2011 Calvin Awards: Best Videogame
February 14, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com
From the moment Halo: Reach was released, its victory in this category seemed like a foregone conclusion. For that matter, even prior to its release, the beta available through Halo 3: ODST had become all consuming to our staff. This is particularly noteworthy given that we largely shrugged our shoulders at this previous Bungie title, one that failed to make our top 10 last year. So, why does Halo: Reach grab us in a way that ODST did not? And what makes it the best videogame of the year? Bungie refused to go out with a whimper, choosing instead to deliver plenty of bang to gamers.
Halo: Reach is ostensibly a prequel to the four previous Halo titles yet it effectively serves as the end of an era. Players once again take on the role of a faceless everyman (or woman) hidden behind a Spartan helmet. This affords them the opportunity to identify with the character throughout what appears to be a hopeless battle that is already largely lost. Even as Noble Team suffers losses, the Spartan called Six continues the fight. At key storyline intervals, the game teases that maybe your character has a more glorious fate, though, keeping tension alive all the way up until the final level, the one that occurs after the game is beaten.
In addition to being a satisfying single player storyline, what makes Halo: Reach utterly addictive is the credit system. Every time a person does anything in the game, they are graded according to Bungie-guidelines for expected performance and awarded credits to reflect their play. Daily and weekly challenges have also been added to give Halo addicts the ability to test their skills in several different ways in a given week.
Several BOP staffers have been waging a not so silent (we are talking about Xbox Live after all) war to become the first to General status. Personally, I am about to reach Colonel status, so I am out of the running, but I do love the game so much that I’ve built up 850,000 credits since its release. The replay value of the Halo franchise has always been what separates it from the pack, but even by Bungie’s lofty standards for the series, Halo: Reach is special. It is designed to give players something to do all the way up until the next Halo game, the first one by someone other than Bungie, is released. Their passing this franchise off to Microsoft represents the end of an era. So, BOP finds Halo: Reach a fitting finale to a quintet of revolutionary games. This is why it is the BOP staff’s choice as Videogame of the Year.
We clearly love the Final Fantasy franchise here at BOP, just not quite enough. This is the sixth year that we have selected Best Videogame. We have selected a Squaresoft game five times in the previous five years with four of them being Final Fantasy titles. Of course, three of those were Nintendo DS releases. The only Final Fantasy console title released in this period was Final Fantasy XII, which missed winning in 2007 by a single first place vote. History shows that we blew that one as Gears of War had nowhere near the staying power of FFXII. The question now becomes whether history repeats itself again as Final Fantasy XIII loses by an even slimmer margin of two votes. Effectively, a single ballot placing it a couple of places higher than Halo: Reach would have changed the result. Given how much we love the Bungie title, this is a shockingly close vote.
Why do we love Final Fantasy XIII almost enough to make it Videogame of the year? This is the most interactive game to date. The previous release, the final one on the Playstation 2, allowed the user to set up a series of commands that effectively enabled the player to put their controller down and watch. The first HD Final Fantasy release goes an entirely different way with it.
This Squaresoft game isn’t for people who like to let the game do most of the work for them. Instead, it requires the user to learn tactical strategies based upon the revolutionary Paradigm system. Reactionary players who do not play the game the way it is designed find themselves effortlessly squashed by Adamantoise turtles. This is the first Final Fantasy game that attempts to humble the player and while some of us did find it too frustrating at times, the endless hours of gameplay more than counteracted that temporary irritation. Of course, we may be biased toward all things Final Fantasy. I recently defined the location of an item in my home by saying it was “on the shelf between the Chocobo and the Tonberry dolls”. If this isn’t a statement you understand, you need to play more Final Fantasy like the rest of BOP does.
The first non-sequel to make our Best Videogame list is Alan Wake, which finishes third. A single first place vote would have allowed this Microsoft Game Studios release to achieve one of the most shocking upsets in Calvins voting history. What allows it to compete with established videogame franchises we love? Alan Wake is the game that ponders what the world would be like if all of the twisted things in Stephen King’s mind’s eye were possible. It then embarks upon the task of tying some of those night terrors together in a waking nightmare so pervasive that only beams of light save the player from death. I cannot say much about the story for fear of giving anything away; suffice to say that by the time you play the concert with the 1970s rockers forgotten by the world, this game will have you hooked in a way you would not have believed possible. This is arguably the most innovative game idea since Bioshock, making Alan Wake a fitting choice for the third best videogame of the year.
Rounding out the top five this year are two small scale triumphs. Given the Final Fantasy discussion above, BOP obviously loves RPGs with one of our favorite unheralded titles earning a spot in fourth place. The videogame is Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, a release that had a small but passionate percentage of our staff counting down its release date for most of the year. Taking place 30 years after Golden Sun: The Lost Age, it allows players to see the wide reaching impact their triumph in that game has had on the world. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, on the other hand, celebrates what feels like gameplay from 20 years ago, the long lost River City Ransom style of RPG wherein two dimensional fighting gives gamers the opportunity to wipe out all of Ramona Flowers’ seven evil exes. With four player co-op play, this is one of the best group games of the year, even if it is stubbornly 8-bit in design.
Sixth and seventh place go to a couple of classic franchises. We previously celebrated the triumph of Super Mario Galaxy three years ago when it finished in third place in Best Videogame. While we don’t love Super Mario Galaxy 2 quite as much, its sixth place finish is well deserved for an evolutionary title that grows organically from its predecessor. SMG2 doesn’t bring a lot of new ideas to the table, but playing three dimensional Mario never gets old. Nintendo’s level designers continue to dazzle with each new iteration of their core product. With regards to seventh place, we reinforce the idea that this was a banner year for RPGs as Final Fantasy: Four Heroes of Light earns a nomination. Dismissed by some critics as being too much of a grinder, we found the game to be a perfect way to fill the time when we were traveling or working the treadmill at the gym. Yes, beating the every boss does grow laborious over time but most of the game is fabulous. If you can only pick one, we favor Golden Sun, though.
The rest of the top ten is comprised of Bioshock 2, Red Dead Redemption and Mass Effect 2. All three of these games are brilliant and well worth your hard earned time and money. Bioshock 2 features sublime boss battles with Little Sisters, each of which is an adrenaline rush. Red Dead Redemption lets every player feel like Rooster Cogburn if only for a little while. It also deserves a lot of credit for being one of the most morally complex videogames ever made, which is oddly also a compliment I may place upon Bioshock 2 as well as Mass Effect 2. Bioware's game goes so far as to actually determine the flow of gameplay based upon Renegade/Paragon choices the user makes. A character becomes either beloved or feared by his crew based upon their in-game behavior. We at BOP are suckers for games that require ethical decision making choices, which is why all three of these games are favorites of ours.
Narrowly missing the top ten are Super Scribblenauts, God of War III, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, Gran Turismo 5, Civilization V, and Pokemon Heart Gold/Silver. Did I mention BOP’s staff loves RPGs? (David Mumpower/BOP)
The Calvins Introduction
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Album
Best Cast
Best Character
Best Director
Best Overlooked Film
Best Picture
Best Scene
Best Screenplay
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best TV Show
Best Use of Music
Best Videogame
Breakthrough Performance
Worst Performance
Worst Picture