Lucky XIII Wins ECTS Game Awards

Thanks to Gamesindustry.biz for their report on the results of the annual ECTS Awards in London, documenting the ceremonies based around the E3-like English trade show. According to the piece, "Ubi Soft's cel-shaded FPS title XIII... [walked] away from the ceremony with the Best Console Game and Game of Show awards tucked under its arm. The company's multiplayer FPS title Far Cry also won the Best PC Game award, while Everquest 2 - published in Europe by Ubi - picked up the Best Online game award." Interestingly, the Edge Award, chosen by editors of the boutique UK games magazine, went to Capcom's Viewtiful Joe, while Half-Life 2 only came away with one prize, the London Games Week award.

yeah

[skinnedmink]

After checking out the demo I like it but not to sure how I like the multi-platform of the game. If I played it on a X-box I would like the help with aim (same goes with any console). However, with Wasd and the mouse I would like to aim all by myself. Promises to be interesting at the very least. The proof is in the final game.

Half-Life 2 = unpopular in Europe?

[MMaestro]

Unpopular may be an overpowerful word, but to win only one award? Here in the U.S. some people consider Half-Life 2 to be the second coming of the gaming Jesus with hype causing flame wars on message boards for console games.

What next? Linux vs Sony flame wars?

why do they award future products?

[gl4ss]

like, would you put much weight on oscars that would be chosen based on the trailer? are you really surprised that "omg halflife2 only got one prize" when it's not available for play even?

it's just insane and whoring, is there any sites that would guarantee playing the game for at least a week or two before making conclusions on if it's worth the money or not?

-

XIII, the results surprise me:

[bmnc]

Have the ECTS people actually played the XIII demo? I did and while I liked the in game storyboards, and the general feel of the game, it didn't come anywhere near to the 'coolness' that I've seen in gameplay movies of Halo2, Half Life 2 and Far Cry. It just felt like I was playing NOLF2 again, and frankly I want something new. If they managed to make the level geometry look more cartoony then maybe this would be something to get excited about, but at the moment it has this juxtaposition between nicely rendered cartoon enemies and pretty standard 3d levels. =( Who knows maybe they've had a major build channge between the demo I played and the ECTS demo.

Re:XIII, the results surprise me:

[MORTAR_COMBAT!]

Halo 2 -- XBox only.
Half Life 2 -- XBox and PC only.
Far Cry -- PC only.

XIII -- PC, XBox, PS2, and GameCube.

Re:XIII, the results surprise me:

[PaganRitual]

have you actually played the demos for Halo2, Half Life 2 and Far Cry? didnt think so ...

Half-Life 2

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure this game is going to be great. I just don't understand how you can give an award to hype.

BTW,

[twifkak]

Do yourself a favor and subscribe to Edge magazine [edge-online.com]. It's a British affair, but they'll ship to the US.

Stupid question about XIII...

[Man In Black]

So what do I call this in conversation? "thirteen"? "ecks-eye-eye-eye"? "ecks-triple-eye"? "zi"?

Re:Stupid question about XIII...

[CineK]

I think, that you can call it "Thirteen, the Game" - as opposed to the comic book series,
if You want to take a glimpse of the books - take look at this site [adbd.net] with good cover images.

XIII is a pseudonym of the main hero of the book, and i don't think that you can call anyone "ecks-eye-eye-eye" - You'd rather call him "thirteen"

Re:Stupid question about XIII...

[palad1]

What about 'treize' [tree - z] as the authors are belgian?

That's how I call it, of course, being french helps a lot :)

XIII

[den_erpel]

I've been an avid fan of this comic book [wonderlandstrips.nl] for over a decade or so (at the rate of one release a year, there are currently 14/15 comic books, it depends if you count the overview).

For the ppl that want (some) more background: the comic book is written (scenarie) by Jean Van Hamme, who has also worked on Thorgal [chez.com] and Largo Winch [chez.com] (btw, the series does not do the comic book justice), just to name the most well know ones (I am personally a fan of the chninkel [chez.com]. Van Hamme (a professor in Brussels IIRC) is one of the best scenario writers (with the ever dark Dufaux).

The drawings of XIII are done by Vance, who also worked on Bruce J Hawker (and some other high profiled titles, the names escape me at this moment).

Currently, the story arc of the comic book has stopped (a bit), mainly because the identify of number I (yes XIII stands for a number) has been shown. However, the new comic book seems to identify that all is not what it seems and new conspiracies await (showing high ranking CIA/FBI and military personal having succeeded in the coup d'etat in the US).

The first cycle (if I can call it that) was mainly driven by the search for the identity of the main character, finding himself in situations where his life is changed in a blink of an eye and where nothing is what it is and can be trusted.

Furthermore, the issue of the identity of XIII is still not entirely clear, nor is the role of some of the seemingly allies.

XIII

[joeytsai]

From what I can tell, the xbox version of XIII will be xbox live enabled, but does anybody know to what extent? Will it just be content download, or full multiplayer deathmatch/coop support?

XIII demo

[MORTAR_COMBAT!]

I hit the BitTorrent download of the XIII demo [gamedr.com] and played it. I really enjoy this game and hope it translates well to the GameCube -- I still haven't picked up a requisite "4-person shooter" for my Cube yet and this one looks fantastic.

Unplayable?

[evilhayama]

I'd say these awards were based on the fact that you can play (a demo of) XIII, and viewtiful joe has been out in japan for some time, but Halflife 2 is so far just a bunch of amazing looking videos. It's a bit more sensible than giving an award to the game you most want to play...