Working Title 6.20.08: The Workies Halftime Awards
Posted by Jordan Williams on 06.20.2008
Pfft. I'm not late. I'm just early for next week. It's TIME. Half the year is gone and a few games get bragging rights. Who won? Who didn't? Let's find out.
Welcome to the #1 Column in the world to NOT have a PS3 and to NOT be currently playing MGS4 AND to get a Red Ring of Death...Working Title.
=(
Anyway, last week was the nominations phase of the Workies Halftime Awards which got a pretty good response. I got a lot of votes in from email and of course there were the Workaholics (kind of like Hulkamaniacs, but less smelly) down there who commented. I even got a little praise for doing an awards column for the games that come out in the beginning of the year but the hate I got for not waiting a week to put Metal Gear Solid 4 into the mix was down right BRUTAL.
But now that all of that busheet is out of the way, let's go ahead and kick this shindig off right.
Workies Halftime Awards
The whole point of these awards was to go ahead and give some props to the games that come out early in the year and tend to be forgotten, it's just a slight coincidence that this year is having some of the biggest games in a LONG time come out in the first half of the year. Either way, it looks like the time is right to start dishing out some props.
King Leonidas Award for Manliness
This award is for the manliness of the manly characters. Those guys who kick ass and take names...and then kick the asses of the names they took. During this half of the year we saw some pretty good contenders...
Brucie Kibbutz (Grand Theft Auto 4)
The Alpha Male of GTA4.
Clyde (Army of Two)
He'll call you a Fuck-o before he kills you with his bare thumbs.
Jansen Friedh (Lost Oddysey)
He might dress like a pansy, but he's a fuckin' PIMP.
Packie McReary (Grand Theft Auto 4)
Not the Alpha Male of GTA4, but he'll drink you under the table...and then blow it up...and then snort it.
So looking at that we have a steroid injected freak vs. a dirty merc freak vs. a drunken perverted freak vs. a robotic cheap freak vs. an irish psychotic freak. The question is who is the manliest of them all? Who can stand before King Leonidas himself and not fear a kick into the pit of death.
That person is....
Packie McReary
It's very rare when a supporting character actually ends up being more awesome than almost the whole damn cast. Okay, it's not that rare, but it's rare for a GTA game in general. When's the last time a supporting character in a GTA game made you wish you played as them instead of the douche you were stuck as? It seems you lot love yourselves from GTA seeing as Brucie come in second place but Packie got it by a good margin. How could he not be the pinnacle of manliness so far? The man robbed a bank and used the money to snort coke and C4 residue with it. He'll also wreck your shit at pool (go ahead and find out). King Leonidas would be proud.
Game Mechanic/Character That Can Die in A Fire
The wonderful 'award' for the things we just don't like and don't want to ever like. One might say that they can die in a fire. Who is going to join the flames in which the Informant Missions from Assassin's Creed bathe?
Roman Bellic (GTA4)
Fat, annoying idiot of a cousin who seems to always want to go bowling at the worst moments.
Nintendo Wi-Fi
Like the WWE Brand Split, a horrible execution of a great idea.
Lucario (SSBB)
Cheap Motherfucker.
Casual Games - Workaholic's Choice
It seems a big chunk of you are simply done with the casual game market. I dunno if it's the people who are bitter over WiiFit or the guys who just don't like games that are obviously not meant to provide much enjoyment passed the first 3 hours, but it looks like you were all ready for this one to take a dip into the blaze.
So it all comes down to the annoying bastard who is the basis for most of GTA, Nintendo's stubbornness to embrace something innovative that they didn't create first, a annoying Pokemon when in the hands of skilled players and a fad that has now grown into a full tilt genre. Personally, I would've gone with Roman Bellic, I just plain don't like the fucker.
And the winner is...
Nintendo Wi-Fi
I was actually surprised at this. I was really expecting Roman to take this one hands down but it seems a LOT of you do not like the way Nintendo is handling itself online right now. I can't say that I disagree with you. Nintendo has done a lot of things right with the Wii but the one thing they keep doing wrong is overlooking the importance of things that have made other consoles successful. To say that the PS3 and the Xbox 360 don't owe a significant amount of their success to their strong online support is just flat out wrong. I understand that Nintendo never wants to pave the same ground it always paves, but the road less traveled isn't always the fastest route to success.
The "This Is Not Going to End Well" Award
Sometimes you just get a bad feeling about a game. Sometimes it just rubs you the wrong way, and all of the sudden Harrison Ford appears next to you and whispers, "I have a bad feeling about this." Which one of these games does this apply to?
Street Fighter IV
There's just too much that can go wrong and unnoticed to give this one a pass.
Guitar Hero Series
Jumping the Shark would be an understatement to what this series is starting to do.
Nintendo Wii
Blew its load too early and doesn't have much (if anything) to compare to the blockbusters coming out in the near future.
TNA Impact!
Much like the real TNA, it's setting out to dethrone WWE, but I don't think it'll do that here either.
While I don't want ANY of these games to fail, it's almost inevitable that one of them is going to crumple under the hype. The thing is which will it be? Will it be the game that revolutionized the fighting genre, the game that resurged the music game genre, the console that invigorated a whole market of gamers or a game that wants to take over the wrestling genre?
And the winner is...
Guitar Hero Series
Not only does it seem like you all are thinking that GH jumped the shark, but it also seems like the lot of you are just tired of music games in general. Guitar Hero will go down in history as the game that ushered in a resurgence of a genre, but right now it looks like it's trying to hand on to whatever cred it has left by doing everything it can to rival RockBand. It's looking more and more like the angry big brother who's mad that the new sibling is getting all of the attention. It also seems like a lot of you really don't like TNA or Nintendo, as they both pretty much tied for second.
The Dorm Room Dominator Award
Given that the average gamer is between the ages of 21-35, it's safe to assume (note ASSUME) that most of them are in college or in a similar environment. It's also safe to assume that there is one game getting played in that dorm room that gets played more than others. Which one is it?
SSBB
Quite possibly Nintendo's biggest release of the year, it makes up for shoddy online support with Nintendo's legendary local multiplayer.
GTA4
The first GTA game to feature online sort of fell off in the standings, but taking turns doing suicide runs never gets old.
Mario Kart Wii
Blatantly obvious name aside, Mario Kart Wii still a Mario Kart game at heart, Nintendo just dosen't screw up local multiplayer.
Chessmaster Live - Workaholic (note the singular) Choice
No one else gave an nomination for this game except for Blanko. According to him a lot of people play Chess on XBL and it's quite the dorm room dominator. So I'll go ahead and humor him by giving it the nod.
And the winner is...
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
...Painfully obvious. I'm not surprised at all that this took the cake. It's been a pretty slow start of the multiplayer gaming as people are still hanging in there with CoD4 and Halo 3. But SSBB is a game that has been hyped for about a year and did not slow down at all. It delivered big on its promises (despite tourneyplayers that say it didn't) and kept up the same standard that Melee had. It might not be the most mature game in the world, but it's DAMNED fun.
The Duke Nukem Award for Procrastination
This generation has taught us that we have to be patient. With pretty much every big name game that has come out this far being delayed, it seems like it's almost a given that some of the big games for later this year will meet the same fate...but who will it be?
Gears of War 2
Sequel to the XBL Killer-App, supposed to come out in the fall.
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
Already been delayed a whopping THREE times, will it ever come out on time?
Fable 2
Some are saying that it's already writing a check that its ass can't cash (much like Fable 1 did), but is it hyping us up for a delay?
Spore
I honestly think if this game gets delayed one more time, someone is going to die.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Don't quote me on this, but I think this game was already delayed once. It's going to be really tough to swallow if this game gets delayed again with all of the hype it's been getting from SCIV.
Five big games and it's really sad when you know that at least one of these is going to get delayed before the year is out. The question is who would it hurt the most? I'm sure a lot of people will be pissed off at either of this but there's got to be one that will just break some camels backs if it gets delayed.
And the winner is...
Spore
Gears of War 2 came PAINFULLY close to winning this. It missed it by one vote. But I think that Spore is the right choice to go with here. It just seems like this game has been talked about FOREVER and right when it seems like it's around the corner it ends up getting pushed back or forgotten. This game has to come out now because I'm just not sure how many people are going to wait around for it. ESPECIALLY now that Sims 3 is in development. Either way Will Wright is going to have a hit on his hands; the question is which one will come out first?
Workaholics Halftime Game of the Year...So Far
Now this one was a bit different. There were no nominations for this, I simply opened it up to all of you and you all replied. The problem is...there was no winner. It just turned into a giant clusterfuck of votes and it was just too much to sift through. So based on what you've all sent me I've gathered a list of nominations and you all will vote on those. These nominees were the games that were requested the most.
Note: No, Metal Gear Solid 4 is NOT eligible because it wasn't out at the time the column was made. Sorry.
Devil May Cry 4
What is arguable lost in the shuffle is DMC4, the game that brought a new character into the forefront in its first jaunt into Next Gen. A lot of people liked this game including myself and but were very surprised at how fast it just sort of fell off the radar. Maybe it was released too early or too late? Maybe DMC just isn't the name it used to be. Either way, a lot of you asked for it to be here so here it is.
Grand Theft Auto 4
Is it a bit overrated? Yep. Is it still a great game? Yep. What might be the new "Final Fantasy 7" for our generation, GTA4 has won over a lot of people but sparked a lot of controversy that actually isn't related to its image at all. Even if you can't fly planes and the game might've gotten away from the wacky fun in favor of more realistic storytelling and fun. It's still one of the biggest games to come out this year, if not THE biggest game.
Super Smash Bros Brawl
Nintendo knows that the key to its success is to just cram as many fan favorites as humanly possible into one game. This is the third time in a row it's worked and it's worked WELL. Half ass online-support aside, SSBB is most likely going to end up being Nintendo's GOTY, and rightfully so. It's a whole new ballgame to see if it can stand up with the other big dogs, though.
Persona 3: FES
I'm not even going to lie. I have NO idea how to even begin talking about this game. My PS2 died a few years back and I have never gotten into the Persona series due to that. But it was brought up a lot of times and I know it does indeed have a very dedicated fanbase that thinks the only thing holding it back from being GOTY is because it was released on a 'dead' console. Can you all prove 'em wrong?
The World Ends With You
First a last-gen game and now a handheld!? Hey, you all asked for it. I'm just here to write it down. My DS has ironically also been dead for some time so I haven't gotten a chance to play this gem sadly. But according to those that I know who HAVE played it, it is a total blast and looks like it's going to be one of the great new franchises for the DS. Can it take the underdog route and be the Workaholic GOTY(sf)?
Well now that there's a bit of a list, now we can see who really wins. All the responses I got last week were just too thinly laid out to get a definite winner. A winner WILL be named next week, though. So for the sake of this baby elephant, give us a Game of the Year So Far!
Working Feedback
If you are waiting for a demo of a game, chances are favorable that you are on the fence about buying a game. In which case, the sooner you get the demo, you can make a decision about a purchase that much
quicker. With that said, I don't necessarily think this is a bad idea. It gives us gold members a little something extra for our $50 a year, and its not like Silver members don't get the demo's at all right?
This is far better than what I hear about the PS3 online. From what I understand the only way to get demos at all on the PSN will be to subscribe to that online magazine they have. Don't quote me on that, because I am not sure about the details. But I would rather have to wait a bit, then to not be able to play the demos at all.
People that buy the gold memberships do so to play online mostly, not for first crack at demos and what not. It is nice to have more
value for my $50, but I don't think the uproar will continue, and this one will die down eventually. I guess I would have to say good
value to add to gold memberships, annoying, but not detrimental to Silver members, and the most problems will be for the game manufacturers, as it may delay some buys for them. ~ Toddo
Jesus, Toddo. You are like the MVP of the comments section. You bring up some good points about being on the fence about demos and silver members getting the demos eventually. But the thing there is that by the time Silver Members get most demos, the game is already out. Some can say this is fair, but to others it just seems like a waste of a demo. Sure, you can try the demo before you go out and buy/rent the game, but some people might've wanted to know that before the game was actually out. A good example of this is the Dark Sector Demo that just came out despite the game itself being out for almost two months now and it was STILL offered to Gold Members first. What's the point of that?
I do agree that it seems better then this Qore thing I keep hearing about, but it just seems sort of stupid that they hold back something as simple as demos because you don't shell out the money for a gold membership.
Well, this column is already late so instead of making it TWO days late, how about I go ahead and end it here. I'll get the rest of your feedback next week as well as a brand new Gaming's Unsolved Mysteries and Working Question.
I will, however, leave with you with one question to spark some talk...
