With the VGA nominees announced ... well, a lot of people are rightfully questioning some of the picks. At least in my mind they are, because some of the categories are filled with abysmally weak choices (hi, Best Song in a Game) or are missing out on games that should be in there with them (Minecraft in the Indie Category instead of P.B. Winterbottom? Super Mario Galaxy 2 or Kirby's Epic Yarn for GotY, or any Wii game for that matter? Any semblance of love for the PC crowd?) or are categories that shouldn't really need to exist (Most Anticipated Game, which is already going to go to Gears of War 3 because it's BROTASTIC).

But there was one category that stood out among the crap for ... well, for not being crap:

Best Downloadable Game
Costume Quest
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
Monday Night Combat
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game

Given the long list of downloadable games this year, any number of other titles could have and perhaps should be included in the "Best Downloadable Game" discussion that didn't make it into the indie category, like Shantae: Risky's Revenge, Comic Jumper, Recettear, Breath of Death VII, Alien Swarm, Shank, Bit. Trip Fate, Cave Story Wii, VVVVVV ... the list can go on for quite a long time. And it'd be easy for me to sit here and slice the VGAs as a whole up for not including one or more of them in the discussion.

But I'm not going to, because this was the only category I really didn't come away with thinking that Spike dropped the ball on. All four of the games on this list are absolutely worthy of winning the award, each for their various strengths. They've all scored very well among reviewers, and on top of it, all four games are in entirely different genres (RPG, action/adventure, team-based combat and beat 'em up, respectively), not to mention among the best new games this year in each of those genres. And coming up with an excuse as to why they don't deserve to be in the category really comes down to personal preference, because that's the only reason I could even remove one of the games from the list. I don't think you could say that for any other category, even the similar Best Indie Game category (see intro paragraph).

As for which one I'd pick? Scott Pilgrim over Monday Night Combat. But whichever of the four win will have very much deserved it, and that's one thing everyone involved can walk away with feeling great about.

Now, if only all the other categories were as proper as this one ...

100 YEN: The Japanese Arcade Experience from Brad Crawford on Vimeo.

During the summer, many people spent their time going to the beach or riding rollercoasters or any number of other fun activities. Brad Crawford, though, went to Japan on a mission: to film a documentary on the Japanese arcade experience.

The end result? A documentary-in-progress called 100 Yen. The documentary hopes to cover the history of Japanese arcades, the stories of those who game there, and how the world of arcade gaming is competing with console and portable gaming. In his travels to Osaka, Tokyo and Fukuoka to check out Japan's major gaming centers, he also talked to the likes of Q-Games designer Bear Trickey, professional gamer Ryan "Gootecks" Guitierrez and Kotaku editor Brian Ashcraft.

Check out the trailer above for a taste of what might come. Brad wants to go back to Japan to interview additional people, including Daigo Umehara, Osaka Electronic University professor of video games Satoshi Numata, spokespeople from Japan's arcade titans (Capcom, Konami, Taito, etc.) and more. But to do so, he needs to raise some funding. Brad's hoping to raise $9,000 in the next three months through a website called IndieGoGo that helps fund collaborative ideas. He's so far raised more than $5,600, and if you're interested in chipping in, Brad's offering a tonof incentives to do so: film credits, copies of the future "100 Yen" DVD, Street Fighter IV tourney sticks signed by a famous but unnamed figure (maybe Daigo?) and a lot more.

So what say you guys? Sound interesting? Thinking of contributing?

[via GameSetWatch]

That, which you see above, is the leaked intro to Gran Turismo 5. Really. It was first up on GTPlanet, but Sony's since sent letters out to pull it down. Unfortunately, it's out there now ahead of the game's release (now believed to be at the end of November ... maybe just in time for Cyber Monday after Thanksgiving?) and I'm sure this video will disappear in due time. So for now, watch it while you can.

So, what do I think? As a fan of racing games and the Gran Turismo series, it's a mixed bag. The intro with the car building footage is cool ... but it runs too long. Maybe chop a minute of that stuff out of it and we're good. And the actual editing of the footage is very tight and looks great throughout the 6 or so minutes this goes on for.

But then, it gets worse.

The new My Chemical Romance song is just ... ugh, really? If not for the fact they're one of the biggest bands Sony has signed, I doubt they'd seriously have this as the theme. In fact, if I could have had my choice of any song, it would have been the appropriately car-themed "White Knuckle Ride" by Jamiroquai off their new album. And as any Top Gear fan knows, lead singer Jay Kay is an avid fan of automobiles. The only problem with that is that Jamiroquai and Sony had a very heated, very public break-up after their record deal ended, and suffice to say, the two sides do not like each other very much. So there's no way in hell this will ever happen and I'll be forced to just turn down the volume every time I see the intro.

The game, though, looks great. Hopefully, when I get my PS3, I'll still be excited about this game and the intro will just be something I can look past as a single flaw on an otherwise great title.

For TGS, most people will walk away with excitement over Gran Turismo 5 or The Last Guardian or Catherine or the new Castlevania or whatever else tickles their fancy. But for me, one game's already kind of stolen the show, and it's not one I even saw coming: a new Fire Pro Wrestling title from Microsoft and Spike that makes use of the Avatars on Xbox Live. And result, I'm suddenly excited a bit about a game that uses Avatars again.

I say again because, honestly, the only other time I've been excited was for the now-defunct 1 vs. 100, a game that was fun to play with other people and because I tended to do pretty well at it. I had been down on them before that game came out and actually took a liking to using them for the virtual game show, but since then, nothing's really made me think they're being used in a good way.

If you're unfamiliar with Fire Pro, here's a video recapping a bit of what it's about. Keep the volume off, since it's crappy Linkin Park music, but this is the only video to cover the entire franchise up until about 2 hours ago:



You'll probably notice, the games are all in 2-D. This was something Spike continued to choose to do, even though 3-D games were possible and they did release 3-D wrestling games that were not part of this series. But what makes Fire Pro so different is that the grapple system is all about strategy and timing, not just button-mashing; the comprehensive edit mode; and the huge roster of wrestlers across many different styles. It's the only game where you can really see the difference between Mexico's lucha libre, Japan's puroresu and North American-style wrestling all in the same ring, as the WWE Smackdown series and the like are often featured far more limited movesets and personality styles.

But the inclusions of Avatars fits well with this game. Past Fire Pro games had high levels of customization, and I'm sure with the Xbox Avatar engine, we'll have quite a few options. Hopefully, not ones we'll have to pay for, though!

But more importantly, it provides an actual use for the Avatars like Miis in Wii Sports. No longer is the Avatar simply standing there, but he or she is actively in the ring, throwing punches, putting people in armbars and delivering devastating piledrivers onto Avatars of your friends. Basically, imagine Wii Sports, but with pro wrestling as one of the games. I know I would have liked that, even if it wasn't super-realistic looking.

Of course, this could all be for nothing, as the game's only confirmed for Japan right now. But Spike and Microsoft, knowing there's an audience here in the U.S. that would be receptive and needing to give Avatars a first-party use with 1 vs. 100's cancellation, would be dumb to pass up the opportunity to bring this across the Pacific. And I, for one, can't wait to start dropping my Xbox Live friends on their heads as Super Tiger King. I just hope we can dress our little guys up in something awesome.