PEOWW Awards 2011:  Writer’s Choice.

2011.  What a year.  I thought it was going to be two thousand and beleven given how gash the previous two years were for gaming but overall it’s been, as Tori Amos would warble, a pretty good year.  Instead of the usual vote ‘em up awards nonsense, the PEOWW write-oh-staff have assembled (like Voltron) to give you their votes for this year’s awards.  But don’t get two comfortable because BLEOWW we’ve got rid of every category apart from DKADEOWW the best and worst games of the year because otherwise it gets to unwieldy to read and because you know that Bobby Kotdeath is always going to be our Cunt of the Year and that Sony will always be our LOL of the Year.  So with no further ado, we present the 2011 PEOWW Awards-o-tron!

Rich

Game of the Year – Saints Row 3

An open-world gangster game getting my vote was never a likely prospect but Saints Row 3 was a truly special game.  Losing the drab anchor of reality that pinned GTAIV to floor, Saints Row 3 is a sugar-frenzied caffeine bomb of a game that combines spectacular action, relentless pacing and genuinely funny humour into a game that arguably has more impact than anything I’ve ever played.

Add to that the excellent co-op play, awesome soundtrack and excellent story and side missions and you’ve got a game that is unashamedly ridiculous but all the more fun for it.  Perhaps the best recommendation I can give you is that after Saints Row 3, Skyrim seemed just too pedestrian for me to persist with it. 

We’re not doing second places but it’d be Dead Island.  Third would be Mindjack.  Shut the fuck up, it’s good.

Worst Game of the Year – Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon

This was supposed to be awesome.  Earth Defense Force 2017 remains one of our favourite games and Vicious Cycle were saying all the right things during the pre-release hype.  EDF but with online co-op?  Just the thought of it made us cum oil all over our dads.

Unfortunately, Vicious Cycle lived up to their weak softography with a barely finished, botch-job of a game.  Everything was smaller than before.  The enemies, the levels, the destruction.  It was just so underwhelming and when the game abruptly finishes just fifteen levels in, you know that they ran out of time and ideas but decided to release this lemon anyway.  They then extended out a mere three hour long game to two hundred hours thanks to a set of unbelievably joyless achievements.  Absolute shit.  Vicious Cycle, you are all cunts.

Saints Row 3

Gareth

Game of the Year – Skyrim

Deus Ex entertained me with its stealth gameplay, Dark Souls made me feel like a true warrior with its unforgiving nature, but my Game of the Year 2011 has to go to Skyrim. I have to admit this came as a surprise to me, I wasn’t even necessarily going to get it at launch until a friend’s excitement for it transferred to me. Oblivion was good, but to me Skyrim is something else.

The world is more beautiful in many ways. I remember first seeing waterfalls, geysers and salmon swimming up stream and I just had to stop and look for a moment. In a linear game it would have meant nothing to me, but in such a massive world these touches just made it all the more believable. I still haven’t finished the main story but I have experienced so many other stories which could easily be considered main stories in their own right, some long, some short. The skill trees allow you to build a character as you want, and there are plenty of levels in the game allowing you to dabble in other skills if you want. The UI can be a bit slow and cumbersome and the 3D map isn’t the easiest thing to navigate but despite these things I cannot put the game down.

I’m over a hundred hours in and it still feels like I’ve barely scratched the surface and I’d be happy to spend another hundred with Skyrim. Then maybe create a magic based character and start all over again.

Worst Game of the Year – The First Templar

L.A. Noire disappointed me immensely thanks to its repetitive missions and Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon was just boring as hell but the worst game I have played this year has to be The First Templar.

I’d heard that despite its low budget there was fun to be had with this game and with two player co-op I couldn’t resist. I wish I had. It’s a very basic hack and slash game with low quality graphics and voice work. That doesn’t bother me, especially as it’s co-op. What we also found out to our displeasure though was that the game hadn’t been thought through properly, with game saves only applying to player one (so any cumulative achievements were a no no for player two), broken objectives, repetitive enemies and forced stealth sections which simply do not work.

It wasn’t without its charm. You could buy skills with points you acquired throughout the game which is always nice and, um…well I guess the combat could be fun sometimes. Even in co-op this game was pretty painful to experience, and to help each other my friend and I went through it twice thanks to the funky achievement situation. Just avoid it, it may be boring but at least EDF works on the most basic level.

Skyrim

Lurk

Game of the Year – Saints Row 3

Whilst recently I’ve been engrossed in Skyrim, it is a slow burner of a game taking a fair amount of time to get going. Saints Row 3 throws you into the deep end with some great set pieces to begin with before slowing the game down ever so slightly. In the GTA games the most fun you could have was when you put in cheat codes to spawn a tank and just went around blowing everything up. In Saints Row 3, that is a side mission. Pure fun from beginning to end and just sticks two fingers up to more poe-faced games in the process.

Worst Game of the Year – Earth Defence Force: Insect Armageddon

Earth Defence force 2017 is a great game that whilst being very flawed in the technical department, was a lot of fun and had a good variety of enemies. The sequel, Insect Armageddon flips this and is more polished technically, yet lacks a lot of the fun and vision of the prior game. The game is incredibly short and gets very repetitive, which is some feat since the game can be completed in a few hours. Overall it was such a disappointment, because it lacked the vision of the prior game.

Earth Defence Force: Insect Armageddon

Danny

Game of the Year – Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together

Wait what? A PSP game?! Yeah technically this is a re-release of an old Playstation 1 RPG but to my knowledge it never reached our country until this year and boy have we been missing out.

Tactics Ogre is a turn based strategy RPG that allows for a lot of customisation and has an interesting story with multiple paths with wildly different outcomes depending on what choices you make. It a meaty RPG like this that really shows off the strengths of the PSP as a device for playing slower paced role playing games, the type of games I really love hence why this is my personal game of the year.

Worst Game of the Year – Sword of the Stars II

URGH! what a absolute clusterfuck! I am not sure who is at fault here between the developer who could not make its development milestones to the publisher who released that game regardless of it quality just so that they could claw some money back but this has easily been the most disappointing game of the year and will be remembered as one of the worst video game launches for some time to come.

To make things worst I was REALLY looking forward to this game and this game was barely playable on my PC for months due to menu unresponsiveness to the point where I could not even start the game even though the recommended spec stated my PC should be able to play the game with ease. Further more the game lacked (and still lacks some might say) a lot of the core features promised while it was being sold on steam.

You want to know what the worst thing was? There was barely any coverage of this shame of a release. A lot of people could and probably did get suckered in to picking this up because at the time there where much more important games to be covering so nobody took notice of this game’s terrible launch. This game is going in to v1.0 soon, it still won’t be everything that they promised and my faith in Kerbeross and Paradox Entertainment will be tarnished forever despite both releasing great games in the past.

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together

Mike

Game of the Year – Arkham City

Work’s been sidetracking me but I might as well wax lyrical about Arkham City for Game of the Year. It was a surprisingly close call between that and Deus Ex but the way Rocksteady have built upon an existing framework has just pipped it. They’ve added to an already impressive combat system by adding more gadgets, counters and moves whilst still maintaining the DC fanboy feel of the original.

The world is brimming with almost too much to do but it speaks to my completionist nature and doesn’t feel too long in the tooth. Its a remarkably accomplished experience that even the Catwoman DLC couldn’t sour.

Worst Game of the Year – Duke Nukem Forever

Duke Nukem Forever took fourteen years and THOUSANDS of individuals to develop and, when it fell to Gearbox, there was some optimism. Having just come off Borderlands I hoped they could add some colour to a potential painting of smeared shit. What we got was an outdated clusterfuck. There seems to be very little of the Gearbox charm to this and it looks as if they’ve just put it out on shelves. You’re better than this. Chinese Democracy is better than this.

Duke Nukem Forever

Mark

Game of the Year – Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Yes I know Skyrim is so good I’d happily elope with it and have it’s little Dovakin babies but I’m all for supporting the underdog so my vote goes to Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It’s not easy to follow a game as good as Deus Ex (Invisible War tried and failed spectacularly) but HR managed it not just in terms of gameplay with it’s potent mix of 3rd person stealth, 1st person shooting and hacking mini game but more importantly with a well written script and unique atmosphere. We’ve all seen upteen number of Blade Runner clone cityscapes filled with gray concrete and garish neon, HR avoids such obvious tropes and mixes amber tinged renaissance aesthetics with 80′s style cyberpunk to make it look at once familiar but original. The writing too takes familiar cyberpunk concepts like the loss of individual humanity and the rise of corporate dominance and refreshes them with such poise and depth that you’ll gladly talk to every character you meet not just to find the scores of excellent side missions but to just hear what they have to say about a world that’s so detailed and well drawn you could happily replay multiple times and still not see every outcome and unexpected twist. Sure Skyrim may be bigger but playing HR is more akin to reading a well written novel from cover to cover as opposed to flicking through an encyclopaedia and being left with a rough idea of what it was about.

Worst Game of the Year – Earth Defence Force: Insect Armageddon

I managed to lap this in less time than I’ve have extended bowl movements which is appropriate as it’s a steaming pile of shit.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Paul

Game of the Year – L.A. Noire

Given my somewhat fleeting dalliance with games this year, I was, for the most part, lucky enough to avoid encountering anything that actively offended me. But with Skyrim currently proving itself to be a disappointingly buggy hash-job of a game – but by no means worthy of lemon candidacy – selecting my game of the year has proven to be more troublesome than I’d initially anticipated.

It’s with some surprise therefore that I’ve ended up singling out L.A. Noire, Team Bondi’s undeniably flawed but entirely playable noire ‘em up released back in May. While it appeared to receive little more than a collective shrug from a large proportion of gamers, no doubt deterred by its emphasis on slow paced, well-executed storytelling rather than punchy thrills, it’s a game that admirably substituted pace for tension, often building up to some wonderfully outlandish action set pieces, which more than justified the drawn out build up.

It was the game’s ghoulishly nasty crime sequences, however, along with the outstanding use of facial mapping technology and a genuine sense of intrigue that created the big draw, combining together to form a truly immersive experience, much more nuanced, mature and wilfully intelligent than anything that has preceded it. The naysayers will argue that it’s little more than a glorified cut scene, but this was perhaps the first time that video games and cinema had legitimately collided in something other than a Uwe Boll car crash sort of way, and that was a genuinely impressive sight to behold.

LA Noire

Matthew

Game of the Year – Dark Souls

Despite the odd decision to use peer-to-peer rather than dedicated servers (like in Demon’s Souls) which results in the whole experience being less stable and endless “SUMMONING FAILED” messages, Dark Souls has one of the most engrossing and unique multiplayers you’ll ever play. It has one of the best melee combat system since…well, Demon’s Souls. One wrong move and you’re sent all the way to the last activated checkpoint minus all the souls you’ve collected so far, die again after that and you’ve lost the souls forever. The never-ending threat of possible invasions from other players coupled with the gloomy art style and clever use of ambient sound brings a constant sense of dread and an almost unparalleled, tense atmosphere that few other games rival.

Worst Game of the Year – Uncharted 3

As pretty as the game looks, the gameplay is still damn near identical to the first game in the series and it wasn’t exactly stellar to begin with. Same endless set-pieces of caves/buildings/vehicles falling apart around Nathan Drake as he attempts to shamble his way out. Same identikit bullet-sponge enemies who flinch at a point blank shotgun blast to the face. Same horrendous Gears of War-lite combat that they’ve somehow managed to make even worse than the previous game due to completely messing up the aiming controls (so much so that they actually invited fans of the series to their studios to help fix said awful aiming). The series needs to be put to bed for a good few years before reinventing itself.

Dark Souls

Colin

Game of the Year – Driver: San Francisco

Ashamedly only purchased when the price fell to acceptably low levels, Driver: San Francisco has to be a major sleeper hit. Take a massive freeroam driving only environment with missions, races, challenges and the inexplicable ability to possess any vehicles you see – much like Burnout Paradise, sans the vehicular possession.

Just dicking about, going for a ride, doing some stunts, ‘leaping’ into cops chasing some robbers and best of all listening to the brilliant (and very funny) dialogue Tanner must listen to from his passengers while trying to run the bad guys down all gels together to make a very enjoyable experience.

It’s like being in your own buddy cop movie, but not half as shit as it sounds.

Worst Game of the Year – Nintendo 3DS

Adopting a new console on day one is always a risk but when a company themselves effectively leave its success in the hands of third party devs they really are accessing for a failure of epic proportions.

There are some good games out for the 3DS, don’t get me wrong but in the budding early years of any machine, to receive such lacklustre support from the creator is pretty inexcusable.

A further slap in the face from the sizable price drop didn’t make things any easier. Nintendo tried to compensate the early adopters with 10 free NES and 10 free GBA games but this just isn’t the same as cash in your pocket.

I am hopeful for 2012 and even a few gems at the end of the year in the form of Mario Kart and World still gives me hope, don’t screw it up again Nintendo, we need real games.

Ian

Game of the Year – Portal 2

For me the game of the year was Portal 2. It arrived in February after the usual Yuletide nonsense release schedule but  I grabbed it a couple of months after the hype had died down and discovered what all the fuss had been about.  It took the core of the first game and massively expanded it, both conceptually and narratively.  It’s still a physics puzzler and you still feel like you’re getting a mental workout when you come up with the solution to solve each individual test chamber.  No such ‘cake is a lie’ nonsense this time, more what purports to be an escape from Aperture Science.

The cast expanded beyond the first game’s Glados with the jovial Cave Johnson (voiced by J.K. Simmons) and Wheatley (voiced by Stephen Merchant) being the two significant additions.  The story, such as it was, could pass you by if you concentrated just on the puzzles in the game. But if you scratched the surface you could unearth a sprawling backstory complementing the Half-Life universe. The gameplay supplemented the simple place two portals concept of the first game by introducing three ‘gels’ that changed the physical properties of a surface.  To wit: repulsion gel makes surfaces bouncy, propulsion gel that accelerates your progress and finally conversion gel that makes surfaces previously unreceptive to portals become so. These three extra variables open up a whole new aspect to the already great spatial awareness puzzles the game has.

Valve surpassed themselves by including a whole separate co-op campaign for those that like the social aspect of gaming. This proved to be a stroke of genius as it was some of the most fun I’ve had gaming in a long time.  Some of the test chambers look impossible to begin with, the iterative deduction required being some of the most rewarding moments I’ve ever experienced gaming.  Now that it’s cheaply available you really have no excuse not to play this game, especially since there’s free co-op DLC available too.

Portal 2

Jason

Game of the Year – Skyrim

While games like Deus Ex, Iron Brigade and Saints Row 3 deserve honourable mentions it was only ever going to be Skyrim for my game of the year. Just a fantastic game that ticks all the boxes and has a massive game world to explore.

Worst Game of the Year – Various

I played too many lemons this year to peg just one. Duke Nukem, Dungeon Siege 3, Child of Eden, Bodycount and Call of Juarez:The Cartel all shit. oh and homefront also terrible. This year was really front loaded with tonnes of garbage.

The 2010 Writer’s Choice Awards

It’s that time of year again where all the sites make lists of what sucked least in the previous twelve months.  As ever, we’ll be running our regular awards feature with all the categories voted for by YOU personally and that’s all fine and dandy but in the meantime we thought it’d be nice to let you know what the PEOWW crew picked as their games of 2010.  One game per PEOWW writer, the way God intended.

Mark

Alan Wake (Xbox 360)

For my money the best game of this year has to be Remedy’s Alan Wake. In a marketplace filled with annual updates, soulless sequels and beige, cookie cutter franchises it stood head and shoulders above anything else not just in terms of storytelling and atmosphere but also for the sheer visceral thrills it has to offer. Sure it’s not a game for everyone or every occasion but when it gets it hooks in you’ll never feel the same way about moonlit forests or logging yards ever again.

Lurk

Red Dead Redemption (Xbox 360)

Picking my game of the year was a bit of a struggle, this is down to not to playing that many games this year and a lot of those games not being anything special. The two games I actually played the most  this past year are Deadly Premonition and Red Dead Redemption. As much as I’ve wanked on about Deadly Premonition in my review and on the podcast my game of the year has to be Red Dead Redemption.

My reasons for picking this game is down to the fact the game has so much depth to it. This game is better than the overrated GTA 4, if only down to the fact that the big expanses of desert has a lot more life than the crowded Liberty City.  Not only do you have a massive single player experience, which kept me playing long after completing the main story, but you have a fun filled multiplayer component on top as well.

Matthew

Demon’s Souls (PS3)

An action RPG with hints of hack ‘n’ slash and Rogue-like, Demon’s Souls is like nothing else you’ve played. Both punishing and rewarding, the innovative online multiplayer mode is the game’s unique selling point. Seeing the ghosts of other players exploring the same areas as you gives a good sense of community, and the fact that other players can invade your game as a black phantom at pretty much any time adds to the feeling of constant dread and danger throughout.

The online multiplayer aspect of the game is enhanced by the ability to summon up to two other randomly chosen players of a similar level of your own to aid you, as well as being able to leave hints hints of deadly traps or ambushes. It’s been a while since a game has hooked me as much as Demon’s Souls did, It’s easily amongst my favourite games of this generation.

Colin

Splinter Cell: Conviction (Xbox 360)

One could argue that the Splinter Cell games didn’t do much evolving from the last last gen to the last game – certainly not a bad thing but Conviction had a lot of nay-sayers from the off.  At times the game felt a bit Arkham Asylum-y, certainly no bad thing. Enter a room, use skill, sneaking, gadgets and takedowns to make your way past or murder everyone in sight.

The Deniable Ops mode was a fantastic addition, allowing you to go it alone or with a buddy to play a shortened story mode or a series of challenge levels, clearing areas full of bad dudes and hoard variations. Plenty of fun and more DLC would certainly be welcomed.  Splinter Cell: Conviction had some great, good and downright ignorant reviews from people I question ever played the game but it was nothing but good time larks for me.

Rich

Pinball FX 2 (XBLA)

2010 wasn’t a great year for full retail games and so it came down to a choice between Chime, Pac-Man: Celine Dion and Pinball FX 2.  To be honest you could flip a coin but if I absolutely had to give an answer, I’d say Pinball FX 2 edges it thanks to it being literally the most addictive game in years thanks to the excellent leaderboard action.

Sure, a couple of the tables are absolute bollocks but at 200M$P per table, and with more on the way, you’re sure to find a few that you’ll really get on with and for the first time that I can recall, this is a pinball game that actually takes advantage of its virtual setting making for some outlandish tables to play on.

Danny

Super Street Fighter IV (Xbox 360)

My favourite game of this year was probably Super Street Fighter IV even though it’s basically an update to a game that was released last year. Out of all the games I have brought and played this year SSFIV is the only game I can see myself still playing with my friends in the next five to ten years much like Capcom’s other classic fighting games like Capcom Vs SNK 2 and Marvel Vs Capcom 2 which I still dig out my PS2 for every once in awhile.

Gareth

Super Meat Boy (XBLA)

Bayonetta started the year with a bang but it didn’t hold my attention too long after completion. Mass Effect 2 disappointed the RPG fan in me despite it being an excellent game otherwise. Red Dead Redemption bored me after a while despite obviously being a quality product. I grew to love Alpha Protocol but it has too many issues. Super Meat Boy is nigh on perfect.

The charm, the music, the controls, the fiendish yet genius level design makes this the most addictive game I’ve played this year. The quality also shines through. Despite not boasting state of the art graphics every level has been crafted brilliantly and the controls are as reliable as you could ever need. The almost instantaneous respawns upon death just add to the one more go factor which make Super Meat Boy my personal game of the year.

Jason

Fallout: New Vegas (Xbox 360)

Fallout: New Vegas just hits all my sweet spots with great quests, interesting combat and new things to see every time I jump in. Since finishing the PEOWW review I’ve been back doing the various achievements that I didn’t pick up the first time through added many hours to my already inflated playtime. Thing is I dont mind wandering around the Mojave Wastes doing bits and bobs. It doesn’t feel like a grind and that for me is the sign of a classic game.

Ian

Chime (XBLA)

An initially confusing game where it’s not immediately clear what to do, the in-game tutorial being as much use as a Peter Sutcliffe mask at a serial killer victim support group. However, once you figure out the mechanics of the game under your own steam, a delightful experience soon becomes reality. You could easily lose days to this game. All matched to a perfectly balanced set of achievements, some of which seem unattainable at first, by the time you’ve mastered the game you should be close to having them all, at the very least being well equipped to go after them. At 400MSP, there’s really no excuse not to play this game if you have a Live connected 360.

Grizzly

Super Street Fighter IV (Xbox 360)

Street Fighter IV saw the return of the fantastic fighting series after several years of countless sequels and re-hashes of the same formula. it featured everything a Street Fighter fan could want out of a next gen reboot.

Super Street Fighter IV not only improved it, it brought it as close to perfection a game could possibly achieve.

Awards, yeah?

Yes, my dears, it’s that time of year again where we take a look back at all the games released in the huge ball ache of a year that was 2010. Some where good, some where bad and some where Army of Two: Ladyboys Wreck Your Shit Whilst Raping Pandas.

Just like last year we’ve broken the nominations down into different sections based on style, hardware format and the like with each one getting up to three votes from you with your first choice being your preferred preference and so on.  Additional comments are always welcome ans we’ll use them where we can.

We’ve included a few new categories this year to reflect changes in the gaming scene along with all your old favourites like the ‘LOL@’ and ‘Lemon’ so be sure to check our REVIEWS and MINI REVIEWS sections for a reminder of some the games eligible for nomination.

So have your say and get your votes in before December 31st 2010 to THIS address.

The 2010 award categories are:

Multiformat Game of the Year

The best game of 2010 that wasn’t a format exclusive, nuff said.

Xbox 360 Game of the Year

The best game of 2010 on the Xbox 360 console/tiger grooming webcam.

PS3 Game of the Year

The best game of 2010 for the Playstation 3 console/dildo semaphore kit.

Wii Game of the Year

The best game of 2010 for the Nintendo Wii console/xerox machine.

Hand-held Game of the Year

The best game of 2010 for the PSP, DS or other mobile system.

Download Only Game of the Year

The best download ONLY game on Playstation Network or Xbox Live! Arcade, this also includes Xbox ‘Indie’ games and iTune/Android apps.

Best Additional Content of the Year

The best free or paid DLC for a videogame.

Worst Additional Content of the Year

The worst DLC for a videogame.

Best Visuals

The best looking game of 2010. Not just in terms of raw graphics but design, style and consistency.

Best Sound

The best sounding game of 2010. This includes music, sound effects and vocal performances.

Best Story

The best narrative and story from a game in 2010 including but not limited to having your lead character pissing herself while sounding like she’s working the phone at 1-800 Iselfharm.

Best Online

The best online experience from a game in 2010. This includes longevity, stability, player user base and DLC that dosen’t make you grind the game for another fourty hours.

Surprise of the Year

The game from 2010 that exceeded your expectations, if you even had any to start with.

Disappointment of the Year

The game from 2010 that just wasn’t all that, not a true lemon just one more disappointment in this thing we call life.

Lemon of the Year

The game from 2010 that had you curling into the foetal position as you played it while clawing at your own eyes and wishing there was such a thing as mind bleach.

Hero of the Year

The chap or chapess that’s done the most for videogames in 2010. Corprate shills and Helen Mirren  need not apply.

LOL @ Award

The publisher, developer or individual person who’s been acting the biggest Kotick … sorry, cunt in 2010

Website of the Year

The best interwebs read in 2010 that wasn’t porn or tedious Twitter brain farts.

Most Wanted 2011

Your most wanted game that’s due out in 2011 or just delayed from 2010 (natch).

Mark

The Peoww awards is the annual event were we give everyone a chance to have their say about the last year in videogames. The good, the bad and the Activision all feature this year with all the ‘best game on blah’ taken care of in part one we now turn our attention to some more of the classic Peoww categories like lemons, heroes and the good old LOL@.

Once again a big thanks to everyone who took part this year and supported us throughout 2009 and into 2010 just like Brian May, everything we do we do for you. Now where did we leave our exquisite knife…

Best Story

A good story and well written characters can stay with you long after you’ve finished a game and with developers becoming more and more sophisticated in their story telling methods the overall plot of a game can prove more interesting than the game itself. Oh for any developers reading ‘plot’ doesn’t mean over long cutscenes filled with dialogue  that would make Stephenie Meyer blush.

3rd – Batman: Arkham Asylum With story duties being handled by Paul Dini, the creative force behind the classic 90′s Batman cartoon series it’s no surprise all the dialogue sounded just right with the story making sense to Batman fans and new comers alike.

2nd – Dragon Age: Origins Bioware are no strangers to good story going all the way back to the Baldur’s Gate series on the PC and Dragon Age didn’t disappoint despite using genre archetypes like the loyal buddy, sassy wench and sage mentor as its cast. Every plot thread and side story is fleshed out to an amazing degree with many being filled with multiple shades of grey rather than the normal back and white, evil or good resolutions and morality plays normally found in RPGs.

1st – Assassin’s Creed 2 To try and summarise the plot of Assassin’s Creed 2 with it’s time travelling storyline of renaissance era conspiracy and near future corporate domination is a task beyond me. Using references to historical figures like Machiavelli or Da Vinci Assassin’s Creed 2 interweaves its own mythos to such a degree that the story can easily jump years or centuries at a time and still keep both your attention and sense of disbelief enthralled to such a degree that you’ll reach the end eager for more adventures with Desmond and his ancestors.

“Enzio was a great character and the story was really interesting, even if it got to the point of head fuckery.” – Gareth Case

Best Online

With the days of crowding around your TV with a bunch of mates to play split-screen games all but dead the importance of online gaming is becoming more important not just in how well a game works but how well its supported by the fans and developers with new content and gameplay patches.

3rd – Fifa 10 EA’s mandatory yearly update to the near-perfect FIFA 09 saw them venturing dangerously back into their old ways.  Sure, it’s brilliant on nearly every level but it’s really just FIFA 09 but with more emphasis on playing with random pricks.

2nd – Battlefield 1943 Despite a few issues in the first week of release (which is normal for an EA game given they run their own online servers and always fuck it up) ’43 quickly became one of the best online plays of 2009 with its mix of classic Battlefield maps and current gen features like destructible scenery and squad chat. It’s need for teamwork and the huge scale of fighting makes it unlike many games out there more than justifying it place here.

1st – Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Again another no-brainer win for Modern Warfare 2 given that the world and his dog are playing this not just the adversarial modes but the sublime co-op missions that have many thrashing their way to all 69 gold stars. Credit also has to go to Infinity Ward for not just resting on their laurels with having the game of the year and patching bugs and exploits such as the 100% pure cunt Javelin exploit or infinite ammo glitch almost as soon as they were discovered.

“Brill in multiplayer and great addition in Spec Ops. Despite twativision, it’s a fantastic game.” – Kenneth Magain

Surprise of the Year

Given the amount of media hype and exposure even small game releases receive today its nice to find yourself surprised by any game on release or beyond. In the past we’ve championed games like Two Worlds or Earth Defence Force 2017 so hopefully we can expect these nominations to have the same impact.

3rd – Fuel As any regular listener to the Peowwcast knows Fuel is what we like to call a game with soul. Sure there’s better off-roaders, straight racers and bike games but Fuel puts it all together so well and with such feeling that if you’re not in a race you’re probably driving around for just fun enjoying the ride or parked up on a serene mountain watching a beautific sunset. Yes we know that sounds pretentious but once you’ve played Fuel you’ll understand, it’s got soul you see.

2nd – Forza Motorsport 3 Another racing game surprise but with being a sequel you’d expect it to add a few new tracks and cars and not much else but the sheer girth of Forza 3 can be positively overwhelming. It really is the complete package when it comes to motorsport and puts even Gran Turismo in the shade.

1st – Borderlands For a game that was “released to die” in the weeks before Christmas Borderlands quickly found its fans thanks to its mix of Call of Duty style shooting with World of Warcraft quests and experience system that encouraged co-op play. Sure early screenshots may have made it look like a cel shaded Fallout clone and the new DLC may be shit but as an unexpected gem it’s easily the surprise of the year.

“I love this game so much I never want to finish it. May The Vault remain shut forever!” – Adam MacLeod

Disappointment of the Year

Just as surprises make us feel giddy and light a disappointment is a crushing realisation that a game just isn’t all that. It might not be a complete waste of good plastic but more and more today we find games and sequels in particular just leave felling like we just wasted good money. Here we wave goodbye to those games that will drift into obscurity on your local 2 for £20 shelf in good time.

3rd – Brutal Legend Many of us were expecting a heavy metal hack ‘n’ slash odyssey worthy of a Led Zeppelin ballad and found ourselves playing a clunky RTS that owed more to The Lighthouse Family than Black Sabbath. Those that did preserve with the grind of roadie rushes and dragon collecting just got more of the same five minutes of gameplay cut and pasted over and over making this a legend best left untold.

2nd – Halo: ODST Or Halo 3.1 as many found it to be with a few timid baby steps forward in terms of story and cast but with huge leaps backwards in limited game modes and severely anorexic length. Even the most hardcore of Halo fans quickly found themselves tiring of the much vaunted Firefight mode and were left looking at a £30 game that should have been at most 800 point DLC.

1st – Resident Evil 5 Capcom have never been afraid of quick cash-in sequels so when they spent over four years between Resi games (not including rehashes like Umbrella Chronicles) so we where happy to wait safe in the knowledge that the Resi 4 formula could only get better give the extra next-gen grunt at their disposal. At the very worst we thought it’d just be more of the same but when we finally got our hands on Resi 5 the red hot anticipation and expectation quickly turned to stone cold disappointment. Boring locations and set pieces, broken AI and a confused plot that while tying up all the loose ends of the Resi series read more like fan fiction. Sure there’s a good game to be had with a friend in co-op but if you’re left alone at the whims of the games partner AI just save yourself the heartbreak and replay Resi 4 again.

“It was good and Merceneries was addictive as crack, but you have to expect a lot from the game that follows RE4 and 5 was just more of the same, different locale. Only not as imaginative/long/good. Also it didn’t help that the inventory system was terrible and Sheva’s AI was absolutely idiotic at times.” – Kenneth Magain

Lemon of the Year

Sure we do love us a lemon here at Peoww but some games go beyond just being bad and descend to become lumps of digital faecal matter that no matter how hard you wipe just won’t come off. This isn’t so much of an awards category more a warning to future generations of game players to beware.

3rd – Watchmen: The End Is Nigh Even before you played it you just knew this was going to be bad, a licensed game rushed out to meet a release date that looks and plays worse than Streets of Rage or even truly dire licensed shite like The Last Action Hero. But the poisoned cheery on the top… It was download only… In two parts… For 1600 M$P EACH Even Namco would think that was pushing it.

2nd – Terminator: Salvation There’s only three redeeming things about this lazy-as-fuck film tie-in.  It pisses gamerscore, it’s a tiny bit less disappointing than the movie and Christian Bale isn’t in it. It looks, plays and feels like a poor 2002 PC game and the Terminators display rather less AI than Casio calculator.  Avoid this and the film if you want to live.

1st – Tony Hawk’s Ride We all wondered how the Hawks franchise would fight back against EA’s Skate who in just two games completely undermined Hawks and leave it looking like the moribund mess it was, little did we know this would be the fruit of their labours. Essentially a load of basic Wii-esq motion control hardware stuffed in a Fisher Price plastic skateboard deck all for the “bargain” price of just £99.99 Those that did pay the exorbitant price quickly found the game was buggy and full of glitches, the control deck unresponsive and trade in value falling faster than shares in Icebank. All in all a text book example in how to kill your franchise by using pointless accessories, other publishers take note.

“A failure on every imaginable level.” – Paul Weedon

Hero of the Year

Always a tough category this as the videogames industry isn’t exactly full of dynamic go getters whose charisma helps persuade non-gamers that we’re not all geeky nerds playing rape and murder simulators while drinking cola in a pool of our own filth. Some of us don’t like cola. Those that do (Jade Raymond, Bill Gates, Olivia Munn et al excluded for being corporate whores) get the big up here for all their outstanding work.

Runner up – Tom Watson MP Who? You might wonder, creator of the Facebook ‘Gamer’s Voice‘, long time Keith Vaz opposer and quite possibly the only member of the government who knows and understands gaming. As he puts it himself “Are you sick of UK newspapers and (my fellow) politicians beating up on gaming? So am I. The truth is, UK gamers need their own pressure group. I want to help you start one up.” Now that’s a heroic cause right there.

1st – Charlie Brooker Long time Brooker fans will know he’s got form as a gamer not only did he used to work retail in CeX (Who’s Leeds branch is full of cunts, but I digress) but also writing, his stint writing for PC Zone is legendary for great reviews and piss takes of games of the day like Tomb Raider. But it’s for his Gameswipe program that here’s here to day. Sure there’s been TV programs in the past like Gamesmaster, Bad Influence or Bits but Gameswipe dealt with the subject matter in a mature and more importantly funny way, Noam Chomsky’s: Blood on the Sand anyone? With luck Gameswipe will get a full series or at least another special episode or two so be sure to email the BBC to register your interest as it’s all paid for by your licence fee after all.

“-for fighting the good fight.” – Simon Mapplebeck

The LOL @ Award

Like they say “There’s no show without Punch” and there’s no Peoww awards without the LOL. This year we had all kinds of cunts from twats copyrighting the word ‘Edge’  to videogame boycotters who all ended up buying the game on day one to idiot developers hungry for your cash. These are the very worst of the crop this year…

3rd – Sony Take your pick of reasons but I’m going to go with their complete failure to keep new hardware a secret from the pointless PSP Go! to the useful but still too expensive PS3 Slim and less said about the new dildo motion controller the better.

2nd – Nintendo Not content with having every OAP in Britain wanting a DS with Brain Training this year they turned their attention to insecure fatties who are more likely to watch Loose Women than browse their local indy games store. Oh yeah and Ant and Dec… fuck my life.

1st – Activision/Bobby Kotick “The goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks into Activision about 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games.”, “You know if it was left to me, I would raise the prices even further.” … Words from me are pointless here, well okay then… you’re a cunt.

“Needs no introduction, Activision’s CEO and all round tosser.” – Ian Thompson

Website of the Year

Once again disqualifying all the votes for us (cheers) these are your favourite internet reads of 2009. Sadly Courage Wolf fell one vote short of making the podium, maybe next yeah eh?

3rd – ScrewAttack Not a porn site. Home to the Angry Video Game Nerd and The Video Game Vault Screwattack have a large following in the US and here with Screwattack Europe with Guru Larry and occasional appearances from friend of Peoww, Stuart Ashen.

2nd – VG247 The gaming news blog that does more than just recycle publisher press releases and fluff. Also a big shout out to their community who are far more rational than other sites that could be mentioned.

1st – Giant Bomb One of the few good things to come from the Kane & Lynch shitstorm at Gamespot last year as Jeff Gerstmann made this great site made by gamers for gamers and free from all the sales talk and format back biting that blights other high profile sites (yes, but ultimate review fail for Droplitz – Ed).

“I’m a sucker for videos and their quick looks offer plenty of entertainment, regardless of the game they’re playing.  Couple that with TANG, their Endurance run of Persona 4 and the fact they’re actually the least objectionable game site I’ve seen in a while, and you’re on to a winner.  You can’t quite see them getting drunk with power, can you?” – Michael Kitchin

Most Wanted 2010

As the never ending cycle of game releases (or delays) continues into the new year this is where we take a look at the ones we’re looking forward to most. Sadly still no sign of Hitman 5 or Freedom Fighters 2.

3rd – Heavy Rain The new game from David Cage (Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy) and a PS3 exclusive to boot so it’s no surprise it made it into the top three over higher profile games like Bioshock 2 or Natal. Featuring a non-linear mature story with context sensitive controls it has alot of potential that hopefully won’t be squandered on endless QTEs and nonsensical plot twists.

2nd – Bayonetta After the dog’s dinner that was Devil May Cry 4, Hideki Kamiya has gone back to basics and even added some extra T&A for his new 3rd person action/shooter. The demo split gamers down the middle with some loving the frantic action while others pondered the longevity and depth of this new franchise that could have potential than Sarah Palin.

1st – Mass Effect 2 ME1 was an amazing mix of epic sci-fi story and blue tits I mean titical tactical combat while exploring boobs moons and uncharted planets. the next part of the planed trilogy has been teased all year long with the Spring release date looking like the high point before the inevitable Summer drought.

“The first one was the mutts nuts, and I’m expecting this one to be even better.” – Matthew Francis

Game of the 00s

With the decade over and two and a bit of generations of hardware past we thought it’d be fun to take a look back at the very best the noughties had to offer from The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask through to modern day classics like Fallout 3.

3rd – Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Arguably the best of the three PS2 era GTA games Vice City had a near perfect mix of 80′s style, city layout and well structured missions and side stories that makes a mockery of the bloated GTAIV.

2nd – Shadow Of The Colossus A surprising entry given that ICO always seems to have a bigger (read: louder) following but even if you didn’t like the linear gameplay you have to admit that when it comes to atmosphere and ambience SOTC is heads and shoulders above most games.

1st – Resident Evil 4 The best game on the GameCube by a country mile and an essential purchase for anyone with one of the many systems it was converted to including the current gen Wii. Perfectly pitched action, unsettling atmosphere and downright frighting enemies making some of most tense encounters ever found in videogames from rampaging villages to gurgling regenerators that reinvigorated the franchise in a way few thought possible. If you have a console and haven’t played Resi 4 I hate you, it’s as simple as that.

“Capcom set the bar so high that no-one else has gotten close, including themselves with Resi 5.  It’s pretty much the perfect game.” – Richie H

Mark

With the year over and indeed the noughties done and dusted it’s once again time to look back over the last year in videogames to place the very best games upon a golden plinth of admiration while  taking the very worst around back to beat with sticks until they piss blood from ruptured kidneys. 2009 wasn’t really a vintage year lacking the dizzying highs and depressing lows of previous years leaving us will more of a table wine kind of year filled with predictable franchise sequels and outlandish claims of new games and technologies to come.

So with the help of you, our lovely readers we’ve complied the Peoww awards: 2009 edition so in years to come we can look back and remember what we were playing and who we were calling cunts. For easier reading pleasure we’ve split this mammoth read up into two parts so as not to fuck your eyes up with its sheer girth, enjoy…

Mutiformat Game of the Year

With 2009 severely lacking when it comes to format exclusives this was the catagory with the biggest spread of votes, although it was pretty much a given what would win this year…

3rd – Borderlands It came from almost nowhere to quickly become the hottest new franchise of 2009 with it’s amazing mix of FPS shooting and World of Warcraft style MMORPG questing and equipment trading. The only bad thing about it is the dogshit DLC we’ve had to endure since its release.

2nd – Batman: Arkham Asylum Defying the odds to be not only a good Batman game but also a good licensed game Rockstedy took the classic Metroid gameplay template and mixed in healthy dollops of stealthy sneaking,  beat ‘em up action and logical detective work to make one of the best games of 2009 that’s only second to…

1st – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Yep it’s no big surprise that MW2 won given its fanatical fan base but even the most doubting of thomas’ were quickly won over by the removal of long time gripes like respawing enemies and grenade storms in the single player game and the addition of arguably the best co-op mode since GRAW and the always fantastic adversarial mutiplayer modes that’ll still be getting played months if not years after release.

“Despite the camping, the multiplayer remains to be some of the funnest online gameplay I’ve had for some time.  Plus despite being short, the single player campaign felt polished and enjoyable.  Special ops missions just helped clinch it as giving good entertainment for money.” – Dijon Ward

Xbox 360 Game of the Year

With heavy hitters like Mass Effect 2 and Alan Wake drifting into 2010 the Xbox didn’t have as strong a presence on the shelf as in previous years but M$ can always be trusted to make the most of it’s own development teams and long term allies like Bungie.

3rd – Halo: ODST Any Halo game (Even one without the Master Chief) was guaranteed to go down well with the fans but ODST’s lack of Spartan flavour divided fans with some loving the non-linear storyline and flood free firefights while other bemoaned the lack of recharging shields and online modes found in Halo 3. Either way it got enough votes to scrape into the top 3 Xbox games this year.

2nd – Shadow Complex It’s surely a sign that the times are changing when a download only game gets the silver over bigger retail games with their huge marketing budgets and tradeability to recoup your shekels when finished. Like Batman: Arkham Asylum it took the classic Metroid template but added its own industrial military flavour with giant mechs and robots that Hideo Kojima would be proud of to make one of the best Xbox games of the year despite its anorexic running time.

1st – Forza Motorsport 3 The worst kept secret of E3 2009 finally arrived and quickly became ‘the’ racing game to have this year showing up other contenders like Gran Turismo and Need for Speed with not only its huge collection of vehicles all of which you can customise with all the garish paint jobs you can imagine but all the off/online race modes you could ever want.

“Riiiiiiiiidge Racer!!! Oh wait Luke made that joke last year, never mind…” – Danny Bell

Playstation 3 Game of the Year

The PS3 started (finally!) to come into its own this year with the release of the ‘slim’ hardware model and a plethora of triple A titles that helped the previously under preforming console become more than just a cheap blu-ray player with a few good games and no PS2 backwards compatibility.

3rd – inFAMOUS The debate of quality between this and Prototype still rages on more than six months after release with many loving the sandbox style gameplay of inFAMOUS but hating the crack-shot enemies and buggy save system than conspires to ruin your experience. What ever your preference in game inFAMOUS remains one of the best exclusives for the PS3 this year.

2nd – Demon’s Souls Despite still no official UK release this RPG has quickly gathered a loyal fanbase of user who thanks to the region-free PS3 can revel in its hardcore gameplay and online co-op that encourages good teamwork and player interaction. The dower graphics and unforgiving bosses may discourage many but for those of use who can still remember the days before quick-saves and rewind-oh-time features it’s a slice of RPG heaven without a floppy emo haircut in sight.

1st – Uncharted 2: Among Thieves No surprises here as Nathan Drake once again takes the gold for his PS3 adventures filled with luscious locations, frantic shooting and sphincter tightening set pieces that wouldn’t look out of place in a high budget summer blockbuster movie. Adding to the embarrassment of riches is the new mutiplayer modes that include co-op gameplay and adversarial stages that put other games like Gears of War to shame with their paid DLC content while Uncharted has (so far) given two free map packs that are just as good as any in the main game.

“It’s graphically stunning and, like Modern Warfare, it packs the action in but offers much, much more for the single player experience.  The solid gunplay and platforming remains intact with a nice matinee story woven into it.” – Michael Kitchin

Wii Game of the Year

Despite Nintendo’s best efforts to get everyone playing “casual” dogshit like Wii Sports Resort or Wii Fat … sorry Fit, some brave third party publishers did release a few proper games which lead to this category having the biggest spread of game votes with only two Nintendo games getting votes, neither of which had nowhere near enough to get anywhere near the top three.

3rd – Dead Space: Extraction Yes it’s an on-rails shooter but unlike other genre entries like Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles this is a on-rails shooter with real passion and imagination not just a lame money making exercise in fanbase abuse. Personaly I think this deserves 3rd place solely for the section were [spoilers!] you have to hack your own arm off using the Wiimote [/spoilers] in such a fashion it would give the average Daily Mail reader an instant coronary.

2nd – House Of The Dead: Overkill Yes it’s ANOTHER on-rails shooter but were Dead Space gets the bronze for imagination HOTD gets the silver for sheer balls to the walls grindhouse style madness with blood, cussing and incest a plenty to keep you entertained while you blast your way to the end. Sure it might to a little too easy to complete but any game that has the self awareness to make the Wiimote into a replica magnum needs your love.

1st – Madworld Words can’t really convey the sense of manic atmosphere of Madworld as you play it. Sure Screenshots can show off the stylish three colour graphics that render everything like a classic 2000AD comic strip and videos can show you the frantic gameplay and you can listen to the hip-hop soundtrack or the announcers black humour quips but to know it is to play it (Wow that sounded deep) and once you know it you’ll understand why it’s the best Wii game of 2009.

“Pure comedy at times with the funniest commentary which made the game a breath of fresh.” – Garth Case

Best Hand-Held Game of 2009

Much like the Wii the hand-held systems where mostly playing host to casual dogshit this year with few developers or publishers willing to take chances with hardware that more and more is seen as a ‘kiddies first console’ money maker rather than a viable games system. The few that did while rewarded with critical acclaim found sales less than expected and with Nintendo poised to unveil the true successor to the DS any day now I doubt things will change in the future.

3rd – Rock Band: Unplugged A surprise entry for EA’s Rock Band franchise in the hand-held category in that it got more votes than even it’s bigger brothers Rock Band: Beatles or Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits which is probably more of a commentary on the quality of those titles than this one.

2nd – Scribblenauts With a concept so simple it’s amazing it took this long to become a fully fledged game as you used your own imagination and vocabulary to summon into existence people and things to help your quest from a lexicon of over twenty thousand words and memes including God, LOLcat and Cthulhu. About the only thing holding it back from greatness is the backward controls that conspire to ruin your enjoyment and pile on the frustration when playing.

1st – Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars GTA goes back to its roots with a 2D top-down adventure that takes the best elements from the game pre-GTA3 and mixes it with Elite style commodity (well drugs) trading and loads of fun mini-games like Lotto scratch cards or hot wiring cars. Sure it lacked some of the polish we’re come to expect from GTA games like famous voice talent and a licensed soundtrack but many were just relieved they keep all the friendship/dating bullshit that’s encumbered the current-gen GTA games.

“A nice return to times of olde.” – Luke Goldspink

Download Only Game of the Year

With publishers pushing digital downloads in an effort to kill the second-hand market the importance on digital distribution providers like Xbox Live Arcade, Playstation Network and Steam is ever more important. Sure some are trying to use it as a way to rig prices and sell overpriced HDD storage but others are starting to embrace downloads and make some great game that you’d be hard pressed to find on a shelf at GAME.

3rd – Trails HD Infuriating, maddening, hatefully difficult but also accessible, addictive and utter refined, Trials HD is one of the few XBLA titles that can justify its 1200M$P price point. It’s basically Kikstart, Super Scramble Simulator or Excite Bike for the noughties and it caters for all skill levels so even if you’ll never max it out, there’s still plenty to love about it.

2nd – I MAD3 A GAEM WITH ZOMBIES 1N IT!!!1 The poster child of the Xbox Live Indy range and it’s easy to see why. Frantic gameplay meshed with a killer soundtrack (well one long ten minute song really) elevates the normally turgid twin-sticks shooter genre to a thing of beauty and hi-score chasing with your friends and for a measly 80 M$P.

1st – Battlefield 1943 While it may have been a blatant money making exercise by EA to keep the shekels coming in while developing Bad Company 2 many were just happy to be storming up Mount Suribachi or parachuting onto Wake Isle all over again in glorious HD graphics while destroying the scenery thanks to Bad Company’s Frostbite engine. The only downside to the ’43 experience is EA’s complete lack of support for the game with thousands of regular players wanting conversions of more classic Battlefield ’42 maps but being told they essentially spent 1600 M$P on three and a half maps of a ten year old rehashed game.

“Battlefield 1943. It’s BF1942 with them there graphics. You really can’t go wrong, and they didn’t.” – Chris B

Best Visuals

The best looking game of 2009, not just in terms of raw graphics but design, style and consistency. With each console now being firmly rooted it’s up to cleaver developers to squeeze every bit of visual splendour they can from the rapidly ageing hardware found in homes today.

3rd – Muramasa: Demon Blade The Wii isn’t exactly know for being at the bleeding edge of graphical excellence but it just goes to show what can be done if you know how to present your graphics (also see Madworld) rather than trying to push for extra polygons or unneeded faff like lens flairs or fuzzy shadows. Once again proving 2D will always have give you more detail than 3D.

2nd – Batman: Arkham Asylum It may be yet another game that uses the 3rd party Unreal engine for its visuals but Arkham really knows how to do it. From the aerie Gothic mansion interiors to dank flooded basements, steamy maintenance areas  and lush jungle filled arboretum every location drips atmosphere while the character models are bristling with just enough fine details to always draw your eye but not look over designed like many other do *cough* Gears of War *cough*

1st – Assassin’s Creed 2 It’s always hard to stand out from the crowd and no game this year has done it better than Assassin’s Creed 2. Thanks in no small part to its Florence based location but also how well it all hangs to together with crowded city streets below lofty rooftops surrounded by idyllic countryside vistas that’ll have you sighing like your on holiday in Tuscany. All of which is contrasted by the contemporary framing of the assassin’s HQ with its cramped offices filled with glass and plastic making the historical DNA sequences that much more special.

“A bit of v-sync tearing doesn’t alter the fact that I want AssCreed2 in my gob.” – Richie H.

Best Sound

The days of bleeps and blips representing notes and chords are long gone replaced by flamboyant orchestral scores that may even use the same composers with the likes of Hans Zimmer putting music to Modern Warfare 2 or Harry Gregson-Williams contributing to the Metal Gear Solid series soundtrack. That’s not to say it’s just limited to music with many developers getting big names to voice their videogame characters for dramatic effect or cheap publicity, I mean Tara Patrick? C’mon.

3rd – I MAD3 A GAEM WITH ZOMBIES 1N IT!!!1 Ten minutes, multiple music genres and one hell of a catchy theme tune all help this simple Indy shooter to be one of the unforgeable aural experiences of 2009 Seriously if this was a single it’d be selling more than Rage Against The Machine.

2nd – Left 4 Dead 2 More horrific goings on down on the Bayou with Valves second zombie shooter… I haven’t played this… can you tell… erm yeah.

1st – Batman: Arkham Asylum Yet another prize for Rockstedy in the presentation stakes with it also having the best sound. The music nicely straddles the two camps of Danny Elfman’s 90′s era Batman movies and cartoon series while maintaining all the brooding menace of the current Zimmer/Newton-Howard incarnation. But it’s the voice work were Arkham really raises the bar with a carer best performance from Mark Hamill and stellar turns from Kevin Conroy and Arleen Sorkin all of which makes you care about the characters and story even more.

“You don’t need cartoon captions for when you thwack thugs when you have meatier thuds than Fight Night. The score wisely chose to emulate the Nolan films, while the cast was lifted straight from the peerless animated series.” – Adam MacLeod

Game of the year is 'Tony Hawk: Ride' Wait, what?

Yes, my dears, it’s that time of year again where we take a look back at all the games released in the space year 2009 to see what was good, what was bad and what was Terminator: Salvation *shudder*

Just like last year we’ve broken the nominations down into different sections based on style, hardware format and the like with each one getting up to three votes from you with your first choice being your preferred preference and so on.  Additional comments are always welcome!

We’ve included a few new categories this year along with all your old favourites like the ‘LOL@’ and ‘Lemon’ so be sure to check our REVIEWS section for a reminder of some the games eligible for nomination.

So have your say and get your votes in before December 31st 2009 to THIS address.

And the 2009 awards are:

Multiformat Game of the Year

The best game of ’09 that wasn’t a format exclusive, nuff said.

Xbox 360 Game of the Year

The best game of ’09 on the Xbox 360 console/jet turbine.

PS3 Game of the Year

The best game of ’09 for the Playstation 3 console/portable heater.

Wii Game of the Year

The best game of ’09 for the Nintendo Wii console/Ant and Dec simulator.

Hand-held Game of the Year

The best game of ’09 for the PSP or DS.

Download Only Game of the Year

The best download ONLY game on Playstation Network or Xbox Live! Arcade, this also includes Xbox ‘Indie’ games.

Best Visuals

The best looking game of ’09. Not just in terms of raw graphics but design, style and consistency.

Best Sound

The best sounding game of ’09. This includes music, sound effects and vocal performances.

Best Story

The best narrative and story from a game in ’09. My vote goes to “A giant Iron Crab appeared, dropping bombs everywhere it goes. What is this all about? Do something, Jumpboy!”

Best Online

The best online experience from a game in ’09. This includes longevity, stability and player user base.

Surprise of the Year

The game from ’09 that exceeded your expectations, if you even had any to start with.

Disappointment of the Year

The game from ’09 that just wasn’t all that, not a true lemon just one more disappointment in this thing we call life.

Lemon of the Year

The game from ’09 that had you curling into the foetal position as you played it while clawing at your own eyes and wishing there was such a thing as mind bleach.

Hero of the Year

The chap or chapess that’s done the most for videogames in ’09.

LOL @ Award

The publisher, developer or individual person who’s been acting the biggest cunt in ’09.

Website of the Year

The best interwebs read in ’09.

Most Wanted 2010

Your most wanted game that’s due out in 2010 or delayed from ’09 (natch).

Game of the 00s

The 00s saw the rise and fall of the Dreamcast, PS1, Ps2, Xbox, Gamecube and various other systems.  What game stuck out most for you?  That’s right… the best game of the 21st Century so far!

Rules:

For each category please nominate a 3rd place, 2nd place and winning game/person.

Additional comments are welcome, and we’ll use them where we can.

Email your votes to:  awards@peoww.co.uk

Closing date:  31/12/09

The 2008 Peoww Awards

Rich

Wow, has it really been a year? Last year’s awards were all Halo this and Call of Duty that with a few gems thrown in and was maybe a bit of a generic one. So what of this year? Well, we’ve had some big hitters. Even the PS3 managed to get the odd exclusive as well.

PEOWW went from strength-to-BLEOWW with some hot sexy traffic ratings and more reviews than you could shake a Wiimote at, whilst the world’s economy literally imploded (the two things are related). Now, the industry is thinking ‘fuck the casuals, they’re off buying baked beans and their nans can no longer play Brain Training cos they had to sell the DS to keep their kids in Sunny Delight’ and hardcore gaming is coming back.

2008 had a bit of everything for everyone. Huge titles, hidden gems, wierd stuff from Sony, more pointless arm-waving games for Wii owners and even a bunch of bedroom coded shit on Xbox Live. So let’s celebrate 2008 with the readers of PEOWW and their award votes for 2008. Let’s celebrate it good.

Once again, the 360 got all the sauce over its chops with big exclusives all over the shop. It didn’t outsell the Wii but then it didn’t outsell Leona Lewis either. Know what I mean?

3rd Place – Gears of War 2. Epic’s chav-pleasing shooty fest got a few second and third place votes and just edged out GTA4, Left 4 Dead, Rock Band 2 and the excellent Burnout Paradise for a podium position. Sure, it was just more of the same but it sure was pretty.

“Probably one of the most complete sequels I’ve ever played. Epic have taken on board the criticisms of the first game and improved on them greatly.” – Mafro

2nd Place – Fable 2. Lionhead’s sequel to the ambitious-but-flawed Fable scooped plenty of big votes with our readers.

“After the disappointment of Fable 1, and watching with my tongue firmly in cheek as the staff of Lionhead promised the same things over again for Fable 2, I was surprised at how much of a cohesive world they managed to put together this time round. Everything from the basic combat to the property system is set up to give you back exactly what you put into it. Far from the worries about single button combat equalling only a dumbed-down experience, the rhythm of combat is great fun against entertaining enemies.” – MrCaptainEvil

XBOX 360 GOTY – Fallout 3. The winner by some margin, Fallout 3 was swept into first place. Sure, it alienated fans of the original Fallout games but Bethesda know what they’re doing and if they say Fallout needs to go all FPS then it does.

“Open-ended super-mutated RPG genius” – Cale

Not much choice for games you’d actually vote for this year. As MrCaptainEvil put it “I refuse to choose from a short-list of three games. But as the system sits with a flashing blue light I look back and wonder when a developer other than Nintendo is going to actually figure out how to use it for good.”

3rd Place – Battle of the Bands. It may be the poor man’s Guitar Hero/Rock Band but it scraped enough votes to get in the top three. That’s good, yeah?

“Cheap as chips, easy to play and with great tunes like Blitzkrieg Bop played as a country song this is a must for any self respecting music lover” – Odiedodie

2nd Place – Super Smash Bros Brawl. Ninty’s manic fighter scored a lot of votes with the beat ‘em up starved Wii owners on the site.

“Ultimate Nintendo fan service with a great selection of characters and stages from Nintendo’s back catalogue” – Mafro

Wii GOTY – No More Heroes. Um… No More Heroes was good apparently.

“Phenomenal game which poked loving fun at all aspects of the gaming scene and had more inventive ideas than you could shake a stick at.” – Sidekick

Now this is progress. The PS3 awards actually got a few votes this year and not just for stuff that’s better on the 360. Is Sony turning the corner finally?

3rd Place – Wipeout HD. A reinvention of the game that apparently got clubbers gaming, before they started stabbing each other that is.

“riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiidge racerrrrrrrrrrr” – Ambient

2nd Place – Little Big Planet. ‘Do it yourself but let us moderate it to fuck’ gaming from Sony.

“Quite frankly theres nothing else like it. And in this day and age new things are rarely seen in games.” – Odiedodie

PS3 GOTY – Metal Gear Solid 4. Konami may be snatching defeat from the jaws of victory with Pro Evo but this category’s runaway winner, Metal Gear 4, proves they can still make a good game.

“It’s arguably more cut-scene heavy than all the other 3 games put together and the story, whilst tied up, is slightly retarded. However, it’s the first exclusive that genuinely delivered. It looks stunning and attempts to be nicely open-ended for those who struggle with stealth. The camouflage system is now streamlined and Kojima tries his hardest to make this the most cinematic of the series.” – Shindig

We do like an online sesh here at PEOWW even if it usually ends in tears. Usually the big deathmatchy things win out but not this year. Also, LOL @ PendanticJase’s vote for Too Human.

3rd Place – Battlefield: Bad Company A very strong showing for a game that no-one seems to play anymore (bleoww).

“Great arcadey fun that frequently made me laugh with its in-game dialogue. Online is now a million times better with eight-player voice chat.” – Odiedodie

2nd Place – Left 4 Dead. Yeah, fucking zombies or something.

“It’s gotten a bit old too quickly but it’s still one of the funnest experiences I played this year” – Kenbo Slim

BEST ONLINE – Burnout Paradise. Well here’s a shock. A good Burnout game after all this time? Free DLC from EA? It may lack structure but when you want a good doss online, accept no substitute. Burnout Paradise was this categories landslide winner.

“Like Crackdown but with cars. Even though Crackdown has cars.” – Bluce_Ree

Fuck me… what a horrible year for XBLA with some truly disappointing hyped games and fucking outrageous pricing. Still there were some gems in amongst the faeces. No PSN category this year. That would have been as pointless as last year’s PS3 category. Peeeowww!

3rd Place – Rez HD. One of the best games of the previous generation and a reason why you can now box up that old Dreamcast without feeling guilty.

“Never played it before but was instantly hooked. The feeling of chaining to together kills in time with the music was a great feeling and it had some incredible bosses (especially the running man one). Great classic I wouldn’t have ever played otherwise.” – Kenboslim

2nd Place – Geometry Wars 2. Infinitely replayable and addictive and literally six times better than the original and without the awful music.

“It successfully captures the whole essence of the “Live Arcade”. The variety of game modes will keep you hooked, as if it wasn’t addictive enough already and the stunning retro-HD visuals are an added bonus.” – Mafro

XBLA GOTY – Braid. Some will say that Braid was overpriced, too short and lacks replay value and they’d be right but that doesn’t even begin to take the shine off one of this generation’s best ever games.

“Braid is not the sort of game I would normally rate as highly. The art style is a sickly-sweet mix of stock-illustration and disgusting surreality. The story and writing is self-congratulating and layered beyond reason. But yet it is one of my best experiences of the year in gaming. The puzzle element is what really stands out, and even with the writing and art style so obnoxiously THERE it refuses to disappear up it’s own arse. The puzzles are unique in this era in that they never over-complicate with the knowledge that most people will just look it us on gamefaqs, they stay solvable and fair within reason. The final level, set up on purpose to become the stuff of game-blog legend gets away with it because it actually is very very clever. Indie cunts.” – MrCaptainEvil

You can buy Fallout, Fable, Gears, Metal Gear and whatever else but sometimes you’re just drawn to buy a sour fucking lemon. Lack of effort, care and general talent. That’s what makes a lemon. If you want more advice, just look at Tiq’s gamercard for the year.
3rd Place – Shawn White Snowboarding. Witht the lemony vote being split over fourteen games, Shaun White got in just ahead of Banjo Kazooey 2. To be honest, if everyone had played it, this would have won.

“Forty quid? Yeah, sounds fair enough. Do you accept Visa?” – Tiq

2nd Place – Home. Sure, the NXE was pretty awful but Sony certainly softened the blow for Microsoft by releasing this virtual fuck up.

“After a wait of ‘just’ 18 months after the original launch date promise SONY release the Beta of Home to what can only be described as a pack of shit-throwing internet monkeys. It’s hard to know what they could have released to make people interested in this sub-second life waste of space after microsoft improved their dashboard hand-over-fist with the NXE… not the avatars or the 3D navigation, but the Party system, keeping the blades but making them a quick menu and useful notifications when turning games on etc. But I tell you what, charging £6 for a shit 3D model of a chair and making people stand queuing for the opportunity to play a shit game of bowls and a shit arcade game is like throwing a coin into a river of shit and expecting everyone to jump in and be happy. Fucking Lemon.” – MrCaptainEvil

LEMON! – GTA4. Not strictly fair, as GTA4 was at least programmed properly and had some fun buried away in there but this was the standout winner. Also, if you’re wondering why you never see Odiedodie online, this was in his Lemon and Best Multiplayer votes.

“So much hype and so little originality.” – Cale
“Another nail in the coffin for Rockstar, solidifying the fact that they just aren’t trying anymore.” – Tiq
“Too much my fault for over hyping it, but frankly it was just a chore to even try and play. FYI in game buddies and socialising has to be the worst thing ever.” – Odiedodie

Where the lemons are just gaming fuck-me-don’ts, this category is for those games that just didn’t deliver, even if they did enough right to woo certain people (think Far Cry 2).

3rd Place – Mirror’s Edge. This cell-shaded, free-running title looked like being a little special. It was. But only in the ‘yellow bus’ kind of way.

2nd Place – Mercenaries 2.

The original was one of the great sandbox experiences. The follow-up was delayed, bugged and then ultimately forgotten about. “Half-made, half-arsed shadow of the original.” – Cale

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT – GTA4. Despite the hype and stellar reviews (hngh), it seems most of you were let down by GTA this time around..

“How Rockstar have gone from San Andreas is a mystery. Failure to address any of the problems that have been present since GTA 3 and devoid of any fun whatsoever. A step backwards.” – Mafro

Graphics whores celebrate! 2008 truly was the year of style over substance but at least it made buying those hi-def tellies worthwhile.

3rd Place – Braid Braid may have won the plaudits for its brain-melting puzzles, but David Hellman’s visuals were also superb in the game.

2nd Place – GTA4. It may not have won many fans at PEOWW with its gameplay but Rockstar’s graphic artists at least did their job right.

“The devil’s in the details, really. Liberty City is painstakingly detailed and seeing the lights go up on Manhattan is one of the real joys of the year. Rockstar have managed to create a city which doesn’t stand out like an uncanny valley.” – Shindig

BEST GRAPHICS – Gears of War 2. Homoeroticism for the win at PEOWW with big, muscley fellas running around with chunky guns. It was the standout game for graphics this year though.

“The Unreal engine gets a lot of flack but Gears of War 2 has shown its ability to produce arguably the best looking console game.” – Mafro

Er… best sound… again…

3rd Place – Left 4 Dead. Seems a lot of you like the sound of moans and screams…

2nd Place – Battlefield: Bad Company.. An odd choice, but it kept turning up in the votes.

“Explosions annd gunfire have never sounded so realistic.” – Mafro

BEST SOUND – Dead Space. EA’s space-based survival horror ran away with this award (and then presumably impregnated its face).

“The moment you walk out into your first spacewalk and notice the dulling of all ambient sounds you know you’re in for a treat. Then an alien attacks out of no-where and whereas indoors the music swells to alert you, the first you know your face is being eaten-off is that you can hear the echoed screams and hurried breathing of Isaac in his space suit. Frightening and so amazingly engrossing it puts everything else this year into perspective.” – MrCaptainEvil

With most devs playing it very safe, surprises were few and far between but if you took a few punts, you didn’t always end up with lemons. The vote was too split for a third place winner.

2nd Place – EA. Mainly due to Burnout Paradise and the masterful FIFA ’09.

“After years of Need for Speed rubbish, Paradise appeared out of nowhere and single-handedly restored my faith in both EA and the racing genre as a whole. Brilliant.” – P Wee

SURPRISE! – Braid. The runaway winner. Braid somehow managed to take a very classic look at the platform genre and injected it with fiendish, time-based madness that caught everyone off-guard.

“A very clever puzzler which came out of nowhere and had a unique take on both story telling and art design.” – MrCaptainEvil.

EA. Yes, seriously.

To be honest they probably only won it because we’re so used to them being cunts but with free DLC for Burnout Paradise and some genuinely high-quality games (including Dead Space which isn’t even a fucking sequel!) they somehow managed to turn around ten+ years of cuntitude.

“For refusing to let Brutal Legend Die” – Tiq.

It wasn’t eligible but Geck’s choice Man Babies probably should have won on principle. Also, ta for all the votes again!

3rd Place – Gamestrailers. Yep… Gametrailers.

2nd Place – Destructoid. A decent site with a very nice reviews editor. Let down by having a forum full of cunts though, which is a shame.

Best Gaming Website – UK:Resistance. Where would we be without UK:R? They won last year and are still delivering the goods.

“Brilliantly cynical and hilariously written.” – Sidekick (who still owns a PS3).

Our final award sees the usual suspects ramping up the cringe-factor but with last year’s Hero of the Year in there dropping the ball in spectacular style…

3rd Place – Sony/Home.

“A shambolic broken lifestyle accessory for the soulless wannabes “cool” people.” – Sidekick.

2nd Place – Yahtzee/Game Damage. Stick to what you do best, Son.

“For coming up with that god-awful Game Damage pilot with what looked like Steve Hawkins geeky little brother and the cross between a hobbit and a plate of jello. Truly painful to watch.” – Kenboslim

LOL @ – Nintendo. A few votes, mainly based around Nintendo’s complete lack of understanding as to what proper gamers want.

“Enthusiastic bastards humiliate themselves for an audience that isn’t watching. Agony.” – Shindig on Nintendo’s E3 showing.

The 2007 Peoww Awards

Rich

How was 2007 for you? A vintage year? Or one of those ‘treading water between innovations’ years? We had a lot of big releases that’s for sure and the strangest summer drought ever (at least one game released every week) but in terms of quality and the pushing of boundaries it didn’t quite deliver.

2007 saw the 360 continue to trounce the PS3 in the battle of the real consoles whilst the Wii continued to outsell everything whilst not receiving any decent games until late in the year. So no change there really.

For the readers of Peoww it was a year of some upheaval and lots of coming together (not in a George Michael soggy biscuit way). So for the Peoww awards we left it to the kings of skills who frequent the forums. Roll out the red carpet and let’s get this thing started.

Out of the big three consoles this was by far the busiest and most varied category with votes for big hits like Halo 3 (although not very many at all) as well as surprises like EDF and Forza 2.

3rd Place – COD4. The game that killed Halo 3 received a lot of first place votes making it something of a love/hate title.

“The Citizen Kane Of first-person shooter clichés” – PedanticJase

2nd Place – Mass Effect. Scraped second place by virtue of a lot of second and third place votes.

“no other game has entertained me more than this one. Great story, great characters, great shooting. Although, next time, they could do without the elevators” – Kenbo Slim

XBOX 360 GOTY – The Orange Box. Valve’s ’5-in-1′ was the clear winner of this category with it’s superlative online component and all the single-player action you can shake a ragdoll at.

“arguably the best FPS of all time plus more goodies” – Mafro

After being irredeemably shit for well over a year, the Wii finally got its shit together in the second half of the year and finally became a console worth owning and not just a toy played by deviants and grandmothers.

3rd Place – Resident Evil 4. The greatest game of the last generation grabbed third place over its stablemate ‘Umbrella Chronicles’.

2nd Place – Metroid Prime 3. Samus’ latest FPS/platformer was the popular second choice amongst most people who voted.

“Samus back on form” – Cale

Wii GOTY – Super Mario Galaxy. Nintendo’s main man returned to absolutely piss this category. His best adventure since the N64 meant that Mario Sunshine was all but forgotten.

“genius” – Sidekick

Highlighting the plight of the console itself, this category barely got any votes at all with TWO votes being enough to secure the award. Oh well, let’s get it over with.

3rd Place – Skate. Yes okay.

“LOL” – Peoww

2nd Place – Oblivion. Er… is that even this year?

“LOL” – Peoww

PS3 GOTY – Drake’s Fortune. Yes, two votes.

“The first genuinely outstanding exclusive came late in the day but better late than never” – Shindig

This category attracted just as much interest as the 360 one highlighting that online gaming has finally gone mainstream. The bad old days of someone typing ‘LOL YOU SUXXORZ NOOB’ are long gone. Now they’ll just call you a ‘fucking homo’ instead. Eeesh. Amusingly, Halo 3 was fourth.

“None for me. If I wanted to play with overly competitive, whiny American ten year olds, I wouldn’t have let my Live subscription expire” – Manuel Calavera

3rd Place – GRAW2. GRAW returned with more of the same but a vastly improved achievements system with no need to play ranked matches, which in Tom Clancy games is a fucking blessing.

“yes, I know I’m editting this article but clearly this should have won” – Bluce_Ree

2nd Place – Team Fortress 2. Class-based combat with the emphasis on tactics rather than reflexes.

“TF2- at first I didn’t rate it but it grew on me over time. You have to get to grips with each character class but, once you do, you find out its the best multiplayer game of the year” – Kenbo Slim

BEST ONLINE – COD4. Infinity Ward’s Call Of Duty 4 erased all of the horrible COD3 aftertaste and utterly outclassed Halo3 at the same time.

“Sob!” – Mafro

Fans of the Xbox’s Live Arcade service had a mixed year as Microsoft alternated stone cold classics (SWOS! Space Giraffe!) with substandard ‘freeware’-quality scat (Yaris! Asteroids! Street Trace!). Overall though it was a good year for retro heads and fans of alternative gaming as long as you didn’t waste time and money on tables for Texas Hold ‘Em or Bomberman costumes. Peeeowww!

3rd Place – Bomberman. Dynablaster returns with enough options to cater for purists and heretics alike.

2nd Place – Castlevania. A great conversion of the PS1 original but without the need to see a rape counsellor after buying it on eBay.

“Massively addictive” – dw2k6

XBLA GOTY – Carcassonne. This unlikely contender grabbed the lion’s share of the votes. The best things in life are free after all it seems.

“deftly handled boardgame conversion with superb multiplayer” – dogmeat

LOLZ! You bought a lemon. Etc. If you want to avoid buying a lemon follow this sound advice;

“I just buy whatever Tiq doesn’t” – Gecks.

3rd Place – Kane & Lynch. This co-op crime-caper arrived with no online co-op after all and just a load of shitty broken gameplay. Hmph!

“If they really do have Freedom Fighters II on their to-do-list and if there is even the slightest chance it will be anything like this then they can just leave the franchise dead rather than make another lemon-like piece of shit.” – Cale

2nd Place – Halo 3. With its repetitive ‘fetch item X’ gameplay and low-res graphics Halo 3 soon dropped off of everyones’ recently played lists once COD4 showed up.

“youse do realise that by the time i get my halo discs back and t’ x360 youse will be fed up with all this pish” – Odiedodie

LEMON! – Assassin’s Creed. Ten minute’s gameplay repeated over several days worth of tedious ‘investigating’ all made more hateful thanks to Ubisoft’s liberal use of hype.

“Apollo Creed, more like. It’s fucking dead.” – Shindig
“you’re playing a lemon!!!” – Tiq
“yes but it’s your lemon” – Peoww!!!

Some crossover with the Lemon thread here (presumably because only three of us were stupid enough to buy Wartech Senko No Ronde) with one notable exception.

3rd Place – Kane & Lynch. Alas, the spiritual successor to Freedom Fighters pretty much fucked up any of the huge potential it had.

2nd Place – Bioshock.

The latest title from the people who made the System Shock games combined some great atmospherics with a bunch of bland quests and dumbed-down RPG-lite gameplay.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT – AssCreed. Screenshots = wow. Trailer = hmm. Game = argh.

“hyped up to be so much more” – Mafro

Another 360-dominated category (although Super Mario Galaxy got a few votes) with everything from the achingly beautiful AssCreed to Space Giraffe receiving votes.

3rd Place – Team Fortress 2. Cell-shaded cartoon visuals in an FPS? It works though.

2nd Place – COD4. More cinematic goodness from the COD series.

“to use a horrible expression, war never looked so real! sorry…” – Kenbo Slim

BEST GRAPHICS – Bioshock. It may have done better in Lemon OTY than GOTY but Bioshock certainly was purty. If you like corridors.

“stunning level detail” – Mafro

Er… best sound…

3rd Place – Portal & Mass Effect.

2nd Place – Halo 3..

“Marty O’Donnell’s score deserves this hands down” – P Wee

BEST SOUND – Bioshock. Lovely 50s music combined with the sounds of an underwater city dying. A truly deserved winner.

“audio plays as big a part with sweeping classical scores for the opening introductions to Django Rinehart gypsy swing versions of Beyond the Sea adding to the ambience” – Cale

With so many ‘big’ titles failing to hit the mark this year could have been something of a washout. However, thanks to a liberal smattering of hidden gems and sleeper hits everything turned out fine. Unless you own a PS3 at which point you’re fucked.

“Surprise of the year, would probably be finding out that your whole life, including your family, your job, love life, and everything else was all a big lie and none of them ever liked you” – Manuel Calavera’s in need of some Viva Pinata therapy!

3rd Place – EDF/Crackdown. Sharing the vote are the budget-priced ant massacring b-movie antics of EDF and the GTA-meets-Matrix sandbox action game Crackdown. Both are essential if you own a 360.

“Crackdown: Awesomeness!” Orochi Kid

2nd Place – Portal. The Orange Box’s brain-melting puzzler ended up making more headlines than Half-life 2.

“Surprise of the year: Portal’s brilliance” – Mafro

SURPRISE! – Skate. After years of total dominance from the once-brilliant Tony Hawk series, EA came along and utterly redefined the genre.

“very satisfying” – Lurk thinks it is very satisfying.

“came out of nowhere and became a prime contender for GOTY” – P Wee

Ben ‘Yahtzee’ Croshaw. This vote was utterly dominated by one man with everything else being far too scattered to award second or third places (although UK:R would get a decisive vote from me).

So well done to Ben for not only saving internet-based reviews from the doldrums but for also setting the bar to Ukrainian polevaulter levels.

Honest, informative and constantly funny. We want to be Ben Croshaw when we grow up.

Check out his site here.

With loads of choice available this category could have been rather watered down but in the end the same names kept coming up. Also, thanks for all the votes! We’re ineligible but it’s well appreciated.

3rd Place – XBLArcade. A decent site that tends to be first with all the XBLA rumours.

2nd Place – Gamestrailers. Er… trailers for games and things.
“yeah it’s a bit corporate, but I still really trust GT on their reviews and features. Unlike some other websites coughGamespotcough” – Kenbo Slim.

Best Gaming Website – UK:Resistance. The Sega-loving, Sony-hating heroes of gaming. Keep fighting the good fight, chaps.

“for the PS3 launch war” – Sidekick (who bought a PS3 at launch!).

From tantrums to press stunts, there is always someone trying their best to look like a cock and this year was no different. Especially from a certain console manufacturer…

3rd Place – Jade Raymond. Quite why the producer of Assassin’s Creed was putting her fairly reasonable mug in front of any camera within three continents was something of a mystery until we played that fucking lemon. “she managed to convince everyone that Assassin’s Creed would be amazing” – P Wee points out that the LOL is probably on us.

“Jade Raymond = Weekend Pussy” – Ambient

2nd Place – Mafro. Another year of the Maf-meter saw him about as likely to get online with the boys as Chris Langham.

“Mafro for not having Xbox Live” – Mafro.

“Mafro for his constant failure at getting himself some Xbox Live. Even I can afford it as a poor student, though I haven’t, don’t, and wouldn’t get much use out of it (and I can’t afford half of the games to play on it in the first place). Actually, for that I guess I have to LOL @ myself as well” – Manuel Calavera

LOL @ – Sony. Quite how Sony managed to piss away the strongest brandname in gaming is a mystery but also a constant source of LOLz.

“the ex-market leaders who seemed to forget everything they once knew about the business in favour of a fantasy land where everyone willingly buys expensive shit”. – P Wee