E3: Best In Show!
Das Brute and I have hashed out our respective bests-in-show from E3 and the concomitant EIEIO and now present to you our favorites in a sparkling variety of categories, plush with built-in justifications and excuses because of our desire to please and daddy issues, respectively. Now please enjoy the list of Brutetastic Bests and Tiny's Patented E3 Favorites while I fill out the application for a hug from Father. Wish me luck!
BEST MMO:
Fruit Brute:
Pirates of the Burning Sea: I was so impressed with the graphics and character customization in this game as well as the fun style of gameplay. The fact that you could have a gay romance and your own ship certainly didn't hurt things either, but above that I just felt it was a solid title.
Tiny Dancer:
Fury: EIEIO's "mental twitch" MMORPG beat out Pirates of the Burning Sea, Dungeon Runners, Tabula Rasa and the also-rans to capture my MMO heart. While I'll probably end up playing Tabula Rasa and Pirates more often, Fury's PvP and RvR impressed me enough to win my support for best-of-show.
Who doesn't like a tag-team? Make the jump for more dual action!
BEST ORIGINAL IP:
FB:
BioShock: While technically this is sort of a follow up to System Shock 2, it is undoubtedly its own game. An incredible story all wrapped up in a big, gorgeous Art Deco bow plus scary genetic mutants and of course, the Big Daddies. All the elements that make a great game for me.
Tiny:
Tabula Rasa: The lore and backstory to the game were more fully-fleshed and flat-out interesting than many story-driven single-player games ever achieve.
BEST "UNORIGINAL" IP:
FB:
Beautiful Katamari:Any excuse for a new Katamari title is okay by me and in 780p HD on the 360 it's going to breathe new life into an already wonderful franchise. Royal Rainbow!
Tiny:
The Simpsons Game: All of my doubts about the staying power of this nearly 20yo franchise went out the window when I saw the game being played. Great voice acting from the Simpsons cast along with a slew of game-related parodies, plus a play style that clearly looked more than tacked-on. I'm usually very down on TV or film franchise-based games, so this was a big step for me.
BEST HANDHELD GAME:
FB:
Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass: It constantly amazes me that Nintendo can keep pumping out the Zelda games and continue to make them interesting. This DS title is definitely going to be one of the stand outs of the series.
Tiny:
God of War: Chains of Olympus: Kratos in the palm of my hand? Greece me up!
BEST RPG:
FB:
Eternal Sonata: Far and away the most beautiful game on display at E3 (along withBioShock), Eternal Sonata is going to finally bring a really good RPG to the 360. Interesting characters, storyline and engaging battle system definitely puts this one head and shoulders above the rest.
Tiny:
Fallout 3: I understand those purists (some of whom can get rather nasty) who don't want to see their favorite game cut from Bethesda's cloth, but at some point you've gotta move on. Van Buren is dead and Fallout 3 looks, sounds and feels like an amazingly well-detailed game whose spirit is as close as possible to the decimated and occasionally whimsical wasteland we know and love. In a case where you truly, truly can't please everyone, Bethesda did a hell of a job.
BEST CASUAL GAME:
Tiny:
EA Montreal's Boogie: Silly cartoons, awesome and practically gay-baiting song list, actually fun dance mechanic, actually fun singing mechanic, and surprisingly cool video mixing mechanic. Buy this game!
FB:
Boogie While I hoped to make different choices than Tiny, I can't help but agree with him here. This game was loads of fun and the one I found myself laughing and having a great time with during the demo.
BEST HORROR GAME:
FB:
Silent Hill: Origins: I chose this one because it was the one I actually got to put my hands on and actually play. It looked great on the PSP and really evoked the feeling of the early games. Looking forward to this one coming out.
Tiny:
Silent Hill 5: Come on.
BEST PUZZLE GAME:
Tiny:
Zac & Wiki: Quest For Barbaros' Treasure: Horrible, atrocious, incomprehensibly stupid name. Awesome game. Think The Incredible Machine meets 3D meets the Wii.
FB:
Once again, I have to agree with Tiny here. Terrible name, great game.
BEST PLATFORMER:
All Together Now:
Super Mario Galaxy: Another game that's tough to beat in-category. Hands down the best looking platformer we saw and the new gravity mechanics are really cool. "It's-a me! Mario in space!"
BEST FPS/ACTION:
Tiny:
I know Fruit Brute will say BioShock, and he's right. But since I avoided seeing BioShock almost entirely, I can say Dark Sector without being a lying liar. While BioShock will no doubt earn many tiaras, D3Publisher's The Darkness-esque shooter won my heart in several ways.
FB:
BioShock: Ah, yes. Tiny knows me so well. Of course I would say BioShock. It was beautiful, original and really fun to play. It never once made me feel like I was in a run of the mill FPS. The one game that really made me lose my fanboy marbles in front of the game's creator, Ken Levine.
BEST EXPANSION PACK:
Tiny:
Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer: New races, base classes, prestige classes (including Red Wizard!) and a long-ass campaign? I'm so there.
FB:
Does BioShock count as an expansion pack? Just kidding. I'll go with Guild Wars: Eye of the North because even though this category isn't my strong suit, I'm looking forward to trying out the game with Tiny and Toots and Timsy, oh my!
BEST NEW HARDWARE OR PERIPHERAL:
FB:
Nintendo Zapper: It may only be a $20 piece of periphery, but the Wii Zapper is going to make the experience of shooting games to the Wii so much easier and more fun to play. Metroid 3, Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles will all benefit from this simple yet effective new contraption.
Tiny:
PSP Slim: Nintendo had some great pieces of plastic and a super cool scale that I'll totally do yoga on, but tentative props go out to Sony for the PSP Slim, which allegedly fixes the system's most egregious flaws: lighter, thinner, faster loading times. With sketchy battery life still up in the air and without the addition of that all-important second thumbstick, I can't give it my unreserved support, but I'm at least happy they're doing something.
BEST ACCESSORY:
Tiny:
Nyko's Party Station: Wiimote holders, beer/soda coolers, snack holder, and cooling fan for sweaty Wii palms. Bring on the hardcore casual.
FB:
Agreed! snacks and cold drinks while you play, who could say no?
tiny dancer
Posted to E3, Hot Stuff, Video Games on 24 July 2007
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: best of show, e3, highlights
I'd really like to hear Tiny defend his choice of Silent Hill 5 for best horror game because the only thing shown was a 15 second motion graphics piece with no characters, environments or anything of real substance. I know he's a fan and all, but SH5 showed *literally* nothing more than a logo and the worst voice acting this side of Time Crisis. Even if he wanted to go with just the SH series out of pure fanboyism (no offense meant Tiny, SH is a great series), Origins had a good-ish show. "Best in Show" does not mean "best game in my mind when I closed my eyes and imagined what it could be."
I don't mean to harp on it, but I am extremely tired of e3 coverage of games that are not playable and so far from release that we might as well not even bother talking about them. I remember the "No Place for Hideo" MGS4 trailer that overshadowed everything else at the Konami booth when the game was still years away. How many times has Spore been named PC Best of Show when it's clear that game is nowhere near a real beta, let alone getting a release date? And don't even get me started on the Killzone 2 bullshots or FF13's movie last year.
Keep next year's awards to games that are playable only.
Keeping to games that are playable only would have wiped out Fallout 3, Pirates of the Burning Sea (the gay pirate MMO, for crying out loud), Tabula Rasa, Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer, Guild Wars: Eye of the North, and Dark Sector, not to mention the PSP Slim.
Sounds like your beef has more to do with coverage of E3s past...before we existed. Sans time machine, there's not a lot we can do about that except offer a shoulder to cry on.
Which we will, gladly. :D
Ok, you have a good point on how we define "e3 playable." Many games are in varying degrees of playable (on the floor, invite only, closed door only with NDA, employee guided only, etc.).
But at the same time you have to admit that there's a world of difference between videos of Guild Wars: Eye of the North or Pirates of the burning sea (which we can pretty accurately assume how it plays thanks to the developers or previous experience with the MMO) and the complete void of anything that was the SH5 trailer. No characters, no environments, no gameplay details. The "biggest" deal/detail given from this teaser was that the playable character(?) mentions that he's a war vet. Given that this is a SH game (a series notorious for it's poor combat), you'll have to understand how not excited and still fail to see that this as "best of..." material.