Working Title 08.05.11: Working Title Halftime Awards Nominations (Part 2)

Posted by Jordan Williams on 08.05.2011

From Mortal Kombat being nominated for Game of the Year to L.A. Noire earning a nod for game-changing moment, 411's Jordan Williams completes the nominations for the 2011 Working Title Mid-Year Awards! Check out the full article to see the nominees!

Now in...LATE-O-VISION


Welcome to the #1 Column to think that Nintendo realized how bad the messed up regarding the 3DS price point, WORKING TITLE. Now that is some craziness right there. After trying SO long to sell us on the fact that the 3DS is worth every 250.00 penny they go ahead and shave the price by 80 AND throw on TWENTY free games to the early adopters who stuck with the system? I still think it's sort of crappy over all (I would've preferred a free 3DS game personally) but I think if you are going to go back and make a revision or some sort of change like that this screws over (or has the potential) to screw over early adopter customers that THIS SHIT RIGHT HERE IS THE WAY TO GO.

Do you see this, Capcom? Do you? This is what you do to keep people from getting all up in your shit like they are right now over the whole Ultimate Marvel 3 situation.

Any who, this week we continue the previous week's worth with the second half of the nominations for the WORKING TITLE HALFTIME AWARDS 2011. Last week we touched on some of the older awards like the Manliest Man Award and the Whimper Award. This week we are going to girt into the new awards that were introduced last year. So who is going to steal the Badass Bitch award from Sarah Kerrigan? How about the moment so far this year that proved to us that SHIT GETS REAL? And of course we hear my nominations for GAME OF THE YEAR 2011...SO FAR!

And who gets to vote? YOU. Because if you don't I GARUNTEE that Duke Nukem Forever will win. You don't want voting left up to me.




Working Title Halftime Awards 2011 Nominees Part II



The Sarah Kerrigan Baddest Bitch Award for Womanhood

This first award was debuted last year to be the female version of the Manliest Man award with the completely un-PC name. Basically this is for the best female character of the year so far. This could be because the female character was well written, well portrayed, or simply just a badass female in her own right. Last year the competition was pretty much between Sarah Kerrigan and Bayonetta with the better character winning (hence the name) but this year we actually have some more females stepping up to the plate.


Chell (Portal 2)

She got snubbed when Portal 1 came out because there wasn't a category for her to fit into. But this time she is back with a vengeance and ready to PROVE that you don't have to be a chatty Cathy in order to actually be a badass character. She has put up with so much shit and managed to keep it all under control DESPITE being frozen for like 80 years and dealing with psycho ass computers that want to kill the shit out of her. Plus she is the only person on this list that can teleport her foot up your ass.



Mileena (Mortal Kombat 9)

As much as I wanted to put the SEXIEST Mortal Kombat character EVER (Sheeva, the Sex Goddess) on the list...I had to settle with Mileena because she is probably the most badass female on the entire cast. Let's just forget about the fact that her mouth looks like a busted bag of rusty nails. Let's just look at the fact that outside of her 'Mother' she is the MOST badass female in the entire cast and the ONLY member of Shao Khan's inner circle to actually survive the events of Mortal Kombat. (Baraka and Reptile were more Shang Tsung's lackeys). Plus all she wants to do is offer you a teddy bear. Meanie.



Trishka (Bullet Storm)

Upon the first time you meet her she says, and I quote, "I will kill your dick".

'Nuff said,

Isabella (Dragon Age II)

While there haven't been to many good things to come out of Dragon Age II, I think as far as the female cast goes Isabella is at least one of the more decent offerings. So many times they try to throw a slutty or sultry character into a game and try to give them some sort of sappy "flawed" persona to make up for it. But this time for the most part they forgo doing that bullshit and just make a character who revels in every act of whoreocity she can muster. She is unapologetic in the fact that she wants penis in or around her at all times if she can't get it she'll settle of the inverted opposite. And we all know fan service or sexuality go a long way with RPGs.





Phoenix (Marvel vs. Capcom 3)

SHE CAN'T CONTROL IT!!!

When they announced that Phoenix would be one of the Marvel fighters in MvC3 people automatically assumed that she would be another fighter who flew around a lot and shot a lot of projectiles. Instead what we got was probably one of the most broken characters in the game. Sure, she has low health and can't take a hit to save her life. But if you managed to hang around long enough for her to get five full hyper meters you KNEW something bad was going to happen. Just ask any tournament player around what it means to have DARK PHOENIX RISING fuck up your entire team in less than 12 seconds. Well...at least until UMVC3 comes out and this bitch gets NERFED LIKE A MUHFUGGA.





The "Shit Just Got Real" Award

You know the moment. It's the moment where either the game has changed or the tensions have run high. Something has gone down that will forever change the landscape of what is going on and usually it means it's time to dig in and pour it all on. In other words shit just got REAL and from here on out it's just going to be complete balls to the wall action on a high octane level. Or in one special case it's the chance for some big ass redemption.



The Arson Desk (L.A Noire)

While LAN had its share of peaks and valleys, one would think that the ultimate valley would be getting bumped down from the most kickass desk in the PD to...Arson? Really? We get to find out who set fires? Boo. But then SHIT GETS REAL and the story is just thrust into a whole new goddamn level of greatness. I would spoil...but just play it yourself.


The Final Boss Battle (Shadows of the Damned)

So you finally get to Fleming and you do the (incredibly easy) boss battle against him and the game is over! You have won! You have succeeded in infiltrating Hell and getting back what is taken from you...and as the credits roll...SHIT GETS REAL. Prepare for not only the most annoying boss fight in the history of this game, but probably one of the hardest boss fights in the entire game. Especially that goddamn second phase.


The Tutorial (Fight Night Championship)

So you load up the game, you see the logos for the publisher...then SHIT GETS REAL. You are automatically thrown into your first fight with no preparation and only some controls on the bottom to help you through it. It might not be the craziest entry on this list...but it still is a pretty big jolt.


PS Vita - 250.00 USD. Nintendo gonna GET GOT.

Now we knew that Sony came to play, but it wasn't until they announced the price for the Vita at E3 that SHIT GOT REAL. Not only did they improve on virtually every single thing that the PSP have wrong...they did so at the SAME price for the 3DS (well, until earlier this week...) and looked damned good going it. If the 3DS had stayed at its 250.00 price point then Sony would've stood the best possible chance of trumping the handheld giant. Hell, even with the price cut they still have a good chance.




The Left Field Hit Award

Now there are some games that either had NO hype or just frankly came the fuck out of nowhere that ended up either doing REALLY good critically or somehow just captured that little part of our hearts that made us go "Why the hell didn't I pay attention this game?" normally it would be something that flew so far under the radar that no one knew about it until it came out...but this year is particularly strange because THREE of the games were downloadable content games and one game actually was hyped to all hell...it's just that NO ONE expected it to be good.



Shadows of the Damned

I never played No More Heroes. So I was completely new to Suda 51's brand of style of humor and all of that jazz. So when Shadows of the Damned arrived at my house I honestly didn't know what to expect besides yet another third person shooter. Boy, I was wrong. Not only was it one of the more refreshingly enjoyable third person shooters I've played this year but it seems like everyone else is loving it for the weird brand of charm it has, too. It's a shame that the game didn't sell really well because it definitely seems like we need more GARCIA FUCKING HOTSPUR (this isn't me cussing, it's his NAME) in our lives.

Tiny Wings

I know we like to think of ourselves as big bad many hardcore gamers. But the fact that a game in which all you have to do is TAP A SPOT ON THE SCREEN has infected us with such JOY is just uncanny. I could explain what Tiny Wings is...but there is nothing else I can really say. It took the Apple and Android world by storm and it only did it with one finger.


Terraria

It's Mindcraft...BUT AN ACTUAL GAME!


Mortal Kombat 9

Let's be completely honest here. Mortal Kombat 9 might be one of the best games of the year (so far) and NO ONE expected it to be good. Before this year when people heard of the name Mortal Kombat it was always associated with bad next gen versions of old gen games. It was like the heart and soul of the franchise was just gutted out and strewn across the floor. Then they put all of the effort they possibly could into making MK9 the best MK game ever and it WORKED...and NO ONE saw it coming.








Workaholic's Choice Game of the Year So Far

Here we go, on the admittedly thin slate of early year releases we still have to figure out which one of them was THE BEST! So this year we didn't have big first year juggernaughts like Red Dead Redemption or Mass Effect 2...but we got games like Dead Space 2 and the critical darling that is L.A Noire...and this is also the first time that a Nintendo game has NOT been nominated for the award. So who wins? What game is the GAME OF THE YEAR...SO FAR?



Dead Space 2

While the first Dead Space was seen as a great survival horror game in its own right, it wasn't universally as well received as its sequel that came out earlier this year. Yeah, Dead Space 2 actually came out this year and it seems like everyone under the sun forgot about it. Maybe because it came out so early...but for most of the people who played it Dead Space was the ONLY GOTY-worthy game of the first quarter. Isaac came back with a vengeance (and a voice) and laid waste to more necromorphs than you can count and it improved on what we previously thought was un-improvable. Dead Space 1 might've slipped under the radar but Dead Space 2 has a serious run at being crowd Game of the Year...so far.


L.A Noire

Games are not art. That's my stance on it because I feel that games shouldn't have to be defined as art in order to get the same respect. HOWEVER, if I were inclined to weigh in the debate I think L.A Noire would be one of the examples I would hold in high regard. It's not one of the standard stereotypical games where you have to save the world from alien-zombie-vampires with your laser ray in an overly gory and EXTREEEEEEME. It isn't an example that people can point to and go "This is why games are destroying our youth" and it isn't a game where you commit crimes to earn points. You are a cop. A GOOD cop. The game has a story...A GOOD story. L.A Noire very well might be game of the year, hell; it might be one of the shining examples of something that is MORE than a game.

Mortal Kombat 9

But now we go from one extreme to the complete and total other. Where L.A Noire is a mature look at gaming and tells a mature story. Mortal Kombat is still the same game that helped invent the ESRB. You rip heads, skulls, legs, and various body parts in gory detail. A slick control system (a first for the series) as well as a great presentation (the best story mode ever in a fighting game, and that's not a backhanded compliment) make for a game that people didn't know was going to be this good. Mortal Kombat has always been seen as some sort of red headed stepchild to the serious fighting game community but for the first time on the Grand Stage MK was featured at Evo this weekend. Hell, the winner got a MORTAL KOMBAT CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE for his efforts! Mortal Kombat might've been a game that no one thought would be good, and if they DID think it was going to be good no one thought it was going to be GREAT. And I assure you no one thought it would be a runner for Game of the Year...so far.

The Witcher 2

Now this is the spot where I thought I'd put Dragon Age II, but to be perfectly honest after playing all of Dragon Age II...TWICE, and then playing the first 4 hours of The Witcher that was more than enough convicining to show me which game needed to be recognized for being a potential Game of the Year So Far. The Witcher gives you that low fantasy world you grave without making you feel silly for liking it and also gives you a slightly more mature RPG that doesn't feel like it's catering to a crowd that frankly shouldn't be playing the RPGs in the first place. The Witcher 2 is so far the best RPG to be released this year but it could be so much more...It could be the first PC game (as of this writing) to be awarded Game of the Year So Far.


Duke Nukem Forever

I have been telling people for YEARS that when, not if, but WHEN Duke Nukem Forever came out I would nominate it for Game of the Year regardless of quality. This is me keeping my promise.

---

And there you have it, the full list of nominees for the Working Title Halftime Awards 2011. So it's now time to either A) Place your votes or B) Wait to see who I pick. The choice is yours and yours alone!


Working Question


Another short one this week. Do you think the Nintendo 3Ds Price cut is going to save the 3DS? And if it doesn't do you think they will really go through with discontinuing it?

I say Yes/No in that order.


Until next time, I'm Jordan Williams and...YOU PRESSED THE WRONG BUTTON!!!!