DICE, I have underestimated you again. Also, VGAs.

If any of you out there are sad enough to pay close attention to my Twitter, you'll know that this week I've been getting fairly irate with DICE refusing to give any dates for the new maps and the Vietnam expansion for Bad Company 2. Harvest Day and Oasis from one of my all-time favourite games, Bad Company 1 are making a return, and as such I became totally impatient with Community Manager Daniel Matros casually smiling and saying 'they'll come in good time'. As it turns out, I should have learnt my lesson from when I was waiting for the BC2 demo to come out for Xbox 360 - as last night Matros tweeted the new maps would come out... the following day. 

So it seems while every other developer around the world that isn't Valve is fumbling about acting as if games are all business and deadlines, there are some who are willing to have a little fun and throw in a surprise or two for their fans. And at the same time making me look like a moronic fanboy, which is fair enough.

They also announced Vietnam will be hitting the cyber-shelves of the XBL Marketplace in three weeks time (Dec 21), so to prepare I watched Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket. Verdict: FMJ is better, and Black Ops lifted various scenes straight out of Apocalypse Now, in one case word-for-word. There's tribute, and there's also plagiarism, Treyarch. 

In terms of other big game news, this year's VGAs are approaching. I made a post on it last year, but apart from that I usually wouldn't rate the awards too highly seeing as it's just a show on Spike and not anything too official. However, 2010 has been a hell of a year for gaming, the best I can remember (and probably the best for a long time...) so I'm quite excited to see who comes out on top. I heard on IGN UK's recent podcast that the nominees for overall GOTY, or 'goatie' as I like to call it, are:

- Halo: Reach
- COD: Black Ops
- Mass Effect 2
- Red Dead Redemption

I enjoyed Black Ops, but I wouldn't like it to win simply on principle. We get a new one every year and I don't think it's fair for Activision to swoop in for the millionth time to win it. Halo: Reach greatly disappointed me as a sequel for Halo 3, and I think it took too much of a step back to be a GOTY. That leaves Mass Effect 2 and Red Dead, both of which are fine by me to win. ME2 isn't really my thing, but I respect that decent, upstanding RPG players say it was an absolute masterpiece and I take their word for it. Red Dead I DID fall in love with, and I think it was a real boundary-pusher for an open-world market that's already getting pretty full, and I'd be more than happy to see a Goatie version of it come out next year with all the DLC packs included - no doubt Rockstar would make a sweet deal and make it super cheap.

Once I've played Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, I'll be sure to make a list of my top ten games of this year. There have been more than enough golden titles to have one hell of a countdown. That's all for now, folks, keep gaming.