This is not a game of the year thread. This is instead for those ancillary and sometimes joke categories you see leading up to the GOTY.
I’ll kick us off with one.
Most Dislikable NPC: Rico from Killzone 2.
Rico, to put it frankly, is an asshole. He is easily the most dislikable character to grace a game last year, and surely must be in the running for worst of all time. This is made all the worse by him being on your squad and supposedly being one of the good guys. At one point in the game I was moved to knife him in the face for a solid minute, sadly he did not die. I’m not sure what Guerrilla Games was going for with this character, at times it almost seems intentional? Oh how I loathe Rico. At this point the only way I’ll be playing Killzone 3 if Rico is in it, is if he’s now on the opposite side and I get to kill him.
The Head Scratcher Award is given to Borderlands because I can’t figure out why people loved it so much. It claims to be a Diablo-style kill-loot-level game, but with guns, only that’s all the loot you’ll ever get: guns! Good for gun nut(job)s I s’pose. And how many times do I have to kill those annoying dogs? And why are the maps so boring? And… Oh, maybe there was a hole in the release schedule because now no one on my friends list is playing it.
Best Bait and Switch Award is given to Brutal Legend. Sure, it looked like another classic Tim Schaeffer action adventure title… and after playing it for 30 minutes, you realize the twist is that it’s an open world game, which you can live with… but then in the best tradition of bad b-movies everywhere, where one more unbelievable twist ruins the entire production… it suddenly becomes an RTS game?!? You sir have won the Bait and Switch Award.
Most Elusive Sequel To One Of My Favorite Games:Bookwork Adventures 2 (Mac Edition).. Announced when the PC version was announced, then it just evporated. I’m sure it will appear…but when?
Yeah I’m one of those guys that loved Borderlands and still does, so I dunno.
But that brings me to my next category.
Gun of the Year
No, it doesn’t go to Borderlands with its bazillion guns. Nor does Ratchet sneak away with its assortment of crazy weapons. The gun of the year goes to the Nano Rifle from Red Faction: Guerrilla. The Nano Rifle nails it on all fronts. It’s super powerful, fun to use, and looks damn cool. You can dissolve your enemies or destroy a building in style in a matter of seconds. It truly was the gun of the year.
Relief of the Year: Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Adventures
I love Wallace and Gromit and was anxious about how their zany exploits would translate into the adventure game genre. It turned out pretty well. The characters were well portrayed, and I enjoyed all four episodes. Runner Up: Blizzard increases rep on dailies for Sons of Hodir.
Full-Automatic-to-the-Foot Award: Bioware
I think Dragon Age: Origins is an excellent game. Bioware seemed intent on sabotaging its success. First the advertising campaign portaying the game as a puerile pile of gore. Employees responded to complaints on the forum about the marketing with snide and defiant dismissals. Then they devised promotional incentives so complex that customers needed a chart to determine where to purchase the game. Shortly before release, the game was shackled to a social site so rushed that many people could not sign up for several days and which was subsequently updated after release to require a separate game registration to the site. Upon release of the game, it was discovered that the player camp includes a pitchman for the first DLC.
Best Sunset Award: Tropico 3
I’ve only played through the tutorial at this point, but I feel safe giving this award. Most games just have the world get gradually darker. In Tropico 3, a glamorous hue bathes the world in magical twilight. Kudos to the artists who did this, and especially to whomever thought to do it in the first place.
Marketing Getting in the Way of the Game Award: Dante’s Inferno
I’ve heard more about this game than most anything else upcoming, but basically through its puerile marketing efforts. Could there be an interesting game in there? Probably not and the marketing is all they have to stand out from a crowd of other XXXtreeeme third person action shooters.
Bioware and Dragon Age: Origins gets the runner up on this award. Both EA games. Perhaps the same marketing agency?
Most hilarious port: The Saboteur
A game where the biggest saboteur is that someone forgot to test it on the “rarely” used ATI brand of video cards. Add in a forum made up almost completely of people complaining about various bugs/problems even when not using ATI cards and shake.
The game that most brings back my extreme hate of morrowind’s cliff racers: Borderlands
What the hell is with those stupid mutant dogs. Who thought it would be fun to make them one of the most common enemies and just change their color/size around to attempt to add variety?
Best metroidvania that no one realized was a metroidvania: Demon’s Souls.
Once you spend a few hours getting a handle on the game’s combat system, the infamous difficulty goes away and the game is all about sequence breaking. There is are counters to just about ever difficult part of the game, its just a matter of figuring out the optimal path. Rather than special doors or environmental obstacles blocking your progress, there are just really tough monsters.
