411 Games Fact or Fiction 12.16.11: Video Game Awards Edition

Posted by Stewart Lange on 12.16.2011

Did Modern Warfare 3 deserve to be named Shooter of the Year? Was there any other choice for Game of the Year besides Skyrim? Will Metal Gear Rising win big at next year's show? 411's Mark Salmela and Todd Vote debate these topics and more as 411 Fact or Fiction: Games looks at the Video Game Awards!

Welcome to a very special and pretty much impromptu Fact or Fiction! Since we had the annual Video Game Awards this past week, I figured why not pit two old rivals against each other! I'll not even bore you with further details of my gaming this week, other than I'm taking a break from Skyrim to cram in some Battlefield 3. I'm enjoying the single player and may even renew my gold, so hit me up on Xbox Live at outafterdark216 if you fancy dragging me along with you, since I suck.



It may be a special, but we'll get these guys competing anyway, shall we? Remember and vote at the end!

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1: There was really no other choice for the Game of The Year in Skyrim.



Mark Salmela: FACT- There were other options, but let's face it the Game of the Year almost has to be multi-platform these days. But then again I also feel that the best on a system, should be narrowed down to exclusives, so what do I know. I'm sure it was a close call, with Uncharted 3 being in the mix. But Skyrim is everywhere. Hell, I even thought about playing it, till I took an arrow to the knee.

Todd Vote: FACT- It figures Todd, the guy who doesn't do any actual writing on this site, would resort to crappy Internet memes. Am I the only one who doesn't think arrow to the knee is that funny? Give me a good Spiderman meme any day. Anyways, Skyrim is my personal choice for game of the year. I loved Portal 2 and Uncharted 3, but neither can stand up to Skyrim. While Uncharted offers a tighter and more refined gameplay experience, it can't compete with the depth of Skyrim. I had an awesome ten hours beating Uncharted 3's campaign, and I've put another 15 or so hours into enjoying the hell out of Uncharted 3's multiplayer experience, it doesn't compare to the hundred or so hours I've invested into Skyrim. Skyrim deserves to win game of the year.

1 for 1: I can't disagree with either of them. While Arkham City and a few others were great, Skyrim just blows them out the water.

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2: Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was the correct winner of the Shooter category.



Todd Vote: FACT- It had to come down to MW3, and BF3. To be honest, it could have went either way, and there is just no way to please everybody with this category. You either love Call of Duty, or you hate it. But let's face it. Battlefield didn't come close to the impact on COD sales as EA was hoping. So going on sales, and gameplay, I can see why CoD has held on as #1 for another year.

Mark Salmela: FICTION- Duke Nukem was f*cking robbed! No other game can compete with the rich, intricate design that Duke Nukem Forever offers. Duke Nukem's level design was so advanced and so far above what anyone else has ever done that it took 14 years to make. Modern Warfare 3 was developed in under 2 years. Battlefield 3, well I have no idea how long that has been in development, but I doubt it can compete with the man who has balls of steel. Hell, Duke Nukem Forever was probably in development longer than MW3, BF3, Crysis 2, F3ar (what an idiotic name), and Serious Sam put together. Duke Nukem Forever deserves to win shooter of the year, just for the sheer amount of hookers in the game. Where my red blooded American males at?

Also, it figures that Todd wouldn't even mention Duke Nukem Forever. I always knew he hated looking at half-naked chicks. "Bring on the Dude-Bros!" – Some guy who writes the Games Top 5. "Needs more muscles!" – Writer who thinks he knows Mortal Kombat. "I cried when ***** died in Gears 3!" – Yeah, it's Mister Vote.

1 for 2: I've only played Battlefield of the "big two", so I'd give it to that, but so far, COD would have to be pretty special to beat it and I'm just not convinced it will be.

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3: Platinum Games will win at next years VGA's due to Metal Gear Rising.



Todd Vote: FICTION- What is it you are expecting them to win? Rising is already looked at as a bad step-child due to not being a part of the main cannon of the series. Plus the purists are going to be upset about Kojima's only minor involvement. I think it is to early to call the game a winner of anything, yet.

Mark Salmela: FICTION- As one of the most hardcore Metal Gear fans around, I think I speak for most of us when I say what the fuck? What am I supposed to enjoy about Metal Gear Rising? If I didn't see Raiden or those Geckos running around I would have had no idea it was Metal Gear at all. I can see why Kojima is distancing himself from this project. It's getting more and more ridiculous by the day. This isn't even Metal Gear anymore. This game is now Devil May Cry Rising: Revengeance, developed by Platinum Games, which is a company full of people who made Devil May Cry. I can't wait for the next spin-off. We'll call it Metal Gear Bejeweled: Otacon's Puzzling Blitz. No wait, that doesn't have some stupid made up word in the title. Let's try this again. Metal Gear Bejeweled: Otacon's Transfarring Blitz: Subsistence Edition.

2 for 3: I'm not huge into Metal Gear, but my Twitter feed seems to have more people buzzing about Platinum taking over development than are angry. We shall see.

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4: Bioshock Infinite is easily the most impressive trailer from the show.



Mark Salmela: FICTION- I understand every trailer can't be a big budget Michael Bay trailer, but I was pretty under whelmed with BioShock Infinite. I didn't see anything new that wowed me. Hell, I didn't even see anything in that one trailer that made me say "I need to play this game". I was very disappointed in the BioShock infinite trailer. The Last of Us had an amazing trailer. Metal Gear Rising had a great trailer. BioShock Infinite had a placeholder trailer as far as I'm concerned. I understand what Irrational was going for with the subtlety, but it didn't work for me. I haven't been that disappointed since Games Top 5 Presents: The Roast of Mark Salmela didn't get to go live on the site because apparently someone who shares a similar name to Ash Ketchum decided people wouldn't want to read that.

Todd Vote: FICTION- I'll admit. I didn't watch the show. I was a benefit auction for my uncle, who has been diagnosed with Lou Gherig's Disease. So I missed the show. I have since watched some of the premier trailers, and I have to say the one I am most looking forward to is Alan Wake's American Nightmare. On a different note, I remember the roast of Salms. It would have been awesome had the higher ups allowed it through the filters. But you know, "we aren't celebrities, nobody cares about us."

3 for 4: I'm torn between Infinite and Mass Effect 3. The first trailer for Infinite blew my mind and each further video makes the launch date seem further away.

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5: Alan Wake's American Nightmare will be more successful as a downloadable game.



Mark Salmela: FICTION- I loved the original Alan Wake. It was in my top 5 favorite games of 2010. Hearing that the next Alan Wake will be a downloadable title makes me think that it will be a cookie cutter sequel with hardly any new features or improvements. As much as some people don't like to hear it there's still a difference in terms of expected quality between downloadable titles and full retail titles. I can't expect nearly as much from a downloadable sequel rather than a full retail sequel, and that makes me sad. I had the same level of disappointment when I found out Valkyria Chronicles 2 would be on PSP rather than PS3.

Todd Vote: FACT- I think it will do better as a download title. I think the cheaper price can serve to get people into Alan's story, just in time for an official Alan Wake 2 announcement. This is the best way to go with the series at this time. The first game, while amazing, didn't set the world on fire as far as sales go, so I am hoping for a successful outing here from Mr. Wake.

3 for 5: I didn't enjoy Alan Wake at all. I got to like, chapter five, got lost in the woods and gave up. Depending on how this game is presented, I may give them both another chance.

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6: "I Am Alive" was sadly lacking from the big announcements.

Mark Salmela: FICTION- Does anyone really care about I Am Alive anymore? I Am Alive hasn't been relevant since 2008, which was around the last time Games Top 5 was relevant as well. But in all seriousness I was interested in I Am Alive, but after not seeing anything on the game in around 2 or 3 years, and hearing the game is now a downloadable title I could not care less.

Todd Vote: FICTION- I Am Alive has been in development for what seems like an eternity. If I'm not mistaken, it's not even a disc game anymore, and will be released as DLC, right? We all know download only games do not get near the attention at awards shows, unless it is called Angry Birds. Now, I too could take the low road and crack a joke about Salms not doing anything relevant since 2008. But that would have required him to do something relevant in 2008, and we all know that just didn't happen.

4 for 6: I'm not going to lie, I loved the look of I Am Alive when I first saw it. I'm still into the idea and the fact it's a download means I won't need to go to the shop for it. So that's good, I guess.

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Bonus Question: Of 2012's announced games, which has the best chance of the Game Of The Year award and why?



Stewart Lange- I'd be disappointed if it was anything other than Mass Effect. With the exception of Bioshock: Infinite, not a great deal of announced games excite me. Which is a good thing, as considering Skyrim has caused me to have a pile of games stacked including finishing Dead Island, Deus Ex, Driver: San Fran and whatever Santa brings me (always an Assassin's Creed. Always.), that's not so much of a bad thing.

Mark Salmela- BioShock Infinite. It has everything video game critics are looking for in a game. It has a deep story, a great atmosphere, and original content. Basically, it doesn't feel like a sequel. As unfair as I think that last statement is, there's something to the argument that critics won't vote for sequels. Yes, Uncharted 2 and Mass Effect 2 were regarded as game of the year recipients, but both of those felt like brand new experiences because they made such drastic improvements over the originals. To further my point, how many game of the year awards will Uncharted 3 and Modern Warfare 3 get? I'd argue none, because while they're fantastic games, critics expect every game to feel like a brand new experience. Skyrim is likely going to sweep this year's game of the year awards because while it's technically a sequel it feels like a brand new game. Bethesda took a lot of the lessons that they learned from Fallout 3 and incorporated those with what worked in Oblivion, which came out in early 2006. Oh, and they added dragons. Bad ass dragons. Now days a basic qualification for game of year requires you to reinvent the wheel, which I don't think is fair.

Todd Vote-This is a tough question to answer. If I had my way, it would be the new Alan Wake game, or even War for Cybertron 2. But I don't have my way, so we are probably looking at Hitman or the new Rainbow Six as next years winners.

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There we have it, folks! Did Mark get the answers on "Target"? Does Todd get your Vote? The old rivals finish 4 for 6, which means they agreed with each other more often than not! Shocking. All you need to do is leave your winner below! I'll have a scoreboard on Tuesday!

Feel free to play along below and leave any comments you feel are relevant. We look forward to hearing from you! Otherwise, see you on Tuesday when we'll see Trace Aber take on Massive Q!