Game Changer #45 – Spike’s VGA HIghlights

My name is Jared Whittaker, one of the hosts and Audio Chewbacca of the Super-Fly Podcast and PCW! Welcome to Game Changer, a weekly burning missive about all aspects of video gaming with a little bit of opinion thrown in for fun. Proceed with caution and tread lightly, gentle gamers. It’s going to be good time. Like the first time you saw Super Mario 3 good time.

The end of the year usually means all the giant, blockbuster games have already come out and most consumers are already for Christmas and the new games their are going to get. People are still grinding levels on Battlefield 3, Modern Warfare 3 and Jason Kerouac’s current favorite game, Skyrim and winding down. But the last big blown out of 2011 was Spike TV’s Video Game Awards show. Now, the show itself is pretty cheesecake. B-D list celebs walking down the red carpet and being mistaken for game developers and voice actors and overall, it reinforces a lot of gamer stereotype that never die. At crappy as that was, the show has become a destination for game reveals for titles coming in the next year. This year was no exception with a ton of game announcements. The rest of the show was pretty pointless. The most embarrassing bit came when host Zachary Levi of Chuck fame was unmercilessly tea-bagged on stage. Yeah….that happened.

That not withstanding, some pretty awesome footage was shown off on this show. From games we’d seen before to completely new and unexpected announcements, the games are what make the VGAs (barely) worth sitting through. But instead of talking about it, here are some of the better game trailers and reveals on the show:

The Amazing Spider-Man (Coming Summer 2012)

Spider-Man is back in what looks like the video game companion to the incoming movie next year. The TV news motif was a pretty interesting way to frame the trailer. And while the mechanical spider robots are a little cliche and the main bad robot towards the end smacks a little of the Resistance series, but the game looks like it’s going to be another fun, action-packed installment of Spider-Man games.

Hitman Absolution (2012)

The long awaited next installment of the stealth action game, Hitman is coming next year and it look more and more impressive every time I see it. It looks like Agent 47 is going to be killing a lot of people this time around. The classic double silenced pistols are back and are going to get a workout. Seems like someone close to 47 is in trouble and he’s looking for her. Make sure you check this game out when it comes out next year.

Diablo 3 Exclusive Intro Cinematic (2011)

Blizzard unveiled the opening cinematic to the monstrously awesome Diablo 3, and if you aren’t drooling over this game after watching this, you’re dead. Or not into good games. The beta has been amazing so far and for those that haven’t seen or played the beta, you need to REALLY get prepared for this game. Really. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Diablo 3 drags you to hell at some point next year.

Fortnite

Epic Games is known for their big franchise games: Gears of War, Unreal Tournament, Bulletstorm. But Fortnite looks like it’s going to be their take on the zombie apocalypse. It’s cartoony presentation is an interesting change of pace from the ultra-realistic, gritty and brown setting that Epic is known for. This one is going to be a game to keep an eye on next year.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

It’s been a while since we’ve seen anything about Metal Gear Rising. Like anything. But at the VGAs, the game shown back up with a new name and a very different play style. It looks like the game will not follow Metal Gear Solid’s stealth-based gameplay and replaced it with a hack and slash, Dynasty Warriors-like gaming experience. The subway fight scene at the end is visually amazing! That said, I’m sure that there will be more to it than that and that we’ll see some familiar faces in the game. But the trailer looks pretty insane. Be looking out for Jack in 2012. And Metal Gear Ray is BACK!!!!

The Last Of Us Debut Trailer

Rumors had been swirling around about a big PS3 exclusive that would be debuting at the VGAs. And it turned out to be The Last of Us from PS3 masters Naughty Dog. The game looks pretty awesome! The trailer shows a world totally destroyed and populated with monsters of some sort. The game is being vague with details, likely because the game is still being worked on. But if the game is even half as good as the Uncharted series, Sony is going to have another huge game in it’s library. Look for this game coming late next year.

BioShock Infinite Exclusive Trailer

Remember Bioshock Infinite? Because it’s coming in March 2012. All the footage is in-game and…..yeah….just watch it. And pre-order. This. NOW!!!

Transformers Fall of Cybertron

A surprise for me was how good the new Transformers game looks. It look better than all the movies put together. This could be a pretty decent game. Most licenced games are a lot better when they are not tied to a crappy movie. If the movies could be as awesome as this trailer, my childhood wouldn’t have suffered so much in the last few years. Look for this Fall 2012.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD (!!!!!!!!!)

Early last week, I read a rumor that a new Tony Hawk game could be announced, I cringed. “Really?” I thought. The series died a horrible death with Project 8 in my opinion and never should have made anymore games. But the announcement that a remake of the first Tony Hawk game, I fell out of my chair. Possibly the best Tony Hawk game in the series, (well….THPS 3 was pretty awesome as well.) the thought of giving the HD remake treatment to the early games in this series is really, REALLY making me start trying to remember where all hidden video tapes are. No release date was given, but it can’t happen soon enough. #Facts

And while not an official announcement, the winner of Best Character in a video game, The Joker, gave a pretty funny acceptance speech. It the speech, Joker steps up to the podium and pulls out a folder that has the words “Batman:Arkham World Script” on it. After holding it up for what seemed like years, Joker throws it to the side, saying “Whoops. Looks like I won’t be needing that, now will I? SPOILERS!” Pretty subtle, huh? So be looking for more on that pretty soon.

Overall, the VGAs are a good end to an awesome year in gaming and a big kick off to 2012. Just keep tea bagging off camera and in your Halo marathons. What did you like about the VGAs? What didn’t you like about it? Let us know.

Keep gaming….

Jared Whittaker plays a lot of games. Not as much as he’d like, but as much as time and money will allow. If you want to play some games with Jared, you can find him on Playstation 3; PSN tag: JFX. He is also on Steam and Battle.net as JFX316 and while he doesn’t have an Xbox 360, he has the coolest Gamertag in the world: Obiwan Jaborni. Feel free to add him as a friend or email him at JWhittaker@PanelsonPages.com. and on Twitter as JFX316

Filed Under: Columns • Game Changer

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