Now, we come to Part 2 of the Brentiverse 2011 video game awards. Here, we honour the games who delivered beyond the obvious. More than being good-looking or containing a great story, are the games that surprised us most when we actually started playing them. For these deeper accolades, I present these awards!
BRENTIVERSE 2011 VIDEO GAME AWARDS: THE FINER DETAILS
- The Upstanding Goody Shoes Award (Best Hero)
- Nathan Drake (Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception)
- Link (The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword)
- Bruce Wayne/Batman (Batman: Arkham City)
- Joe Capelli (Resistance 3)
- Cole McGrath (inFamous 2)
WINNER: Joe Capelli (Resistance 3)
WHY: Sure, established greats like Nathan Drake, Batman and Link have retained incredible appeal for varying reasons, but one of the most unlikely and memorable heroes of 2011 was one who had just been dishonourably discharged and left in a dying world. With the Chimera having mostly overrun civilization, Joe Capelli had since married and had a child, and it was he alone that was sent off on a suicide mission to try to shut a Chimera wormhole that was set to freeze the planet over. Not only did Capelli have to take over the protaganist role from Nathan Hale before him, but he was beset by insurmountable odds as legions of Chimera, and even immoral humans were around every corner! Joe wasn't in it for the glory, or the justice though. In the end, Joe was a family man, and he just wanted to be with his family. Towards the end of the game, Joe even feels like he may not make it back, and another of gaming's most emotionally memorable moments of the year played out when he desperately tried to broadcast a final message to his wife and child, believing he would never see them again. Even in a game full of ridiculous weaponry and vicious alien monsters, Joe kept a heart firmly beating in Resistance 3's chest. He was just one ordinary man, but in the end, the simple desire to be with his loved ones allowed him to accomplish extraordinary things. If that's not the kind of unsung hero that all gaming heroes should aspire to be...
- The Conquered Heart Award (Best Villain)
- Vladimir Makarov (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3)
- Katherine Marlowe (Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception)
- The Joker (Batman: Arkham City)
- Wheatley (Portal 2)
- Ghirahim (The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword)
WINNER: Wheatley (Portal 2)
WHY: In a list of nominees full of calculated geniuses and experts at evildoing, Wheatley stands firmly apart. Why? Because he was designed from the ground up, the product of the world's most gifted minds, to create the dumbest most moronic machine that was ever given programming. Wheatley's very existence is hysterical, because the only reason he was made was to make GLaDOS dumber, and early on in Portal 2's proceedings, he tricks protaganist, Chell into giving him control of the entire ruinous Aperture Science facility. How dumb does that make Chell? Well, in any case, Wheatley was the most memorable, entertaining gaming villain of the year not due to his ruthlessness or power, but due to his raw ineptitude. Even then, he still somehow ends up being the key antagonist, which is just another mindbender of many in Portal's history of challenges! Try to wrap your head around this one all you like, but the fact is, Wheatley was tons of fun, and somehow turned stupidity into a credible threat. That's something!
- The Rising Star Award (Best Introduced Character)
- Garcia F. Hotspur (Shadows of the Damned)
- The Kid (Bastion)
- Sissel (Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective)
- Chibiterasu (Okamiden)
- Wheatley (Portal 2)
WINNER: Wheatley (Portal 2)
WHY: You really can't argue with the fact that Wheatley had best show up in further Portal follow-ups, because it's no small task to end up as entertaining as GLaDOS! Somehow though, the great writers at Valve made it happen, and Wheatley was given his own list of amazing quotes and gags to cement him as the new most appealing character in the series. Even from the introductory tutorial, Wheatley is a barrel of laughs, and things only get better when his villainous side is revealed. Again, stupid has never been this good, and I'm hoping that Portal 3 lets Wheatley get stupid all up in here again!
- The Mighty Mouse Award (Best Supporting Character)
- Zelda (The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword)
- Captain Price (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3)
- Dominic Santiago (Gears of War 3)
- Jack Kelso (L.A. Noire)
- GLaDOS (Portal 2)
WINNER: GLaDOS (Portal 2)
WHY: Yes, it seems that Portal 2 is sweeping the character awards for me this year, but if you've played the game, you won't dispute it for a second. GLaDOS was shifted from key antagonist to supporting role in Portal 2, even going as far as to be contained in a potato. Somehow, this only made her funnier. What's most amazing though is that GLaDOS, in all of her snideness, is actually a very entertaining ally, and it's incredible how Wheatley's idiocy actually makes you want to install her back in command of the Aperture Facility, after spending the entire first game and the beginning of the second trying to get her deactivated. Today's enemies are tomorrow's friends I suppose, but even as a potato, GLaDOS carried more charisma and support than any other game character this year!
- The ZOMGROFL Award (Funniest Game)
- Shadows of the Damned (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
- Portal 2 (PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
- Serious Sam 3: BFE (Steam)
- Saints Row: The Third (PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
- Rayman Origins (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii)
WINNER: Portal 2
WHY: Geez, I might as well have just renamed this section the 'Portal 2 Awards', eh? Really though, are you going to try and claim that there was a funnier game than Portal 2 this year? Between the brilliant writing, myriad surprises and compelling characters, all of which brought back an even greater scope of the pitch black humour that made the first Portal game such a success, Portal 2 was more than a laugh and a half. Even the most cold, serious gamers will probably be cracking smiles throughout the game, if they're not outright doubled over! There's a reason why huge Wikiquote pages are dedicated entirely to the Portal characters, because they are hilarious, and they only got better in the sequel!
- The Brown Drawers Award (Scariest Game)
- Dead Space 2 (PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
- Dark Souls (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
- Rise of Nightmares (Xbox 360)
- Catherine (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
- Alice: Madness Returns (PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
WINNER: Catherine (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
WHY: This may be a controversial opinion, but no game terrified nearly as much as Catherine to me this year. This is likely because, not only is the game scary and twisted as all hell at its worst, but it scares players on a deeper, more psychological level as well, by perhaps exposing them to repressed sexual tastes that they may have previously tried their darndest to repress and avoid. If you're to be honest with the game, you may just learn that you are in fact afraid of commitment, or perhaps have the potential to cheat on your partner. What's interesting about Catherine is that it's not just superficially scary, but it probes at deep set vulnerability in the player him or herself. A sequel that allowed a female perspective would probably be doubly terrifying! I tell you, few games could be credited as more scary than the one that makes you come to terms with your own potential for adultery!
- The Broken Controller Award (Most Difficult Game)
- Catherine (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
- Dark Souls (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
- Shinobi (3DS)
WINNER: Catherine (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
WHY: Dark Souls and Shinobi are pretty tough games, but again, they're not tough in the same sense as Catherine. Catherine is not only bone-crushingly difficult even on the lowest difficulty setting in terms of its puzzles and strict time limit, but it's also a game that asks the player difficult questions, as I mentioned. There are no simple decisions in the world of Catherine, and what's interesting about it is how it garners difficulty not just from the game itself, but in the questions that it makes the player ask themselves. If you want to put all that philosophical bullshit aside though, few other games this year will challenge you like Catherine. I don't want to meet the sick bastards that somehow reach the end of this monster after cranking the difficulty up to the highest setting!
- The Capital Idea Award (Best Puzzle-Solving Component)
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)
- Batman: Arkham City (PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
- L.A. Noire (PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
- Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (DS)
- Portal 2 (PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
WINNER: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (DS)
WHY: It was really close between Ghost Trick and Portal 2, but Portal 2 just barely lost out due to the fact that it's a sequel, and its puzzle design was technically already pioneered in 2007. Ghost Trick however brought with it an entirely new way to solve puzzles, one that made exceptional use of the DS hardware, and beautifully tied the puzzles into the storyline at the same time. Even though the Zelda series still delivered lots of incredible, conundrum-filled dungeons with its latest offering, and L.A. Noire tasked players with a new way of studying suspect mannerisms to find culprits, Ghost Trick was both original and seamless in its puzzle design. It's absolutely criminal that more people didn't play it!
- The Everything Must Go Award (Best Box Art)
- LittleBigPlanet 2 (PlayStation 3)
- Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition (3DS)
- Catherine (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
- Portal 2 (PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
- Rayman Origins (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii)
WINNER: Catherine (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
WHY: Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition was a narrow runner-up with its captivating holographic 3D art, but you just can't argue with how eerily eye-catching Catherine is on either of its platforms. Katherine and Catherine are depicted separately on the Xbox 360 and PS3 art respectively, with their own pictures that emphasize a different side of the game's themes of relationships and adultery. It's rare that we get games that change their box art between platforms, but this was a really cool way to help separate the Xbox 360 and PS3 art and make the two versions feel even more distinct. Not only that, but an incredible amount of creepy artistic detail went into the depictions of both these games' leading ladies. Once you start staring at the box of Catherine on Xbox 360 or PS3, even if you've never heard of it, you'll have a hard time taking your eyes off it. The game sold much better than the usual Atlus project, and that's probably largely because the box art was so hypnotic that many gamers just had to have it!
- The Black Socks Award (Most Disappointing Game)
- X-Men: Destiny (DS, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii)
- Spider-Man: Edge of Time (DS, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, 3DS)
- Duke Nukem Forever (PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
- Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime (Steam, Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Store)
- Brink (PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
WINNER: Duke Nukem Forever (PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
WHY: Nothing says 'disappointment' quite like spending over a decade in development, only to be handed off to an amazing developer like Gearbox, who somehow still delivers a game that feels half-finished even after all of its time spent in production. That's a real accomplishment. Duke Nukem Forever didn't bring the famous 90's gaming icon back however, it just proved why he was better off dead. The crass humour was outdated, the gameplay felt two generations behind modern shooters, and the rampant misogyny really didn't fly with today's gamers. The people who had waited the painstaking amount of time for this game to hit the shelf, dropping $60 on it on launch day, only to be greeted with this chauvinistic, unentertaining mess of a final product, were no doubt highly pissed off! Duke Nukem Forever is hardly the worst game of 2011, but it was certainly the most anger-inducing for how well it fell below expectations, I'm sure!
- The Virtual Turd Award (Flat-Out Worst Game)
- Thor: God of Thunder (DS, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, 3DS)
- X-Men: Destiny (DS, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii)
- Sword of the Stars II: Lords of Winter (PC)
WINNER: X-Men: Destiny (DS, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii)
WHY: It was close between all of the nominees for 2011's worst game, but Sword of the Stars II is being patched, and is a sequel to a reasonably decent strategy game, so it has potential. Thor: God of Thunder was godawful in several versions, but some of the handheld ones actually weren't terrible, just sort of banal. X-Men: Destiny however is a total trainwreck, especially on Nintendo's platforms, but on EVERY platform, it is a trainwreck. The game had so much potential, but in the end, it was a broken, uninteresting mess that failed to deliver on any of its promise. The story was bad, the morality system didn't work, and the gameplay was mind-numbing to the point of making you want to bore your brains out with a power drill. To an X-Men fan, playing this sorry excuse of a game is tantamount to torture, and the DS version is damn near broken enough to drive them to suicide! Marvel's team of mutants has had their share of bad games, especially in the 90's, but it's been some time since they were treated this badly. It's best if we just try to forget that this game exists... As best as we can.
- The Lonely Puppy Award (Best Game No One Played)
- Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (DS)
- Rayman Origins (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii)
- Resistance 3 (PlayStation 3)
- Shadows of the Damned (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
- Child of Eden (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
WINNER: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (DS)
WHY: In a way, I can understand why no one played Shadows of the Damned, since it didn't make much of a first impression from its trailers or box art, and I can sort of see why many people didn't adopt Child of Eden, because it's difficult to really figure out what it's supposed to be. Resistance 3 was overshadowed in a crowded shooter market that put it in close proximity to the more anticipated Gears of War 3, though I have to admit that people really screwed themselves when they passed up Rayman Origins, easily one of 2011's best platformers even when stacked against a Mario game! Where people really have no excuse though, is Ghost Trick. Ghost Trick was made by a well-known developer (Capcom), the same creator of a beloved franchise (Ace Attorney), and represented a revolutionary new take on text adventures, puzzle games and mystery stories, on a handheld that is one of the top-selling game platforms in the world. No one bought it. What's wrong with you people?! Ghost Trick happened to be my highest scored 2011 game that I reviewed this year, earning an excellent 98% from me, and the fact that it so badly undersold is criminal. This was a game that just did everything right, while providing an amazing storyline and the highly creative, revolutionary game experience that many of you hypocrites call out for continually, and you didn't even glance at it. Shame on you! There may still be time though! The game is rumoured to be coming to North American iPhones sometime in the near future (it's already on the App Store in Japan), and though the 3DS is on the market now, some copies of Ghost Trick are still floating around retailers. Buy it, now. Don't question me, just go purchase this game for its very reasonable asking price of $20-$30, then give yourself a good smacking for waiting so long to play this hidden gem!
- The Shame on You Award (Worst Game Everyone Played)
- Spider-Man: Edge of Time (DS, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, 3DS)
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (PC, DS, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii)
- Thor: God of Thunder (DS, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, 3DS)
- Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D (3DS)
- PlayStation Move Heroes (PlayStation 3)
WINNER: Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D (3DS)
WHY: Oh, come on people! You couldn't smell a rat with this one?? You'll ignore Ghost Trick, but you'll shell out for a 3DS just to play this one Resident Evil game while you wait for the much better one to drop in 2012?! On that note, the Resident Evil: Revelations demo packed in with this game may have influenced the sales, and Capcom did karmically balance themselves out with Ghost Trick (even if they ruined that with another obvious cash grab retail release that should have been DLC, Dead Rising 2: Off the Record), but really, I smelt a cash grab from the minute this game was announced. All of my fears about it came true, from a severe lack of content to compromised multiplayer features, to the fact that a MINIGAME was being sold as a full retail release, making the excuse that it's on a handheld and somehow that makes it ok. No, it doesn't. Handheld gaming has reached a point where it can produce deep, engaging game experiences on par with many console games, so games like Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D being rushed to retail to take advantage of the Resident Evil fanbase is inexcusable and slimy. I can sort of understand why people still fall for bad movie tie-ins like the Thor game, since superhero games are continually given second chances due to the appeal of their characters, plus Beenox actually did great with their previous Spider-Man game, and a PlayStation Move crossover with Jak, Ratchet and Sly might have actually been fun if it didn't suck so hard in the end. Non-gaming Harry Potter fans aren't educated enough on the gaming industry to know that most movie tie-in games are bad, even Harry Potter's latest, so they're somewhat forgiven too. Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D was a game meant for gamers though, smart gamers, hardcore gamers, people who should know better, and yet you morons took the money that you could have put down on Ghost Trick for the same result and a MUCH better game, and bought something just because it had the Resident Evil brand on it. Yeah, that apparent creative bankruptcy in gaming that you bitch so much about? You're bringing it on yourselves when you reward developers for this kind of laziness. Again, shame on you!
- The Black Licorice Award (Most Pleasant Surprise)
- Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure (PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, 3DS)
- Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster (Xbox 360)
- Sonic Generations (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, 3DS)
WINNER: Sonic Generations (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, 3DS)
WHY: Even though Sonic Colors helped to prove that Sega's mascot still had life left in him last year, Sonic Generations was the game that finally bucked the trend of terrible Sonic games and brought Sonic back to the triple-A limelight on HD consoles especially. Celebrating the series' 20th anniversary in style, Sonic Generations united the classic and modern Sonic characters in a game that took the best of both schools of Sonic design, and blended them into one kick-ass platformer! It's easy to roll your eyes at the game on paper, since Sonic has fallen so far from grace lately due to poor 3D translation and cheap gimmickry, but Sonic Generations not only effectively reminded us of the series' legacy, but also proved that good Sonic games are still possible. Most people didn't expect much upon the game's announcement, but it was nice to see Sega really rise to the occasion like never before with Sonic Generations! Let's hope that this positive momentum continues into 2012 and beyond for the speedy blue hedgehog!
- The Fresh Paint Award (Best Remake or Special Edition)
- Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation (DS)
- Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (Xbox 360)
- Star Fox 64 3D (3DS)
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS)
- Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (PlayStation Portable)
WINNER: Star Fox 64 3D (3DS)
WHY: Though Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation and Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together brought two classic Japanese games to North America in style, and two of the most beloved franchises in gaming revived their old favourites with a nice visual overhaul and a few other goodies, it was Star Fox 64 3D that proved to be one of the year's most pleasantly surprising and oddly effective remakes, to the point where the original N64 version feels entirely obselete. The Star Fox 64 remake turned out so amazingly on the 3DS that it actually made it feel like that was the system where the game had always belonged. The 3D effect was excellent, the new Score Attack mode gave us a better way to strive for Medals, the updated visuals were beautiful, the recomposed music was even better than N64, and the dual screen presentation suited the game much better than the single screen presentation on N64! The game even allowed you to broadcast your real-time facial expressions to your friends as you played multiplayer with them! Even if people lamented the lack of online play, Star Fox 64 3D brought an N64 classic to a wonderful new home, and completely destroyed its inspiration in the process! You haven't truly played the game until you've seen it at its peak potential on 3DS!
Thus, concludes Part 2, so stay tuned for Part 3, coming soon!
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