While GTA4 is nice, and I enjoyed it, MGS4 was an experience that had emotion, drew on multiple storylines intricately woven, and had moments that reminded me of John Woo's action flicks in Hong Kong.

I should probably note that I am a big John Woo fan, by the way.

It was a nice possible close on MGS. but even if it weren't, there were alot of things about the game that I enjoyed that were not duplicated well on other offerings this year. Say what you will, but after playing my share of games this year, this one gets the nod from me.

No less, congrats to all of the selected entries, their publishers and development teams. Well done.

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And BTW, GTA4 has absolutely nothing to do with the American Dream, you're thinking of the gang-banger's dream.

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Or, rather, woe and betides that our standards have gotten that low.

Admittedly, there are fragments. But if I can name them all without difficulty, then that's a problem.

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Gears of War 2? Seriously? I couldn't stand the game myself. Horde mode was its only real quality.

"C'mon Marcus, I gotta find Maria"

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imho either of those could have been GOTY and i wiould be fine.

just my 2 cents.

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Simply put, GTA:SA offered significantly more in terms of gameplay. GTAIV is one graphical step forward, three gameplay steps back. Dual wielding? Stealth kills? Airplanes? Income-generating property? Character customization? Skill development? GTAIV is basically one long game of gangsta whack-a-mole. You're not a car thief; you're a mob assassin with driving duty.

I enjoyed GTAIV immensely. It's a great game. But it's not GotY, and it's not even as good as its predecessor.

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After each mission I kept finding myself asking "Is it done yet?" not because I had my fill of the city and the same six or so missions, but because each cutscene felt like it might be the END of the game.

As an overall experience, I do agree that GTA4 is way up there in terms of improvements from previous, story(mostly), and some of the best humor I've heard in recent games.

I guess I just feel bitter about it because of the climax, but the trip there was top notch. I'd personally have put Fallout 3 up as my game of the year, I enjoyed the writing more in some places, but a handful of memorable characters stood out as amazing for me.

By contrast, it didn't even phase me when a character I've had maybe an hour of interaction with was killed. Maybe it was the specific ending I ended up with, but it's hard to see one of two characters that I've known for about three hours, before moving on to the next safe house and never seeing them again, really affecting me.

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That's about the most accurate depiction of highschool life I've seen in an RPG for sometime. Including how the kids have to deal with their powers without the guidance of some all-powerful and all-knowing guiding force.

It's ultimately why I put the game above P3.

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