The three main characters in Trine 2 are icons in the gaming industry. They represent to us, gamers, the mysterious dungeons, the prized weapon at the end of a painful quest, and above all, the classic old school RPG that we all adore. However, Trine 2 is NOT an RPG. It’s best described as a side-scrolling action adventure/puzzler/platformer/ … OK, so Trine 2 might not have a definitive nature, or a remarkable story, but I’ll tell you what it does have: lots of charm, sharp controls, and some of the most beautiful visuals I’ve seen. Surprisingly, that combination works! The Story Regardless of the weak story, storytelling in Trine 2 is surprisingly satisfying! Trine 2 tells the story of 3 companions’ adventure through an ordinary tale to save a princess. The iconic trio (Amadeus the wizard, Zoya the thief, and Pontius the knight), return to the magical forests to fight goblins and solve more puzzles, while discovering their path and unveiling the secrets of the Trine 2 universe. You will uncover more of the story through poems found in some of the treasure chests distributed evenly through-out the game. While I found the poems a bet helpful to storytelling, I was a bit disappointed after spending a good amount of time reaching my first chest. You see, the chests in the first Trine were more rewarding, as you can acquire some cool items (armors, weapons …etc) to aid you in your battles. While the story is fairly simple, it has nothing new to offer in general and I found it was merely put for the purpose of transitioning between levels. The Main Characters Despite his ongoing research for finally learning the Fireball spell, the Wizard’s talent is for conjuring peculiar boxes, and occasionally even planks. He can also levitate small inanimate objects. Amadeus is married to a lady by the name of Margaret. They have three children, all of whom know the Fireball spell. . . . The Knight is an eager champion of the kingdom, the protector of the common man with a great sense of justice. Armed with his sword, his shield and the powerful Storm Hammer, he’s a formidable fighter. Pontius’s great weakness is food. This shows around his waist. . . . . The Thief makes her way up to rooftops and over walls with her trusty grappling hook. Zoya is not so concerned about family or duty, but she is content to be a hero of the Trine, for she loves adventure. Zoya’s love for treasure, however, often leads her astray. . . . . The Gameplay Oh look! … a dragon!? While Trine 2 lacks in the story department, it still packs some of the most beautiful visuals and outstanding game mechanics ever created for a platformer. Each of the main characters has a set of unique abilities and you can switch between characters easily during the game by simply pressing the R1 , or R2 buttons on your Dualshock 3 controller. The wizard is the most important character when it comes down to solving puzzles especially if you are running solo. He can create boxes and planks (can be upgraded up to 4 boxes on screen), move certain objects around (including goblins), which was indeed useful and um .. fun, giving the fact that the wizard was proven completely useless during combat in the first game. The knight is the most useful character during combat, as you can use either your sword and shield or hammer to fight enemies, bash certain walls, and deflect incoming projectiles. As for the thief , well .. I found myself using the thief 50% of the time due to her unique ability of grappling onto wooden surfaces, which was proven useful both in combat and in solving puzzles. The thief can also strike with her icy bow (which can be upgraded to fire arrows), simply by using the right analog stick. Each of the characters have their own life meter. If a character runs out of life, he will die and you will be forced to switch to one of the other main characters. Life meters will refill instantly once a checkpoint is reached. Throughout your journey, you will also find magical vials. If you collect 50 of these, you will receive a skill point, which can be used to purchase a single upgrade for one of your characters, keeping in mind that some of the upgrades will require more than 1 skill point. The skill tree in Trine 2 Despite the small improvements made to combat, fighting scenes are barely challenging. The game keeps throwing enemies at you with the intention of slowing your puzzle solving process, which makes it feel a bit forceful, rather boring, and relatively unnecessary. Enemy AI should have been managed differently, with regards to quality over quantity. Although, I have to point out that I’ve enjoyed some of the combat scenery simply based on the smooth responsiveness of the controls. Trine 2 also offers a unique prospective on the way you approach puzzles, as you are given the complete freedom to use all the tools you have to reach treasure chests, get to higher ground, and/or move to the next stage. Each of the three main characters will offer a different approach. Sometimes you will find yourself using a combination of all three. I’ve also found that some areas are inaccessible without the help of a partner, which will force you to either get online, or call in a friend for help. This makes the whole cooperative experience worth checking and adds a bit of a replay value to the campaign. New Features Aside from the upgraded graphics engine, the most distinguished new feature in Trine 2 is the new online cooperative support. You can play with up to 2 other players both locally and/or online. I was able to test this new feature with 3 players online in a quick match. How this works is fairly simple: a player can host a game, keeping in mind that the skill tree (unlockable perks) is based on the hosting player’s progress and only the host can allocate skill points, you assume the role of one of the three main character and if you die, your friends can revive you at the next checkpoint. Having more than one friend helps A LOT in terms of solving some of the inaccessible puzzles in the singleplayer mode and defeating gigantic bosses. I found it rather entertaining to brainstorm some puzzle solving ideas with people I met online. The game will force you to communicate with your partners rather than just running around and killing stuff. As much as I’ve liked the idea of online co-op, I’ve also found it unequally satisfying, merely for the fact that only the host’s characters will gain experience, rather than you all achieve equal progress. Final Thoughts Regardless of the limited story, Trine 2 undeniable charm, soothing soundtrack and outstanding visual design will make for an unforgettable experience through the mind of developer Frozenbyte. The added feature of online co-op brings something extra to the table and defy the way you approach puzzles and fight enemies. If you are looking for a simple entertaining and casual co-op adventure, Trine 2 will deliver. Review Pros Cons Outstanding visual design Online cooperative support Smooth ControlsCharming appeal Limited story Unequally rewarding multiplayer experience Small replay value Rating 89% Trine 2 is developed by Frozenbyte and published by Atlus Price on PSN is $14.99 This review is based on a copy of the PS3 version of Trine 2 provided by Oly (thanks mate). Also, a demo is currently available on the PlayStation Network, so make sure you check that out.

Original post: 
[Review] Trine 2

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the podcast. This week we have a special guest from the site joining us, you might know him, a little fella that goes by the name of Isli. Tune in to catch Isli, FooBear, Tosh, and I discuss a few things in the news as well as some more Skyrim talk, and a few other stories about our gaming experiences. If you’d like to be a guest on the podcast feel free to join us! You also get points for being on the podcast, so don’t worry about missing out on the secret word you point fanatics! Just send me a message on the site and I’ll let you know when we start, and I’ll add you on Skype. Also a bit of warning for those of you who didn’t beat Heavy Rain, but we talk about it at the end of the podcast quite a bit. So if you want to stay away from spoilers, you can just stop the podcast there. I made sure to put the secret word before that. We also talk/spoil Uncharted 3 again, as well as a little bit of Mission Impossible:Ghost Protocol, but it’s all after I give you the spoiler warning for Heavy Rain. Enter the secret word(s) mentioned in the PS3BlogCast to earn 75 points. The first 10 people to enter it correctly get double points! As always, we want to remind you that the PS3BlogCast is listed on iTunes! So please subscribe and rate/review us there. You can also leave a voicemail for us by calling PS3-888-BLOG or if you want to contact us via email for us you can do so here . We have a dedicated forum for the PS3BlogCast so you can leave your questions and feedback there as well. Here’s a list of some things (or everything) we discussed: New on PSN Nohopeleft.com Infinity Ward Hiring for Next-Gen Games Dead Island DLC ’12 in ’12′ SOPA Secret Word Heavy Rain Discussions

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PS3BlogCast Episode 33

The story takes place in Sumaru City, Japan, population 1,280,000. Its protagonist attends Seven Sisters High School (“Sevens” for short), whose emblem is considered a status symbol even amongst students from other schools. Soon, though, a rumor that Sevens emblem was actually cursed, and that wearing it would disfigure one’s face, had spread around the city. Even worse, the rumor came true… And it was only the beginning of a string of rumors becoming reality, one after another… Before long, the protagonist discover the power to summon another side of them called “Personas”, which they use to investigate the strange incidents around the city, all while facing their own personal demons as well. Time is once again on the march… Personas are the manifestation of power from one’s other selves lurking within them. These Personas with otherworldly abilities and appearances of gods from worldwide mythos are drawn from the unconsciousness of of Persona-users to appear in the real world, lending their power to the wielder. The “you” that others recognize is only one of the countless selves that exist, and of these innumerable selves, there are those with the compassion of gods, the cruelty of demons, and even those with the capacity to wield swords or guns. Personas are no more or less than “another you”. Up until this point the game was a Japan-only release (12 years had to pass for it to see a release outside of that wonderful island). We DID get the second half of Persona 2 (Eternal Punishment), and back in the day we had no idea we were missing out on a huge part of the picture. How has this game aged during all this time? Let’s find out! There’s a lot of great anime cut scenes in all the game, as you’ll immediately notice right after booting up the game. Animated cutscenes are always a nice extra, and you can watch them in original, medium or widescreen format. Isn’t technology wonderful? There’s also an updated and remixed soundtrack you can choose in case you don’t like the original one. All in all, it’s great music that truly brings this experience to life. The remixed music really shines. The original tracks were taken in for a tune-up and all its intricate elements and nuisances really pop (there’s a limited edition available at retail comes with a soundtrack CD so track down that one!). You also have the option of installing a 200 MB+ portion of the game to the memory stick to reduce load times. Since there’s A LOT of random battles (oh, happy days!) and the install time is only 1-5 minutes at most…the install is time well spent. Before getting started, players have the option of picking between easy, normal or hard difficulty. The higher the difficulty, the harder it will be to defeat the many, many, maaaaany demon’s you’ll run into. But Easy isn’t really THAT easy, as it will still require the player to carefully plan their approach to every fight. Unless they want to die a LOT. This isn’t a simple game, but it is just what we needed. Controls are easy to understand. You can use the analog stick or the D pad to move around. L and R are used to move the camera around (very important since most of the time the camera plays tricks on you and blocks NPCs or items on purpose). X confirms choices and O cancels them. Oh, and the triangle button activates the auto-battle feature during fights, which takes into consideration the last set of actions performed by your party and replicates them until you cancel out of it. You can move around a Town Map to select the next location to visit. You can even talk to people (represented by green arrows) in the town map to obtain new info. You can travel between different zones by exiting the world map and selecting another area you’ve already opened up in the new menu that will pop out. Now, with that out of the way, let’s take a moment to meet our party of intrepid youngsters that will save the world this time around: Tatsuya Suou An 18-year-old young man attending Seven Sisters High. He is tall, handsome, and has a mature, cool demeanor which has won him the admiration of female and male classmates alike. He’s a loner who does his best to avoid getting involved with anyone. Initial Persona: Vulcanus Lisa Silverman A 17-year-old girl nicknamed “Ginko” who also attends Seven Sisters High. She has beautiful blonde hair, blue eyes, and a figure that’s the envy of other girls her age. Because she was born to parents who were naturalized as Japanese citizens, she looks Caucasian, but she speaks fluent Japanese. Initial Persona: Eros Yukino Mayuzumi An active twenty-year-old student at vocational school for photography. She’s grown out her hair and settled down a little since her days at St. Hermelin High. Her goal is to become a professional photographer and she’s now working as an apprentice to a freelancer. Initial Persona: Vesta Maya Amano A 23-year-old reporter for a teen magazine. She’s a beautiful, cheerful woman who naturally draws others to her with her considerateness and affable nature. Initial Persona: Maia Eikichi Mishina A 16-year-old and second-year at Kasugayama High, less flatteringly known as Cuss High, who refers to himself as “Michel.” He is the Boss of a gang of delinquents at Cuss High and also front man in his band. He tends to take what people say too personally, is easily swayed, and is often a bit too taken with himself. Initial Persona: Rhadamanthus Jun Kurosu A 17-year old young man with slender, feminine looks. He transfered to Kasugayama High, but hasn’t been seen attending classes for some time. He loves flowers and always wears fresh blossoms such as an iris or iceland poppy. Initial Persona: Hermes As usual, you can change the name of the characters in your party. You can even decide what nickname to give them. Me? I just leave then as is since it’s how the story was written. No need to add my own name to the mix as I’m pretty sure I’ll remember I’m the one that is playing the game. Want to make something become a reality? Spread a rumor about it and see how it goes! First one is free (mmm, where have we heard that before?) but the others will cost you dearly. Also, you must first HEAR a rumor straight from a rumormonger’s mouth before you can pay the Head of the Detective Agency to start the rumor machine. Rumors play a big part in our adventure, even more so when we remember that this whole thing started because of one single rumor. You’ll be able to decide the type of items sold at each store, how awesome a prize you can get from the lottery, open up new areas to progress the story, etc. Rumors are what makes the world go round! Your first shopping experience will be at the Kameya Alley. Each store has an icon next to their name and this can help you identify at first glance what each one of them deals in. A sword means its a weapon store. A jacket identifies an armor store. A fork and knife means its a restaurant or a food store. A little silhouetto of a man (Scaramouche, scaramouche, will you do the fandango?) is there to let you know there’s gossip to be heard, learned or spread. A red cross sign is for places you can heal your wounds at (HP and SP restore and all status ailments dissapear for the whole party). The characters in your party get hungry from time to time. Buying something to eat will give them a temporary boost to one of their stats which will last until they’re hungry again. Gotta try them all! And you must also remember that some armor is gender specific (a hairpin, for example, is female-only) before you go purchase crazy, and start spending all of your hard-earned money. And yes, hard-earned is definitely the way to describe this. Your Personas grow with every use (even more when using fusion spells), increasing their abilities and unlocking new ones. They go up in rank from 1 till 8. Each character has different compatibilities with the various Personas. If their compatibility is bad, it will cost more SP to invoke the Persona, and especially bad compatibility may prevent the Persona from being assumed at all. Conversely, if their compatibility is good, it will cost less SP to invoke, and especially good compatibility may cause the Persona to occasionally demonstrate special powers. After you complete one of the demonic battles you’ll wage against… demons that are demonic, you’ll be rewarded with experience points and money you can use to upgrade your equipment or for items that can help you in battle. The currency is expressed in Yen and, I don’t know about you, but for me, a Japanese game that uses Y as the in game currency is just crazy and completely goes against the atmosphere and feeling of this adventure. A very intersting element in Persona 2 is the Pacts you can make with Demon’s. You start things of by making Contact (talk) with them while in a fight (and, sometimes, the Demon’s are the ones that initiate things) to try and convince them to give you items, info, tarot cards, money or to heal you. They have for attributes (eager, happy, scared and angry) that increase from each action you select once contact has started (Tetsuya can, for example, do impressions), OR from the answer you give a demon to the question they’ve presented to you. Get them to full eager or happy and they might ask you if you want to enter into a pact… and this is how you get better items, money and other extras from them once you find them again in battle AND fill their eager or happy metes during the new encounter. Should you make them angry they will break the pact (if one existed) and attack you. Tarot Cards, demons, and Personas all have an associated Arcana. A Persona’s Arcana indicates which Arcana of Tarot Cards is necessary to summon it. Negotiating with demons can earn you Tarot Cards of the same Arcana that the demon belongs to. The higher a demon’s level, the more Tarot Cards you’ll receive through negotiation with it. More cards are necessary to summon high-level Personas. Negotiate with strong demons to quickly gather enough cards to summon the better Personas. As is always the case with old-school RPGs, grinding is not an option, it IS a requirement. I grew up with random fight, turn-based RPGs back in the day and I’m very happy to finally get a chance to play Innocent Sin. I own Persona 3, P3 FES and 4 on PS2 as well as the first Persona that was also released on PSP. Thus, I was only missing Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment (the second released in the Persona 2 world) to have a complete set. Grinding for money and experience, while also increasing my Personas, is just part of the fun experience you can enjoy in this game. Persona 2 has been a long time coming, and we should be happy about finally having it officially released over here. A solid combat system, the crazy but interesting story, the remixed soundtrack, the great 16:9 cutscenes and overall presentation, all contribute to make this a very welcome addition to the still growing number library of the PSP. Any Persona fan should run to buy this right now to tell Atlus that we want more Persona games! Review Pros Cons The game we’ve been waiting for during the last 12 years It’s an Old School JRPG for our portable needs! It’s an Old School JRPG, which some people really, really, really don’t like, for some reason Rating 92% Published by Atlus Cost – $29.99 Disclaimer Total amount of time played: 30 hours (and counting!). This review is based on a retail copy of the PSP version of Persona 2 – Innocent Sin provided by Atlus.

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[Review] Persona 2 – Innocent Sin (PSP)

Square Enix is hard at work on what is going to be their next gen engine, moving away from their past titles’ art work and into photo realism. Square is hoping to do what the Unreal Engine did for this generation, with their Luminous Engine Next Gen. I have to admit, the Photo Realism is just what I was hoping for. The studio plans to allow other studious to use the engine which will cut production time in half and lower the cost of game development as a whole. Whether this will allow for cheaper games, we’ll have to wait and see. Take a look at a very early sample of what to expect after the jump. I remember the early days of gaming and what Sega CD was doing with FMV and how amazing it was to feel like you were in a realistic setting in Ground Zero Texas. Here’s hoping Square Enix can pull this off and begin the next Next Gen with Photo Realistic gaming. Source: Edge

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Luminous Engine & Photo Realism Next Gen

Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima is currently developing a new project that will eclipse his previous works in terms of game design. The above image is a teaser shot of the game recently shared by Kojima on Twitter. In a new interview with CNN the 48 year old game developer disclosed a small bit of information regarding one of his current projects. Codenamed “Project Ogre”, Kojima stated that the mystery title will be set in a “very open world” with at least 100 hours of gameplay. Don’t get too excited though. During the interview Kojima stated that “Project Ogre” won’t be ready for some time.

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Hideo Kojima Working On An Open Ended New Game

PlayStation are back on the road! And this year, they’re packing some new hardware. PlayStation Vita is bringing “Vita Rooms” to cities across the UK where you and your mates can get hands on with PS Vita’s Dual Analogue sticks, stunning OLED screen, front and rear touch panels and Augmented Reality capabilities. They’re equipped with the greatest in handheld gaming software too, including Uncharted: Golden Abyss, FIFA 12, Reality Fighters, MotorStorm RC, ModNation Racers: Road Trip, Little Deviants, Escape Plan, Super Stardust and Wipeout 2048. Staff will be on hand at the Vita Rooms to answer any burning questions you have about the console, and you may even get the chance to meet some of the developers behind these great games! Launching at 63 Deansgate in Manchester from Friday 13th – Wednesday 18th January, the spaces will then continue to Glasgow, Birmingham and London throughout January and February 2012. Want in? Visit Facebook.com/PlayStationAccess for full details. Or if you’re the tweeting type; twitter.com/PSAccess Community Contacts: @PSAccess Facebook.com/PlayStationAccess YouTube.com/PlayStationAccess

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UK Gamers – PlayStation Brings PS Vita To Your Doorstep

The first multiplayer footage has been released by Team Ninja for the much anticipated Ninja Gaiden 3. They cover a lot of basics here in the following videos, such as ultimate moves and level progression. Following the videos is a new batch of screenshots to hold you over. I must admit, everything is looking amazing for Team Ninja. I personally have purchased every past Ninja Gaiden game, and this looks to be on top of my must have list. Source: gamingeverything.com

Excerpt from: 
Ninja Gaiden 3 Multiplayer Gameplay

What’s the deal with Bathesda’s latest adventure Skyrim? Well aside from the fact that it is awesomely addictive, Skyrim is suffering from a PlayStation 3 “only” unresolved lag issue that is compromising the experience for many PS3 owners. Although I haven’t started playing Skyrim, but I am a bet afraid that by the time I will hit the 60 Hours mark I will reach the pinnacle of my adventure. Apparently there have been many speculations regarding the origin of the problem and the correct methods to resolve it. Patch 1.2 was released by Bathesda to resolve some issues including the lag problem, however the problem still persists. According to many users, not only Patch 1.2 have not fixed the issue, but also made things worse, as they are now experiencing more issues, including the infamous flying backward dragon glitch. Dragon Flying Backward after patch 1.2 That pushed Bathesda to release a statement apologizing for many fans and promising a more accurate research before releasing a future patch. Press Here for full statement given by Bathesda After the holidays, we’ll continue to release regular updates for the game – through full title updates, as well as incremental ‘gameplay updates’ to fix whatever issues come up along with rebalancing portions of the game for difficulty or exploits. We plan on having a lot of these, not just a few. Overall, you should expect updates to be hitting the PC and Steam earlier and more often, as that’s a process we control. Console updates will follow, as they must be certified and processed by those manufacturers. We all know this is a huge game, and everyone has a different experience. We’ll continue to do everything we can to make the game better and better for as many people as possible every day. We’ve also realised that with the millions upon millions of people playing Skyrim, we need to treat our updates with greater care. If we get too aggressive trying to fix a minor issue, we run a risk of breaking something larger in a game like this. To be safe, we are prioritising code side fixes right now over data fixes. Quest and balance issues are usually data, and those will start rolling in a large way with the January updates.” Last week, Joshua Sawyer “Ex Bathesda developer who worked on Fallout: New Vegas and a previous Elder Scrolls game” released a very conteversial comment referring the problem to an engine-level issue. Sawyer explanation is build on the fact that the PS3 has a divided memory pool. It is an engine-level issue with how the save game data is stored. We’re talking about how the engine fundamentally saves off and references data at run time. Restructuring how that works would require a large time commitment … Hmm, obviously my next question will be how large we talking here, Ex. Bathesda employee? Bathesda’s, clearly been on the defensive side here, PR and marketing vise president Pete Hines denied the explanation through Twitter , offering the following tips to improve game performance: – Turn off auto saves. This can cause temporary stuttering since the PS3 saves these files in the background. This is most noticeable with large saves when fast traveling to a new area or entering a new area that auto saves. – Clear space on your hard drive. Skyrim makes heavy use of the hard drive, and freeing up space on here seems to help many people. Hard drive speeds also differ in PS3 models. Some users have reported increase performance by upgrading their drives. – Waiting for time to pass. Many things are running in the world depending on what quests you’ve done or places you have visited. Using Wait or Rest options, passing time will clear up some of these. It depends how long you wait, it may take up to 30 days for some items. Saving, resetting, and loading after this will have the largest effect. Really Pete? Waiting for time to pass? I am suppose to spend my precious gaming time in Skyrim resting? Well, Bathesda issued a NEW statement yesterday saying that they are already reaching out to a number of PS3 owners whom still have been experiencing issues in terms of the large save file and the lag. Here is the full statement: While the 1.2 update fixed the long-term play issues for most PS3 users, we are aware that is not the case for some. We’ve been reaching out to a number of those users to collect save games, so we can take a look at their specific issues. Right now we know it’s not one thing, but a combination of smaller ones that some folks are seeing, but others are not. Some seem to be the PS3 autosaving in the background (you can turn that off), some may be SPU AI updates, and some may relate to dynamic system memory allocation. “These fixes are not in the current 1.3 update that is in final testing, but will be in future ones. We understand how frustrating it can be when your game is having issues, and we thank all of you for your continued feedback and patience. Rest assured we take your gameplay experience seriously and will continue working on this until it’s resolved. So .. the new patch will not address the current problems with the game? Yeah, that’s an arrow to the knee alright! My concerns are clearly that developers are not making enough effort to test their games before release. In some cases the release date set by publishers are the main concern. Hey, they might be making some progress here. at least they’ve acknowledged the issue and seem to be committed to resolve it. That’s an improvement I guess, but when I pay almost a $100 for some good time, I know that didn’t sound right, I expect quality product people. Watch out for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim review by Pedro, who is working hard on giving you an insight on one of the most promising nominees for the game of the year award.

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Skyrim: A Shout To Game Developers

Back to Karkland lands today on PS3! One week early on Playstation 3! Nice to see EA show us some love. This is what the developer had to say. If you are a Battlefield 3 Limited Edition owner, you are entitled to this entire expansion pack at no extra charge and you can get it from the in-game store or the PlayStation Store. Otherwise, you can buy it for $14.99 starting today, from the game’s in-game store or from the PlayStation Store. Every future expansion pack for Battlefield 3 will also be available one week early exclusively on PlayStation 3, just like Back to Karkand. Once you have downloaded Back to Karkand, the four new maps (Wake Island, Strike at Karkand, Gulf of Oman, and Sharqi Peninsula) will be available in the server browser and in the Quick Match filter settings just like the nine maps from the base game. There will be servers that mix and match maps from the base game and Back to Karkand, so you will never have to commit to playing either base game or Back to Karkand maps in your gaming session Source: PlayStation.Blog

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Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand Hits PS3 Today

All the nominees for the 2011 VGA’s have been announced along with a interesting piece of info in regards to Zelda being the first franchise to be inducted into the hall of fame. Guess Link has paid his dues. You can even bet your points on the VGA game of the year ! Now on with the nominees. Studio of the Year Bethesda Game Studios Naughty Dog Rocksteady Studios Valve Best Xbox 360 Game Batman: Arkham City Forza Motorsport 4 Gears of War 3 Portal 2 Best PS3 Game inFamous 2 Killzone 3 LittleBigPlanet 2 Uncharted 3 Best Wii Game Epic Mickey Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Lost in Shadow The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Best PC Game Battlefield 3 Minecraft The Witcher 2 Portal 2 Best Handheld/Mobile Game Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective Infinity Blade Super Mario 3D Land Jetpack Joyride Best Shooter Battlefield 3 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Gears of War 3 RAGE Best Action Adventure Game Assassin’s Creed: Revelations Batman: Arkham City The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception Best RPG Dark Souls Deus Ex: Human Revolution Dragon Age II The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Best Multiplayer Battlefield 3 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Gears of War 3 Portal 2 Best Individual Sports Game Fight Night Champion Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters Top Spin 4 Virtua Tennis 4 Best Team Sports Game FIFA Soccer 12 NBA 2K12 NHL 12 MLB ’11: The Show Best Driving Game DiRT 3 Driver: San Francisco Forza Motorsport 4 Need for Speed: The Run Best Fighting Game The King of Fighters XIII Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Mortal Kombat WWE All Stars Best Motion Game Child of Eden Dance Central 2 The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword The Gunstringer Best Independent Game Bastion Minecraft Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP The Binding of Isaac Best Adapted Video Game Back to the Future: The Game Batman: Arkham City Captain America: Super Soldier LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars Best Original Game Bastion Batman: Arkham City Deus Ex: Human Revolution Portal 2 Best Graphics Batman: Arkham City L.A. Noire RAGE Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception Best Performance By a Human Male J.K. Simmons as Cave Johnson – Portal 2 Mark Hamill as the Joker – Batman: Arkham City Nolan North as Nathan Drake – Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception Stephen Merchant as Wheatley – Portal 2 Best Downloadable Game Bastion Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet Stacking Trenched Best DLC Fallout: New Vegas – Old World Blues Mass Effect 2 – Arrival Mortal Kombat – Freddy Krueger Portal 2 – Peer Review GameTrailers.com Trailer of the Year Assassin’s Creed: Revelations – E3 2011 Trailer Batman: Arkham City – Hugo Strange Reveal Trailer Dark Souls – Ignite ’11 Debut Trailer Dead Island – GDC 11 Cinematic Trailer Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Purity First Infomercial The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – In-Game Debut Trailoer Hitman: Absolution – E3 2011 Trailer Prey 2 – E3 2011 Trailer Tomb Raider – E3 2011 Trailer Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception – E3 2011 Trailer Best Song In A Game “Build that Wall (Zia’s Theme)” by Darren Korb – Bastion “Exile Vilify” by The National – Portal 2 “I’m Not Calling You a Liar” by Florence + the Machine – Dragon Age II “Setting Sail, Coming Home (End Theme)” by Darren Korb – Bastion Best Original Score Bastion Batman: Arkham City Deus Ex: Human Revolution Portal 2 Most Anticipated Game BioShock: Infinite Diablo III Halo 4 Mass Effect 3 The Last Guardian Game of the Year Batman: Arkham City The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Portal 2 Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception Personally Im not happy with the line up in a few of the category’s but what are we gonna do. Below is the official press release NEW YORK, Nov. 16, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Spike TV today announced the creation of its first ever Video Game Hall of Fame Award. This annual honor will recognize the most memorable and innovative video game franchises in history. The inaugural recipient, “The Legend of Zelda,(TM)” is one of the most influential and beloved gaming franchises of all time. The legendary series will take its rightful place as the first entry into the Video Game Hall of Fame, with a special tribute at the 2011 “Video Game Awards” (#VGA) – the network’s ninth annual live televised event to celebrate the best in games. Telecasting from Los Angeles, CA and featuring some of the most notable names in video games, Hollywood, music, sports and more, the two-hour event honoring the outstanding achievements within the video game industry over the past year will premiere LIVE on Spike TV, MTV 2 and Spike.com on Saturday, December 10 at 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT. “The ‘VGAs’ always celebrate the best games of the year and previews the future with world premieres,” said Casey Patterson executive producer of the “VGAs” and executive vice president of event production for Viacom Media Networks Entertainment Group. “Now our Video Game Hall of Fame will recognize the game franchises throughout history that have brought the industry to where it is today.” “It is only natural to start with ‘Zelda,’” said Geoff Keighley, executive in charge, publisher relations, Spike. “‘The Legend of Zelda’ is a franchise that inspired many of us to see the potential of games when it debuted 25 years ago, one that has successfully transitioned from one game console generation to the next and has continually shown the narrative and artistic potential of the medium.” “All of us at Nintendo are truly honored to have ‘The Legend of Zelda’ as the first inductee into Spike’s Video Game Hall of Fame,” said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of sales & marketing. “As we mark the 25th anniversary of the ‘Zelda’ series, we look forward to the December 10th ‘VGA’ event as a very special way to celebrate with fans and SPIKE viewers around the globe.” The 2011 “Video Game Awards” will feature world premieres of the most anticipated games of 2012 and beyond. In addition to the previously announced exclusives debuts of BioWare’s next project, the next “Alan Wake” game and “Metal Gear Solid: Rising,” this year’s viewers will get the first look at footage from “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Patriots,” “Transformers: Fall of Cybertron” and Most Anticipated Game nominee, “BioShock Infinite.” Additional exclusives will be announced in the coming weeks. For additional information about other “VGA” world exclusives and announcements, fans can log onto VGA.spike.com and get updates via Twitter @SPIKE_TV as well as the hashtag #VGA. Leading the way with 12 nominations is “Portal 2″ by Valve. Rocksteady Studios’ second adventure featuring the Dark Knight, “Batman: Arkham City” garnered 10 nominations, while the third chapter in the Nathan Drake adventure, “Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception” by Naughty Dog and independent game “Bastion” rounded out the top most nominated games with 9 and 5 nods each, respectively. Nominees for Spike TV’s 2011 “Video Game Awards” were determined by the VGA Advisory Council, made up of a group of some of the most well-respected video game journalists from media outlets such as Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, Game Informer Magazine, Kotaku, Joystiq, GameSpot, IGN and WIRED. Below are several of the nominees and categories for Spike TV’s 2011 “Video Game Awards.” For a full list, please go to VGA.spike.com. GAME OF THE YEAR”Batman: Arkham City” (Warner Bros Interactive / Rocksteady Studios)”The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” (Bethesda Softworks / Bethesda Game Studios)”The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword” (Nintendo)”Portal 2″ (Valve)”Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception” (Sony Computer Entertainment / Naughty Dog) STUDIO OF THE YEARBethesda Game StudiosNaughty DogRocksteady StudiosValve BEST SHOOTER”Battlefield 3″ (Electronic Arts / DICE)”Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3″ (Activision / Infinity Ward / Sledgehammer Games)”Gears of War 3″ (Microsoft Studios / Epic Games)”Rage” (Bethesda Softworks / Id Software) BEST INDEPENDENT GAME”Bastion” (Supergiant Games)”Minecraft” (Mojang)”Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP” (Capybara Games)”The Binding of Isaac” (Edmund McMillen) For the first time, Viacom Media Networks will broaden the reach and impact of the 2011 “VGAs” by simultaneously airing the show LIVE on both Spike TV and MTV2, as well as on Spike.com. Internationally, the “VGAs” will air in over 100 countries and territories around the world. In addition, the show will include unique interactive opportunities only available to viewers during the initial live broadcast. Further details will be announced in the weeks to come. Mark Burnett, Casey Patterson and Carol Donovan will serve as executive producers of Spike TV’s 2011 “Video Game Awards.” The presenting sponsors for the 2011 “Video Game Awards” are the all-new Chevy Sonic, Dr Pepper TEN and KFC Hot Wings. Energizer® Ultimate Lithium is the associate sponsor, with AXE and Mission Impossible-Ghost Protocol serving as digital sponsors.

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2011 VGA Nominees Announced