Kotaku: best of

Spike TV Announces Nominees for 6th VGAs

Brian Crecente — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:20:00 MST

It's going on six years now that Spike TV has been handing out awards to game developers on television for the year's best video games and each year, it seems, the show gets just a touch better.

This year the show will include a live performance by 50 Cent, a Gamer God Award for Will Wright and, thankfully, no sponsored category. As in that annual Mountain Dew award won't be something the judges will have to vote on. Instead, I'm told it will be used to back an award for best indie game. As a judge, that's something I've been complaining about for years so I'm delighted to see it being shifted to something worthwhile.

Now hit the jump to read up on the finalists for the 22 categories and argue over who should be taking home the awards.

Game of the Year
Grand Theft Auto IV
LittleBigPlanet
Fallout 3
Metal Gear Solid 4
Gears of War 2

Studio of the Year
Media Molecule
Rockstar North
Harmonix
Bethesda Game Studios

Best Shooter
Far Cry 2
Resistance 2
Gears of War 2
Left 4 Dead

Best RPG
Fable II
Fallout 3
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
The World Ends With You

Best Fighting Game
SoulCalibir IV
Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit

Best Individual Sports Game
Shaun White Snowboarding
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09
Wii Fit
Skate It

Best Handheld Game
God of War: Chains of Olympus
Professor Layton and the Curious Village
Patapon
Castlevania Order of Eccelsia

Best Graphics
Gears of War 2
Fallout 3
LittleBigPlanet
Metal Gear Solid 4

Best Game Based on a Movie or a TV Show
Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures
Quantum of Solace
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Naruto: The Broken Bond

Best Music Game
Rock Band 2 (MTV Games/ Harmonix)
Guitar Hero World Tour (RedOctane/ Activision Publishing/ Neversoft Entertainment)
Wii Music (Nintendo/ Nintendo)
SingStar (Sony Computer Entertainment/ SCE Studios London)

Best Driving Game
Burout Paradise
Pure
Midnight Club: Los Angeles
Mario Kart Wii

Best Action Adventure Game
Grand Theft Auto IV
Dead Space
Mirror's Edge
Metal Gear Solid 4

Best Team Sports Game
NHL 09
Madden NFL 09
NBA 2K9
FIFA Soccer 09

Best Soundtrack
LittleBigPlanet
Grand Theft Auto IV
Rock Band 2
Guitar Hero World Tour

Best Xbox 360 Game
Fable II
Gears of War 2
Grand Theft Auto IV
Fallout 3

Best Wii Game
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Boom Blox
Wii Fit
No More Heroes

Best PS3 Game
Metal Gear Solid 4
Resistance 2
LittleBigPlanet
Grant Theft Auto IV

Best PC Game
Spore
Crysis Warhead
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
Left 4 Dead

Best Original Score
Fallout 3
Spore
Metal Gear Solid 4
LittleBigPlanet

Best Multiplayer Game
Gears of War 2
Left 4 Dead
Resistance 2
Call of Duty: World at War

Best Performance by a Human Male
Michael Hollick as Niko Bellic in GTA IV
David Hayter as Old Snake in MGS 4
Stephen Fry as The Narrator in LBP
Jason Zumwalt as Roman Bellic in GTA IV

Best Performance by a Human Female
Nathalie Cox as Juno Eclipse in The Force Unleashed
Debi Mae West as Meryl Silverburgh: MGS 4
Paula Tiso as Silvia Christel in No More Heroes
Keeley Hawes Lara Croft in Tomb Raider Underworld

Best Independent Game Fueled by Mountain Dew (Not a Judge Category)
World of Goo
PixelJunk Eden
Braid
Audio Surf

Best of Categories, Which Ones Should We Keep, Lose?

Brian Crecente — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:00:00 MDT

Every year I vote on a number of different game of the year, best of E3, best of whatever awards and every year I run into the same problem: The categories never really work for me. Often it ends up feeling like you're trying to squeeze a round peg into a square hole and hope for the best.

Thing is, I don't really have a solution. Take for instance today's news of the Game Critics' Best of E3 finalists. Check out those categories.

Best Social/Casual/Puzzle Game
Best Online Multiplayer Game
Best Action Game
Best Action/Adventure Game

Heck this year there were even a few that didn't get enough votes to make the cut.

Best Simulation Game, for instance, didn't get enough nominations to make the finalists list, but what would you include in there. Spore? Why not. HAWX, Sure, I suppose. Left 4 Dead? Maybe.

That's the problem, a lot of these categories are very easy to redefine and justify. What if you were making a Best of list for gaming, which categories would you include? Me? I think you need to include one category for each console, because often gamers only own one or two and they want to know which game is best on "their" system. But what about those collection of genres? I find them baffling, but it certainly looks like a lot of people use them. Maybe they just need new names. So what are you waiting for? Get to it.

Gamasutra's Top 5 Most Significant MMO Moments

Maggie Greene — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 10:00:00 MST

In 2007, I became a somewhat avid observer of MMOs, even though I don't play them - mostly because there are so many interesting issues wrapped up in the wide, wide world of online multiplayer games, especially in Asia. 2007 was a pretty interesting year for MMOs, and Gamasutra names five of the most important trends and moments of '07 for MMOs: 'little' games get huge, messy MMO failures, WoW's mainstream success, big companies go head to head, and new questions on the best way to play:

I see 2007 as generally positive. The Massive game industry is still in its infancy, in many ways, and these failures are hard growing-up type lessons. I've tried to keep that in mind when constructing a list of the Top Five MMO Trends of 2007 ....
Let's hope looking back on 2008 will be more about sugarplums and less about coal.

I'm dreadful at putting together 'best of' lists, but I've been mulling what I'd put on my top stories of '07 list. What about the faithful Kotakuites out there in the audience?

Gamasutra's Best Of 2007: Top 5 Most Significant Moments In MMOs [Gamasutra]

Wii Fit Makes Brilliant Gadget List

Michael McWhertor — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 16:20:00 MDT

Popular Mechanics is the new Alpha Mom. The publication loves Wii Fit so much, it put it on its Top 10 Most Brilliant Gadgets of 2007 list, writing that it "turns fitness into a game, instead of a chore." It shares a spot on the list with consumer products like Apple's iPhone, Microsoft's Surface and the Zonbu Zonbox, none of which make exercising fun and therefore fail miserably. I suppose I could do a thousand bicep curls with my iPhone and see some results. I'll let you know how that goes.

2007 Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Awards [Popular Mechanics]

Best of Best of E3 Awards

Michael McWhertor — Sat, 20 May 2006 13:08:35 MDT

E3 is a full week behind us and, including Kotaku, most gaming journalists/fanboys have weighed in with their collectively jaded opinions on what blew and what blew them away at E3. Big winners include EA's Spore, Irrational's Bioshock, Ubisoft's Assassins Creed, and Nintendo's Super Mario Galaxy, but here's the full rundown of this week's "Best Of"—and "Worst Of"—

The Escapist Running Dry?

Brian Crecente — Wed, 17 May 2006 05:00:50 MDT

They are not even through their so far flawless first year and The Escapist has already decided to fill a week with a "Best Of" issue. I don't know about you, but every time I saw one of these best of clip-jobs show up in my favorite sitcom I knew the show had inched one step closer to the reruns grave.

From issue 14, columnist Allen Varney, with the help of Richard Garriott, Warren Spector, and others, shows how EA's acquisition of Origin led to the destruction of one of gaming's most beloved studios in "The Conquest of Origin." Hailing from our premier issue, Kieron Gillen discusses the cultural significance of games in "Culture Wargames." From issue 17, we bring back "OMG Girlz Don't Exist on the Intarweb !!!!1," from Whitney Butts' personal encounters on the internet. We revisit Joe Blancato's "The Left Behind," from issue three. From issue seven, Pat Miller looks at Marathon, a classic trilogy ahead of its time in "From '94 to Infinity: Before Halo." From issue four, Max Steele shares his adventures in player-created content in "Don't Roleplay the Bugs." In issue 23's "Obscurity Below the Radar," John Szczepaniak shares months of research into the underworld of high-priced, one-of-a-kind gaming collectibles.

I hope this was more of an issue of E3 tapping out all of their writers and less of an issue of the constant stream of quality stories tapping out the magazine's innovation. —Brian Crecente

The Escapist