I will be using the same type of awards as the Gamespot crew if that's ok? Though I will using far from all of them, as I simply have not played enough games to fill each category. So if you guys would wanna help me out with the awards I missed that would be great, or you simply just want to disagree you're free to that as well.
Well then off we go!
Best Story
Lost Odyssey
Grand Theft Auto IV
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Dead Space
Valkyria Chronicles
And the winner is...
[spoiler]
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
I think this was actually a no brainer for me, sure the scipt is not flawless and the story perhaps takes center stage a bit too much. But Hideo Kojima somehow managed to tie all up all the loose ends from the past games and did it in such a way that you could not often help yourself but to sit there with controller in hand, eager to find out what's going to happen next.
[/spoiler]
Best Graphics, Technical
GRID
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Crysis Warhead
Dead Space
Gears of War 2
And the winner is...
[spoiler]
Crysis Warhead
All of the nominations may be highly impressive game to look at, but when it comes to technical graphics there is nothing that even threatens Warhead when being played on the higher settings except the original Crysis. The arts tyle improved too, but that is unimportant, this is technical graphics and here Crysis Warhead is king.
[/spoiler]
Best Graphics, Artistic
Fable II
Little Big Planet
Valkyria Chronicles
Mirror's Edge
Prince of Persia
And the winner is...
[spoiler]
Mirror's Edge
While all of of the nominations are beautiful games, I have often seen the graphical s tyle many of them use before in some way or form. Mirror's Edge on the other hand that uses white and colors that are so vibrant they are just on the edge of being too much makes the game look like something different, something rarely seen. And on top of it all it looks great while doing it.
[/spoiler]
Best Atmosphere
Grand Theft Auto IV
Dead Space
Fable II
Fallout 3
Left 4 Dead
And the winner is...
[spoiler]
Fallout 3
It was a tough call for me between Dead Space and Fallout 3 on this one. But in the end I chose to go with Fallout 3 since it actually succeeds at making you feel you're walking around a post-apocalyptic Washington D.C.
If that's not a sign of a truly great atmosphere I don't know what is.
[/spoiler]
Best Original Music
Lost Odyssey
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Fable II
Mirror's Edge
Prince of Persia
And the winner is...
[spoiler]
Lost Odyssey
Metal Gears Solid 4 has an awesome soundtrack don't get me wrong, but some of the tracks are some I've been listening to for years while Lost Odyssey had a soundtrack that was just as rockin' and it was all new, even though it remided me of Final Fintasy (Gee I wonder why). Those who claim Nobuo Uematsu has lost his touch have no idea what they're talking about and have likely not played Lost Odyssey. Because this is the best sountrack he has composed in years.
[/spoiler]
Best Sound Design
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Battlefield: Bad Company
Dead Space
Fallout 3
Left 4 Dead
And the winner is...
[spoiler]
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Dead Space manged to put up a really good fight here. But Guns of the Patriots wins this category for me because everything in this game sounds like it should, the music, the voices, the effects, everything. The sound in this game is uncompressed from what I understand and it definitely shows. I would not be suprised if more than half of the Blu-Ray disc is dedicated to the sound because it simply sounds that good.
Want to know what your surround system is capable of? Then simply boot up MGS4 because it's not only the technically best sounding game of 2008, or this generation but perhaps ever.
[/spoiler]
Best Voice Acting
No More Heroes
Grand Theft Auto IV
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Dead Space
Fable II
And the winner is...
[spoiler]
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
With so many actors playing thier role and doing so well as in Metal Gear Solid 4, there is no doubt for me that this game has the best voice acting. Sure there are some wierd moments, but what game doesn't have those? And David Hayter may sometimes sound like he needs to visit the bathroom when doing the voice of Solid Snake but this is just nickpicking that gets completely thrown out the window when each and everyone f the actors help to make you feel that their emotions are actually believable along with the action that is happening on screen, just like in the best of movies.
[/spoiler]
Best Cooperative Multiplayer
NHL 09
Little Big Planet
Resistance 2
Gears of War 2
Left 4 Dead
And the winner is...
[spoiler]
Left 4 Dead
Both Gears of War 2 and Resistance 2 has some really good co-op modes but none of them manages to nail cooperation as well as Left 4 Dead does. Cooperations is simply key in this game especially when taking on a zombie Tank on the higher difficulties or you'll likely be dead within seconds before you know what hit ya. Once you start giving out commands and aid eachother even in panic making you all scream like little girls you will eventually succeed and feel the satisfaction and joy you'll want to do it over and over again and thanks to the AI director you will never know what's going to happen either.
[/spoiler]
Best Competitive Multiplayer
Burnout Paradise
Sins of a Solar Empire
Grand Theft Auto IV
Resistance 2
Gears of War 2
And the winner is...
[spoiler]
Resistance 2
60 player online matches...do I really need to say more? Something that has been previously unheard of on a console. Sure it may be really hectic at times but boy is it fun.
[/spoiler]
Most Improved Sequel
Saints Row 2
Fable II
Fallout 3
Resistance 2
Gears of War 2
And the winner is...
[spoiler]
Resistance 2
To be honest I didn't really like Resistance: Fall of Man all that much, sure it was by no means a bad game but I felt the pacing was off, the enemy AI leaved a lot to be desired among other things. Resistance 2 fixes many of these issues and thank to this I actually would like to call it a great game and now I think I want to see more from this franchise which is something I didn't feel just a few months ago.
[/spoiler]
Best Original IP
No More Heroes
Lost Odyssey
Dead Space
Valkyria Chronicles
Left 4 Dead
And the winner is...
[spoiler]
Dead Space
I did not see this comming, I basically thought it was going to be a generic Resident Evil 4 ripp-off set in space, boy was I wrong!
Dead Space is simply amazing, and what surprises me even more is that it's developed by EA, a company that usually just puts out these sports and racing games every year and what not that are generally the same with slightly updated graphics, rosters and some new gimmick.
So it's really refreshing seeing a product like this from them and that it's so full of great qualities. Sure it may borrow elements from the already mentioned Resident Evil 4, Doom 3 and others, but it does it really well and puts it togheter in an excellent package that should not be missed.
[/spoiler]
I will post part 2 by the end of the week were I discuss a few disappointments of mine and also hand out the bigger awards.
And I aplogize before hand of possible grammar issues, I'm posting this right before I'm going to sleep lol.
//ZimpanX