The Variety Map Pack includes four new multiplayer maps. "Creek" is a wide-open village ravaged by combat where concealment is the difference between life and death. In "Broadcast," fight throughout an enemy communications building with confined corridors and wide-open parking lots. "Chinatown" is a foggy downtown district, lit only by a full moon and the neon glow of the city. "Killhouse" features a desolate training warehouse filled with a variety of building mock-ups and soft and hard cover points.

More details including an early sneak peek of the maps at select GameStops can be found on the Xbox COD website.

Modern Warfare Variety Map Pack [Xbox]

We spend the entire year talking up some games and smack talking others, but we've never actually posted what we think were the best games of the year. Not until now, that is.

Starting earlier this month I polled Kotaku Tower to find out what they thought were the best and worst games for each platform. I also asked them what they thought were the best Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network games of the year. While I'm a judge for a number of awards, including the Spike TV, Best of E3, IGF and even the Rocky Mountain News, I don't typically have the power to design how the awards should be given out.

Most awards tend to annoy me on two levels. First is the almost pathological need to vote for the best games of the year well before the year is over. It's just plain stupid. Sure you can get early builds, and play demos, but why not wait until all of the games are out for the year before starting the vote? The other thing that bothers me is how some award shows bunch all of the platforms into one category. Why would an Xbox 360 owner care if a Playstation 3 game has a better action title? Why would a Wii owner care if the 360's shooter is better? It's just silly and almost feels more like flamebait than anything worthwhile for the readers.

OK, rant over. Hit the jump for our list of finalists and check back next week to see which games ended up taking the Goatie.

Kotaku's 2007 Game of the Year Finalists

DS
GOTY:
The Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
Geometry Wars Galaxies

WGOTY:
Tank Beat
Spanish for Everyone
Spiderman: Friend or Foe

PC
GOTY:
Crysis
Portal
Desktop Tower Defense

WGOTY:
Soldier of Fortune: Payback
Instinct
Beowulf

Playstation 3
GOTY:
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

WGOTY:
Lair
Sonic the Hedgehog
Transformers: The Movie

Playstation Portable
GOTY:
Beats
Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords

WGOTY:
Pimp My Ride
300
Transformers: The Movie

Wii
GOTY:
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Paper Mario
Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure

WGOTY:
Cruis'n
Ninjabread Man
Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast

Xbox 360
GOTY:
Mass effect
Bioshock
The Orange Box

WGOTY:
Transformers: The Movie
Vampire Rain
Wing Commander Arena

PSN
Super Stardust HD
flow
Everyday Shooter

XBLA
Alien Hominid HD
Undertow
Every Extended Extra Extreme

Every day until Christmas we're going to reveal our favourite twenty-four (count 'em) reasons to own an enormous PC-thinking machine. That's the only qualifier. It's our Games of the Year, and we take that literally. These are the ones which, when we look back on 2007, are going to remember most fondly. In other words, something that made us laugh ourselves sick for one night and we'll always recall will appear above the sixth-edition of a solid genre game. No, they're not really in order, except when they clearly are (which we'll leave as an intelligence test for you lot to guess wildly about). It's about love, which is a bit sappy, but it's the season for it, so let's be soft for a while, yeah?

However, yes, the game that's revealed on Christmas morn is our game of the year.

I've been keeping an eye on it every day, and you can too over at the Rock, Paper, Shotgun Advent Game-o-Calendar 2007.

Game of the Year BioShock Halo 3 Mass Effect The Orange Box

Best Shooter
BioShock
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Halo 3
The Orange Box

Best Action Game
Assassin's Creed
God of War
Super Mario Galaxy
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

Best Rhythm Game
Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80s
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
Jam Sessions
Rock Band

Best RPG
Eternal Sonata
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions
Mass Effect
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3

Best Driving Game
Colin McRae: DiRT
Forza Motorsport 2
Need for Speed ProStreet
Project Gotham Racing 4

Best Military Game
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas
World in Conflict

Studio of the Year
Bungie Studios
Harmonix
2K Boston / 2K Australia
Valve

Best Graphics
BioShock
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Crysis
Mass Effect

Breakthrough Technology
Crysis
Halo 3
Portal
Rock Band

Best PS3 Game
Heavenly Sword
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Warhawk

Best Wii Game
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Paper Mario

Best Xbox 360 Game
BioShock
Halo 3
Mass Effect
The Orange Box

Best PC Game
BioShock
Crysis
The Orange Box
World in Conflict

Best Individual Sports Game
skate
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08
Tony Hawk's Proving Ground
Virtua Tennis 3

Best Team Sports Game
Madden NFL 08
NBA 2K8
NHL 08
Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007

Best Handheld Game
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords

Best Game Based on a Movie or TV Show
The Lord of the Rings: Shadows of Angmar
Naruto: Rise of a Ninja
The Simpsons Game
John Woo Presents Stranglehold

Best Soundtrack
BioShock
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
Tony Hawk's Proving Ground
Rock Band

Best Original Score
BioShock
God of War 2
Halo 3
Mass Effect

Best Multiplayer Game
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Halo 3
Rock Band
The Orange Box

Most Addictive Game Fueled by Dew
Halo 3
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
Orange Box
Wii Sports

The Spike TV Videogame Awards are coming up on December 9. Over at Spike.com they've posted the list of this year's nominees, decided on by a panel that includes Kotaku's own Brian Crecente and this week's guest editor Geoff Keighley. For Game of the Year, the nominees are Orange Box, Mass Effect, BioShock and Halo 3. Check out all the other nominees over on the official site.

VGA Nominees Announced [Spike.com]

Good lord, look at my giant golden head.

There's a story behind why the Rocky Mountain News decided to call the soon-to-be annual Best Games of the Year the Golden Crecentes, albeit a short one.

They told me they wanted me to do an award story for the best games and I said, jokingly, only if you call them the Golden Crecentes. Well, the did. So, of course I had to write the story to match the golden image of my visage.

And no, if you won an award, you don't get an actual Golden Crecente. I'm keeping them all for myself.

I went with Gears of War for best game because, well, it really was the best despite the fact that I also really loved Okami, Brain Age and tons of others.

Hit the link to check out my pick for best sequel, driving game, fighting game, indie game, portable game, rhythm game, strategy game, shooter, action, sports, party and platformer... and be prepared to disagree. Brian Crecente

The Golden Crecentes [Rocky Mountain News]