Spike 2009 VGA Recap

Ever since 2003, Spike TV has had their annual awards show honoring the best the video game industry has to offer. At the beginning, it was terrible. I remember watching the first show & it seemed more like a huge marketing campaign than an show honoring the best the industry has to offer. But over the years, Spike has honed their event toward a more respectable level. Although this year still held some pandering & over-marketing, it was still far better than their first one. So below are my thoughts on the show & the trailers (which are posted below the coverage)…

I was looking forward to the opening of the show as Geoff Keighley had been hyping the heck out of the World Premier opening trailer. He said we would never guess what it was. You know what? He was right. They opened with the debut of Batman: Arkham Asylum 2. Given that the first game had just released 4 months ago, I was very surprised to see the sequel already. I had expected something at E3 2010, not now. There is a slight concern that it may be a bit rushed, but I can completely understand why WBIE wants to jump out there as quickly as they can considering how much of a success the first game was (you can see my review here). This time around, it looks like the action will spill out of Arkham & onto the street of Gotham. Arkham Asylum 2 is now officially on my “most anticipated of 2010″ list.

Next up, Zachery Quinto came out & announced his voice will be in the new Star Trek MMO launching in the next couple of months. He looked a bit uncomfortable being up there. Must not be much of a gamer. Either way, he presented the award for Best Voice, which went to Jack Black. My pick was Mark Hamil. His Joker is still top notch & I don’t think anyone else could have played that role as well as he did. I will give Black credit though, he did a great job in Brutal Legend & his acceptance of the award cracked me up. After Black was dragged off stage, the trailer that I originally thought would be Stranglehold 2 came on. Turned out, it was another True Crime game. This one is leaving the US, taking us to Asia & focused on taking to take down the Triads. Meh. I’ve never been a big fan of the franchise. Not that it’s bad or anything. I just never got into it.

Actress Olivia Wilde (House) comes out & presents the debut trailer for Tron Evolution, the game adaption of the upcoming Tron sequel, Legacy. This is one of those games that no matter how many trailers you show, I’ll need to play it before I can comment on it. The controls will be key to Evolution so hopefully it’ll be playable at E3. It should release sometime at the end of 2010, probably right around the release window for the film. Then, Tony Hawk comes out & presents the award for Best Action Adventure Game. The winner: Assassin’s Creed II. My pick: Batman: Arkham Asylum. While both games were phenomenal in their own ways, I thought Batman edged out Creed just a hair in the controls department. The Dark Knight’s moves were a bit more fluid than Ezio’s were. Following that was a trailer for a game based on the show Deadliest Warrior. I couldn’t tell much from the trailer, but it looked like a fighting game along the lines of Street Fighter or Tekken, only with ninjas & knights instead of Blanka & Ryu.

Kimbo Slice comes out & makes the UFC Undisputed 2010 reveal. As with all annual sports titles, it doesn’t look too much different than the last iteration. Zach Braff then presents Rocksteady the Studio of the Year award. I agree completely with this pick, as they basically came out of nowhere & cemented themselves with the rest of the big boys after the release of their sophomore title (Batman: Arkham Asylum). As long as there is no publisher strangulation, this team will be one to watch for years to come. One thing to note, of all the nominees in the Studio of the Year category, Rocksteady was the only one to release a non-sequel. The others were all sequels in established franchises (Infinity Ward, Naughty Dog, & Valve). Sam Jackson then shows us the next Star Wars game. Was there any doubt it would be The Force Unleashed II? The first game sold over 5 million units so it was a bit of a gimme that the sequel would be coming more sooner than later. I’m excited to see where they go with this as the trailer has that whole “angel on one shoulder & devil on the other” thing going on, with an almost argumentative voice over of Yoda & Darth Vader, as The Apprentice looks to go toe-to-toe with a massive Rancor.

After a brief clip of the new Prince of Persia film (which looks like it’s going to be a blast BTW), the award for Best Team Sports Game is announced. NHL 10 wins for the 2nd year in a row. I’m not much of a sports guy, so I only made a pick because I had to (I don’t even remember what it was). EA of course dominated the nominations, carrying 3 with 2k getting one. The new trailer for Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands was then shown. It looked really good, but it was all CG. I would have like to see some gameplay. One thing is apparent: Ubisoft wants this franchise back in the black, so they abandoned the direction they went in the last game & went back to what they know works (i.e. the Sands storyline). After a quick acceptance speech from Hugh Jackman (who won Best Male Voice & Best Cast), Olivia Wilde comes back out to present the Best Indie Game. The winner: Flower. My pick: Trials HD. To be honest, I didn’t “get” Flower. It just made no sense to me. So I missed out on that parade. Trials HD was fantastic & surprised the heck out of me at E309.

Snoop Dogg then takes the stage & performs. I’m not sure what relevance this has to video games though. After the commercial break, the trailer for Spec Ops: The Line finally makes it’s appearance. From the looks of it, it’s on the right track. A third person shooter with a ton of action & what looked like scripted environment changes. The Spec Ops pedigree isn’t that good so just about anything would be an improvement. Best Individual Sports Game went to UFC Undisputed 2009. My pick: UFC Undisputed 2009. Then we get our first look at Crackdown 2. It looks like the first one, with zombies. Yes, you read that right, zombies. The first game was solid fun that happened to be overshadowed by the Halo 3 beta code packed inside, so it’s been overlooked by a lot of people. The tag line alone says it’s shaping up to be just as fun “Would you like to blow shit up with me?” Then we get The Best RPG award. Dragon Age: Origins takes it (& also wins Best PC Game). I couldn’t agree more. While Demon’s Souls was a great game, it was terribly difficult & Bioware’s fantasy epic just outclasses the rest. Now, probably my biggest WTF moment of the night happens. Green Day Rock Band is officially announced. I had heard the rumors, but hoped they weren’t true. I mean, of all the different possible band-specific Rock Band games they could make, why go with Green Day? Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan. I have all their music & have been listening to them since the very beginning. I just think there are better choices out there. Especially since they have already started releasing some of the songs from their catalog as DLC on the Rock Band Music Store. Plus, what abut the rumored Pearl Jam Rock Band game? I won’t get too fussed up about it though. Considering how well made Beatles was, I have faith that Harmonix will do a fine job with it. Plus, according to the press release, all the songs will be exportable, something that Beatles was lacking.

So while I’m still processing the Green Day announcement, my TV tells me that Megan Fox won Best Female Voice. Seriously? Were they voting for her voice or her looks? My pick: Kristen Bell (Assassin’s Creed 2). Best Downloadable Game deservedly went to Shadow Complex (I agreed with that, see my review here). Best Wii Game matched my pick too (New Super Mario Bros Wii). But, where Best DLC went to The Ballad of Gay Tony for GTA IV, I went with Broken Steel for Fallout 3. Not only did it raise the level cap to 30, but it open up the end of the game so players could go back & finish any unresolved quests. With that said, Gay Tony was almost a full game all on it’s own, so I can’t really complain about the win. Most Anticipated Game went to God of War III, which is fine with me since all 4 nominees are fantastic choices & any of them could be deemed “Most Anticipated”.

The first official Medal of Honor trailer plays & I must say, I think EA may actually be able to pull it off. My biggest concern was that it would be a rehash of the Modern Warfare games. But after seeing the trailer, the story elements are just oozing out of it. So I don’t doubt that it will stand alongside Call of Duty. I think the next question is if it’ll be strong enough to step ahead of them. Mike Tyson & the cast of Jersey Shore presented Modern Warfare 2 the Best Shooter Game award. I call this the “No Duh” category as there is little doubt that the Infinity Ward sequel was the best FPS this year, if not ever. Next year’ll be interesting as we’ll have Halo: Reach & Medal of Honor plus the next Treyarch-made Call of Duty (which is rumored to be set in the 1980’s Cold War era). 2010 is shaping up to be a good one for FPS fans.

Another group of awards were announced: Best Fighter went to Street Fighter IV. Best Soundtrack went to DJ Hero. Best Xbox 360 Game went to Left 4 Dead 2. Best Score was awarded to Halo 3: ODST. And Best Game Based on a Movie or TV Show went to South Park: Let’s Go Tower Defense Play!. Surprisingly all of these matched up with my picks except one. Especially in the Best Score category, where I think Bungie’s Marty O’Donnell did some of his best work ever. The one I didn’t agree with was the Best Game Based on a Movie or TV Show, where Ghostbusters got the nod from me. Out of the four nominees, I thought Ghostbusters did the best job capturing the magic of the property it was based on (you can see all my thoughts on it in my review). Stevie Wonder then comes out for to present the award for Best Music Game. The winner: The Beatles: Rock Band. My pick was the same as Harmonix really did a fine job not only improving the game over Rock Band 2, but tailoring the experience for a Beatles-centric project (once again, you can see my review here).

And now it’s the moment everyone has been waiting for. After a performance from The Bravery (the relevance to video games still escapes me), the trailer for Bungie’s final Halo opus is shown to the world. I’ll leave the trailer dissection for the fanboys & just say that it looks like we’ll be playing as part of a squad of Spartans. Coming fresh off of reviewing Halo 3: ODST, I couldn’t help but make the mental comparison. Not that it’s a bad thing. I think the whole one-guy-stopping-an-alien-invasion set-up is a bit played out, even if that “one guy” happens to be Master Chief. So I’m excited to see the story possibilities here. Visually the game looks much improved, especially in the facial animation department. I’m guessing they went with mo-cap this time around. After all the cheers died down, the Best Game of the Year was awarded. The Spike TV fans & I saw eye-to-eye as they picked Uncharted 2, just like I did. The house that Jak (& Crash) built has finally nailed down the elusive GotY award (they also won Best Playstation 3 Game & Best Graphics). It was a tough call as my personal top 3 games were Batman: Arkham Asylum, Modern Warfare 2, & Uncharted 2. In the end, Uncharted 2 won out just based on the fantastic storytelling & presentation. If you haven’t played it yet, I highly suggest you do. Soon.

All-in-all, it was a decent show. I could have done without the performances & some of the presenters ranged from uncomfortable to down right ignorant. But the reveals we exciting to see. Although there was a few WTF moments like the Green Day announcement & most of the trailers were CG with no gameplay, I was still happy with them. The show almost felt like E3, with awards. I never expected Arkham Asylum 2 to be announced so soon. Spec Ops look better than I expected. And Bungie’s Halo swan song looks set to be their finest work yet. Now, on to the trailers…

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