Hi hope you all are good and in full mood and enjoying yourselves. I made some blogs about my disturbing and busy life in past month, Still very busy but leave that for now. I was inactive on net from some time, So I was out of ideas for a blog previous days. A few days ago thought of making a GOTY blog, I didn't thought it will get this long, I've worked 4 or 5 days on this blog due to lack of spare time or I wasn't in the mood to write, Finally part 1 of blog is here, don't know how many parts it'll have......
2K9 is gone and I'm sure many of you would have made your decissions about various GOTY nominees and then you got disappointed here and there (On Various Websites) for sure but still we have are own opinion right, So I'm here to just share my personal opinion :)......
So Let's Begin 8)......
__________________________________________________________________
MOST SURPRISINGLY GOOD GAME = X Men Origins Wolverine [Runner Up = Cryostasis : The Sleep of Reason]
Why = All of us have made up a mind that movie tie-ins will be a crap and most of the times it's true but not in the case of X-Men Origins Wolverine. It is one of the most entertaining games I played this year and it didn't disappointed me at all and everything was far more then my expectations.
BEST TECHNICAL GRAPHICS = Uncharted 2 Among Thieves [Runner Up = Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2]
Why = Every small detail in Uncharted 2 looks phenomenal, I'm sure Uncharted 2's visuals will be cutting edge even in next year. From the beautiful streets of Nepal to wonderful snowy lands and the village of Tibet, Everything looks brilliant And the Train section alone is worthy of this award.
BEST ARTISTIC GRAPHICS = Trine [Runner Up = Flower]
Why = Trine is a game from the dreams, The game looks and feels like fairy tale, Something from the memories from your childhood although the gameplay may not be that superior but the visuals definitely are, It's one wonderful adventure, Which one can't forget soon.
BEST ATMOSPHERE = Batman Arkham Asylum [Runner Up = Killzone 2]
Why = There shouldn't be a doubt in anyone's heart that Batman uses atmosphere to the fullest in presentation. The first glance at the game may not make it feel like something extraordinary but more and more you'll play the game, You'll merge in it's world. The Dark presence of the Asylum, the Feared Thugs reactions, The patient interview tapes e.t.c Everything when combined leaves a great impression on your mind Which one can't forget anytime soon.
BEST VOICE ACTING = Uncharted 2 Among Thieves [Runner Up = Batman AA]
Why = Nathan Drake is a lovable character, How he responds to the situations is quite funny and the beautiful pacing and terrific voice acting of the game makes Uncharted 2's World alive. It'll always feel like you are watching a Hollywood movie with great cast, Uncharted 2 has one of the finest or infact the best voice acting in Action Adventure Genre games.
BEST USE OF A CREATIVE LICENCE = Batman Arkham Asylum [Runner Up = Ghostbusters : The Video Game]
Why = Whenever we see a licenced game, The first word which comes to our mind is crap, Once again someone is trying to milk any good creative license. In prior years we have seen some terrible Batman games and our hope with the licence was almost none but Rocksteady came up with something exceeding our expectations far more then we ever imagined a batman game to be, Simply hats off to the rocksteady.
BEST MULTIPLAYER = Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2 [Runner Up = Left 4 Dead 2]
Why = No doubt the formula of COD MW hasn't improved a lot in MW 2 but the addition of perks has served as the topping of the cake. COD MW is no doubt a very weak game in single player but the multiplayer is definitely solid and alone is worth the price tag.
BEST STORY = Assassin's Creed 2 [Runner Up = Dragon Age : Origins]
Why = To be honest I didn't played any game this year, Which should qualify as Best Story. Every game had flaws including the famous Uncharted 2 and no great RPG was released this year. So The best will be either Dragon Age : Origins or Assassin's Creed 2. When it comes to pick one, I'll pick AC 2 as it has overcome all of the flaws of AC 2 and makes sense of AC 1's ending and beautifully describes the life of an assassin and takes place in various years describing and explaining many aspects of the life of Ezio Auditore Da Firanze.
[NOTE = It can also be DA Originsas I haven't played it]
MOST IMPROVED SEQUEL = Assassin's Creed 2 [Runner Up = Uncharted 2]
Why = Assassin's Creed was a great game but had tons of flaws, AC 2 has improved in almost every way from the story line to the weapons, To the variety of ways of exploring the world including Flying Machine and boat, Variety of missions. Everything is improved and thus it's the most improved sequel.
BEST NEW INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY (IP) = Infamous [Runner Up = Dragon Age Origins]
Why = This year we saw some great new ips including Scribblenauts, Infamous, Dragon Age Origins, Demon's Souls, Prototype e.t.c. We have seen a lot of super hero games in the past but none were able to surprise us and controlling the super hero never felt like being very powerful, Infamous introduced many new concepts and for the first time, It made you believe that you have the power, The controls were phenomenal and not a mess like prototype, City looked beautiful, Platforming was easy and enjoyable and the choice of changing the world as a superhero made it really interesting and entertaining adventure.
BEST BOSS FIGHTS = Wolfenstein [Runner Up = Demon's Souls]
Why = It's not easy to explain, I know many of you won't agree cause you haven't played the game. It'a dumb game and has a lot of bad things including plot, Pacing, Controls (at times), Glitches, Bugs but the game shines in boss fights, They are quite unique and interesting.
MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT = No Russian level (COD MW 2) [Runner Up = Scarecrow Encounters (Batman Arkham Asylum)]
Why = Most of the time memorable moment is for the good but not in the case of COD MW 2, No Russian level is a disgrace to video gaming and one of the most ashaming things Activision ever did. The ones who have played the game will know what I'm trying to say here, It's not that we are killing the civilians, It's ok in GTA, So it was ok here too. I ain't a russian nor an American, So I couldn't take sides, Gaming is an entertainment medium, So why they are disrespecting another country. More shame then disrespecting and or killing Russians. Is how they are representing it, Killing innocents by a soldier, Soldiers are man of principles not some p*** to kill an innocent. In the scenario innocents are crawling, Trying to hide, Some people are dragging or carrying other to safety and we shoot them.
In short THE MOST DISTURBING AND DISGUSTING SCENE I ever saw in a video game and I won't forget it anytime soon.
BEST EXPANSIONS = Fallout 3 [Runner Up = GTA IV]
Why = Content wise and depth wise GTA IV was a little higher in some places as compared to Fallout 3 but let's come to the basic point, What's the reason of expansions, Simple a game doesn't die and it gets or adds something new to itself. GTA IV expansions were good but were released with some big intervals, So the interest of user base was a little lost. Second both of the expansions were stand alone and didn't increased or added anything to the original game whereas fallout 3 expansions added some great weapons, Increased the maximum cap of levels, Improved games ending and added some other cool stuff too although all expansions weren't that great, Some were great, Some good and some OK but as a whole package there were head and shoulders above GTA IV expansions.
Best Single Player Campaign = Uncharted 2 Among Thieves [Runner Up = Batman Arkham Asylum]
Why = All of you will agree that with time the developers are compromising single player campaign in effort to have or add or improve multiplayer, One such example is COD MW 2. So with time great Single player campaigns are decreasing, This year was a great year and we saw some great Single player campaigns including Uncharted 2, Batman AA and AC 2. All of these were great games although Uncharted was a clear winner, The story is far for improved then it's predecessor, The action sequences are great, The platforming is decent, The shooting is fluid and the voice acting is top notch, All of them combined makes a wonderful experience which one will remember for a long time
__________________________________________________________________
As mentioned above in the blog, I was out of ideas of making a blog and too busy to right any editorial or something about myself or Monthly Blog or something interesting. So thought of my own GOTY blog few days ago, Was working on this blog since 5 or 6 days and it seems this blog will have 3 parts, So I've something to keep myself busy in this month at least :)
Hope you people are doing well waiting to see your response on awards :)