Hey, guess what! 2008 is over. I know it really flew by, but not so quick that we did not get to play a ton of games. Unfortunately, we can never play them all. We have done our best to pick what we feel is the best of the best. If you disagree then you are right there with us, as most games this year squeezed by with only one vote making the difference.
Handheld Game of the Year:
Winner: God of War: Chains of Olympus
God of War is an epic series full of massive battles, yet somehow Ready at Dawn managed to fit it in your hands. This was not only a feat in and of itself, but making a game that is normally makes use of two analog sticks work with but one shows real talent from the team. Simply put, this game is far bigger and better than what gamers expect from handheld gaming.
Runners-Up: Space Invaders Extreme
Take any Atari age game and try to reimagine it for this generation, but you must maintain what made the game what it is and yet make it fresh, that is just what Taito did with Extreme.
Console Game of the Year:
Winner: Gears of War 2
Old Cliff and the guys at EPIC have once again taken us on an amazing ride with Gears of War 2. No reinvention was necessary in this series. Instead, Gears 2 focused on giving you a thrill and then one-upping it, over and over again. The game looks great, plays wonderfully, and is truly a fantasy fueled with pure testosterone.
Runners-Up: Grand Theft Auto IV, Fable 2, Super Smash Brothers Brawl
Nothing much to say about GTA, we will see it in more categories. Fable 2 offers a wonderful story that can be as heroic or villain-rific as you like. Smash Brothers was a wonderful overdose of gaming nostalgia.
PC Game of the Year:
Winner: Left 4 Dead
I swear I have never seen so many new users on Steam as when word spread about Left 4 Dead. This is a multiplayer experience unique unto itself. Even with such a limited number of campaigns, the clever AI director has done wonders with keeping them fresh time and again. Valve's wisdom of game development once again shines through.
Runners-Up: Red Alert 3, Fallout 3, Wrath of the Lich King
Red Alert 3, boats that launch bears at enemies is enough. Fallout 3 will be getting more love later in our list. Wrath of the Lich King shows that Blizzard is not just kicking back making easy money. They are still striving and have achieved what most consider the best content the game has seen.
Best Deal of the Year:
Winner: Steam Holiday Sale
Seriously, any PC game you could almost ever want is on the service now, and with every one on sale your wallet was sad. With deals like Bioshock for a measly five buck, who could not at least grab something? With choices for every gamer, the Steam Holiday Sale wins big.
Runners-Up: Full Album Download in RockBand
When we finally started seeing these, each was a reason for another few days of play, and at that price few other games gain so much replay value.
Single Player Game of the Year:
Winner: TIE Fallout 3 & Grand Theft Auto IV
Two open worlds, two entirely different experiences. Each is a return to a pivotal game world. Bethesda poured on the love in taking Fallout 3 into the modern era of gaming, with an interesting combat system and a world far more influenced by your decisions than you would dare imagine. The apocalypse has never caused more fun. Grand Theft Auto IV has us in an even scarier place, a modern day Liberty City. Rockstar has done 2 things with GTA IV, the first is a more grown up atmosphere that is for once not stolen directly from a movie or TV series. The second thing is that no expense was spared as this was one of the most expensive developments ever.
Runners-Up: Saints Row 2, Dead Space, Mega Man 9, Braid
Saints Row 2 is where the wackiness that you would expect from GTA has landed, and is a quite competent game to see it in. Dead Space was a wonderfully developed original IP out of EA that offers the horror genre something that it desperately needed, fun combat. Mega Man 9 seriously takes us back to childhood in every way possible, including the random bouts of crying. Braid was a somewhat pretentious, but fully realized idea that does incredibly unique tricks with time manipulation freshening the 2D platforming experience.
Disappointment of the Year:
Winner: Age of Conan
Funcom had all the fixings for a great MMO, strong setting, unique combat, but by the power of Krom they just could not get this thing to meld together. The first 20 levels that are really a great piece of gaming are part of what sets up the rest of the title as a great disappointment. With the merging and closing of a large number of servers I think we are not alone in this thought. I would like to say however that the soundtrack was great, and that is something...
Runners-Up: Guitar Hero World Tour, TNA Impact, Fallout 3
Guitar Hero World Tour needs to stick to the guitar as the other positions in the band lack the inherent fun of Rock Band, and the soundtrack suffers having to accommodate for all players. TNA Impact succeeded in being the most generic wrestling game with amazingly limited character creation and move lists. Fallout 3 was nominated by one staff member who noted an incredibly bad item management system.
Game of the Year:
Winner: Grand Theft Auto IV
Well putting there money where their mouth is really paid off for Rockstar as Grand Theft Auto IV offers not only a massive, but highly believable world. As the first current generation offering in the GTA series, Grand Theft Auto IV displays everything that leap should mean as everything from the prior releases in the series has been improved. Rather or not GTA IV is your cup of tea you cannot deny the amount of effort and care that went into what is one of the most fully realized games to date.
Runners-Up: Little Big Planet, Gears of War 2, Fable 2, Left 4 Dead, Fallout 3
As you can see a great amount of debate and indecisiveness went into the discussion of game of the year, and Grand Theft Auto IV only won by one vote. I feel that this massive amount of nominees can be seen in one of two ways, either 2008 was a year of too many amazing games or 2008 was a year of games that lacked a strong enough leader to gather all gamers under its banner.
Let us know what you think.
