VGX Awards - Best in Show

A glimpse of what's to come

After getting the opportunity to look over all of the trailers that made their "World Premier" at the VGX Awards, there were three games that seemed to stand above the rest. No matter what you thought of the show itself, you can't hate on having a feast of new trailers to see what the future of gaming looks like.

Best Celebrity Appearance: Broken Age

I love seeing actors taking the leap into the video game world, and Elijah Wood may be my favorite voice for a game yet. Broken Age feels a little creepy; you're stuck inside this smart house that is hellbent on keeping you safe, but safe is boring. Elijah expresses that quiet desire to go out and help others in the universe, growing from a slight frustration to gaining a rebellious passion of his own. He even talks about how cool it is to be in a video game. This is the beginning of a movement, people. 

Broken Age

PC, Mac, iOS, Android, Ouya

Release: Jan 2014 (part I)

Developer: Double Fine Productions

Most Consistent: Titanfall (Ogre and Styder Trailers)

Titanfall simply refuses to look boring. All of these mechs are vastly unique with their own obvious strengths and weaknesses, but they all do have one thing in common: they look incredibly fun to control. Ever since its reveal for the Xbox One, Titanfall has poised itself as the first great hit for the new system, we can only hope that the gameplay will translate as well as it looks in its previews! 

Titanfall

Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC

Release: March 11, 2014

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Developer: Respawn Entertainment

Best in Show: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

RPG junkies rejoice, our favorite mutant is back and looking better than ever on the next generation graphic engines. The Wild Hunt is going to be a huge, sprawling open world with plenty of opportunity to explore, and (more importantly) fight. These new bad guys look like the tough to kill type, which means we might see some pretty ridiculous new powers for Geralt in his last chapter. We can only hope that little force push ground strike he did must only be the tip of the ice burg.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Xbox One, PS4, PC

Release: TBA 2014

Publisher: CD Projekt Red

Developer: CD Projekt Red

What did you think of the trailers at the VGX? Leave your opinions below! 

"Tales from the Borderlands" and "Game of Thrones" - World Premier Trailers

They're keeping busy, that's for sure

Tales from the Borderlands

Over the weekend Spike TV hosted their annual video game awards, otherwise known as the super cutting-edge VGX Awards. If you followed the twitter discussion while the awards were happening, you were met with the typical acid-spitting sarcasm that most pundits in the industry seem to spew about pretty much everything involving their industry. No surprises there. 

Despite the negative energy surrounding the event itself, the VGX provided us with plenty of great trailers for both next and current-gen consoles (past and current-gen? How are we saying this now?). Out of all of the reveals throughout the night, Telltale Games came out looking strong. They premiered two new projects slated to release next year with Tales from the Borderlands and a Game of Thrones series. 

Game of Thrones

While the Game of Thrones reveal is nothing more than, well.. a reveal, I really enjoy the risk that Telltale is taking with this project. Jumping into a world as large and popular as the GoT universe will be their biggest test yet; do it wrong and people will go at them with everything they have ala Bioware with Mass Effect 3. But do it right, and I can see another game of the year contender here, especially if the large battle sequences are executed well. There's lots of promise, especially from a developer that has shown it knows what it's doing. 

Tales From the Borderlands looks like it could be lots of fun as well, though it will be interesting to see how Telltale takes the open world "shoot first, shoot again, now keep shooting" style of Borderlands and turns it into the point and click story driven style that we are used to. But having Gearbox (and HBO in GoT's situation) should help bring authenticity to what is trying to be done here. Maybe this kind of collaboration is a sign of things to come? We can only wait to see.

Keep an eye out for a VGX Trailer Best in Show post on Sunday! 

Tales From the Borderlands

Game of Thrones

Release: TBA 2014

Publisher: Telltale Games

Developer: Telltale Games

Saints Row IV - Elements of Destruction DLC Trailer

And boom goes the dynamite

Saints Row IV has the distinct pleasure of being a really freaking weird game. There's nothing normal about the President of the United States single handedly saving the nation with the use of his super powers. But that's the charm of SR4, you don't need to be tied to reality to enjoy how much havoc you're wrecking on the bad guys.

Enter Elements of Destruction, a downloadable add on for $2.99 that gives your character all kinds of ridiculous new powers. I would try and describe them all for you, but I definitely think the trailer does them justice. The decision to show the action in the actual game (because why the heck wouldn't you do that) sells the moves for themselves.

Saints Row IV - Elements of Destruction DLC
PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Release: Out Now! 
Publisher: Deep Silver
Developer: Volition, Inc.

Ultra Street Fighter IV - New Character Combo Trailers

More ways to button mash

Rolento Combo Trailer

In early 2014, we'll be treated to the third (yes, third) update to Street Fighter IV. This comes in the form of Ultra Street Fighter IV, bringing new characters, levels, to the same consoles that Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade was released on. If you already own Arcade, Ultra will be slashed down to $14.99 as an add on. If this is your first time picking up the series, it will cost you a cool $39.99.

Hugo Combo Trailer

In anticipation for the release, Capcom has released combo trailers for all of the new characters that have been revealed for Ultra. Above we get a taste of Rolento, first seen as the fourth stage boss from Final Fight. Joining him is Hugo; Final Fight's homage to Andre the Giant, Poison; Hugo's friend and manager from his wrestling days, and Elena; a playable character from Street Fighter III.

Poison Combo Trailer

All of these trailers feature the character's special and ultra combos, essentially showing what their best and most powerful moves are. This is a great way to reveal the character's look and play-style, but on the whole the presentation felt underwhelming. Beating up on a static Ryu on a white backdrop does not make for a thrilling trailer. A simple game map and an actual fight would have made all of this far more compelling, but at least you get to see the new people you can play with. 

Elena Combo Trailer

It's great that Street Fighter continues to try and stay relevant with updates and new characters, but if it wants to stay afloat it has to sell to the market that doesn't already have the game. These had the potential to be great character reveals, showing the people why they NEED this update for even more button mashing fun, but it all felt a little bland. Even so, 43 playable characters is nothing to gawk at, so keep an eye out for how Ultra this title really becomes.

Ultra Street Fighter IV
Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Release: Early 2014
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes - Launch Trailer

Gentlemen, the situation is dire

I am going to play the ever-loving crap out of this game. Lego games have the uncanny ability to suck you in and make you want to find every unlockable there is. And there are a LOT of goodies to reward yourself with in these titles, so imagine the spoils when we dive into the Marvel universe.

As the trailer shows, we're not just looking at the Avengers here. The Fantastic 4, Spiderman, Doc Oc and other familiar Marvel faces will be gracing this LEGO title. That means each and every one of them will be playable (most likely) if you play the game for long enough. I really find their depth in what you can achieve to be the most immersive thing about playing.

But what makes all of the grinding for the treasure worth it is that it never for one moment takes itself too seriously. You use Lego's to create ways past obstacles.  Enemies fly to pieces when you punch them. The characters now even have dialogue, so we're going to get some fresh story as opposed to a retelling of a movie or Batman being silent. It's the kind of game that's really useful when you need to entertain a kid, but want to have fun playing yourself.

And what else you say? The good guys are gonna work with the bad guys! In a fun little twist, we get this picture showing us a slice of the characters you can play as:

Can you name them all?

That's a mark of a good trailer. Give the people what they want!

LEGO: Marvel Super Heroes
PS Vita, PS3, PC, 3DS, WiiU, Xbox 360
Release: Oct 22, 2013
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive
Developer: Traveller's Tales

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - Debut Trailer

So what am I excited for, really?

I have to start by saying that Spiderman (or Spider-Man in this case, I guess) is my absolute favorite super hero of all time. That's why it's so disappointed that they haven't made a good Spidey game since Spiderman 2 for the PS2. You would think, considering the streak of mediocre to down right atrocious releases, that Activision would want to pull out all of the stops and really get the people buzzing about this next attempt. It falls far short.

This is a short debut trailer, which means you only have so long to reel the player in. But all you want to show us is how this Spider-Man looks with a quick shot of him falling? No combat, no enemies that give any idea to the conflict of the story, and Activision is very adamant about promoting a "new and improved" Manhattan that just frankly doesn't look like a next-gen caliber city.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has big shoes to fill and has already stumbled out of the gate. Granted it only is 60 seconds, but purchases have been decided in far less time. Here are a couple things I didn't learn from the trailer that actually make the game sound kind of cool:

• The ability to play not only as Spidey, but as Peter Parker as well
• A morality system with Hero/Menace points

The Peter Parker thing alone deserved a shot in this debut trailer. It would have been something new that would have piqued some interest from gamers on the fence about another Spider-Man game. A missed opportunity. 

The Amazing Spider-Man 2
PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC, WiiU, Nintendo 3DS
Release: Spring 2014
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Beenox

Theif - Gameplay Trailer

Get your steal on

My goodness does this look fun to play. Stealth free running with fluid combat and weapons? That right there is what we call a big stinking heap of potential. The parallels to Mirror's Edge are obvious in the free running sections, but this new dark city and the implementation of using stealth and shadows to your advantages gives the formula something fresh to grow off of.

We get plenty of great looks at the first person action of Thief, basically being walked through a mission that will most likely be included in the game. It was good to hear a little bit of personality out of our main character Garrett, instead of the usual strong and silent types that come with these games. This is a strong showing for Thief, hopefully the finished product will come out even stronger.

Thief
PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Release: Feb 25, 2014
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Eidos Montreal