E3 Awards: Do They Really Mean Anything?

[Evil Avatar]

Web sites and a high profile group of journalists pick games and products to win E3 awards, but are these awards a good way to judge the final product? GameCloud takes a look at this issue in a special report (http://www.gamecloud.com/article.php?article_id=140), featuring exclusive quotes from 3D Realms's Scott Miller, Zombie's John Williamson, Gearbox Software's Randy Pitchford, Gamespot's Greg Kasavin, IGN's Tal Blevins, 1Up.com's John Davison and GameSpy's John Keefer.

John Williamson of Zombie Games has a different view on E3 awards. "Speaking as a consumer, I think the Best of E3 Awards should have a caveat or be renamed, to best presentation/demo/beta/PR spin of E3. I don't think it is fair to call them "games". Even in very, very rare situations when the games are finished (and we all know how few games are release in the summer months), I have a hard time believing a reviewer can base his opinion of a full game without actually playing the full game. A 15 minute walkthrough, or a single level on a kiosk with so much ambient noise that you can't even hear the game you are playing is hardly a full review. "Best of E3? Epic Games showing off the Unreal 3 engine running on BOTH the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Now that is how you "Wow! people.

[Deadend]

I always considred the E3 awards to be what games are hyped about, and probably worth paying attention to.

[Evil Avatar]

What is amusing is how defensive the editors of GameSpy, Gamespot, IGN and 1Up are about their "awards", since those are the site who keep getting raped in the ass by readers when they pick their "Best of..." awards at E3 and then the games suck ass later.

[if76]

As long as Killzone doesn't get any awards I'll be ok.

[Evil Avatar]

As long as Killzone doesn't get any awards I'll be ok.

Best cut-scene? Best way to fool the mainstream media into ignoring the Xbox 360?

[StoneGut]

I'm always reminded of how Team Fortress 2 received Best of E3 - 1999.
Actually here is a quote from Valves site:

Valve’s upcoming game, Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms, has won the following awards:

E3 Game Critics Award Best Online Game (1999)
E3 Game Critics Award Best Action Game (1999)


I'd be so asshamed to have that kind of out-of-date publicity on my site.

[Royal Fool]

Fairly good article, well written and balanced.

The things that struck me as odd or funny:

It also picked the Nintendo DS over the Sony PSP as Best Hardware for E3 2004, which went against how most people rated the portable consoles when they were finally released.
It does depend on his interpretation of the word 'hardware' but I thought the DS was still fairly popular with people?

Some former winners of our E3 awards include Half-Life 2, Metroid Prime, and Halo 2, so I feel that we do a good job at seeing the potential of titles well before they are released."
All those games were dead-set to become great games on their own from the minute they were announced, so his attempt at brushing off all the criticism fails. Maybe if he actually took the effort to name more unique or lesser known games...

[netcraazzy]

They should just call the award best of show or something like that. I think most people understand that the games are being recognized more for how promising they look, there's no guarantee that the final product will be flawless.

[Tricky Thumb]

Killzone:

Best non-videogame-videogame-movie-of-a-videogame-tech-demo-of E3 2005.

Likewise, the trend should spill over into other awards as well.

Unreal 3 Engine:

Best Engine That is Named Unreal But is Actually Pretty Real Looking and Makes Me Want To Pee Enthusiastically E3 2005.

[KDups]

Maybe if he actually took the effort to name more unique or lesser known games...

G4 did an E3 spot showing some of the lesser hyped "diamonds in the rough", games like Possession, Infected, and Metronome that didn't get a lot of hype at the show. Most of them look average to poor. I'm saving that spot for when X-Play rips those games a new one with a 1 out of 5. Hell they already made snide comments during that piece.

Face it, we've all seen and played enough by now to know which games have potential (Zelda, Gears of War, Okami) and which games will be total stinkers (Ecko, True Crime 2, TMNT 3, anything on the Gizmondo). There are those games that surprise everyone by turning out to be good games, but I think those E3 awards are generally a pretty good gaunge.

[Royal Fool]

KDups:
Fair enough, but he still could have used some lesser games as examples instead of naming the 'killer-apps' for Xbox, GameCube and PC, respectively... oh well.

[DeadPixel]

Gizmondo HAHAHA! PATHETIC! I played around with that device at E3 while the rapper dudes were standing around bored to death. What a stupid product.