Five Games With ‘Game of the Year’ Editions That Weren’t Close To Being Game Of The Year

Whatever happened to the Game of the Year? What happened to respect? Year after year we debate: Skyrim versus Dark Souls, Red Dead Redemption versus Mass Effect 2. This is the game that defines our year. The game we will remember when we look back. This is serious business. So when publishers make a mockery of this sage institution, we get angry! Just because you have some DLC to clumsily repackage doesn’t mean you have a ‘game of the year’ edition on your hands!

We’ve decided to run down the five worst offenders. The five games we thought least deserved a Game of the Year edition. Come on guys, at least LA Noire had the good grace to call its little DLC package ‘The Complete Edition’ — show some restraint!

1. Dead Island


The year: 2011
The Metacritic Score: 71%
They said: “With regular AI freezes and vanishing items, a mistimed autosave can prove fatal. Ultimately it all invites the refashioning of another line from Romero. When there’s no more room in development hell, the dead losses will walk the Earth” — Edge

In some bizarre parallel universe, where time flows backwards, and hamburgers eat people — maybe, just maybe some poor silly billy could ingest enough red cordial to name Dead Island his game of the year. Sure, it was interesting. Sure people watched the trailer and had a sniffle. But Jesus, Dead Island was a buggy game, and mediocre to boot. In a year where we were truly spoiled for choice — 2011 had Skyrim, Dark Souls and Portal 2 for God’s sake! To have the sheer brass cojones to even suggest that Dead Island was the game of the year? Please, share some of these interesting hallucinogenic drugs.

Actual Games of the Year: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Portal 2, Dark Souls, Batman: Arkham City, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

2. Borderlands


The Year: 2009
The Metacritic Score: 83%
They said: If you’re looking for an RPG, there are better options (yes, Fallout 3, I’m looking at you). If you want an FPS, there are tons of better games. But as a combination of both genres Borderlands is a fresh and fun option. — Eurogamer Spain

I know I’m going to catch heat for this one, but I’m sorry — in no shape or form was Borderlands a legitimate contender for 2009 game of the year. This is not a slight on Borderlands — it was and is a top notch video game, and actually did win a Game Informer award for Best Co-op game of the year. But it didn’t say Borderlands: Co-Op Game of the Year Edition on the box, it said Game of the Year Edition, and Borderlands wasn’t really a contender.

Actual Games of the Year: Uncharted 2: Amongst Thieves, Street Fighter IV, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Assassin’s Creed 2

3. AFL LIVE


The Year: 2011
The Metacritic Score: 64%
They Said: “Presentation is where AFL Live really comes up short. Players move well enough when viewed from a distance, running, marking, fending, and tackling realistically. Shifting to close-ups or any tighter views reveals plenty of rough patches, though, with player models looking little like their real-world counterparts and animations looking jerky and stilted.” — Gamespot

Jesus wept. This one sucks to write, because it’s a homegrown title based on a homegrown sport — but the only way this game should be getting a Game of the Year Edition is if they changed the name to ALF Live and it featured a certain cat eating Alien puppet from the 80s. Seriously — who gave ALF Live game of the year? Those three fat dudes on The Footy Show? ALF himself, after misreading the box title. Alf Stewart, from Home and Away? Bloody Nora…

Actual Games of the Year: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Portal 2, Dark Souls, Batman: Arkham City, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

4. Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis


The Year: 2001
The Metacritic Score: 86.51%
They Said: “True, few games let you play as a soldier, tank commander, and pilot in the same sitting, but in order to enjoy yourself you must be able to feel comfortable with your controls and navigate the in-game menus intuitively.” — PC Gamer

This game came out in the same year as Halo. And it has a game of the year edition. It came out in the same year as Grand Theft Auto III, arguably the most influential game of the last 15 years. And it has a game of the year edition. I reckon it was Dick Cheney’s Game of the Year. And even though it’s impossible to do in most first person shooters, he probably found a way to shoot himself in the foot.

Actual Games of the Year: Grand Theft Auto III, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3, Halo: Combat Evolved

5. Red Orchestra: Heroes of Stalingrad


The Year: 2011
The Metacritic Score: 76%
They Said: “I can appreciate the goals and gumption of the game’s small development staff, but the game is just painful to play.” — Machinima

I have never played this game. I have never heard of this game. Until two hours ago, I had no idea it existed. What. The. Hell.

Actual Games of the Year: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Portal 2, Dark Souls, Batman: Arkham City, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Honorable Mention: Fable II


The Year: 2008
The Metacritic Score: 88%
They Said: “You’ll have to slog through a very frustrating few hours in order to get to the good stuff, but once you’ve gotten over the game’s incredibly obvious flaws, you’ll find one of the most emotionally evocative games ever made.” — Destructoid

I wanted to put this on the list — I really did. The headline of this article initially read ‘Six Games With Game of the Year Editions That Weren’t Even Close To Being Game Of The Year’. But, as crazy as it sounds, Fable II actually did win Game of the Year awards, which is just insane considering the fact that Grand Theft Auto IV, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, LittleBigPlanet and bloody Fallout 3 were all released in the same year. Blame Molyneux worship, weird wish fulfilment and silly British patriotism for this one. Fable II was hardly a terrible game, but it has aged terribly — not that it was close to being a real game of the year contender to begin with…

Actual Games of the Year: Grand Theft Auto IV, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriot, LittleBigPlanet, Fallout 3, Rock Band 2


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