GamingShogun.com writes: "If you missed picking up Batman: Arkham Asylum on the PC (shame on you), here is your chance. The Games for Windows team has announced a sale-a-week for the next five weeks. The sale kicks-off with, get this, seventy-five percent off Batman: Arkham Asylum! That makes the game a very cheap $12.49 to pickup. The next sale will be announced on March 5th…"
Examiner: Once again, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves has won a prestigious ‘Game of the Year’ award. This time, though, they won it from AIAS (Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences). With the award ceremony taking place earlier this evening, Naughty Dog and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was able to beat several of the top games from 2009 and claim the ‘Game of the Year’ title.
Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was able to beat Assassin’s Creed II, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and Dragon Age: Origins.
The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) held the 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards (IAA) show on February 18, 2010. The 13th Annual IAA recognizes the best games of 2009, as well as lifetime industry pioneers.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves swept many awards including Game of the Year. Brutal Legend was distinguished for its strategy gameplay elements and Soundtrack. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was recognized for its online play and action. Scribblenauts swept the portable game awards categories, as well as Outstanding Innovation in Gaming. Batman: Arkham Asylum received a fair share of awards as well, including Outstanding Achievement in Game Design.
See the complete list of winners here, as well as the three distinguished game industry pioneers.
While awards like the Spike VGAs have come and gone for 2009, the Game Developers Choice awards are just getting warmed up. Gamasutra reports that the nominations were recently announced, and Uncharted 2 leads the pack with the most nominations. It gained seven nominations (out of 11 categories), with Flower following at five nominations and Assassin’s Creed 2 just behind it with four. Seeing as it holds the most nominations, Uncharted 2 seems like a lock for the biggest category, Game of the Year.
The nominations will be voted on by a group of 500 selected game creators, and the winners will be announced at the Game Developers Conference on March 11. Check below for a full list of the nominees:
Best Game Design:
Best Visual Art:
Best Technology:
Best Writing:
Best Audio:
Innovation:
Best Debut:
Best Downloadable Game:
Best New Social/Online Game:
Best Handheld Game:
Game of the Year:
The video game industry is catching on to what the television industry started with reality TV. Give ‘em a premise but make the public provide the entertainment. It’s cheap and it’s easy to produce. And it requires little creativity and no originality. Is this the direction we want the video game industry to head? Can you imagine 2009 without Batman: Arkham Asylum?
Koku Gamer writes: "Last week I posted a question to all of you to let me know what games you had played and enjoyed from the past year.
Here’s the top 5 list of what you all thought were great games from the past year:
#5: Muramasa
#4: Mario & Luigi-Bowser’s Inside Story
#3: Uncharted 2
#2: Ghostbusters
#1: Batman-Arkham Asylum
"
GB writes: "Everyone knows to expect a new sports game every year, but what if there was a new Halo or Uncharted every year? This year at the Spike TV Video Game Awards, we saw the announcement of the new Batman Arkham Asylum, the sequel to a game that released just three months ago. There was no set date for release however, there is a large chance we could see the game in late 2010. The question I pose to you is this; do you want your favorite franchises on a yearly basis?"
One aspect that sets apart PC gamers from their console counterparts is the wide breadth of very differently performing systems the games are played on.
In "On the PC, Only the Maximum Settings Are Canon," The Slowdown take a look at how settings affect visual design, storytelling and narratives, and whether low-range settings can be considered "canon" from the point of view of the developer.
In taking a look at the various methods of delivering key ideas visually to the player, the article discusses the various textures, posters, decals and video monitors of several games, including side-by-side examples from Batman: Arkham Asylum, BioShock, Left 4 Dead and Portal.
Finally, the article asks, does it really matter if the graphics are not at the very max?
No one was really surprised when Modern Warfare 2 shattered records. Not to mention that Madden will always sell consoles. Even throwing “Mario” on a game title is a license to print money. When in comes to video games, there are certain franchises that that can be banked on with some degree of certainty. However, the sleeper hits are what really makes the game industry special. Enjoying a game that you never expected, can be one of the greatest experiences in gaming. 2009 saw many such hits that will change the industry for years to come. Here is my list for the top 5 surprise games of 09:
Not every studio can put together a serious game of the year contender in the span of less than a year. This time last year we were talking about the original Left 4 Dead has a possible game of the year. While the promised flood of DLC never really arrived, gamers were treated to a full fledged sequel. L4D2 added more weapons, more special zombies and some in depth campaigns, to create a spectacular multiplayer experience. Killing zombies with your friends has never been so fun!
In an attempt to avoid the heavily advertised Prototype, Sony decided to push up the release date for its PS3 exclusive inFamous. While Prototype sold better initially and appeared on more platforms, inFamous received critical acclaim and is generally considered a far better game. A must buy for PS3 owners, talk of a sequel and even a movie are a testament to the success of this unique super hero game.
Speaking of super hero games, when was the last time a licensed super hero game really knocked your socks off? While costumed heroes have been widely successful on the big screen, their video game counterparts have been a bit lacking. Arkham Asylum changed all of that when it released this summer. Bringing back many of the voice actors from Batman: The Animated Series, including Mark Hamill’s diabolical Joker, Arkham Asylum simply felt like it belonged in the Batman Universe. The balanced mixture of stealth and fighting mechanics used in the expertly created Arkham locale, combined to make one of the best games of 2009 for gamers and comic book fans alike.
Atlus is used to publishing niche games. It wasn’t really a surprise that there wasn’t a flood of Demon’s Souls games hitting store shelves when it was released this past October. What was surprising was just how great the game turned out to be. The Deluxe edition quickly sold out and regular copies were hard to find until the second batch hit store shelves. While infamous for its difficulty, the unique online interactions between players and its refusal to heed the status quo garnered much critical acclaim, including some prestigious Game of the Year awards.
On the eve of its release, Michael Pachter claimed that Borderlands was being sent out to die. If this is death, then I finally understand those pale kids that hangout next to Hot Topic. Over 2 million copies of Borderlands have been sold and already two DLC packs have been released. Its cell shaded graphics and 87 bazillion guns have turned out to be a winning formula for Gearbox and Take-Two, who claims that Borderlands will be a flag ship franchise for the company.
Tonight’s Spike Video Game Awards proceedings have ended, and we thought it would be helpful to outline all the announcements from the ceremony. Some of the bigger announcements already have their own dedicated stories, but smaller ones are all wrapped up here alongside the larger news bits.
First and foremost, Uncharted 2 took the top prize at the awards, gaining Game of the Year, as well as Best Graphics and Best PlayStation 3 Game. To see all the winners, check our full listing. But before any of that, the show kicked off with an intriguing look at Batman: Arkham Asylum 2. Soon after, Zachary Quinto of Heroes and Star Trek fame mentioned that he’ll be among the voices in the upcoming Star Trek Online. And speaking of retro-hip movie revivals, the Tron tie-in game was retitled Tron Evolution.
Moving on, we got announcements of a new True Crime game coming from United Front, with Activision publishing. A downloadable game based on the show Deadliest Warrior was announced, showing off a medieval knight facing off against a ninja. The game is set to come out in 2010. Unsurprisingly, UFC 2010 is coming and was shown prominently as well. LucasArts premiered The Force Unleashed 2, showing the Apprentice taking on a huge beast with dual lightsabers.
