Column: 'The Esoteric Beat: Hand-Chosen Awards and the End of the World'

In another of today's features, regular columnist Jim Rossignol presents his personal esoteric game awards in a number of categories, and takes a look at the final days of MMO Asheron's Call 2. In this extract, Rossignol presents his award for Best Misuse of the Legal System: "Our second award goes to Best Misuse of the Legal System, which goes to the Nintendo DS title Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Oblivious to how courts actually function, Phoenix Wright delivers a peculiarly instinctive, if legally abhorrent, means of determining guilt or innocence. Judges decide murder charges based on their whim, mood, and the evidence gathered by the lawyer's own illegal inspection of crime scenes, while the lawyers are influenced by the ghosts of their former collegues. This is the closest the legal system gets to being a manga fight-comic." You can now read the full Gamasutra column on the subject, including additional awards in the following categories: Best Use Of Extra-Terrestrial Interlopers, Least Clichéd Real-Time Strategy Title, and the gold medal of esoteric game design, The Esoteric Beat Game Of 2005. (no registration required, please feel free to link to the article from external websites).