I am utterly confused. In a life where innovative gameplay is rarely, if ever, seen, when a game(Portal) creates on of the greatest innovations in gameplay in probably the past decade, it doesn't get game of the year? Instead a shooter with updated weapons, a better storyline and everything we've seen before, gets game of the year.

I loved CoD4, but it was nothing we haven't seen before.

Then we have TF2, a game which almost perfected cgi/pixar/cartoonish/whatever you want to call it, graphics doesn't even win the art direction award.

So much failure.

failzmcgee

@JustThisGuy:

I understand your point completely, it just doesn't bother me very much in terms of Bioshock. It was such a great game that a few recycled ideas or plot points were secondary to the overall experience for me.

n/a

I just picked up CoD4 recently, and I was blown away. I'm not sure i'd say it's better than Bioshock, but it's at least as good, which was shocking to me. The other CoD games I've played were fun, but bland. But CoD4 was amazing. So I have no complaints with it winning.

etho

This goes to show that awards are given through hype and perceived hype and not genuine worth.

And on that hype shall the game industry build the next generation of FPS more FPS and more FPS destined to claim all the awards!

pyropetey

@StrangeLove: Yes, but coming from the same minds--more or less--who did the original, it just struck me as lazy and uninspired. If another dev team savagely ripped off SS2, I'd probably enjoy it. If anyone else other than Irrational did BioShock, I'd probably be much less critical.

To put it another way: playing BioShock was a lot like reading a novel from a favorite author, only to find out that he ran out of ideas and was reduced to essentially rewriting his best work. To say that I was disappointed would be an understatement.

JustThisGuy

@Zombie_Crunch: I'm playing it right now and the game is freaking awsome, I will soon have finished it I hope. But go on hating a great game :(

Irenicus-the one and only

wow. i just can't believe how overrated cod4 has become. don't get me wrong, it was great fun while it lasted, but the single player was short and doesn't hold up to halo 3, bioshock, or orange box and the multiplayer doesn't come anywhere close to halo 3.

when i completed the game it was satisfying, but i still felt it was just another (albeit very well done) military fps.

the afforementioned 3 games are still in my library but i had to trade cod4 in once i realized i'd been playing the others over it for over a month.

*shrugs*

coin_operated_boy

I, personally, have no problems with Bioshock cannibalizing much of System Shock 2. To me, it's like complaining that The Magnificent Seven is too much like The Seven Samurai.

n/a

@pylon_trooper: Not at all. A while back I was involved in a friendly little tiff here wherein I argued that BioShock was nothing more than a watered-down version of System Shock 2, "surprise twist" and all--and that it was consequently one of the biggest disappointments of the year. Oh, and the writing isn't nearly as good as everyone says it is. It had great presentation, but shoddy writing with two-dimensional characters. However, I should note that the game is goddamn Nabokov in comparison to the tripe that generally passes for game narrative.

(tangent time: Seriously! The fuck! Seriously! I remember loading the game up, hearing Atlas, and thinking "motherfucker is going to Shodan me." Jesus Christ, Irrational, if you're going to cannibalize your own ideas don't goddamn telegraph them from a mile away! At the very least, surprise me and your rabid fanbase by having Shodan 2.0 not actually be Shodan 2.0. Fuckers.)

On topic: I have no problems with most awards: they're a lot like reviews, or opinions. If I agree with them, great. If I don't, whatevs. However, I really do wish that--if they are going to have exclusive GOTY categories for PC and Console--they picked titles that are exclusive to each. I mean, console players can pick up Orange Box, and PC gamers can pick up CoD. I don't see the point of having both categories if they don't nominate titles that are specific to the platform.

JustThisGuy

It should get an award for "Highest amount of time wasted repeating a temple".

"What is this game clocking in at?"

"Oh, I'd say about an hour, Mr. Miyamoto."

"What?!? An hour? People don't want to play a game for an hour! They want at least a 12 hour game to justify the expense!"

"Well we could make them repeat the Hourglass Temple a few times..."

"You're a genius, Iwata! Make it a hundred!"

Zombie_Crunch

Phantom Hourglass Doesn't deserve any praise. It's a frustrating, repetitive piece of shit.

Zombie_Crunch

@Recury: You forgot to take your crazy pills again.

justhesh

"Racing Game of the Year:
Motorstorm" Bullshit.

"Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition:
BioShock" Bullshit.

Seriously, get off of Bioshock and COD4's cocks. How can you expect us to take you seriously when you give all your awards to two games, in a year that featured so many? You're not the Oscars, and this ain't Return of the King.

justhesh

@spork: Puzzle Quest. Pretty handily. I found Phantom Hourglass so mind-numbingly dull it made my personal Baby Jesus cry.

@Ryan Saotome: Was Forza 2 released last year? I thought it was late 2006. I also forgot about Dirt, which was fantastic.

Karlott

As only a casual participant in racing games, let alone near-sim style driving games. I find the Motorstorm over Forza 2 a pretty strange winner sliding under everyones radar.

TF2 really did seem to get snubbed because console is king I guess. And the TF2 console version just has/had too many problems. Damn shame. You're not going to see a more complete multiplayer experiences anywhere else. Especially in an FPS.

skewt

Skate is the best sports game of all-time, so the very least they could do is make it sports game of the year.

Recury

@Karlott: I always find it interesting that people assume their opinion is the right one, even when everyone else disagrees. It's like me saying Ratatouille was a movie that didn't deserve any praise and all the people that loved it and all the critics that did didn't know anything and only I and small handful of people that disagree with me do, because I'm so smart and so qualified to decide things things.

Phantom Hourglass was a GREAT game. It was also very well designed. Heck, the whole game could've been played with just the stylus.

Was it a perfect game? Nope. Having to repeat the Temple of the Ocean King got really annoying. But you know every game has issues.

Phantom Hourglass may not have been your type of game, but it doesn't stop it from being a very good game.

What did you think deserved handheld game of the year?

spork

@Katsu: Sega... not so much.

Konami? They're still great. But, really, they haven't been doing much on the new gen consoles. The only game I've played from them on a new-gen console is Elebits on the Wii. What else have they done lately? Besides Pro Evolution Soccer, and a couple of low-budget Wii games, I don't think they've released anything other than a shit-ton of downloadable games for XBLA and Wii VC.

Capcom? Well in 2006 they had Dead Rising and Lost Planet. In 2007 they had Zack & Wiki for the Wii. Nothing else really until this year with Devil May Cry.

Capcom is still making some great new IP, or has been since this generation began, which is pretty cool, though I didn't particularly like Lost Planet. They'll still probably make a kick-ass Resident Evil 5.

The thing is, Konami & Capcom have had a serious lacking of titles for this new batch of systems, that's why you don't see their names around these best games lists. Cuz they haven't released them yet. I mean, this year you've got Metal Gear Solid 4 from Konami, and next year you've got Resident Evil 5 from Capcom. So they're coming.

But in 2007 the only games I was playing that were made by either company were downloadable classics, Zack & Wiki, and in early 2007 I was still playing a bit of Elebits & Okami leftover from 2006.

baked ham

1998 was better than 2007.

Metal Gear Solid, Starcraft, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Half-Life, Thief, Baldur's Gate, Tribes, Rainbow Six

notalkjustrock

The only thing on the list that I strongly disagree with is Mass Effect. Where's the Persona 3 love? Or even Odin Sphere? Or even Rogue Galaxy? All 3 of those 2007-released PS2 games are longer-lasting RPG's with better stories and more to do.

baked ham

Poor Mario Galaxy. It was much more respected by the media and such, but it seems everyone simply forgot the praise they threw on the title, simply because it didn't have enough of "teh multiplayer shootan".

otimus

Anyone notice the huge lack of Japanese developed games? Think back a few generations... I remember thinking Konami, Capcom, Sega were top notch.... nowadays... not so much.

Katsu

Erm, CoD4 was good, but that's a little much. I mean they give half of the awards to Bioshock yet it doesn't get overall game? Not too sure what to make of that other than the fact that online play makes that big of a difference.

tshack

@reptile168:
Really, like what?

tehFluffz

"Racing Game of the Year:
Motorstorm"

there were so many better and deeper racing games out there and they had to choose this ps3 freebie?? I really am questioning their picks.

reptile168

TF2 should have gotten Outstanding Achievement in Online Game play.

CoD4 was a decent multiplayer experience with a high amount of potential that was ultimately wasted on some poor gameplay designs. The UAV, airstrike, and helicopter are much too easy to get, so they all get spammed incessantly. Grenades really kill any fun in non-FF servers and the spawning system in the game is absolutely one of the worst I've ever experienced in an online FPS. Honestly, the only outstanding part of the CoD4 multiplayer was the ability to custom create your own class.

Unlike CoD4, TF2 is fun 99% of the time you are playing and is fantastically balanced. That, combined with the brilliant art direction and unique characterization of each class should have given TF2 the multiplayer spot.

I think what ultimately killed TF2's chances of winning were the initial problems it encountered on the console versions, which is probably what most of these awards are based off of.

Joeshie

I don't mind COD4 getting GoTY but I dont think it is the pinnacle of online gameplay at the moment. I know I'll get flamed to hell, but Halo 3 has much better online features. Gameplay is a matter of preference between the two titles, but when you take into account Forge and Saved Films and the amazing stat tracking and BNet integration along with the trend-setting matchmaking system I cant see how it doesnt win that category. But thats just me...

Gray665

Motorstorm and Bioshock are the only ones that I don't completely agree with. Motorstorm and its silly lack of split screen *grumble grumble.*

brello

Amazing.

I agree with this entire list.

CyN1caL

@Hiero Glyph: I wouldn't mind it, if they included three new fantastic games like OB does.

RK-Mara

@Nydrin:

I'm definitely not a newcomer to the FPS genre, I remember playing Wolfenstein 3D back in the day on my parent's computer. I played through the game the first time on Hardened and then a second time on Veteran (it's a short game and I wanted the achievements).

I have no problem with games that are hard. I'm a huge fan of both Ninja Gaiden and Devil May Cry. I just don't like it when a game is hard in an unfair way. There are sections in CoD4 that are so poorly designed that they just kick the player in the crotch and laugh at them. A prime example is the end of 'One Shot, One Kill'. They want you to defend the ferris wheel in what could have been a really epic battle. Instead they fail to give you proper cover and you're forced to go hide in a corner and pick off enemies as they rush down a corridor. It doesn't feel epic, it feels cheap.

Another example of a potentially incredible level gone bad is 'No Fighting in the War Room'. It starts off great and has a wonderful sense of tension but that is completely broken when you arrive at the section of the level where there are three corridors leading in the same direction. Going down the center is suicide because then you get hit from every direction. The only option is to take one of the side corridors but the second you turn to go down one you get hit by the enemies camping on the opposite side. The only way you can survive on Veteran is to hope that you can flashbang the enemies on the opposite side while you make a suicide dash right into another encampment of bad guys. If the ally AI would actually do something for a change this could have been a great sequence but due the the crappy AI combining with crappy level design you're stuck playing the section repeatedly which removes all sense of tension from the timed level.

What makes matters worse is that you then have to do the same exact thing when you get the silos, as it is the same exact set up (only the center corridor is blocked off). Once again, you're allies do nothing until you reach the end of the section and they come storming up the center in a scripted sequence.

CoD4 had the potential to be a killer shooter but it seems Infinity Ward is stuck rehashing the same gameplay they used in CoD1 and 2. The timeline of the game may have moved up to the modern era but the gameplay is stuck firmly in the past.

TheLastGunslinger

We can all argue over which 2007 game deserved what, but the indisputable fact is that 2007 was the best YGOTY (year of the game of the year), or at least one of the best.

Atilla_the_Nun

@vonfaustus: If this helps any, look at my name. Setzer from FF6 and IIDX from Bemani music games. I've not liked a FPS since Goldeneye, I stick to my RPGs and music games for the most part. And I absolutely love COD4.

Just in case that puts things in perspective from my viewpoint.

Setzer IIDX

@Witzbold: I just want the world to face SHODAN in all her glory in this next-gen age.

pylon_trooper

@pylon_trooper: Yes and I do miss the proper series.

Witzbold

I wonder if they are fans of FPS?

curtisawa

@Witzbold: Are you a System Shocker of old, Witzbold?

pylon_trooper

@StrangeLove: Bioshock was overrated also. The AI wasnt exactly the brightest thing either.

Witzbold

Yeah, um, Nintendo got two awards - one for Mario Galaxy, one for Phantom Hourglass.

Fitz Rhapsody

Skate won best sports? I guess these are the awards that I should be following, everyone else just throws it a madden every goddamn year.

geoffcbassett

@StrangeLove: It all depends on game type. Play search and destroy. (You don't spawn till round is over.)

greeble

Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack:
Rock Band

Seriously, the fuck?

tehFluffz

@StrangeLove:
It completely depends on the multiplayer gameplay mode you pick. It does have "spawning between rounds" gameplay as well. If you're just playing team deathmatch, then of course its not the same. Play search and destroy if you don't like that.

Nydrin

For "Outstanding Character performance" did they really put Ellen McLaw as the voice actor, when it was actually Ellen McLain?

Sparkamus

@Setzer IIDX: Interesting. All the praise has definately made me start to consider picking it up. I normally don't give the COD series much thought.

vonfaustus

@TheLastGunslinger:

I agree that, while a good game, Call of Duty 4 is overrated (in my opinion). A cool single-player game with great scripted events is kind of buried in the endless spawns and bad AI. While I certainly enjoy the game, I don't think it's nearly as good as Bioshock, Halo 3, or Crysis on the single-player side.

I also hate the multiplayer, and I'll tell you why: Other games that have had semi-realistic damage models (in other words, games where you die fast) have traditionally kept respawning to between rounds (i.e. Rainbox Six, Gears of War, Ghost Recon), which balances the "couple hits and you're dead" gameplay by making people play cautiously/realistically because they don't want to die and sit out the round. In CoD4, this onus for self-preservation does not exist, and, with it only taking a shot or three to die, leads to complete chaos and seems to be a completely random game of "who pops up behind who" (and the helicopters, airstrikes don't really help). You can say this is because I need to get "my skillz up", but it's more a matter or taste than difficulty. I just don't like it.

Bioshock all the way for GOTY.

n/a

Super Mario Galaxy is not an adventure game... unless of course you think it's the same sort of game as Hotel Dusk or Zack & Wiki. Something as pretentious sounding as the "Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences" should at least be able to accurately define genres.

@NathanX: You're not the only one... look through my posting history. It comes up often.

Mezodon

@Arloknox: This contest or awards are a joke anyway.

Irenicus-the one and only

While COD4 was a polished generic FPS.. I am glad they won awards. The game was great on ALL platforms and made it on TIME!

Snappywave

SMG is an adventure game?

Where was my adventure ;__;

Glad to see those top games doing so well.

Ryumeka

Anyone else wondering how THREE games can be split SIXTEEN awards evenly? By my count, I see twelve, unless some awards weren't posted. And Nintendo got two awards, not one.

Good choices all around, though, I suppose.

Arloknox

@vonfaustus: Innovations aren't always everything. The game did absolute squat for new content.

What it did do, however, was improve upon a genre that has been getting releases regurgitated from publishers faster than a model's breakfast. And most of those releases have been equally as appealing.

With a gripping and current storyline that is pretty much true to now, it's story grabs you. And watch the ZeroPunctuation for a feel of how the new spin on the storyline takes away from a traditional war game.
The AI should be retarded. Otherwise you could theoretically beat the game without firing a shot. The single player is supposed to revolve around you.
Multiplayer brings endless opportunities to continue to play. The customization makes it so very few classes are truly 'Broken', as anyone good enough with their gun of choice can take another down.
On that subject, this game is like Go in the sense that it's easy to pick up, difficult to master. New people of course will get their asses handed to them online, but not so much that they won't be able to get better.

It IS worthy of all that praise...in my opinion.

Setzer IIDX

I played through all the nominated titles, and no one can convince me that a better title than SMG was released in 2007. Congrats to the winners though.

Struct09

@Tetelestia: Hey, that's why I asked. At least I was honest and didn't claim to have thoroughly played the game myself and proclaimed it the worst game I've ever touched next to E.T. for the Atari 2600.

vonfaustus

@Karlott:

Forza Motorsport 2 was better.

Ryan Saotome

Am I the only one that notices in the article, it says only one Nintendo game got an award, but both Mario Galaxy and Zelda: Phantom Hourglass got awards?

Ryan Saotome

Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare is the game of the year. I am so happy to see for COD 4

ExtremeOne316

(obligatory "These awards suck" comment)

In a way, they do. Mario Galaxy is an adventure game? What?

And more ridiculous, undeserved praise heaped on Phantom Hourglass.

Rock Band winning innovation of the year isn't so bad, I guess, since innovation is so dead that a new rhythm game with new controllesr is about as fresh as it gets, but that soundtrack isn't piss in the wind compared to GH3's.

Motorstorm feels like a "we need to give one to a PS3 game" award more than anything, but since I can't particularly think of any other racing titles from this past year, it probably deserved that one.

Karlott

@vonfaustus: Good thing the judges played it instead of basing it on a "looks like" impression.

Tetelestia

I wouldn't have given COD4 goty (OrangeBox or Bioshock should get it), but those are the big 3 standout games.
As for COD4 -- you should play it if you don't understand why. It has incredibly brilliant pacing.

lanion

@TheLastGunslinger: Damn. Now you're making me reconsider getting COD4. Where will my next FPS fix come from?

greyhoundbus

COD4 game of the year? Seriously? What exactly, gameplay wise, about this game obviously had the "judges" giggling like little girls over while handing out this award? It just looks like your run of the mill FPS with a bit more polish to the genre.

vonfaustus

"Nintendo only saw one award - Adventure Game of the Year - which went to Super Mario Galaxy."

So who developped The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, which won Handheld Game of the Year?

QuagsireQing

BioShock won as much as it deserved

Pombar

In before people complaining about Mario Galaxy not doing better.

Ryan Saotome

more proof that the Halo franchise isn't all that great.

:(

cooler_dood

@TheLastGunslinger:
The "starting gear" in cod4 is pretty damn good. I still use the m16 as my main weapon, its probably one of the better weapons in the game. It's not a MMO so you shouldn't be worrying about starting gear anyway. As far as the single player goes, the fun factor for me really depended on the difficulty I played at. I wouldn't recommend players to use hardened or veteran difficulty unless theyre really good at FPS games. I played on hardened and had a lot of fun, but on veteran it felt like a chore. It's mostly there for the hardcore. Anyway, I don't see it being as bad as you make it sound. In fact I had more fun playing COD4 than any other game this year except probably TF2.

Nydrin

@TheLastGunslinger: Yes, the single player was ga'bage. Its the Call of Duty brand of single player scripting to respawn enemy AI until the cows come home. Thats why I played about 4 hours of it until I stopped caring. As far as the multiplayer get yo skillz up, foo!

NumberONE

@TheLastGunslinger: With the exception of the SMG class, all the best weapons and perks are unlocked very very early. M16, M4, M14 Sniper, AK, That first LMG is used a lot, Stopping Power from the get go, Last Stand is pretty early.

The game's balanced so 'noob gear' is not only playable, but damn near awesome. The only late achievement worth note is Claymores and 3 frags. You can live without those.

Setzer IIDX

@NathanX: Agreed. I honestly think that if they want to nominate a game of the year it needs to be for Portal, Team Fortress 2 or Half-Life 2: Orange Box Edition. I can imagine how we might see the Green Box next year that include Halo, Halo 2 and Halo 3. Look everyone, it's a new game!

Hiero Glyph

@NathanX: Ackbar knows their cunning plan. But it does seem everyone else has fallen for it.

Edmon

...and am I the only one who reckons everyone who feels Bioshock was the next coming never played System Shock 2?

Surely not. Yahtzee agrees with me.

Honestly, though. Did it just take a next-gen facelift to get people noticing Irrational make stellar FP games? Or am I merely discounting the fact that the games industry has come a long way since 1999...

pylon_trooper

@NathanX: Probably when they refer to 'PC Game' of the year, they're taking it as one purchase.

And 5 great games in one is definitely a victory.

That would seem to match with how they listed every other Orange Box victory as Orange Box:Portal

Setzer IIDX

In all honesty, I don't understand the massive amount of praise Call of Duty 4 has garnered. I'm I playing the same game all of you are? Sure the multiplayer was fun for a while but the way the system matches you with other player is flawed. My very first match I was put up against a few lvl 55's with golden guns and top level perks. Meanwhile I'm running around with noob gear.

Then there's the single player campaign. It had some really stellar scripted events but the gameplay that linked those events together was incredibly poor. You had ally AI that was as thick as a concrete bunker wall, enemy AI that alternated between borderline retarded and sharpshooter whenever it felt like it, and infinitly respawning enemies that turned the entire game into section after section of 'rush the spawn point'. On top of that factor in the lame level design (sure, they were cool looking corridors, but corridors none-the-less) and you have one poor shooter.

TheLastGunslinger

Go, go Zelda+SMG and Puzzle quest. The rest deserves to win too of course :)

Irenicus-the one and only

...Am I the only one who doesn't quite understand why The Orange Box keeps mentioned as one, singular game? It's a compilation, something which I thought to be incredibly obvious. Because as I understand it, the AIAS just gave Half-Life 2 the computer game of the year again.

NathanX

@djcoffee:

if only!

pyropetey

x-com deserves game of the year.

djcoffee

Okay, seriously, how the fuck does Rock Band get the award for "Outstanding Innovation in Gaming"? Everything you can do in Rock Band, people have been doing in arcades for at least a decade. This is NOT innovation. Taking GuitarFreaks and DrumMania, and throwing them together on a console...that's what passes for "outstanding innovation" these days, eh?

Heartwork

Clearly, this was NOT a triumph.

@skewt: I'll say. I'd think they'd more likely give the award to DiRT out of sympathy to Colin McRae.

Frank

Yeah, I guess if they determined game of the year by its sales, that makes sense.

Sucks, though. COD4 could have been made any time. Portal, though? Something like that doesn't happen very often.

Cola82