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First Person Shooters (Games) Entertainment Games

Half-Life 2 Sweeps Bafta Games Awards 40

Ford Prefect writes "The British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards, or Baftas, are frequently considered Britain's equivalent of the Oscars. The winners of the second annual games awards were announced last night, and according to the BBC Half-Life 2 won six awards, including best game and best online game. No Katamari Damacy mentioned, Burnout 3 won three awards, and some plucky little upstart called 'Halo 2' won the prize for best Xbox game."
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Half-Life 2 Sweeps Bafta Games Awards

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  • Game Awards? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Jeremiah Cornelius ( 137 ) on Wednesday March 02, 2005 @03:59PM (#11826472) Homepage Journal
    Do J-Lo wear that dress?

    I ain't goin'...

  • Bah... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by badasscat ( 563442 )
    Half-Life 2 won six awards, including best game and best online game. No Katamari Damacy mentioned, Burnout 3 won three awards, and some plucky little upstart called 'Halo 2' won the prize for best Xbox game."

    So, two derivative first-person shooters and a driving game - all sequels, mind you, however good they may be - beat out a wholly original, innovative, and fun concept in Katamari Damacy. I don't know what I can really take from this, except to say that gaming sure has changed a lot since I was a k
    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Re:Bah... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by filipncs ( 708144 ) <filipncs@gmailCOLA.com minus caffeine> on Wednesday March 02, 2005 @04:38PM (#11826839)
      It probably has more to do with the fact that Katamari Damacy isn't out in europe yet. It probably isn't even eligible.
    • I have to say, though, that Burnout 3 is no mere driving game. The *only* thing wrong with the game is the lack of System Link functionality (ie, requires XBox Live for multi-box playing).
    • Re:Bah... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Palshife ( 60519 ) on Wednesday March 02, 2005 @05:46PM (#11827920) Homepage
      I've gotta respond to this, since I'm really sick of people calling Half Life 2 derivative.

      Half Life redefined first person shooters back in 1998. It and some choice others, like Deus Ex, chose to make the genre more than just lugging around strange weaponry and blowing away aliens. They gave story, scope, style, amazing graphics, and a sense of actually being in the game.

      Half Life presented itself as a constant flow of gameplay, giving you story and immersion. Now, because of that, you end up actually liking and caring about Gordon, the character you control. People may not want to admit it, but if Valve wants to make another game that uses those exact elements to play off of, they're perfectly free to do so. It was their idea in the first place. Who are we to say that they shouldn't continue refining it?

      Half Life 2 is the continuation of a great concept in gaming. I'm tired of people discounting it just because it isn't "wholly original."
      • Half Life presented itself as a constant flow of gameplay, giving you story and immersion.
        Waiting for cracks about load times...

        However, I completely agree with the parent.
      • Re:Bah... (Score:3, Interesting)

        by obeythefist ( 719316 )
        I agree with your first two paragraphs.

        However.

        Half Life 2 doesn't do anything new in a PC game that hasn't been done before to death, from physics engine, graphics, sound, gameplay, even scripted events.

        Half Life 2 derives these elements of gameplay and plot from the original Half Life and from other FPS games in the genre.

        Therefore, Half Life 2 is a derivative work.

        I won't discount Half Life 2 because it's derivative. I'll discount it because of Steam, because Valve deliberately rigged the game engi
        • Amen. I enjoyed playing HL2, but the game really lacked a sense that you had any choise other than the single path you were led down. It was a graphically improved HL 1. I re-installed Blue Shift looking for a HL fix after and it's all there except the graphics are really dated.

          Contrast that to Far Cry. It had the usual FPS objectives (get from a to b) but you could approach them from multiple ways. When talking to my friends on how we beat a level someone always did it diffent than others. I was expect
          • I was a bit disappointed with the linearity of Half-Life 2 as well - it does seem like a deliberate design decision, but I hope the release of Far Cry has shown everyone that multiple paths are possible, and that they can be fun.

            When I get more familiar with HL2 mapping, I'm going to be doing plenty of experimentation. It's definitely not an engine limitation... ;-)
    • Re:Bah... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by fondue ( 244902 )
      1. Half-Life 2 is a sequel.
      2. Katamari Damacy is an original game.
      3. Half-Life 2 is still a better game than Katamari Damacy, insofar as they are comparable. It's also more ambitious in scope, more accomplished in design, implementation and artistry, and has a broader appeal.

      Originality isn't a silver bullet.
      • Sorry, 1 and 2 are facts, 3 is a collection of your opinions, which you're certainly entitled to.

        Everyone's opinions are different, and should never be presented as facts. I'm a hard-core PC gamer, and entirely uninterested in Half-Life 2 (tried the demo, uninstalled the demo), but I love Katamari Damacy.
  • for the best darkness.
  • by Blackwulf ( 34848 ) on Wednesday March 02, 2005 @05:04PM (#11827249) Homepage
    Since Namco decided against releasing Katamari Damacy in Europe, that's why it wasn't nominated for the awards.

    It makes sense to only reward games that are available in your area. If a publisher decides not to release a game in your area, don't reward them with an award.
  • Whew (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by Palshife ( 60519 )
    I was beginning to think we'd go an entire day without having Katamari Damacy shoved down our throats.
    • I was beginning to think we'd go an entire day without having Katamari Damacy shoved down our throats.

      Sorry - I was trying to pre-empt the inevitable 'why wasn't KD mentioned? Waah!' posts. I've never played the game, and while it does sound like fun it doesn't sound as if it would be quite worth importing a suitable PS2 and whatever to play it...

      It was nice, however, to see another low-budget, high-concept, word-of-mouth success being rewarded, that being Halo 2. Zonk perhaps understandably edited what
  • Half Life 2 is pretty and all, and I love Garys mod (REALLY creative idea), however, there simply needs to be more mod development for it. There's a lot of interesting stuff in the pipes now, and if any of it ever manages to get finished, that group will probably be able to gain a LOT more players for their mod than they woudl otherwise. Anybody here know of some good mods with a lot of servers for HL2?

    • A lot of modders aren't touching HL2 because they don't want to have to deal with the Steam engine. If I were a modder, I am sure I could find a bunch of different engines more suitable. I know the Unreal guys like it when people mod with their engine... and they don't make you wrestle with Steam to do it.
      • A lot of modders aren't touching HL2 because they don't want to have to deal with the Steam engine. If I were a modder, I am sure I could find a bunch of different engines more suitable.

        I'm a modder, and my experiences with Source so far have been great. See my signature - so far I've built the geometry for a large, complex island map in just a few weeks of free time, starting from no knowledge of HL2 mapping whatsoever. I'm currently populating it with gameplay, and the new Hammer is far, far more stream
        • You are aware that you're ONLY working from the PoV of a mapper? Mods involve more than just mapping and the other kinds of developers involved (artists, coders) don't sound very happy about the current system with the code requiring some form of Steam emulation and exporters for common 3d packages being barely implemented.

          Doom 3 is fairly easy to mod, the code is mostly clean and simple and the art pipeline is straight forward (except maybe for the Walk IK and AF stuff but setting up IK is never trivial).
  • WTF? Best Gamecube game is Warrior Within? Considering some of the excellent Nintendo first and second party titles released last year and they choose a mediocre multi-platform game?
    • Look at the best GBA game as well. They must have picked the dumbest games they could find. Honestly, I don't know what's up with that. Personally, I think I would tip my hat to either Tales of Symphonia, Baten Kaitos, or Paper Mario 2.

      Prince of Persia 2 is on my list for being one of the worst games of the year.
  • by kwoff ( 516741 )
    It took me a couple hours to install Half-Life 2 because of that stupid online installation. After that, though, I have to admit that it's a pretty sweet game.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • by obsid1an ( 665888 ) <obsidian@@@mchsi...com> on Thursday March 03, 2005 @10:15AM (#11833315)
    Best online game? Half Life 2? Am I the only one who sees the problem here? Ok, there is HL2 deathmatch but there's no way in that could possibly win any award. There's what, a whole two maps? One of them with some serious design flaws. CS:S is decent, but hardly award worthy.

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