My Game of the Year Awards

SpikeTV had their Video Game Awards last night, and awarded
GTA: San Andreas Game of the Year. Nothing against the guys at Rockstar who made the game, but San Andreas just wasn't game of the year material. That's not to say that the viewers of SpikeTV don't know games, but their list of games is on the overyhyped-what just came out last week side of things. I figure my list is just as valid as their list (and you don't need to watch an asinine 2 hour wannabe-MTV-style presentation to enjoy my picks). Gamespot is also doing a Best and Worst of 2004 and includes some categories I don't even dare come close to touching, like Flat-Out Worst Game and Worst Disappointment.

Best Driving Game: Burnout 3

This game feels like a driving game designed by Jerry Bruckheimer. Lots of adrenaline pumping action, no plot to speak of, and it's just fun to send cars flying every which way as you ram and run cars off the road.

Best Novelty Game: Donkey Konga

You have to hand it to Nintendo, it was ingenious of them to create a fun game and then link it to a pre-existing license.

Best Movie-Affiliated Game: Chronicles of Riddick

Movie based games always suck, but this year, there were two serious contenders: Spider-Man 2 and Riddick. Riddick won my vote, partially because they had Vin Diesel reprise his role in the game, and also because I couldn't remember which version of Spider-Man was the good one (they released different versions and in one port you can swing from the skyscrapers like Spidey, and in the other one you can't).

Best Weird Game: Katamari Damacy

That's how weird this game is. It transcends categories. You roll a spiky ball to stick everything to it. Towards the end of the game, you're a little tiny guy rolling skyscrapers and islands into this ball.

Best Massively Multiplayer Online Game: World of Warcraft

City of Heroes, Everquest II and Final Fantasy XI just all sucked. Add in the fact that WoW sim-shipped for Mac and PC at the same time, and you've got a winner. Diablo was RPG-gameplay on crack, WoW is MMOG on crack. Another hands-down winner for Blizzard.

Worst TV-Affiliated Game: Alias

Wow, this game was a stinker. While they did get the cast to do voice-overs, the animations look stiff and wooden, and it has none of the intensity of the tv show.