With business failing and stores closing all over the country, GameStop reports record sales and earnings for 2008, and expects the trend to continue this year with plans to open 400 more stores.

With 2008 sales rising 24.4% over last year to $8.8 billion dollars, GameStop laughs at our puny economic recession. In the fourth quarter of 2008 alone the company’s sales hit $3.5 billion, up 21.9% over last year’s $2.9 billion, with net earnings of $232.3 million and comparable store sales up +9.6%. I could go on, citing their 2008 overall net earnings of $398.3 million, with comparable store sales increasing +12.3&, but why bother? Half of you don’t understand this, and the other half just find it completely obnoxious.

Let’s just sum things up. GameStop is doing very well, and expects to continue to do so. They opened 1,002 stores in 2008, and plan on opening another 400 this year. They are feeling no pain, and just wanted to make sure everybody knew it. Good for them, but in the current economic climate it’s like walking into a room full of starving people, rubbing your stomach and saying, “Mmmmm, I am sooo stuffed!”

We’ve given you the site’s most popular videos, features and reporting, but what single story was the most read on Kotaku in 2008. And which story elicited the most comments?

Game of the year wraps take themselves far too seriously. While we’re extracting our head from our arse, here at Kotaku AU we thought we’d have some fun and come up with some alternative awards to celebrate the last twelve months in gaming. We’d like to hear your suggestions too.Best Bromantic Comedy
Winner: Gears of War 2
While Army of Two may promote homosexuality, it really has nothing on this unashamed tribute to chainsaw three-ways man-love from Clifford Bleszinski, Esq.

Best Game About Stalking That Isn’t Called S.T.AL.K.E.R.
Winner: Braid
Also features the best plot twist since BioShock. The princess is in another castle after taking out a restraining order against you.

The “Premature Ejaculation” Award for the Game That’s All Downhill After the First Level
Winner: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Playing as Darth Vader, laying waste to everything in his heavy-footed way? Yes please. So why isn’t the whole game like that? What an abilitease.

The “Beeeg Amereeecan Teeeteees” Award for Most Annoying Character
Winner: GTA IV’s Roman Bellic
“Hey Niko, it’s your cousin Roman wanna go see some beeeg Amereeecan teeeteees?”
Click.

The “Goldeneye Really Isn’t That Good Any More But This Still Isn’t As Good As Goldeneye”Award
Winner: Quantum of Solace
And the film wasn’t as good either.

The “Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri: A Brian Reynolds Game” Award for Most Ridiculously Convoluted Title
Joint Winners: Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 2: The Phantom Fortress
Always be wary of titles containing two colons. Or games that can be “abbreviated” to SSFIITHDR.

The Beyond Good & Evil Memorial Award for Best Game Nobody Bought
Winner: Valkyria Chronicles
Fair enough, really. I mean, it’s only the best game on the PlayStation 3, why would anyone want that?

The Peter Molyneux Award for the Most Pointless Gimmick in a Game
Winner: Fracture
You shoot the ground to raise it up a bit or shoot the ground to dig a bit of a hole. Why did anyone think this was a good idea?

Think you can do better? Hit us up in the comments with your own suggestions…

Looking at the breakdown of scores, it’s clear that while the PlayStation 3 only has three more exclusives than the Xbox 360, it has quality on its side, with four games scoring 9 or higher, compared to only one on Xbox 360. The Wii, meanwhile, comes in with two. All three systems have exclusive strengths and weaknesses, but if we had to call a winner – and we do – we’d give it to the PlayStation 3: Sony’s system has the highest standard of exclusives, paired with plenty of variety.

But this is just part one of the Showdown. More fanboy angst to come as the feature continues next week!

The list is comprised of games that many would consider the very best of the year. Braid, LittleBigPlanet, Left 4 Dead, Metal Gear Solid 4, Grand Theft Auto 4 – all presented as games that don’t deserve the praise they’ve received. In his defence, Chick does offer up a pre-list caveat:

Many of the following ten games are great. A few came close to being on my top ten list … I would call a couple of them works of genius. But I think they’re the most overrated games of the year for the simple fact that I’m surprised at how well received they were.

I’m just a bit sketchy on what he’s saying there. He considers some of the games works of genius, but is surprised that others do as well? Hit the link to see the full list, in which I feel that only one title fits the category, mainly because I am a lazy bastard.

10 most overrated games of 2008 [Fidgit via Waffle Squadron Omega]

Top Ten List [Jyouhouya]