Gameplay:
Half Life - Breaks the mould of the FPS genre that you control the actions without the aid of cut scenes.
Spy Vs Spy - One of the earliest death match competitions that can actually maintain the intense pace.
Eastern Front - A true masterpiece that broke the concept that computers are a lot more than just another gaming medium.
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault - the game that broke the FPS WW2 genre with the added touch of Steven Spielberg.
Diablo - The king of action RPGs and the benchmark for all to follow - need I say more?
Winner: Diablo
Graphics:
Diablo - it's a clear out winner (and rightly deserves so - Evil never looked so good).
Sounds:
Diablo - The sounds of death surrounds me...
Dead Space - Creepy, disgusting and plenty of blood.
Winner: Diablo.
Value:
Half Life - Immersive.
Halo - The multiplayer aspects is just as intensive as the single player campaign.
Hotel Dusk: Room 215 - An adventure game for the DS that you wish it never ends.
World Racing 2 - Variety is a spice of life and this game got it all.
Sacred - It's the closest thing you'll get to visit a virtual world without nagging children.
Winner: World Racing 2
Tilt:
Spy Vs Spy - Death match in its purest form.
Hotel Dusk: Room 215 - The characters actually have issues that are close to home.
Alone in the Dark - Getting stuck in a haunted house done correctly.
Winner: Hotel Dusk Room 215
Most surprising (games that caught me off guard):
Halo - of all the flak I've read, I beg to differ.
The Wheel of Time - A perfect addition to the WoT chronicles.
Instinct - Technically hopeless yet the interlinking storyline done right.
World Racing 2 - I don't understand why all the flak. This game has tonnes to offer hence boredom is a rarity.
Alone in the Dark - Even though this game had an excellent reputation I never thought how well it stood the test of time.
Winner: Halo
* Best Expansion Pack:
Half Life: Opposing Force - a decent length expansion pack which you play a soldier hunting Gordon Freeman. Very Sweet!
Medal of Honor: Spearhead - Can MoH: AA actually needs improving? Spearhead proved this.
Winner: Half Life Opposing Force
Game of the Year:
Well there's only one...I will place it in my next blog. Wanna take a guess? Honestly there's only one here...
Winner: Diablo
Worst of the Year:
Like the game of the year, there's only one...
Winner (???): Navy Seals Weapon of Mass Destruction - just crap.
So whatever category Diablo was in took the crown and rightfully so!
Until next year...
Game on!
90% Radical Ninja Azghouls
Comments
The above list are the games I have reviewed during the past year and not the absolute favourite game I have ever played. I tend to do an overall game of the year list every year since I joined Gamespot back three years ago. I was thinking of doing something special for my 5th year as maybe the ultimate game of the past 5 years (or something like that).
If I have to choose the ultimate game of the year I reckon it will be UT2004 (so far). Ultimate worst of the year has to be Navy Seals or Hour of Victory.
I hope this year will be a great year of gaming for me and so far Diablo II is taking up some serious time with me (again). I have played Serious Sam (the first one) and loved it! Very intense - just the way I prefer FPS! So this game will be definitely reviewed sometime this year along with Diablo II.
And favourite genre...RPG, followed by adventure, racing and FPS (all equally second).
id Software's Rage will not be released this year, so DOOM 4 is only a dream right now. And Duke Nukem Forever doesn't have an official release date since 1998...
I'm not sure about Diablo III and StarCraft II, but I believe that Blizzard will bring the RTS first.
Yeah - this year for new releases seems a little quiet (for obvious reasons). And you still looking out for Duke Nukem...man that's commitment. I gave up on Duke eons ago. Every year there's always a small snippet of Duke then very quiet.
My games to look out this year is Bioshock 2, Dues Ex 3 and naturally Diablo 3. Expect to see reviews for Diablo 2 (plus expansion) and Dues Ex 1 and 2.
The next Doom engine I reckon will be sweet and very taxing on the PC. When are they going to release Rage - man that game is forever pushed back - all in good reasons
.Star Trek: Elite Force Expansion? You got me there as well. Hmmm...gotta check that one out as well as I never heard of that expansion.
MsCortana - I'm currently playing the older games like Diablo 2 and soon Dues Ex. I have made a promise to myself to ease of those dodgy games this year (but like smoking, it's hard to stop)!
I am currently playing Painkiller Black Edition and having a hell of a good time with it. It's old school shooting fun like Quake, Doom and Duke Nukem. The level design is awesome and the variety in enemies is outstanding. In a run & gun shooter the level design and enemy variety becomes very important (something Doom 3 and Unreal 2 forgot) and Painkiller nails this better than most other shooters.
ChristianKiss
After you said that the Game of the Year award could be for any game, no matter the year of release, I was thinking about UT2004, Diablo or Bioshock. I don't know about the latest, but the other two are definitely worth of all the possible awards. So, the worst game for ya is Navy Seals? Never played it, but I think you should consider playing Big Riggs to evaluate the "winner" for this category. =) For instance, a "mediocre" rating (score = 5.0 / 5.5) it's not good, but it's not horrible either... it's nothing! Now, an "abysmal" game (score 1.0 / 1.5) is noticeable! It means that the game could not be worse than that (antonym of "perfect"). Really a hard effort.
Now, I don't know what's happening to me. I still love fast-paced FPSes, but I suddenly started to love Myth (RTS without resource management), Oblivion (!) and all those little games (how is it called? "House games"?), such as 4 Elements, Haunted Hotel (hidden objects) and... Mystery Case Files! I'm saying this because I saw your score on this game for the DS platform. I'll start to play the PC version as soon as possible, but I already finished Haunted Hotel and the sequel, which are similar games.
By the way, the Game of the Year for me is Serious Sam: The Second Encounter. Although Diablo is much more revolutionary, I thought it would be unfair to not choose a game from my favorite genre: FPS. =)