People aren’t talking about it as much as they did, and people aren’t playing it as much as they were, but it is impossible to ignore the beauty, the sheer genius of Bioshock. We haven’t mentioned our nodes for best game here, yet. But believe me when I say, dear reader, Ken Levine’s little love monster won’t be forgotten by me. Oh no. A list of other winners, as compiled by Games Industry:

Game of the year: BioShock
Best shooter: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Best action game: Super Mario Galaxy
Best rhythm game: Rock Band
Best RPG: Mass Effect
Best driving game: DiRT: Colin McRae
Best military game: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Studio of the year: Harmonix
Best graphics: Crysis
Breakthrough technology: The Orange Box/Portal
Best PS3 game: Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
Best Wii game: Super Mario Galaxy
Best Xbox 360 game: BioShock
Best PC game: The Orange Box
Best individual sports game: Skate
Best team sports game: Madden NFL 08
Best handheld game: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Best game based on a movie or TV show: The Simpsons Game
Best soundtrack: Rock Band
Best original score: BioShock
Best multiplayer game: Halo 3
Most addictive game: Halo 3

Halo 3 winning an award which was sponsored by a company that sponsored the fucking game when it launched isn’t suspect. Its stupid. This isn’t helping Microsoft or Bungie’s street cred. The only thing that could possible save that is a rap album. Other than that, this is a pretty safe list. Tell us, readers. What is your game of the year? Hannah Montana? I knew it!

Jayslacks.

Why, Nintendo? Why? You have officially confirmed that it will be a pain in the ass for me to enjoy the one game I actually wanted to play online with my friends. It isn’t like there aren’t ways to play online that don’t involve Friend Codes–Medal of Honor Heroes 2 proves as much. MoHH2 uses EA’s own online service, which makes matchmaking comparatively simple.

Arthur tells me that he thinks that the reason Nintendo continues to keep Friend Codes is because they have to tow the company line. Making a proprietary service, even for a AAA title like Brawl, would be admitting that Friend Codes were not up to snuff. Thus, as a result of Nintendo’s own desire to remain in the Dark-Ages of the interwebs, we will all have to enter in all our friends’ Friend codes to play. The only consolation is that once you have entered in their code once, you never have to do it again.

Now if only Nintendo could implement some goddamn voice chat. I guess we’ll have to get on XBL and use their voice chat while we play our Wiis.

Chufmoney

[via kotaku]

The internet lights up in fury every time the reviews come out on a AAA title. People seem to have it in their head that if a AAA title doesn’t get a 9+ (and sometimes that still isn’t enough), then it is somehow bias on the reviewer’s part. What the fuck is wrong with these people? Look at a goddamn review scale and you will see that even a seven is considered good.

I think the main issue is that some review sites seem to only have a scale that goes from 7-10, making anyone who sees a game get a seven assume that it is utter shit. If you need proof of what I speak, just go read any gaming message board threads about Assassin’s Creed, Ratchet and Clank or Super Mario Galaxy reviews.

Intelligent gamers need to take the time to educate their friends. It is perfectly ok to purchase a game that gets below a seven. Hell, if you are a fan of the genre and/or subject matter of the title, you might want to consider games that people give below 7s to.

Perhaps even more important that understanding a scale though, people need to take the time to read the actual review. Skipping to the bottom of the review (or the top, as is the case with some sights), to see the review score is stupid. If you take the time to read the actual review you’ll often see contradictions between the score the tone of the review gives, compared to the actual numerical print score.

Try it, you’ll see.

Chufmoney

Not all of you know who the hell John Davidson is, so let me explain. Up to about two months ago, Mr. Davidson was the Editorial Director of Ziff Davis Media, Inc.’s Game Group. This meant that John was the big man behind EGM, GFW, 1up.com, Gamevideos.com, and a slough of other videogame related resources. Needless to say, when he left, it was truly a sad day.

But, at least John didn’t leave the world of video games behind. No sir, John went ahead and created his own videogame site: WhatTheyPlay.com. It isn’t a competing media site; it focuses on video game reviews and tips for the people who control most gamer’s money supply–the parents.

WhatTheyPlay not only explains what all the ESRB blurbs mean (what the fuck is “comic mischief”, anyways?), but also goes deeper into pointing out things that parents might care about. And, instead of giving the game a score, the game simply points out all the things parents might really care about. For instance, the writer of the article about CoD4 points out the violent execution scenes, foul language, and other adult themed moments.

Further enhancing the article’s usefulness to parents is the age rating system. On top of being able to write their own reviews, parents can put down an age that they think is the minimum requirement for a player of the game.

All in all, I think this site is pretty damned useful. I mean, I’m no parent, but I could definitely see how such a resource as this could prove to be ridiculously valuable, especially with the growing presence of video games.

Chufmoney