The Biggest Game Project on this Planet

The Ingen Game Awards 2005

Gotta have one of these, haven't we?

In true Game Reviewer Fashion, I present to you the much acclaimed Ingen Game Awards 2005, THE be-all end-all of Gaming Awards, the most prestigious Award in the Gaming Business, Companies exert themselves to be able to claim this victory every year, as not only does this Award earn you eternal fame, but you also get a nice potted plant, shaped like a willy. And a cash prize of $100.000 to be transferred to my bank account by TOMORROW, or else. Bastards.

So without further ado, let me present to you the definitive Game Awards of 2005, don't believe any other sites, cos they suck, and they wouldn't know a good game if it came up to them and violently stabbed them in the Magic Symbol.
Just listen to me, and you'll be alright. Get these games, and you will experience the best of the past year, and you will thank me for it. ASSHOLES!

Ehem.
Bear in mind that I'm only including games released in 2005 in the country of origin of the version I played. There are some titles which were released in America or Europe in 2005, but which were already available in Japan in 2004, and are therefore not included (ie. Zelda: Minish Cap, Metal Gear Solid 3, among others).
Here we go:

- Best Gamecube Game:

There can be only one:



Resident Evil 4.
No motherfucking contest. I haven't written a review for it yet, but expect one soon, since I've almost finished it for the project. It's ironic how this was the first game I bought in 2005, and also the last game I played before the turn of the year. But that's how Goddamn INSANELY good this game is, you can play it for a whole year, and you'll discover new things every time. Not only because there's a slew of hidden treasure and items, but also because there's literally DOZENS of different ways of tackling each area.
Each area is wide open and VERY big, and there's all kinds of objects and things you can interact with. Want to take out the baddies by just blasting through them?
You can do that, but you can also climb on top of a roof and drop some grenades in their midst (I frickin' LOVE doing that! Weehee!), shoot some explosive oildrums, use Karts full of explosives, shoot them down cliffs, do whatever the Heck you want, it's ALL good.
Not only that, but it sports fantastic visuals as well. Unbelievably beautiful and realistic, I'm sure the Gamecube wasn't even supposed to be able to handle anything like this; it puts 99% of the current video gaming world to shame, and that includes your stupid XBox 360. PHA!
One of the best things to ever happen to video games. Let's all burn a candle for Capcom and worship their leaders.

- Best Playstation 2 Game:

Again, no real contest:



Shadow of the Colossus.
I acknowledge the fact that Resident Evil 4 has been released on PS2 as well, and that all the added extra's make it an even better game than the original (the PS2 version is apparently coming back to the GC as a budget title, which is good!), but it was originally a Gamecube title, and it wouldn't be fun to give the Best PS2 Game award to the same game, now would it?
Also, as much as I'm loving Kingdom Hearts 2 right now, it simply cannot match the incredibly indelible expression Shadow of the Damn This Title Is Long left on me.
It easily matches Resident Evil 4 in terms of completely overwhelming visuals and fantastic gameplay, and even manages to up the ante for sheer originality, beautiful art direction, a great moving story and a majestic soundtrack.
You have never played a game so visually impressive as Shadow of the Colossus. It may not be as polished and realistic as Resident Evil 4, but it more than makes up for that by gorgeous lighting effects, dreamlike graphics, and totally humongous enemies. You though the Troll in RE4 was big? Don't make me laugh! He's an extremely small ant, when compared to even the smallest colossus in SotC.
For one of the most unique gaming experiences you are ever likely to have, this game is the bee's knees. Wonderful, exciting, adventurous, and completely overwhelming, one of the finest experiences in my entire life.

- Best Gameboy Advance Game:

Hmmmm.



Rockman EXE 6: Dennoujuu Faltzer/Greiga.
Let's be fair, it hasn't exactly been a very exciting year for GBA this year, what with its new younger brother, the Nintendo DS, stealing all of its limelight. The same companies that made games for GBA have quickly made the small step to DS, and its older brother has therefore had to deal with a rather severe lack of anything good.
Amidst the rather dull titles released on GBA this year, Megaman Battle Network 6 is the only game that I really enjoyed, perhaps because I'm a longtime Rockman fanboy, but most probably because this game was finally as good as its early predecessors.
Capcom had done a good job at totally fucking up the last couple of games in the series, so I was pleasantly surprised to see them returning to their roots, and making a game that was worthy of the name again.
These games, when done right, are tremendous fun. They offer a decently lengthy quest, with many many subquests, and a superb battle system that rewards skill and dexterity. Collection freaks will also love this, cos there's a whole shitload of items to collect and stuff to unlock.
I don't care for Fire Emblem, and I definitely don't like Final Fantasy IV, so this was pretty much the only game worth playing on GBA for me this year. And great stuff it is too.

Sadly, this is pretty much the only 3 categories I've been into this year.
I don't own an XBox, regular OR 360, nor do I own a PSP or DS, so I've been kinda running behind things this year. Maybe I'll get one of the above in the future, although I'm sure I'll never buy an XBox, and the 360 is going to have to REALLY strut its stuff if it wants to attract my attention, cos from what I've seen so far, not only does it not look like true Next Gen (just a nicer Xbox), it has rather dull and uninspired games as well.
The PSP is a complete joke, despite its processing power, and the DS is the only thing I AM interested in, but it has the added disadvantage of my not enjoying Portable gaming very much anymore. Those Online features are definitely looking cool though.
Which leaves the final category:

- Most Overrated/Overhyped/Disappointing Game:

Again, a very clear winner here:



God of War (PS2)
Check out ANY End-of-the-Year Awards at ANY gamesite on the Internet, and you will see God of War showered with almost EVERY possible award. Well, let me be the voice of reason here, and say that it is NOT all that good. Perhaps people are just surprised to see such a high quality title (it is definitely not bad in any way) from an AMERICAN company, but by any means, it's not all that great.
I still think that the 9.0 I gave it was giving it too much credit, cos the more I think about it, the less I like it. There's games that look good in retrospect, and there's those that don't, and God of War belongs to the latter.
First of all, the graphics are overrated. This game reminded me in many ways of Jak and Daxter. It has great open environments, which blend into each other without any fade-outs but are usually connected through some short and uneventful hallways, which occasionally stutter because of the loading. Like Jak and Daxter, the Graphics are bright and colorful, but as the above picture should show, have no real textures to be proud of.Take a gander at Resident Evil 4, and it is painfully obvious which game has the REALLY good graphics.
The cutscenes are stupid as well. It's like they took cutscenes in real time graphics, and then TURNED THEM INTO FMV, which looks like crap. Only occasionally you'll get REAL CG movies, which mainly make use of 2D sprites, strangely, but admittedly DO look very nice, at least from an artistic point of view.

The music is also laughable. Why everyone likes it so much is beyond me. It's bombastic, loud and boisterous, and it lacks any kind of melody. The main theme is boring and blaring horns don't make it sound any better. It claims to be orchestral, but it sounds like synth, which stands in stark contrast with the beautiful Shadow of the Colossus, a majestic, sweeping score that actually had some talent behind it.

Controls are decent, the context sensitive functions are nice, pulling off finishing moves by pressing random button combinations was also a cool idea, but Kratos jumps like a Bag of Sand. AGAIN, like Jak and Daxter, it seems American companies can't make a hero with decent Jumping abilities, which is kind of a painful omission if you're going to make a bloody PLATFORM game. Why equip your hero with a standard Double Jump, if you could also just give him a GOOD single jump? You know, one that works? Also, balancing is completely atrocious. The camera TOTALLY gets in the way, and many was the time I plummeted to my untimely death, through no fault of my own.
Prince of Persia did a MUCH better job at this, since the Prince has more grip, and at least HOLDS ON TO THE EDGE, if he threatens to fall off. Kratos only occasionally manages to grab the ledge when he falls, which makes him an idiot. But that's fine, cos he's not a likeable character to begin with.

And then there's the fact that almost the entire premise of the game was ripped off from Rygar. Same kind of battle system, same kind of background setting. And the story is stupid. IGN actually dares to give it a Best Story award, which is insane.
Of course Greek Mythology rules, but the creators of the game had nothing to do with that, did they? And what they added was tripe. Tripe, even, that has been done thousands of times before. Bah.
The only REALLY cool thing about God of War were the boss fights, and there were FAR too few of them.

No sir, don't like it!

Well, enough bitching, let's start 2006 on a more positive note, shall we?
This year is likely going to bring A LOT of cool stuff! With the PS3 and Revolution in the works and apparently scheduled for this year, the New Console Wars will probably start this year, and I for one, am very curious as to how it will turn out.
Final Fantasy XII should make it to stores this year, although I'm getting increasingly worried about the quality of gameplay.
Zelda: Twilight Princess should not be too far away anymore (apparently Europe is going to see the release FIRST), which should be enough to last ANYONE the entire year, and Baten Kaitos II, so Gamecube owners are looking at a good start.
Next week will see the release of Megaman X Collection on Gamecube and PS2, which is a nice way to start the year (thank you, Capcom, as usual), and the same company should bring us the fantastically and beautifully artistic Okami this year.
I'm sure there's a lot of great stuff in the works noone knows anything about yet.

So here's to 2006, let's hope the Earth doesn't explode!

Happy New Year everyone!

posted by Ingen! @ 1:19 PM