GGS 2010 Gamescom Awards

Aug 23, 2010

We came. We saw. We … got lost, fell out of showers, abandoned shithole hotels, got drunk with Microsoft people, got snubbed by Ubisoft (THANKS FOR THAT UBISOFT) and cried about missed flights home. We had an incredible time in Cologne and can’t quite believe that it’s all over for another year.

We have loads to tell you about over the next few days, but while our feet still throb and our suitcases have yet to be emptied, here’s a brief look at the best – and worst – Gamescom had to offer in the humble opinions of our GGS team.

Sarah

Best Single Player Games – Red Faction Armageddon: The fully destructible environments and what you can do with them are very impressive!

Best Multiplayer Game – Crysis 2: The controls were responsive and the map was multi-leveled. But mainly because I managed to get quite a few kills in during the little time we had!

Most Overrated Game – Halo Reach. More of the same, anyone?

Biggest Surprise – Home Front: I went in expecting yet another mundane FPS but was (very) pleasantly surprised. The back story as well as the gameplay has made me very excited about this one.

Best Trailer – Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood: Visually stunning! You can’t watch the trailer and not want to play the game. Seriously.

Best Freebie: A sticker that was stuck to my t-shirt by one of the Home Front guys. He was wearing a PHWOARsome uniform – what can I say?

Best Show Set – Fallout New Vegas: The attention to detail was good. They’d attempted to make it interesting

Best Celebrity Spotting – Peter Molyneux (though I’m not sure what was more awesome: seeing Peter or seeing the look on Tom’s face when he realised who it was).

Quote of Gamescom: “Ohhhhh hi there!”
Steve and Tom getting shunned and/or pushed in front of by half the population of Germany. :P

GGS Person Who Looked Least Like Their Av: Me, apparently! You were all pretty spot-on. If pushed, I guess I’d say Steve, just because I have to choose someone. :P

Steve

Best Single Player Game: I had a Lot of fun with Fable 3! I was very surprised actually as I’ve never been a diehard Fable fan, but wow it was brilliant and the combat system was marvellous. Also FEAR 3 was high up in my list because I love the FEAR games and this looks like a great and challenging addition.

Best Multiplayer Game: Has to be Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, I couldn’t believe how much fun it was just running away from assassins while also trying to hunt down a victim. It’s such a great idea for a multiplayer game and if nothing else, I would buy the game just for that.

Most Overrated Game: The whole Move and Kinect craze. It’s been done and it didn’t work that well before but now it’s coming back and it still doesn’t work that well.

Biggest Surprise: Castlevania! It was a great little game from what I played. It reminded me of Dante’s Inferno in some ways and it was just such a pleasant surprise because I thought that I wasn’t going to be bothered with the game.

Best Trailer: Portal 2 really looks like it’s going to be an epic and funny game. The trailer shows everything excellent that they have added since the last game and it’s so impressive, especially the Propulsion Gel in the Gravity fields… yum!

Best Freebie: My portal 2 or Brink T-shirt! I love free clothes!

Best Show Set: Fallout New Vegas, oh my goodness, what a sight. The big sign outside and the consoles built into the casino furniture, it was genius and I totally adored it.

Best Celebrity Spotting: My best celebrity sighting was probably that guy from Xbox Inside because I see that guy all the time, although Peter was right next to us, you know Peter?

Quote of Gamescom: “OH HI THERE, this has been in my family for generations, you know generations?” or “Use the Boost to get through”. Can’t choose!

GGS Person Who Looked Least Like Their Av: Apparently it’s me or Sarah… *tears up*

Tom

Best Single Player Game: Fallout: New Vegas – Incredibly similar to Fallout 3 on first inspection, but with brilliant changes. Although the demo was pretty short, this game has amazing potential and will no doubt be my game of the year.

Best Multiplayer Game: Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood – The multiplayer on this game is just awesome. The inclusion of character selection and skill selection adds a whole new gameplay element. The Game type we played (pretty much a hunt and be hunted scenario) was just so much fun, despite the fact it was all in German.

Most Overrated Game: Crysis 2 – Just didn’t get why people are so excited about it. From my perspective it was just a standard FPS with nice graphics. Maybe when the actual game comes out it will seem
different, but from what I experienced it was as Generic as you like.

Biggest Surprise: Fable 3 – I went into Fable not expecting a great deal of change. And yes it was the same in many aspects, but from what I encountered this is going to be an amazing RPG and just blew me
away when I didn’t think it would. I think that Fable 3 has amazing potential. That and the guy there was really nice.

Best Trailer: Portal 2 – The second half of the trailer was just gameplay mechanics we had seen before, but the first part was an extended bit with Wheatley, which was brilliant. It just made me want to shake the staff there and demand they give me the game now.

Best Freebie: Portal 2 t-shirt – although we got a few decent t-shirts this one has to be crowned king. I bloody love it. This or my numerous lanyards.

Best Show Set: Playstation Move – The Move section wasn’t overly designed or anything, it was just simple and easy to navigate around. There were plenty of consoles and it never appeared to busy, which is awfully important at a packed games convention.

Quote of Gamescom: OH HI THERE – it was a toss-up between this and ‘Peter, you know Peter?’. But really how could it be anything else.

Best Celebrity Spotting – Peter Molyneux – ‘OH HI PETER, you know Peter?’. I almost wet myself when I saw him in the hotel bar :D

GGS Person Who Looked Least Like Their Av: Sarah – the points system we devised never lies.

Vikki

Best Single Player Game: Aliens plus blowing up stuff = Vikki’s Perfect Game = Red Faction Armageddon. It looks ever bit as amazing as we’ve come to expect from THQ, and the gameplay builds on everything we loved about RF: Guerrilla and then some. Although we didn’t get any hands-on time, the dev pitch was impressive.

Best Multiplayer Game: Crysis 2 – Okay. So while I’m still not entirely convinced of the significance of 3D gaming (even if the 3D cinematic shown was pretty kickass), I left the demo pleasantly surprised and definitely wanting more. Good job, EA – my interest has been piqued!

Most Overrated Game: Sims 3 – I know many, many people love this title, but it just does nothing for me. I did check it out but meh. Feel like we’ve been there, done that!

Biggest Surprise: Crysis 2 – For all the reasons listed above, I didn’t expect to care about it much, but I did thoroughly enjoy it. Oh – and honourable mention to Kinect; I arrived at Gamescom thinking it was merely a Wii wannabe. I was mistaken.

Best Trailer: Red Faction Armageddon – this game is beautiful. Coupled with the live demo, I left thinking that I can’t wait to put this through it’s paces.

Best Freebie: I

Best Show Set: Fallout New Vegas – Complete with Welcome to (New) Vegas Sign and snazzy silver theatre curtains, Bethesda stole the show with this incredible set. Honourable mention should go to Playstation for the Move set. It was just a shame that all the games were in German so I didn’t get a proper chance to try it out!

Best Celebrity Spotting: Peter Molyneux. Oh – and meeting one of the voice actors from the Saw games!

Quote of Gamescom: OH HAI THERE!

GGS Person Who Looked Least Like Their Av: Sarah James – Sorry Sarah! I think it’s just the hair!

What do YOU think? Even if you couldn’t be there and have had to settle for following the news in the media, what are your top Gamescom 2010 picks?