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I'm glad I don't live in your crazy upside down world where Skyrim sucks and Batman, LA Noire (lmao) or Rage have better graphics than Uncharted 3.

Oh dear god please tell me that most of the OP was a troll....

GoW3 nominated for GotY? No. Not with every other game that had come out. Great game, I love it, but much better comes have come out.

A small grip but GoW is God of War, GEARS is the short hand for Gears of War.

Sounds about right for the most part. Gears of War 3 isn't game of the year material, so I don't mind it not being nominated.


Skyrim and Arkham City both deserved GotY, so as long as one of them won, I'm cool with that.

I think BF3 should have beaten Portal 2, but I haven't actually played P2 so I can't judge.

The biggest stickler for me is MW3 over BF3. Hell no. BF3 is a better game than MW3 in every way imaginable beyond just personal preference.

Originally posted by srankmissingnin
I'm glad I don't live in your crazy upside down world where Skyrim sucks and Batman, LA Noire (lmao) or Rage have better graphics than Uncharted 3.

?

what, am i supose to like it? well i don't. the hell? the game's a glitch pool, battles are hardly impressive, the story's meh and the graphics suck. my opinion.

and i'm more of a a pc player and if you wanna compare batman a.c. or la norie with it's new facial tech with the way it looks on pc compared to the way it looks like on cosole, in this case, a console exclusive, then you'd think the same way as well. you must've never heard of physx.

Originally posted by General G
Oh dear god please tell me that most of the OP was a troll....

GoW3 nominated for GotY? No. Not with every other game that had come out. Great game, I love it, but much better comes have come out.

why not? at least a nomination. it was the best gears.

Originally posted by RE: Blaxican

The biggest stickler for me is MW3 over BF3. Hell no. BF3 is a better game than MW3 in every way imaginable beyond just personal preference.

i'm there with you big time on that one. it won because it was the most popular of the 2. gay.

lol. Told ya.

Fist, no one takes award shows seriously to begin with. Everyone could find gripes if we actually thought it represented a fully objective scoring system.

Anyway, popularity isn't the only things those games had going for them. And GoW3 also sold a lot more than some of those that were nominated or won, so your popular-only theory is a bit off anyway. Every reviewer I've seen, for example, acknowledges Skrim's bugs. I personally think it shouldn't have won because of them, but to say that it's not in the conversation is ridiculous.

Originally posted by RE: Blaxican
Sounds about right for the most part. Gears of War 3 isn't game of the year material, so I don't mind it not being nominated.


Skyrim and Arkham City both deserved GotY, so as long as one of them won, I'm cool with that.

I think BF3 should have beaten Portal 2, but I haven't actually played P2 so I can't judge.

The biggest stickler for me is MW3 over BF3. Hell no. BF3 is a better game than MW3 in every way imaginable beyond just personal preference.

This.

Originally posted by RE: Blaxican
Sounds about right for the most part. Gears of War 3 isn't game of the year material, so I don't mind it not being nominated.


Skyrim and Arkham City both deserved GotY, so as long as one of them won, I'm cool with that.

I think BF3 should have beaten Portal 2, but I haven't actually played P2 so I can't judge.

The biggest stickler for me is MW3 over BF3. Hell no. BF3 is a better game than MW3 in every way imaginable beyond just personal preference.

Why isn't Gears GotY material?

Originally posted by Zack Fair
Why isn't Gears GotY material? Content wise it's just not very impressive. It's got like, a 5 hour campaign that has mediocre writing in it, graphics that are only somewhat better than its predecessor, and a multiplayer suite that is essentially just a rehash of Gears 2, with a couple new gametypes and marginally tweaked guns. It's kind of like what Halo 3 was to Halo 2.

Even MW3, for how much of a MW2.5 it is, has at the least a completely new overhauled perk/class system and twice as many guns to balance, but even then it's not GotY material either.

I still believe that a sequel being just a rehash of its predecessor is not a bad thing, but on the other hand it's not something worth praising either. While Gears 3 is one of my favorite games of the year to play, whereas I have never been a fan of any of Bestheda's rpg's, the sheer amount of content and manhours put into Skyrim and Arkham City make them worth the GotY title. Gears 3's content is... lacking.

Also, it really bugs me that Epic made content that was already on the disk into DLC, for no reason. Even though they ended up giving most of it away for free, that's still deplorable.

mmm

Originally posted by RE: Blaxican
Content wise it's just not very impressive. It's got like, a 5 hour campaign that has mediocre writing in it, graphics that are only somewhat better than its predecessor, and a multiplayer suite that is essentially just a rehash of Gears 2, with a couple new gametypes and marginally tweaked guns. It's kind of like what Halo 3 was to Halo 2.

Even MW3, for how much of a MW2.5 it is, has at the least a completely new overhauled perk/class system and twice as many guns to balance, but even then it's not GotY material either.

I still believe that a sequel being just a rehash of its predecessor is not a bad thing, but on the other hand it's not something worth praising either. While Gears 3 is one of my favorite games of the year to play, whereas I have never been a fan of any of Bestheda's rpg's, the sheer amount of content and manhours put into Skyrim and Arkham City make them worth the GotY title. Gears 3's content is... lacking.

Also, it really bugs me that Epic made content that was already on the disk into DLC, for no reason. Even though they ended up giving most of it away for free, that's still deplorable.

I found the graphics of GEARS are really uneven. Adam Fenix for instance looks like he walked out of a late last gen PS2 or X-Box game. Still, GEARS 3 is the best Duke Nukem game this generation.

Honestly, Uncharted's graphics don't impress me all that much. Yes, the environments are amazing, but their character models are terrible. The graphics in those games are half excellent, half crap. Sorry, but that's not good enough to be winning awards with, to me.

I do not think Skyrim should have gotten game of the year, not at all. Not surprised that it did, but I think there were way better games out this year (ones that weren't complete rehashes of every single RPG to come out previously). Batman probably deserved it more, I think.

And yeah, Rage should have won in the graphics department. Not only were the graphics amazing, but they had a very nice visual style, as well.

These awards shows are always crap, but unfortunately a lot of people take them seriously. Combine it with how a lot of gamers are scared to try new things (I've brought this up before), and we just wind up with this recursive loop going on.

And really, why is anyone surprised that Witcher didn't win anything? It wasn't a big seller and was PC-only.

Also not surprised at MW3 winning, though BF3 definitely deserved it more.

Originally posted by FistOfThe North
?

what, am i supose to like it? well i don't. the hell? the game's a glitch pool, battles are hardly impressive, the story's meh and the graphics suck. my opinion.

and i'm more of a a pc player and if you wanna compare batman a.c. or la norie with it's new facial tech with the way it looks on pc compared to the way it looks like on cosole, in this case, a console exclusive, then you'd think the same way as well. you must've never heard of physx.

Originally posted by FistOfThe North
?

what, am i supose to like it? well i don't. the hell? the game's a glitch pool, battles are hardly impressive, the story's meh and the graphics suck. my opinion.

and i'm more of a a pc player and if you wanna compare batman a.c. or la norie with it's new facial tech with the way it looks on pc compared to the way it looks like on cosole, in this case, a console exclusive, then you'd think the same way as well. you must've never heard of physx.

I personally would never have given Skyrim GOTY for some of the reason you mentioned. It's buggy and the graphics suck, but that said I think the story is decent and I think the game play is fun and addictive.

Did pieces of paper blowing around really enhance your play through of Arkham City? I didn't play AC on the pc but I've seen the side by side video comparisons and it isn't enough of an improvement over the console version to say it looks better than Uncharted 3. Also I much prefer the stylized realism of the Uncharted 3 facial animations and lip synching to LA Noir's creepy wooden mo-cap work. LA Noir might deserve some sort of award for the tech they used for mo capture, but a graphics award? Aside from the facial animations it has the same sub par GTA / Assassins Creed level graphics. I have a decently powerful rig, I played The Witcher 2 and Deus Ex on my PC at max settings and they of course looked beautiful... but nothing beats Uncharted on a 70 inch tv... except for Uncharted on 80 inch tv but I don't have that.

Originally posted by Peach
Honestly, Uncharted's graphics don't impress me all that much. Yes, the environments are amazing, but their character models are terrible. The graphics in those games are half excellent, half crap. Sorry, but that's not good enough to be winning awards with, to me.


...

The character models and animations are the best part of the game.

Originally posted by srankmissingnin


The character models and animations are the best part of the game.

Tell them to learn to actually make hair look like hair.

Portal 2 won Best Multiplayer facepalm

It's awesome and all but for it to be able to beat Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, and Gears of War 3 in that department is bullcrap. I respect it winning Best PC Game, Best Performance by a Human Male (Stephen Merchent as Wheatley), and Best Performance by a Human Female (Ellen Mclane as GLaDOS) but Best Multiplayer? Wrong.

Originally posted by Peach
Tell them to learn to actually make hair look like hair.

I think thats pretty damn good actually. O_o

(But then I don't exactly play many modern games.)

Originally posted by Nephthys
I think thats pretty damn good actually. O_o

(But then I don't exactly play many modern games.)

The guys are okay (though the grey-haired guy's hair looks like it's carved, not terribly natural), but I've never seen a female character who has hair that actually looks like hair, as opposed to just random clumps and ribbons with terrible clipping, in those games.

Originally posted by Peach
Tell them to learn to actually make hair look like hair.

Is that a standard def screen shot? Elena's hair looks kinda bad their but it didn't look that bad when I was playing it.

Anyway far as video game hair goes, Uncharted 3 pretty top of the line, I mean just compare it to the models in Assassin's Creed Revelations or something and try your best to keep down your lunch. It's not Heavy Rain quality hair, but its not trying to be, Uncharted 3 has a stylized realism, the characters look real enough but still have enough of a cartoon esq exaggeration to their features that they avoid the dead eyes and uncanny valley that you see in stuff like Heavy Rain and the with faces in LA Noir, and all those creep Zemekis movies.

I see nothing wrong with the hair.

There isn't anything wrong with it. As far as video game hair goes it's pretty high up there, it just doesn't look like this:

http://playstationlifestyle.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/heavy_rain2.jpg

Originally posted by Zack Fair
I see nothing wrong with the hair.

That's because there IS nothing wrong with her hair.

Originally posted by srankmissingnin
Is that a standard def screen shot? Elena's hair looks kinda bad their but it didn't look that bad when I was playing it.

Anyway far as video game hair goes, Uncharted 3 pretty top of the line, I mean just compare it to the models in Assassin's Creed Revelations or something and try your best to keep down your lunch. It's not Heavy Rain quality hair, but its not trying to be, Uncharted 3 has a stylized realism, the characters look real enough but still have enough of a cartoon esq exaggeration to their features that they avoid the dead eyes and uncanny valley that you see in stuff like Heavy Rain and the with faces in LA Noir, and all those creep Zemekis movies.

That's actually from a CG trailer. Which I've seen a billion times because we had it playing on a loop.

There's no reason for it to look like that. Uncharted does not impress me at all.

(also, it's kind of funny, because this is the only place I point out that their models are crap and people disagree)

All the cuts scenes in Uncharted are run off the in game engine with the in game assets, there is no pre rendered cg.

Honestly you are the first person I have even heard say it. Even people who rag on Uncharted for "not being a game" give it props for it's amazing graphics and character models. Half the people I know in real life are animators and the other half are illustrators or concept artists and I can't think of a single of of them who has seen the game who thought the character models were anything short of mind blowing... and artists usually love to talk shit about other peoples work, especially if it is main stream and the artist is more successful. lol

Even my cousin who is a shameless X-Bot admitted it looked better than Gears... and I was so shocked I thought the world might end there on the spot.

Originally posted by srankmissingnin
I personally would never have given Skyrim GOTY for some of the reason you mentioned. It's buggy and the graphics suck, but that said I think the story is decent and I think the game play is fun and addictive.

Did pieces of paper blowing around really enhance your play through of Arkham City? I didn't play AC on the pc but I've seen the side by side video comparisons and it isn't enough of an improvement over the console version to say it looks better than Uncharted 3. Also I much prefer the stylized realism of the Uncharted 3 facial animations and lip synching to LA Noir's creepy wooden mo-cap work. LA Noir might deserve some sort of award for the tech they used for mo capture, but a graphics award? Aside from the facial animations it has the same sub par GTA / Assassins Creed level graphics. I have a decently powerful rig, I played The Witcher 2 and Deus Ex on my PC at max settings and they of course looked beautiful... but nothing beats Uncharted on a 70 inch tv... except for Uncharted on 80 inch tv but I don't have that.

I'll just have disagree with you on skyrim being fun and addictive. Even with all the hype pre-release I was reluctant to give it a chance, thanks to oblivion, but went ahead and did so, put in about 10 hours over a few days and said forget this for the reasons i've mentioned above. So i'm done with elder scorlls. I'll give it another chance in 10 years.

And physx isn't only about pieces of paper blowing around. It allows for real world (physical) activities that make the game look more, bellieveable visually. It does enhance the experience and mood.

Particles like smoke or flare smoke, which moves and looks just about realistic as it does in the real world, (see Mafia 2 cigarrette smoke, you could almost swear that the programmers somehow copy and pasted video of real cig smoke and programmed into the game, metro 2033 smoke looks even more convincing). There's interaction with particles and light and it's effects. Like for example if you have dust blow through some light rays indoors, physx tech would blot out that certain part of the ray that's being affected by the dust. The way leaking or spurting gas looks like from a broken pipeline underground and the gust it causes. You have real world wind gusts, debris flying around, broken glass shaterring to pieces and not dissappearing into thin air afterwards like they do without physx. All unscripted and in accordance to whatever in game experienced caused the actions all in real time.

It may not be the end all determining factor on whether or not to play the game but it does give you that extra sense of credibility and immersion. And games like that have a higher replay value than the norm. And this is just the start. On the other hand Epic games is trying to master complex image based lighting, with point light reflections and depth of field. real world/ real time style. They're doing things with water and hair unheard of.

Now imagine that mixed with a more advanced version of physx and then tell me if your gameplay experienced is enhanced.

Lol at people bawing about Skyrim making Game of the Year.

Crai moar.

Battlefield 3 probably deserved best shooter though, I base this only on the manly ass shit Blax showed me in the game.

Originally posted by Peach
That's actually from a CG trailer. Which I've seen a billion times because we had it playing on a loop.

There's no reason for it to look like that. Uncharted does not impress me at all.

(also, it's kind of funny, because this is the only place I point out that their models are crap and people disagree)

Maybe because saying the character models of a game are crap is saying quite a deal about a game where the graphics look fantastic and are, as srank said, praised even by competitive game companies.

I can't think of many games with better character models than Uncharted.

I don't even like the series. Drake is a douchebag.

Hate the series lol And you can't think of many because there aren't many

Originally posted by RE: Blaxican
Skyrim and Arkham City both deserved GotY, so as long as one of them won, I'm cool with that.
Same here, and yay @ Mortal Kombat 9 beating out MvsC 3, even though it was to be expected.

Pretty much agree on the other things you said too.

Originally posted by Digi
Fist, no one takes award shows seriously to begin with. Everyone could find gripes if we actually thought it represented a fully objective scoring system.
Also, this, and stuff.

Arkham City deserved GotY, in my opinion.

Originally posted by Peach
That's actually from a CG trailer. Which I've seen a billion times because we had it playing on a loop.

There's no reason for it to look like that. Uncharted does not impress me at all.

(also, it's kind of funny, because this is the only place I point out that their models are crap and people disagree)

oh my! you thought that was CG?



that goes to show the quality of the Uncharted visuals


Anyways:
Originally posted by Impediment
Arkham City deserved GotY, in my opinion.


I guess people love quantity over quality

The moment I read MW3 win over BF3 for "Best Shooter", I knew this award show was a joke.

Spike VGA is more like a popularity contest or a beauty pageant.

The games that win are the bestsellers/most popular.

Replay value, gameplay, graphics?
Throw those essentials out of the window. That's Spike VGA.

My advice:
Take these so-called "expert reviews" and "award shows" with a pinch of salt.
Check 'em out and try the games yourself.

Originally posted by Impediment
Arkham City deserved GotY, in my opinion.

Yeah, Arkham City should've won it. Something kept telling me that Skyrim was gonna take it, though, with they way they kept on about it at the show from the beginning... And COD too. Which beat bf3 as best shooter, another rob win.

Originally posted by S_D_J
I guess people love quantity over quality

I love quality. That's why I named Arkham City.

Originally posted by Impediment
I love quality. That's why I named Arkham City.

yep, my GOTY as well

Skyrim is about quantity

Originally posted by S_D_J
yep, my GOTY as well

Skyrim is about quantity

Just like the vga's were. It's why it won.

it's nothing but a pop awards show anyway, so go figure. the music celebrities were the worst part.

Arkham City and Skyrim are both acceptable.

Anything else winning this year would have been a joke.

Originally posted by BackFire
Arkham City and Skyrim are both acceptable.

Anything else winning this year would have been a joke. Skyward Sword. uhuh

Originally posted by BackFire
Arkham City and Skyrim are both acceptable.

Anything else winning this year would have been a joke.

You think would've been a joke if bf3 won it? What about at least goy nomination for gears 3..

Skyward Sword is disqualified simply because of the game breaking bug it has.

I won't go into detail about the very questionable control scheme.

Originally posted by FistOfThe North
You think would've been a joke if bf3 won it? What about at least goy nomination for gears 3..

Gears 3 nomination woulda been fine. It's a very solid game. Shouldn't have won though, so it makes no difference.

BF3 is a fine game but not enough progress from the last to be game of the year. Especially considering the single player mode is mediocre.

Originally posted by Impediment
Skyward Sword is disqualified simply because of the game breaking bug it has.

Skyrim though has tons of bugs like the PS3 saving issue, hell I've fallen through the map before as has a dragon. I'd argue all those put together are worse than the issue in Skyward Sword.

Still Skyrim would probably be my pick for GotY with SS close behind. I wasn't that throughly impressed with Arkham City as most it seems.

Originally posted by BackFire
Gears 3 nomination woulda been fine. It's a very solid game. Shouldn't have won though, so it makes no difference.

BF3 is a fine game but not enough progress from the last to be game of the year. Especially considering the single player mode is mediocre. Not to mention installing spyware/counter productive DRM on your computer kind of brings it two notches down from GOTY(in my opinion).

Based on the nominees, Arkham City IMO. Game was incredible from beginning to end.

Originally posted by Phanteros
Not to mention installing spyware/counter productive DRM on your computer kind of brings it two notches down from GOTY(in my opinion).

Still better than MW3

If the Oscars were the VGA's.

It's impossible to please everybody.

Originally posted by Smasandian
It's impossible to please everybody.
Ironically, the VGAs are clearly trying to please everybody with the majority of their choices. Seriously, two female performance nominees from one game?

If Oscars can have criticism on it's choices, any sort of videogame award show will much more.

I feel that games are different because of how we categorize games in different genres. They are people who absolutely despise FPS so they usually can't look past that and see that it's a good quality of workmanship.

For some reason, I feel films are different in that respect.

Originally posted by BackFire
Gears 3 nomination woulda been fine. It's a very solid game. Shouldn't have won though, so it makes no difference.

BF3 is a fine game but not enough progress from the last to be game of the year. Especially considering the single player mode is mediocre.

The campaign wasn't that bad. It was basically CoD's campaign. What did people expect from BF single player? I'm surprised it was that decent.

Originally posted by Zack Fair
The campaign wasn't that bad. It was basically CoD's campaign. What did people expect from BF single player? I'm surprised it was that decent.

For those of us who play specifically for the singleplayer...it's extremely disappointing and why I can't buy either BF3 or CoD, anymore. Both are said to have 5-hour campaigns. That's just sad in my opinion and lazy.

I also feel it is worth pointing out that I wholeheartedly agree with the award for the best song in a video game this year.

Just listened to said song.


Inferior to Sons of Skyrim. biscuits

Why did Batman Arkham City win Best Xbox 360 Game? It's a great game and all but I was always under the impression that when you mention a specific console, the nominees would be exclusive to said console. If there was Best Multiplatform Game, Arkham City winning that would make sense but Xbox 360 specifically? You lost me, VGA.

Originally posted by Nemesis X
Why did Batman Arkham City win Best Xbox 360 Game? It's a great game and all but I was always under the impression that when you mention a specific console, the nominees would be exclusive to said console. If there was Best Multiplatform Game, Arkham City winning that would make sense but Xbox 360 specifically? You lost me, VGA.


Yeah, specifically since the best game overall is Skyrim... Which also came out on the 360.

A lot of video game awards for various websites/magazine take the Game of the Year winner out of any of the other awards as well.

The reasoning is sound. If Skyrim won for Game of The Year then it won for PC, PS3 and 360, making most of the awards pointless.

If you look at the Oscars, it's different because the other awards are individual usually, or technical. You can be the best movie of the year but that doesn't necessarily mean you have the best sound editing, acting and other accolades.

Originally posted by Smasandian
A lot of video game awards for various websites/magazine take the Game of the Year winner out of any of the other awards as well.

The reasoning is sound. If Skyrim won for Game of The Year then it won for PC, PS3 and 360, making most of the awards pointless.

If you look at the Oscars, it's different because the other awards are individual usually, or technical. You can be the best movie of the year but that doesn't necessarily mean you have the best sound editing, acting and other accolades.

it's like with best picture and best director..

best picture is the whole of it i guess, all the elements minus some things and best director is just said persons vision of it, maybe..

i always though that the person who wins best director should win best picture..

Out of 85 Best Picture winners, 62 of them also won Best Director.

I also agree that if the film wins Best Picture, it probably should win Best Director.

But like all awards, a fair bit of politics are involved and that's why you probably see a difference in who wins.

Technically, both categories are different while in video games, best game and best console game are the same.