OK it's Dec 30th.... Game of the year thread.

[denoginizer]

I know we have quite a few of these already.  But one more couldn't hurt.  And I am bored at work today.

The rule for this thread is you can only nominate 1 game.  

For me it is a very tough choice between four games.

Mass Effect 2, which completely drew me in with it's collection of short but interesting character stories and super high production values.  

Halo Reach, with its great combination of a solid campaign with 4 person co-op, endlessly customizable firefight mode, and incredibly deep multiplayer versus modes.

Starcraft 2, with a very solid campaign, incredible polish, and amazingly deep multiplayer that is basically a virtual sport.

Red Dead Redemption, which I admittedly have not finished yet.  But I have played enough to be amazed by the virtual world and characters created by Rockstar.  The story and writing are the best I have seen in a videogame since Bioshock 1.  The story touches on some pretty wide reaching topics that surprised me more and more as I kept playing.  And John Marston is probably my favorite video game character of the year.  

My choice is Red Dead Redemption with a late year surge as I have been playing through it this past week. While Nikko Belic kind of strayed into typical videogame character silliness by the middle of GTA IV, Marston has remained true to values established for him as a family man and a guy who is genuinely trying to make a life for himself in the old west while working within the framework of a video game story.  Riding through the old west during a thunderstorm in surround sound was probably my favorite gaming moment of the year.


Totals:

Red Dead Redemption (6)
Mass Effect 2 (17)
Tales of Monkey Island (1)
Rock Band 3 (2)
Darksiders (1)
FO3 New Vegas (1)
Dragon Quest IX (1)
CeeKay (1)
God of War 3 (1)
Starcraft 2 (1)
NHL 11 (1)
Halo Reach (1)
Battlefield Bad Company 2 (1)

[Scraper]

Mass Effect 2 for me. Love that game.

[TiLT]

Mass Effect 2. If that game doesn't win most Game of the Year awards this year, it's only because it was launched so early that people have forgotten its impact on them.

[spigot]

ME2, with RDR a very very close 2nd.

[CeeKay]

I'm going to have to go with Tales of Monkey Island.  played through all five parts in five days straight over the summer and loved every minute of the game.

[Blackadar]

ME2, hands down.

[Larraque]

Despite its glaring flaws, I've barely gone a day since it released without Rock Band 3 spinning in the drive.

[TiLT]

I'm going to have to go with Tales of Monkey Island.  played through all five parts in five days straight over the summer and loved every minute of the game.

Wasn't that game released in the second half of last year?

[denoginizer]

Despite its glaring flaws, I've barely gone a day since it released without Rock Band 3 spinning in the drive.

RB3 is probably the game I've put the most total hours into as well.  But there are some nagging flaws which still drive me crazy.  Settings like breakneck speed and individual track speeds not saving.  Backgrounds and animations that are waaaaaaaay too bright and distracting without the ability to turn them down.  No way to play with guitar, bass, and keyboard online, broken leaderboards, etc.  The game is so close to perfection, but still so frustratingly far away.

[godhugh]

I didn't play a ton this year, but Mass Effect 2 was by far the best one I did play.

[CeeKay]

I'm going to have to go with Tales of Monkey Island.  played through all five parts in five days straight over the summer and loved every minute of the game.

Wasn't that game released in the second half of last year?

the rules don't say it has to be this year, but the PS3 version was released over the summer, so technically it's a 2010 game too, just like ME2 will be a 2011 game 

[NetGuy]

Darksiders.   That game is not given nearly the respect I think it deserves simply because it doesn't break any new ground.  I could honestly not care less.  It's well designed, very fun and has (to me) an interesting story and setting.

ME2 would win this award for me, that game was phenomenal, and I would rate it (far) ahead of Darksiders except I simply cannot forgive the stupid planet mining.  I spent an hour or two of my life that I will never get back doing that and I'm not at all happy about it.   There was never a question of success or failure, it was simply boring busy work and that's not why I play games.

I have not played Red Dead Redemption yet, I hope to get to it this year.  

[Gratch]

Another vote for Mass Effect 2.

Nier comes in a very close second.

[msteelers]

I spent a lot of time this year playing older titles, and the new games I did pick up disappointed me. Fable 3 and Fallout: New Vegas both failed to meet my expectations. Red Dead Redemption was really good, but the multiplayer for Black Ops combined with a surprisingly good single player campaign was enough to knock RDR out of the top spot. Then Christmas morning I unwrapped Rock Band 3, and 15 minutes after turning it on I knew it was my GOTY. I spent the first half an hour with the game not playing songs on a fake instrument, but learning scales and chords on an instrument that I've always wanted to try but never could. And browsing through their store of DLC, I already know that I'm going to be out of A LOT of money here in the next few weeks. There are just too many good songs out there that I need to have.

It should be noted that I have not played Mass Effect 2, although I did get it for Christmas. Once the allure of Rock Band 3 wears off a little bit, I'll dive into ME2.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Fallout 3: New Vegas with Mass Effect 2 not far behind.

[disarm]

Mass Effect 2...fantastic game from start to finish (despite the planet scanning)

i'll also give an 'Honorable Mention' to Darksiders for being such a surprisingly good game...not quite GOTY material, but it came out of nowhere and has left me excited to see what they do with the sequel.

[PeteRock]

Wow.  Given how many are lauding ME2 as GOTY, I'm pretty psyched to have received it for Christmas.  I loved the first but missed the sequel, so while I'll be playing ME2 in 2011, I'm happy to see that it is up for 2010 GOTY honors.  It just has the potential to be my GOTY for 2011.   

I guess since I haven't played ME2 or really any other major games in 2010 I'm not really in a position to vote.  But I hope that ME2 lives up to the praise (I have little doubt that I'll think so).

[Farscry]

Dragon Quest IX, but it was the slimmest of margins over Mass Effect 2. Both are truly outstanding games.

[The Grue]

I don't name my GOTY until the year is over.

[Ridah]

Mass Effect 2 without a doubt.

There's a lot of good games out there, but it's games like ME2 that keep me into gaming to this day.

[Purge]

I've not played me1 so I've avoided me2 (thus far) so I can't comment on the thread favorite. I have played Rdr, reach, darksiders, and Starcraft 2 and I agree with their candidicy. I also need to point out that BLOPS still sits unplayed as does nfshp in my home, so I cannot comment on them (yet).

Assassins creed brotherhood is an amazing feat to have such a high calibre game out just a year after AssCreedTwo.

Tr:gtl was a surprise and every bit as fantastic in coop that one could ask for. Single player nod goes to Limbo for bringing back a feeling of being "Out Of This World".

But the award for goty is CeeKay- his AI is challenging, the drops are decent, but mostly I wanna recognize his efforts so he won't try so hard (and feel like it too!) in 2011.

There you have it folks... CeeKay is all played out.

[Gratch]

Tr:gtl was a surprise and every bit as fantastic in coop that one could ask for. Single player nod goes to Limbo for bringing back a feeling of being "Out Of This World".

Tr:gtl?

[Teggy]

Tr:gtl was a surprise and every bit as fantastic in coop that one could ask for. Single player nod goes to Limbo for bringing back a feeling of being "Out Of This World".

Tr:gtl?

I assume he is talking about tomb raider: guardian of light.

[Soulchilde]

ME2

[metallicorphan]

I don't name my GOTY until the year is over.

LOL,so you will name it in about 29hrs then?


GOTY for me i am going to say Red Dead Redemption,with Mass Effect 2 coming in a close second...Deathspank was my favourite Arcade game this year

like most Rockstar games,its the world that really made the game what it was,i loved riding about and it had great regions from Mexico to the Snowy Indian mountains

[The Grue]

I don't name my GOTY until the year is over.

LOL,so you will name it in about 29hrs then?

Hey, you never know if some last minute game I buy is going to take things over.  Seriously, though, I would probably have to give it to either ME2, Fallout: New Vegas, or RDR.  Or is it Rock Band 3?  World of Warcraft Cataclysm?  Honestly, I can never pin it down.  I love them all and more.

[farley2k]

Mass Effect 2.  I actually played it when it first came out from Gamefly then bought it a couple weeks ago so I could play it again. 

[gellar]

ME2.  AC:B is 2nd, but ME2 hands down.

[leo8877]

God of War 3

[KC]

Mass Effect 2

[jersoc]

Starcraft 2

Sunk so many, many hours into that game. Once Starjeweled comes out easily another 40+

edit:for console game, Nier. So, so good despite the crappy marketing. Amazing sound track, very good writing and VA, and a compelling interesting story to boot.

[JayDee]

Nothing really jumped out at me this year. The best game I played in 2010 was Assassin's Creed 2. I just bought AssCreed:BroHood on sale and I'm sure I'll end up liking that a lot. Otherwise it's between the other games I played this year: Red Dead, MLB 2k10, NHL 11, Starcraft 2, and Rock Band 3. I'll go with NHL 11. I would have picked Rock Band 3 due to the greatness of the keyboard, but I found the setlist lacking.

[ATB]

Some of the major contenders for this category (God of War III and Dead Rising 2) never got played so this is subject to revision, but...


Mass Effect 2. No ifs ands or buts. Marvelous!

[Laner]

Mass Effect 2, fo' sho'.

[kronovan]

I don't think I've enjoyed any game more than Halo Reach, so I'll go with it. Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Mass Effect 2 would be very close 2nds.

[msduncan]

Red Dead Redemption and Mass Effect 2 run neck and neck for me.

I'd go with Red Dead just for how refreshing the genre was, but ME2 felt like playing a polished diamond.

Hmmm......

[EddieA]

Mass Effect 2 - As with Baldur's Gate 2, Bioware took a very good game and made the sequel one of the best games of all time.

[ydejin]

Game of the year is definitely Red Dead Redemption for me.

After that, my favorite games for the year have been Star Trek Online followed by World of Tanks Beta.  Honorable mention to Alpha Protocol.

[Greggy_D]

Game of the year vote:  ME2

When ME2 debuted, I still had not played ME1.  So I finally sat my butt down and finished both games back to back.  50+ hours in ME1 and then 60+ hours in ME2.  What a fantastic ride.

[Nonnahob]

Well as much as it's just an echo now, Mass Effect 2.

I liked Red Dead Redemption a lot as well, but the multiplayer was a bit of a letdown for me. It was fun, but not the kind of fun I had imagined watching the previews.

I'm really enjoying Assassins Creed Brotherhood, but I won't finish that in time to decide just how good it is.