Before I start off with this post, I’d like to say to the numerous readers who may have watched the VGAs as it was aired last year dec. 2010. I’m asking for you guys to please bear with us since we here in the eastern hemisphere would only get to see Spike TV’s annual Video Game Awards. Yes, even with the internet and all, cable companies (such as Animax who has given me the opportunity for this “advance screening”) still need to go through rings of fire and a labyrinth to be able to officially show this on TV.
So don’t expect me to list down all the winners and whatnot since you can just google the results or you can just visit the VGA wikipage. What I’m going to do is just share my thoughts on the 2010 VGAs and that’s just going to be it.
And yes I am being very candid with you guys right now, if that didn’t turn you off then read on!
The Spike TV VGAs have been bashed and boo’ed by the gamers since it’s started way back in 2003. The 2010 VGAs serves as it’s the award’s show’s 9th, thus proving that the show is still persisting amidst the negative feedback of “vocal” splinter-cell gamer/bloggers. This year Spike has chosen Niel Patrick Harris as the show’s host whilst inviting numerous comedians, actresses and some notable video game personalities to present trophies for the various winners.
In my part, the only presenters that I actually knew were Nathan Filion (Firefly, Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, vouched by fans to be the suitable Nathan Drake of the Uncharted Movie -ugh-), Olivia Munn (Attack of the Show, Daily Show), the people from It’s Always Sunny in Philedelphia (Tech. Danny De Vito), Denise Richards (Wild things, Starship Troopers….. uh), Chris Hemsworth (Thor movie and Thor game) and Tony Hawk (just bec. there were a lot of skating games before that carries his name).
And oh yeah, I shouldn’t forget My Chemical Romance was also there.
So as you can see, in the line up of stars that I actually knew, a few of them were actually part of the video game industry (olivia munn) or at least took part in it (Chris Hemworth and Tony Hawk) or were known to be gamers themselves (Nathan Filion and Olivia Munn (she turned into one though)).
Still I liked how the people behind the VGAs put a lot of work into the show. In fact, I think comparing the 2009 VGAs, the production expense was bigger this time around. The gimmicks were practically more awesome such as the “augmented reality” (which only us viewers can see/experience) and the fact that the chosen “characters of the year” had a few lines that they actually said upon being nominated.
However, while the production dept. of the VGAs did deliver, it can’t hide the fact that script was really, really (and I emphasize again) REALLY WEAK.
The humor was strained, the lines where flat out hammy (to be really honest about it, I don’t really care if the line was really “hammed” up as long as the one can deliver it wonderfully), even NPH, in all his greatness in the performing arts had to suffer through ridiculously made lines. I actually felt that NPH had to improvise on a lot of occasions, but then it’s just me.
Of course I couldn’t really discount everything since there were some bits of the show that actually made me laugh (eg. the NPH taking a bite of tiger woods yeah I just did that ๐ and the banter between NPH and Munn during on part of the show).
The only saving grace for the 2010 VGAs would be the premieres that they presented. For the complete list of premieres that were shown during the 2010 VGAs you can refer to the blog’s list of videos presented during 2010 courtesy of gametrailers.
Overall, the 2010 VGA’s was passable, enjoyable and well bearable. Though in my opinion the 2009 had more ooomp with less notable games premiered while the 2010 VGAs had less oomp and more notable game premieres, so more or less it balances things out.
Animax will be airing the 2010 VGAs this coming January 23rd at 7:10 P.M. so tune in if you want to see what I was talking about.
