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Game of the Year Awards 2009

Check out our Editor's picks for the past year! See our Best and Worst Games of 2009!

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Introduction  |  Gameplay Awards  |  Special Awards  |  Genre Awards  |  GOTY

 

Gameplay Awards

 
Best Story:
Told in a non-linear fashion, Cryostasis slowly reveals the past events on a nuclear icebreaker stranded in the North Pole. The player comes across victims of circumstance or foul play and can relive memories and visualize their demise in effort to set things right and find out what has really happened aboard the derelict ship.  
 
Honorable Mentions:
 
 
Best Graphics (Art):
Simply put, Flower is one of the most beautiful games to ever grace any platform. From the breathtaking visuals to the amazing landscapes, this game will let your imagination fly free.
 
 
 
 
Honorable Mentions:
 
 
Best Graphics (Tech):
The overall presentation of DiRT 2 is hard to match, the tracks are wonderfully designed, the cars look fantastic. The smoke, dust and collision effects bring the extra level of polish with the slick 3D menus. 
 
 
 

 
Honorable Mentions:
 
 
Best Music:
Along with the great visuals, the atmosphere of Flower is further supplemented by the great original musical score. It is completely relaxing and very fitting to the experience, making it a great joy to listen to.
 
 
 
Honorable Mentions:
 
 
Best Sound:
It may simply be the crushing of skeleton bones under a summoned platform from the Mage or even the chink of an arrow on a stone wall. Without question the sound design of Trine is first rate and consistent.
 
 
Honorable Mentions:
 
 
Best Character:
Nathan Drake (Uncharted 2)
Nathan Drake is an everyday hero, one who is at home when making jokes in dangerous situations. He is a genuine character and attempts to do the right thing even if it gets him in trouble and it’s hard to not like him.


 
 
Honorable Mentions:
Sean (The Saboteur)
 
 
Best Voice Acting:
Not just Nolan North, but Claudia Black, Steven Valentine, Emily Rose and Graham McTavish produce solid performances to go along with the superb dialogue. Given a little bit of lenience during voice recording the natural flow really shines through. Unsurprisingly the runner-up, Dragon Age: Origins, features a few of these characters.
 
 
Honorable Mentions: 
 
 
 
 
Best Atmosphere:
What game creates such an atmosphere where you’re so invested in the characters and world events that you forget what sunlight is? Dragon Age sets up a system where you’ll care about the opinions of your companions and even want to help them during their troubles.

 
 
 
Honorable Mentions:
 
 
Best Multiplayer:
It has a competitive multiplayer component that flows quite well with good duels and balanced map layouts. Then you have a friendly set of co-operative modes which give you a very solid multiplayer effort.
 


Honorable Mentions:
 
 
 
Best Singleplayer:
Dragon Age features dozens of hours of gameplay, numerous detailed side quests, choices that effect outcomes and relationships and a deep set of backstories for many characters. The single player component of Dragon Age engrosses you in a world.

  
 
Honorable Mentions:
 
 
Most Original gameplay:
There are many titles that still attempt to use motion controls as a gimmick. Flower, on the other hand, takes full advantage of PS3's SIXAXIS motion control to bring you a unique gaming experience that works great with the motion controls.
 

 
Honorable Mentions:
 
 
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#7 Jan 10, 2010 22:02:52 (Jan 10, 2010 22:02)

sirdesmond
I think it's best to keep in mind the fact that this was put together by all of us writers and most of us aren't able to play every game that came out over the last year or even every AAA title. I've heard only great things about Arkhum Asylum, but I am one of the contributors yet to play it so I can't accurately judge it.  We had to go off of what we played.  Before this awards list, I hadn't even heard of Cryostasis, but being the story-junkie that I am, I'm going to check it out after this.
#6 Jan 10, 2010 21:45:27 (Jan 10, 2010 21:45)

DoomGiverIV
+1
I have to say that the awards i agree with the most are the ones Modern Warfare won, thank you guys for realizing that that game is just a decent game not the second coming of Jesus Christ on a disk, it has already come and its called orange box
 
#5 Jan 10, 2010 17:33:28 (Jan 10, 2010 17:33)

nutcrackr
@kamikaziechameleon: batman was a runner up in a number of categories and just missed out on a few wins. I too would have liked to have seen it win more.
 
#4 Jan 10, 2010 16:58:58 (Jan 10, 2010 16:58)

with_teeth26
 Good choices all around, i'm a little surprised at Dragon Age winning best atmosphere though. 
#3 Jan 10, 2010 11:00:37 (Jan 10, 2010 11:00)

kamikaziechameleon
 I agree with 99% of things but I'm sad to not see Batman AA in a single catagory.  That was my favorite game.
#2 Jan 10, 2010 04:26:07 (Jan 10, 2010 04:26)

nutcrackr
+1
We tried our best to come up with fair winners for each category so hopefully you guys enjoy it.
#1 Jan 10, 2010 04:14:12 (Jan 10, 2010 04:14)

SpectralShock
+1
woohoo!
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