The Stupid Gamer

Edge, one of gaming’s most respected and trusted video game magazines has released their awards for 2007. As far as year-end awards go, so far Edge seems to be the most well-rounded in their selections and easily the most objective (take a note from this, Spike). Anyway, the awards are listed below:

Best Game

Super Mario Galaxy

Runners-Up
The Orange Box
Halo 3

Best Innovation

Halo 3

Runners-Up
Crysis
Portal

Best Visual Design

Bioshock

Runners-Up
Team Fortress 2
Super Mario Galaxy

Best Audio Design

Super Mario Galaxy

Runners-Up
Halo 3
Colin MCrae: Dirt

Best Online Experience

Halo 3

Runners-Up
Forza 2
Wii Channels

Best Hardware

Rock Band

Runners-Up
Nintendo DS
Nintendo Wii

Best Developer

Valve

Runners-Up
Bungie
Nintendo

Best Publisher

Nintendo

Runners-Up
Microsoft
EA

You want a free copy of any Fire Emblem (or $50 if you hate pure goodness)? Well, today is the last chance to participate in our Fire Emblem giveaway contest. You simply need to post a comment in the contest post, found here: Fire Emblem giveaway.

Later today we’ll draw for our winner, so make sure to get a comment posted.

It looks like the biggest, or at least most interesting, release of the week is NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams on the Wii. NiGHTS was a huge hit on the Sega Saturn and helped push the system enough to keep on the radar longer than any other title managed to. The sequel is receiving decent reviews, so fans of the original might be interested in picking it up.

Xbox 360:

• MX vs. ATV: Untamed

PlayStation 3:

• MX vs. ATV: Untamed

Nintendo Wii:

• NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams
• Rig Racer 2

Virtual Console:

• Cybernator (SNES)
• Monster Lair (TG-16)
• Alien Storm (Genesis)

PlayStation 2:

• MX vs. ATV: Untamed
• Daisenryaku Exceed
• NeoGeo Battle Colliseum

PSP:

• MX vs. ATV: Untamed
• Luxor: Pharoah’s Challenge
• Atari Classics Evolved

Nintendo DS:

• MX vs. ATV: Untamed
• Luxor 2
• Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command
• Elements of Destruction
• Indianapolis 500 Legends

Wow, talk about a HUGE month for the Big “N” and Microsoft. With the price drop, I figured that the PS3 could at least break the 500,000 mark, but it looks like that didn’t happen. Read on for the full numbers.

Hardware Unit Sales

1. Nintendo DS - 1,530,000
2. Nintendo Wii - 981,000
3. Xbox 360 - 770,000
4. Sony PSP - 567,000
5. PlayStation 2 - 496,000
6. PlayStation 3 - 466,000

Top Selling Software:

1. Call of Duty 4 (360) - 1,570,000
2. Super Mario Galaxy - 1,120,000
3. Assassin’s Creed (360) - 980,000
4. Guitar Hero III (PS2) - 967,000
5. Wii Play - 564,000
6. Mass Effect - 473,000
7. Call of Duty 4 (PS3) - 444,000
8. Guitar Hero III (Wii) - 426,000
9. Halo 3 - 387,000
10. Assassin’s Creed (PS3) - 377,000

The numbers speak for themselves, really. The DS and Wii are dominating on the hardware front and the 360 is rocking on the software side of things. The rest of the holiday season should be quite interesting to watch.

The rules to this little contest are easy. Simply post a comment below and say what you want us to suck less at with the site and we’ll toss all the names in a hat (a top hat, actually) and draw one name to be our lucky winner. The winner will get to choose any of the Fire Emblem titles available in North America.

Now, if for some wild and crazy reason you don’t want Fire Emblem, we’ll also be willing to give out $50 in cash or a gift card (to Amazon) in lieu of the game. I guess it’s entirely possible that you might already own every Fire Emblem, but that should be your only excuse for taking the cash.

Stephen Smith, a regular contributor to the Stupid Gamer team, underwent open heart surgery yesterday to repair an aortic dissection. Steve will be hospitalized for two weeks and then will spend the next six weeks in recovery at home. Obviously we look after our own, so (unknown to Stephen) we’ve taken some of the Stupid Gamer Store commissions and sent him a little care package with some DS games to help him pass his time in the hospital and at home.

Thanks to those who have emailed or commented on Stephen’s condition. I haven’t heard from his wife yet, but she’s going to be updating us later with his condition. Obviously open heart surgery is always a risky deal, so our thoughts and prayers are going out to Stephen and his wife.

Get well soon, Stephen.

The Maxim top ten of 2007 is out…and, well, it’s about what we expected it would be. Sure, some picks are right, but others can’t be objectively justified at all. Here’s the list:

1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
2. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
3. The Orange Box
4. BioShock
5.God of War II
6. Super Mario Galaxy
7. The Darkness
8. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
9. John Woo’s Stranglehold
10. Lost Planet: Extreme Condition

Yeah…I don’t think that The Darkness, Stranglehold, or Lost Planet should be anywhere on that list. It’s good to see Call of Duty 4, The Orange Box, Super Mario Galaxy, BioShock, and Prime 3 up there though. At least they got that right. Where’s Halo 3? Mass Effect? Rock Band? Odd. Anyway, here’s a bit more Mario love in “Maxim” style to commemorate his top ten selection.

Time did a top ten games of the year, and they ultimately gave Halo 3 the nod as the overall pick. The top 10 are as follows:

1.Halo 3
2.The Orange Box
3.Rock Band
4.Super Mario Galaxy
5.BioShock
6.Call of Duty 4
7.Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
8.Mass Effect
9.Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation
10.God of War 2

I agree with the top 10 (for the most part), but I think there needs to be a shift in the ordering. I think I’d swap Super Mario Galaxy and Halo 3, and bump BioShock to 3 and drop Rock Band down a bit. Oh, and I guess Ace Combat 6 should be taken out entirely.

I’ve got my own list coming up soon which is guaranteed to be better. If you don’t think it’s better, well, then you’re wrong…not me. Anyway, Congrats to Halo 3!

For those that haven’t picked up The Orange Box yet (shame on you!), IGN’s review of the PS3 version has come out and, while scoring well, seems to be a bit of a disappointment when compared to the PC or Xbox 360 versions of the game. It’s no secret that Gabe Newell has had his complaints regarding the PS3 architecture, but it’s not clear whether or not the performance issues are developer related or technology related. To quote IGN:

[...] Unfortunately, our complaints don’t stop there. The remainder of our criticisms are to blame for the discrepancy in scores between the PlayStation 3 version of the game and the 360 version (the PS3 version, after all, wasn’t handled entirely by Valve). The PlayStation 3 Orange Box performs far worse, and this fact just isn’t up for debate. While framerate issues aren’t as problematic in Half-Life 2 and Episode One, Episode Two suffers a great deal, especially during the episode’s larger battles. We regret to say that some sections border on being unplayable because of the stutters, which often cause your aim to be thrown off and timing shots to be very difficult. The problem isn’t persistent throughout, but when it hits, it hits hard.

More troubling still is the difference in load times. Almost all the PS3 load times are at least five seconds more than the 360, but loading a saved game/loading after death is particularly awful. These clock in at about two to three times as long as the 360 version, which slows down the gameplay considerably. Even though the PS3 Orange Box sports a quicksave feature, any benefit of this option is lost considering the overall abundance of loading.

Even in Portal, a short title that often requires a little trial and error, this problem is massive. The 360 version takes about three seconds to load your last checkpoint if you die. The PS3 version takes seventeen. It hurts.

We must also mention that during all of our Team Fortress 2 play sessions, there was a very startling delay when using explosive weapons like the Soldier’s rocket launcher or the Demoman’s grenade launcher. When you pull the trigger to fire, there’s a very brief but noticeable delay between the recoil of the weapon and the actual delivery of the explosive. This can seriously screw up your timing when trying to lead a rocket shot, or similar attacks. [...]

To be fair to Valve, it seems that portions of The Orange Box on PS3 was farmed out to another developer. It’s entirely possible that this little buddy that Valve used just doesn’t have enough experience with the Source engine and the PS3 in general to achieve optimal results. It truly is a shame, especially when you consider just how amazing the package is. Still, if you don’t have a capable PC (Source runs great on most setups), and you don’t have a 360, I’d still recommend picking the game up for the PS3. Just know that you’re probably going to run into some hiccups along the way.

The release list is kinda strange this week. The big titles would be Unreal Tournament III and The Orange Box for the PS3. Overall, however, it’s another pretty tame week for releases. It seems that the holiday season was very front-loaded in regards to big releases.

Xbox 360:

• NCAA March Madness 2008
• Madden NFL Football 08 (Español)

PlayStation 3:

• Unreal Tournament III
• BlackSite: Area 51
• The Orange Box
• NCAA March Madness 2008

Nintendo Wii:

• Super Swing Golf Season 2
• Showtime Boxing
• Kawasaki Quad Bikes
• Indy 500 Legends
• Mythmakers: Orbs of Doom
• Kidz Sports: Basketball

PlayStation 2:

• NCAA March Madness 2008
• Madden NFL Football 08
• Daisenryaku Exceed
• NeoGeo Battle Coliseum

PSP:

• Warriors of the Lost Empire

Nintendo DS:

• Luxor 2

Virtual Console:

• Pokemon Snap (N64)
• Ghosts ‘n Goblins (NES)
• Baseball Stars 2 (NeoGeo)