The VGAs

In the early hours of this morning, I watched the Video Game Awards, on a live stream from GINX.TV.

I’m not really stirred by awards.. if a game is good then somebody will mention it regardless of how many awards it has won.. but I was expecting to hear about some interesting new games, and really hoping to hear something about Half Life 2: Episode 3 after hearing rumours all week.

However, I thought there was too much filler.. presenters playing stupid games, celebrities I don’t have any interest in doing weird sketches and pretending to square up for a fight, and far too much being made of the fact that the VGAs were trending on Twitter.  Look, we’re popular?

I think they were trying to appeal to the masses.. but if the masses aren’t interested in games, then why would they be watching an awards programme about games in the first place?  All that time could have been used to show us something interesting.. more behind the scenes, interviews, and dare I say.. something vaguely technical, even if simplified a bit?  I don’t think I’ll watch next time.. the gaming press can filter all this stuff out for me, leaving me with a short list of new, interesting trailers to watch the following morning instead 🙂

As for the trailers.. the first to get my interest was The Last of Us, a PS3 exclusive, single-player survival horror by Naughty Dog.  Though at first glance I thought the enemies were zombies, they are actually sufferers of a plague, and the survivors have to scavenge for food and weapons, and fight to survive.

Epic Games‘ new title, Fortnite, also looked good..a combination of scavenging, base building and defense, with survival against some kind of alien force which attacks at night.  This game doesn’t yet have a publisher, and hasn’t been announced for any specific platform yet.. I’m hoping PC so I can play it with friends! 🙂

Diablo III‘s trailer was a fiery, showy affair.. this game was always going to be a must-buy for me, but the trailer was good to see anyway.  BioShock Infinite also made an appearance, though this was another game from my to-buy list after loving BioShock and BioShock 2.

Daddy, no!

I’d planned on leaving this for a few weeks, but I already started on my ‘evil’ playthrough of BioShock 2..

This time, there shall be no mercy for any of the little Sisters.. although maybe a little twinge of guilt at the actual point of harvest 😉

I’ve also turned off the Vita-Chambers for this one, looking to pick up a few more achievements!

BioShock 2

I’ve not updated in a while.. mainly because all my free time is taken up with playing games!  I know, I know, poor excuse. 😉

I just completed BioShock 2, a little later than planned, but for me it’s a good achievement.  I’m too easily distracted with other new games, or recently, with another game of L4D2 – which has been improved greatly with the addition of infected AI.

Comparing BioShock 2 with the original.. I still can’t decide which of the two is better.

#2 had a lot to live up to in terms of storyline, and after the twist in the tale of the first, I was always going to be suspicious of the motives of the various characters.  I wanted to kill Lamb right from the off – that didn’t change throughout, although in the end it wasn’t up to me..

When given a choice between good and evil, I tend towards good, so in both games I ended up adopting and rescuing the Little Sisters rather than harvesting them.

As with other games recently, I was comparing progress (or in my case, lack of progress) with friends, and found they were harvesting the Sisters.  I’m going to do that on the next play through, so I won’t be criticising them for it 😉

Hacking and research work differently now, and while I found hacking with the meter to be no problem, another friend preferred the original game’s method of moving pipes around.   Personally I found the meter more fitting than the pipes, so for me this was an improvement.  The new research method was another improvement – recording a video rather than just taking photos, although I once found myself researching a friendly security bot instead of the angry splicer rushing at me, because the bot flew down in the way.

Still, it’s a beautiful looking game, and with the moral choices leading to an alternative ending, it’s a game I’m going to play through again.