f13.net

So, I was thinking that we should have some kind of Games of the Year for F13. Here are some categories go ahead and list your nominations. I will try to make some sense of everyone list in a few days time.

Best of

Game of the Year:

Best Art / Graphics:

Best Sound:

Best Story:

Best Multiplayer:

Worst Game of the Year:


GOTY By Platform

PC:

Xbox 360:

PS3:

Wii:


Opinion Categories:

Biggest Surprise (Why?):

Biggest Let Down:

Admittedly, I haven't played that many. I will say though that Spore is the biggest letdown and Little Big Planet the best out of the ones I've played.

Game of the Year: Dead Space
Best Art / Graphics: Dead Space
Best Sound: Dead Space
Best Story: Metal Gear Solid 4 (but honestly, this was a shit year for story) or maybe Persona 4 (haven't finished it)?
Best Multiplayer: Left 4 Dead
Worst Game of the Year: Impossible to gauge. Not a great year for gaming.

PC: L4D
Xbox 360: Nothing. This year was shit unless you liked easy RPGs or Gears of War.
PS3: MGS4
Wii: No More Heroes or My Life as a King, flip a coin.


Opinion Categories:
Biggest Surprise (Why?): Dead Space. (It was made by an EA studio and lived up to everything it promised and then some)
Biggest Let Down: GTA4

I only have a PC and a DS so yeah : Left 4 dead

I'm gonna get laughed at.

Best of

Game of the Year: Resistance 2
Best Art / Graphics: MGS4
Best Sound: MGS4
Best Story: MGS4
Best Multiplayer: Resistance 2
Worst Game of the Year: Who knows...

GOTY By Platform

PC: Sins of a Solar Empire
Xbox 360: Who knows...
PS3: Resistance 2
Wii: Who knows...
DS: Shiren the Wanderer
PS2: Persona 4

Opinion Categories:

Biggest Surprise (Why?): Valkyria Chronicles.  (It was developed by Sega and didn't suck donkey cock like Bodil Jørgensen)
Biggest Let Down: Mercs 2 (How about we finish the game next time guys?)

Best of

Game of the Year: Fall from Heaven 2

GOTY By Platform

wat

Opinion Categories:

Biggest Surprise: Fallout 3. Bethsoft made a game that's fun. For the first time since Daggerfall.

Biggest Let Down: Spore. Good game, but they lived up to my fear and tried to make it too game-y. I want to go hang out exploring the universe and messing with planets and natives and I'm stuck dicking around defending planets and crap every minute.

I've only played a couple games this year. I was torn between FfH2 and Fallout 3 for GotY. I've been playing Fallout3 for two months and still interested in playing it. That's a heck of an accomplishment. I glanced over the "What are you playing" thread and I had gaming ennui most of the year...until Fallout 3 came out. Tough call, both are great games.

Best of

Game of the Year:
Fallout 3

Best Art / Graphics:
Braid

Best Sound:
Dead Space

Best Story:
Persona 4, even though I haven't played it.

Best Multiplayer:
Left 4 Dead

Worst Game of the Year:
srsly?  I have no idea since I don't play shitty games.

GOTY By Platform

PC:
Fall From Heaven 2

Xbox 360:
Dead Space

PS3:
Little Big Planet

DS:
Castlevania: Order of Eclesia

Wii:
Animal Crossing: City Folk

Opinion Categories:

Biggest Surprise (Why?):
Fallout 3, because Bethesda is a shit-filled short bus driven by talentless, three-fingered apes when one considers The Elder Scrolls series.

Biggest Let Down:
Never got my hopes up.  A winnar is me!

Fall from Heaven is a mod, you fuckers.

Edit:

Oh snap, this is also a good answer.

^ I think I need to buy it just to wash the taste of Fallout out of my mouth. Still need an RPG fix.


I know LBP is just a platformer, but it pisses me off in all of the right ways.

GOTY:  Left 4 Dead
Best Art/Graphics:  Dead Space
Best Sound:  Dead Space, Left 4 Dead (tie)
Best Story:  They all pretty much suck, IMO.
Best MP:  Left 4 Dead
WGOTY:  Rainbow 6: Vegas 2

GOTY by platform:
No opinion

Biggest Surprise:  Dead Space, just wasn't expecting something that cool.
Biggest Letdown:  The Force Unleashed

We know, which should say a lot.  Besides, the underlying game is virtually undetectable.

Dead Space is a console game, you should have put Dead Space on the 360.


Yep.  You forgot Haze.

I played Dead Space on the PS3. I try to keep console best ofs to console exclusives. Otherwise it's a pointless category.

As for FFH, IT'S STILL A MOD, DON'T CARE HOW COMPLETE IT IS! SNARL.

Best of

Game of the Year:  Metal Gear Solid 4

Best Art / Graphics:  Metal Gear Solid 4

Best Sound:  Metal Gear Solid 4

Best Story:  Metal Gear Solid 4

Best Multiplayer:  No vote.  I don't play a lot of multiplayer except MMOs and I solo a lot in those.  :awesome_for_real:

Worst Game of the Year: I don't buy or play games that would win this.


GOTY By Platform

PC: Fallout 3

Xbox 360: Fable II (bad year for the 360, IMO)

PS3:  Metal Gear Solid 4

Wii:  No More Heroes


Opinion Categories:

Biggest Surprise (Why?):  Fallout 3.  I was somewhat expecting a total fuck up.  Instead the worst thing I got was a bad main plot and dumb sidekicks.

Biggest Let Down:  Grand Theft Auto 4.  While this game may excel on technical merits and have done good things with moving to a coherent story, it's just not very fun.  Dark, brooding and overall, unwelcome to return once you leave it.  I fear the grit is here to stay, but a more lighthearted approach and an attempt at evening out the difficultly would do wonders for the next one in the series.

Metal Gear Solid 4 was a masterpiece.  I don't even remotely care for the series. I watched my brother play the first one and word of mouth was so bad on 2 and 3 that I didn't even consider purchasing them.  I just bought this with my PS3 after playing for a couple hours at schild's house.   It's a little long winded at the end, but the claims that it's nothing more than an interactive movie are off base.   It's fun, well paced, beautiful in all aspects, moving, etc etc and just meticulously crafted. Without Metal Gear Solid 4 the top of my list would likely have something different for every category.

Left 4 Dead is effectively a fancy Half-Life 2 mod, even if it's being marketed and sold as a distinct game.  Strike it from your list.

If you still have a need for more MGS, I'm sure MGS2 can still live up to the task. I don't know where you got the idea that it was crappy, but it's fairly similar to the new one.. just less whizbang, of course (I still haven't played much of 4 yet btw.. just fucking around.. so I don't know how to compare the two exactly - but from the looks of it, the underlying gameplay is similar.. and many of the features that are in 4 were introduced in 3).

Game of the Year: Persona 4

Best Art / Graphics: Prince of Persia

Best Story: Persona 4

Worst Game of the Year: Eternal Poison


GOTY By Platform

PC: The Witcher: Enhanced Edition

Xbox 360: Saint's Row 2

Opinion Categories:

Biggest Surprise (Why?): World of Goo. Physics simulator that didn't outlast it's welcome.

Biggest Let Down: Tie. Armored Core: For Answer; Warhammer Online.

How could you even have any hopes for a game called Armored Core: For Answer.

No Portables? No PS2?
Not bothering.

WAAAAAAAH.   :cry2:

Could add them yourself, you crazy fuck.

PS2: Persona 4
PSP: Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core
DS: Don't own one.
iPhone: Not a platform, really. The katamari game is fun.

See, not so hard.

Rasux got it for me...don't be a baby.


Art/Graphics: Dead Space
Sound: Dead Space
Story: Persona 4
Multiplayer: Was TF2 this year? If not, NHL 09 (even with the fucking flaws)
Worst: Oh geez...MK vs DC?

Biggest Surprise: Either Dead Space because I don't particularly like the genre, or Persona 4 for somehow being better than Persona 3.

Biggest Letdown: Mirror's Edge, because it was supposed to be awesome, but it was....not. More free-form play, please.

Here's the names of a few AC games:

• Silent Line: Armored Core
• Armored Core: Nexus
• Armored Core: Ninebreaker
• Armored Core: Last Raven
• Armored Core: Formula Front

From also did a game called Metal Wolf Chaos, and is releasing Ninja Blade in january. Bad names are a god damn tradition for them. When a fan looks at something like For Answer, which is the excuse From made for naming a game/expansion pack AC:4a, they don't even bat an eyelash.

Yeah, but the new title is purely Engrish. What was the dialogue in the game like btw? I don't remember the last one seeming so rushed.

I like From, but they're so hit or miss that if they ever made a masterpiece, I'd be truly surprised.

Overall:
Game of the Year -  Fallout 3
Best Art / Graphics - LittleBigPlanet
Best Sound - LittleBigPlanet
Best Story - Nothing stood out story-wise for me
Best Multiplayer - Saint's Row 2
Worst Game of the Year - Insert any of dozens of shovelware Wii titles here

By platform:  (I only counted platform-exclusives here)
PC - Sins of a Solar Empire
Xbox 360 - Gears of War 2
PS3 - LittleBigPlanet
Wii - No More Heroes
DS - Professor Layton and the Curious Village
PSP - No idea, since there was jack-shit released for PSP

Opinion Categories:
Biggest Surprise - EA spends serious time and money pushing two new IPs...
Biggest Let Down - ...said new IPs are ignored by pretty much everyone...

Appeared to be well translated. Didn't see any engrish, but AC's story has always been about corporate warfare, so, y'know, trite, irrelevant shit.


Also, didn't Dead Space sell well?

Snap.

I'm pretty sure Dead Space and Mirror's Edge both failed to meet sales expectations (http://www.joystiq.com/2008/12/16/maddening-npd-data-shows-weak-dead-space-mirrors-edge-sales/) (particularly given the amount of money they spent pushing both titles), though the latter much more than the former.

(Edit:  Grammar)

I usually like horror games, but I'm just not in the mood for it, so haven't bought it. The demo is intense... I didn't think I could put up with hours of that.  :-P

Game of the Year:  Left 4 Dead

Best Art/Graphics:  Dead Space

Best Sound:  Dead Space

Best Story:  ...

Best Multiplayer:  Left 4 Dead

Worst Game of the Year:  Pretty much any MMO I guess.


PC:  L4D

360:  Culdcept Saga edges out Fable II

PS3:  LittleBigPlanet

Wii:  Boom Blox


Biggest Surprise:  Dead Space.  I went into it expecting to like it.  I wasn't expecting it to set the bar for immersion though, with the HUDless interface.

Biggest Let Down:  AOC, because the parts of it I liked I thought were great, so it was that much more disappointing when it turned into a complete mess after the first 20 levels.

Best Sound: Deadspace
Best Multiplayer: COD4. Because it didn't die off in Dec 07.
PC: Spore. Not necessarily just for me but because in my house this is truly a transgenerational gender-unbiased experience.
Biggest Surprise (Why?): Fallout 3 (haven't liked an RPG in ages), Mass Effect (should have liked this one more than I did). And Mirror's Edge. I didn't think I'd like it but ended up loving it.
Biggest disappointment: No More Heroes. I bought this entirely because schild loved it, and it would become the first of a few games that made me realize just how divergent our tastes are. Too much homogeny of opinion sucks though :-)

Why? Exclusives are going the way of the dinosaur unless the Wii magically stops selling and the PS3 magically starts. Besides, I wonder how Dead Space could be considered an "exclusive" when it was also a (non-crappy actually really well delivered) PC game too?
Gamasutra agrees (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3882/npd_behind_the_numbers_november_.php?page=6).

Game of the Year: Master of Magic 2: Fall from Heaven. Yeah its a mod. Deal.
Best Art / Graphics: Dead Space
Best Sound: Dead Space
Best Story: Fallout 3 - the Bob subplot. Just because it is a tie in to the first to games. Otherwise... I've got nothing here.
Best Multiplayer: Left For Dead
Best Mod: Fall From Heaven
Honorable Mention: Fallout 3, because IMO they captured the setting. Now to mod out the main plot line and to turn it into a Warhammer 40k RPG or something.

Worst Game of the Year: Conan. Warhammer. Any MMO really.

Biggest Surprise (Why?):  World Of Goo. It's fun. Go buy it you jaded fucks.
Biggest Let Down: GTA 4.

I'd love to play, but unfortunately I won't be playing many of these games until post 2008. Dead Space is certainly on my list though. The only title I can even consider for some of these is The Witcher: Extended Edition, but I don't think it deserves "Best Story" without me having played some of the other titles.

Biggest Disappointment: WAR. It was meant to be DAOC evolved; turned out to be full of second system design flaws and a complete lack of understanding of how players act and react in a game world.

Biggest Surprise: The number of big mergers and take-overs that occurred. 2008 was definitely a year of consolidation. I mean, if you said to someone at the start of the year, "Activision will merge with Vivendi, Bioware will be bought by EA and Infogrammes will buy out Atari and Cryptic" you'd have been laughed at.

Please. As long as companies like Naughty Dog exist and the big 3 keep keeping studios internally, exclusives will never stop. Best console game is a chance to point out the best 1st party/2nd party title on a specific console. Wasting it on a cross-platform title is something I'd expect from Gamespot.

No More Heroes has to be one of the bigger "love or hate" games I've ever played.  I'd always recommend someone to play it, just never buy it (if that makes any sense).  It's just too odd and two basic/repetitive for some. 

Honestly though, I didn't know you still gamed.  I thought you were more of the Nebu type only playing the newest MMOs.  Also, Mass Effect was a 2007 game. Just like COD4. lols.



Which they did: both the PC/360 awards were cross platform. I only put Fallout 3 because honestly, 2008 was a crap year on the PC for me except for WoW and older titles (I try not to give awards to WoW, even here).  For whatever reason, L4D didn't resonate with me at all.

Looking back at my gaming library, and what I haven't traded back in,  I own very few non-exclusives.  None on the PS3, none on the Wii, one on 360.  Heh.

If an FPS is cross platform PC/360/whatever, I basically consider it exclusive to the PC. I'm just saying, glorifying the great 1st party games on Consoles is a rare opportunity considering the sort of knob that's slobbed over stuff like GTA, Capcom Title X, etc. For example, next year RE5 may be the game of the year, and I may very well give it game of the year, but I'll try to find something else for the 360 and PS3.


I'm going to go on a straight ego head-trip here and say that my tastes are simply wider than yours. Of course, had you asked "should I buy No More Heroes?" I'd have told you no, no one should buy No More Heroes. You either love Suda51/Grasshopper or you don't. And anyone who didn't know who they were (which would be pretty apparent by the appearance of "should I buy") simply shouldn't be buying it. It's not the kind of game I'd bring up in the store when someone says "Hey, what's fun on the Wii?"

Of course, typically I'd just reply to that last question with "Get a PS3 or a PC and stop dicking around."

Edit: To be fair, some people liked No More Heroes that hated Killer 7, maybe it's partly because it really does stand out on the Wii or maybe because it's accessible and super easy and they suck at games so becoming the worlds #1 killer felt really awesome to them, whatever reason though, at least it sold better than his previous stuff. But that really only helps folks like me who hopes Suda51 keeps going off the deepend. Whereas everyone else is going to be totally burned by whatever he makes after No More Heroes 2.

This subtopic began because you claimed Dead Space as some PS3 exclusive. The only way that works by your definition is if it didn't not come out on the PC. Doesn't matter how many different studios were involved in making the various versions of the title. This type of title allow players to discover their own preference for playing.

This. And it's why I didn't buy it (was there a rule that I had to purchase the game to be disappointed by it?). It had some great parts, but like many of these types of games, the boss fights piss me off too much to continue. Sorta similar feeling about Force Unleashed.

I don't make buy/rent/ignore recommendations to people. I don't play enough games, and those I do I rarely finish :-)

No he didn't.  You misread.

Maybe. I read "I played Dead Space on the PS3. I try to keep console best ofs to console exclusives" I know he knows it was on PC too, I've been drinking quite a bit, and really don't want this thread to be about me :-)

I do love that I left 2008 and started 2009 in this thread though. Winnar are me!

Well, ok, so I was with family. But that's what the iPhone is fo'. :oh_i_see:

H4ppy N3w Y34r!

Which is in regards to the 360, PS3, and Wii "Best Of" catagories.  Note that Dead Space is not listed in that section as it is multiplatform, while his winner in each catagory is exclusive to that system.

Game of the Year:  Fallout 3

Best Art / Graphics:  Prince of Persia

Best Sound: Dead Space

Best Story:  Sadly, because it really doesn't deserve it, I'm picking GTA 4.  Fallout 3's story really wasn't great, but then it didn't really need to be.  There might have been JRPG's with better storylines, but I wouldn't know because JRPG's  are for otaku fruits.

Best Multiplayer:  Left 4 Dead

Worst Game of the Year:  Pick a Wii title at random off of any video game store's shelf.  There's a 95% chance you've picked the worst game of the year.  Congrats!


GOTY By Platform

PC:  Left 4 Dead

Xbox 360:  Fable II

PS3:  Little Big Planet

Wii:  No More Heroes


Opinion Categories:

Biggest Surprise (Why?):  The crew behind Saint's Row pretty definitively showed that they know more about how to make crime sandbox games fun than Rockstar does.

Biggest Let Down:  Command & Conquer Red Alert 3.  Sure, it has an archaic RTS feel of build, turtle, destroy.  Hell, that's what I wanted from the game.  What irked me to no end was the lack of any kind of game speed slider.  Hey fucksticks, not all of us are 12 year old ADD victims jacked up on Mountain Dew.  Let the old coots slow the fucking thing down.  This is especially galling because everything else was in place; crazy awesome units, cheesy cutscenes, and B actors.

Game of the Year:  GTA4

Best Sound: Dead Space

Best Story:  Persona 4

Best Multiplayer:  Left 4 Dead

Biggest Disappointment of the Year:  Fable 2 and Prince of Persia (most innovative? LMAO).

Biggest Surprise: Valkyria Chronicles

Left out Best Graphics because I couldn't decide.

OK, this is based on the fact that I actually played very few games this year. Up until the end of August I played only EVE and WoW, then nothing for a couple of months and then got the PS3 and a handful of games. So this isn't indicative of only a tiny subset of all the games that were released this year.

Best Art / Graphics: Dead Space. I still don't believe it's 720p.

Best Sound: Dead Space. Fuck me it's incredible. Everything from the weapon sounds to the monster noises to the, no, especially the environment noises are superb.

Best Story: WOTLK. Even the little of it I was able to play pulled me in and made me want to know more about the WoW background story, which I've never given 2 shits about before.

Best Multiplayer: Little Big Planet.

Worst Game of the Year: The Empyrean Age (EVE factional warfare expansion). Total let down. Waste of time. Badly done. Boring. etc.



PC: WOTLK. Possibly a bit unfair since I played hardly any PC games this year, but it is the best expansion for any game I've ever played and good enough for me to consider it a full game in it's own right.

Xbox 360: n/a don't have one.

PS3: Edited: Metal Gear Solid 4. See end of post.

Wii: n/a don't have one.



Biggest Surprise (Why?): Little Big Planet, because I was, and still am, surprised by just how much fun it is when I have always disliked platformer-type games. So impressed that it's fun single-player, multiplayer online, multiplayer on one box, and even great fun to watch other people playing.

Biggest Let Down: Fallout 3. It did so much right and I had a blast playing it but the main story line quests and the ending were a complete kick in the nadgers with a steel toe-capped boot.

Edit: Played about 8 hours of MGS4 after posting this, came back here, re-read the thoughts about console-exclusives and changed my PS3 GOTY to MGS4. This is an awesome game, I'm blown away by it already. Still think Dead Space graphics and sound are better and not finished MGS4 yet so wouldn't want to comment on story, but the overall package of MGS4 beats Dead Space for me.

As a disclaimer, I played rather few games this year, compared to most here, and a lot of the ones I did play were from 2007 or older. I'm trying to confine this list to 2008 titles.

Game of the Year: Fallout 3.
I love Oblivion, and F3 is a prettier, more fun Oblivion with guns. :heart:

GOTY Honorable Mention: Left 4 Dead.
This still gets playtime as a post-drinking game with friends, and it's fun.

Best Art / Graphics: Fallout 3.
Hands down on this one. I actually said "Whoa" when I first walked out of the Vault.

Art / Graphics Honorable Mention: Mass Effect for PC.
The constructed levels were quite good. The generic planet terrain areas... not so much.

Best Story: On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Eps 1 & 2.
I enjoyed the writing style and manner of delivery well enough for this to merit mention.

Story Honorable Mention: Iji.
It's a free indie game of the side-scrolling platform variety. Branching storyline based on your actions, and rather good, too, so long as you ignore the "super-teenager" part of the premise.

Best Sound: Left 4 Dead.
That the audio system is integral to the gameplay is awesome.

Audio Honorable Mention: Iji.
The soundtrack is surprisingly good, particularly for an indie game.

Best Multiplayer: Left 4 Dead.
This shouldn't even need justification.

Multiplayer Honorable Mention: (tie) Boom Blox and Super Smash Brothers Brawl.
I had a fair amount of fun playing these with friends, before I got rid of my Wii. They make a decent party games, with Boom Blox being superior in non-nerdy circles and SSBB being superior in hardcore circles.

Worst Game of the Year: Age of Conan.
Total of about 5 hours /played before I quit in disgust. I just can't enjoy WOW-style games any more.

Worst Game Dishonorable Mention: Mario Kart Wii.
I regretted the purchase. I liked the older Mario Karts, particularly Mario Kart DS, but this one just felt like crap to me. They removed some of the more fun mechanics and the controls felt muddy.

GOTY By Platform

Multiplatform: Fallout 3. See top of this post.

PC: Left 4 Dead. Only because Fallout 3 isn't PC-exclusive.

Xbox 360: Rock Band 2. Only things I've played on this are GTA4 and Rock Band 2 on friends' machines.

PS3: Nothing. Only thing I played on PS3 was GTA4 and it doesn't win. Same corollary as the 360 - friends' machines only.

Wii: Boom Blox. Of the 5 games I played on the Wii, this one was the most fun.

DS: Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. I'm a whore for the Ace Attorney series. This one was the weakest AA yet, but it's still quite good. That and I haven't played many DS games.

Opinion Categories:

Biggest Surprise (Why?): Iji & Audiosurf. I normally don't like platformers/sidescrollers, but Iji was excellent. Also going to mention Audiosurf. I normally don't like rhythm games, but this one still gets playtime now and then.

Biggest Let Down: Spore. I was a huge Spore Whore for all of 7 days, then the shiny wore off and the tedious micromanagement set in. As Sky said, they put too much game into the sandbox. My stint with this reminds me of my stint with Black & White almost a decade ago.  :sad:

Edit for formatting and fixing Sky's name.

Actually Sky said that about Spore (people always confuse our names), but I agree either way.  8-)

Fixed, sorry.

Game of the Year:  Fallout 3


Best Art / Graphics:  Metal Gear Solid 4


Best Story:  The Witcher:: Enchanced Edition


Best Sound: Fallout 3


Best Multiplayer:  Rock Band 2


Worst Game of the Year:  Not Sure


GOTY By Platform

PC:  Fallout 3

PS3:  Rock Band 2

Best of

Game of the Year: Fallout 3

Best Art / Graphics: Fallout 3

Best Story: Persona 4

Best Multiplayer: Gears of War 2 (hordes mode is  :drill: )


GOTY By Platform

PC: Fall From Heaven 2 (fuck you its a game)

Xbox 360: Gears of War 2

PS2: Persona 4

DS: The World Ends With You


Opinion Categories:

Biggest Let Down: Last Remnant, with WAR coming in at a close 2nd.

Mod or not, you've got to give Kael credit for creating arguably the best game on the pc this year. That's a heck of an accomplishment.

Does anyone on this board even play vanilla civ anymore? Kael out-Meiered Meier. That's epic.

Best of

Game of the Year: Fallout 3

Best Art / Graphics: Fallout 3 (giving this for artistic accomplishment, not technical)

Best Sound: nothing I played stood out

Best Story: Mass Effect (didn't play many rpgs this year)

Best Multiplayer: Saints Row 2 (about time someone put co-op in to GTA)

Worst Game of the Year: Spore


GOTY By Platform

PC: Fallout 3

Xbox 360: Saints Row 2

PS3: LBP

Wii: Boom Blocks


Opinion Categories:

Biggest Surprise (Why?): Saints Row 2 - I hated the original and was expecting nothing from this. Honorable mentions to Fallout 3 and the first 20 leveles of AoC

Biggest Let Down: Spore, hands down. It was not fun. At all.
[/quote]

Did someone say From Software? http://www.gametrailers.com/player/43989.html

Though the 1.5 seconds of combat looked pretty mediocre.

Game of the Year:  NHL 09

Best Art / Graphics:  Tie: L4D/NHL09

Best Sound:  NHL '09 (That's right, a sports game.  The horns in the game are spot on, and goddamn if I don't yell at the TV every time I score.)

Best Story:  Did anything have a good story this year?

Best Multiplayer:  NHL '09 or Rock Band II

Worst Game of the Year:  Call of Duty: World at War  See below.

GOTY By Platform

PC:  Orange Box (Okay, it's 10/07, but still! TF2 was awesome.)

Xbox 360:  NHL '09

PS3: Don't own one.

Wii:  Maybe GH: World Tour since a Wii game finally can buy DLC?  I never even touch my Wii anymore since I have a 360.


Opinion Categories:

Biggest Surprise (Why?):  NHL '09.  Recapturing fond memories of playing NHL '94 over and over and over again is pretty hard to do.  Even if I get my ass kicked every time I play a ranked match, I love the game.  I thought it'd be good, but not amazing.  The Be a Pro mode gave me chills the first time I saw my name on the back of my jersey (So sue me, I wanted to be a pro hockey player).

Biggest Let Down:  Call of Duty: World at War.  The co-op in this game was the must retarded piece of shit I've ever played in my life.  What fucking game designer would ever WILLINGLY reduce the amount of on-screen space I can use.  I have a 42" HDTV. Can I fucking use every pixel?  Also, the lighting in the game was dumb too.  I can never figure out who's shooting at me until I see the muzzle fire of a gun or i get shot.  Extremely terrible.

Also, look me up on XBL.  I've tried to add the majority of you who were on Azazel's list, but I'm too lazy to go through the thread and write it down and plug it into my 360. :D

I hear NHL 09 had a good story.

Is that snarkysnark since I'm gay for NHL09?  :drill:

I couldn't bring myself to toss NHL 09 in there for story :P

No, it's just readily apparent you played like 4 games in 2008 and I'm *think* I'm confident enough to say you never saw the end of 3 of them. Though, I suppose, Rock Band and NHL 09 don't have an "end." Though, I guess if you took the Leafs to win the Stanley Cup, that's like an "end."

Uh, with the exception of Persona 4 and MGS4, I've played most of the games on everyone else's list.

Sorry if I felt Fallout 3 was a pretty reskin of Oblivion with shitty quests.  Just because I'm not actively fondling L4D's balls while simultaneously taking it's dick in my ass doesn't mean I haven't played stuff.

What's your deal? 

I don't have a problem. I just find it strange. I wasn't aware I said you should pick Fallout 3 or L4D btw. You should really play Dead Space, Persona 4, and MGS4. Mostly because they're fucking great. In fact, now that I think about it, they're mostly masterpieces and generally we're lucky to get 1 game of their caliber in a year.

Oh, and it wasn't the quests that were shitty in Fallout 3. It was the main story. The quests were just window dressing, imo.

Edit: Particularly Dead Space and Persona 4. I can understand not liking the combat in MGS4. It's still something of a mess in some area. Notably the manned-mech missions. Persona 4 I can't see anyone not liking unless they go in with a 'lolweaboo' attitude as it's probably the best RPG from the last generation of consoles. As for Dead Space, ye gods, what a fucking game.

I've been eyeing the used copy of Dead Space at the local GameStop, but I want them to be buy two get one free. :D

Good to know we'll have a good time.  It has co-op, right?

If you buy it used, the first time we meet, I will punch you right square in the fucking jaw.

lolz.

For Real.

Don't be a pussy...pony up the $5 and help support the developers who made a fucking awesome game. I don't care if it's EA, the team should be rewarded with good sales.

Best of

Game of the Year: Fallout 3

Best Art / Graphics: Prince of Persia

Best Sound: Left 4 Dead

Best Story: World of Goo :D

Best Multiplayer: Left 4 Dead

Worst Game of the Year: No opinion


GOTY By Platform

PC: Fallout 3

Xbox 360: No opinion

PS3: No opinion

Wii: No opinion


Opinion Categories:

Biggest Surprise (Why?): World of Goo. I thought it was going to be just another bland "bridge builder/tim's incredible machine". I was wrong.

Biggest Let Down: Spore

Schild's methods of interpretation are so rife with ignorance, erroneous information, and poorly conceived notions of ethnocentrism that I hardly know where to begin. Even disregarding obvious errors like his insistence that big emotions come from big words, the fallacies of his claims are glaring to those of us who have educated ourselves about the implications of parasitism. It may help if I begin my discussion by relating an innocuous story in order to illustrate my point: A few days ago I was arguing with a particularly argumentative menace who was insisting that a knowledge of correct diction, even if unused, evinces a superiority that covers cowardice or stupidity. I tried to convince this power-drunk, sniffish parvenu that Schild hates people who have huge supplies of the things he lacks. What he lacks the most is common sense, which underlies my point that what I wrote just a moment ago is not the paranoid rambling of a chauvinistic, featherbrained wacko. It's a fact. He is more than merely despicable. He's über-despicable. In fact, Schild's so despicable that there are some foolish, sophomoric bullies who are yawping. There are also some who are morbid. Which category does Schild fall into? If the question overwhelms you, I suggest you check "both".

Rather than pick out appropriate verbs and nouns, Schild pads all of his sentences with extra syllables to grant them an atmosphere of authority. I, on the other hand, prefer to use simple language to express the sentiment that Schild doesn't care about freedom, as he can neither eat it nor put it in the bank. It's just a word to him. His personal attacks are related to the elements and bases of simplism both organizationally and ideologically. And that's why I'm writing this letter; this is my manifesto, if you will, on how to address a number of important issues. There's no way I can do that alone, and there's no way I can do it without first stating that his press releases are devoid of logic and filled to the brim with hate and misinformation. How much more illumination does that fact need before Schild can grasp it? Assuming the answer is "a substantial amount", let me point out that Schild is extremely flighty. In fact, my Flighty-O-Meter confirms that if you'll allow me a minor dysphemism, Schild's views cause nothing but trouble. Or, to phrase that a little more politely, it is pointless to fret about the damage already caused by Schild's incompetent obiter dicta. The past cannot be changed. We must cope with the present if we hope to affect our future and keep our priorities in check. To close, let me accentuate that if we oppose our human vices wherever they may be found—arrogance, hatred, jealousy, unfaithfulness, avarice, and so on—we shall not only survive Schild's attacks; we shall prevail.

Game of the Year: Fall From Heaven 2 (I don't see much difference between a Total Conversion mod and a professional game that reuses an engine, sorry)

Mod of the Year: Fallout 3 (Oblivion Mod)

Best Art/Graphics: Fallout 3

Best Sound: Dead Space

Best Story: Mass Effect (counting PC release), otherwise I don't remember any outstanding story, especially compared to the behemoth Witcher last year.

Best Multiplayer: Left 4 Dead

Worst Game: Spore (I realize its just mediocre, but I can only count games that I bought)

Biggest Surprise: Fallout 3, didn't think it would be game of the year material

Biggest Let Down: Spore

You guys are pretty defensive about the mod thing.  Heh. 

Still, guess it's something worth checking out. I really have no inkling what it even is.  I suppose I could look.   :why_so_serious:

The rant generator is, indeed, epic.

I played through quite a few things this year, thing was, that most of them were a year or more old. I've got Dead Space, Fallout 3, Gears 2, Far Cry 2, etc, but haven't started playing them at all yet. So the list, she is skewed.


Best of

Game of the Year: Wrath of the Lich King. Honorable Mention: Rock Band 2

Best Art / Graphics: Call of Duty: World at War (With the caveat above, but even so, COD5 is fucking good looking.)

Best Sound: Call of Duty: World at War (Same caveat, plus I don't really notice game sound, but this has some nice atmosphere and boomy effects.)

Best Story: Wrath of the Lich King

Best Multiplayer: Wrath of the Lich King (or if a MMO can't have best multiplayer for some reason, Left 4 Dead

Worst Game of the Year: Spore


GOTY By Platform

PC: Wrath of the Lich King, Left 4 Dead

Xbox 360: Dunno. Haven't played Gears 2 yet. I'd say Saints Row 2 despite it's lack of exclusivity.

PS3: Motorstorm 2 (from my very limited PS3 playtime)

Wii: Mario Kart (if it's a 2008 game, if not, nothing.)


Opinion Categories:

Biggest Surprise (Why?): Nothing really surprised me (that was a 2008 game, anyway.) Dead Space getting such good reviews here prompting me to buy it, maybe.. edit - also this: Fallout 3. I was sure it was going to be mediocre at best.


Biggest Let Down: Warhammer: Age of Reckoning.

Best of

Game of the Year: No More Heroes - Not only the game of the year but the game of this generation.

Best Art / Graphics: Based on movies and screenshots Prince of Persia is the only game I can think of that has a nice mix of art style and technical execution.

Best Sound: Lords of Thunder - Lava zone ftw.

Best Story: No More Heroes - Cliche mocking, 4th wall busting, assumes the audience is not a bunch of blithering retards - easy choice. Also the best combination of script and voice acting I've ever seen.

Best Multiplayer: NHL'09 - Edges out Smash Brothers and L4D

Opinion Categories: (Because the other categories aren't opinions?)

Biggest Surprise (Why?): Wii Fit is the objectively correct answer.

Biggest Let Down: MGS4 and GTA4 - incredibly overhyped games that were actually worse than their predecessors. Also Braid for having worse play control than Super Mario Brothers 1, and Mirror's Edge for doing nothing to dispel the notion that first-person platforming is a bad idea. And finally Silent Hill 5, an imitation that failed to capture the spirit of earlier entries.

I think you're mistaking this word "end" for... "fucking miracle".  Oh right, we're talking about the game.

GOTY

PC Fallout 3

PS2 Persona 4


Biggest Surprise

Fallout 3. I was sure it was going to be mediocre at best.

Biggest Letdown

Spore.