2009 Game Awards

Here they are at last. My game awards for 2009. So sit back, relax, grab some peach fresca, and enjoy. As always, remember my creed: everything I write is subjective. I don't intend to make any objective claims. These awards were chosen by me because I felt they exhibited the category the best. I thought long and hard about these, and even had to sacrifice gaming favorites to make the choices. So, without further banter, let's get started.

BEST STORY
Winner: Assassin's Creed II
Hands down the winner. Assassin's Creed introduced one of the most intriguing and mysterious stories yet. It's sequel brings this full force, with twists, turns, and even a little romance. The amazing story of Desmond starts off with a bang. The story behind the story makes every little thing in this game worth while. But ACII does not win because of the amazing story of Desmond, but that of his ancestor, Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Ezio's story is one of the best. It is a story of manhood, betrayal, revenge, and best of all, one hell of a badass story. Every mission in the game pertains to Ezio's story and his motives, and the game never goes away from the motivations and actions of Ezio. Ezio's story is one of the best, and can only be done with a video game. The experience you gain from this story affects you like so few games in the past. ACII's story sits up there with amazing stories like Mass Effect, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
Runners-Up: Modern Warfare 2, Halo 3: ODST, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Batman: Arkham Asylum

BEST MULTIPLAYER
Winner: Modern Warfare 2
No contention in this category. Infinity Ward simply knows how to make an amazing multiplayer experience. Call of Duty 4 brought the first glimpse of truly amazing and addicting multiplayer. Infinity Ward upped the ante for the second game, and multiplayer is amazing. Simply put, it's just fun. Multiplayer shouldn't be complicated like Rainbow Six games, and it shouldn't be dull, like Uno. They need to have the perfect balance of everything to make people have fun. MW2 does this and some more. The progressive levelling keeps players addicted and motivated. The great weapons and perks keep players motivated and gives them reasons to play. The great and much improved matchmaking keeps people from leaving. In particular, MW2 has done something that not many multiplayer games can say they do: it's glitch-proof. There were a terrible amount of glitches and bugs in MW2 since it's release, but the number of players online has not gone down at all. In fact, it's gone up. Only a truly well done multiplayer could pull this off.
Runners-Up: Halo 3: ODST, Left 4 Dead 2

BEST GRAPHICS
Winner: Assassin's Creed II and Uncharted 2
Yes, I couldn't pick one. Both these games just deserve the award too much. ACII is amazing for many reasons, but the graphics bring it all together. The sheer detail of everything is amazing. Entire cities like Venice and Florence were recreated in detail, and nothing was missed. Nothing. Everything is perfect, and with the scope and sheer size of ACII, this is such a great graphical feat. Uncharted 2 succeeds in these ways too, but in a different way. Uncharted 2 never skips, glitches, or stops. It keeps going, and with the nature of this game, it has to. The high action and the setpieces are super detailed and for once in a game, they are beautiful. The E3 demo showed Nathan Drake looking out into the distance at the mountains, and for a moment, it looked real. And not the stupid, "lifelike" real. The type of real that is beautiful, and not seen in a game much. For these reasons both games had to get this award.
Runners-Up: Modern Warfare 2

BEST ALL-AROUND EXPERIENCE
Winner: Halo 3: ODST
This was a hard one to award. In my opinion, most games are great all-around experiences. But there is always one that is just a great experience in everything. Halo 3: ODST does this the best. The singleplayer is true Halo, giving a great story and great replayability with audio logs and of course Legendary difficulty. Halo also gives 2 player co-op in the singleplayer, which is a great plus. Halo 3: ODST also gives Firefight, which is nothing but fun, and a great excursion from the normal Halo multiplayer. But the thing that tops it all is that second disc. It's that multiplayer disc with the entirety of multiplayer Halo 3 that makes this the best bang for your buck. Every single map, every single mode, and every single oppurtunity of Halo 3 multiplayer without having to get Halo 3. There are so many things in this package that make it worth while.
Runners-Up: Modern Warfare 2, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Brutal Legend

MOST SUCCESSFUL
Winner: Modern Warfare 2
Come on. Was this really a competition? Many games did well this year. Assassin's Creed hit almost 2 million copies. Borderlands hit about 1.3 million. Modern Warfare 2 didn't do well. It did absolutely amazing. 6 million copies in 1 week. Some games don't make that in their entire lifetime. That is a crazy amount of games sold. Modern Warfare 2's numbers show it's success, true, but that's not it. Because money doesn't mean success. It means money. Success is when that money is worth it. MW2 was hyped up like never before. For heavens sake, it had a veteran package with night-vision goggles. But for once, the hype was alright. Because it lived up to it. Not many things can claim that all the hype was lived up to. Modern Warfare 2 satisfies everything it promises. Infinity Ward wanted it's players to make their $59.99 worth while, and that's exactly what they did. This game shows promise too, with DLC on the way that is sure to sell hotcakes.
Runners-Up: Batman: Arkham Asylum, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Super Mario Bros. Wii

BEST GAME NO ONE PLAYED
Winner: Red Faction: Geurilla
Okay, I'll admit it. I didn't play this either. I've looked at it quite a bit when I go shopping for games, but more times than not I'm picking up Assassin's Creed II or Modern Warfare 2. Like many games, it just gets overwhelmed by other games. Taking a closer look though, maybe I should have played it. Red Faction: Guerilla got really good reviews, in the nines. It's engine is amazing. Everything is destructible, and not in the cheasy Mercenaries way. The physics of all objects behave accordingly. So if you do hit something and break it, it will break realistically. If you explode something, everything is still there, but it's just in different places according to the explosion. It also has jetpacks, and a full explorable Mars. I don't know about you, but this actually sounds intriguing. Why did no one play this game? Who knows. I've been asking myself that too. That is, when I'm not playing ACII or MW2.
Runners-Up: MadWorld, Ghostbusters: The Game, Prototype

MOST POTENTIAL
Winner: Batman: Arkham Asylum
They did it. They finally did it. They made a good superhero game. Not just a good one. A phenomenal game, comparable in quality to non-superhero games. Batman: AA was just amazing. It brings so many new and long wanted things to the super-hero game genre. It brings fluid combat that makes you feel like the superhero. It bring a great story penned by actual people in the comics and animation industry that know what they are doing. More than that, it brings people that know the character down to the core. It brings familiar faces back from previous iterations of the character to bring familiarity. It doesn't carbon copy the comics, instead in favor for an original story with characters of the universe. Batman: AA brings so much potential to so many games. Future games need to learn some lessons from this game. There is no excuse for a poor superhero game anymore after this game. This game brings more potential to a failed genre than any other game has, in my opinion, in history. It's successes are amazing, and developers not have the potential to make really great games...
Runners-Up: Brutal Legend, Demon's Souls, MadWorld, Modern Warfare 2

BIGGEST SURPRISE
Winner: Batman: Arkham Asylum
...and this is exactly why it is the most surprising game too. It should fail. Being a gamer for a while now, no one would disagree. So much scepticism and doubt was put in this game. It was set to fail in so many ways. People played the other Batman games. It appeared that no one could make a good game. I mean, they had a long time to do so. Batman's been around since the 40's. Every oppurtunity to make a good superhero game was taken and it was abused. No, tortured. No, mamed and killed. But Rocksteady did it. They strived to make a good game. They took risks. They disregarded the scepticism. The said "screw you" to the masses. They wanted to make a good game. You know why? They had the same feelings as all the other gamers. They were tired of a bad superhero game. They were tired of bad experiences with the characters they love the most. Batman: AA is just surprising that it is doing well. No one could have thought it would have been this good. But it is. Job well done, Rocksteady. Job well done.
Runners-Up: Demon's Souls, Bayonetta, Borderlands

COOLEST WEAPON IN A GAME
Winner: Every weapon in Borderlands
Yup. You heard me. A game that has the balls to make millions of different weapons in one game deserves an award like this. Bordelands is truly an amazing game for many reasons, but the fact that every weapon you pick up is completely different from the other is just a new and amazing feeling. How many times in a game have you prized that one weapon that you have? Well, Borderlands throws this idea out the window. Everytime a cool weapon comes your way in this game it's replaced by an even cooler one. This means that every time you shoot the gun it's a different experience. One moment you may have a long range shotgun. The next you might have a combat rifle that shoots explosive rounds. And you could even have a sniper rifle that has corosive rounds, where headshots melt off your enemies face! More than just one cool weapon, Borderlands' millions serve as a great example of power in numbers.
Runners-Up: double blade/Assassin's Creed II, Clementine/Brutal Legend, remote control batarang/Batman: Arkham Asylum, pistol/Halo 3: ODST

BEST CHARACTER IN A GAME
Winner: Ezio Auditore da Firenze in Assassin's Creed II
More than any other character this year in a video game, Ezio Auditore epitomizes the greatness of a video game character. His tale of woe and triumph in the face of danger is one of the best. Every moment playing as Ezio is a treasured one. Ezio's story is powerful not because he is an assassin, or that he looks badass with the double blades (which he does). It's because he's a rookie. He's just a simple Italian noble who loses something important and falls into a situation he has to deal with. It's because he has to learn to become an assassin, rather than just being one. This makes the immersion into the story better than anything else, because the player must do this to. Most importantly, Ezio is relateable. Everyone has felt loss, pain, and having to deal with hardship. Everyone has had to rise to the occassion, get out of their comfort zone, and do things for the greater good. It's this very human connection that makes Ezio much better than any video game character. Ezio feels like a character in a story, not a video game character in a video game. He shows just how far video games have come, and just how much further they can go.
Runners-Up: Soap MacTavish/Modern Warfare 2, Batman/Batman: Arkham Asylum, Nathan Drake/Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Sgt. Buck/Halo 3: ODST

BEST VILLIAN IN A VIDEO GAME
The Joker in Batman: Arkham Asylum
No one instills the fear and awestruck that Mark Hamill's Joker does. His maniacal, shreaking laughter and his tall glooming structure creates fear like no other. Getting Mark Hamill to voice Joker in Batman: Arkham Asylum was one of the best decisions Rocksteady made. The Joker in the game is the true villain. Constantly, he is the one element of evil. This is precisely because Rocksteady did so well with putting you in the shoes of Batman. It is only natural that Batman's archenemy would feel so realistic. The Joker in the game is perfect with any and all interpretations of the character. He is gritty, insane, and murderous, all topped off with his crude and often harsh humor that makes him Joker. Being stuck on Arkham Island because of the Joker gives you the real anger towards the character. Seeing all that he has done to take you down makes him a bigger threat than most villains. But to get down to the core of why this character is so great, just watch some of the old animated series. Mark Hamill makes this character shine in any medium.
Runners-Up: Rodrigo Borgia (Pope Alexander VI)/Assassin's Creed II, Harley Quinn/Batman: Arkham Asylum, The Infection/Left 4 Dead 2, Teyrn Loghain/Dragon Age: Origins.

BEST OVERALL MUSIC AND SCORE
Winner: Halo 3: ODST
Once again Marty, you make Halo singleplayer worth it. Halo games always feel like big action movies, and this is largely because of Martin O'Donnell's score for each game. The horns, the trumpets, and the drums create that memorable tune. Face it: you could recognize the Halo theme a mile away. But something different was done for Halo 3: ODST. To fit the more "noire" feel of the game, Marty went a little different for this game's score. He included trumpet solos and long orchestral solos. He created music that made you feel alone, much like the Rookie is on Mombasa. He created music with a bit of a tech feel, that fit perfectly with the new VISR tech of the ODST's. He just created the perfect score that fit the game. Anyone that has played this game knows that the singleplayer is amazing in part to the amazing sound and feeling created by this sound. I have no doubt in saying that this is the best score I have heard in a game in a while.
Runners-Up: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Left 4 Dead 2, Modern Warfare 2, Brutal Legend

MOST ANTICIPATED GAME OF 2010
Winner: Mass Effect 2
Who doesn't want this game? Mass Effect was perhaps the greatest console RPG in the last 5 years. It certainly is the greatest on the 360 platform, and it is the greatest RPG in my opinion that BioWare has ever made, which is saying something. A sequel is a no-brainer for most anticipated game. The epic story of Shepard fighting for humanity's survival is a great one, and it seems to be in full force for Mass Effect 2. With new characters, a new ship, and possibly a new Shepard, this game looks amazing. And why not? It's your story. If you did play Mass Effect, your character through that epic will be the one in the next epic. No sequel has even attempted to do what Mass Effect 2 is doing. All the choices you made in the first are in the second, and possibly for the first time, gamers can truly experience real consequences of their actions, and not be able to just reverse it. This, my friends, is one to mark on your calendars. But hey, you won't have to wait long, will you? It's only a month away.
Runners-Up: BioShock 2, Final Fantasy XIII, Red Dead Redemption, Halo: Reach

MOST OVERHYPED GAME
Winner: Wii Sports Resort
Wii Sports is fun. I know that, and so does everyone else. Nintendo these days, however, likes to soak everything for it's worth. Its failed attempts this year at giving its fanbase any substance in terms of hardcore games has resulted in the ultimate first-party casual games getting a crap load of hype. Wii Sports Resort got too much hype. Monumental games like Halo 3 and Uncharted 2 didn't get the hype this game got, and they sold ten times as much. The straw broke for me when Wii Sports Resort has an entire beach put in the middle of times square. Nintendo decided to advertise by making people have fun at the beach, but not have to go to the beach. Wii Sports Resort just shows how much the casual games can sometimes kill advertising for the rest of the games.
Runners-Up: Modern Warfare 2, Halo 3: ODST, Left 4 Dead 2, Resident Evil 5

BEST GAMEPLAY
Winner: Borderlands and Batman: Arkham Asylum
Yes, another tie, but this one is also for good reasons. Borderlands is really the first of its kind. It combines the best elements of MMO's and puts it into a singleplayer shooter. Gearbox wanted to tout this game as the first FPSRPG, and although this is true to an extent, the game comes out as more of an offline MMO console shooter. Which is great. Borderlands is fun and unique. It combines the fun of leveling up, whether it be by questing or grinding, with the grit of a console shooter. Batman: AA also wins because it is also the first of its kind. It is the first game to truly immerse you as Batman. Everything you would expect from Batman is given to you. The combat is fluid and easy to do, but difficult to master, much like Batman's combat. The ability to silently take down enemies in at least 20 plus different ways is great and shows Batman's element of surprise and variety. The use of gadgets wisely and not as a gimmick shows the reasons Batman uses gadgets for his benefit in a situation, not as an easy way out. Both games really shine as unique gameplay games.
Runners-Up: Modern Warfare 2, Assassin's Creed II, Demon's Souls

MOST REPLAYABILITY
Winner: Modern Warfare 2
I could go on and talk about how Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer creates the perfect system to keep playing, but I don't want to focus on that. Although this helps it's replayability, the reason MW2 wins this is not just for multiplayer. It's for Spec Ops and singleplayer. Here's why. Singleplayer was fixed. No more infinite respawns. This means new strategies, new environments, and a whole different feeling to playing singleplayer. I remember what a bitch Veteran difficulty on COD: World at War was. The infinitely spawning Japanese were annoying, and if I hadn't already been 80% of the way there, I probably would have given up. It just wasn't fun. Now, Veteran difficulty is fun. It's replayability is higher, just because it's now how it should be. Enemies aren't more, there just tougher and smarter. Spec Ops also brings replayability in co-op. In today's gaming world, co-op has become a major way of increasing playtime. The 69 stars you can get from all these challenges motivates a person for that extra time. MW2 has multiplayer. Amazing multiplayer. But just like all the games in this post, it does more. And it does that "more" well enough to warrant hundreds more hours of play.
Runners-Up: Assassin's Creed II, Borderlands, Wii Sports Resort, Super Mario Bros. Wii

BEST DEVELOPER OF THE YEAR
Winner: Ubisoft Montreal
I have to tell you, I had trouble decided who to pick for this award. Developers really came into full force this year. Names like Bungie and Naughty Dog really showed talent like never before this year. But when it comes down to it, Ubisoft Montreal did more than all of these studios combined. You see, the amount of detail and dedication they put into Assassin's Creed II is amazing. First off, over 400 people worked on this game, a record for any game. Second, almost an entire year was dedicated to taking pictures, observation, and surveying Italy to get everything right. This resulted in perfect recreations of most buildings in Florence, Tuscany, Venice, Forli, and San Gimignano. That is downright amazing, and not even a bit of coding was done yet. The studio created extreme detail in the game, right down to historical accuracy and even historical members. I mean, come on. They put Machiavelli, Pope Alexander VI, Leonardo DaVinci, Caterina Sforza, Lorenzo de' Medici, and the Pazzi family in one game. There is no competition here. Ubisoft Montreal put more dedication and hard work into this game than any other developer I have ever known. Phenomenal job.
Runners-Up: Bungie, Naughty Dog, Double Fine, Infinity Ward

BEST GAME I DIDN'T PLAY
Winner: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
I really, really, REALLY want to play this game. It sounds so good. A game I would instantly buy if I had a Playstation 3. This game looks and sounds like real quality, and I wish I could judge it better if I had played it. Naughty Dog is a great developer, and the story of Uncharted 2 looks very similar to Assassin's Creed II. Uncharted got great reviews, but Naughty Dog took the extra step and made a great sequel. Uncharted 2 gets this because it just shows how much one can be envious about games. I love games, not just Xbox 360 games. And even though I have not yet gotten the chance to play this game, I can see that it deserves credit. The quality of the game can be seen without really playing it, and those who have played it can attest to it's true value. Hopefully I will get to play it one of these days, but until then, it remains in my opinion the best game I couldn't get the chance to enjoy.
Runners-Up: Brutal Legend, MadWorld, inFamous, Demon's Souls

WORST GAME OF THE YEAR
Winner: Tony Hawk: Ride
I feel so bad about the Tony Hawk franchise. Much like many skateboarders I have seen watching the X-Games, it tries to go over that big bowl in the middle of the park, and either overshoots it or undershoots it, resulting in several fractures. Tony Hawk: Ride was a failure. The board was not sensitive. It did not work. The game was not fun. All things that a game should not be. Ride has a good idea. Create a skateboard peripheral that would make the player ride a skateboard and react realistically. But this is only a good idea if the board WORKS. A game based on a board that doesn't work ends up not working as a whole. The Tony Hawk franchise use to be good, but it jsut can't catch up with the times. It needs to get back to what made it good: arcade style skateboarding. It isn't about realistic skating. If it was I'd like Skate a lot more. It was about doing crazy stunts you know can't be done in real life. It was about collecting all the tokens to spell "SKATE". Tony Hawk: Ride was a step backward for a franchise that desperately needed a huge step forward. And, just like the skateboarders again, if they don't catch up, gain some speed, and actually know how to execute that jump over the bowl, they will crash and burn.
Runners-Up: Rogue Warrior, Wanted: Weapons of Fate, Velvet Assassin, Lord of the Rings: Conquest

WII GAME OF THE YEAR
Winner: MadWorld
Now why would I pick a game like MadWorld instead of a game like Super Mario Bros. Wii or Wii Sports Resort? It's precisely because this is the game the Wii needs and the game the Wii can be the strongest in. MadWorld is the best of the Wii packaged into a hardcore game. And did I mention that it's a third-party game, not made by Nintendo? It's unfortunate that this game did not do well with sales. Games like this for the Wii prove that the Wii does have the ability to appease the hardcore in some way. MadWorld is a gritty and bloody mess, akin to something like the baby of Gears of War and a noire film. It's unique style and design makes it stand out amongst all of Wii games. MadWorld also succeeds in its appropriate use of the wiimote. Too many games try to push the motion control, and make it a center of the game. This is where they fail with the hardcore. MadWorld was made to be a good game, and uses the wiimote in the right ways. It's use of motion is great, and never gimmicky, which even Nintendo themselves are guilty of. Simply put, MadWorld is what most Wii games should be.
Runners-Up: Super Mario Bros. Wii, Wii Sports Resort, Dead Space Extraction

PLAYSTATION 3 GAME OF THE YEAR
Winner: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
No competition at all here. Sony did a lot this year. They basically rereleased the PS3, with a new price, and new hardware, and tons of new games, all things they lacked when they initially launched the PS3. Sony placed their console in a great place this year, mostly due to the great amount of games. But no game stands out more as a shining light for Sony than that of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Uncharted 2 is a fantastic game in its own right, but placing it with the PS3 was the best decision for everyone. The PS3 was missing a trump card, something the PS2 had plenty of back in the day. There is always that one or two games that can sell not only the game but the console. Microsoft has it with Halo, Nintendo with Mario and Zelda. Sony, in this generation, hadn't found it yet. Uncharted 2 brings it in full force. The high quality and production value of Uncharted 2 makes it perfect for the PS3. Naughty Dog has made a winner in this Game of the Year winning game. It's amazing reviews and its real promise deliver for not just Naughty Dog, but for Sony. This game shows the comeback of Sony, and the real oppurtunities for gamers in the future.
Runners-Up: Killzone 2, inFamous, Demon's Souls, God of War Collection

XBOX 360 GAME OF THE YEAR
Winner: Modern Warfare 2
Xbox 360 is made up of three things: high quality gaming, online community, and multiplayer. Many games have given Microsoft these things in leaps and bounds, the most noticeable that of Halo 3. No game this year lived up to the core of the Xbox than that of MW2. It's the perfect game for the console. MW2 is of the highest quality, with extreme action, entertaining singleplayer and multiplayer, and a framerate that never, EVER drops. Microsoft is dedicated to bringing the highest quality gaming to the 360, which is what is brought here. MW2 is perfect for the Live community, too. Live is built for parties of people playing a great game and enjoying every moment, and MW2 brings that too. Finally, the high value and quality of MW2's multiplayer fits like a glove with Live. the persistent leveling, the weapon system, and the matchmaking are just what the Live community loves and is used to. And don't trust me with this. Just look at the numbers. Of the 6 million copies sold, about 4.5 million of that was on 360. Gamers didn't just love MW2. They loved it on the 360. It was the game of the year for Microsoft, just by the fact that it made them a crap load of money, and it made the community, as Microsoft always does, very happy.
Runners-Up: Assassin's Creed II, Halo 3: ODST, Left 4 Dead 2, Brutal Legend

There you go. I hope you enjoyed my awards. Don't worry though if you did, because I'm not done yet. I still have game of the year, which I will dedicate a complete post to. Who is the game of the year you ask? Well, I guess I can tell you.

GAME OF THE YEAR: Assassin's Creed II

Tune in for the full post on this amazing game at the end of the week. Have a happy new year.