Working Title 06.10.10: Working Title Halftime Awards Nominees (Part 2)

Posted by Jordan Williams on 06.10.2010

Who will be the first ever woman to win an award? How about the most awesome moment in a game so far this year? 411's Jordan Williams reveals the first half of the nominations for the Working Title Halftime Awards!

Welcome to the #1 Column to not give a shit about the new iPhone, WORKING TITLE. Seriously Apple. I do not give a fuck'n'shit about the iPhone4. I have a nice and good iTouch and I love it to pieces so...that's that.

Man, usually my opening rant is a bit more inspired but there really hasn't been anything to go on since E3 IS NEXT WEEK. Yeah? E3. Shit's about to get hectic. Even though I am not going this year (...not like I went last year...or the year before...or the year before) but of course we do have people from the site going and they will be BALLS DEEP in the coverage. I'd go on and on about what I expect to see, but at this point it's such a forgone conclusion that it's not worth it.

I don't know if I will be doing a 3R's of E3 this year, but keep an eye out for it.

This week is the second half of the nominees for the Working Title Halftime Awards, last week was the old school, and this week is the new school and the GOTY (SF) nominees. So far the votes have been pretty good, although I still don't know why most of you email me the votes instead of commenting. Afraid someone might see you vote? C'mon people.

So on that note, how about I just skip all of this bullshit and get right to the stuff you really care about, eh?


Working Title Halftime Awards 2010 Nominees Part II

Now these are the awards that I added in this year, some of these ideas are from you all, some of them I just made up on the fly. I figured since last year had such a small roster of awards that I would sort of extend it a bit. The same eligibility rules apply as well as the same rules for the winner. The winner of the awards in the Halftime Awards will automatically go on for a nomination in the End of Year Awards. So far no one has ever pulled off the feat of winning in Halftime and End of Year but maybe this year can change that.



Baddest Bitch Award for Womanhood

So ever since the start of the Manliness Awards I have always snuck a female into the nominations. Not because I was trying to imply that the woman was a man, but simply because some video game women actually kick a LOT of ass and so much so that it puts some guys to shame. The thing is they usually get NO votes (GlaDOS got only 6 votes out of 30, Rubi Malone got NONE.) so how do I fix that? This year I give them their own category. So this is the first ever Baddest Bitch Award for Womanhood and the same rules apply for this just like the Manliness Award. The winner gets the award named after them, so let's give it up for the ladies.

Jack (Mass Effect 2)

Did you really think that she wasn't going to get nominated for this? She might not be the paragon of womanhood, but she still exudes enough of badassitude that she could've EASILY been nominated for the Manliness Awards. But the reason why she is nominated here is because on the surface Jack seems to be just a big badass bitch, but as with most characters in ME2 if you take the time to peel away the layers she actually comes into her own and has a bit more going for it. Or you could just jump her bones on sight. Your choice.

Big Sister (BioShock 2)

Hell hath no fury like a crazy bitch in a pressure suit that is pissed that you are trying to steal her family. Faster, stronger, and smarter than any of the Big Daddies of yesteryear, the Big Sister brings not only all of the strength needed to kick you ass, but all of the plasmids as well. And to think, she does all of her kick ass for a (somewhat) noble cause. Imagine if she really just wants to wreak havoc and didn't give a damn?

Bayonetta (Bayonetta)

I'm going to spare you a shitty line about "kicking ass never looked so good" and just flat out say that Bayonetta is probably the most stylish of the ladies on the list. That's not just a dig at her body-hair (note the hyphen) suit, but just in the fact that as she dispatches her countless foes she always just does it in pure un-adulterated STYLE. She might be nothing but an avatar for all of Japan and America's fans service, but as long as she has two guns in her hands, two strapped to her feet, and any other weapon she comes across near her I am not going to say a bad word about her. Don't fuck with a witch.

Bonnie MacFarlane (Red Dead Redemption)

Although she might be the newest one to the party, she might be the most down to Earth. Bonnie might not be able to shoot you with her feet or kill you with her mind be she can ride the fuck out of a horse and herd some cattle like there is no tomorrow. If someone like John Marston could be considered a 'man's man' then Bonnie would be the 'woman's woman'. She runs her own business (so to speak) isn't afraid to speak her mind, and is about as tough as any one else in a time where pretty much EVERYONE was tough.

Makoto (Super Street Fighter: IV)

Makoto will punch you to DEATH. Fuck the telekinesis. Fuck the guns and the wild west. It's just you, her, and some rindoukan karate. What is rindoukan karate? Fuck if I know. All I know is that she is going to punch you in anywhere you DON'T want to be punched. She might not be the best character to play with online (Jesus, why do you walk so slowly?) but if we are keeping the kayfabe (wrestling term!) alive then Makoto might be one of the toughest daughter of a dick in the Street Fighter Universe.





The "Shit Just Got Real" Award

There are just some times in videogames where some epic shit happens right in front of your eyes that you just cannot believe. Sometimes it's your fault, sometimes it's not. But all you know is from that point on...shit just got REAL. It could be that final boss appearing for the first time or even something someone has said, all you know is that it officially means that playtime is OVER and it's time to dig in deep because it's on now.


The Attack on Mt. Olympus/Opening (God of War 3)

While I am not the biggest fan of the God of War series, I will openly admit that the attack on Mt. Olympus is probably one of the biggest "Holy shit. It's ON" moments I've had this year. I mean you already knew that GoWIII was going to be the last game in this series, but to kick it off with such a big BANG was just epic in all the right ways.

"He grabbed Sweetwater's Parachute!" (Bad Company 2)

Now Bad Company 2 took A LOT of digs at MW2, but they still never had an OH SHIT moment like that game seemed to have every six seconds. However there was something definitely ‘real' about Sweetwater's Parachute getting ganked from him just before he jumped out of the exploding/crashing airplane. Why? Because then of course you naturally have to jump after him and the villain and kill the villain, and save Sweetwater all in freefall. And all in about 6 seconds.

Joker's Last Stand (Mass Effect 2)

One could argue that the opening 15 minutes of Mass Effect 2 could easily go for the Real Moment, but I think Joker's Last Stand was much more of a moment that was crazy. Everything is going wrong, shit is exploding, people are getting killed, the ship is about to crash and the mission will be SUPER failed. But the problem is that there is NO one to stop it. Shepard and his crew are out of the picture so it is left up to one man. Joker. Quite possibly the most fragile game hero since Sexy Sylvia has to take it upon himself to save himself, and the crew. While the actual moment may not have been a game play tour de' force, it was still a moment that set the tone for the end game.

"Welcome to Greenvale! Agent Francis...York...Morgan!"~ The Raincoat Killer revealed. (Deadly Premonition)

People are complaining about the amount of nominations a bad game like Deadly Premonition keeps getting...but you know what? FUCK YOU. Despite the fact that the game was bad, it still had some pretty great moments overall. And the penultimate boss fight of the game coupled with the reveal of the Raincoat Killer was one of them. Of course you might see it coming (and if you look hard enough the spoil it already) but it was still cool to finally see this part happen...and then the game takes a super dark turn.





The Left Field Hit Award

This is one of the newest awards which were inspired by 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand last year, this is the award for the game that came out of NOWHERE and ended up being a hit either critically or commercially. Either the game didn't get a lot of buzz until JUST before it came out or the game had NO buzz and ended up surpassing all of our expectations. Or for some games on the list, they might've just hit that special place in our hearts that lets us have JOY LIKE A MUHFUGGA for video games. Like everyone in working at Activision, these guys came out of nowhere and stole your money.


Just Cause 2

This game wasn't on anyone's radar until we started seeing videos and what not for it. The first Just Cause was...alright, but for the second one that ramped up everything to the point of flat out ludicry. Grapple hooks will never be the fucking same again after you do some of the retarded ass loco shit you can do in this game. It came out of nowhere and people LOVED it.

Street Fighter IV (iPhone/iPod)

Yeah. Um...it's an iPhone game nominated for an award that isn't Plants vs. Zombies. It's because as flat out STUPID as this sounds...Street Fighter on the iPhone actually fucking WORKS. of course there's not anything there like online play and the cast of characters is HILARIOUSLY small, but for what it is it actually does its job very well. Plus it has Guile.

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing

So people have been on Sonic's dick lately because he just can't seem to get a hit on his hands, and then whatever hits he DOES get are more because of the sum of it's parts and not his doing. Well....this is the same thing. But for a game that essentially just a rip off of Mario Kart it actually is pretty competent. Great tracks, great characters (Akira. Driving. Wat.) and some power ups that in same cases are better than the ones you get from the Mario Kart franchise, and it makes it seem like maybe Sonic should hang up his shoes for good and do the Mario thing and just put his name on a lot of shit. At least one of them is bound to be good.

Red Steel 2


You know next week is E3 right? That means I will be officially allowed to bash the Wii as I see fit after next week. RIGHT? The funny thing is, even though I put a self imposed ban on bashing the Wii they really haven't done anything year so far that I could bash them about. Look at Red Steel 2? They took a game that was fucking BAD and turned it into a pretty decent hit. Of course it didn't break the bank with sales or anything, but it proved that at least the Wii COULD offer up a 'hardcore' game to the masses without sacrificing its waggle and graphics.

Bayonetta

Now I am not sure if people would consider this out of the left field since it did have some buzz behind it, but this one is here for content more than how well it took people off guard. And this is strictly speaking for the fans of the game (remember, I actually don't like this game at all) and it has been such a long time that a game has been so over the top and just batshit insane at all times and I think a lot of people loved that the year kicked off with such a big bang and one of the first balls to the wall action games in a LONG time.




Crowning Achievement in Awesome

Sometimes there are just some things that happen in a game that are just undeniably awesome. Either you just pulled off some wicked ass move that you didn't know you could did or something just happened that changed the course of the game forever. This would usually be a time where 'shit gets real' but instead this is a time where you just did something so awesome that you just want to shout from the top of the mountain tops about you accomplishment. Of course then someone will probably call you a loser for bragging about video game achievements, but then again THEY don't have 40k achievement points so they can kindly EAT A DICK.

And while I COULD write a blurb about these but honestly? The names of them pretty much speak for themselves.

Mark and Execute x5 (Splinter Cell: Conviction)

Did she just SUPLEX A FUCKING DRAGON!? (Bayonetta)

Falling...falling....falling....falling....GRAPPLEHOOK! (Just Cause 2)

You just blew up the SPACE NEEDLE (Split/Second)

Best. Flashlight. Ever. (God of War 3)



Workaholic's Choice Game of the Year So Far

And this is it, 2010 has been pretty top heavy year so for the first time the GOTY (SF) actually has some meat on its bones and it seems like a lot of THE games of the year have already come out. So who will it be? When you get down to it we have three sequels, a spiritual successor and a game that has been in development for longer than every other game on the list COMBINED. But who will take home the honors of being YOUR choice for Game of the Year So Far? I assure you that this won't be the only time you see a writer, a space commander, a demi-god, a cowboy, and a plumber go toe to toe over this.


Alan Wake

So when has the last time that a game that has been 8 years in the making ended up being pretty good? Too Human? How about Duke Nukem Forever or Dark Specter? All of those games had SERIOUS problems and ended up being pretty goddamn bad. But Alan Wake went from being a joke in the industry to a darling almost overnight. The setting, the ambience, the well paced story (ending not withstanding) and just the feel of having an actual video game thriller rather than a silly survival horror game. Plus since Alan is a complete and total PUSSY you actually do fear for your life half of the time.


God of War III

Kratos. is. PISSED. Sony fans rejoiced when they found out (durr) that God of War III was getting a release on the PS3 and it lived up to pretty much every expectation they had. Great action, great set pieces, a great ending to the series and even more brutal violence then they could have imagine. If you are going to do a game where the main character has a vendetta against the GODS you had better make the game good. And they did. Could this be the second PS3 exclusive in a row to win GOTY?


Mass Effect 2


It's no secret that one of the hottest games of this year was Mass Effect 2. BioWare took everything that was broken or that the fans didn't like in ME1 and fixed it and made it even better for ME2. More characters, better interactions, better combat, better...everything. Before this game even came out some were considering it to be GOTY already just by virtue of showing up to the party, and now it might be the first game to win Game of the Year So Far and Year End Game of the Year. Damn.

Red Dead Redemption

Now this game might've JUST come out a week ago, but that doesn't stop the critics and the buzz machine from already proclaiming it as one of the best games of the year. It seems that Rockstar set out to prove that they didn't need to always go back to the GTA well in order to produce a hit, and while you could argue that might be what they did just with a different setting, it still doesn't take away from the fact that RDR is a great game and easily one of the best of the year.

Super Mario Galaxy 2

And then there was Mario. The Granddaddy of them all has one again shown up to spank that ass. Mario has never been one to have a direct sequel that was literally a DIRECT sequel, and for the first time he dipped back into the well and while fans were fearful at first, now it's apparent that Mario has still got it. Already being called the best game for the Wii and earning TONS of perfect scores around the board, it just proves once again that although he might be on the weaker system (not a bash!) Mario can still hang with the big boys when he is in his element. Plus, Mario Galaxy 1 has already one a Working Title Game of the Year Award, so could the same hold true for his sequel?

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Working Question

In addition to the pretty much obvious question of who should win the above awards, I also ask you this other obvious question is who do you think will rock the world at E3 next week? What will be the BIG announcement and who will make it?

My thoughts? I am 80% sure that Nintendo will drop the new Zelda on the masses and I am legit interested in the 3D3. But for some sneaky reason I think NATAL (or whatever the real name turns out to be) might do something to surprise us.

Or maybe the whiny fanboys can finally get Shenmue 3? Who knows?

Until next time, I'm Jordan Williams...and Mortal Kombat: Rebirth? Is it a game? Is it a movie? I don't give a fuck. That trailer has me SOLD.