Fragland Crew Awards 2004: “Specials”

Posted May 22, 2012 by Leentjes - 0 comments

Last week we brought you our “genre” awards for 2004 and soon the overall platform winners will be posted but today we take a look at the special categories in our Fragland Crew Awards 2004

Biggest Surprise

Winner: Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay

A game with the same name as a sci-fi movie of dubious quality, main actor Vin Diesel and a developer without experience. The expectations weren’t all too great but Starbreeze Studio’s did what no-one has seen coming: delivering a fantastic game that perfectly uses the licenses and Vin.
His absense was one of the major strongpoints of the game, along with the variation, the excellent mix of stealth, shooting and fist fights. This all added with excellent voice-acting and graphics so that the complete picture – although somewhat short and without multiplayer – without a doubt became the surprise of the year!

Biggest Disappointment

Winner: Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude

Surprises are always nice, disappointments however aren’t. Often the hype was too big, the expectations too high or the makers couldn’t fullfil their promises. Our “winner” however, tried to completely remake the adventure genre into something different, something that on top of that lacked on concept. Not only were we not fond that a great series – and accompanying legacy – just gets thrown in the trash bin to get a story between minigames but it didn’t even get done right.

We of course had seen it coming thanks to the screens, previews and info but the fact that the adventurous and subtle element completely had disappeared in this game really disappointed us so much that we give this “award” to this game. Better luck next time.

Most Innovative Game

Winner: Singstar

Who says innovation says Sony’s London Studios. This development team already shook the games industry last year with Eye Toy and they do it again this year with Singstar. This karaoke game doesn’t offer cool Doom3-like graphics but does manage to provide hours pure gaming fun. Singstar is the ideal ice breaker for parties and both young and old can have fun with it for hours. A more than deserved winner !

Best Graphics

Winner: Doom3

This one wasn’t so easy to decide! On one side there’s Far Cry with the fantastic sights but mostly Half-Life 2 was a strong candidate. The details, atmosphere, interactivity and consistence of the artwork both in- and outdoor made that the overall graphics of Doom 3 lost to HL2.

However, what Doom 3 put on our screen was technicaly pure top and unseen on the pc or any other gaming platform. Although the variation now and then was far to find, the corridors and hallways had gotten so much detail, precision and fenomenal light- and shadow effects that we couldn’t neglect this: id deserves this one !

Best Sound/Music

Winner: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Who says sound and music says Metal Gear solid and Grand Theft Auto. And since Snake Eater hasn’t been released in Europe the choice was pretty easy. San Andreas transforms sound and music in games to a form of art. The unseen voice-acting an example for the whole industry. How else can it be with people like Samuel L. Jackson who take care of the voices ? But that isn’t all of course: also on the part of the engine sounds and gun effects GTA:San Andreas is solid as a rock.
Combine that with the beautiful early 90′s music you hear on the car radio and you’ll see why this game gets the price for best sound/music

Most Fun Weapon

Winner: Half-Life 2: Gravity Gun

An easy one: not only is this incredibly fun to play with (think about the deathmatch map) but on top of that this game singlehandedly gave HL2 replayability. It was also one of the coolest elements in the game.
The gravity gun is simply the best and most innovative weapon of the year which not only uses the possibilities the havoc physics engine offered but also added to the overall gameplay and lifted the game to a higher level.

Coolest Character

Winner: Jak 3: Daxter

Although I personally would give the award to Dog (when was the last time we saw a robot-like creature with that amount of character) the choice fell on Daxter from the third episode of the series. Zwan could convince us all that the orange weasel was the just winner. I’ll therefore let Zwan do the talking :
“All gamers who have ever tried a Jak&Daxter game will know why Daxter is simply thé character of 2004. Before, Daxter was a normal boy until he fell in a barrel of Dark Eco and changed into a hairy, orange weasel. Big Deal, but what makes him one of the funniest characters ever (for me even thé funniest)? Well, he just can’t stop shouting great oneliners, mostly with some cynic of sarcastic tone. These time after time make you laugh and his phenomenal facial and body expression make sure you fall off your chair from laughing.
Daxter can do what a lot of comedians can’t and that’s make you laugh over and over again. It’s not surprising that “Orange Lightning” wins the awards. We’ll really miss him next year !”

So far for our second part of the Crew Awards. In a couple of days we’ll let you know the winners sorted by platform and the Game of the Year! Stay tuned…

Fragland Crew Awards 2004: “Genre” Aggressivity and games