Not only did we recently just receive Star Wars: The Old Republic in our offices (barring our beta coverage which was not sufficient enough for a title of this magnitude), but we have some more reviews for everyone in the way of SW: TOR (continual coverage when we receive our memberships), and also the Hauppauge HD PVR (we already recommend everyone get this for their HD filming needs or Justin TV streaming needs from FME 3.0).

Expand»

WhatIfGaming Game Of The Year 2011 Awards

The highway of our heart never ceases to the speed limit. Constantly becoming variable throughout the year, the speed of the thrills in newer titles and greater sequels have kept us seeing the wonders of a road that seems to be endless. Once again the highway creates memories which leaves us alone at the passenger seat of life looking out at the night sky of remembrance. Some of us have conquered the hype of ordinary titles, the injustices of mediocre talent, and those games which have shown a devotion to game design which is more about marketing than true gameplay throughout the year. Alas in the confines of these terrible titles, there are those which reaffirm the very nature of recognition and praise, those which dare immensely and conquer the year with their prowess.

It is with pleasure that we provide the millions of anticipated readers what they have been waiting for since the dawn of 2011: the video game industry’s most exceptional and gratified WhatIfGaming 2011 Game Of The Year Awards ceremony, presenting its official Game Of The Year awards before anyone else with a collective decision from industry experts and WhatIfGaming editors worldwide through its defined rigorous selection process which focuses on industry and developer recognition. The moment you all have been waiting for is finally here. Similar to the previous years, WhatIfGaming is first to give out Game of the Year Awards this year. See the Worst Game Of The Year and laugh at its shortcoming or weep for it, ponder about the cohesiveness of Best Script, or play through a title again to experience Best Voice Acting gone unnoticed by some.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Years to our beloved millions of WhatIfGaming readers! See you all in 2012.

A lot of our correspondents directly helped with the world’s first The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Item Guide on PC which was released 11/10/11. We recommend everyone get it. Credits go to WhatIfGaming.com reader “Tnor” who primarily tested all the functions and made sure the guide worked smoothly! We will keep updating the link to the guide in this article.

Download: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Item Guide

WhatIfGaming was lucky enough to be graced by the presence of a beloved icon in Hollywood in the form of Mr. Billy West, a very talented actor whose voice can be attuned to hundreds of iconic voices such as Bender from Futurama, and Ren & Stimpy to name a few. In a day we decided to spend with Billy West concurrent to Comic Con, we learned a lot more about his likes and dislikes.

Expand»

Expect a whole lot of busy coverage during the San Diego Comic Con. It started today and will carry through until Sunday, so there is plenty of coverage and celebrity power here to match. We will be primarily covering video games/technology on the show floor, but moreover definitely be aiming to get those exclusive interviews from celebrities on their entertainment happenings and favorite software/gadgets.

Currently, Comic Con video game titles are lacking. Arkham Asylum is showing the same E3 demo, and other titles from Konami, Capcom, and SEGA are similar to their E3 offerings. Should any of you wish to see the gameplay of any respective titles, please reference official publisher sites.

Keep the cursors close.

The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2011 was an event full of exclusive titles not ready to be out for a good 6 months, to titles ranging into 2012 and beyond. WhatIfGaming was able to see every single title on the show floor and behind closed doors, while getting some of the best industry exclusive interviews and most-demanded questions from our readers directly. Mass Effect 3, Elder Scrolls V: Skryim, Hitman 5: Absolution, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Star Wars: The Old Republic and a myriad of amazing titles along with some of the best people and industry professionals with an indelible positive attitude made E3 2011 unforgettable. WhatIfGaming was graced with an extraordinary number of VIP Badges, Behind Closed-Doors previews, along with the various exclusive event invitationals reaching an all time high. Along the way, we even helped our fellow masses standing in line to come along with us as part of an E3 on-site exclusive access contest previews (where we took some lucky winners from the enormous 3 hour waiting lines into the events with us). It is with a level of dispiritedness that the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2011 is now over. It is time to look forward, ahead to newer and better releases, and to sanctify titles in this year’s WhatIfGaming’s Best Of E3 Awards 2011.

Criteria: The Best of E3 Awards, a subcategory for the WhatIfGaming Prizes, are given solely to those video games that demonstrate a pure excellence in the field for which they are not only nominated but also chosen. These awards only apply to playable games at E3 given a few exceptional categories.

Nomination & Selection Process: Compared with other site awards, the WhatIfGaming Prize nomination and selection process is long and extremely rigorous. This is the sole reason why WhatIfGaming Prizes have grown in importance over the years to become the most important prizes in their field. Forms, which amount to a personal and exclusive invitation, are sent to 275 (2011) selected individuals to invite them to submit nominations from the latest builds per video game. Self-nominations are disqualified. For WhatIfGaming Prizes, inquiries are sent to such people as developers, industry experts, analysts, among others. After our deadline passes, the nominations are chosen by permanent committee of 5 selected individuals from staff and only the final stage of nominees remain per category. From all of these, a winner is chosen.

The names of the nominees are not publicly announced, and neither are they told that they have been considered for the WhatIfGaming Prize. Some are announced publicly by practice. Nomination records are revealed on request approximately 2 years after each respective award year.

WhatIfGaming: Ted, it is such a pleasure seeing you again here at E3 2011. Insomniac Games and Naughty Dog are truly stealing the show here this year.

Ted Price,  President & CEO Insomniac Games: Oh yea, it is definitely great to be here and show off what Insomniac Games can do and continues to do.

Expand»

WhatIfGaming: Ken, I just want to thank you for this interview again, it has been a long while since we met back during the reveal for BioShock: Infinite.

Ken Levine: Oh yea, yea. It is always fun to meet up with someone I was getting along with so well.

Expand»

WhatIfGaming: So to clear up any misconceptions, this title is NOT Fable 4?

Peter Molyneux, Head of Lionhead Studios: Oh heavens, no. We have a lot more planned for Fable 4…should it come to that point, but at the moment, we want players to see Albion the way they have not seen it before: from that first person perspective that is constant and ever-loving.

Expand»

Special interviews include Razer, a look into Sly Cooper 4: Thieves in Time, and very amazing people. More exclusive special previews and interviews will arrive over the course of the next few days from special game developers such Ken Levine for BioShock Infinite, Peter Molyneux for Fable: The Journey, the Hitman: Absolution team, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Dylan Jobe for Starhawk, Don Mattrick of Microsoft, Dan Greenwalt of Turn 10, and finally Ted Price of Insomniac Games.

WhatIfGaming: What films influenced this title?

AC: Just about any film you can imagine. The CG trailer kind of showed that we wanted to create this tone of an island where everything is just going badly.

WhatIfGaming: I won’t bother asking why this is different. From the play-through I really saw there was a key difference in free-roaming and a core storyline. Rather, do you all believe this game is actually worth it? Some readers e-mailed us saying they felt like it was an unnecessary marketing strategy to make money off of a lacking Zombie genre of games.

AC: I don’t think so, not completely. Obviously we knew there was a freedom to the title. There was a core lack of Zombie games, but even if there wasn’t it wouldn’t stop us from making it. What did you think about it?

AC: Just about any game you can imagine. The CG trailer kind of showed that we wanted to create this tone of an island where everything is just going badly.

WhatIfGaming: I loved it so far, but the rest still remains to be seen. Currently I cannot really make a fair assessment of it until review time. But it was interesting for certain, and one scene was a bit thrilling.

AC: And that’s what we wanted. We wanted players to be focused on the story of the survivors in the main single-player storyline, which is certainly large and an aspect out of this world. The story is mature, very dramatic, dark. It’s these things we were trying to go for.

WhatIfGaming: Well here’s to hoping to see it finished in September. Thank you again.