Is a best of E3 award necessary? I would think that considering that unless you've had a hands on play of the game we shouldn't be giving an award to something that wows us on the screen.

Of course if this must be done then I would think we should do a general one for each console/handheld but not best, more of a top 5 or top 3.

Jacktherip

rename Best Social/Casual/Puzzle Game to Best Wii Game

STARSBarry

Best Franchise Milking
Best Manly-Men-With-BFGs Game
Best Empty Promise
Most Ridiculous Stage Performance
Best It's-A-Price-Drop-But-Not-Really-More-Like-A-Phasing-Out-Or-Value-Increase-If-You-Will-On-Second-Thought-Don't-Call-It-A-Price-Drop-'Cause-People-Will-Get-Mad Annoucement.

Antiterra

Instead of making a bunch of categories and trying to figure out what goes where, have a scoring system set in place across the board, with all games in their respected genre being scored equally. Then you hand out first, second, and third with an overall winner with the highest score. You could even add all the judges scores to create an average to have a clearer winner.

MiGo316

I like Caseus's suggestions up there.
A bit more boring but maybe Best Story or Most Refined Control, Best Original Game Mechanic & Design, along those lines.

glamnesia

@Aex: Nah, I disagree. Action/Adventure doesn't really mean that either Action OR Adventure games fit the category; it's really it's own genre by now. Action games are stuff like Ninja Gaiden and such, whereas Adventure games are strictly Monkey-Island type stuff. Action/Adventure, on the other hand, is basically the Legend of Zelda series and anything that resembles it.

At least, that's how I see it.

Spiffyness

@the_answer: I think Ico could fit that glove.

There are quite a few ambient, exploration type games too that are heavy on adventure, not action. However, at this instant I can only think of Kyntt and Seiklus...two excellent freeware games.

Krondonian

@Krondonian: Yea, I caught that on my second read through :p

Which explains my second post following my first hehe...

Aex

please keep Best Social/Casual/Puzzle Game - that's where the wii dominates, aside from sales.

you can lose Best Action/Adventure Game. make it more specific. where are the pure adventure games anyway? it's a dead genre, me thinks

the_answer

Let's see categories based on something that gamers, but not reviewers, care about: price. There are lots of interesting, good titles that could make lists of inexpensive and free games, but that can't compete against the big boys.

Also, I can see the need for the platform-specific categories, but I don't care about the genre awards. If something is recommended I'll read the description, watch some videos, look for a demo, etc. I don't care what the genre is. Hell, I even tried out the Bus Driver demo because someone said it was good. (It was just alright.)

jeangrae

I think the categories need to be more specific as far as what is exciting about the game. "Best Action Game" doesn't tell me anything about the title, other than there is action in it. Ok, that's every game. We don't need to reinvent the wheel, this is what the Oscars do already, Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Screenplay, Best Special Effects, and so on. They don't have "Best Drama, Best Comedy, Best Dromedy.

So here's what I suggest:

Best Game: Don't beat around the bush, what game blew everyone's socks off?

Best Presentation: Did they introduce the game with panache or just show a trailer?

Best Graphics: Whose shit is the hottest?

Best Story: (call it screenplay if you want)

Best New Property: Encourage the non-sequels

Best Gameplay Mechanic: Anybody doing anything new?

Best Adaptation: Is your game based on a movie? Comic book? Novel? Who's doing the best job of that?

That's what I got so far.

Slothboy

@Aex: But they're different.

Kameo or Zelda are action adventure type games.

Crackdown is an action game.

Zelda vs. Crackdown?

They should stay separate.

karasu is my homeboy

Trying to place games into specific genres will always create difficulties. My solution? Rate the games based on player reaction.

Best game for making you feel important
Best game for making you curse at your screen
Best game for making you feel like a kid again
Best game for making you piss your pants
Best game for making you want to high-five your buddy

Caseus

@Aex: I think he was more meaning that we should just award appropriate credit where it's due.

So, little Timmy is praised for his awesome new ideas, whilst we ignore little Billy in the corner.

Krondonian

Best Social/Casual/Puzzle Game

That one. What the fuck is that one.

karasu is my homeboy

@Xideo: Well, again, please forgive my post :P

I was blinded by social rage... I think I got way off topic from your original posting, and just wanted to address that.

Aex

@Xideo: ...Sorry in advance, but this hits a nerve on a big social topic...

Yes, let's move towards the America where there are no losers and everyone is a winner. There is no difference between little Timmy, who scores 100% on his exams and little Billy, who scores 50%, because they are both "Special".

We need winners and losers to keep things special. If everyone and everything is a winner, the title loses it's meaning. If every loser is treated like a winner, what is the purpose of winning?

Aex

Squeezing a round peg into a square hole is pretty easy.

The opposite, however, is a little more difficult.

glutto

@lumpi:

I agree in this case I think it's best to generalize.

-DontPanic-

How about we do this like they do it in high school.

Most likely to succeed

Best graphics

Best all around game (thorough single player, customization and online/multiplayer).

etc.

NeoAkira

Game whose Coders have the best variety of facial hair.

Krondonian

How about categories based upon how the game is supposed to make you feel, e.g. Best game to make you happy, best game for stress relief, best game to make you think, best game to relax to...

McGaveson

Why have awards for games that you've only see/played for half an hour or less? Just make a list of the most promising games you played/watched and leave it at that.You could just also make categories that best fit the game you're thinking about.
Here's an example: Prince of Persia looks awesome and it gets my "awesome badge of interestingness" award while RE5 gets the "looks like game that looks exactly like the last title only with better graphics."

Xideo

I think

Best Action Game
Best Action/Adventure Game

is redundant.... Drop Best Action Game.

Aex

kill off Best Social/Casual, seeing as Nintendo's conference was pretty much all that. *sigh*.
I think it'd be way better just to have detailed writeups of everything so that we can make our own categories. The whole problem is that there just isn't that much at E3 anymore.

ZinkO: Beat Incursion

Its like when your digging through your toy box to find that right one; we unconsciously and systematically sortie on the fly.

PsycheE

How about just "Best Game"?

Having categories for 3 games, 2 of which are crappy and the third mediocre seems a little pointless.

Maybe an "Most Original" or "Most Innovative Game" category to award the quirky games that are usually overshadowed by the blockbuster-titles.

lumpi

I think it's just human nature to categorize what see, compartmentalizing that which we perceive to be similar together. But therein lies the problem: what we perceive to be similar is entirely subjective, leading to a multitude of categories that don't necessarily agree with one another.

Unfortunately, I can't pretend to offer a solution to this conundrum.

SmilingPolitely

Best game for making a powerpoint presentation more interesting.

liquid_kore

@Aex: I get your points. I feel that's an industry problem in general. There's no solid book definition of role playing game or adventure game. They kinda are the same thing...or they're not, depending on who you ask.

Adventure being added to an action game isn't really defined either, we just put it there if the story feels more important or the game isn't as action-y as other action games.

It is pretty messy. I call for a movement giving solid definitions of genres, especially Adventure, Role Playing, Action RPG and Action Adventure.

Back on topic more, renaming action adventure to just Adventure would make a lot of sense.

@Aex: Yeah, but Rock Band 2 and LBP are there instead. So it doesn't even really make sense. The nominees aren't really justifying the category. Yours did.

karasu is my homeboy

@Aex: I thought this when I saw it too.

SkutSkut

I like making categories that are entertaining and not really genres at all, simply picking the best games across the board to display and making it an entertaining read as well.

ie, Best Game to Cooperatively Shit Your Collective Pants: Left 4 Dead.

art_zombie

Those photoshop filters... owwwwww!

Toasticus

Why don't they just keep it simple and name the categories after game genres, such as: best shooter, best platformer, best racing game etc..

Theres no need for stuff like "best casual". and don't see the need for best *anything* online since every game (minus a few)this generation has had some form of online capabilities incorporated into them (wether it be a simple leaderbord or full on multiplayer).

I just think they should be looking at the game as a whole instead of breaking the game apart and rating it acordingly.

limitt_45

Honestly i think theres no way to correctly catagorize games in a way that you could compare them, and have it be fair.
You can argue over almost everything
For instance.. you could say "Best MMORPG"
But then you could say.. " Well does that include MMORPGFPS's?"
Then you could just say "Best MMO" But then thats all Massively multiplayer Online games... which is to broad becuase you are bringing together RTS and FPS and RPG....
And then there is the Action Adventure games... which is probably the more rediculous catagory. I'd say most games fall into that catagory... So lets just call it best game.

This topic is hurting my head thinking about....
Thank god its not on me to vote....
I feel bad for you Brian....

Sorshha

I like and have incorporated some of the previous commenter's work.

Games may be nominated for more than one "Best" category.
Best Art
Best Story
Best Soundtrack
Best Multiplayer (ease of joining, quality of interaction)
Best of Show

Honorable Mentions must not be a "Best of":
Honorable Mention: Original Design
Honorable Mention: Wii pick
Honorable Mention: PS3 pick
Honorable Mention: Xbox pick
Honorable Mention: PC pick

Then each judge may submit one non-Best non-HM game
Judges' Choice Awards

yobbo

I think you should have a best 360 ps3 ect... I enjoy learning more about PS3 games but I'm not ready to buy one yet because I have enough to play on my 360, Wii and iPhone. So I would really enjoy reading what game wins best on each system.

Just please don't forget to take into account the exclusives on each system because those matter.

Gunloc

Best Innovation.... Games like Spore that seek originality and something out of the norm should always be rewarded.

Best Sequel.... Let's face it, video games are a sequel machine these days. Sequels receive the most hype, so which one was the best?

Best Visuals.... We're still graphx whores, which one tintilated our visual taste buds the most?

Best Exclusive.... Games are becoming cross-platform monsters. Reward the games that still make a specific system worth the purchase.

Best Online Game.... Not necessarily an MMORPG, it could just be an online versus option. Online gaming is bigger than ever, which game had the best online options?

Best Gameplay.... Never forget the one thing that keeps us playing.

Best Whipping Boy.... (Looks Nintendo's press conference direction.)

Best Moment of E3.... The moments that still make E3, well, E3!

FreekyDeeky

@karasu is my homeboy: its the genre where boom blox, peggle, mario party, wii sports, and buzz belong :)

Aex

How about most/least original game of the show?

Most interesting/boring demo?

Surely the action and action/adventure categories are redundant? Do you need both?

GrandfatherParadox

@DuctTape: You forgot role playing.

Also I'd like a category for worst new game name.

Jacktherip

@Spiffyness: Right, I understand the meaning behind it now, but it's like a subcategory-genre to give special attention to a game that is good, but might not excel when put up against better items that wouldn't be excluded by the top level genre.

I've always seen Zelda, as an Action-RPG, which is a subcategory under the RPG genre, imo (it could be a sub of action). If someone said Zelda was the best RPG (or action) game, I'd think you'd have quite a few people going wtf :)

Aex

I think many of these hybrid categories exist solely so the winning publishers can use them in promotional material. I mean sure, there may have only been one entry in "Best Tactical Puzzle Based Action Strategy Online Game", but it still looks good on the box of the whoever wins.

They'll never get rid of these silly categories, because the more categories there are, the more publishers get to put "Best .... Of E3" on their box art.

DuctTape

@Antiterra: *AnnouNcement

Antiterra

@Aex: Yeah, didn't see your second post till after I'd hit send.

In a somewhat related point, I do think that there's too much hype and press on everything. It was very relieving to hear Yahtzee's rant about the games shown at E3, where he pissed on basically everything. (Kotaku will probably post it later).

After all the praise and hope it's fresh to hear some negativity- even from him.

Krondonian

Gametrailers gave Resident Evil 5 the award for best Third Person Shooter. I dunno I always thought RE was a Survival Horror, which requires you to hold back on the thumbstick while clicking R?

I guess game catagories can easily come straight to preference on what you think defines that particular genre.

Refused

@karasu is my homeboy: I understand what you are saying and I think we need to define the difference between an action, action adventure, and an adventure game? I took that category to be a mix of the three, and thus the reason for my labeling it redundant.

Maybe they should rename Action/Adventure to just say Adventure game? Or we should just have high level genre's. The further you dwindle down, the more and more you get repeated wins by games that excel in several genre types. Cause Zelda could be considered, RPG, Action, Adventure, Hack and Slash, etc... etc...

Aex

@jeangrae: Well, there are solid definitions, and that's the problem. The top-level genres, as I like to call them, have many subcategories now and those subcategories are trying to solidify certain aspects in a genre so that they can seperate some RPGs from other RPGs. It's somewhat similar to gerrymandering for video game ratings and awards.

Aex

Why is it a problem that there aren't solid definitions of genres? Why would you want developers to work from rigid templates? Who does it serve to force every game into a genre?

jeangrae

@karasu is my homeboy: Well, Rock Band is a social game, and LBP is one as well... Instead of super specializing the category (Music games), they stuck RB2 in the overall category that covers social/casual/puzzle... basically they took several categories that had few games in each and combined them into one...

It is effective in this sense, not sure if I like mashing categories together tho :)

Aex

@Aex: No problem.
Really though, most of the games at E3 this year seem lackluster.They don't generate that excitement that you used to get from previous E3 iterations.That's why I'd go with the silly award names.Anyway, the award categories should be the standard fare (best game on show, most creative, etc etc) and a few "special" kotaku awards just to be different like "game most voted on by kotaku to be good" or something.

Xideo

@Sorshha: I think they should keep it as simple as possible ,Best MMO, and thats it. Who cares if its to broad. Its not like every single MMo ever created has to be taken to acount. Just the ones playable at E3.

Breaking it down anymore just seems like a way to make everybody feel good about themselves. an example would be like "My game didn't win best shooter but, it did win best mmofps!"

All im trying to say is theres no need for all these categories. If a game is a shooter its a shooter, if its a platformer its a platformer. But if its a platformer with shooter elements (example megaman, metroid, R&C). At its core, its still a platformer. And should be recognised for what it truly is.

limitt_45

Don't Try to squeeze a game into genres, Try to focus on the features and Platforms.

Best Single Player Game - Can be a Single-Player only game, or a game with a rich single player campaign

Best Multi-Player Game - Can be Multi-Player only, or a game with a big focus on Multi-player

Best New Downloaded Console Game - XBLA and PSN games go here. Remakes are allowed ONLY if they have actually been updated. (Bionic Commando: Re-Armed = Allowed, Dig Dug = Not Allowed)

Best Hand-Held Game - Duh

Best PC Game - Yup

Best Console Game - Uh Huh

etc...

Nside

Nice CoolText.com graphics.

Bootleg Zani

The Game Critics awards are there to help advertise games and help the consumer, so if there's only 1 category per system, that sort of screws you over if you want a driving game or fighting, or even sports. If Fallout wins XBOX, LBP wins PS3, and Spore wins PC; where does that leave people who want none of those things?

thefais

Here's a good category: Game I am most likely to actually buy on release day.

Jesse in Japan

@PsycheE: I dont think sortie means what you think it means--it's a military term that actually has nothing to do with the word 'sort'.

So there's Best Action Game AND Best Action/Adventure Game? That's pretty ridiculous.

B-Minus

"Best Game to be Found in the Under $10 Bin at Certain Unnamed Chain Video Game Stores"

I'd totally pay attention to that category. The winner, of course, would need to be new every year because once in that territory, games never leave.

bangbangblah

@Aex: So that takes us back to "They should have called it best Social game."

Calling it best Social/Casual/Puzzle is dumb, because if there was a one player puzzle game that really impressed this year, it would be competing with social party game Rock Band 2, and that doesn't make any sense.

"Best Social Game." Problem solved.

karasu is my homeboy

Best Gaming Media Circle Jerk

RomeoPapaDelta

I would like to see a category for exclusively downloadable games (i.e. games from PSN, XBL Arcade, Virtual Console). There were definitely some good ones this year, like the now-controversial Fat Princess.

nellie_bly

I'd vote getting rid of "Game of the Year", myself

HikariOblivion

@Aex: Where you a winner and everyone around you a loser that made you "unspecial" =)
Just best looking game
most original
biggest kick in the nads

will do for me.

wnflame

forget all these awards and save em for leipzig

LlamaNL

That there aren't any good simulation games coming out this year says something. Seems like when I was a kid, every two seconds, there was another Star Wars flight sim, Sim City, driving game (non-arcade-y)....

What happened?

PlayerX

@wnflame: I have no idea what you said :P

If you are referencing the way America is headed, then no my childhood wasn't like that at all. Back in my day, rofl, We had Children's sports where the score was actually kept :P Not "We don't keep score, because there are no winners or losers league" like now-a-days, and we had to walk 15 miles in the snow to school, uphill, fighting off ravenous tigers... BOTH WAYS

Aex

how about

"MMO least likley to draw attention away from world of warcraft"

relax_guy

Best Valve Game Not Shown At E3?

Mascott

Where's "Best Pissing War"?

Americo