Alright so I'm not exactly offering up any new opinions when it comes to the Spike Video Game Awards. In fact the VGA's are so terrible so as to surpass personal opinion and become literal fact.
And relatively speaking this years VGA's were probably the best. If last year was like getting a root canal, this year was tantamount to being kicked in the teeth. Whenever the show took a break from being immature it showed promise. The Red Dead Redemption guitar solo performance was the highlight of the night for me. It showed that you could take this content seriously and make it compelling.
But the show's myriad of other problems drown out the good. For starters the amount of advertising was unacceptably intrusive. This extends to the dozens of times I saw WoW Cataclysm commercials as well as the numerous announcement trailers that told us virtually nothing about the games. *looks at Portal 2*
The dialogue read by the presenters was almost uniformly bad. What wasn't immature was unfunny. Most of the presenters, as many have already pointed out, aren't gamers, developers, or voice actors.
Then there's the awards. What are they again? A purple monkey with a a crown? I've honestly forgotten but when I look at it I can't imagine developers proudly displaying those in their offices. Their the very definition of gaudy.
And am I the only one to notice that in two years two VGA celebrity hosts received the award for best male VO? Jack Black last year for Brutal Legend and NPH this year for Spiderman. Does that seem shady to anyone? Black was up against Nolan North for his performance in Uncharted 2 and NPH was up against Gary Oldman, Martin Sheen, John Cleese, Nathan Fillion, and Red Dead's Rob Wiethoff.
Shattered Dimensions Brutal Legend didn't exactly light the world on fire, so it begs the question of whether Spike is really that stupid or if these awards are just handed out to whomever marketing execs will say is the best choice, regardless of who actually deserves the recognition.
The VGA's are more than a shameless marketing ploy, they're a sham. A fraud. Not to be taken seriously and not be watched again as long as Gametrailers posts the stuff we care about, the announcement videos, seconds after it airs on TV.
I want to stress that this could change. If the network were to embrace the gaming industry more closely we could get a classier, more well respected gaming event. But this is Spike, licensee of Blue Mountain State and Manswers, so don't get your hopes up.
The United States' National Videogame Museum has acquired one of the earliest prototypes of the Nintendo PlayStation system that never came out.
Push Square: "Echoes of Aincrad: Sword Art Online will see the long-standing franchise return to PS5 this summer, and based on what we saw at a recent Bandai Namco press event, it's set to be a fairly fresh take on the property."
Publisher Bandai Namco and developer Game Studio have announced action RPG Echoes of Aincrad: Sword Art Online for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC (Steam). It will launch on July 9 in Japan and July 10 worldwide. Pre-orders are available now.
The trailer is a bit underwhelming, but the graphics are great! I will wait for more gameplay videos.
"And am I the only one to notice that in two years two VGA celebrity hosts received the award for best male VO? "
I suspect it's one of those shows that gives the award to people that can show up - and if they can't make the show they give the award to someone else.
I watched this show with my mother and sister. Never doing that again.
Also, if you wonder why this industry isn't taken seriously, look no further than the VGAs. It epitomizes the stereotype on gamers and lacks any sort of professionalism that allows the industry to be taken as seriously as other mediums of entertainment
I'm with you on everything. INCLUDING that Portal 2 "trailer". I was so hyped because I had no idea that Portal was going to be at the VGAs. And then bam. A cutesy, albeit ENTIRELY needless Co-Op intro that should've been saved for gameplay or a random press release.
Extremely frustrating.
And don't even get me started on all the lame Game-to-Porn conversions by NPH. Or Denise Richard's absolutely ATROCIOUS, robotic monologue for whatever, I can't even remember what it was, it was that bad. Or Olivia Munn's crappy overly melodramatic tripe admitting what we all knew all along. She was just eye candy for the horny teens on G4.
Hopefully though, if this years VGAs are anything to go by, things are improving. Slowly, but improving nonetheless.