Working Title 06.03.10: Working Title Halftime Awards Nominees (Part 1)

Posted by Jordan Williams on 06.03.2010

It's that time again, the Working Title Halftime Awards. We recognize the games from the first half of the year with their very own special awards. Check out the full article for the first half of the nominees.

Welcome to the #1 Column to think that the Chuck Season Finale beats the shit out of the LOST Season Finale, WORKING TITLE. Of course I am talking completely out of my ass because I have never seen a single episode of LOST but...man; Chuck's season finale was all so good. I like that the show plays close to the chest with its cliffhangers, too. Although this cliff hanger was pretty goddamn big and sets up the next season nicely, if they show hadn't been picked up for a season four they easily could've just cut that cliffhanger off and everything would've been wrapped up in a neat little bow. Hopefully the new season comes back sooner than later.

Funny how everyone shit on that show when Heroes was hot shit and now it's outlived Heroes (who jumped the fuck out of the shark in Season 3).

But I'm not here to talk about TV Shows and what not; I am here to officially kick off the WORKING TITLE HALFTIME AWARDS 2010. For the next two weeks I am going to roll out the official list of nominees for the Working Title Halftime Awards, this week will be all of the old categories, and next week will be all of the new categories plus the Game of the Half Year Nominations.

Working Title Halftime Awards 2010 Nominees Part 1

Those of you who read the column already know the point of these awards, but for the new booty out there I'll refresh you a bit. The Halftime Awards are made to give credit to the games that tend to get forgotten from the first half of the year. In years past there have been games that have come out in Q1 and Q2 that have won GOTY, but there are far more that get overshadowed by the fall/winter releases. Of course with 2010 being one of the most top heavy years in a LONG time, this seems sort of lopsided but the awards must still go on.

Of course there are criteria for the awards it's mostly common sense shit, but I figure I might as well go ahead and list it.

Games that have come from January 1st 2010 to THIS week (Week of May 24th). Why? I know it might not exactly be the middle of the year (which is sometime in July) but the following week is the first week in a long time that a Triple A release isn't looming. The next BIG release is Transformers: War for Cybertron (and that's even a stretch) and that is still on the tail end of June. So right now there is a bit of a lull.

Re-releases, Ports, and 'Game of the Year' editions are NOT eligible. Unless there is extra game content that was added and was NOT available in any form in the original release and was substantial enough to warrant it. This means that God of War Collection and Perfect Dark XBLA are not eligible, but Super Street Fighter IV is.

There are no console specific awards. This has always been the case.

If there is a nominee you do NOT see on the list, feel free to make a suggestion. This is called Workaholic's Choice. If enough people make the suggestion it will be treated as if it was nominated.

Winners are decided by votes. Votes are accumulated by comments on the article itself, emails, facebook comments, and by a panel of writers for this (and other) sites. In the event of a tie, it comes down to me. Fuck you, it's my column.

Enough of the rules and all of that bullshit, now it's time to get down to it.


The Batman Award for Manliness
To put it bluntly, this is the award for the most badass male video game character so far this year. Whether they kicked a lot of ass in their game, or were just too cool to fuck with these are the guys that you wish would back you up in a bar fight. They might not have much characterization or motive, but all you know is that they can kill a motherfucker and look great doing it. Or sometimes they don't have to kill at all. As always, the winner of this award will also have the honor of having their name added to the award for the Year End version.


Garrus Vakarian (Mass Effect 2)
Although he played such a low-key role in the first game, you got little flashes of brilliance that showed that Garrus Vakarian was a stone cold motherfucker. He might've played the role of the 'good cop' but the more he hung around Shep, the more he started to loosen up. And then you find out in the second game that Garrus has pretty much become Space Batman. Fucker is running around ruining criminal organizations and doming people with a sniper rifle. As the game goes on we start to see the 'softer' side of Space Batman which ends up in him finally getting some LOVIN' that the community has been wanting. But is Garrus Vakrian a bad enough dude to take the mantle of Manliness?

Kratos
This is Kratos. Kratos is angry. Kratos only has two settings...angry and sleeping. And he never sleeps. Seriously, even after dropping a load off in his half-sisters panties (Eeeew) he just hops up and goes right back to killing the shit out of people. It's not a secret that to take on Olympia and pretty much burn the fucker to the ground that you have to have some measure of badassness and some might say he might be the frontrunner, but stranger things have happened...remember Alex Mercer winning last year? Exactly.

Sam Fisher


For a man who is 53 years old, Sam moves well as a motherfucker. With people like Old Snake taking the mantle of Manliness before, it's should be no surprise that old age and experience might win out over being a Space Batman or other things. Plus if you tell an ex-super spy assassin that you killed his daughter and expect him not to go apeshit and bash your head into a urinal and then breaking your neck. It's almost like he might intimidate you into voting for him....

Rico/Scorpio
You know what's manly? Base jumping off of a nightclub that is being floated around Southeast Asia by a pair of blimps. You know what else is manly? Somehow using a grappling hook to land safely after plummeting 1000+ feet from said nightclub. Then killing two people by grappling them to a car and running them over. Then stealing a helicopter and crashing it into a water tower, then hijacking a tank and running over evil militiamen with it. Then rigging said tank to explode, then jumping away from the explosion off a cliff, then stealing an airplane in midflight and riding onto of it as it flies over a mountain. That is 20 minutes out of life of Scorpio. He might not be the most talkative or interesting guy, but the motherfucker knows how to have fun.

George Woodman
I told you he was going to be in here. George Woodman is the BADASS Sheriff from Deadly Premonition, the best worst game of the year so far. He doesn't take shit from anyone! ANYONE! I've already sang the praises of how badass he is, but most of the stuff that makes him REALLY badass actually spoils some plot points in the game. Just know that George trains everyday with Sylvester and Arnold...yes...those Sylvester and Arnold. A small-town sheriff might be the most badass person this year.


The Dormroom Dominator Award
The Dormroom Dominator is the game that you would find on any shelf in any dormroom around the world...well...maybe not EVERY but it's basically the Bro's Game Award. These are the games that you play with your Bros and your Ho's and everyone in-between. It has great multiplayer, a great community, and good times would be had by all when you pop em in. Well, let me rephrase that and dumb it down a bit...this is the award for the best multiplayer, be it online or offline. This is the game you want to play with friends.


Battlefield: Bad Company 2
While everyone else was going crazy with Modern Warfare 2 last year, the Battlefield fans were holding their breath and waiting for Bad Company 2 to come along. And when it did it was the first shooter in a long time to get Modern Warfare a run for its money. Ditching the 'lone wolf' mentality of MW2 in favor of the squad tactics we all know and love, it quickly distanced itself from MW2 while still keeping its similarities. This was the Bro Shooter, you go in here alone and try to rambo and shit you will get torn to pieces, but if you stick with your buddies you are going to wreck shit.

Super Street Fighter IV
Now this one is sort of weird, where SSFIV is essentially a re-release, they did add in and change enough things for me to at least CONSIDER it for a nomination. HOWEVER, if you all have a problem with SSFIV being nominated then I will strike it and move on. Either way, this game is still getting played online a fuckload, and with no lobby options like endless and the tournament mode coming out soon it makes it even more o a dorm room dominator...just across more dorm rooms around the world.

Splinter Cell: Conviction
Although Splinter Cell is a single player game primarily, that doesn't stop the co-op in the game from being pretty goddamn good. Hanging out with your bros and passing the controller around is one thing. But throwing it online and hitting the co-op is a thing of beauty. Being a decoy for one spy while another sneaks up and snaps his fucking neck is orgasmic. Or you could just say FUCK the spy shit and open up a car of kick ass and lay waste to an entire room with mark and execute. Either way you want to play this shit online.


Monster Hunter: Tri
Monster Hunter is crack. The Wii is crack. Monster Hunter on the Wii is SUPER CRACK. This is what happens when a someone FINALLY does online gaming correct on the Wii, you get a game that has a decent sized community; a good online infrastructure and something that isn't a mini-game collection and it actually ha free online play. Now I know too many people might not have a Wii and might not use them online, but for the ones out there that do, Monster Hunter: Tri is the online game they have been fucking waiting for.


Not a Bang, but a Whimper Award
We all have those games, those games that had a ton of hype before their release but for some reason end up just falling short of the expectations be it gameplay wise or sales wise. These are the games that everyone was talking about and when they came out either they were just a flash in the pan or they weren't very well accepted. We get them every year around this time of the year when E3 shows up and sets the hype train in motion, and we've gotten them early this year. So which is the game that showed up with not a bang, but a whimper?


Star Trek Online
Of course in a Post-WoW world, no MMORPG is really going to kill it, but STO seemed like it had such a big chance. Star Trek was riding high off of the success of the new movie and of course the fan base has been around for decades...but in the end STO ended up like every other MMORPG based off an existing universe, it lacks the characters and story to propel it beyond grinding and boring ass gameplay.

Alien vs. Predator


Unlike pretty much everyone else in the world, I actually like the AvP movies, and I liked the AvP games that came out BEFORE the movies. So when I found out that AvP was going to get a new game made by the same people that were making the older games I had some high hopes...but that was quickly dashed when we got the game in our hands and saw just what a steaming pile it turned out to be. The campaigns were short, the graphics were bad, and the multiplayer was broken beyond belief. Definitely didn't life up to expectations.

BioShock 2
This game and the next one are a bit...controversial. They were not bad games at all, but in the case of BioShock 2 it just seemed like a sequel that wasn't really needed from the get go. BioShock 1 finished in such a good way that there were really no questions left unanswered and no loose ends to be tied up. So which the news of a BioShock 2 dropped everyone reacted with a similar "Why?" They kept trying to assure us that BioShock 2 would live up to its predecessor and it would end up being a great game, and it was...but it still never shook the feeling of just being a game that wasn't needed. Especially since most of the fun from BioShock 2 was discovering this new world...and we were right back in the middle of it and it all just felt so...samey.

Final Fantasy XIII
This one...is a hard one. Where FF13 isn't a BAD game...it wasn't necessarily the home run hit that everyone was expecting either. Whether everyone else wants to admit it or not, the face of the RPG has changed over the years and FF13 represented an aging style of RPG that some gamers might not like as much anymore. It looked great, it sounded great...but the gameplay just felt a little...thin. I'm not going to use the hallway joke that everyone else is using, but for a game that is the THIRTEENTH in the series, you would think they wouldn't have to have the game hold your hand for the first 10 hours of it and that they would let you finally run loose and play the game before the 15-20 hour mark. This wasn't a bad game...but I don't think it was the hit everyone expected it to be.

Dark Void
Jetpacks. They make everything better. Period. You can't name a single bad game with a jetpack that wasn't awesome...well...unless you add in Dark Void. I don't know what the hell Capcom's problems are, but they are definitely fucking shit up when it comes to hyped games. Resident Evil 5 was a bust unless you played it in Co-Op, Bionic Commando was horrible, and now Dark Void went tits up. If I felt so inclined I would've put Lost Planet 2 on the list but I haven't played that one yet. And now Capcom goes on to say they won't let western devs makes games for them because THEY messed up? Yeah, you keep thinking that.


The Die in a Fire Award
You all love this one. This is basically putting every shitty/annoying character, every goddamn news story that won't go away, and every fad we DO NOT FUCKING WANT on notice. It's just not enough for these things to fucking go away, it's not even enough for us to promise we won't talk about them for awhile. This is all shit that should DIE IN A FIRE. The reasons can be completely selfish or not. You hate the character? DIAF. You sick of hearing about this/playing that? DIAF! I took this list from various sites and mags around to see what people hated the most, as well as some personal things on the list but the roasting falls down to you.


Pre-Order DLC
I personally don't have a problem with this, but it seems like the VAST majority of the gaming world does. So should it deserve to die in a fire? Sure, it's a bit unfair that most of the games that come out nowadays have some silly pre-order DLC that's tacked on the game in order to drive up new sales and new purchases. But admittedly it is getting a touch out of hand seeing as now different stores get different DLC based on how you preorder it. Like I said, I am okay with it...but some of you might want to see it burn.

The Antagonist (Deadly Premonition)
Of course I won't name them as to not spoil...but this motherfucker...wow. Deadly Premonition isn't the greatest game out there, but the Antagonist in this game...man I haven't hated a villain for doing something so fucked up in a LONG time. For those of you who have played the game, you already know who I am talking about. For those of you who haven't...FUCKING PLAY IT. IT'S 20 BUCKS.

Activision vs. Infinity Ward Drama
For the love of candy-bar shit I HOPE this stuff finally gets resolved soon as I stop having to hear about it. Who owes who money? Who is going to make Modern Warfare 3? Who did wrong? WHO GIVES A SHIT? If this had been any other developer into he world no one would've given a shit, but of course since it was the makers of COWADOOTY everyone got all tits crazy over it.

The Oragami Killer (Heavy Rain)
Again, not to spoil but...I played through this entire game for THAT? Man FUCK YOU. FUCK YOU IN THE FUCKING FACE YOU FUCKSHIT. Seriously, all of the other Origami Killers they are playing up and we end up with THIS ONE? Man that's some ole bullshit of the highest order.

Jacob Taylor (Mass Effect 2)
Dear Jacob,

You are boring as shit. I hope you die in a fire.
Oh wait, you already did.

Well…close enough
Sign,
Jordan.
P.S
Don't whine about spoilers, it's common knowledge that all the deaths in Mass Effect 2 are subjective and dependant on how you play the game.


And there you have it, the old class is set and ready for voting and the new class is next week. Got any I left out? Feel free to vote for them anyway. Like I said, if they are popular enough I'll add them in anyway. Plus if you don't vote that just means I have get to pick the winners and I know you fuckers just hate it when any of us around here have opinions. SO VOTE.

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Working Question

Well...it's kind of obvious. VOTE MOTHERFUCKERS.

Next week we have the New Class of Nominees, and the nominees for Game of the Year So Far.

Now that you have finished reading this, go back to getting drunk and grilling. It IS Memorial Day afterall. Until next time, I'm Jordan Williams...and Blur > Split/Second.