The winners for
the Game Critics Awards: Best of E3 2009 are as follows.
For a list of facts including a breakdown of wins by publisher and platform, see fast facts.
Best
of Show
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
(Naughty Dog/Sony Computer Entertainment America for PlayStation 3)
Wow. Just…wow. We've become jaded about gorgeous graphics, but
the demo of Uncharted 2 at the Sony press conference still managed
to amaze. When Nathan Drake clambered up the side of a building and
gazed out at an amazing vista that seemed to stretch off into infinity,
a roomful of geeks gasped, then whooped with delight. A closer inspection
of the game revealed minute details and subtle tricks with depth of
field and lighting that you barely register on a conscious level, but
which serve to make the moment-to-moment experience that much more vivid.
The incredible visuals on display in Uncharted 2 almost overshadow
the game’s tight controls, intricate environments, witty dialogue
and interesting characters. (Oh, and can’t forget about the surprisingly
strong multiplayer.) The genre trappings may be a familiar mix of Lara
Croft and Indiana Jones, but Naughty Dog have found a million little
ways to make it all feel fresh. For instance, the game takes one of
the most tedious and hackneyed clichés in gaming——the ‘escort
mission’ that requires you to get a defenseless ally from Point A
to Point B——and turns it into something tense, thrilling, and emotionally
charged. We can’t wait to play more.
- Chris Baker, WIRED Magazine
Best Original
Game
Scribblenauts
(5TH Cell/Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment for Nintendo DS)
It's not every day that one of the biggest, most talked about games
of E3 is for a handheld, but 5th Cell's Scribblenauts turned out to
be it. Despite having the outward appearance of your typical puzzle-platformer,
Scribblenauts is actually innovation in a box. Arming players with tens
of thousands of different words that can be typed in at any time, the
game allows the player to solve challenges in hundreds of original ways.
Need to kill a horde of zombies? Type in the word shotgun, bat, plunger,
machinegun, or any number of other items and it will appear in game
-- ready for you to use just the way you intended. The best part of
Scribblenauts, though, is that it’s interesting, amazing and original,
and also a heck of a lot of fun.
- Jeremy Dunham, IGN.com
Best Console
Game
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
(Naughty Dog/Sony Computer Entertainment America for PlayStation 3)
With so much competition, in so many genres, on all the leading
platforms, for a sequel to stand out as the head of its class would
take something special. Uncharted 2 was unequivocally that special something.
It would also take more than bolting on a multiplayer component—a
feature that already has beta testers buzzing—to earn standout status.
Uncharted 2 showcased the entire package. From the impact of the first
scene—that glorious vista—to the death-defying acrobatics and action,
the game hinted at stratospheric production values, outperforming even
the phenomenal standard set by the original game. It’s impressive
already that the multiplayer—particularly the co-operative mode—provided
so much fun to eager testers on the show floor, and we’re sure this
brief insight only hinted at some of the engaging, no doubt memorable
situations planned for the full release. That complete package, blessed
with a visual impact so spectacular as to elicit gasps of awe from the
assembled media crowd, elevated Uncharted 2: Among Thieves as the standout
console game of E3.
- Rob Smith, PlayStation: The Official Magazine
Best PC Game
Star Wars: The Old Republic
(BioWare Austin/LucasArts)
If you could imagine a mash-up of Knights of the Old Republic, Mass
Effect, and World of Warcraft, you might have a decent picture of Star
Wars: The Old Republic. It mixes BioWare’s trademark story and dialogue
sequences with massively multiplayer gameplay, all set within the Star
Wars universe. Taking places approximately three hundred years after
the events of KOTOR (and 3,500 years before the rise of Darth Vadar),
you choose between a Jedi, Sith, or several other Star Wars roles and
make choices that determine whether you follow the light or dark side
of the force.
While it’s difficult to get a complete sense of how great a game of
this size and scope is at an event like E3, what we did see and play
left us thoroughly impressed. The story system looks to be improved
over Mass Effect’s and the action seems more intense than your typical
MMO. Add in all of the Star Wars elements and you’ve got a really
exciting game on the horizon. In fact, it’s looking to be pretty much
what everyone wished Star Wars Galaxies would be – the ultimate Star
Wars RPG.
- Sam Kennedy, 1UP.com
Best
Handheld Game
Scribblenauts
(5TH Cell/Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment for Nintendo DS)
Scribblenauts offered one of E3's genuine surprises at this year's
show. The original handheld title from developer 5th Cell puts a new
spin on puzzle games by letting you use your imagination to solve puzzles.
While the claim that players can "write anything" that will
then appear within the game sounds like one of those pie-in-the-sky
ideas that's simply too good to be true, Scribblenauts worked. Whether
it meant creating a pair of working night vision goggles, a rocket launcher,
a black hole, a griffin, a manticore or even God, the game served up
everything we threw at it and wound up being a blast to play. In a year
that saw some incredibly strong titles on handheld systems, Scribblenauts'
whimsical and inventive gameplay placed it firmly ahead of its competition.
- Ricardo Torres, GameSpot
Best
Hardware/Peripheral
"Project Natal"
(Microsoft for Xbox 360)
It works! As a technology concept, "Project Natal" is
a huge success. At E3, there wasn't any sexy camera peripheral, slick
marketing campaign, or catchy brand (Natal's a codename); instead, there
was a clunky prototype camera running alongside a laptop, powering the
Natal experience. Microsoft wants us to know this is an early look.
Step in front of the camera and – that's it? – you're scanned. That
laptop screen now shows a wireframe of your body with 48 unique joints.
Move your arm to move your arm. Walk forward to walk forward. Unencumbered
by a controller (camera notwithstanding!) Microsoft provided an impressive
breadth of demos for Natal, from active (the functional, albeit homely,
Ricochet) to traditional (last year's Burnout Paradise) to avant-garde
(Molyneux's Milo and Kate). It may be too early for names and release
dates but it wasn't too early to convince us of one thing: Natal works.
- Chris Grant, Joystiq
Best Action
Game
Modern Warfare 2
(Infinity Ward/Activision for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC)
Infinity Ward has a goal of creating blockbuster video games that
stand up to the best summer action movies. From what we have seen of
Modern Warfare 2, the team is ready to take its place with the Michael
Bays and Ridley Scotts. The developers have only offered a glimpse at
the game's breadth, but that still has revealed an array of spine-tingling
action elements: airborne combat, exploding fireballs, earthen strongholds
and underwater assaults. A new Special Operations co-operative play
mode looks to be frenetic, but still behind the veil is the much-anticipated
multiplayer mode. This year, the blockbusters truly are not confined
to summer.
- Mike Snider, USA Today
Best Action/Adventure Game
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
(Naughty Dog/Sony Computer Entertainment America for PlayStation 3)
Naughty Dog has had a long history of pushing the envelope, from
Crash Bandicoot on PlayStation One to Jak & Dexter on PlayStation
2, but none of its previous products has been as ambitious as Uncharted
2: Among Thieves. Nathan Drake’s return has everything. With love
interests and a lost treasure anchoring the story, plus co-op, multiplayer,
and a thrill-ride single-player supporting the gameplay, this PlayStation
3 tour-de-force has all the thrills to match any Hollywood adventure
movie with all the non-stop action gamers crave.
- Andy McNamara, Game Informer
Best Role
Playing Game
Mass Effect 2
(BioWare/Electronic Arts for Xbox 360, PC)
As gamers and critics, we get awfully carried away with crazy technobabble
like "traversal mechanics" and "specular highlighting,"
when they're really just flashy ingredients in the giant recipe of gaming.
After all, we don't play games to fall in love with a physics engine.
(Well, okay, maybe some of us do.) We didn't sacrifice hours of our
lives back in the day because some RPG had Mode 7 texture mapping (though
we might've fancied ourselves smart enough to throw the term around
for nerd cred).
No, we play games because we love the escape. We want to get lost in
something big -- something that doesn't involve a time clock and a punch
card. And the minute we see Mass Effect's Commander Shepard violently
sucked through a giant rip in the Normandy's hull into the deadly silence
of deep space, we’re ready to believe. We want to take that rollercoaster
ride through BioWare's choice-filled, cinematic, alien-stuffed wonderland.
We want to shake our fists angrily at our TVs after paying for the decisions
we made in the first game. We want to chase down those Reapers and give
them hell. We want to give a shit about our character, again. We want
Mass Effect 2.
- Francesca Reyes, Official Xbox Magazine
Best Racing
Game
Split/Second
(Black Rock/Disney Interactive Studios for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC)
Split/Second is a racer that stands out from a strong and broad
selection of racing games this year for bringing something that has
been absent from the genre, the element of surprise. By shifting focus
from the behavior of cars on the course to the instability of the course
itself Split/Second returns to the gleeful subversion of form introduced
in the original Mario Kart and upends player expectations with its unique
approach to strategy. Not satisfied with simply presenting players with
the ability to mutate the racing course, Split/Second forces considerations
of timing and the long-term impact of one’s destruction, all the while
demanding that successful driving not take a back seat to the pyrotechnics. An
ambitious conflation of racing games, Split/Second is a fresh and welcome
title.
- Adam Sessler, G4TV
Best Sports
Game
Fight Night Round 4
(EA Canada/EA Sports for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
Three years after its last bout, the Fight Night franchises returns
with legends of the ring like Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson. Why did this
boxing simulation rise to the top of the Best Sports category? By not
annualizing the franchise, EA Sports has given the developers the time
they need to deliver a knockout sequel. There’s a fluid 60 frames per
second fighting engine, not to mention much improved physics, better
inside fighting, and a much-needed legacy career mode. Far too often
sports sequels are predictable and evolutionary, but Fight Night Round
4 delivers a fresh, high-impact boxing experience that shows off the
technical power of today’s consoles.
- Geoff Keighley, Spike TV
Best Fighting
Game
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars
(Eighting/Capcom for Nintendo Wii)
Capcom could have slapped the 23 diverse characters in Tatsunoko
vs. Capcom: Ultimate All Stars into its already-solid template created
for Marvel vs Capcom, thrown it on Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation
Network, and called it a night. Odds are, we'd probably still be giving
it this award. When it comes to creating games, however, Capcom knows
that to win the fight, you have to constantly change styles. Tatsunoko
vs. Capcom is the perfect reflection of that strategy, as the game includes
a control scheme that differs from most Capcom fighters, with a very
broad pastiche of characters to choose from (mixing famous and overlooked
Capcom stars with Tatsunoko's legendary anime icons). The game's ultimate
destination is also a change from the status quo, as it's Wii-exclusive.
Between the already-released Street Fighter IV and this game, Capcom's
got quite the combo for 2009.
- Dave Rudden, GamePro
Best Strategy
Game
Supreme Commander 2
(Gas Powered Games/Square-Enix for Xbox 360, PC)
While other RTS games have been boiling down the strategic experience
and have tried to focus on the action of specific units fighting on
more confined battlefields, Supreme Commander 2 returns Gas Powered
Games to their unit-overload roots. This is a company that has built
a reputation for over-delivering on their strategy games and, under
the stewardship of Chris Taylor, won numerous accolades along the way,
(including a 2006 Best of E3 award from us for the original Supreme
Commander). In the stunning sequel, hundreds of intricately detailed
3D models, based on all manner of robotic bug and lizard will converge
on targets and swarm your screen. The true physics, sharp fidelity and
fully positional cameras--including SupCom’s patented full zoom out--creates
a hypnotic effect that is equal parts overwhelming and empowering. You
are the general in this future war of incredible/impossible tech and
you can see the whole damn beautiful spectacle with one tiny spin of
your mouse wheel. Brilliant.
- Victor Lucas, The Electric Playground
Best
Social/Casual/Puzzle
DJ Hero
(Freestyle/Red Octane/Activision for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii)
More than just "Guitar Hero with a turntable," Activision's
newest music/rhythm offering is a promising way to reinvent the crowded
genre by challenging players to mash-up two (often very different) tracks
together into one mix; master directional scratching, cross-fading and
other DJ techniques; and lets others join the party with optional guitar
peripheral and mic support. (Suffice it to say, the Activision booth
was pumping behind closed doors at E3). With an extraordinary (and extraordinarily
eclectic) track list out of the box -- Nirvana's "All Apologies"
vs. Rick James' "Give It to Me Baby," for instance -- not
to mention club-worthy DLC content planned to follow the launch, house
parties will never be the same.
- Marc Saltzman, Gannett News Service