| The first thing that struck me when I found myself standing beside William Shatner was how much he resembled my father. It was uncanny. I almost tried to give him a hug, offer to grab him something from the bar: "Hey, I’m getting a beer. You want one?" I didn’t have the nerve to try it, though. I suspect, even at 75, Shatner would toss me over his shoulder like Kirk did the Gorn.
Shatner was in Vancouver to host the first-ever Canadian Awards for the Electronic and Animated Arts, nicknamed the Elans after the statuette designed by Dean Lauzé. Held at the River Rock Show Theatre in Richmond, B.C. on September 14, Vancouver publicity veteran Holly Carinci and her staff produced the event figuring it was high time for the burgeoning Canadian electronic entertainment industry to have its own awards program.
The event was planned as if it was the Academy Awards, complete with red carpet walk and mandatory black tie, that was the only indication that maybe Carinci, who comes from the world of talent publicity, didn’t know this audience. Getting a crowd of video game developers into suits, let alone tuxedos, is not an easy job.
Most people got into the spirit of the event, although there were some obvious protesters. Ben Burden Smith, who won the evening’s first award for his work on Mainframe Entertainment’s "Tony Hawk in Boom Boom Sabotage" (in the category of best production, feature length), appeared onstage in shorts and a flannel shirt, his gnarly goatee and mop of hair revealing him to be a skater fashionista. "Thanks, everyone. This rules," he said. He knew what those murmurs from the crowd were about. "It’s the Canadian tuxedo," he smirked. "I thought everybody would appreciate it."
The best surprise of the night was an appearance by film director Uwe Boll, who has made a career out of adapting video games to movies. In Vancouver recently, he boxed into submission – literally, with gloves, a boxing ring and a round-ending bell – some of his more vocal critics. Boll proved to be self-deprecating, defiant and funny. His counterpart on stage, Broken Saints creator Brooke Burgess, just couldn’t get enough of himself, and proved to be the most annoying element of the evening.
Greg Zeschuk and Ray Musyka, co-founders of renowned Edmonton game developer BioWare, were the inaugural inductees to the new Video Game Hall of Fame.
"This is an amazing honour. We’re incredibly lucky," said Musyka in accepting the award. "Canada has so many advantages. We have the rule of law, we have infrastructure, we have great universities, we have amazing talent. You can do anything here. It’s incredibly surreal to be actually at an awards show that’s hosted by William Shatner, who was one of my personal heroes back in the day when I was a little kid watching Star Trek. I’ve got some stuff to autograph later, I hope William doesn’t mind."
Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis (publisher: Rockstar Games; platform: 360; rated: everyone)
I predict that table tennis will soon resurface as the sport of choice for urban hipsters, in the same way that bowling did five years ago. But don’t take my word for it, because I stole the idea from Rockstar Games, who can always be counted on to be ahead of hipster trends. Their clever developers came up with a video game simulation of ping-pong that looks great and is surprisingly intuitive to play. By the time you’ve worked your way through the extensive training session, you’ll be eager to take on a live opponent. Be wary, though, as this game is easy to learn, but difficult to master. You’ll have a blast while you’re working at it.
Dead Rising (publisher: Capcom; platform: 360; rated: mature)
Unless you want to be kept up far too late (until, like, 3 a.m.) and, when you finally go to bed, be plagued with dreams of cutting a swath through zombies with a chainsaw, do not start playing Dead Rising at night. There is nothing wrong with playing it during the day, but if you do, darken the room and wear headphones to optimize the experience of being surrounded by the undead. You are Jack West, a photojournalist trying to get a scoop on events in a small town that’s been cut off from the world by the U.S. military. When you drop onto the roof of a shopping mall, courtesy of a chopper-for-hire, you realize the reason the town’s being sequestered is that its citizens have been turned into zombies. The flesh-eating kind. Dead Rising is an extreme and over-the-top gorefest. Be prepared for some frustration with the save mechanic, though, which only allows you to have one save file. You’ll be in for some replay. |
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