These are the winners for the majority of my awards. Don't forget to tune in tomorrow to see my winner for game of the year.
Abe Lincoln Award for Best Use of Facial Hair
Red Dead Redemption: Guys didn't shave very often back in the days of the old west (or not so old west in RDR's case). And this is well represented here, with everything from John Marston's scruffy beard, to Irish's huge beard, and everything in between.
Runners up: Deadly Premonition (Real time beard), Fable III
"Don't Always Count Out the New Guy" Award for Best New Protagonist.
Special Agent Francis York Morgan: York isn't your typical protagonist. He smokes like a chimney, constantly talks to his “invisible friend” Zach about the case at hand (or old movies/music, previous cases, etc), taps himself on the chest frequently, and does all sorts of other odd things. But it's these things that make York such a great character, and a truly unique one too.
Runners up: John Marston, Norman Jayden
Mel Blanc Award for Best Voice Actor
Rob Wiethoff (John Marston): It's tough to put into words what exactly makes Mr. Wiethoff's performance as good as it is. Marston just always sounds believable, no matter what the situation. Whether he's complaining about having to dig up corpses, scolding his son for going off hunting all alone, or trying to understand why zombies are about (in the DLC), Wiethoff did it perfectly.
Runners up: Gary Oldman (several roles in Black Ops), Jeff Kramer (Agent York)
Special Mention: Nolan North: Too many roles in too many games to list.
"You, the Master of Unlocking," Award for Best Overall Voice Acting.
Mass Effect 2: Thinking back on Mass Effect 2, I can't really remember anyone that wasn't voiced well. Everyone from Shepard, to the crew of the Normandy, to the Illusive Man, to the various other characters that appear for only a couple minutes is voiced extremely well, and it all helps add to the immersion of the game.
Runners up: Fable III, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
Multimedia Celebrity Poker Award for Best "Celebrity" Cast.
Fable III: To me, the mark of a good “celebrity” voice cast is that you don't actually realize that the voice actors are “famous.” And while I noticed John Cleese and Stephen Fry, I didn't have the slightest clue that Simon Pegg or Sir Ben Kingsley were in it. That's right, Sir Ben Kingsley is in the game, and I didn't have the slightest clue. Also, it doesn't hurt that they all did phenomenal jobs.
Runners up: Call of Duty Black Ops, Mass Effect 2
"Cool, Whatever You Say, Slick" Award for Best Supporting Character.
Kazuhira Miller (MGS: Peace Walker): To me, the mark of a good supporting character is in, well, supporting the main protagonist. And as the second in command of the Militaires Sans Frontieres and Snake's best friend, the support he gives is vital to Snake's success in MGS Peace Walker. Miller keeps things under control whilst Snake is gone, provides intel, battle tactics, and provides witty banter to go along with Snake. I don't think I'll ever forget his reaction to Snake thinking that a cardboard box shaped like a tank was a good idea.
Runners up: Zach (Deadly Premonition), Garrus (Mass Effect 2)
Leslie Nielsen Award for Funniest Game.
Deadly Premonition: Whether intentional or not, I was laughing through almost all of Deadly Premonition. The game begins with York talking to someone (it's never revealed who) on a phone about the philosophy of Tom and Jerry, and it only gets weirder from there. Remember when York determined that guy was crazy because of drinking out of unsanitary skulls? Or how about the Sinner's Sandwich? I intend on eating one of those someday.
Runners up: Fallout New Vegas, Fable III
“In Soviet Russia, Award Wins You!” Award for Best Use of Russian Bad Guys.
Vanquish: Vanquish wins this because of the ridiculous nature of the Russian involvement in the game. Russian terrorists captured a US space station, use it to blow up San Francisco, and then threaten not-Hilary Clinton with the destruction of New York City, and then fill the space station with crazy robots (most of which are red, the classic Russian color).
Runners up: CoD: Black Ops, MGS Peace Walker
"I Just Beat that Guy and...OH CRAP A SECOND FORM!" Award for Best Bosses.
God of War III: If the only bosses in God of War III were Poseidon and Chronos, it would have won hands down. But, there are several other bosses that may not be quite as epic in scale, but are still loads of fun to fight. Not all are great (I found the final boss to be a little lackluster), but overall the bosses in GoWIII are easily the best of the year.
Runners up: Castlevania Lords of Shadow, No More Heroes 2 Desperate Struggle
Errol Flynn Award for Best Swashbuckler/Slash'em'up.
Castlevania Lords of Shadow: God of War III may have the best bosses, but overall it felt a little stale to me. Lords of Shadow, meanwhile, felt kinda new and refreshing, and had better puzzles. Plus, I'd be lying if I didn't say that the amazing ending didn't sway my opinion a bit, but regardless of ending, Lords of Shadow is longer, better, and more satisfying overall.
Runners up: God of War III, No More Heroes 2 Desperate Struggle
Henry Jones Jr. Award for Best Action-Adventure Game.
Tie: Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and Red Dead Redemption: Yeah, I know, ties are lame, but I feel like both these games deserve this award. I like RDR better in a lot of ways, but the third act of that game (especially the ending, which I can't tell you how much I hate) was so bad that it almost ruined it for me. Thus, I give out a tie. Deal with it.
Runner up: Darksiders
Never Not Shooting Award for Best Shooter.
Call of Duty Blacks Ops: The actual shooting in Black Ops may not be the best of the year, but it's the overall package that wins this award. It has the best campaign (and story) of any CoD game yet, and features great online modes. Plus, it has a computer that takes command line inputs, and a top-down shooter! The game is the complete package, and it's a damn good one too.
Runners up: BioShock 2, Vanquish
Nosferatu Award for Best Survivor Horror Game.
Deadly Premonition: No, Deadly Premonition isn't really that good in the gameplay department, but the “Other World” sections of that game always gave me a sense of dread that I've never experienced in any other game. Sure, part of it was because I didn't really want to play the parts that involved fighting enemies, but I can't help but feel that it was intentional.
Runners up: None!
Bob Goddard Award for Best Regular-Ass RPG.
Fallout New Vegas: While Mass Effect 2 is definitely the better game, New Vegas is the better RPG, with far more ways to customize your character, way more loot, and more of pretty much everything. Overall, in raw terms of what an RPG is, New Vegas is better.
Runner up: Mass Effect 2
Bob Goddard Award for Best Irregular-Ass RPG.
MGS Peace Walker: While it may not be an RPG in the traditional sense, there's a lot more to Peace Walker than to other MGS games. Managing Snake's base, and his ever growing army is far more involved than I thought it would be, and involves doing everything from organizing missions for your troops (which includes soldiers, tanks, APCs, helicopters, and even a freakin' Metal Gear), to making sure the mess hall is well equipped enough to keep moral up. This is the stuff that keep me playing for another 40 hours after beating the main story (which itself took me about 20).
Runners up: Deadly Premonition, Fable III
"They'll Never Check the Cardboard Box" Award for Best Stealth Game.
MGS Peace Walker: While Peace Walker has tons of management stuff, you can still ignore most of that, and what you have is a solid MGS game. Sure, the controls for aiming are less than ideal, but the game is designed around the limitations of the PSP. Levels are usually short (as are cutscenes), there's a large amount of auto-aim, and for the first time, there's co-op, which opens up all sorts of new possibilities. Well, it does if you know someone else with a PSP and a copy of the game (I don't).
Runner up: Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
Michael Bay Award for Most Ridiculous Game.
Vanquish: In Vanquish, you play as a guy who wears a robot suit with “rocket-legs” (to quote Mr. Ryan Davis), whilst to race around a space station filled with Russian robots, blowing stuff up the entire time (often in slow motion), and every once in a while taking a moment to smoke a cigarette (which distracts enemies). And this is often while all sorts of crazy stuff is going on, like space ships crashing nearby, buildings falling apart, or space trains almost crashing into each other.
Runners up: God of War III, No More Heroes 2 Desperate Struggle
Rob Zombie Award for Best Use of Gore.
God of War III: The death animation for killing centaurs is Kratos cutting open its belly, and then organs fall out, with real time organ physics. He can also literally rip undead legionnaires in half. And the amount of blood in this game is insane, and the detail is equally crazy. There's a Trophy for spilling 500 buckets of blood, and getting this is really easy, and happens pretty early in the game. Oh, and one of the items in the game is a severed head, complete with veins/arteries and a bit of spine dangling beneath it at all times.
Runners up: Fallout New Vegas (Bloody Mess Perk!), Call of Duty Black Ops
"Hey, What's that Over in the Opposite Direction of the Main Story?" Award for Best Open World.
Red Dead Redemption: It's difficult for a game to create a fictional award that feels real to me, and RDR is the game that's come closest to it. The thing that really seals the deal for me are the animals. Almost everywhere you go has some sort of wildlife, and it all interacts realistic with the player, other animals, and other people. Plus, there's also tons of variety in the environments, ranging from Mexico to snowy mountains.
Runners up: Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, Fallout New Vegas
"I Have No Real Friends" Award for Best Multiplayer.
Call of Duty Black Ops: While the CoD style of online play may be starting to get old to some people, this is the first one I've played online, and my 20-plus hours with the game are a testament to how addicting it can be. I found it a little hard to pull myself away from it long enough to play some other games. And I love unlocking new stuff, and completing challenges.
Runner up: Red Dead Redemption
1.21 Gigawatts Award for Best Game From the Past that I Played (for the first time) this Year.
Grand Theft Auto ChinaTown Wars (PSP version): Don't let the cartoon-y art style fool you, this is a full-on GTA game, complete with everything you expect from one (violence, cars, crude humor, etc). And they even added an entire economy revolving around drug dealing that is really fun (and sometimes made me think about becoming a drug dealer (not really)).
Runners up: Killzone 2, Resistance Retribution
"OO! Pretty..." Award for Best Graphics Technology (console).
God of War III: GoW III is, without a doubt, the best looking console game out there, and for good reason. The game features not only some of the most detailed character models out there (Kratos has more detail than some actual people I know), but does this on a scale bigger than most movies, let alone most games. The game begins with Kratos fighting undead legionnaires atop a titan, which is climbing Mt. Olympus, whilst other titans are climbing up it, and Poseidon is attacking the titans (and Kratos) with giant water-horse-crab-things. It's truly something that has to be seen (preferably in HD on a big screen) to be believed.
Runners up: Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, Castlevania Lords of Shadow.
"OO! Pretty..." Award for Best Graphics Technology (handheld).
MGS Peace Walker: While Peace Walker may not look quite as good as its PS2 counterparts, that doesn't stop it from being one of the best looking PSP games out there. It has detailed characters, large (and also detailed) environments, and runs well to boot. Sure, these all come with the caveat of “For the PSP,” but it's still a nice looking game.
Runner up: None!
Campbell's Soup Award for Best Artistic Design.
3D Dot Game Heroes: No game this year could match the uniqueness of 3DDGH's artistic design. Everything is made out of these little cubes. Well, almost everything. Every once in a while there will be something that looks totally out of place, like the water in the game, and a sword that looks like a fish, but given the goofy nature of the game, it works. And the end result of this seemingly simple artistic design is a game that has a striking look, and is absolutely brilliant. It also allows for the character editor to actually be useful, because users can make things that don't look terrible.
Runners up: No More Heroes 2 Desperate Struggle, Castlevania Lords of Shadow
"I Love Cutscenes!" Award for Best Story.
Deadly Premonition: This is no contest. Deadly Premonition has not only the best story of any game this year, but the best story of any game in years. The story entranced me in a way I can't remember experiencing since the original Metal Gear Solid. It's hard to put into words without spoiling it, but the intertwining stories of the murder of Anna Graham, and the back-story of York and Zach are so well done and well written that it more than makes up for the games lackluster gameplay,
Runners up: Mass Effect 2, Call of Duty Black Ops
Beethoven Award for Best Music.
Deadly Premonition: If the only song in Deadly Premonition was Life is Beautiful, it would have won best music. But thankfully it isn't, and the rest of the music (while not as famous), is top notch too. You know what kept me going through that dart mini-game? The awesome darts music. I know it's easy to make fun of Deadly Premonition for blasting the music over conversations, but if you actually listen to it, it's pretty well done. Certainly better than the music of all the other games this year.
Runners up: God of War III, Red Dead Redemption
"The Publisher Executives Love You." Award for Best Overall DLC.
Mass Effect 2: From new characters (complete with accompanying side missions), to a flying tank, Mass Effect 2's DLC was of the highest of quality this year. Sure, there were a few cases of them putting out lame stuff like costume packs and new weapons for money, but while that stuff is a rip off, it doesn't detract from the high quality of the other DLCs.
Runners up: Borderlands, Red Dead Redemption
"Where's My Credit Card?" Award for Best Individual DLC.
The Secret Armory of General Knoxx (Borderlands): When I'm buying DLC, I like to get my money's worth. And no DLC this year was more worth your money than General Knoxx. It has new weapons (!!), new vehicles, new environments, new enemies, new bosses (Crawmerax!), new quests, and more of the same great humor that was prevalent in the main game, just now with more voice acting. And it raised the level cap by 11. How is that not awesome?
Runners up: Undead Nightmare (Red Dead Redemption), Shadow Broker (Mass Effect 2)
"If Only I had More Money..." Award for Game I Wish I Played Most (but didn't).
Battlefield Bad Company 2: When BBC2 (wait, it abbreviates to BBC?) came out, I didn't give it a passing glance. But then I watched Giant Bomb's TNT of it, and realized that game is crazy-awesome because of all the utterly insane stuff that you can do online, like crashing helicopters into stuff. But did I actually go out and buy the game? Nope, never got around to it. Maybe I will at some point though, I dunno.
Runners up: God of War Ghost of Sparta, Just Cause 2
Best of the Best of the Best Wii Exclusive Game
No More Heroes 2 Desperate Struggle: This one was easy for me to decide. Why? Well, I only played one Wii game this year. Sure, there were other games like Mario, Metroid, Kirby, and Donkey Kong, but none of those got my interest. And to be frank, NMH2 was kinda disappointing to me. Sure, on paper it's probably a better game than the first, but the story felt lacking, and it lacked the originality of the first, and the one-dimensional combat started to feel stale, especially since the bosses weren't as good as the ones in the first game. Now, none of this is going to stop me from buying No More Heroes 3 (if it were ever made), but it wasn't what I was expecting. Overall though, it's still a great game, and the best Wii game that I played all year.
Runners up: None!Best of the Best of the Best PSP Exclusive Game
MGS Peace Walker: Much like on the Wii, this is the only game from this year that I actually played. In this case though, Peace Walker completely blew me away. I spent 60 hours playing this game, and I could easily go back and keep playing it, just endlessly researching new weapons, and building a bigger and better army. And the core gameplay is good enough keep you going throughout the length of the surprisingly not-long winded story (well, for and MGS game anyway). Plus, it has co-op, and plenty of hilarious dialog that fans have come to expect from a quality MGS experience, and even had I played other games, this would have easily been the best PSP game I played all year.
Runner up: None!Best of the Best of the Best PS3 Exclusive Game
God of War III: This year felt kinda weak for PS3 exclusives. Heavy Rain fell flat in way too many areas to win any sort of award, and God of War III felt stale, because when you get down to it, it's pretty much the same as the last few GoW games, just with better graphics. Not that that's a bad thing, because it's still a great game that every God of War fan should play, just not the game of the year contender I was expecting. It's still by far the best PS3 game I played all year though.
Runners up: 3D Dot Game Heroes, Heavy Rain
Best of the Best of the Best 360 Exclusive Game
Mass Effect 2: I know what you're thinking, “Wait, that's on PC too!” Well, the Moosies don't acknowledge PC games, so in my eyes this is a 360 only game. And what a game it is. While a lot of the RPG elements have been streamlined to the point where many trolls complained, the engine and gameplay were improved more than enough to make up for it. Plus, the writing and voice acting (which was already pretty great in the first one) have been improved beyond what I was expected, which resulted in what is easily the best 360 game I have played all year.
Runners up: Fable III, Deadly Premonition
Best of the Best of the Best Multiplatform Game
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood: This was the toughest award for me to decide. I'm sure at this point you probably know about all the things that make both of these games great, but ultimately what got Brotherhood this award is that while Red Dead Redemption features a third act that I find to be atrociously bad, my experience thus far with Brotherhood has been almost flawless. In other words, it's the better game, and in the end, the best mutltiplatform game I played all year.
Runners up: Red Dead Redemption, Fallout New Vegas
Don't forget to come back tomorrow for my game of the year, and don't forget that a game doesn't need to have been the "best" in a category to be my game of the year, so don't count anything out yet.
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