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After several weeks of debate, discussion, and deliberation, Kotaku's 2011 Game of the Year Award came down to a simple vote, and the majority voted for science. More »
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Just as its sister site ModDB picks the top PC gaming mods of the year, IndieDB rounds out the year with a countdown of the top independently developed games of the year. Think of it as a shopping list to help establish your indie gaming cred. How many of the top ten have you played? More »
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The hardest thing at the end of the year is to parse yourself from the hype you're experiencing and think back to the games you played during the summer, the spring, and yes, 2011's early months. More »
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What Valve did this year seemed impossible: they improved on the perfection that was the first Portal. That feat was accomplished, surprisingly, by making everything about players' return to Aperture Science less perfect. We got a scuffed-up, messier experience that resonated more deeply than any other game this year. Can Portal 2 open a rift to the top of this year's GOTY contenders? Let's see. More »
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Commenter GiantBoyDetective has posted the winners of the 2011 Speakys, the unofficial video game awards of our Speak Up forum community. Now all that's left to do is vote for Game of the Year. More »
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This may sound off-key coming from the guy who nominated the 12th edition of annual sports franchise for overall GOTY last year. But I'm inclined to say "None of the above," this year. I prefer for these honors to truly mean the game, at minimum, was the best at what it did. This year's big games, nearly all of them sequels, seem to arrive at that point more out of incumbency and the expectation that they would be a game of the year nominee. More »
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I played a ton of games in 2011. More, probably, than any other year of my life. So when it came time to choose the best from among them, I spent a lot of time thinking back, sifting through the triumphs and the frustrations, the unexpected joys and the unfortunate disappointments. More »
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Oh look. Somebody is voting for Skyrim as Game of the Year. How shocking. More »
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While high atop Kotaku Tower we sit in high-backed chairs around a marble and gold inlaid table pondering our official Game of the Year, commenter GiantBoyDetective and friends organize their very own awards, and you can help in today's Speak Up on Kotaku. More »
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If you'd asked me yesterday morning my pick for Game of the Year, I would probably have said The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Now, having witnessed Quarter to Three's Angie Gallant play through the English translation of bizarre bird-based visual novel Hatoful Boyfriend, I'm not so sure. More »
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Rarely considered for overall video-game-of-the-year honors, the uncommon diversity of sports video games support a class of awards unique to the genre. These are Kotaku's Stick Jockey Sports Video Games of the Year. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5856752&view=rss&microfeed=true Good things come to those who wait. Rockstar's Western hit Red Dead Redemption returns to retail on October 11, packaging all released downloadable content and preorder bonuses in one $49.99 package for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. More »
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In today's award-winning edition of Speak Up on Kotaku, cold-hearted commenter Monsieur.Froid wonders if other gamers are beginning to catch on to this whole Game of the Year trend. More »
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Website Cracked ran the same joke last year, but this year, it's even funnier. Or, depending on your point of view, sadder. More »
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It was a contentious fight: Which game of 2010 was the absolute best of the year? But we've reached a conclusion and have, at last, a clear winner. More »
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Capturing more than 12,000 of the nearly 30,000 votes cast in our Game of the Year poll, this cross-platform game captured Kotaku's 2010 Readers' Choice Award. More »
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Because I tried to please everyone, my Commander Shepard didn't get laid the first time I played Mass Effect 2. Because BioWare tried to please everyone, Mass Effect 2 could be our Game of the Year. More »
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What makes a game a game of the year? More »
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In another universe, they made a box containing Red Dead Redemption that's just for me. The front is familiar. The back, though, boasts the kind of bullet points I might demand of a great video game: More »
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Last week we unveiled our final picks for the Game of the Year nominees. More »
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As the year wraps up and the last of the big games roll out it's time to start our debate, the debate about what was the single greatest game of the year. More »
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As the year wraps up, so does everyone's take on what they think are the best games of 2010. More »
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Spike TV's Video Game Awards show seems to improve a bit every year. This year's show kicks off on Dec. 11 with a very strong line-up of contenders for a myriad of awards. More »
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We can think of no better recipient of a Game of the Year Edition than Kotaku's 2009 Game of the Year Uncharted 2. What will $50 net fans come October 12? More »
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It's been a well-fought discussion: Which game was the hand's down best title of 2009. But all good fights have to end, hopefully with a clear winner. More »
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Taking nearly half of the more than 16,000 votes in our Game of the Year poll, this Playstation 3 exclusive garners Kotaku's 2009 Reader's Choice Award for Game of the Year. More »
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We've had our say, announcing which three games we think should be named game of the year for 2009. Now it's your turn. More »
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There aren't many ways that the multimillion-selling Assassin's Creed II can be seen as an underdog, but in a discussion of 2009's Game of the Year, it's the dark horse. More »
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The brilliantly immersive Demon's Souls, unfortunately known better for its brutal difficulty than its rebellious game design, is my choice for the title most deserving of the accolade "Game of the Year." More »
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Tucked in this Playboy profile of a con man who ripped off the Pentagon is this tantalizing nugget: A company claimed to be working on an adaptation of Road House, the 1989 Patrick Swayze vehicle and Cinemax staple. More »
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In naming the best video games of the year, the sports genre is often left to fight over a single award. And as I've discussed before, one probably isn't winning an overall game-of-the-year anytime soon. More »
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Of the major game-of-the-year awards given out each year, no sports title has ever taken top overall honors. And yet five years later, there is one still talked about in ways that year's winners are not. More »
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Even though I left the Rocky Mountain News to run Kotaku fulltime awhile back, I still write for the newspaper. Mostly because I like the idea of being able to expose a very mainstream audience to gaming. More »
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This article on GamesRadar has me wondering if violence in video games has gotten more intense – or is it just more vivid as a result of technology making blood brighter and guts more realistic. More »
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This year we decided to try something different with our Game of the Year awards: The GOTYS. We came up with categories that exemplify the areas of gaming that we think should be highlighted. More »
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I went through yesterday's list of nominations for our annual Game of the Year awards and tallied the games to come up with a short list of finalists for us to vote on. More »
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There are two ways to approach Game of the Year awards. More »
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New York Times games journalist supreme Seth Schiesel looks back at the games of 2008, delivering accolades both coveted and undesired, leading to his game of the year - Grand Theft Auto IV. More »
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So, this year round turns out that many of my picks for finalists didn't make the cut for the 2008 Spike TV's Video Game Awards. That being said, I still felt we had an obligation to select what we thought were the best games among those finalists I listed earlier this week. More »
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The full 2007 Game Critics: Game of the Year Award winners have hit the Game Critics website, naming BioShock the game of the year. More »
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