Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is remarkable. Remarkably unentertaining and hideous, that is. It manages to shatter that border that distinguishes a bad game from a good one, and puts itself into its own dreary category of the Worst “Game” of 2009 by far and for a long while. The story is incoherent, the dialogue is as dull as the previous title, and the gameplay makes Atari Console games seem next-generation.

more»

Talk about intense. E3 was packed this year with resellers, and less media —but it got bigger, better, and more selective. We were there to get every exciting moment: from Project Milo to Heavy Rain, and exclusive interviews. As always, it was certainly a great time, and now that time is over. It’s time to look forward, ahead to newer and better releases, and to ennoble titles in this year’s WhatIfGaming’s Best Of E3 Awards 2009.

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 about over 1,000 selected individuals to invite them to submit nominations months in advance 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 approximately 2 years after each respective award year.

Turn your mouse clickers and scroll wheel timers to WhatIfGaming this upcoming Saturday July 1st, 2009 for an exclusive presentation of our 9th year anniversary of the WhatIfGaming E3 Awards for 2009, with official public listing that celebrated from late 2001.

The WhatIfGaming E3 Prizes had their origins ever since the end of 1999’s E3 ceremony when we revealed to select publishers what our site cherished for their offerings during exclusive press meetings through an official sticker prize from yours truly. Very few gained them, and some were only notified. Over the years, the awards became public but remained even more strenuous in criteria, with no nominees ever being publicly listed until  a future predetermined date. 5 members of our staff in a permanent committee select the winners from a long line of industry related inquiries taken and personal consideration.

Also, feel free to log on Friday June 26th, 2009 for an Overlord II review (with over 46 hours played and timed only from us) and also an exclusive post-release interview with the creative minds behind Overlord II and their future plans!

When there is something strange in your neighborhood, who are you going to call..? A copy of Atari’s incredible Ghostbusters title. After literally dozens of cancellation threats on the project, the long-awaited Ghostbusters game is back – and one that I have personally hoped would come out ever since I watched the original back in the day. The iconic quartet return an excruciating 20 years after their last ghost-busting outing, bringing with them the original humour and feel of the Ghostbusters which is perfectly realized perfectly in game form. The original cast (Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson and of course the always witty Bill Murray) return to give the game the authentic feel to make it feel like a sequel to the films and it does nothing short of a simply fantastic job at making players literally feel as if they are a part of it.

more»

Afro Samurai is a great ninja game, but essentially one with problems ranging from missing storyline to unbelievable characters. In Afro Samurai, important characters are briefly introduced then rehashed into the sub-plot. The reason we call it a sub-plot is that it’s the only thing happening in Afro Samurai. You meet people, you do missions, and essentially slice up bad guys for no clear reason. It’s a bit disheartening to see a title with such a cool box art, and amazing visuals take such a bad plunge into another game with absolutely no bound of sunscald vision. Some levels take place in Afro Samurai’s past, but it’s hard to tell. Ever watch LOST? It’s like the cutscenes back to the island minus the context.

more»

So…the 2009 new year is here and we’re back as we promised, and I have a lot of things to share from all of us at WhatIfGaming.

Here’s some great reviews we have coming up:

Killzone 2 [We will be releasing this closer to launch than the February 2nd 'Permission Date' Sony set up for those with early copies of the game] Why? Because as you all know already, we take a more intense and thorough process than most and it does not get done in a day.

Skate 2 Review [This one might be a bit late from our end]

Resident Evil 5 Review [You all read the E3 Impressions already, but this final game is just alive from Capcom. Note: US will be covering all Capcom UK titles in the future since they have some very ignorant media people there].

Best of all: We have a surprise interview with a LEGEND from Japan and Anime Entertainment. Here’s a guess: it starts with ‘Ha’ and ends with ‘Ki’.

Sandisk Imagemate All-in-One Reader/Writer Review

Some other things in the pipeline.

Enjoy this everyone. Oh yeah, and wish me a happy birthday!

WhatIfGaming Best of 2008: Game Of The Year Awards

Guess what just happened again this year. We just rolled out the feather carpet and the winners for 2008 are here with us live!

Happy Holidays all WhatIfGaming readers! See you all 2009.

Don’t cry everyone! Just be happy to know that the ESA just contacted WhatIfGaming to say that E3 2009, to take place June 2-4, 2009 isn’t public as many were hoping after some ridiculous statements about E3 2008 not “displaying the games industry’s wealth.” As I’ve taken position before, allowing E3 2008 as a media only event was the right choice and so is the same case again. E3 2009 is just a little “expanded” to allow for retailers to participate in the convention this time around. There’s always E For All everyone! According to ESA:

The 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E³) will take place from June 2-4, 2009, at the Los Angeles Convention Center (LACC), the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) announced today. The expanded E³ will welcome all qualified computer and video game industry audiences, including international and U.S.-based media, analysts, retailers, developers and business partners to preview the latest in interactive entertainment and technology.

When directly asked if “public,” meaning Timmy and his 4 parkour friends to the game lines will be able to attend, ESA stated to us rather directly:

The changes only include: increased booth sizes, increased qualified audiences, and an intensified focus on reinforcing the improved plans for E^3.

Update: Talk about the level of hate mails I just received (around 500) from posting this. This is what ESA wrote to us. We specifically asked if “non-members” of ESA meant anyone in the public, and that’s a no. It just means that people NOT in the ESA group (few companies, exhibitors, and now developers) can gain access to this event in 2009. Public is still not allowed.

Update # 2: Confirmed again. Not Public. Press/Developers/Attending Companies/Business Partners still need to APPLY to attend. E3 2009 will be like the “old” E3’s in terms of scale in the booths, not public attendance. Public cannot attend.

Quick note for anyone wondering, we’ve been extremely busy at closed door presentations at TGS 08′ and we really can’t reveal the good stuff yet. Can we throw a bone? Sure. Expect a new game from SCEA that will blow your minds just as LittleBigPlanet did so randomly at GDC. Anything else? Not really. But we’re here. And we’re working on it.

-WhatIfGaming Staff and Correspondents from Japan

Hells Kitchen isn’t exactly what you would call your standard run of the mill game. It’s not a platformer, shooter, it’s barely even a puzzle game for that matter. The purpose of the game is to run a restaurant both from the customer standpoint and behind the scenes, and balance both enough so to not upset the customers or your boss, the cool headed Gordon Ramsay.

more»