had a good single AND good multiplayer without modding. Half-Life does it, but CS is a different game, same engine. I think it deserves points just for that.

[schild]

Hey, lookit that! EGM just won our WOTY award.

[HaemishM]

I don't see what all the hate here is for Halo 2.

It's probably because people who have never played a good PC shooter like Half-Life or Unreal Tournament, seem to treat the Halo series as Robot Jesus, instead of a decent shooter game with some tedious levels.

I don't think that it deserved best game of year, and maybe not best console game of year, but it certainly deserved the nomination for it and I can understand it getting the award. The single player campaign was awesome, if short, and it's still the only game since Halo 1 that has had a good single AND good multiplayer without modding.

No, it's not. Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (on both PC and X-Box) had awesome single-player and multiplayer, without modding. Fuck, MechAssault 1 had good single-player and multi-player, right out of the box, no modding possible, even though that was the year before. Halo is an overhyped series; decent, but not GOTY material.

[Bunk]

I played Halo two for the first time last weekend for a few hours. So far as I could tell, I was playing Halo 1 with two guns at once.

Only big thing I will give Halo credit for is a single player campaign that supports co-op. Beyond that, to me its an average, albeit pretty, shooter.

[stray]

If Halo 2 did this well on the XBox, I wonder how Doom 3 will fare when it's released.

[AcidCat]

The single player campaign was awesome.

You're actually the first person I've ever heard defend the campaign mode. I found it to be a very generic, by the numbers affair with a fairly bland and sometimes downright stupid story to go along with it. I fail to find the awesomeness.

I was a fan of the original Halo. But since then I got a PC. I was looking for Halo 2 to recapture some kind of magic, but it left me really cold. It just felt simplistic and generic. I can only assume its fans don't play PC FPS games.

[Sky]

In the world of EGM, there are no computers

EGM is a console magazine.

CGW is it's sister publication for pcs. If you read about pc games in EGM, it's a quote from CGW or one of their staff.

[Malderi]

At the risk of turning this thread into a debate about Halo 2, I shall defend it (sorry...)

As for the single-player campaign, just because the ending was bad (and I actually liked it a lot, I thought it was cool Bungie had the balls to do something like that... I trust 'em to do something cool with it.) doesn't mean it was an overall bad story. It moved around a lot, sure, but it took you to a lot of different places. And if you've never sat down with a good friend for 10 hours and playing through the whole thing on co-op on Heroic difficulty, well... yeah. It's awesome. The music is great, the graphics kick ass considering it's on an Xbox, the action is nonstop, and the storyline is pretty good if not great. When I say single-player campaign, I don't just mean story; I think the level design was good, and certainly a lot better than Halo 1's semi-repetitive levels.

What I think is really cool about Halo 2 is how little they added from Halo 1 and how much it changed it. Dual wielding and vehicle boarding may not seem like much. But it added a LOT - such that people familiar with Halo 1 don't lose that familiarity with Halo 2, which is what I think doomed series like Tribes between original and sequel. Halo 2 most definitely kept the feel of Halo 1, and added several things which allowed for far more strategy.

And 4v4 LAN One-Flag CTF on Zanzibar with 7 friends is probably the coolest gaming experience I've ever had, with the possible exception of realizing I was Revan.

There were better games out there, certainly, but (personally, at least) Halo 2 deserved the console game of the year, I think.

[Riggswolfe]

It's probably because people who have never played a good PC shooter like Half-Life or Unreal Tournament, seem to treat the Halo series as Robot Jesus, instead of a decent shooter game with some tedious levels.
.

Do you have any idea how fucking arrogant that statement is? Jesus. I have been playing FPS since Wolfenstein first sneaked onto the scene and I enjoy Halo. It's a fun fucking game. I'm not some god damn console retard who doesn't know what a "real" FPS is. Get the fuck over it!

[Bunk]

Halo multiplayer is fun, yes. UT2k4 multiplayer onslaught is more fun.

Personally, I wouldn't have voted any shooter as game of the year though. I'll get slammed for this, but I think Sims 2 deserved more love than it got.