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EGM Review: WARP

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March 16, 2012

Now You See Me…

Warp might be as unusual for a puzzle game as much as our pint-sized, traffic cone colored protagonist is for a hero, but the game’s ability to make you think combined with its unique game play dynamic revolving around teleportation makes this a surefire winner overall.

You play as an unnamed alien who has been the latest in a long line of captures by a covert government organization who dissects and analyzes creatures such as yourself. Unlike those who have come before you though, you have a lot more fight in you than they would realize and after running through a humiliating obstacle course, unleashes your fury on them in ways they could not imagine.

Using your teleportation powers, which you can upgrade over the course of the game by finding “grubs”, a nutritious pink slime that our nameless hero loves, and some ingenuity, you try to work your way through the underwater base and escape to freedom. Some of these upgradeable powers include casting an “echo” or ghost of yourself to draw attention of guards away from particular paths, or launching items like barrels across the room once you have teleported into them. Your main ability though will always be your ability to ‘warp’ through walls, into objects to hide in, or into people to make them explode from the inside out and carve yourself a gory path out of the base.

Each level offers different challenges, usually centering on your expanding repertoire of powers and building on all of them until reaching the climactic final level. This natural progression makes sure that the game does not give you too much too quickly and helps keep the addiction level at a nice even pace as you take on challenge after challenge laid out before you.

The stealth aspect is also a twist thrown into this game that really amps it up though and helps develop a protagonist who never speaks. Your objective after all is to escape this government base and you must work your way past soldiers with guns and automatic robotic turrets whose sole purpose is to put you down. So finding the quiet, efficient way to take them out first is just as much of a challenge as the physics based puzzles you’ll encounter.

There are a few minor flaws with Warp though that hold the game back. The first is the fact that although the game has some very fun and inventive boss battles that will test your abilities like no other moments in the game, there are very few of them and you wish there could be more. Also, even though the base is entirely connected, you really cannot backtrack with upgraded powers to go back and find collectibles you may have missed along the way and completionists may find that aspect irritating.

The worst part of the game though comes in the later levels where all the tight puzzle design through about 90% of the game seems to unravel before your eyes and a randomness that relies more on luck than on skill seems to take hold. This can lead to some frustrating deaths as you must walk a very fine line through trap-laden corridors.

All in all though, Warp can be a lot of fun and if you look at the collectibles as a part of the replay-ability for the campaign and combine that with the nine timed challenge maps with online leaderboards then Warp definitely has enough to offer to be worth your 800 MSP. I think puzzle fans will be pleasantly surprised by the stealth based conundrum solving throughout the game and with its high level of polish should be near the top of their downloadable title lists.

SUMMARY:  This inventive and unique puzzler is so much fun for the price that a few irksome late game flaws can be forgiven.

  • THE GOOD: Inventive blend of puzzle and stealth elements provide unique experience
  • THE BAD: Late game puzzles seem to rely more on luck than skill like some kind of carnival game
  • THE UGLY: Bouncing human body parts after tearing them apart from the inside-out

SCORE: 8.0

Warp is available on Xbox 360 (XBLA), PS3 (PSN), and PC. Primary version reviewed was on Xbox 360.

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EGM Review: Dungeon Hunter: Alliance

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Crawling Away From This Dungeon

Based on the PSN game of the same name that was inspired by the popular Dungeon Hunter iOS series, Dungeon Hunter: Alliance has you play as a wise and benevolent king who falls apart at the sudden death of his beloved queen. Not willing to accept this, he dabbles in the dark arts to resurrect his wife, but changing one’s fate can have consequences and the queen carries within her now a dark presence. Upon her reanimation she betrays her king and stabs him to death. Now 25 years have past and the king has been resurrected by fairy magic in order to free his kingdom that has suffered for long enough under the oppressive thumb of his former bride.

Dungeon Hunter: Alliance is done in the classic dungeon crawler style akin to games like Gauntlet Legends, but has a lot more side quests and a central hub that help the game from becoming as linear as those arcade action styled games of old. There is also the positive of being able to play with up to three of your friends as you choose from your typical classes of Warriors, Rogues, and Mages. The hack ‘n’ slash game play is everything you’ve come to expect from the genre and adding in the portability and multiplayer compatibility of the Vita are nice, but this game is far from perfect.

Although fun to play at first, the action does get repetitive quickly and the item system is sloppy at best as there is no easy way to organize the many items you pick up along the way in your adventure. The graphics also aren’t anything particularly special as even though the characters seem to have been done in great detail, they exist in a bland and generic world that will have you get turned more than once as every dungeon and town you visit look exactly the same as the last.

The biggest negative for the game though probably lies in the price point. The only difference you’re getting between this $40 game and the $15 PSN version that has had numerous sales and promotions for it since it became available last April is the fact that the game is now obviously portable. And if you played the $5 iOS games that are a part of this series, then you’ll know exactly what to expect as well as the formula hasn’t changed at all from there either. So although the game had a few bright spots, it’s hard to recommend a game in the already flooded list of launch titles for the Vita when you can get the same game for less than half the price via another means of distribution.

SUMMARY: Solid dungeon crawler action is held back by monotonous game play and a cluttered loot system, but most of all a price point at $40 that is more than double the PSN price for virtually the same game.

  • THE GOOD: Classic dungeon crawler action
  • THE BAD: Cluttered item system and generic game play
  • THE UGLY: Another example of a barely upgraded iOS game that is clearly overpriced on the Vita

SCORE: 5.0

Dungeon Hunter: Alliance is a PS Vita exclusive.

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EGM Review: Asphalt: Injection

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February 23, 2012

Burning Rubber

Based on the popular mobile Asphalt series, Asphalt: Injection looks to throw its hat into the ring of racing games at the launch of the PS Vita, but instead of having its competition eat its dust like hoped, it really has just been left behind at the starting line.

The game features your standard campaign mode where you attempt to beat computer controlled cars in various race types like your obligatory race for first, an elimination style race where the tail car is removed every so often until only one remains, and even a race where you’re simply trying to avoid police officers the entire time who are looking to take your street racing crew down. As you win and unlock tracks, you can also earn funds to purchase new cars and upgrade your existing garage. There is also the connectivity of a versus mode the Vita can utilize so you can take on your friends.

At the end of the day though, with fifteen different tracks loosely based on some iconic locations around the world and nearly four dozen licensed cars, Asphalt: Injection is really just a perfect example of an over-priced iOS port that seems to define a good chunk of the launch library of the Vita. It fails to satisfy your racing cravings and doesn’t even show the effort of trying to look good while doing it.

Considering that the Vita has enough power to produce PS3 worthy visuals, you’ll be so stunned by the horribly dull look of every level you play that you’ll do a double-take to make sure you’re not accidentally playing one of the Nintendo DS versions. But at least an iOS version of this franchise, like Asphalt 6: Adrenaline, will only cost you 99 cents whereas this cobbled together port will cost 30 times as much. So even with some solid controls, at the end of the day you’re really paying $30 for a game that should be a throwaway on your iPad as it shouldn’t last more than a few hours in your system as you easily blow through each race location. You can’t even say the portability of the Vita is a plus because last I checked you could carry around an iPad and Nintendo DS as well.

All in all, this is a complete waste of plastic game cases and software chips. Considering the high quality of some of the other games on the Vita at launch, even in the same genre, there is no need for you to waste your money on this ridiculously expensive and overpriced shovel ware.

SUMMARY: Although it handles well enough, the fact of the matter is this game has barely been tweaked over its 99 cent iOS brethren and is ridiculously overpriced for it as it sits amongst a field of a half-dozen better racing games for the Vita launch.

  • THE GOOD: Solid physics and car controls
  • THE BAD: Nearly direct port of an iOS game that doesn’t take advantage of Vita’s specs
  • THE UGLY: The idea of dropping $30 on a game that is 99 cents on iOS

SCORE: 3.0

Asphalt: Injection is a PS Vita exclusive.

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Borderlands 2 Release Date Revealed

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THE BUZZ: 2K Games announces the official release date of Borderlands 2 with a new trailer as well as their pre-order bonuses for different retailers.

EGM’S TAKE: With the launch of the game’s official website at http://borderlands2.com, 2K Games has revealed the new “Doomsday” trailer and in the process let us all know that the release date for Borderlands 2 will be September 18, 2012.

The release looks to avoid the holiday rush that usually starts to ramp up shortly after that date and should help the game garner more notice with new audiences who may look to jump on board the series.

The three-minute trailer, which you can check out below, also gives us a quick glimpse of all characters in the game including the previously unrevealed Axton, who looks like Roland’s soldier type, and Zero, who carries a sword and therefore is automatically awesome. We also see some of Maya’s skill tree and what unique havoc she’ll be able to unleash.

“Borderlands 2 is a passion project through and through. The result is a sequel that has improved every successful aspect of Borderlands while innovating with an all-new experience,” said Gearbox Software President Randy Pitchford with the release of the news.

Along with this, 2K has unveiled the same pre-order bonus should you pre-order from Gamestop or Amazon.com. Being called the “Premiere Club”, you’ll get access to three items. The first is a Golden Key that unlocks a special item in the Sanctuary Loot Chest, the Vault Hunter’s Relic that boosts your in-game fortune hunting, and the Geabox Gun Pack, which includes a bunch of unique golden guns that should help you during your conquest of Pandora.

What do you folks think? Is Borderlands 2 on your must-have list? Does the pre-order pack help? What do you think of the new characters Axton and Zero? Let us know your thoughts with comments below!

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EGM Review: Alan Wake’s American Nightmare

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Heeeeeeerrrreee’s Alan!

The original Alan Wake wowed audiences with a twisted and unique story that saw an unlikely protagonist rise to the unreal situation he found himself in. And when last we saw Alan, he had sacrificed himself to the Dark Dimension in order to save his beloved wife Alice, taking her place as its hostage.

Flash-forward now two years later. Alan has basically had to scrape together an existence, fighting for his life on a near daily basis in the Dark Dimension, his love for his wife the only thing that keeps him going as he continues to look for a way out. The Dark Dimension satiates itself by feasting on Alan’s creative writing talents, but in the process of being touched by this ethereal power, Alan has acquired some unique abilities all his own, including using his writing to help change the reality of the given situations he finds himself in to better suit his needs. And in this new adventure, where the Dark Dimension has inserted Alan into one of his early writing experiences, a script for the cult-TV show “Night Springs”, Alan must take on his dark side given physical form in the nefarious Mr. Scratch, who taunts Alan by being able to cross between dimensions freely where the barriers are at the weakest, like Cauldron Lake or in this case, the Arizona desert, and threaten everything that Alan has ever loved.

A major goal in developing this game for the guys at Remedy was to try to make American Nightmare accessible to both new and old audiences to the franchise. And I think that by trying to play both sides of the fence, they may have missed their mark a little on each side. Easier to find manuscript pages help fill in the back story to newcomers, while some also flesh out this newest adventure for the series loyalists, but unless you actually experience the first game, a small narrative piece, that many people may not even find all the parts for, doesn’t do the first game’s tremendously original story and adventure justice and newcomers may feel like they’re missing out on something.

Meanwhile, the game does have a lot more of a “pick-up and play” feel to it as the action comes hot and heavy from right after the opening cut scene. This is all well and good as newcomers and veterans alike will enjoy the smooth controls, still awesome “light washing away the dark” dynamic, and the satisfying feeling that comes from dispelling the huge variety of new Taken like the Giant or the Grenadier. The problem that hardcore fans will find though is that after the survival horror aspects of the first game had you hording your strongest light producing materials for more diffcult moments in the game and scrounging for ammo, batteries, and flares, the abundance of self-replenishing ammo boxes in American Nightmare will ruin any chance of building suspense as you never actually feel in danger anymore. Flares, flashbangs, and some new and more powerful weapons not in the first game at all make themselves very readily available right from the get-go (SMG for the win). The challenge that I loved from the first game is completely gone.

Even with these flaws though, there are enough aspects that fans on both sides of the fence will also tremendously enjoy that makes the game a worthwhile purchase considering its 1200 MSP ($15) price tag. Again, the action is very well done and the controls are still tight and responsive enough that each kill or nimble dodge of an axe swipe by Alan feels very satisfying. The new Arcade challenge mode, complete with 10 maps, adds to some of the replay-ability found in the collectible hunting of the main story as you try to work your way up the leaderboard and earn the high score as you refine your Taken bashing skills.

Another brilliant aspect of the game is the TV sets scattered about Night Springs, Arizona. The dynamic of a live-action Mr. Scratch, using the TVs that established “Night Springs” in the first game, to taunt Alan in that classic villain fashion, is almost comical as Scratch is that rare charismatic bad guy who a part of you deep down roots for. There is one where he talks about his “tools of the trade” that was absolutely spectacular. And the use of licensed music in proper moments, especially as a backdrop to these “episodes” is definitely another strong point for the game.  And at the end of the day, it is all part of what is really a very solid story, especially if you look at this as a day in the life of Alan now since he has become trapped in the Dark Dimension.

Although it doesn’t do much in terms of forwarding the overall plot of the franchise and how Alan will hopefully one day escape or destroy the Dark Dimension and its denizens, it gives us a peek into what Alan must endure to hopefully set himself up for the end game and makes us care about the characters even more so than before and gives the series a weird sense of realism considering how far out there it is concept-wise. But one thing that American Nightmare does do in terms of forwarding the franchise’s story is it helps give us the sense that the Dark Dimension is not just some primal entity, but it is conscious of what it does in many ways and is truly alive, giving us a sense of some epic struggle worthy of a Greek mythos as Alan must endure trials and tribulations thrown in his path by some dark and unyielding god before he can finally return home.

There are also some minor nuances I believe that will also be universally panned by both sides of the fence with this game. The voice acting and dialogue outside of the “Night Springs” narrator or the Mr. Scratch TV episodes is bad. Like Japanese-import bad. And there are moments where Alan is surrounded by light, but still has to take on Taken. There is one scene where you are surrounded by a burning oilrig. Last I checked, fire gave off a good amount of light. And there was a lot of fire, and a lot of Taken. Small little gaps in the continuity of the universe like that had me scratching my head some.

All in all though, I think that as a stand alone adventure and a spot check on seeing how Alan was doing, this game did a good job of giving us an idea of the struggles the character is going through and hopefully will serve as the launching point for a bigger and even better story down the road.

SUMMARY: In trying to please everyone, American Nightmare takes a small step back from what made the original Alan Wake an original and enthralling experience, but is still well worth the price of admission for old and new fans alike.

  • THE GOOD: Fluid action and smooth controls
  • THE BAD: Dumbed down, broader appeal approach will turn off hardcore fans
  • THE UGLY: Dialogue worthy of a Japanese import

SCORE: 8.5

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare is an XBLA (Xbox 360) exclusive.

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EGM Review: Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 – PS VITA

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It’s déjà vu all over again

It was one of last year’s premiere fighting games and it is a franchise that arcade fighting fans absolutely can’t get enough of. So, much in the same vein of how the Nintendo 3DS had Super Street Fighter IV at their handheld system launch, Sony wanted to make sure they had a premiere fighting game to go along with their handheld on launch day as well.

That game, of course, is Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. But with a game already heralded as a superior fighting product that gave fans everything they wanted and then some, what could they possibly do with their port to the PS Vita? Nothing. Well, that’s not entirely true, but relatively speaking Capcom did very little with this latest version of the game that makes it stand out from its console brethren.

And this can be a good thing because why mess with something if isn’t broken? The game still has stunning visuals due to Vita’s processing power and the full 48-character roster of fighters remains completely in tact. The arcade, training, mission, and versus modes all return as nothing content wise was cut to facilitate the small size of the Vita’s cartridge. The voice acting and original music is still all there, the story cut scenes done in a style similar to comic book panels, the hyper combos, Galactus as the final boss, and even personalizing your online card is still present. All of the patches and balancing tweaks that console players had to wait for are all packaged in the game and because of it you still get one of the premiere fighting experiences of 2011 available to you.

The problem is that now it is 2012. And most people who were going to buy this game already have. And the major negative of making little to no changes with the game is now evident. If the audience has already been tapped, who is going to buy the exact same game twice?

Sure, it’s portable now and you can link up with friends to get in some quick versus matches. That’s a cool feature, but again, most people won’t have need of it really if they already bought the game unless they are so hardcore that this game is the center of their entire gaming universe and must have it with them AT ALL TIMES. But for the rest of us, what might sell us on this? Will a new touch screen system make us want to pick this game up? No. Especially since the touch screen is mostly pointless as it is crucial to actually see the screen when playing a fighting game to learn hit boxes, range, patterns, and other critical elements to victory and so you can’t have your fingers constantly getting in the way of that.

And speaking of fingers, it does become a bit harder to pull off a lot of the moves you’re accustomed to with the smaller joystick and buttons of the Vita. And the one thing the Vita version of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 does lack isn’t a shortcoming with the game itself, but with the hardware as you only have two shoulder buttons to try to pull off moves that were originally mapped to four. This can lead to some unnecessary button mashing that changes the game play for the worse.

But, aside from that, if you should pick this game up again, you’ll get everything you would expect from the console version. And if you missed it the first time around on a console, then picking it up for the Vita will definitely be money well-spent. There just isn’t enough of a positive difference though between the console and Vita versions to warrant owning both in most cases.

SUMMARY: Still a stellar fighting game, but if you already have it on a console, there’s no point in picking it up again.

  • THE GOOD: Basically the same game as on consoles
  • THE BAD: Pointless touch controls, lack of shoulder buttons sacrifices move list
  • THE UGLY: Tiny buttons and joysticks make button mashing more difficult

SCORE: 8.0

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is available on Xbox 360, PS3, and PS VITA. This review was based on the PS VITA version of the game.

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Hands-On: Sleeping Dogs

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Waking Up to Sleeping Dogs

I was always a fan of the True Crime series and so, like many others out there, I was excited a couple of years ago when I heard that it was being brought back to life with a romp in Hong Kong. Then, unfortunately, after countless delays it had its plug pulled and was put on the shelf. But luckily, Square Enix saw the potential in this open world game and so their London Studios, with plenty of experience in the open world with Just Cause 2 and an assist on Batman: Arkham Asylum under their belt, felt they were ready to tackle this challenge with the game’s original developer, United Front Games. And boy, am I ever grateful for that after getting my first hands-on with the game this week.

Re-titled Sleeping Dogs, the game follows undercover cop Wei Shen who, after joining the Hong Kong police force after a stint in the United States, is tasked with infiltrating one of the most cut throat organizations underneath the Triad umbrella and taking them down from within. Inspired by Hong Kong movies like Infernal Affairs (which would later inspire Martin Scorsese’s Oscar winning movie The Departed), the folks at United Front Games wanted to bring that realistic grit and grime into the a game world while keeping up a pace of action fit for a martial arts masterpiece.

And there looks to be a ton of action it looks like in Sleeping Dogs as we were able to go hands-on with a pair of levels. The first was a street race to let us know that even in the crowded and cramped streets and alleyways of Hong Kong, there is still plenty of driving to do in the game. After ramming several opponents off the road and taking first place in what was a satisfyingly smooth handling sports car, we got out from behind the wheel and were ready to really get our hands dirty though.

In this level, we were attempting to earn the trust of some of the Triad lieutenants and so had to shake down someone who had missed a payment of his protection money. Moving through a crowded marketplace, we quickly came upon our mark. When we explained to him who we were, he bolted and a free-running sequence fit for an Assassin’s Creed game began. Immediately the interactive environments were revealed to us as I kicked a crate of oranges out of the way and each one bounced independent of each other down a flight of stairs. As I kept the runner in my sights, our climbing skills were also put to test. Unlike in Assassin’s Creed, to help convey that sense of realism and interaction, instead of automatically overcoming objects in your path, you actually have to press the jump button at the right time to run up walls or vault dumpsters. Otherwise, you’ll still traverse your obstacle, but the animation will change and you’ll be slowed as your poor game reflexes will also directly affect how Wei handles this in game. If successful, you’ll maintain speed. If not, Wei will humorously flop for a moment before regaining his composure.

Once we caught up to the runner, a handful of his friends came out of the woodwork and we were going to finally put our combat skills to the test. With clear influence from the work Square Enix London did on Batman: Arkham Asylum, a similar two button combat system was in place here. One button was for attacks, the other for counters. What was new here though was that if you grabbed an opponent, the world lit up in a flash of red, pointing out what was interactive in the environment to instantly take out a thug if we could drag them over to it. From frying them in an electric panel, to tossing them into an open dumpster, the options were near endless and I replayed the level just to make sure I interacted with every possible item I could.

“You look at a lot of Hong Kong action movies and one of the hallmarks is that they never stop. The action never stops and its flowing, very fluid. You have a lot of people running around moving to fight or take action in the scene. And one of the key things is seeing how they bring the environment into play.  Picking up objects very quickly that they can use as weapons or just the environment in general is a weapon. So we wanted to extend that core philosophy to the game. The thing is almost that the more mundane the object, the cooler it becomes because you never stop to think about how deadly some of these everyday objects can be. So everyone has a car, but smashing someone’s head three times in the door before delivering a final kick, is really going to do some damage. So it’s all there really just to help keep the combat flowing and interesting,” said United Front Games Executive Producer Stephen Van Der Mescht in a brief interview with EGM, speaking about how important environment interaction was for them in this game.

Of course, if I didn’t want to use the environment, or was too far our of place to reach my desired target, the kung-fu Wei uses felt just as fluid as Batman did in the Arkham games as I strung together a brutal string of punches, kicks, and counters that left my foes broken, bruised, and battered. And without Batman’s moral compass, with me at Wei’s helm, I often left a scene behind that would require numerous body bags as I threw guys off high rises, turned their own lethal weapons against them, or smashed them face-first into rooftop fans that gave me just enough gore to feel more satisfied than disgusted.

Although our time with Sleeping Dogs was short, there was a lot there that had me very excited to see how the game would play out. Smooth flowing and rewarding action sequences worthy of the Hong Kong cinema that inspired them, high-speed car chases, and a deep, gritty, and compelling story that looks devoid of the fantastical that occasionally seeped into the original True Crime games has me feeling that Sleeping Dogs is not a game you should sleep on this summer.

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Tim Schafer Reveals First Details About Kickstarter Funded Game

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THE BUZZ: Tim Schafer let everyone know what some of the funds from his Kickstarter funded adventure game will be going to.

EGM’S TAKE: In an entertaining as always video, Tim Schafer let the universe know that aside from being available on Steam, the game will also be available on iOS and Android platforms. All the extra funds will also allow for English voice actors and for the text in the game to be translated into French, Italian, German, and Spanish.

As the project rapidly (it literally made another $1,000 in the time it took me to write this article) approaches the $1.9 million mark at the posting of this article, I for one cannot wait to see what Schafer and company can come up with considering that is near the same budget as Stacking.

What do you folks think? Are you amped for this game? How about that it will come to iOS and Android? Let us know what you think below!

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DICE Summit 2012 Wrap-Up

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The DICE Summit is an annual convention put on by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences that sees the gaming industry’s best and brightest come together to exchange ideas, celebrate the year that was, and look ahead to the future. There’s also some fun to be had as well as each Summit kicks off with an annual Poker tournament along with a golf and go-kart excursion before things really start to get underway.

Now, I admit I’m still recovering from my week in Vegas as the DICE Summit is unlike any other gaming convention we go to as games journalists and as a DICE rookie, I admit I was a bit taken aback at just seeing the tremendous talent that was often brought together in one room at any given panel or presentation. Nowhere else might you see Epic Games’ CEO Tim Sweeney lecture an audience with Ted Price from Insomniac Games, Todd Howard from Bethesda, and David Jaffe from Eat Sleep Play in attendance on how graphics will never need to go past 72 frames a second. Speaking of Todd Howard though, he gave a wonderful opening keynote for this year’s event as well.

Such topics that were spearheaded this year were how the publishing model may evolve from here and what harm it may be doing to the creative side of the industry, the future of technology in games, console gaming vs. social media gaming, and how some people outside the gaming industry could speak to certain key elements that need not be forgotten when making games. Among these were legendary songwriter/producer Glen Ballard talking about the importance of collaboration and Issac Gilmore of SEAL Team 7 talking about leadership.

And, of course, there were some surprises as well including the endearing speech by Tomonobu Itagaki, co-founder of Valhalla Games, but many of you probably know him better for his work at Tecmo on the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden series. His heart felt presentation on the depression he fell into after he felt Dead or Alive 2 was rushed to market and was initially incomplete shows how much of his heart he put into his games. Speaking of how he would drink days away during this dark moment in his life until hearing Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” and using that as inspiration to pull his life and company back together was a jaw-dropping moment for many.

But, of course, this all culminated in the Interactive Achievement Awards. Think of them as the video game Oscars (the SpikeTV VGAs are more like the Grammys, lots of show with very little substance). This year marked the 15th anniversary of the awards and was hosted for the 7th time by fellow Jersey-boy and comedian extraordinaire Jay Mohr. Although criticized by some, I thought Mohr did a superb job hosting the show once again and had my table and I in stitches during his entire opening monologue segment. In total, there were 26 categories this year as voted on by a panel of industry insiders and movers and shakers.

Here is the final breakdown:

  • Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition: Portal 2
  • Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design: Battlefield 3
  • Outstanding Achievement in Story: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
  • Outstanding Character Performance: Wheatley – Portal 2
  • Downloadable Game of the Year – Bastion
  • Casual Game of the Year – Fruit Ninja Kinect
  • Social Networking Game of the Year – The Sims Social
  • RPG/MMO of the Year – Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
  • Outstanding Innovation in Gaming – Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure
  • Sports Game of the Year – FIFA 12
  • Racing Game of the Year – Forza Motorsport 4
  • Fighting Game of the Year – Mortal Kombat
  • Strategy/Sim Game of the Year – Orcs Must Die!
  • Family Game of the Year – LittleBigPlanet 2
  • Mobile Game of the Year – Infinity Blade II
  • Handheld Game of the Year – Super Mario 3D Land
  • Adventure Game of the Year – Batman: Arkham City
  • Outstanding Achievement in Online Play – Star Wars: The Old Republic
  • Outstanding Achievement in Connectivity – Portal 2
  • Action Game of the Year – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
  • Outstanding Achievement in Animation – Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
  • Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction – Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
  • Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering – Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
  • Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering – Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
  • Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction – Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
  • Game of the Year – Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

I agree with most of these choices, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t use this chance to mention a few gripes I had. I disagree wholeheartedly with Fruit Ninja Kinect as Casual Game of the Year because it’s just the iOS game expanded to use your whole body. I thought Jetpack Joyride was more deserving. And I just have to shake my head at Skylanders winning Outstanding Innovation because it’s big innovation is simply finding another source of income for gaming publishers. LA Noire’s facial recognition technology was more impressive in my book. In fact, that also could’ve taken Outstanding Achievements in Animation and Visual Engineering as well. I also have a problem with Outstanding Achievement in Connectivity. Portal 2’s co-op mode is superb, but it has no replay value. So it may connect to someone on a deep level, but then it is gone. I think Gears of War 3 or Saints Row: The Third, games not even nominated, would have been a better choice.

My final gripe comes with Skyrim taking Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering considering the bevy of glitches throughout that game, especially for PS3 users who are JUST NOW getting that fixed. A bigger world does not make a better working world. It should have gone to Arkham City for its combat and grappling hook and gliding mechanics or even Portal 2 for fun with portals and its amazing physics.

Now, that I’ve gotten that out of my system, the IAAs also saw Ed Logg, creator of Asteroids, Centipede, and Gauntlet awarded the Gmaing Pioneer Award and Tim Sweeney, Founder and CEO of Epic Games, inducted into the Gaming Hall of Fame. Big thumbs up to those guys.

The Summit concluded with the 3rd Annual Indie Game Challenge. Here, dreams are born in garages or parents’ basements and these individuals or small teams put their dream and engineering skills to the test. The 10 finalists all walked away with something even for being invited to DICE, but the big winner took home a whopping $100,000 and it went to a game called Closure submitted by Eyebrow Interactive. Closure felt a bit like Lost in Shadow, but with much stronger emphasis on the dynamic between light and shadow as you moved your character through a striking black and white world. My personal favorite though was The Bridge submitted by Ty Taylor and Mario Castaneda as you traversed a 2.5 D puzzle laden world that looked like a M.C. Escher drawing come to life.

So all in all, the 2012 DICE Summit did exactly what it was meant to do. It celebrated games on every level and brought up some amazing points of conversation for those of us in the industry for the future and hopefully will help bring some exciting new stuff to you folks, the player, in the future.

If you want to check out some of the panels that I mentioned above or see some other ones not mentioned, feel free to head over to http://www.interactive.org as everything was taped on put online after the weekend concluded.

All pictures courtesy of the AIAS.

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Sony To Make Twisted Metal Movie

Filed under: EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly), Written — Leave a comment

THE BUZZ: Sony Pictures has signed Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance’s Brian Taylor to write and direct a movie based on the video game Twisted Metal.

EGM’S TAKE: Considering that Twisted Metal is a Sony property, there is no surprise there they are the studio working on it and that they have signed Avi and Ari Arad, who also did the Ghost Rider and Spider-Man movies for Sony, to produce. But signing Brian Taylor to a 7-figure deal when he is unproven at handling the directorial reigns by himself could be setting him up for a fall. Then again, with both Crank movies and now Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance under his belt, both of which had awesome car and motorcycle action sequences, this could give him a chance to really spread his wings, especially as he will be writing the script so he knows just what he can and can’t pull off. Not to mention, I’m sure Taylor is likely at least familiar with the Twisted Metal story since he also did the movie Gamer.

Much like the game, the movie intends to deal with an underground event that pits different combatants against each other in a fight to the death and the proprietor of the race is a mysterious figure named Calypso. The only characters confirmed to be in the movie right now is the infamous Sweet Tooth and Dollface in her custom 18-wheeler.

What do you folks think? How will Sweet Tooth translate to the big screen and who should play him? What about the idea that new characters like Dollface are supposed to be included? Will David Jaffe make a cameo? Let us know your thoughts below!

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