Crispy Gamer News

There are those that get awards and then there are those that actually deserve them. Ensemble Studios frontman, Bruce Shelley, is the latter. The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) has announced that Bruce Shelley will be the 12th inductee into the Academy’s Hall of Fame, joining such luminaries as Trip Hawkins (Electronic Arts), Peter Molyneux (Lionhead Studios), Yu Suzuki (Sega), Will Wright (Maxis), John Carmack (id Software), Hironobu Sakaguchi (Square Enix), Sid Meier (Firaxis Games), Shigeru Miyamoto (Nintendo), Richard Garriott (origin Systems), Dan/Danielle Bunten Berry (Ozark Landscape), and Michael Morhaime (Blizzard Entertainment).

Bruce Shelley is a legend in the board game and video game industry, having worked and influenced the direction of such board game companies as Iron Crown Enterprises, Simulations Publications, and the legendary board game company, Avalon Hill. In 1988 Shelley joiuned Microprose, beginning a long and successful career in PC games. After working on a variety of projects, including F-19 Stealth Fighter, Shelley worked with Sid Meier as his producer/assistant designer. Together they worked on such hits as Railroad Tycoon, Covert Action and Civilization.

Four years after Civilization, Shelley joined old friend Tony Goodman at start-up Ensemble Studios, to help create the epic franchise Age of Empires. To date, Age of Empires has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.

“I am deeply honored to receive this award,” Shelley said in today’s announcement. “I believe it also honors my colleagues over the years at Microprose and especially Ensemble Studios, from whom I have learned so much. I am very grateful for the opportunities that have come my way and hope that in return I have given something back to this great industry.”

The Hall of Fame Award will be presented by Tony Goodman, founder of Ensemble Studios, at the 12th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards and will take place during the 2009 D.I.C.E. Summit on Thursday, February 18, 2009 at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas. Congratulations to Bruce Shelley for a well deserved honor - a reward that I personally believe is long overdue.

In an excerpt from an upcoming Shacknews interview, Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences president Joseph Olin said that “game reviewers are lazy.”

Mr. Olin does make some valid points about reviewers pushing out reviews to meet deadlines. In an industry where a good portion of the workforce is volunteer or paid very little and where time is limited, it is easy to see why many outlets turn a blind eye to quick and dirty review practices.

On the other hand, Mr. Olin’s comments show that he needs to read more. There are plenty of critical thinkers on our side of the fence that provide commentary that is thought provoking and based on a thorough review of the subject matter at hand.

Here are a few excerpts from Mr. Olin:

“My pet peeve is that game reviewers are lazy,” he said. “Not all, but in terms of the reviews [something like] ‘This game isn’t as good because let’s compare it to that game over there and that game was great.’ Who gives a, you know, bleep?”

“How can you review a game, how can you give a comment about a game like Grand Theft Auto IV, that has 40-plus hours or more of gameplay, if you’ve only spent 2 1/2 to 3 hours playing it?,” Olin asked

“It would be like reviewing a movie but only seeing the opening, first reel. I don’t think that’s fair, or is it accurate,” he explained.

I give this interview a Try It, even though I haven’t read the whole thing. That’s just how I roll, baby.

Source: Shacknews

The recipients of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences” 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards were announced this week, with BioShock, Call of Duty 4 and The Orange Box picking up four awards each. The annual awards for developers by developers also inducted Blizzard’’s Mike Morhaime into the Hall of Fame and gave a Lifetime Achievement Award to former Sony Computer Entertainment boss Ken Kutaragi.

Mike Morhaime, president, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment, was inducted as the 11th member of the prestigious AIAS Hall of Fame for helping to create some of the world’s most popular franchises, including Diablo, Warcraft, StarCraft and World of Warcraft. Ken Kutaragi, former president and CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., received the Lifetime Achievement Award for this year.

As for the games, Call of Duty 4 won Overall Game of the Year, Console Game of the Year, Action Game of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play; BioShock won Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction, Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design, Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition and Outstanding Achievement in Story Development; and The Orange Box won Outstanding Achievement in Game Design, Computer Game of the Year, Outstanding Character Performance, and Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering. The big list of all of this year’’s winners can be found below:

Overall Game of the Year: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Console Game of the Year: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Computer Game of the Year: The Orange Box
Outstanding Innovation in Gaming: Rock Band
Handheld Game of the Year: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Multiplayer Game of the Year: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Cellular Game of the Year: skate
Role-Playing Game of the Year: Mass Effect
Racing Game of the Year: MotorStorm
Outstanding Achievement in Game Design: The Orange Box: Portal
Adventure Game of the Year: Super Mario Galaxy
Sports Game of the Year: skate
Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year:Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
Action Game of the Year: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Family Game of the Year: Rock Band
Outstanding Achievement in Animation: Assassin’’s Creed
Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction: BioShock
Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering: Crysis
Outstanding Character Performance: The Orange Box: Portal (Ellen McLaw’’s voice work as GLADos)
Outstanding Achievement in Story Development: BioShock
Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering: The Orange Box: Portal
Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play:Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Downloadable Game of the Year: Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition: BioShock
Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack: Rock Band
Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design: BioShock

Congratulations to all of this year’s big winners.

The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences issued a press release today revealing the nominees for the 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, with two games taking the lion’’s share of the nominations. The nominations for these peer-based awards have been dominated by two titles: BioShock (2K Games) and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision) by receiving over 10 nominations from its peers. Finalists in close lead with top nominations include The Orange Box (Electronic Arts and Valve Software), Rock Band (MTV Games) and Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo of America), all up for the Overall Game of the Year Award. Below is a partial list — the full list of categories and nominees can be found at the AIAS Web site:

Overall Game of the Year:
BioShock
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Rock Band
Super Mario Galaxy
The Orange Box

Computer Game of the Year:
BioShock
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Crysis
The Orange Box
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

Console Game of the Year:
BioShock
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Mass Effect
Rock Band
Super Mario Galaxy

Handheld Game of the Year:
Drawn to Life
Jeanne d’Arc
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Outstanding Innovation in Gaming:
Assassin’s Creed
BioShock
Rock Band
Super Mario Galaxy
The Orange Box

The awards ceremony will take place during The D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit 2008 on Feb. 7 at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas, with comedian Jay Mohr returning for his third year to host the award ceremony.