Tuesday, December 07, 2004
 

Sleigh Bells Ring...
Posted by Shocker :: 10:32 PM

...I just fragged Brew....

We're winterizin' a bit here at AC in preparation for Christmas and other lesser holidays (I kid, I kid. Or do I? Yes.). In any case, don't expect content to slow down just because we're entering the holiday season; I'm officially out of school tomorrow, and a two-month subscription to Gamefly means that you'll get reviews of action packed sequels Viewtiful Joe 2 (GC/PS2) and Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (XBox/PS2/GC). Additionally, I hear there's a (guest?) review coming for Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (GC), we'll get some playtime in on Knights of the Old Republic 2 (XBox), while World of Warcraft (PC) is being talked about. JayGo and I will, at some point, team up on a Half-Life 2 (PC) review, while Chris is contractually obligated to share some thoughts about Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (XBox/PS2/GC). Even Josh has been making noise about doing some reviews soon, which is good, because I always like to think long-term.

Oh, and how could I forget about retro-reviews? Ariel's got reviews of Spiderman 2: The Movie (XBox/PS2/GC), Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (XBox) and Ninja Gaiden (XBox) queued up. Not to mention our end-of-the-year Awards Extravaganza*. Let me go ahead and run down the categories:

Platform Awards:
These awards are pretty self-explanatory. Multiplatform games will not be considered for individual console game of the year awards unless there was a large gulf in between its initial release and its multiplatform release (more like Splinter Cell 1 than Splinter Cell 2).

Best Game of 2004
Best Playstation 2 Game
Best Gamecube Game
Best XBox Game
Best PC Game
Best Handheld Game

Genre Awards:
Games for any platform so long as they're released within the consideration dates are eligible. There's some ambiguity among the categories, especially in the Action and Adventure categories, but we'll attempt to justify any discrepancies as best we can if they come up (I think the general concensus was that traditional "platformer" games are considered as Adventure, whereas games like Ninja Gaiden are considered Action. But the truth is that there's a giant gulf where most games fit, thus our attempts to break it up. If it doesn't work, we just won't do it next year, and will pretend it never happened. So there.)
Best Sports/Driving Game
Best Role Playing/Strategy Game
Best Action Game
Best Adventure Game
Best First Person Shooter Game
Best Other Game

Open-Ended Categories:
Somewhat self-explanatory. Each AC member will give their opinion on what they think the biggest disappointment, innovation and defining moments were of 2004. Not so much an awards as an end-of-the-year sort of thing.
Biggest Disappointment of 2004
Biggest Innovation of 2004
Defining Moment of 2004

As for the open-ended categories, we're looking for comments from any and everyone. Use that email link over at the side, and we'll throw up your opinions. We'll cap the eligibility period from 12/16/2003 to 12/15/2004, and announce nominees sometime after the 15th. As soon as we stop arguing about it.

Game on, folks!

* P.S. -- taking suggestions for a name for said awards period and the awards themselves (use comments).





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