Spike VGA 2012 nominees

[Glaber]

http://www.spike.com/events/video-game-awards-2012-nominees/voting/game-of-the-year

This was a bad year for RPGs...

 

[Full]

Hmm, At least Spec Ops got nominated for one thing. A good thing, too.

Also, Journey and The Walking Dead are tearing it up. That's good I guess.

Edit: VGAs are bad.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Jesus H Christ, that's a lot of categories.

Spoiler: Well here's who I picked anyway

Game Of The Year: Mass Effect 3
Studio of the Year: Gearbox Software (only studio out of the list whose game I've played)
Best Xbox 360 Game: Borderlands 2 (only one out of the list I've played)
Best PS3 Game: Journey (purely based on how much love it seems to get here. I do plan to get it at some stage!)
Best Wii/Wii-U Game: Xenoblade Chronicles (based on my brother's love of it. Need to play it)
Best PC Game: X-Com: Enemy Unknown (again based on reactions of others)
Best Shooter: Call Of Duty - Black Ops 2 (since Spec Ops criminally isn't nominated)
Best Action/Adventure: Dishonored (again, based on love it gets here, haven't played any others)
Best RPG: Mass Effect 3
Best Multiplayer: Borderlands 2
Best individual sports game: WWE '13 (haven't played it but it's the series there that I enjoy the most)
Best team sports game: FIFA '13
Best driving game: Forza (completely at random)
Best song in a game: Castle Of Glass by Linkin Park in MoH:Warfighter (only because I like the song, not actually played Doorfighter, nor do I intend to)
Best original score: Call Of Duty: Black Ops II (It's Trent Reznor (main theme) and Jack Wall!)
Best graphics: Journey (because it seems to have a specific "style" as opposed to "Ooooh look at the shiny shiny!". Although I haven't seen any Dishonored stuff so I may have written it off wrongly)
Best indie game: Fez (because it's the only one I've played and I loved it)
Best fighting game: Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (only one played)
Best handheld/mobile game: Gravity Rush (love it gets)
Best performance by a human female: Jennifer Hale as Commander Shepard(gotta go with FemShep! Although I have heard Emma Stone was meant to be rather good in Sleeping Dogs)
Best performance by a human male: Nolan North as Captain Martin Walker (because Spec Ops The Line is actually fucking nominated for something! And he did do really well)
Best adapted video game: Lego Batman 2 - DC Super Heroes (because it is awesome fun. I know TWD is meant to be really good but I haven't played it yet!)
Best DLC: Perpetual Testing Initiative - Portal 2 (I sorta accidentally clicked on this one)
Best downloadable game: Fez (As explained, really loved it)
Best social game: Marvel Avengers Alliance (because it's The Avengers)
Most anticipated: Bioshock Infinite (because Watch Dogs and Remember Me aren't there)
Character of the year...well you can't actually vote for that yet it seems but I would pick Raul Menendez.

I heartily regretted typing up what I picked about...half way through that list but by then I wasn't going to stop

 

[Norrdicus]

"Best performance by a human female"?

As opposed to "Best performance by a NON-human female"?

 

[drisky]

Two out their five game of the year nominations aren't AAA titles, kind of surprising considering. Yet oddly Walking Dead isn't nominated for PC game.

 

[ohnoitsabear]

I look forward to the day when people stop giving a shit about crappy awards shows. Ahh, who am I kidding, that day is never coming.

 

[sanquin]

Eh, it's the spike VGA's... I never took them seriously. Even from the very beginning. We need a proper video game awards show.

 

[Norrdicus]

I want you guys to check the popularity vote based "Character of the year" [http://www.spike.com/events/video-game-awards-2012-voting/voting/character-of-the-year]

Connor
Commander Shepard
Clap Trap
Master Chief
Raul Menendez

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

I was kinda surprised to see Journey get so many nominations. Deservedly so, but still surprising.

And now the waiting for Daystar's reaction can begin.

 

[Whitbane]

Spike VGA's are for the people who like to pretend they're gamers. Mostly it's only Triple A games that win anything. Might be a few cool trailers, though.

 

[Whitbane]

I want you guys to check the popularity vote based "Character of the year" [http://www.spike.com/events/video-game-awards-2012-voting/voting/character-of-the-year]

Connor
Commander Shepard
Clap Trap
Master Chief
Raul Menendez

Every one of those is a joke. I don't know who to vote because, checks list, I did not play any one of those games.

But this is Spike awards for ya. I'm looking forward to how they are going to make last year look dignified in comparison.

Please let Claptrap win, if nothing but for the laughs. All the rest of the characters up there are either generic or blank slates.

Eh...

 

[Alatar The Red]

Spike obviously doesn't understand the concept of graphics and aesthetics. If you're going to title a category "Best graphics" Please do not include stuff like dishonored, or any console only games.

Aesthetics? Go for it, no problem here. But graphics?

/annoyed graphics whore rant

 

[sextus the crazy]

I love the fact that most of the categories only have 4-5 entries. It's like they don't even bother attempting to give a wide variety of games. Also, the handheld games catagory is fucking pathetic.

 

[GoaThief]

Waaaay too much Journey bias there.

Game of the year has to be The Walking Dead, just. Dishonored gave it a good run but the characters in TWD are something special, as are the feelings of discomfort the game made me feel.

 

[Sexy Devil]

Two out their five game of the year nominations aren't AAA titles, kind of surprising considering. Yet oddly Walking Dead isn't nominated for PC game.

There's a point where even an awards show designed explicitly as one big long shameless advertisement has to acknowledge that there were no AAA games of note this year.

I want you guys to check the popularity vote based "Character of the year" [http://www.spike.com/events/video-game-awards-2012-voting/voting/character-of-the-year]

Connor
Commander Shepard
Clap Trap
Master Chief
Raul Menendez

Singling those two out isn't really fair, all of those characters are pretty damn uninteresting. Can't believe Connor's an option over Haytham though.

 

[hazabaza1]

I want you guys to check the popularity vote based "Character of the year" [http://www.spike.com/events/video-game-awards-2012-voting/voting/character-of-the-year]

Connor
Commander Shepard
Clap Trap
Master Chief
Raul Menendez

Why the fuck isn't Lee Everett on that list.

OT: As you may have guessed from above, I just voted for The Walking Dead on everything I can.

 

[Norrdicus]

Commander Shepard: Apart from ending his story badly, generally the most well developed character with a personality out of the lot, and also a player character.

I have to disagree. There are a lot of things you can head-cannon into your own Shepard, but the character traits that are given by the game aren't all that interesting nor are they developed much at all. What can we say about Shepard for certain?

(s)He doesn't really joke around, and is not afraid of confronting anybody. Has PTSD thanks to a kid and respects Hackett and Anderson. Shows mistrust for Cerberus but that doesn't lead to much anything, and has an existential crisis for a moment in the third game due to specifics of his revival, but that is about an entire game too late and is almost a passing thought.

So in the end, the base personality isn't really all that interesting and even when in ME3 you're allowed to choose allegiances, Shepard doesn't get to really tell his motivation, the dialog's all nice and vague (and low on options) so that they won't contradict whatever the player has in their mind.

There are much better semi-blank slates, but not in 2012. Witcher 2's Xbox360 version doesn't really count.

Singling those two out isn't really fair, all of those characters are pretty damn uninteresting. Can't believe Connor's an option over Haytham though.

I kind of like Clap Trap and I can't really say anything about Master Chief or Raul Menendez, so I only got 2 reasons to laugh at that list