Game of the Year Awards 2010

New Game Network staff make their selections for the Best and Worst Games of the Year 2010!

Posted by (NGN_Staff) on January 10, 2011 - 10:03am EST

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

Gameplay Awards

	Best Story Call of Duty: Black Ops If the key ingredients to a good story are being memorable then Black Ops has that well covered. Reliving events while held hostage Mason comes to realize he may have been brainwashed and that’s when things start getting complicated. The story presentation of Black Ops is first rate. Runners-up: Bayonetta Amnesia: The Dark Descent Red Dead Redemption
	Best Graphics (Art): Mafia 2 Empire Bay looks fantastic whether you are gazing at the uniquely designed buildings or the dozens of detailed vehicles. Plenty of works was put into creating a vibrant looking and feeling city set over a few decades and it certainly paid off. Runners-up: Enslaved Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Darksiders
	Best Graphics (Technical): Metro 2033 Metro 2033 has a rich atmosphere crafted by a superb looking engine, pixel perfect shadows, volumetric lights, detailed ghastly creatures and very impressive textures and even some great looking desolate outdoor locations. Runners-up: God of War 3 Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Final Fantasy 13
	Best Music (original composition) Call of Duty: Black Ops Consistent and powerful score composed by Sean Murray that elevated the heart rate to made some of the combat sequences incredibly exciting. One of the few soundtracks this year you’ll probably enjoy listening to outside the game. Runners-up: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Fallout: New Vegas Heavy Rain
	Best Audio/Sound design Battlefield: Bad Company 2 The Frostbite engine certainly can produce some great destruction but its other wonderful strength is the unbelievable audio engine that produces deep sounds of explosions, bullets and incoming tank shells that is quite simply unmatched on the battlefield. Runners-up: Limbo Halo Reach Fallout: New Vegas
	Best Voice Acting GTA4: Episodes from Liberty City Rockstar have always produced games with brilliant voice acting and Episodes from Liberty city is certainly no different. Featuring its fair share of funny and odd characters, the voice work is perfectly delivered. Runners-up: Fallout: New Vegas Mass Effect 2 Alan Wake
	Best Character Red Dead Redemption - John Marston As a married man and a father, Marston acts and reacts a certain way which may or may not always be the action taken by the player. This interesting dynamic of a character with more at stake than simply his own life makes taking the infamous road throughout the game as difficult and emotionally troubling as it should be. Runners-up: Call of Duty: Black Ops Bioshock 2 Bayonetta
	Best Atmosphere Amnesia: The Dark Descent The player is completely absorbed in Castle Brennenberg and must face fears some which can’t be seen but still pose a deadly threat. Great lighting effects and some clever use of sound make Amnesia an engrossing game no horror experience can match. Runners-up: Stalker: Call of Pripyat Red Dead Redemption Fallout: New Vegas
	Best Singleplayer Fallout: New Vegas New Vegas brings back the great feelings from Fallout 3 with a wide expansive wasteland and hundreds of things to do. A new wasteland brings forth a whole range of interesting locations to discover and crazy people to meet. Deciding where to go and how to tackle your next objective is not something that will disappear when you stop playing either. With a huge and interesting world and hours worth of content, New Vegas is the best single player experience this year. Runners-up: Heavy Rain Mass Effect 2 God of War 3
	Best Multiplayer Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Concentrated action and well balanced vehicles on some great looking and large destructive maps. Includes Rush and Conquest modes offering plenty of action for snipers, rushers and flankers alike. It's the most action-packed mutliplayer this year, with a focus on squad cooperation to boot. Runners-up: Starcraft 2 Call of Duty: Black Ops Halo Reach
	Best Gameplay Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Is there anything quite like taking cover from a tank behind a building that creaks and slowly collapses to the ground leaving you vulnerable? Destruction changes the outcomes for the entire battlefield and it makes the action very dynamic. Runners-up: Amnesia: The Dark Descent Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Heavy Rain

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

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#15

Jan 19, 2011 14:43:40 (Jan 19, 2011 14:43)

kamikaziechameleon
Good point I think splintercell atleast did enough different and if played through on the highest difficulty had some classically chalenging moments.

#14

Jan 19, 2011 13:28:01 (Jan 19, 2011 13:28)

Phatcat1987
Personally, I thought Final Fantasy XIII deserved some hate here. I haven't played Splinter Cell: Conviction or Dead Rising 2, but I suppose it depends upon the expectations placed upon those games in the eyes of the player. Nice article guys.

#13

Jan 14, 2011 15:47:13 (Jan 14, 2011 15:47)

kamikaziechameleon
I 2009 was my year. But this year did have alot of awesome games but I'm still lingering on classics from the year prior, I think only BC 2 will follow me into this new year.

#12

Jan 14, 2011 13:00:32 (Jan 14, 2011 13:00)

with_teeth26
I honestly thought 2010 was a better year for games overall than 2009, but that might just be me since I don't care as much about polish as I do about unique/memorable experiences. And I don't own a PS3 so I didn't play Uncharted 2 (but it did look awesome). 2011 should be even better since it has a new batman/uncharted game and a sleugh of great looking RPG's.

#11

Jan 14, 2011 11:38:45 (Jan 14, 2011 11:38)

kamikaziechameleon
Is it bad that when I look at this years games I just keep referencing uncharted 2 and batman. Oh uncharted 2/batman looked/played/sounded better... I love those two games, to dump almost 40-60 hours into eaches SP campaign when it is pretty scripted is kinda silly but I've done it. just replayed UC 2 over christmas.

#10

Jan 13, 2011 15:03:06 (Jan 13, 2011 15:03)

SpectralShock
Maybe not explicitly specified, but we linked the winner Metro 2033 to the PC page.

Jan 13, 2011 12:01:12 (Jan 13, 2011 12:01)

kamikaziechameleon

read dead and ME 2 seem to be the critical darlings this past year(for all outlets), with BC2 and Blackopps battling for shooter supremacy. All I can say is I play more Bad company2, alot more. The irony is how much blackopps players resist playing that game but once you get them to play it they are hooked.

My friend who has been a COD junky for some time picked this one up and he finally agrees, blackopps is a gimmicky deathmatch game and battlefield is a actual war game. He can't play Blackopps anymore.

Jan 13, 2011 11:56:16 (Jan 13, 2011 11:56)

kamikaziechameleon
you didn't specify metro 2033 on pc as best graphics technical, the 360 version has some major graphical issues I've seen vids for.

Jan 13, 2011 11:55:18 (Jan 13, 2011 11:55)

kamikaziechameleon

Oh yeah ok... I liked splinter cell alot, the franchise peaked with chaos theory, it really needs a major overhaul. Mark and execute is awesome idea, but their implimentation was flawed, it didn't work very well with many of the levels you where actually put in. As a sp game goes this one was rampant with exploits to be abused by the player, enemy AI was really simple and uninteresting. levels where way to small, visuals where all over the place, the prerendered cinemas where SD for no apparent reason.(played on pc) The game had some awesome high points, i enjoyed the interigation sequences alot. fighting rookie versions of my former self was fun. I can't believe conviction was in developement so long.

excuse the really long rant there.

Jan 12, 2011 17:59:26 (Jan 12, 2011 17:59)

nutcrackr	+1
CoD didn't win best SP, it won best story. This year we had a lot of variety in our nominations and no real standouts even though Bad Company 2 cleaned up a few awards.

Game of the Year Awards 2010

New Game Network staff make their selections for the Best and Worst Games of the Year 2010!

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