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The 2nd Annual OG Awards - Genre Awards

Posted on February 01, 2013 by Original-Gamer.com

It's time to give some awards out for Original-Gamer.com's 2nd Annual OG Awards.

These next awards are for various genres including a few extra categories.

Best Game That Scared Us For Five Minutes

In a year where three different Silent Hill and Resident Evil game came out, the game that scared the most people was a free game based on a fake urban legend. Slender Man started on the Something Awful forums where posters made up their own paranormal images of a tall faceless guy in a suit that is killing kids. The game, Slender, took that unnerving image and made a scary game out of it. In the game, you have to collect 8 pages in a small area as you avoid Slenderman who will appear once you collect a page. At first, the shock of seeing Slender Man appear right behind you will give you a nice jump. Once you realize the general mechanic of the game, it immediately stops being scary and then you realize why it's a free game. However, due to its popularity, there's already a sequel being worked on and other developers are jumping on the Slender Man craze making similar games.

Best Military FPS

The Call of Duty franchise is the focus of plenty of hate, but when a game improves its formula then it deserves praise. From adding choices during the campaign to the new RTS mini-game, Treyarch did more than just recycle the previous game with Black Ops II, something they’ve been constantly accused of. For that, they should get a nice pat on the back. It also helps that the competition in this category wasn't so great this year.

Best Non-Military FPS

The follow-up to the hit 2009 co-op shooter, Borderlands 2 was everything a sequel should be. Seamlessly blending the best of the previous title, while fixing all the small problems, it was perfect in almost every way. Everything new it brought to the table only enhanced the game. A continuation of the original vault hunter story, Borderlands 2 put players in the hands of 4 new characters that were all ready to make their mark on Pandora, and they did.

Best Adventure Game

Telltale Games have become the company for adventure games. It’s their specialty with franchises like Sam & Max and Monkey Island in their catalog. The Walking Dead Game, however, is a true genre changer. Not only by having some very tense and action-packed segments of the games, but by going to a darker place that could only come from The Walking Dead universe. The bar has been set pretty high with The Walking Dead Game, and it could be the only game to surpass it is season 2 of The Walking Dead Game.

Best Fighting Game

To say the original Tekken Tag Tournament was popular is an understatement as it’s one of bestselling and highest rated fighting games of all time. Tekken Tag Tournament 2, like the original, takes the previous three games and mixes them together to produce the ideal experience for a Tekken fan. Yeah it’s a little hard for newbs, but too bad, this is the game that Tekken fans have been waiting a decade for. It’s everything a Tekken player could want and more.

Best RPG

Before gamers started complaining about the ending, EVERYONE was loving Mass Effect 3. It’s amazing how 15 minutes can ruin at 20 hour RPG for some people, but in the end, Mass Effect 3 is still an awesome game. That great blend of sci-fi action, memorable characters, and epic storyline made Mass Effect 3 a great entry into the trilogy, even with that crap ending.

Best Strategy Game

XCOM: Enemy Unknown is the reboot of a beloved series that couldn’t have done a better job of combining the best of the old series with an army of new tricks. Produced by Sid Meier’s own flagship, 2K Games, gamers knew it was in great hands from the get-go, and everyone was expecting a rise of an old phoenix. Not only was XCOM everything players were hoping for, it set a new standard for turn-based combat. A standard that won’t soon be forgotten.

Best Sports Game

For once, a sports game that isn’t Madden came out on top this year. MLB The Show 12 did a lot of things that not only pleased the hardcore fans of America’s Favorite Pastime, but also managed to hook those who are not fans of the sport. It allowed those who never have been to iconic stadiums such as Wrigley Field and the historic Yankee Stadium to experience a game as if they were there. It gave fans a chance to step up to the plate with some of the most accurate motion controls used in a sports game to knock one out of the park. And for the truly diehard fans, The Show 12 offered an improved Road to the Show and the MMO Diamond Dynasty, which brought an already close community even closer with its online features. With the new season almost here, MLB The Show 12 proves that the series has what it takes to become the next sports video game dynasty.

Best Action Game

The funny thing about giving Dishonored the Best Action Game award is that it has these great gameplay involving stealth, weapons and magic, yet if you choose to and are willing to do the work, you can avoid killing people. It’s up to you on whether you want to take on multiple enemies on at once, make a plan to combine all the tools at your disposal, or simply sneak right by. All these choices are done so well to make Dishonored a spectacular game to play.

Best Adapted Game

Games based on movies, TV shows, and comic books have, for the most part, sucked in a tremendous way. Whether the source material simply doesn’t work in the video game medium or the developers were inept on adapting the source material properly, it’s rare to see one turn out as great as The Walking Dead Game. Let’s face it, The Walking Dead comics are full of despair and it pulls no punches. Instead of trying to change the tone of the material around, Telltale Games stayed true the comics and made a game that was depressing, but powerful. You felt terrible as you played, but that’s the important thing, you felt something.

Best Story

Who would have guessed that the best stories of the year would be from a game adapted from a comic book and a military shooter. The Walking Dead Game is exactly what gamers want when a game is based off a comic book, movie or TV show. Telltale Games could have easily made the game a wannabe Left 4 Dead, which is what the game from Terminal Reality looks like, but they recognized that The Walking Dead comic is not about zombies, it's about the characters. The result of carefully keeping true to the source was an incredible game that sets a new standard for adventure games and adapted games.

Then you have Spec Ops: The Line that was based on the book Heart of Darkness which was also the source for the movie Apocalypse Now. As you progress through the game, there is an underlying message in the game that is still being debated on several months after the release of the game. There's so much going on below the surface, and it's made people question their enjoyment from military FPS games and in games in general. To have a game shake people to their core simply by providing a strong narrative is an amazing feat.

Next up is our platform awards and the big one, Game of the Year!