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The GOTY blog post...

by kilzombie

Its time to announce my Games of The Year, each category will have a list of games that I think belong in that group, and based on my experience with the game, I’ll pick a winner. Note that the games I pick are only the games I’ve played until completion, or for an extended period of time. But first I’d like to say that this year has been totally awesome in so many ways, 2008 has flown by so fa...

Its time to announce my Games of The Year, each category will have a list of games that I think belong in that group, and based on my experience with the game, I’ll pick a winner. Note that the games I pick are only the games I’ve played until completion, or for an extended period of time.

But first I’d like to say that this year has been totally awesome in so many ways, 2008 has flown by so fast, and I feel amazed to see how many quality games have been released this year. It’s a shame my wallet took a real beating. I thoroughly enjoyed this year, and it’ll go down as one of the best years in gaming I think. It’s a shame the year has to end with a few studios closing down, and hundreds of workers left jobless. But I guess you can’t really do much about that now, I just hope things get better soon.

Shall we begin?


Best Racing Game:

Nominees: Burnout Paradise & GRiD

Winner: Burnout Paradise

Burnout Paradise is hands-down THE best racing game out so far, I've spent over 80 hours in Paradise City, and I loved every second of it. Multiplayer is robust and really fun, Freeburn challenges are just the icing on the cake. If you haven't picked this up, you're missing out. Big time.

Best Horror Game:

Nominees: Siren, Deadspace, Bioshock

Winner: DeadSpace

To put it lightly, Deadspace scared the shit out of me...

Best Action Game:

Nominees: DMC4, GTAIV, MGS4, DeadSpace

Winner: Metal Gear Solid 4

MGS4 is one hell of a game.

Best Adventure Game:

Nominees: Tomb Raider, Prince Of Persia, FarCry2, Fallout 3

Winner: Prince Of Persia

Best Shooter Game:

Nominees: Battlefeild:BadCompany, Bioshock, R2, Farcry2, F3

Winner: R2

Best Demo:

Nominees: Valkryria Chronicles, Mirror’s Edge

Winner: Mirror’s Edge

Best Strategy Game:

Winner: Valkyria Chronicles

I've only played one strategy game this year, and Valkyria Chronicles is an excellent game.

 

Best RPG:

Nominees: Valkyria Chronicles, Fallout 3

Winner: Valkyria Chronicles

Best Narrative:

Nominees: MGS4, Battlefield: Bad Company, DeadSpace, Bioshock, Valkyria Chronicles, Tomb Raider, Prince Of Persia

Winner: MGS4

Honourable Mentions: Battlefield-Very funny, Valkyria Chronicles-deep and sucks you in, PoP-great start

Most Epic Cutscenes:

Nominees: MGS4, DMC4

Winner: Both...  I just couldn’t decide, while Metal Gear was truly epic and of a very high quality, Devil May Cry was also really fun to watch, so I guess it’s a tie.

Best AI:

Nominees: GRiD, Resistance 2, Prince Of Perisa

Winner: Prince Of Persia- Elika RULES!

Honourable mention: GRiD- Racer AI is scarily tough and realistic.


Unexpectedly Good Games

Nominees: DeadSpace, Tomb Raider, Prince Of Persia, Battlefield: Bad Company

Winner: Deadspace

Honourable Mention: Battlefield- who knew that the single player was so much fun!


Unexpectedly Bad Games:

Nominees: Mirror’s Edge, GTAIV

Winner: GTAIV-The controls were just horrible.


Most 'Technically' Impressive:

Nominees: GTAIV, Farcry2, MGS4, Battlefield: Bad Company

Winner: GTAIV

Liberty City looks and feels like a living, breathing world.


Most 'Artistically' Impressive

Nominees: Mirror’s Edge, DeadSpace, Bioshock, LittleBigPlanet, Valkyria Chronicles, Prince Of Persia

Winner: Prince Of Persia

Honourable Mentions: Valkyria Chronicles, LittleBigPlanet


Best Graphics Engine

Nominees: RAGE(GTA IV), Anvil/Scimitar(PoP), CANVAS(Valkyria Chronicles), Dunia(FC2)

Winner: Dunia- Very scalable and works well on a wide range of machines.

Honourable Mentions: Scimitar, PoP looks like a painting come to life. Same goes for Canvas.


Best Animation:

Nominees: PoP, MGS4, DeadSpace, GTAIV

Winner: DeadSpace-The necromorphs blasted apart so beautifully!

Honourable Mention: PoP- Everything flowed so beautifully.  Metal Gear- Excellent character animation.


Best Guns:

Nominees: MGS4, Battlefield, DeadSpace, Resistance 2, Fallout 3

Winner: Fallout 3- 3 words, Rock-It Launcher...


Best Multiplayer:

Nominees: Burnout Paradise, LittleBigPlanet, Resistance 2

Winner: Resistance 2


Most Badass:

Nominees: DMC4, MGS4, Battlefield, DeadSpace, Resistance 2, Prince Of Persia

Winner: DeadSpace- Awesome Suit, check. Silent protagonist, check. Awesome weapons, check.


Most Innovative:

Nominees: Resistance 2, DeadSpace, LittleBigPlanet, Mirror’s Edge

Winner: LittleBigPlanet

 GAMES OF THE YEAR:

MGS4, Burnout Paradise, LittleBigPlanet

Honourable Mentions: Prince Of Persia, Resistance 2, Valkyria Chronicles

These games the ones that kept me coming back for more, they all ruled in some way or another. That’s why I don’t have a definite GAME of the year, but these all deserve to be GAMES of the year. As I said at the start of this blog post, I enjoyed 2008, and just thinking about what’s to come in 2009 is enough to make me start drooling and make my wallet ache, I hope you feel the same.

So that’s it for 2008, I can’t believe we’re just a few days away from the new year.

That’s it for today folks, hope you enjoyed my list, and leave your opinion in the comments section, after all that’s what it’s there for. Thanks, and I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.