Step into the sausage factory with our Day Four Deliberation Podcast to find out how these ridiculous choices got made!
Character We'd Most Like To Party With
The Illusive Man
Have you seen where this guy lives? As far as we can tell, he's got an apartment orbiting its own star. Do you understand what kind of blue alien ladies you can pull into a room with that kind of view? The Illusive Man doesn't just know how to party, he throws the slickest soiree this side of the Omega IV relay. He's a fixture on the cover of Galactic Quarterly. Realistically, the Illusive Man is too classy for us to party with--but we should all aspire to be more than we are, right?
Now, we're realistic enough to know what it would actually be like to party with the Illusive Man. We'd probably be lucky to get in the door at all, and even then the place would be packed with salarian sycophants and asari hangers-on. The Man himself would be sequestered in the VIP room, calling the shots and letting people come to him. It's precisely that elusive mystique that makes the Illusive Man the clear choice for this year's character who best knows how to show people a good time.
Runners-up: Frank Woods , John Vignocchi
Dave's Eastern Bloc Game of the Year
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat
Make no mess about it, Call of Pripyat is definitely an RPG. While the game eschews the normal experience system found in similar games, it rewards exploration and quest completion with a constant progression of weapons and armor that make a real impact on your tactics. Add in some excellent day/night mechanics, weapon upgrades, and a real need to eat and drink vodka and you've got one of the most hardcore RPGs released in the past year. While Call of Pripyat could benefit from some instruction or hand-holding in the early game (it pretty much just drops you into the world) this feels like a natural progression in difficulty for those players who enjoy Bethesda or BioWare-style open-world games and want something more combat-focused. The fact that we can make that recommendation without also adding the normal caveat of "as long as you're OK with it being kind of broken" makes us feel pretty good this year.
Runners-up: Metro 2033, Machinarium
Worst Trend
Retailer-Specific Pre-Order Bonuses
Look, we don't mean to be thick-headed here. We get it, pre-orders of games have become a necessary evil, giving retailers clear signs of how many copies they need to buy from a publisher for the months ahead, and the best way to goose those numbers is to entice people into a specific store with the right kind of loot. But this practice is making games worse, not better. The industry needs to stop punishing its most ardent followers and make pre-order bonuses generic across all retailers.
Best Story
Red Dead Redemption
Admittedly, much of the game has Marston serving as an errand-boy for scoundrels, but the game's exploration of themes like the encroachment of modern life on the frontier, plus a series of quietly surprising turns in the narrative, set Red Dead Redemption apart even from the nasty genre stylings of the Grand Theft Auto series.
Best DS-Only Game
Picross 3D
It's got a ton of puzzles, but you can also go in and create your own and get new puzzles from other players or go online and grab free new puzzles from Nintendo. There's actually not much more to say about it other than it's available at a very reasonable price and we recommend you pick up a copy if you haven't already. Picross!
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