[GOTY] Who Won on Day One? — Game of the Year Breakdown

The GameSparked Team
GOTY 2012

BEWARE! POTENTIAL SPOILERS!

Best New Character

Winner: Clementine (The Walking Dead)

Clementine winning this category will come as no surprise to a lot people who played The Walking Dead. A lot of us grew very attached to the adorable eight year old, and with good reason. It’s a kind of emotional connection to a character that (almost) never happens in videogames that won Clem this award, and we’re cautiously hopeful to see where she goes next.

Runner-Ups: Tiny Tina (Borderlands 2), Johnny Powell (The Darkness II)

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Biggest Surprise

Winner: Sleeping Dogs

Sleeping Dogs surprised us. For a game that had such a long, troubled development cycle, it turned out amazing. Also, for a game that was once called “True Crime,” it turned out amazing. We couldn’t be happier about the success of Sleeping Dogs, and we can’t wait for the future DLC, as well as any sequels that may come to be.

Runner-Ups: Dust: An Elysian Tail, Vessel

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Best Looking

Winner: Dust: An Elysian Tail
Dust: An Elysian Tail is a beautiful game. It doesn’t take much time to be astounded by its stunning visuals, surprisingly-good lighting, and art-style that we can really get behind. The fact that there was only one guy working on it makes the feat of creating such a beautiful-looking world seem even more impressive. There’s no doubt in our mind concerning Dust: An Elysian Tail deserving this award.

Runner-Ups: Fez, Sound Shapes

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Best Use of Dubstep

Winner: SSX

While some of the other nominees in this category might have better dubstep tracks in them, none other can truly match what SSX does with the musical genre. Landing enough dope tricks lets the player enter Tricky mode, and the game thrusts them into a world of dubstep. In this existence, the Earth itself is made of purest dubstep and shakes with the force of a thousand wobble basses with each landed trick, and we couldn’t be happier about this.

Runner-Ups: Borderlands 2, Syndicate

Day One of The GameSparked Game of the Year Debates 2012

The GameSparked Team
GOTY 2012

The GameSparked GotY Debate contains naughty words, and inappropriate content. Viewer discretion is advised.

Mat, Myles, and Joe kick off their five-day, Game-of-the-Year excursion, and argue over who should win what. Things get heated, and they even end up feeling like monsters at some point! The awards debated over today are Best New Character, Biggest Surprise, Best Looking, and Best Use of Dubstep. Listen below to find out which games win awards.

BEWARE! POTENTIAL SPOILERS!

Download Link (Right Click, Save As)

Original Intro/Outro by Cody DeBoer

The DubSparked Remix by Kevin Madden

[GOTY] Best Use Of Dubstep Nominees

The GameSparked Team
GOTY 2012

BEWARE OF POTENTIAL SPOILERS!

Dubstep is taking over the world. It’s inevitable. It’s everywhere — in our radios, in our movie trailers, and even in our homes. It’s even in our videogames. So much that it gets silly at points. But we can’t deny that there are times when dubstep is appropriate. So we created an award honouring it. Whether the use of said dubstep was hilarious, stupid, ridiculous, or surprisingly awesome, these are our nominees for 2012’s Best Use Of Dubstep.

Borderlands 2

Borderlands 2 contained a lot of dubstep before AND after its release. All of it leads up to the greatest use of dubstep in the entire game: the song Claptrap wrote.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II

Dubstep is a big player in Call of Duty: Black Ops II‘s soundtrack. Its most noticeable use, however, is in one scene during the campaign — a very unlikely one at that.

Far Cry 3

Far Cry 3 uses its dubstep in a very dark and ominous way to set the mood for the insanity on Rook Islands. Unfortunately, we could not find any good scenes that really accented this, so we’ve included a video that shows another one of its uses of dubstep — burning pot fields to wobble bass.

SSX

SSX has dubstep in its soundtrack, but it also has music like hip hop. Its best use comes from a mixture of the two. When entering Tricky Mode, Run DMC and heavy drops join forces to bring you into the wild world of dubstep (it makes you a better snowboarder). If you want to skip forward to what we’re talking about, go to 0:20.

Syndicate

Syndicate‘s dubstep and electronic music soundtrack fits right in with its futuristic cyberpunk world. It uses dubstep to upgrade the intensity of the scenes and does a fantastic job to boot. Don’t believe us? Check out the video below. Skip forward to 1:10 to get right to what we’re talking about.

With an Honourable Mention To…

Kinect Party

We feel it would be wrong to not include it on this list after seeing Double Fine show off the game at Giant Bomb. Unfortunately, our deliberations will be taking place before the game is released on December 18. But we can’t deny that this game would probably win this award. The thing about Kinect Party is IT TURNS YOU INTO DUBSTEP! 

[GOTY] Matthew Marteinsson’s Top Games of 2012

Editor’s Note: We thought it would be fun if we got some of the wonderful people in the industry to tell us their thoughts on this year’s games. Some of these people are developers and, yes, we have reviewed their games. After all is said and done, we hope you enjoy this series of GOTY articles.

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Matthew Marteinsson is the one man sound army at Klei Entertainment. Outside of work, he’s usually stopping everyone to put microphones in strange sounding spots. And posting pictures of his cat to the internet.

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Matthew Marteinsson
GOTY 2012

So here’s my top ten for the year. I actually had to go back and look at what came out this year to compile this. So much of the time I’m about a year behind with what’s coming out. I’ve always been horrible about narrowing down lists (favourite concert list is a Top 8 for that reason). This started as a Top 5, but grew a little. In no particular order, here it is:

Borderlands 2

I had forgotten how much I had missed Claptrap and his constant chattering. This didn’t feel like anything new, but a nice refinement of the first instalment. From the sound side, some great sounding guns. The sound team did a wonderful job of giving a voice to each weapon manufacturer. And serious points for having the most annoying gun ever that was disconnected from all the audio controls. 

Dishonored

Loved the openness of this one. A great, quirky world they let you play in, as well. A nice new twist on the steampunk setting (not that we get a lot of that, either). While the stealth is really great, I really started to enjoy this after I stopped worrying about playing a perfect stealth-style and just went with the flow. The game really does work with which ever mixed path you want to play it. And returning to areas makes you wonder how things will change if you perform previous missions differently. Not many games I really look forward to playing through multiple times, but this is one of them.

Shellrazer

Great iOS game from local Vancouver devs. Really nailed a fun game that I can fit in on the transit ride to work. And almost causing me to miss my stop. Always a good sign for a mobile title.

Pumped: BMX

Another iOS game. This goes to one of my long-term interests outside the game world. This game was made by a BMXer and it really shows. I feel like this actually captures the feel of trail riding. Better than any of the old 3D BMX games. It’s a tough game, but always feels fair in how it plays.

SSX

Big reason this is on the list is the music system. It helps that it’s also a lot of fun to play and, for me, captures feel of the old titles. But the music system! SSX has always done really cool things with the licensed music tracks. More so than just about anyone. It’s no easy task making licensed music interactive. And now they brought the same interactive effects to any track you drop into the game. All in real time. Really cool stuff.

Mass Effect 3

Even with the meh ending, it was really fun to dive back into this universe. I’ve always loved the sound work and music of this series as well. This is how sci-fi should be done. And there’s still some DLC to come. It’s always a bit odd jumping back into a story when the main story is done, but still looking forward to it.

Sleeping Dogs

More local people on this one. And a great dev story that preceded it. It was really great to see all the hard work actually see the light of day. Open-world sand-boxy games are sort of hit and miss with me, but this one hit. This was another one that wasn’t neccesarily breaking new ground, but it combined everything in a nice, tight package. Another one that I’m looking forward to with some of the DLC that’s in the pipe.

The Walking Dead

One that’s on a lot of lists. A great, well done story that really deserves the “it’s cinematic” comment. Loved the pacing of the episodes. Just the right length to dig into over a night and leave you wanting the next one. Can’t really add anything that anyone else hasn’t said before.

Bad Hotel

Another iOS game that got a lot of play from me. Loved how the music evolves as you build up each stage. It would get tough, too, but never with out hope that I could clear the stage if I gave it another shot.

Mark of the Ninja

Yes, I’m putting my own game on the list! That’s how proud I am of what we accomplished with this one. Definitely my proudest moment as a sound designer and game developer. I really do think it holds its own against anything else on my list, or anyone else’s.