The VGA Round-Up

Despite the fact that Spike TV couldn't seemingly be bothered to screen all the award winners at this years Video Game Awards, and while acknowledging my own personal abhorrence for their treatment of living legends such as Mark Hamill, it wouldn't be right to completely ignore an awards ceremony that had as many trailers for new upcoming games as E3.

On a side note, It's worrying that Kojima tweeted yesterday that perhaps he would abandon E3 and make all subsequent announcements at the VGA ceremony from now on, although i think perhaps his tongue was placed firmly in his cheek.

So here's a quick list of the categories and victors at this years Spike TV VGA's

Game of the Year - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Studio of the Year - Bethesda Game Studios

Character of the year - The Joker – Batman: Arkham City

Video Game Hall of Fame Award - The Legend of Zelda

Gamer God Award - Blizzard Entertainment

Best XBox 360 Game - Batman: Arkham City

Best PS3 Game - Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Best Wii Game - The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Best PC Game - Portal 2

Best Handheld or Mobile Game - Super Mario 3D Land

Best Shooter - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Best Action Adventure Game - Batman: Arkham City

Best RPG - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Best Multiplayer - Portal 2

Best Individual Sports Game - Fight Night Champion

Best Team Sports Game - NBA 2K12

Best Driving Game - Forza Motorsport 4

Best Fighting Game - Mortal Kombat

Best Motion Game - The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Best Indy Game - Minecraft

Best Adapted Video Game - Batman: Arkham City

Best Song in a Game - "Build that Wall (Zia's Theme)" by Darren Korb – Bastion

Best Original Score - Bastion

Best Graphics - Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Best Performance by a Human Male - Stephen Merchant as Wheatley – Portal 2

Best Performance by a Human Female - Ellen McLain as GLaDOS – Portal 2

Best Downloadable Game - Bastion

Best DLC - Portal 2

Most Anticipated Game - Mass Effect 3

Gametrailers.Com Trailer of the Year - Assassin's Creed: Revelations – E3 2011 Trailer

EA Sports NFL Blitz Digital Cover Athlete - Ray Rice


We gave a quick breakdown on our thoughts on the winners in episode 17 of the Killer Keyboard podcast if you haven't already, have a listen for our discussion on topics such as, who really should have won the best Human Male award, and why i was disappointed that Fight Night got a gong.

Also, of equal interest to many watching the VGA's were the many trailers that were interspersed throughout the evening. Games such as Metal Gear Rising were re-packaged and duly put back on our radars, while newer titles such as "The Last of Us" and the somewhat controversial Rainbow Six: Patriots were given their débuts.

For the benefit of those of you who didn't or couldn't watch the awards on TV, here's a few of the trailers that ran that night.


Hitman: Absolution

The Last of Us

Tekken Tag Tournament 2

Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD

Command & Conquer: Generals 2

Mass Effect 3

Rainbow 6: Patriots

The Amazing Spider-Man

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron

Fortnite

BioShock Infinite

Metal Gear Rising Revengeance

Darksiders 2


Metal Gear Rising - Revengeance


That'll do for the VGA Round-up, the regular round-up will return soon to cover the rest of what's happened in the last seven days, along with further details on Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, The Last of Us and news on the most played game of 2011

Until then, happy trails.

Monday Round-up: GLaDOS takes over iPhone, FIFA continues to dominate the world.

It's Monday which can mean only two things. One, you just had your first day back at work after a weekend that felt about as short as Wayne Rooney's temper, and Two, It's time for another Monday Round-up.



In what has to be one of the quickest U-turns in recent memory Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has announced that Qwikster is dead in the water. Going forward there will be only one account, one password and one service, be it through the post or by way of streaming.

Hastings posted this message on the Netflix blog this morning - "It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVD", "This means no change: one website, one account, one password... in other words, no Qwikster."

Victory for common sense and keeping things simple!



Listeners of the Killer Keyboard Podcast will be aware of a little game by the name of "The Binding of Isaac" which is being played by our very own Tim Regan. It's an interesting concept for a game, begging the question "just how big can a basement actually be?" but also has some really neat ideas in the gameplay department such as the idea of having only one life per play-through.
Anyone who is curious about the game can now play a free Flash based version of the game on the newsgrounds website, while those who already own the game, including Mr Regan, can look forward to a free update set for release this Halloween via steam.

The update is set to include 20 more items, 3 extra bosses, a new playable character, extra achievements and a new final chapter for anyone who has completed the game already.

Edmund McMillen, who as part of Team Meat created Isaac as well as Super Meat Boy, said of the Halloween update - "This 2nd update is more or less my dream update, something i wanted to be able to do for release but knew it would push the game back another month to get done, so in a way on the 31st Isaac will become exactly what i wanted to release but didn't have the time to finish."

Team Meat are right up there with Valve in my estimations at the moment, let's hope they keep producing original and high quality games like this.



Two pieces of news this week in regards to the aforementioned Valve studios. First off we have this brilliantly edited video that shows just how badly things could go for you hipsters out there if iPhone's new "Siri" voice recognition system goes more the way of "GLaDOSiri". Personally i can't wait for the GLaDOS option to hit the App store...



Also of note is the news that Brandon Jones recently managed to put together a demo of Team Fortress 2 running (or at least rendering) on a web browser. As if this game wasn't accessible enough. If the Unreal Engine can run on Flash 11 there seems little reason why TF2 can't make the move to Flash soon.



Get ready for more Hats!



Xperia Play might not be setting the world of mobile gaming on fire right now, but Sony haven't given up on it quite yet. Sony have partnered with EA to make four titles available for absolutely free during the holiday period. Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Dead Space, NfS: Shift and NfS: Hot Pursuit will all be made free to download during the Thanksgiving break right up until January 15th next year. That should keep the dozens of Xperia owners happy...



And if that doesn't then maybe the announcement of Minecraft: Pocket Edition being released on Android will. On October 7th Carl Manneh, the managing director of Mojang, tweeted that the Android release of Minecraft was finally available for download on the Android Marketplace, having originally been slated for a late September release. Owners of Android platforms can now download a free demo of the game to see how well it will run before stumping up the $6.99 (£4.29) it costs for the retail version.



Bad news for XBox 360 owners who love their "Gears" after an influx of reports from gamers complaining that their game was freezing and/or crashing when they try to load a game mode. It appears to be confined to split screen Horde mode and makes one of the users profiles unusable in game.

Epic games are currently trying to resolve the issue, telling Joystiq.com that "Getting this resolved is a priority for Epic. We are collecting information internally, sourcing as much as possible from the community and exploring potential fixes. We do not have any recommendations to share with players just yet."



In other XBox 360 news, it would appear that the Fall dashboard update will be hitting on November 25th. According to GIGAom, Microsoft is targeting a Black Friday launch for the update which includes the Live TV functionality reported in last weeks Round-up as well as Bing universal search and Kinect functionality. Interestingly XBox TV partners are favouring the use of Apple's H.264 encoded video over Microsoft's own smooth streaming system, that's a bit of a kick in the nuts if you ask me, but if it works then who cares?



We have Skyrim news!

The above image is apparently the world map for the upcoming Elder Scrolls title and points to the in game world being every bit as expansive as you could have hoped. Revealed at the Igromir Expo in Russia, no i have no idea what that is either, but according to sources every attendee got a copy of said map to take away with them. here's the map translated into English, you can click it to zoom in and drink up "ye olde worlde mappe goodenesse"



Right then, for any Nintendo geeks out there it;s time to hold onto your Virtual boys and baton down your 3DS's. Nintendo have announced that a new Wii bundle will be released in conjunction with the release of Mario and Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games this November.

As you can see from the above picture it's...well...It's Blue. It's also one of the new versions of Nintendo's best selling console, meaning that you won't be playing any Gamecube titles on this powder blue relic, oh for god's sake, it isn't even the same colour as Sonic!



Time to wrap it up as we always do, with the UK's Top ten best selling games on all formats for the week ending October 8th.

1.FIFA 12
2.Rage
3.Dark Souls
4.Gears of War 3
5.F1 2011
6.Zumba Fitness
7.Dead Island
8.Deus Ex: Human Revolution
9.Lego Pirates of the Caribbean
10.Resistance 3

So FIFA makes it 2 weeks at number one, leaving everything and everyone in it's titanic wake. No surprises there then. Rage makes a solid début at No.2 while Dark Souls surprises many, including myself by reaching the No.3 spot. Zumba somehow continues to sell well despite the fact that everyone and their aunt must own a copy by now while games like Dead Island, Deus Ex and Resistance 3 all manage to stay in the top ten best sellers.

Seeing a game like Dark Souls doing so well in the chart this week makes me both happy, and optimistic, that gaming hasn't turned away from hardcore titles. While Zumba may well represent all that I despise in gaming, there are plenty of people out there who still like to get their arses kicked regularly and then ask "Please sir, can i have some more?" Props to any of you that bought the sequel to Demons Souls, you're encouraging developers to continue to make great games that challenge the player on several levels.

Wii U and the two player conundrum

It's fair to say that there has been quite some confusion about Nintendo's new console, Wii U, since it was first shown to the press and public at E3 last week. Nintendo themselves admitted that the confusion as to whether the new system was a hand held or a console was their fault, there were precious few shots of the new console leading people to believe that the controller was the Wii U itself. That confusion was cleared up quickly by Nintendo but unfortunately there's one other, rather important, question that has arisen from the E3 conference which Nintendo have as of yet not quashed or confirmed. Is the Wii U a single player console?

Speculation is sometimes a wonderful, if rather pointless thing. All the shots and videos of the Wii U in action last week were of a single Wii U controller being used in conjunction with the console. Does that mean that only one of these touch screen controllers will work with the Wii U at any time? Is there another multi button controller that will be compatible with the Wii U, that Nintendo are yet to announce? Or is it just that they didn't have any multi player games to show off two controllers working at the same time? whatever the reason behind it all Nintendo have confused us all yet again.

Personally the only reason i can see Nintendo only giving you one touch screen controller is simple. Cost. It's common for consoles to only supply one controller as standard these days, and with the high cost of the Wii U controller is it that hard to believe that in order to keep cost down, Nintendo will only supply one with every console? I very rarely play multi player games on the same console any more so why do i need more than one controller anyway?

From a technical point of view there is no reason why the Wii U couldn't support 2 touch screen controllers, Even if both were streaming information to their touch screen displays. PS3 has to process two seperate images at the same time in order for it's 3D games to work properly and the Wii U is as reportedly as powerful if not more so than both the PS3 and the Xbox 360. In theory it could stream both players POV's to their individual controllers, or in some games where you inhabit the same screen, such as FIFA or the upcoming Street Fighter x Tekken, you could have extra control's and information streamed to your screen instead.

Michael Pachter, an analyst for Wedbush Morgan was recently quoted by IGN as saying that Reggie Fils-Amie, Nintendo America's President claimed that Wii U would support two of the touch screen controllers if required.

"They were particularly unclear about whether the console would support more than one of their tablet-like controllers; Mr. Miyamoto said no, but Reggie said yes (to me in a meeting). Obviously, they intend to ship the console with only one of these controllers, so it is unlikely that anyone will develop games that require two, but they were not clear whether the capability exists."

So developers are making two player games for the Wii U but not games that support the use of two touch controllers? Doe's this mean that another controller, sans touch screen, will be available for the console? despite all Wii hardware working on Wii U i wouldn't want to play Tekken using the wii-mote or even the classic controller. Not enough buttons and not anywhere near as comfortable to use as either of it's competitors controllers.

Whatever the answer to this conundrum you'll find the answer here, as long as Nintendo actually know the answer...

E3 delivers

So that's very nearly it for another E3, there's been some terrible new names for consoles on the horizon, a slew of great games demo's and even an apology from a certain Japanese electronics firm. With all that went on in LA this year it's difficult to know where to start or who came out on top. here's a run-down of each of the big three's conferences, there are links in the titles to each press conference.



Microsoft Press Conference - E3 2011

Call of Duty - Modern Warfare 3
Tomb Raider
EA Sports announce Kinect support
Mass Effect Kinect support Demo
Ghost Recon - Future Soldier Kinect support Demo
New Xbox Experience with integrated Kinect support
UFC partnership announced
Gears of War 3 Demo
Ryse Trailer
Halo Anniversary Trailer
Forza 4 Trailer
Fable Journey Trailer and Demo
Disneyland Adventures (plus annoying child actors)
Star Wars Kinect Trailer
Sesame Street Once Upon a Monster Demo
Kinect Tech Demo (including full body scan and creepy Avatar creation)
Kinect Fun Labs
Kinect Sports Season 2 Trailer
Minecraft coming to Xbox
Dance Central 2 Demo
Halo 4



Sony Press Conference - E3 2011

Apology for PSN debacle
Uncharted 3 Demo
Resistance 3 Demo
Resistance 3 Sharpshooter bundle priced at $150 due on Sept 6
God of War Origins 3D announced
Team ICO Remastered 3D collection announced
Playstation branded 24" 3D display bundle announced at $499
Playstation 3D glasses announced at $69.99 each
NBA 2K12 Move support Demo
Medieval Moves Demo
inFAMOUS 2 Trailer
Starhawk Demo
PS Move update announced for LBP in Sept
New Sly Cooper Trailer
Dust 514 Trailer
Bioshock Infinite Trailer
Move support announced for Bioshock Infinite
Bioshock to be bundled with Infinite
Exclusive mode available for Saints Row III
Star Trek Trailer
SSX - exclusive Mount Fuji track
NFS The Run - 7 exclusive Supercars
Battlefield 3 will include Battlefield 1943
Playstation Suite presentation
NGP officially named PlayStation Vita
Partnership with AT&T announced
Vita features discussed
Uncharted: Golden Abyss Demo
Ruin Vita to PS3 save share Demo
ModNation Racers Vita Demo
LBP Vita Trailer
SF x Tekken Vita Demo and Trailer
Cole from inFAMOUS will be in the Vita version of SF x Tekken
Vita Show reel
Vita priced at $249.99/$299.99



Nintendo Press Conference - E3 2011

Celebration of Zelda 25th anniversary
Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening available to download now on 3DS store
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D available from 11th June
Legend of Zelda: Four Swords free to download on DSi from September
Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword released this Holiday Season
Gold Wii Remote available on game release
Ocarina OST CD is a free gift with Club Nintendo registration
Mario Kart 3DS Trailer
Starfox 3DS Trailer
Super Mario 3DS Trailer
Kid Icarus 3DS Trailer
Luigi's Mansion 2 3DS Trailer
3DS Show reel
Virtual Console 3DS announced
Pokedex 3D announced as free downloadable game for 3DS
New Console is Officially named Wii U
Wii U Controller revealed
"Wii U in action" presentation video
Smash Brothers in development for Wii U and 3DS
Tech Demo of Wii U's graphical power
Lego City Stories Announced for Wii U and 3DS
Showreel of games coming to Wii U
EA pledges support to ne Wii U System



That's what the three major players in the Video Games industry had to offer this year, and it's left me surprised on two fronts. First I would never have believed that Kinect would appeal to me in any way shape or form, but honestly this voice recognition stuff they implemented in Mass Effect 3 has me interested. One game isn't enough to make me part with the best part of £100 but it's a promising start. Perhaps when Kinect Fun Lab has had some time to work it's magic I'll re-evaluate my position on that.

My second surprise was with the name of Nintendo's new home console. I was honestly convinced they would leave Wii behind them since it has such name recognition as the console that catered for the casual market. With the Wii name attatched to it I think the console may struggle to find the hardcore market it craves, unless they release some heavy hitting software at launch it'll be seen as another casual games machine. Having said that, the controller tech looks very interesting, especially when used as an extension for golf games etc as seen in the Nintendo press conference. I'll be interested to get my hands on it to see what it feels like to hold. It might just be me but it looks a little cumbersome.

Sony, while packing their conference with lots of great games have been slightly hamstrung this year by the fact that most of the software they rolled out was already known about and had been see already. The main appeal this year was the unveiling of the PSVita and seeing games running on the system in real time, it's impressive tech and very reasonably priced given the amount of kit that's been crammed into that tiny hand held machine. Overall the conference was a strong showing, but it failed to surprise or particularly excite me.

Microsoft really pushed Kinect hard this year, and if they can find more inventive ways of making it a worthwhile augmentation to the gaming experience then they may have hit the right balance between the hardcore and casual market. Minecraft is an excellent pick up for the company while Halo 4 is easy money for them. Once again being first to hold their conference has paid dividends with the premier looks at multi platform games like MW3, Tomb Raider and Mass Effect. 360 may not have many exclusive titles this year, but looking at the ones they do have makes you excited. As if Forza 4 didn't look great already I learned today that the Top Gear Test Track is going to feature in the upcoming Turn 10 racer. Gears of War 3 was impressive and as mentioned before there's the console debut of Minecraft too. I just wish they could have found some child actors that didn't make me want to punch my face in, or for that matter someone who could operate the Bing feature of Xbox dashboard without looking like she'd just performed some kind of miracle that no-one else was capable of. I hate that self satisfied look on peoples faces when they've done something that anyone could have. but i digress...

Now I'm not the type of person to claim that one company won E3, and i won't be doing so here. It's clear that from the conferences held this week that all three companies have a strong year ahead (despite the share price drop that Nintendo appear to have suffered since their presentation). I honestly couldn't say that one has the edge over the others. Nintendo and Sony both have great new Hardware to come while 360 looks like it will continue to improve it's Kinect peripheral and has built the entire new Xbox experience around the motion sensor while supporting it with several of it's top titles this year. Best of all, this Kinect support hasn't completely gimped the games in question

If E3 has showed us anything it's that 2011 is going to be a great year for games.

Check back on Saturday for my first feature on the games of E3, the Japanese Puzzle Thriller "Catherine"

Can the last waggler please turn off the console on their way out...

When the rumours of Nintendo's new console began to circulate, it was interesting to note that the one thing missing from the list of design concepts and technical details was the mention of any form of movement control. In fact the only details released about the next gen Nintendo's controller was that it would include a touch screen that could stream game content in real time.

Bearing in mind that the actual technical details of Project Cafe are all rumours at this point, and that the company have only gone so far as to confirm the existence of a new machine, it has to be made clear that this is mostly guess work on my part, but that notwithstanding here's my take on what this all means.

Movement based control is dead in the water.

Bye bye waggle, Don't let the door hit you on the arse on the way out...

Okay, it's true that Xbox and Playstation are still supporting the concept, but look at how many games out there for the Sony and Microsoft machines actually need either Kinect or PS Move in order to be played. Now compare that to the number or titles where move control is just a fancy extra thrown in because the developer could.

The move away from move based game control isn't really surprising when you think about it either. Nintendo stopped making a big thing out of the Wii Motion controller a long time ago, most of their major releases use very little of the Wii Motion controller's potential in their game play, instead relying on the old button and d-pad combo. Eurocom's version of Goldeneye, released last year, eschewed motion control altogether and actually came packaged with a Gamecube controller for better all round game play.

It's clear that Xbox and Playstation developed their take on move control as a direct response to Wii's domination of the family console market. That domination was originally because of the innovative controller that came with Nintendo's souped up Gamecube 2.0 along with some clever marketing towards families on the Japanese company's part. Now that Nintendo seem to be abandoning the move market in favour of something a little more current generation the big question must be asked - Why should Sony or Microsoft try to compete in the move market any more?

I'll be honest, i can't think of a decent reason.

Nintendo confirm new console in the works

Nintendo confirmed rumours of a new console under development today with a short statement which read as follows.

"We will show a playable model of the new system and announce more specifications at the E3 Expo, which will be held June 7-9, 2011, in Los Angeles,"

No further details were confirmed other than the existence of the new console. I guess we'll all have to wait until June.