English Entertainment
Nominees announced for Spike TV Video Game Awards 2004
MUMBAI: Spike TV division of MTV Networks has announced the categories and the nominees scheduled for the second annunal Video Game Awards.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar Games), Halo 2 (Microsoft) and Half-Life 2 (Vivendi Universal Games) have topped this year’s nominees list with five nominations each.
Spike TV has added new categories such as Designer of the Year, and Best New Technology. The winner for the Spike TV’s Video Game Awards 2004 on 14 December. The award function will be hosted by Snoop Dogg premiering Live from California.
Spike TV president Albie Hecht said, “Video games have come a long way since the days of crude graphics and synthesized sounds. Games have totally come of age and gaming is now a multi-billion dollar industry.”
In addition to handing out awards in 24 categories, Spike TV’s Video Games Awards 2004 will feature musical performances including SUM 41, Ludacris and for the first time ever, a special live performance by Snoop Dogg and the remaining members of The Doors singing ‘Riders on the Storm.’
The nominees of Spike TV’s Video Game Awards 2004 were determined by the Video Game Awards Advisory Board, made up of a group of gaming industry experts.
The winners will be determined by votes from the Advisory Board and consumer voting. The viewers will exclusively determine the winner in three award categories these are the Fan Favorite awards of Most Addictive Game and ‘Best Gaming Website’ as well as the Viewers Choice award of ‘Best Gaming Publication.’ The media release mentions that the voting for this year’s nominees on SpikeTV.com starts from 16 November and runs through 14 December.
The categories and nominees for Spike TV’s Video Game Awards 2004
Game of the Year
Burnout 3: Takedown (Electronic Arts)
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar Games)
Half-Life 2 (Vivendi Universal Games)
Halo 2 (Microsoft Game Studios)
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (Konami)
Best Game Based on a Movie
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay (Vivendi Universal Games)
GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (Electronic Arts)
Spider-Man 2 (Activision)
Star Wars: Battlefront (LucasArts)
Best Performances by a Human-Female
Brooke Burke – Need for Speed Underground 2 (Electronic Arts)
Judi Dench – Goldeneye: Rogue Agent (Electronic Arts)
Carmen Electra – Def Jam: Fight For New York (Electronic Arts)
Jennifer Garner – Alias (Acclaim)
Heidi Klum – James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing (Electronic Arts)
Best Performance by a Human-Male
Vin Diesel – The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (Vivendi Universal Games)
Hugh Jackman – Van Helsing (Vivendi Universal Games)
Samuel L. Jackson – Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar Games)
Christopher Lee – GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (Electronic Arts)
Tobey McGuire – Spider-Man 2 (Activision)
Hottest Video Vixens
Tina Armstong – Dead or Alive Ultimate (Tecmo)
Carmen Electra- Def Jam: Fight For NY (Electronic Arts)
BloodRayne – BloodRayne 2 (Majesco Games)
Luba Licious – Leisure Suit Larry: Magda Cum Laude (Vivendi Universal Games)
Rachel Teller (played by Brooke Burke) Need for Speed Underground 2 (Electronic Arts)
Best Driving Game
Burnout 3: Takedown – (Electronic Arts)
Nascar 2005: Chase for the Cup – (Electronic Arts)
Need For Speed Underground 2 – (Electronic Arts)
Best Sports Game
ESPN NFL 2K5 (Sega)
Madden NFL 2005 (Electronic Arts)
NBA Ballers (Midway)
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 (Electronic Arts)
Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 (Activision)
Best Fighting Game
Def Jam: Fight For New York (Electronic Arts)
Dead or Alive Ultimate (Tecmo)
Fight Night 2004 (Electronic Arts)
Mortal Kombat: Deception (Midway)
WWE: Smackdown! vs. Raw (THQ)
Best Action Game
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar Games)
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (Konami)
Ninja Gaiden (Tecmo)
BEST FIRST PERSON ACTION
Doom 3 (Activision)
Far Cry (Ubisoft)
Halo 2 (Microsoft Game Studios)
Half-Life 2 (Vivendi Universal Games)
Unreal Tournament 2004 (Atari)
Best Song in a Video Game
Chingy I Do Need for Speed Underground 2 (Electronic Arts)
Green Day American Idiot Madden NFL 2005 (Electronic Arts)
Jimmy Eat World – Pain Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 (Activision)
Terror Squad -Lean Back- Need for Speed Underground 2 (Electronic Arts)
Will I Am GO NBA Live 2005 (Electronic Arts)
Best Soundtrack
GoldenEye: Rogue Agent (Electronic Arts)
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar Games)
Halo 2 (Microsoft Game Studios)
Katamari Damacy (Namco)
Madden NFL 2005 (Electronic Arts)
Designer of the year
Sam Houser and Rockstar North, for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar Games / Rockstar North)
Tomonobu Itagaki and Team Ninja, for Ninja Gaiden (Tecmo / Team Ninja)
Jason Jones and Bungie Studios, for Halo 2 (Microsoft Game Studios / Bungie Software)
Hideo Kojima for Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (Konami / KCEJ)
Alex Ward and Criterion, for Burnout 3: Takedown (Electronic Arts / Criterion)
Most Addictive Game-Viewer’s Choice
Burnout 3: Takedown (Electronic Arts)
City of Heroes (NCsoft)
Donkey Konga (Nintendo)
Katamari Damacy (Namco)
The Sims 2 (Electronic Arts)
Best Gaming Publication-Fan Favourite
Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM)
Game Informer
Official Playstation Magazine
Official Xbox Magazine
GMR
Best Gaming Web Site-Fan Favourite
www.1up.com
www.gamespot.com
www.gamespy.com
www.ign.com
www.shacknews.com
Best Military Game
Call of Duty: Finest Hour (Activision)
Conflict: Vietnam (Global Star Software)
Full Spectrum Warrior (THQ)
Rome: Total War (Activision)
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War (THQ)
Best PC Game
Doom 3 (Activision)
Half-Life 2 (Vivendi Universal Games)
Rome: Total War (Activision)
The Sims 2 (Electronic Arts)
Best Wireless Game
CBS Sportsline Baseball 2004 (Mforma)
Jamdat Sports NFL 2005 (Jamdat Mobile)
Might and Magic (Ubisoft Gameloft)
National Treasure (Starwave)
Best Graphics
Doom 3 (Activision)
Half-Life 2 (Vivendi Universal Games)
Halo 2 (Microsoft Game Studios)
Ninja Gaiden (Tecmo)
Best New Technology
Half-Life 2 engine (Vivendi Universal Games / Valve)
Nintendo DS (Nintendo)
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 (NVIDIA)
Spherex XBOX 5.1 Surround Sound System (Spherex Inc.)
Best Handheld
Astro Boy: Omega Factor (Sega)
Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour (Nintendo)
Metroid: Zero Mission (Nintendo)
Pokemon FireRed Version (Nintendo)
Best Mass Multi-player Game
City of Heroes (NCsoft)
Everquest II (Sony Online Entertainment)
Final Fantasy XI (Square Enix)
Best RPG
The Bard’s Tale (InXile Entertainment)
Fable (Microsoft Game Studios)
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne (Atlus Co.)
X-Men Legends (Activision)
UK: The aerial is losing its grip. As broadband becomes the default way Britons watch television, the UK is edging towards a decisive, and divisive, question: should Freeview be switched off by 2034? The issue, highlighted in reporting by The Guardian, has exposed deep fault lines over access, affordability and the future of public service broadcasting.
For nearly 25 years, Freeview has delivered free-to-air television from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 to almost every corner of the country. Even now, it remains the UK’s largest TV platform, used in more than 16m homes and on around 10m main household sets. Yet the same broadcasters that built it are now pressing for its closure within eight years.
Their case rests on a structural shift in viewing. Smart TVs, superfast broadband and the Netflix-led streaming boom have pulled audiences online. Advertising economics have followed. By 2034, the number of homes using Freeview as their main TV set is forecast to fall from a peak of almost 12m in 2012 to fewer than 2m, making digital terrestrial television, or DTT, increasingly costly to sustain.
But critics say the rush to switch off risks abandoning those least able, or least willing, to move online.
“I don’t want to be choosing apps and making new accounts,” says Lynette, 80, from Kent. “It is time-consuming and irritating trying to work out where I want to be, to remember the sequence of clicks, with hieroglyphics instead of words. If I make a mistake I have to start again.”
Lynette is among nearly 100,000 people who have signed a “save Freeview” petition launched by campaign group Silver Voices. She fears the government is about to “take [Freeview] away from me and others who either don’t like, can’t afford, or can’t use online versions”.
Official figures underline the fault lines. A report commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport estimates that by 2035, 1.8m homes will still depend on Freeview. Ofcom’s analysis shows those households are more likely to be disabled, older, living alone, female, and based in the north of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Freeview is owned by the public service broadcasters through Everyone TV, which also operates Freesat and the newer streaming platform Freely. After two years of review, DCMS is expected to set out its position soon, drawing on three options proposed by Ofcom: a costly upgrade of Freeview’s ageing technology; maintaining a bare-bones service with only core PSB channels; or a full switch-off during the 2030s.
The broadcasters have rallied behind the third option. They argue that 2034 is the logical cut-off, when transmission contracts with network operator Arqiva expire. By then, they say, the cost of broadcasting to a dwindling audience will far outweigh the returns from TV advertising.
Ofcom agrees a crunch point is approaching. In July, the regulator warned of a “tipping point” within the next few years, after which it will no longer be commercially viable for broadcasters to carry the costs of DTT.
Others see risks beyond economics. Questions remain over whether internet TV can reliably deliver emergency broadcasts, such as the daily Covid updates, in the way that universally available DTT can. The UK radio industry has also warned that an internet-only future for TV could push up distribution costs and force some radio stations off air if PSBs no longer share Arqiva’s mast network.
“It is a political hot potato,” says Dennis Reed, founder of Silver Voices, who says he has “dissociated” his organisation from the government’s stakeholder forum, which he believes is “heavily biased” towards streaming.
The Future TV Taskforce, representing the PSBs, counters that moving online could “close the digital divide once and for all”. “We want to be able to plan to ensure that no one is left behind,” a spokesperson says, adding that rising DTT costs could otherwise mean cuts to programme budgets.
The numbers show the scale of the challenge. Of the 1.8m Freeview-dependent homes projected for 2035, around 1.1m are expected to have broadband but not use it for TV. The remaining 700,000 are forecast to lack a broadband connection altogether.
Veterans of the analogue switch-off, completed in 2012 after 76 years, recall similar fears of “TV blackout chaos”. Around 6 per cent of households were labelled “digital refuseniks”, yet a targeted help scheme and a national campaign, fronted by a robot called Digit Al voiced by Matt Lucas, delivered a largely smooth transition.
This time, the BBC is less keen to foot the bill. Tim Davie, the outgoing director general, has said the corporation should not fund a comparable support programme for a Freeview switch-off.
Research for Sky by Oliver & Ohlbaum suggests that with early awareness campaigns and digital inclusion measures, only about 330,000 households would ultimately need hands-on help ahead of a 2034 shutdown.
Meanwhile, viewing habits continue to fragment. Audience body Barb says 7 per cent of UK households no longer own a TV set, choosing to watch on other devices. In December, YouTube overtook the BBC’s combined channels in total UK viewing across TVs, smartphones and tablets, albeit measured at a minimum of three minutes.
That shift may accelerate. YouTube has recently blocked Barb and its partner Kantar from accessing viewing session data, limiting transparency just as online platforms consolidate power.
“When the government chose British Satellite Broadcasting as the ‘winner’ in satellite TV it was Rupert Murdoch’s Sky instead that came out on top,” says a senior TV executive quoted by The Guardian. “There already is such an outsider ready to be the winner in the transition to internet TV; it is YouTube.”
Freeview’s future now hangs on a familiar British dilemma: modernise fast and risk exclusion, or protect universality and pay the price. Either way, the aerial’s days as king of the living room look numbered.
