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For over five thousands years,
video games have been at the heart of our society and way of life.
Empires rose and fell... Cultures waxed and waned...
Flavors of Mountain Dew released... then retired.
Video games are literally the most important thing in the known universe
but until now there has been no show grand enough...
No award monumental enough... to truly honor them.
Until now... Ladies and gentlemen,
it is my esteemed privilege to present to you:
The first Arbitrary Video Game Awards.
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Dear Lord... imagine if anything took itself that seriously.
Now, The Arbitrary Video Game Awards ladies and gentlemen. Simple as that:
I pick stuff in categories.
There's no panel of judges, there are no prizes to be won.
I would simply like to highlight some pretty cool stuff that happened this year.
And occasionally some companies & products that really REALLY messed up.
The categories are purely arbitrary! The nominations are purely arbitrary!
And of course, the winners are purely arbitrary.
BUT I will at least make some effort to explain the choices and to celebrate the winner.
That's about as much as I can promise you here at The Arbitrary Awards.
There is no physical trophy but we do have a wonderful trophy of the imagination...
Which can off course absolutely anything your heart desires...
As long as that desire is entirely ineffable and not in any way costly to me...
Perhaps you'd like to know what categories we have here at The Arbitrary Awards.
We have every category you can imagine
as long as those categories happen to be the ones on the list.
We have: - Best Soundtrack
- Best Thing To Come Out Of Crowdfunding
- Most Interesting Gaming YouTube Channel That Isn't Mine
-Stop Pre-Ordering Videogames Award for Biggest Launch Disaster
- Most Impressive Aesthetic - Best Expansion & DLC Content
- Best Mobile Game
- The Game I Turned My Consoles On For The Most This Year
- The Game That Most Surpassed My Expectations
- The Sharpened Pitchfork Award For Dodgiest Games Company Of The Year
And of course:
- The Game That Mosts Needs To See The Light Of GabeN for the PC port
Let us begin, shall we, with nominations for Best Soundtrack.
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The nominations for Best Soundtrack are: - Shovel Knight
This thoroughly 8-bit inspired soundtrack is brought to you by Jake Kaufman.
The fellow behind: Shantae and the Pirate's Curse;
Double Dragon Neon; Mighty Switch Force! ; Red Faction: Guerrilla;
and many many more games besides.
Despite it's deliberately limited fidelity,
the Shovel Knight sountrack is both imaginative and extremely fun to listen to.
Reminiscent of 2D platforming classics of old,
the Shovel Knight soundtrack is packed with classic tune after classic tune.
All of them driving you towards your destination
demanding that you strike the earth and do battle for shovelry on this one fateful night.
Transistor by Darren Korb.
This is a composer that hasn't worked on too many games.
BUT he did create one of my favorite soundtracks over the last few years.
That is of course of the game Bastion also produced by Supergiant,
the studio behind Transistor.
While Bastions soundtrack was absolutely phenomenal.
The addition of many vocal tracks by Ashley Barrett
as well as hauntingly beautiful humming parts make
the Transistor soundtrack truly something unique and very very special in 2014.
Crypt of the NecroDancer,
the name Danny Baranowsky aka Danny B.
should be very familiar to you if you happen to like either
Binding of Isaac or Super Meat Boy.
Perhaps the two soundtracks he is best known for
although he has collaborated on a number of different projects besides.
Crypt of the NecroDancer needed a good soundtrack to be a decent game.
It is of course a rhythm based roguelike. And thankfully Danny B. provides
the pumping soundtrack to one of the more unusual titles this year.
A game which as far as I'm concerned is partially responsible for
online embarrassment and almost breaking my ankles.
Persona Q, the soundtrack to this game
is composed by Atsushi Kitajoh and Toshiki Konishi.
A melding of previous Persona titles by two very experienced composers.
Both are responsible for work on various Persona games
as well as Devil Survivor as well as the game Catherine.
Those who have played the previous Persona titles
are going to find a lot to like here as the soundtracks of both Persona 3 & 4
are well represented with various interesting fusion and mashups.
The Persona series is well known for it's music.
So much so in fact that a dancing game based on Persona 4 is in development.
Persona Q does not disappoint in the music department.
Wolfenstein: The New Order, this is a nominee for two reasons.
One, due to the excellent work of Mick Gordon,
the composer behind games such as the new Killer Instinct, Shootmania
and Need For Speed: The Run.
The in-game soundtrack for this particular title is absolutely fantastic
and punctuates the high action.
However what's perhaps even more interesting is the inclusion of
various alternate history versions of classic songs.
Collaborations of various artists were able to put together records
by the fictional Neumond Recording Company which you can find
as collectables throughout the game.
Perhaps the most well known was used in a advertising campaign for the title:
a German version of House Of The Rising Sun.
This is the part where I'm supposed to arbitrarily say "And the winner is" isn't it...
I'm not really going to do that because I'd like to talk a little bit more
about my choices before I decide to pick the winner.
It's a really hard category to choose between because each one of these
soundtracks has their own individual merit.
Some of them are just plain fun like Crypt of the NecroDancer.
Others are very haunting such as Transistor.
There is a great amount of variety there.
And that's just in the five soundtracks that I've shortlisted.
There have been plenty of games that came out this year
with phenomenal music and I'm glad to see that composers are getting
greater recognition these days with improved sales of official soundtracks
available via various digital distribution platforms as well as plenty of
good intention sharing by gamers through Twitch streams as well as YouTube videos.
I certainly hope that we continue in 2015 to move towards a place where
game music is truly considered to be worthwhile in it's own right
and standalone as something worthy of purchase.
I think that we have certainly reached that point and I want it to continue to grow.
That said, we are going to have to pick a winner.
And the winner of Best Soundtrack of 2014 is ...................
Darren Korb's Transistor
I remember the haunting outro-song from Bastion and then I remember
that Transistor contains several tracks of that level of quality,
things that are absolutely beautiful yet flawn and sad.
But there's a great variety within Darren Korb's soundtrack.
From perhaps the well known track 'The Spine' which frankly
could have been a top 40 hit in it's own right
to the much needed light hearted break of 'Coasting'.
This soundtrack really does have it all. It's ementily listenable;
Masterfully put together; and with the additions of the vocals
of Ashley Barrett an absolutely beautiful experience.
The Transistor soundtrack is, at least in my view, the best soundtrack of 2014.
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Best Thing To Come Out Of Crowdfunding
The nominations for the Best Thing To Come Out Of Crowdfunding are as follows:
Xenonauts by Goldhawk Interactive
which raised $ 154,715 of it's original $50,000 goal.
The creation of Xenonauts began years ago when it appeared
that there was no chance of a modern revival of the 'XCOM: Enemy Unknown'-series.
In the development time that it took to bring Xenonauts to life.
We in fact had the release of not only XCOM: Enemy Unkown by Firaxis,
a reimagining of the original title with a modern twist but also an expansion:
XCOM: Enemy Within.
Undaunted however Goldhawk Interactive continued to work on Xenonauts
thanks to a large influx of crowdfunding and eventually completed the title
which is a very faithful reproduction of the original.
Those looking for a more strategic and in-depth experience
as opposed to the more modernised 'XCOM: Enemy Unkown'
will certainly find it here.
Shovel Knight by Yacht Club.
It raised $311,502 with an original $70,000 goal.
Shovel Knight makes yet another well-deserved entry
into the nominees list for a very good reason.
Yes, it has a great soundtrack but it also has absolutely exceptional gameplay.
It's a platformer on the level of the very best, both 8 and 16-bit platformers of yesteryear.
This is an example of a game that perhaps would have had difficulty being developed
were it not for Kickstarter. And yet, 8-bit platformers are two a penny
on that particular service; what made Shovel Knights so special?
Well, it's excellent presentation and fantastic characterisation
probably helped it a great deal.
It had it's own personality coming right out of the gate.
And it made a promise, to be faithful to it's 8-bit ancestors.
And it succeeded in doing just that and created a compelling experience.
It proved that some design philosophy are indeed timeless.
And thanks to crowdfunding this wonderful game which feels out of place,
out of time and yet completely relevant in 2014 is now available for purchase.
Tex Murphy the Tesla Effect by Big Finish Games,
this raised just over it's $450,000 goal with $598,104.
This game was not the biggest Kickstarter success,
it wasn't even the biggest critical success. It is overshadowed by many other titles.
But it's on this list for one reason. This game had absolutely no chance
of being made without Kickstarter and crowdfunding
because it's effectively a dead genre.
This is an FMB game, those kinds of titles are simply not made anymore.
Back in the day when CD-ROMs were first becoming relevant to gaming.
They were generally packed full of full motion video.
That's what was filling the disc. This allowed for significant advances
in cutscenes, but it also created entirely new genres that were reliant on full motion video.
This more often than not created a somewhat B-movie experience
and Tex Murphy embraced that. It always had a very quirky sense
of humor and the Tesla Effect brings that sense of humor back
with slightly more modern technology. Only slightly.
And it stands as a unique testament to a dead genre in 2014.
And yet, I think it is exactly what fans of that genre were looking for.
The thing about Kickstarter is, you don't have to sell
hundreds of thousands or millions of copies to be successful.
You're making a unique product for a niche audience that is willing to pay
for it and that's exactly what Tex Murphy The Tesla Effect succeeds in being.
The Banner Saga by Stoic.
This raised a massive $723,886 with an initial goal of just $100,000.
This is a great success story because it created a beautiful title using
roto-scope style animation. Again, something we generally don't see anymore.
A technique of a bygone age.
The Banner Saga's development is the story of former AAA's, coming together
to make a small personal project that they really cared about.
Kickstarter enabled them to do just that. In it's own right,
it's a fantastic tactical RPG with some Oregan Trail and a little bit of Telltale games
thrown in there for good measure.
It was rightfully criticised for it's somewhat abrupt ending, but the journey was so enjoyable
that the destination became something of an afterthought.
The success of The Banner Saga has allowed them to continue it with The Banner Saga 2,
having been recently announced at Geoff Keighley's Game Awards.
Wasteland 2 by inXile.
Raising a staggering 2.93 million dollars with an initial lofty goal of $ 900,000.
Of all projects that I've listed, this was no doubt the most ambitious.
A full-length classic CRPG,
by folks that have brought you many in the past but perhaps with much larger studios
and in a somewhat different time where things just cost less money.
Regardless, the sequel to the 80s game Wasteland, which many people don't remember
but was, in fact, the inspiration to Fallout. It was lofty project, to say the least.
With something that large and complex, it could have easily gone wrong
in a myriad of different ways. However, the game was delivered
to the satisfaction of many.
And it is one of the many titles in 2014 that really brings back the classic style of CRPG.
Before we talk about the winner of this category, I'd like to talk about the category itself once again.
Kickstarter seems to be going in an unfortunate direction.
It's becoming harder and harder for games to get the funding.
We're seeing more and more high-profile failures which, unfortunately, seem to be spurred on
by some of the failures from the last few years. Games that were funded and yet,
never actually came out or came out in a much much poorer state
than what was promised in the first place.
It does really seem like the crowdfunding bubble has burst.
It's unlikely that we'll ever see a success as large as something like Tides of Numenera
or of course the titanic Star Citizen ever again.
And that's something of a shame. Because amongst those high-profile failures
and disapointments, we DO have titles that, were it not for Kickstarter,
probably would've never seen the light of day. Especially the winner of this category,
The largest game in it: Wasteland 2.
Every game in this category and many more besides
deserve recognition and accolade simply for being able to
come out of the turbulent world of crowdfunding where even some of the most
experienced developpers have managed to squander said funding,
and in doing so have shaken the trust of their backers and the market in general
But Wasteland 2 developped a game of the scale that they promised.
It was certainly delayed, there's no doubt about that, but it delivered
exactly what I, as a fairly major backer of this game wanted.
Full disclosure: I did put a thousand dollars into this.
In fact, I backed several games on this list but Wasteland 2 deliverded for me.
I've been slowly playing through it for the last few month,
just dipping in every now and again, and it's delivered great writing,
excellent depth; fun, meaningful, contextual questing
in the style of old CRPGs. It's story-driven and yet
a lot of it is really done through the gameplay's narrative as opposed to
just throwing a bunch of words at you.
It has some systems which, frankly, have no place in modern games
and yet somehow works, such as the ability to type in random words into the interface
and occasionaly unlock new dialogue options as a direct result of that.
It mends elements of old-school interactive fiction
with a modern title that has a distinct CRPG spin on it.
This really does feel like Fallout 4 if Fallout were to go back to its roots.
It really did deliver exactly what I wanted from the project.
As far as I'm concerned, I'm very very happy that I backed it
and equally happy that I promoted it back in the day even if, looking back at it,
that might not have been the best idea.
Thankfully, for my sake and for the sake of my credibility, it was a success.
It was a critical hit and as far as I'm concerned, it's the best thing that
came out of crowfunding in 2014.
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The nominations for the Most Interesting Gaming Youtube Channel That Isn't Mine
are as follows:
Xbox Ahoy.
What started off as little more than a Call of Duty weapons guide
has transformed into something really interesting.
The channel runs a series called "Iconic Arms"
which is a documentary-style presentation about the representation in history
of various firearms in video games.
They also produced a very detailed five parts history of computer graphics
as well as some absolutely intriguing niche retrospective videos
such as Doomed: The Embers of Amiga FPS.
Captained by the sultry tones of a British narrator,
Xbox Ahoy is one of those channels where you should simply ignore the name
and look at the content.
Jim Sterling.
If there was an award for most handsome man in video games,
Jim Sterling would surely be issuing.
However, due to my own personal self-esteem problems,
that category is not present this year.
Jim Sterling has made a fairly remarkable transition from traditional games media
to "the new media", whatever that means, creating Youtube content based on
some bloody terrible video games and recently tried transferring his successful
series "Jimquisition" from The Escapist to a Patreon funded, ad-free model
over on his Youtube channel.
A good friend of mine and peer for quite some time,
Jim Sterling has a somewhat inimitable sense of humor.
Never before has the term "jizzy bears" been uttered from the mouth of
a games reviewer, and I doubt we will ever see its like again.
Super Bunnyhop.
Again, one of those fairly unfortunate names, I suppose,
that doesn't necessarily represent the content of the channel.
But Super Bunnyhop is, for the most part, a games reviewer
with occasional editorial content that is often fairly interesting.
His investigation into gaming beyond 60fps
was certainly good to show those that don't really understand the difference.
He's got plenty of interesting interviews on his channel
and I really enjoy his reviewing style:
it eloquently straddles the line between the consumer bias style of review
and academic critique.
It doesn't go too far off either end.
I think it really helps that George actually has the intelligence
and the academic background to create journalistic content.
Plenty of people try it and most people don't really succeed.
Thankfully, George does and as a result, his channel remains relevant
and informative.
VaatiVidya.
I don't play Dark Souls, at least not on a regular basis,
so if someone could explain to me exactly why it is that I watch everything
Vaati puts out, I would be very interested in hearing it.
No, I think I can identify it quite well:
it's a very unique channel.
It's something that combines creative writing
with the lore of a very vague universe,
something that is not particularly well explained
and is really very open to interpretation.
Thankfully, Vaati is very good at interpretation.
I have no doubt that some of his stuff is merely a flight of fancy
and isn't actually accurate, but that's actually the point of Souls, isn't it ?
It doesn't necessarily have to be, a lot of this stuff isn't canon,
it's a very confusing universe.
Vaati does an incredible good job of explaining exactly what's going on
and crafting what's often a very sad and forlorn story.
Regardless of whether or not I actually play the game,
the universe of the Souls series is very interesting to me.
Vaati does a peerless job of exemplifying exactly why that is.
Matthew Matosis.
If you want a channel that does incredibly in-depth critique,
often of fairly old titles