Welcome to Mario in the Morning, the premiere morning talk show in Videoland, starring your host, Mario!
Todays guest is Donkey Kong, whos here to talk about this book, Monkey or Man, Deconstructing the Discourse of the Modern American Primate. Also, Master Chief: Master Chef, Groupie Hero and Toad with the weather!
Brought to you by Danger Shark.
Exclusive Mass Effect 2 footage coming soon to XBLA.
As you probably all know by now, we’ve long been advocates of original video content on Xbox Live. When Microsoft teamed with James Wann, Peter Cornwell, Peter Gunn and Andrew Douglas for “Horror Directors Do Comedy“, we were the first to let you know. We also broke the news when Felicia Day brought “The Guild” to XBLA, and we were there on day one when Netflix first became available on your home console.
Today we learned from our sources at Xbox Live that our friends at Machinima.com will be joining the XBLA video club with their original series, “Art of the Game”! The first episode is set to debut on Monday the 18th, and will feature exclusive, never before seen footage of Mass Effect 2. Machinima’s history with producing awesome gaming videos should make them a good fit for the Xbox Live community, as well as providing a welcome alternative to watching Jessica Chobot pretend to like video games while reading text off of a teleprompter.
We’re all super pumped for Mass Effect 2 here at Crave (especially Erik Norris, who just wrote a long, embarrassing love letter to Bioware earlier this week), so we’ll certainly be watching. To get a better idea of what to expect, check out this episode featuring the art design of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. Then pretend that they’re talking about aliens and robots and stuff like that instead of superheroes and you’re halfway there!
We talk to The Dead Pixel, Matt and Mr. Sark at the Inside Gaming Awards.
“Inisde Gaming” is one of the most popular online video game shows, despite not employing a single hot chick with huge knocks that pretends to like video games so that dorks at home can have something to fap to. We were at their first annual award show earlier this month, where we talked to some of Machinima’s most popular stars, Adam Kovic (The Dead Pixel), Matt Dannevik and Scott Robinson (Mr. Sark). Check out the video, where we discuss some of the games that won awards, those that didn’t, what games to look forward to next year and why The Dead Pixel has to wear a mask in public!
We talk to Oscar Lopez and Mark Grigsby at Machinima’s award show.
Last week, we attended Machinima’s “Inside Gaming Awards” show in Santa Monica. Clearly, the fan favorite developer at the event was Infinity Ward, who took home six trophies for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. We talked to Infinity Ward’s Oscar Lopez and Mark Grigsby about their win, what they thought of the competition, and their favorite killstreaks (both real and fictional).
All the results from Machinima’s first annual award show!
 By Jeremy Azevedo |
Last week, we attended Machinima’s “Inside Gaming Awards” in Santa Monica, which proved to be a fun alternative to the incongruous celebrity photo-op that is known as the Spike VGAs. |
We didn’t get to interview Busta Rhymes’ Watch, or talk to Audrina Patridge about that one time she played Super Mario Bros. with her brother for ten minutes when she was seven, but we did get to drink (too many) vodka Red Bulls with some of our favorite game designers and of course, the lovely people at Machinima.
Teh Call of Duty is SRS BIZNS!
To no one’s surprise, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 executed a serious killstreak on the competition, taking home no fewer than six awards. Here are the results from each category:
Game of the Year
Modern Warfare 2 (Activision, Infinity Ward)
Best Trailer
Halo 3: ODST (Microsoft, Bungie)
Best Multiplayer
Modern Warfare 2 (Activision, Infinity Ward)
Best Narrative
Brutal Legend (EA, Double Fine)
Best Art Direction
Batman Arkham Asylum (Eidos/Warner Bros., Rocksteady Studios)
Best Animation
Batman: Arkham Asylum (Eidos/Warner Bros., Rocksteady Studios)
Best Game Cinematography
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Sony, Naughty Dog)
Best Replayability
Modern Warefare 2 (Activision, Infinity Ward)
Best Indie Game
I MAED A GAM3 W1TH ZOMBIES 1N IT!!!1 (Ska Studios)
Most Compelling Character
The Joker – Batman Arkham Asylum (Eidos/Warner Bros., Rocksteady Studios)
Best DLC (best content pack/expansion content)
Fallout 3 – Expansions (Bethesda Game Studios)
Best Downloadable Game (games only available digitally for purchase or free download)
Plants vs. Zombies (PopCap)
Most Original Game
Scribblenauts (Warner Bros, 5th Cell)
Best Control
Modern Warfare 2 (Activision, Infinity Ward)
Best Game Innovation
1 vs. 100 - Massively Multiplayer Online game show with real prizes (Microsoft)
Best Original Score
Modern Warfare 2 (Activision, Infinity Ward)
Best Weapon
AC - 130 - Modern Warfare 2 (Activision, Infinity Ward)
Best Sound Design
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Sony, Naughty Dog)
(For a full list of nominees, click here and watch the embedded video!)
Official event coverage from Machinima’s “Inside Gaming”. Video clicks through to individual categories.
I was a bit shocked that Shadow Complex didn’t win in the “Downloadable Game” category, and that there was virtually no RPG love to be found in any of the categories. (No Dragon Age? WTF?). Not even Borderlands could put a stop to the Juggernaut that is Modern Warfare 2. I was, however, quite happy to see Fallout 3, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Brutal Legend and Scribblenauts each take a prize. What do you think? Do you agree with the results? Disagree? Join the discussion on our Facebook page and let us know!
Header image by Gavin Holt
