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Award Shows, Do We Need Them? February 14, 2011

Posted by Maniac in Editorials.
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If you’ve known me on a personal level long enough, you’d know that I think of most Awards Shows as farces.  That gladly includes organizations such as the Academy or Golden Globes.  Over the entire span of my life, I’ve not only disagreed with their decisions on what makes a good movie, actor, song, or director but the very people and movies I believe should win an award for Best (Insert Award Here) of the Year not only don’t win, but  don’t even receive a nomination.  See it happen enough times and you start to look down upon the Awards Organizations in general and start to think, “What’s the point of having a Best Award for anything when the actual best of the year aren’t even up for nomination?”  I know a lot of people were thinking along those lines when the Academy spat in the face of Christopher Nolan in 2008 by not nominating The Dark Knight, the actual best picture of that year, for Best Picture.

You could say, “Oh you’re just being egotistical again by thinking your opinions of what makes a good film is better than anyone else’s.”  Now, normally you’d be right.  But seriously, if the movies that I believe deserve the awards aren’t even nominated, and a lot of my peers are listing off names of their own favorites of the year which aren’t getting nominations either, you slowly come to the conclusion there’s a fix in place somewhere, and if you’ve continued to see a downward trend where lousy movies you’ve never heard of not only get nominated but win awards they have no business winning, you lose faith in a system which claims to declare a true BEST.

Then there’s the Grammys, which are awards for music, not movies.  I’ve seen parts of a few of them.  I have always wondered why most of the awards don’t actually get presented to the winners on stage, and instead just have their names called out, and why the majority of the awards aren’t mentioned or given out on the actual awards show.  Steven Colbert learned that one a few years ago when his self narrated book didn’t win a Grammy a few years ago.  They never even broadcasted the section of the show for category he was up for.  He had to find out he lost online.

But, something surprising happened at the Grammys this year.  A song which was made specifically for a video game won an award last night.  “Baba Yetu” by Christopher Tin won “Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s)”.  This is a fantastic song I first heard accompanied by a full orchestra on the Video Games Live Level 2 Blu-Ray.  I am ashamed to admit I was never a Civ player despite the heavy classic gaming pedigree that goes with that franchise (and it’s Game God creator) but I was just blown away by this song.

It is my guess that the Grammys had absolutely no idea that this game was originally designed for a video game theme, as it was introduced in this year’s Grammys for Christopher Tin’s Album Calling all Dawns, which released on CD in 2009.  Although games have had fully composed scores on the level of movies for the past ten years, Best Video Game Score is NOT a category the Grammys recognises, and because of that a lot of fantastic scores over the last ten years have gone ignored by the Grammys, which is seen by a lot of musicians as the award only the greatest of them can aspire to.

If you’re a fan of the song as I am, here’s the official music video for it made for Civilization IV.  The game has been out for five years now, so you might be able to find yourself a copy if you wish.  If you don’t want to play, you can buy his CD Calling all Dawns, which is what got him the nomination in the first place.  The game is also featured on the Video Games Live tour, and it is one of the songs on the Video Games Live Level 2 DVD and Blu-Ray concert. 

Congrats to Christopher Tin and the makers of Civilization.  Your win has broken down a barrier of hypocrisy that deserved to be trampled.

UPDATE:  The Video Games Live Official Site states that Calling all Dawns won the award for Best Classical Crossover album.  So that’s two for Christopher Tin.

Mirror’s Edge 2 Stalled February 14, 2011

Posted by Maniac in Game News.
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I’ve got some pretty upsetting news to post up right now.  I have to admit, while I wasn’t an initial buyer of the 2008 EA game Mirror’s Edge, it was only because it launched at a time that was swamped by far too many major releases to keep track of.

A few months after release an a minor price drop later, I did pick up the game after a good friend demoed it for me, and enjoyed it tremendously.  While the game did suffer from the occasional unfair geometry clip, the music, story and art style drew me in immediatly, and the solid gameplay, once you got used to it, was really seamless.   They had developed an interactive platformer from a first person perspective.

I waited in angush for months for the iPhone version of Mirror’s Edge to be posted, while iPad users had it since launch.  But when it did finally see release, it easily became my most played iPhone game, which has since only been eclipsed by Dead Space (iPhone).

Work on Mirror’s Edge 2 was teased a few months ago, when an executive told the press that a small team was working on it.  Unfortunatly today, it was announced that while that initial groundwork was finished and was seen behind closed doors, the team members working on it have been shifted to other projects, and the game’s development has stalled.

Now I know that Mirror’s Edge was a quirky new IP that was released at a time when major IPs like Gears of War and Resistance were seeing new releases, but months after that time had passed and the initial price drop, people like me and my friends started to discover the game and found they enjoyed it tremendously.

UPDATE:  Okay, it’s been posted that the project is in worse shape than stalled, it’s been stopped.  EA apparently declined the previously mentioned tech demo and work has ceased on it, not likely they will resume.

UPDATE 2:  Okay, I’m stumped right now.  Now people from EA are saying that Mirror’s Edge is an “important” EA franchise and the media so far has been commenting on rumors and speculation about the game’s cancellation.  All I’ve seen up to this point is the media quoting on what the DICE and EA executives had to say about the franchise.

I guess this is what happens when all of the major sources for this event quote a news story that was originally written in a different language, but still when you’re saying things like “Our EA demo was rejected and the people who worked on it are now working on other projects” it doesn’t sound to me like Mirror’s Edge is an “important” franchise to EA.

So right now the project status has shifted back from stalled to unknown.  I’ll try to keep you guys updated on this if any more news takes off.

Second Halo Reach Map Pack Announced February 14, 2011

Posted by Maniac in Game News.
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Bungie has announced today that a new three-map map pack, dubbed the Defiant Map Pack will be released for Halo Reach made by 343 Industries.  You can take a good look at them right here in this premiere trailer, which will also be posted on Xbox Live through Halo Waypoint.

The new map pack will consist of one firefight map and two multiplayer maps.  New achievements, worth 150 more achievement points will be offered.

The Defiant Map Pack will launch in March 2011 for 800 MS Points or $10 US.

Portal 2 System Specifications February 14, 2011

Posted by Maniac in Game News.
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Valve has announced on their preorders page that the system specs for the PC and Mac Version of the highly anticipated game Portal 2 have been posted, and here’s what they are.

You can preorder the game through the usual channels such as Amazon to get $5 off,  Gamestop where you can get exclusive skins, or if you prefer to not deal with a physical copy of the game at all, you can preorder the game through Steam and have it immediately accessible upon release and 10% off.

 WINDOWS SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

  • OS: Windows 7 / Vista / XP / 2000
  • Processor: 3.0 GHz P4, Dual Core 2.0 (or higher) or AMD64X2 (or higher)
  • Memory: 1GB XP / 2GB Vista
  • Hard Disk Space: At least 7.6 GB of Space
  • Video: Video card must be 128 MB or more and should be a DirectX 9-compatible with support for Pixel Shader 2.0b (ATI Radeon X800 or higher / NVIDIA GeForce 7600 or higher / Intel HD Graphics 2000 or higher).
  • Audio: DirectX 9.0c compatible

MAC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

  • OS: MAC OS X 10.6.6 or higher
  • Processor: Intel Core Duo Processor (2GHz or better)
  • Memory: 2GB
  • Hard Disk Space: At least 7.6 GB of Space
  • Video: ATI Radeon 2400 or higher / NVIDIA 8600M or higher

Portal 2 is coming April 21st, 2011 for the PC, Mac, Xbox 360 and PS3.