Two-thousand Great!

lordofultima

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Edited By lordofultima

Rather than going in the predictable direction, I went completely insane. I hope you understand. I cleverly disguised perfectly average awards with delicious implications. Enjoy.

Art Design Waffles

Winner: Mirror's Edge

I thought I had seen it all, that is, until I saw Mirror's Edge. The game may be undeniably frustrating, but one thing's for sure; it's pretty. The moderately designed structures filled to the brim with high-contrast colors really make this game stand out from just about everything else. That combined with the sensible awareness of the main character Faith throughout the game help seal this deal.

Atmospheric Oreo

Winner: Fallout 3

While I may have bickered on and on about how much better Oblivion is than Fallout 3, and while I may have dreaded trotting the many in-game miles through torn wasteland that I did, the atmosphere is unmistakably sound. Everything that you'd expect about a post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland is here, from the giant heaps of rubble to the remnants of what were a lush offering of trees -- it's all put into place to suck you into this depressing world. Well, it worked.

Sound Design Sandwich

Winner: Dead Space

People say this game isn't scary. People are crazy. If you're playing Dead Space with a pair of headphones, expect to be flipping out on a fairly regular basis. The way the ambiance carries itself as you're exploring this spacestation-gone-wrong is almost punishing. You never really ever feel "safe," as there's all sorts of devil-worshiping whispers and an over=abundance of pipes clanking around. This all works to the games advantage, because just when you think everything's chill, you're getting gang-raped.

Storyboard Candycane

Winner: Lost Odyssey

While the other games in this category exhibited pretty amazing stories, nothing quite grabbed me in the way Lost Odyssey did. An immortal who is cursed with living through countless generations of people, his family and friends included. It's all masked with a fairly generic 'save the world' rpg stereotype, but look deeper into Lost Odyssey and you'll find quite a bit of soul. The strange thing about the story though, is that the real tear-shedding moments of the story are actually told through short stories that you read. Go figure.

Soundtrack Supreme

Winner: Bionic Commando Rearmed

A fierce category this year, the music. It pained me to make a decision, as I love Street Fighter music, and boy I love Dream Theater-esk prog pieces, but if we're talking about a whole soundtrack here, Bionic Commando Rearmed stands just a step above the rest. The amazing remixed music of the original NES game somehow manages to be more catchy and awesome than the original pieces, all while giving me this strange urge to get up and dance. If you'll excuse me.

Failure French Fries

Loser: Metal Gear Solid 4 (Akiba)

This is maybe a controversial pick, being that the other two "failures" are a bit more game-breaking, but I went with Metal Gear Solid 4 anyways. Not just for Akiba, and definitely not because I hate the game -- because I LOVE it. Maybe I love the Metal Gear series a little too much, which causes me to go into rage mode whenever I think about some of the story choices Kojima made in this LAST installment of the Solid series. I will say that Johnny Sasaki is sort of the root of my problems, but there's just a lot wrong with the story in my opinion, just the little things that piss me off. I'm not going into detail now, as then I'd spoil the entire game for you.

Downloadable Milkshake

Winner: Castle Crashers

Sure, my weapons and animal orbs were deleted randomly on three separate occasions. Sure, I couldn't play online with anyone but EightBitWarrior without the game crashing. But this game is just so awesome and full of charm, that I can't NOT make it the Download of the year. I just can't. I'd rather deal with the game-breaking flaws then deal with the ridiculously difficult challenge rooms in Bionic Commando Rearmed. Just sayin'.

Flavor of the Year

Winner: Burnout Paradise

Ahh, the prized possession, the game o' the year. Many applicants for this position, but only one man (game) for the job. I've played Burnout Paradise for a large portion of the year, pretty constantly actually. I still haven't got my 100% completion yet, and yes I'm working on it. I've been such a huge proponent of this game since day one, and it's good to see that people are finally jumping on the wagon, a whole year after it's released.

How can you make Burnout better? Put it in an open world! Make multiplayer matches a cinch to jump in and out of, let me track all my stats and collect/complete everything in my path! The sense of speed, the ultra-responsive steering, it's all just amazing. There's no restart function, there's no menu to choose events from. Get over it. It's still the best game this year. And if they release another version of Paradise next year, it could very well repeat history.

15 years ago