BioShock and Halo 3 earn most nominations when Spike TV unveiled the list of nominees for its 2007 Video Game Awards
To be eligible, a game must have been released between November 16, 2006 and December 1, 2007. The nominees were chosen by Spike TV's advisory panel, which is made of nearly two dozen game journalists.
BioShock and Halo 3 received the most nominations, with seven each, including nominations as Game of the Year and Xbox 360 Game of the Year. No Wii or PS3 exclusives were nominated as Game of the Year.
The "Most Addictive Game" category will be selected by online voters polled on the official VGA website.
The 2007 Video Game Awards will be shown on Spike TV on December 9. The complete list of nominees is as follows:
Game of the Year
- BioShock
- Halo 3
- Mass Effect
- The Orange Box
Best PS3 Game
- Heavenly Sword
- Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
- Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
- Warhawk
Click the read more link for the full list of nominations..
If you've played Halo 3, we hope you've also checked out Bungie.net.
The collection of detailed stats on just about every Halo 3 game ever played will spin your head. And it just got better. Along with some cosmetic upgrade, there are two awesome new features:
Global Heatmaps: These shows you where most people got murdered on each map, worldwide.
Local Heatmaps: The same info, except about you!
Bungie's Favorites: A much needed video filter where the best videos are spotlighted and the worst ignored.
Sign on to Bungie.net and check them out. Very impressive stuff.
You’ve got red on you - Ryu Hayabusa sharpens up his act for a 360-exclusive sequel, while Tecmo’s Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword, like the initials, fits perfectly on to the DS.
Anyone else would have crawled under a rock after last year, when Tomonobo Itagaki railed against the makers of Tekken, dismissed underachieving gamers as ‘ninja dogs’, then produced the utterly average Dead Or Alive Xtreme 2. But there he was, the brains and mouth of Team Ninja, swaggering across the stage at this year’s TGS. His trademark braggadocio may have lost some currency over the years, but mention of Ninja Gaiden clearly has not.
With many still discovering and returning to 2004’s breakneck bloodbath, be it through 360 emulation or PS3’s Sigma remake, there’s no denying the timeliness of announcing a proper sequel. The hardcore, faced with the rise of non-gaming and Japan’s labored uptake of new consoles, are yearning for some old-school pain. Ninja Gaiden 2, as you discover from the off, has more than enough to go around.
“I’d like to say that we’re not depicting this violence for the fun of it,” insists Yoshifuru Okamoto, the game’s producer. “We want it to actually have meaning inside the game, in terms of the experience. Violence is a key challenge of this project – we don’t even think it’s possible to alter it. I understand that in Japan we will be Z rated [the dreaded adults-only rating, which effectively brands games as culturally hazardous]. In the US, though, we’re confident we’ll be an M [for Mature].”
Integral or not, the violence in Ninja Gaiden will have you feeling like Lady Macbeth after just five minutes’ play. Granted, heads did roll in the first game (in most versions, at least), but this is something else. Ryu Hayabusa’s staccato sword-swipes literally chop his opponents to pieces, leaving heads, shoulders, knees and toes in great puddles on the floor. Better – sorry, worse – still is what happens to the pieces left attached: without a hand or foot, for example, enemies will writhe, hobble and hop around until finished off. And like the Black Knight himself, they’ll fight you the entire time.
“The enemy AI changes as he loses an arm or a foot,” Okamoto explains. “Our objective is to show cool action right up until the enemy is killed. But our ninja won’t search bodies or steal weapons from the dead. Bodies remain solely for the purpose of graphic realism. I think the increased power of Xbox 360 has made a unique way of depicting violence possible: how the blood is spilt, how the body is dismembered and how the parts remain on the ground.”
With this in mind, together with an image of Jack Thompson spontaneously combusting upon sight of it, it’s worth pointing out that there is a story beneath the carnage. While Itagaki will doubtless say otherwise during the remaining months of development, Team Ninja is especially keen to expand Ninja Gaiden’s audience. “After we released the previous Ninja Gaiden,” says Okamoto, “we thought about the game and realized that a gap was forming between what we originally wanted and the reaction of the players. It was very much about the difficulty level – and we felt the need for casual gamers to enjoy our game as well.”
It’s too early for Okamoto to go into detail, but he promises a more intense and ‘interesting’ game than before, with a wider variety of rival characters and boss battles. Foremost will be a rival ninja to Hayabusa – a nemesis central to the game’s events. The proposed enemy types sound a mite familiar – demonic beasts and gun-toting commandos join the usual ninja hit squads – but their attack patterns and strategies, whether grouped or isolated, are more varied. The need to find the right weapon for each challenge, furthermore, will be brutally enforced.
“It all started with the weapons we wanted Hayabusa to carry,” says Okamoto, “turning him into some kind of super ninja. This led us to think about the actions which would fit these weapons, and how that in turn would affect the game’s fun factor.”
But the problem, as it exists in this early alpha code, is less a question of challenge and intrigue than that old Team Ninja bugbear, visual evolution. You could cut and paste concerns over Ninja Gaiden 2’s technology from reviews of either DOA4 or DOAX2: it just doesn’t feel particularly modern. Ironically for a game which cuts more flesh than a chef who moonlights as a serial killer, it’s disconcertingly clean. Light and shadow effects, for both characters and environments, are quite deficient, leaving some very smooth (60 frames per second) but flat visuals.
He might not have lived under a rock for the last year, but you have to wonder how much Itagaki and his team have isolated themselves from the influence, and more importantly the examples, of other studios’ games. Okamoto openly admits to a policy of looking away from ‘the competition’, and speaks little of conflict with Devil May Cry 4 because he ‘hasn’t seen it’. Ninja Gaiden will certainly make headline news simply for its gore, and will probably be enjoyable as hell for the masochistic elite. But if it wants to speak to casual gamers as well, then graphics are a language it can’t afford to ignore.
Xbox LIVE is the first and most comprehensive unified online entertainment network seamlessly integrated throughout the entire console experience, making it easy for people to find the friends, games and entertainment they want from the moment they power on their Xbox 360 system.
Xbox LIVE connects millions of members across 25 countries to enjoy hundreds of multiplayer games, downloadable games via Xbox LIVE Arcade, free and premium playable game demos, music videos, TV shows and movies in the United States as well as new game levels, characters and vehicles for all their favorite retail games.
On November 15, Xbox Live will turn five years old, and you’re invited to celebrate this fifth anniversary. Microsoft is planning a LIVE is 5IVE Celebration:
Microsoft, the Parent Teacher Association, and football superstar Jerry Rice have formed a triumvirate of power to fight crime. And by "crime," I mean kids who spend too much time playing Xbox.
To stop this scourge, Microsoft is adding a parental timer to your Xbox 360, so moms and pops can be like, "45 minutes for you, sonny, then it's time for macaroni and glitter sculptor-making." The timer works on a daily or weekly basis, with parents and/or guardians setting any limit they would like on their charges' entertainment.
Microsoft expects the news of the Family Timer to be received favorably by parents based on independent research it unveiled today that showed 62 percent of parents would welcome a tool to control the amount of time children spend using the video game consoles in their homes. Nearly 100% of latch-key gamer kids think the whole idea rots, and hope their parents won't ever find out about it, like a bad report card or something.
That's where the PTA comes in: Millions of PTA members nationwide will receive information on the fundamentals of the campaign, which encourages a "balanced approach to interactive media use" and helps "families to come to an agreement on how their children spend their screen time."
“As a leader in interactive entertainment, it’s Microsoft’s responsibility to provide parents with tools they can use to manage their children’s video gaming and online experiences, and we have made that a priority from the very start,” said Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment & Devices Division at Microsoft.
My mom was one of the first people to try this out on me, limiting my gaming time to 35 minutes a day. I was okay with it at first, but then I realized I hadn't lived at home in many years, my mom doesn't know what an Xbox even is, and it's my damn job to play videogames.
That's my sad story. What about you? Do you live at home? How are your folks with you playing videogames?
Fresh from the record-breaking release of “Halo 3”, the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system continues to remain Australia’s number one next-gen gaming platform.
According to the GFK figures for October, Xbox 360 was the best-selling next-gen console hardware for the month, repeating its September success with another very strong showing.
“Halo 3” also remained Australia’s number one game, selling more copies and generating more revenue than any other title across all formats.
In addition, Australians spent more dollars on Xbox 360 hardware, software and accessories than on any other platform (console & handheld inclusive).
David McLean, Australian Xbox Director, says, “We have maintained our momentum throughout October and with the blockbuster range of titles we have coming in November and December, Xbox 360 is primed to finish the year on a very successful high.”
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BioShock and Halo 3 received the most nominations, with seven each, including nominations as Game of the Year and Xbox 360 Game of the Year. No Wii or PS3 exclusives were nominated as Game of the Year.
With many still discovering and returning to 2004’s breakneck bloodbath, be it through 360 emulation or PS3’s Sigma remake, there’s no denying the timeliness of announcing a proper sequel. The hardcore, faced with the rise of non-gaming and Japan’s labored uptake of new consoles, are yearning for some old-school pain. Ninja Gaiden 2, as you discover from the off, has more than enough to go around.
Microsoft expects the news of the Family Timer to be received favorably by parents based on independent research it unveiled today that showed 62 percent of parents would welcome a tool to control the amount of time children spend using the video game consoles in their homes. Nearly 100% of latch-key gamer kids think the whole idea rots, and hope their parents won't ever find out about it, like a bad report card or something.
