Techtite Feature Article!

Techtite's 2nd Annual Golden Ottos are awarded in these categories:

Movies

DVDs

Multimedia

Television

Video Games

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Sidebar :

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What? No Video Game Awards?... ...sadly, Techtite's Video Game department is practically brand new, with the exception of a paltry number of reviews in past years. Although a revival of the page is now underway, it was not deemed appropriate to offer awards in a genre with so many consoles (PS2, XBOX, Gamecube), many of which were only recently purchased. See awards for these systems in the 2002 awards...

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Feel free to contribute. As always, review submissions are accepted!

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The Golden Ottos for Multimedia Go To...

Best Game, Overall: Star Wars Jedi Knight: Outcast This was a tough call this year. Freedom Force was a really cool super-hero laden interactive comic book; No One Lives Forever 2 was a very impressive sequel to a game series that is looking to be very, very good. However, Outcast wins over these other games for technical reasons. One, it's predecessor came out 5 years prior to this game (!!!), making expectations for its sequel sky high, yet this game delivered. Two, there are cameos by not only Luke Skywalker, though also Lando (the latter was even voiced by Billy Dee Williams himself)! Three, the "big bad" for this game --a dark-force Sith who looks like an evolved velociraptor-- was truly inspired. Top all this off with an ending where Kyle finally gets a clue and confesses his love for Jan, and you have the best game of the year. Oh yeah; it also had a multiplayer option: light sabers on the internet! Definitely Overall Game of the Year material...

Best RPG: Freedom Force. I think what pulls this over every cliche fantasy/war RPG released this year was in the surprisingly perilous undertaking, of trying to release a comic book game. Who would think it would be so hard to release a game based on comic books, that is actually good? Finally, comic book fans have the game they've all been waiting for, with unique characters and very imaginative missions. These characters are so well developed, when the ending turns poignant, it's actually poignant! Wow.

Best FPS: No One Lives Forever 2. While the predecessor became a sleeper hit (if not a sleeper award winner!), its sequel was a tough job, I'm sure. NOLF2 delivered with a nice tale of "the one who got away," and a nice follow-up to all the characters we met in the prior game. This is what all "shooters" should strive to be.

Best Adventure Game: Syberia. Wow; I didn't think great adventure games were possible anymore, with the majority of adventure gamers having to settle for Action-Adventures. This was the exception.

Honorable Mention: Watchmaker. This is sort of an "overall" honorable mention, for one simple reason: check out that camera work! As soon as a rich wife talks about her opulent lifestyle, the camera shot pans back to reveal her talking in front of an indoor pool with full view of the backyard and a huge artistic mural behind her. Talk about excellent cinematography!

Best Children's Game: Harry Potter 2: The Chamber of Secrets. With all the hidden treats you can find, a well made adaptation of the movie/book, and a game that is not insultingly easy yet not hair-pulling hard, this game is for every Potter fan.

The Best Game You (Probably) Didn't Play: Darkened Skye. Yes, its Tom Raider style jumping puzzles can get annoying --particularly when trying to avoid those water tentacles on the stones in the water!-- yet this game was a thumbs-up in my book. Oh, and how cool is the heroine's voice, by Disney's "Princess Jasmine" herself, Linda Larkin?

Coolest "Easter Egg": X-ray vision, 007 Nightfire. While Bond's X-ray specs are meant to be used to see through-walls and such, they also allowed you to see "through" any Bond Lady that passes by. While it is unlikely that some of these ladies would be wearing lingerie and G-strings under a ski suit, it's still an amusing PG-13 trait that is, of course, vintage Bond.

Best Villain: Dasaan, Jedi Knight Outcast. While screen caps taken for the game review didn't do him justice, trust me: this was one cool adversary. A Sith who looks like a walking, talking velociraptor with lighting powers? Cool.

Best Hero: Diablo, Freedom Force.

Most DISappointing Game of the Year: ReVolution. Not only did this game have annoying glitches (at one point I had to use a cheat code just to get through a door that was supposed to open "automatically), it didn't even have an ending to the game! It seems as if this game was not only abandoned by most gamers; the project seems abandoned by the game designers themselves. Take their lead, friends, and avoid this release.

DIShonorable mention: Die Hard Nakatomi Plaza. To say that this game is "better" than ReVolution is to say that a barrel with a crumb in it is better than one that's completely empty. That said: well, at least you get to play as Bruce Willis' character and reenact some cool Die Hard movie scenes. That's something; it's not enough, but it's something.

...and next: Television>>>

Webmasters! If you wish to link to this awards column (possibly, to an award for a product you helped develop!), feel free to use the below graphics as a graphic link to this feature article, or to the review of the product, whose link is connected to each product title.