Don't… Don't… Don't… Don't Believe the Hype

Certain sites have been carrying critiques of the mainstream video game press as of late, claiming that they're little more than thinly disguised advertisers and hype-machines for the big gaming companies.  Although it doesn't prove this point, as no one really takes them seriously, I decided to go through the SpikeTV 2005 Video Game Awards site and look at the nominees and see what I spotted.  (Anyone with no interest in video games may wish to stop reading at this point.)

First off, some facts though:  the awards were announced on Oct. 13, 2005, and are recorded on Nov. 18th, 2005.  There are 27 categories, which amounts to 132 nominees (each category has between 4 and 5 nominees).  Now, on to the "Jesus Christ, they didn't do that" bit.

First off, barely more than half of the nominees (67 of them, possibly 68—depending on whether they mean the XBox 360 version of NBA Live 06 or the version for other platforms) had been released when the nominees were announced.  So, what about the others?  The following are the ones released after they were nominated (but before the show was recorded):

• Resident Evil 4 (PS2, Oct 25th) - 3 nominations (I'm confused by this one.  The GameCube version was released in January, yet the PS2 version, which hadn't been released, got all the nods.)
• Call of Duty 2 (PC, Oct. 25th) - 6 nominations
• F.E.A.R. (PC, Oct. 17th) - 5 nominations
• The Warriors (PS2, Oct. 17th) - 2 nominations
• Blitz: The League (PS2, Oct. 17th) - 1 nomination
• James Bond 007: From Russia with Love (PS2, Nov. 1st) - 6 nominations
• The Matrix: Path of Neo (PC, Nov. 7th) - 1 nomination
• Star Wars Battlefront II (PS2, Nov. 1st) - 1 nomination
• Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (PSP, Oct. 25th) - 2 nominations
• Guitar Hero (PS2, Nov. 1st) - 1 nomination
• Tony Hawk's American Wasteland (PS2, Oct. 18th) - 2 nominations
• Soul Calibur III (PS2, Oct. 25th) - 1 nomination
• SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs (PS2, Nov. 8th) - 2 nominations
• City of Villains (PC, Oct. 31st) - 1 nomination
• Sid Meier's Civilization IV (PC, Oct. 25th) - 1 nomination
• True Crime: New York City (XBox, Nov. 15th) - 5 nominations
• Aeon Flux (PS2, Nov. 15th) - 2 nominations
• Need for Speed Most Wanted (Xbox, Nov. 15th) - 1 nomination

Then there are the nominees that won't be released until after the show has been recorded:

• King Kong (PS3, 2006) - 7 nominations
• 50 Cent: Bulletproof (PS2, Nov. 21st) - 8 nominations
• Madden NFL 06 (XBox 360) - 2 nominations
• NBA 2K6 (XBox 360) - Best Team Sports Game
• Perfect Dark Zero (XBox 360) - 3 nominations
• Project Gotham Racing 3 (XBox 360) - 1 nomination
• XBox 360 - 1 nomination
• Unreal Engine 3 - 1 nomination (Although the Unreal Engine 3 is available to developers, there hasn't been any finished products using it released yet—at least as far as I know.  That's why it's here.)

So, what have we seen from this?  Well, the second most nominated game for 2005 won't be released for the platform nominated until 2006, the top nominated game won't be released until after the awards have been recorded.  And of those 27 categories, only 5 of them (Pontiac Best Driving Game, Most Addictive Game Fueled by Dew, Best Wireless Game, Best Handheld Game, Best Role Playing Game) have nominees that were available prior to the announcement date, whilst 3 of them (Best Game Based on a Movie, Best Supporting Female Performance, Best Graphics) have no nominees that were available prior to the announcement of the nominees.

As was said though, SpikeTV's awards aren't exactly taken very seriously by most sites.  A good example of this is the Best Wireless Game category (by wireless they mean games for mobile phones).  One of the nominees (The Incredibles) was released in September of 2004, whilst another (Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory) is described on the awards site as "Suffice it to say, this isn't the version of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory you want to buy."  (And they've nominated this one?  Talk about trying to fill up a category.)

Anyways, that's it.  Go away.  Git.  (No, I'm not sure what my point was anymore either.)