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WGAs - Breaking Down The Nominees
Discussing the five nominees in the videogames category of the Writers' Guild Of America Awards.
Written by Jon Denton, 16 January 2010
The Writers' Guild of America Awards nominees for videogame writing have been revealed, with a couple of unexpected choices. However, it's key to remember that only members of the guild can be nominated for the award.
Here we break down the chances of the five nominees before the results are announced on January 20th.
Assassin's Creed II, Story by Corey May, Script Writers Corey May, Joshua Rubin, Jeffrey Yohalem; Ubisoft Entertainment
The 6-million selling sequel has a curious combination of Italian and English in its scripting, with moments of real drama usually spoken in the characters' mother tongue. It's indicative of the script as a whole: a real mixed bag. Some characters are written with care and subtlety - Leonardo Da Vinci, for example - but the writing suffers from overuse of exposition and too many dalliances with historical pretension. Still, an improvement on the original, and one of the more interesting pieces of games writing this year.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Written by Jesse Stern, Additional Writing Steve Fukuda, Story by Todd Alderman, Steve Fukuda, Mackey McCandlish, Zied Rieke, Jesse Stern, Jason West, Battlechatter Dialogue, Sean Slayback; Activision
360Zine Issue 37
For our latest Modern Warfare 2 coverage, click here to download 360Zine Issue 37 for free.It says a lot about the industry when a script as bombastic and action-heavy as Modern Warfare 2's is being nominated for an award. Still, the pacing is fantastic, with dialogue only used where necessary and a few choice quotable lines - 'Oscar Mike' being particularly popular. Characters are little more than soldiers with a purpose, apart from the madcap Price, who's written as skilfully as ever.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Written by Amy Hennig; Sony Computer Entertainment
Partly down to good writing, and partly down to good directing, Amy Hennig's reputation as the industry's premier action-writer is only cemented by her work on Uncharted 2. The story itself is fairly forgettable, but it's the banter between Nate Drake and everyone else that makes the game so entertaining. He's the archetypal 'dashing hero meets everyman' that cinema has been in love with since Han Solo, and the snappy performance of Nolan North helps bring a punchy script to life.
Wet, Written by Duppy Demetrius; Bethesda Softworks
A few eyebrows were raised when Bethesda's Wet made it onto the list, but the involvement of veteran '24' screenwriter Duppy Demetrius should be enough to lend credence to a script that's littered with movie references and knowing dialogue. The gameplay might not be taking home any awards, but Demetrius' tale of revenge and redemption is good, brainless fun.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Script Writer Marc Guggenheim; Activision
Hugh Jackman has said that he enjoyed the writing in the Wolverine game so much, he borrowed a few lines for the movie. That probably says more about the film than anything else, but nonetheless there's clearly a good few action-flick lines in Marc Guggenheim's script. Ultimately though, it's just a lot of shouting and growling, mimicking a fairly redundant movie. It'll be a huge shocker if this ends up with the gold.
Modern Warfare 2 coverage available in 360Zine Issue 37 - click here to download it for free!
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