Boy, I'm actually pretty bored of the whole non-stop debate thing going on over here. You have people like ABF who believe their own opinions are "fact", and then people like ABF who can't admit when they're wrong.
But I digress. From this day forward I will make a conscious effort to argue as little as possible unless it's in the debate forum! I will even be the bigger man by letting notoriously wrong people like ABF and Hudson tell everyone their crazy opinions on things without responding to them in a mean and spiteful manner.
:D I jest.
Do we really have to disagree on everything? Everyone has their own opinions, and they shouldn't have to be afraid of speaking their mind because someone might get mad at them for it. So let's all try to be a little nicer to each other, okay? I'll be the first one to start.
Quote:ACADEMY OF INTERACTIVE ARTS AND SCIENCES (AIAS) ANNOUNCES FINALISTS FOR 2003 INTERACTIVE ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS
LOS ANGELES, CA – FEBRUARY 4, 2003 – The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences today announced finalists for the 2003 Interactive Achievement Awards, which will be held at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, February 27, 2003. The Academy will present awards in 30 craft, console, computer, and online categories. Award highlights include an overall Game of the Year as well as Game of the Year in different genres, and the prestigious Hall of Fame Award.
“Each year we see even more games that demonstrate the innovation, creativity and diversity with which videogames push the envelope of modern entertainment,” said Paul Provenzano, President of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. “It is satisfying to see such an exceptional mix of savvy veteran videogame developers and bold new studios among the finalists.
Metroid® Prime from Nintendo of America Inc. and Retro Studios earned an Interactive Achievement Awards record ten nominations. Several games received six nominations apiece including, Electronic Arts’ Battlefield 1942™, Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Sony Computer Entertainment of America’s Ratchet and Clank™ and Ubi Soft’s Splinter Cell™. Nintendo of America and Electronic Arts lead the field of videogame publishers with 26 and 25 total nominations respectively.
Finalists for 2003’s Game of the Year include:
• Animal Crossing™ for the NINTENDO GAMECUBE™, published by Nintendo of America Inc., developed by Nintendo Co. Ltd.;
• Battlefield 1942 for the PC, published by Electronic Arts, developed by Digital Illusions;
• Ratchet & Clank for the PlayStation® 2, published by Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., developed by Insomniac Games;
• Metroid Prime for the NINTENDO GAMECUBE, published by Nintendo of America Inc., developed by Retro Studios;
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for the PlayStation 2, published by Rockstar Games, developed by Rockstar North.
Finalists for 2003’s PC Game of the Year include:
• Age of Mythology™, published by Microsoft, developed by Ensemble Studios;
• Battlefield 1942, published by Electronic Arts, developed by Digital Illusions;
• Medal of Honor Allied Assault™, published by Electronic Arts, developed by 2015 Inc.;
• Neverwinter Nights™, published by Infogrames, developed by BioWare;
• Warcraft III®: Reign of Chaos, published and developed by Blizzard.
Finalists for 2003’s Console Game of the Year include:
• Splinter Cell for the Xbox, published by UbiSoft, developed by UbiSoft Montreal;
• Ratchet & Clank for the PlayStation 2, published by Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., developed by Insomniac Games;
• Metroid Prime for the NINTENDO GAMECUBE, published by Nintendo of America Inc., developed by Retro Studios;
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for the PlayStation 2, published by Rockstar Games, developed by Rockstar North;
• Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem™ for the NINTENDO GAMECUBE, published by Nintendo of America Inc., developed by Silicon Knights;
• Animal Crossing for the NINTENDO GAMECUBE, published by Nintendo of America Inc., developed by Nintendo Co. Ltd.
SEGA®’s Yu Suzuki will receive the Academy’s coveted Hall of Fame award.
The Interactive Achievement Awards will be presented as part of the 2003 D.I.C.E. Summit (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain), the only event presented to focus exclusively on game design.
About the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences
Located in Los Angeles, CA, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) is an official professional academy of the $7+billion interactive entertainment software industry. AIAS is supported by the industry’s leading companies and counts among its board of directors representatives from Activision, Bioware Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Ensemble Studios, Infogrames, Insomniac Games, Interactive Digital Software Association, Microsoft, Nintendo of America, Oddworld Inhabitants, Sony Computer Entertainment America, Sierra Entertainment, and Carnegie Mellon University.
It's newly 2003 so it's time to prepare for the best three days in every gamers life: The Electronic Entertainment Expo. I know, May is pretty far off right now, but it's never to early to talk about E3. Post your comments, thoughts, plans, and anything else E3 related here.
I got the latest OXM in the mail today and much to my surprise a demo of the game was included with the issue as well as the first review. It got a fantastic 9.0 from OXM, and I'm very happy to report that the game plays wonderfully. The combat is excellent, the controls are solid, and the camera is pretty good as well.
Unfortunately it's only coming out for the PS2, PC, and X-Box. But those of you that have one of these systems should be looking forward to this February release.
And we still get nothing of course, thanks to people like NA working at Nintendo.
Quote:Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken on GBA
Following our story early this past week that Nintendo is working on a new Fire Emblem game for the GameCube with Game Boy Advance connectivity in mind, we've got official confirmation today that the company will be releasing Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken (The Sword of Fire) in Japan on April 25th for 4,800 yen. The Fire Emblem series originated on the Famicom (Family Computer, Japan's equivalent of the NES) over 15 years ago, and has inspired such beloved series as Shining Force, Langrisser, and Ogre Battle. As our previous report stated, no game has ever made it to North America; hopefully, that will all change soon. Enjoy the first screens of the game below, thanks to john tv. We'll have more soon.
Okay, I've been reading many a review on RE2 and 3's port to GCN. We all knew there would be pretty much no improvements at all to the games, but I had assumed all the N64 exclusives and the PC exclusive stuff would be added to the PS1's ultimate release and together that would make up this game. Sadly, the N64 and PC bonus stuff is missing, and this is just the PC game. It's kinda sad, but to get all the stuff in this game, you must buy at least two versions, and this isn't one of them since it has NOTHING new added. The minimal two are the PC version for it's "aranged" mode, plus everything the PS1 version had, and the N64 version for it's "random" mode, it's extra "Ex" files, and it's little blood level options (however, it lacks the PS1 version's mode where you have to disarm bombs). They really should have at least taken the time to add all the exclusive material across all the versions into this one, which could have been the "complete" version to get. Sadly, this one comes up lacking due to that.
As for RE3, fortunatly the exclusives are very minor. The PC/DC versions had stuff unlocked from the start, and 2 extra costumes, but lacked the challenge of getting some key to get to a room that the PS1 version had. They used the PS1 version. They could have just added the two extra costumes from the PC/DC versions and again made this the "complete" version, but this too is lacking. Well, it's only lacking something graphical really. RE2 is the biggest lack of effort.
Sorry lazy, but it seems Capcom put all their efforts into REbirth and didn't even want to make a complete version of RE2 and 3.