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GDC: Fallout 3 Takes Game of the Year
The ninth annual Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony on Wednesday had seen UK developer Media Molecule collect the most prizes, yet it was Bethesda Softwork’s Fallout 3 which had won the coveted Game of the Year Award.
As Fallout 3 had already lost out to LittleBigPlanet for the Best Game Design award, Bethesda’s chances were not looking particularly bright. Yet the team managed to see off competition from Media Molecule’s award magnet, along with the BAFTA-winning Fable 2, Valve’s Left 4 Dead and Grand Theft Auto 4.
As well as picking up Game of the Year, the Maryland-based outfit was handed the prize for best writing, going up against the likes of Braid, GTA IV and Metal Gear Solid 4.
LittleBigPlanet had been nominated in seven separate categories and had taken four awards including Best Technology, the Innovation Award, along with Best Debut Game (though the term ‘debut game’ was jokingly scrutinised by the Media Molecule team, who professed that they’d been “doing this shit for twenty years”).
Dead Space once again was praised for its superior audio work, while Prince of Persia took the award for Best Visual Art.
Braid and World of Goo were the leading nominees in the Best Downloadable Game category, yet 2D Boy proved the victor this time round, adding the prize to a mantelpiece already housing a number of deserved awards.
In what is surely a testament to the standard of quality that has surfaced in the last year, Rockstar North has again walked away from an awards ceremony empty-handed. Nominated in the categories of Best Writing, Best Technology and GOTY, the latest edition of Rockstar’s seminal series picked up nothing just weeks after doing the same at the 2009 BAFTA Game Awards.
Full list of winning nominees: for the 9th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards:
Game of the Year
Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks)
Best Game Design:
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Best Writing:
Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks)
Best Technology:
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Best Visual Arts:
Prince of Persia (Ubisoft Montreal)
Best Debut Game:
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Best Handheld Game:
God Of War: Chains Of Olympus (Ready at Dawn)
Innovation Award:
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
Best Audio:
Dead Space (EA Redwood Shores)
Best Downloadable Game:
World Of Goo (2D Boy)
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Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court 30 Monmouth Street Bath, UK BA1 2BW
England and Wales company registration number 2008885
I have been wondering why GTA4 did not capture my attention. I devoted many man years to its earlier incarnations and it runs gloriously on my beloved xbox, HD projected as it is. I always marvel at its technical prowess, but something about it leaves me cold.
Maybe its lack of resemblance to NYC rankles a little? I don't think Rockstar N likes the city. GTA3 let me have play, Vice City's story was hilariously written. Maybe that's what's missing. The ledgendary trace radio station should have been ported.
The multiplayer aspect should have scooped an award though. A lot of originality there.
I'm not going to flag down hundreds of ethical and physical faults with the game design, because I'll be here all day.
However, its a good game, the story is great and the playability set me on track for days.
Although, summarised personal ethical opinion- Why put a mask over Oblivion and say its Fallout?
Saving/Ruining the world, Leveling up, customize characters.... can anyone define this as Fallout or Oblivion?
Paint a canvas red and its a red painting, Paint a canvas blue and its a blue painting.
The laziness of the creators of Fallout have cost them millions of fans towards the cheesy 50s music and towards the Fallout cause.
Nova,
I think you're being a bit harsh on Fallout. It has many similarities with Oblivion, but it also is quite different especially in the way you level.
1. Oblivion has guilds, Fallout doesn't.
2. Oblivion you can have a home you can upgrade in every city in the game (there's only a couple places you can "live" in fallout).
3. Oblivion levels you based on you leveling your major skills which you select at the beginning of the game. If you chose say destruction, heavy armor, magicka, etc... as your major skills, your overall level levels up as your individual skills level up. If you use magicka a lot, or shoot arrows, use blunt weapons, blades, melee etc. those skills will level up as you use them. You have minor skills that will level if you use them, but have no affect on your overall level (hence the importance of choosing your major skills wisely). In fallout you get exp for killing people, doing missions, selling certain items, etc. and has no individual skill level system (a huge disappointment of mine).
Those are just some of the main differences in the game. Fallout on the surface LOOKS like Oblivion and in some ways plays like it (map system, mission system, dialogue system) but that's really where the similarities end. I think those differences are ok; otherwise all FPSs games are exactly the same since they play the same. Kill guys, move on the next area, and kill more guys until you get to the end of the level. And it doesn't seem like they lost TOO many fans considering Fallout 3 sold more in a week than the other Fallout games did in their entire life-spans combined.
Sad world we live in that a game like Fallout 3 takes game of the year.... Those character animations were absolutely horrible, I can't believe there is somebody out there getting paid thousands of dollars to make such garbage. What sort of standards did this game set? None in my opinion. Gamers should start thinking clearly and critically, Fallout 3 was just a bad game compared not only to the prequels but to many amazing PC RPGS before it, some of which were made over 15 years ago.
I agree that technically Fallout 3 leaves alot to be desired, but as a piece of story telling Bethesda are still on top of their game. I didn't play Fallout for an FPS experience with blistering graphics, I play it to actually have a sense of exploration and purpose. Something many games completly balls up. Maybe winning this award will make other developers take a leaf out of Bethesda's book.
As for LBP, a fantastic game that really makes you a little kid again. I've whiled away hours with non gaming friends jumping around it's worlds. Not to mention the hours lost in creating levels. Hopefully these awards will increase its longevity with more people seeing what all the fuss is about.
Unlucky GTA though. I guess the industry just needs something different now.
I haven't gotten the chance to play LBP yet. But if this award is the least credible (meaning Fallout 3 is better than LBP) I won't even bother.
Fallout 3 had so many flaws, just like Oblivion did.
I don't know if I'm too picky or something, but I just can't stand either one of those games. If it isn't the horrible design of characters (and in particular facial expressions), it's the cheesy combat system and fugly animations.
All due respect, they are far from bad games and Bethesda clearly knows how to make a game. But they keep giving me these bad vibrations of irritation, and top that with how everyone but me seems to think they're the best games evah -- I'm repulsed.
There's something about Little Big Planet that gives you that "oldschool" feeling. Only a few games ever did that for me personally. Fallout 3, while definitely a fun game, did not. Neither did GTA4. I'd recommend giving it a try... it's worth it.
SaintJude
Have you heard of Demon's Souls? If you liked Oblivion you should watch out for this game:
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/43989.html
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3072632
I love the old school hard fantasy feel of it. I believe it's goal is to be as dynamic as a pen and paper RPG, but in real time. I'm really looking forward to it.
Looks pretty damned good this one, cheers!
as much as i enjoyed Fallout 3, im a little disappointed Heroine Hero wasn't nominated for anything...
I'm quite glad GTA IV didn't win anything. Might motivate Rockstar to give the next GTA game some deeper gameplay. GTA: Chinatown Wars has done it, not on earth sure why GTA IV couldn't do it and GTA V can't do it!
Best Writing to Fallout 3? That's an odd one. GTA IV was a bloody good story, even if it did drag a little towards the final missions.
there is alot of goverments that dislike GTA 4 I wouldn't be suprised if GTA 4 type games get baned in the future.
I’m disappointed to see Fallout pick up the award. If only for the reason that it gives Bethesda motivation to make more Fallout games. Fallout was a massive step back from Oblivion. I honestly tried to get into it, I spent 10+ hours on it, but no matter what I did I could not find a story or a quest I could make myself give a flying f*ck about. I sold it and went back to Oblivion (a deserved GOTY in it’s day).
Far Cry was also massively unappreciated, and in my humble opinion should have been GOTY.
I'm gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you on that one. I tried playing Oblivion 3 or 4 times and on the last attempt probably got 4-5 hours into the game but always ended up putting it aside. I think it had everything to do with my utter lack of interest in the whole swords-n-sorcerery "get ye flask" setting, characters and dialog.
Fallout 3, on the other hand—loving it! I'm currently waiting for them to drop the 3rd DLC so I can go back and finish (or not finish) it. I don't doubt that from a simple gameplay perspective Oblivion might have more depth (that is what you're saying, isn't it?), but for me the change in setting made all the difference in the world.
Different strokes.
Different strokes indeed. The change in setting was a major factor for me - raised on Tolkien's best I'm a big fan of Oblivion's setting. The shrinking and the 'focusing' of the experience that Bethesda went for with Fallout simply killed the freedom that was so promising in Morrowind and later realised in Oblivion...
The pip-boy 'irony' and the kitschiness of the little videos also left a bad taste in my mouth.
Is there any realistic estimate from Bethesda or anyone else of just how much "smaller" Fallout 3 is than Oblivion? I don't mean the size of the map, I mean length/depth of story. Is it 80% as big? 50%? Just curious.
I remember reading in a preview/developer interview that Fallout was to be about 50-60% of the size and scope of Oblivion. And they did that to 'focus' the experience and make events and 'cool things' more dense within the world.
I also remember ignoring the alarm bells.
One of the iconic pc games of all time. I would agree it's best game of the year. However I have my nick picks about the game. fallout is a very moral game it makes you think about the effects of war. I think that fallout 3 consequises was dumped down. also i think they could beef up sex to make it steamer. i don't think that the fallout 3 is as good as 1 or 2.
It's like you start off with good intentions of making sense and using workable spelling, but then, kind of just... give up.
Lmao Saint, I've seen the same thing. I think it's intentional.
"any there is talk of could cumputer with is alot better tech"
That is an instant classic. On par with, "Can I has Recon?" it's just harder to figure out what he's actually trying to say. I'm going to try to translate it though...
Anytime there is talk of hardware; computers will always have much better technology.
Edge forgot to report on 1 award:
Most Disappointing Sales Considering the Hype and Marketing:
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
GTA IV was the biggest disappointment of 2008 for me. For all its technical wizardry, it was just the same old GTA with the same old problems: the clunky combat, the repetitive missions, the archaic save system. All of these factors contributed to me getting bored within 12 hours and selling it.
Fallout 3, on the other hand, I'm still undecided about because I keep getting distracted by other games but that in itself may signify the problem. I just don't find it anywhere near as fun or engaging to play as, say, Resident Evil 5.
GTA IV possibly deserves some kind of award for technical achievment, but let's face it; in essence it does nothing that wasn't done in GTA III, VC and SA.
It told a cohesive, coherent, involving and emotional story. And it did it with style. I can count the games that achieved this in the last 5 years on one hand. GTA IV - robbed.
Grand Theft Auto 4 was the highest rate game of the year. There is no doubt that Grand Theft Auto 4 should be been awarded as Game of the Year. Grand Theft Auto 4 is fresh in everyone's mind right now with the new download that recently was released exclusively for the Xbox 360--breaking sales records on Xbox Live in the process. Fallout 3 is a great game (especially on the Xbox 360 where the exclusive downloads exist), but the sales numbers and ratings show that Grand Theft Auto 4 was the best game of the year--particularly on the Xbox 360 where exclusive content was released and where higher resolution was used in the game.
In my opinion, Grand Theft Auto 4 got robbed at this event.
Highest rated game of 2008 has nothing to do with these awards. GTA4 did get named the Game of the Year on many game sites which rated it highly, but the game industry contingent which decided on these awards, did not feel it was the 2008 game of the year.
But it isn't really a surprise that a point you made doesn't really make any logical sense.
Where exacty does it say that Game of the Year is defined as "Best Selling"?
I really enjoyed GTA4, but it was just another GTA game at the end of the day. Fallout was a much better game IMO. It has ten times the depth, it wasn't reptitive, and your actions actually had some kind of relevance on the world around you. But that is my opinion, my housemate that doens't even like games and normally won't even pick up a controller for more than 10 mins pumped 60 hours into Fallout 3 before getting bored of it... now thats saying something, trust me! -lol-
Fallout 3 is a decent game, definitely, but claiming it is not repetitive makes no sense. It only takes a few quests to realise you are constantly doing the same thing (shooting the same baddies over and over again), in pretty much the same environments. The only difference between individual quests is their context, not their content.
As for depth: cannot agree on that one either. The storyline is not all that involving, the moral choices you make - and their effect on the gameworld - are pretty much black & white, and those vacant NPC's with their repetitive banter (and this bothered me in Morrowind and Oblivion too) instantly destroy the atmosphere and any sense of immersion the otherwise very accomplished game world builds up.
How long did you play Fallout and GTA4 for? Did you play the original fallouts?
I was comparing it to GTA4! I did not mean it is not repetitive at all (what game isn't?) or that it was the greatest game of all time, just that it was better than GTA4 in all of those aspects, I didn't really think that I had to be that specific about what I meant.
Also note that I said in my opionion, which is what it is.
I played both games to completion - and played both games' predecessors - why venture an opinion otherwise?
And of course your post was "in your opinion" - whose opinion would it be? Are you one of those people who feel their whole person is being shot down when someone disagrees? (Please don't answer that).
Anyway, I disagree with your statements on Fallout 3, and since you want me to be explicit, apparently: I also disagree with them in comparison to GTA4, which to me had loads more depth, atmosphere and story. And was a lot more fun to boot. Of course, "this is my opinion, which is what it is".
Woah! Did I touch a nerve or something? I'm sorry, I didn't realise that your opinion was more valid than mine and therefore the only one that should be expressed. I would ask if you were another Kim alter Ego, but you're responding directly and not using caps everywhere, so I'm guessing you're just someone that really likes GTA. I'm only guessing this as I'm not sure why else you have spent two posts trying to put down my opinion because I said that I personally preferred Fallout 3 to GTA4, even though I clearly said I enjoyed both games.
"I played both games to completion - and played both games' predecessors - why venture an opinion otherwise?"
Good... I was actually just asking. A lot of people that have played fallout 3 never played fallout 1 & 2, and maybe didn't complete 3, but I'm pretty sure they're perfectly within their right to venture an opinion on here too!
"And of course your post was "in your opinion" - whose opinion would it be? Are you one of those people who feel their whole person is being shot down when someone disagrees? (Please don't answer that)."
Is this a joke? You just jumped down my throat twice for having a different opinion to you. Where did I express that your opinion bothered me, I was just trying to find out a bit more about why you felt that way. It's called a discussion.
"Anyway, I disagree with your statements on Fallout 3, and since you want me to be explicit, apparently: I also disagree with them in comparison to GTA4, which to me had loads more depth, atmosphere and story. And was a lot more fun to boot. Of course, "this is my opinion, which is what it is"."
I really don't see the point in this; I think we could have both seen that this was the case after your last post, where did I say that I wanted you to be explicit.
I apologise again for thinking that I would get a normal response to my questions, I was just curious. Had I have realised that you would get all defensive and weird about me disagreeing with you I wouldn't have asked.
I may have misread your reply, just you like misread mine - apologies if so.
No worries, its all too easy on t'internet! Peace gaming brother. ;)
...double post. :(
VERY subtle advertisment for downloadable content there Kim_Naroz. I'm sure NO ONE will pick up on it, you disguised it so well. Yeesh!
I like how he threw in that it sold better on the 360 and had higher resolution. Don't ever count Kim out!
Well, it's probably his job to do that. Gotta earn that paycheque.
I certainly hope it's his job. ;)
"In what is surely a testament to the standard of quality that has surfaced in the last year, Rockstar North has again walked away from an awards ceremony empty-handed."
it's refreshing to know standards remain high somewhere...