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More GOTY Awards
More awards are available at Voodoo Extreme (who has separate categories both for PC Games and Console Games) and at the mega-hub Gamespy, who gives Halo 2 the top nod for Game of the Year 2004.
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[i] Justin: Few games come tailor-made for success like Halo 2, but it still surprised me with how damn good it ended up being. Once again Bungie innovates in several ways -- new vehicles, dual-wielding, the deadly melee weapon -- that are sure to be poorly ripped off by lesser games for years to come.[/i] You mean to say other games before Halo 2 didn't have vehicles, dual weapons and melee weapons?
Ok... how much is this guy getting paid by Microsoft?
How can UT2k4 be the best sports game?
Sounds like they don't play real sports games at all.
Whether you like Microsoft or not, the Halo games are friggin' great, and some of the best FPSs to date. And yes, I've played a shitload of FPS, both PC and console.
And a game doesn't need to be 'innovative' to be GOTY in my opinion. What happened when a game can just be just pure fun to be considered great?
As for those who say "but Goldeneye had dual wielding too!" clearly haven't played Halo 2. Dual wielding here doesn't mean "each hand holding the same gun". Instead, you can pick and chose between the guns in your hands. This opens up a myriad of combinations and really lets you discover really cool and ass-kicking combos out there. Also, if you're dual wielding, the right trigger fires the gun in the right hand, and the left trigger fires the gun in the left hand, so effectively you can fire with one gun only until the ammo in it depletes, and while its reloading, fire with the other gun.
Besides, the vehicles are all great, and jacking really adds to the gameplay. There's nothing better than someone in a Banshee getting too close to the ground and you jacking it from him.
And online multiplayer is great, especially for those of us that don'y play 24/7. Live does a great job of matching you with people of your own skill so you never feel overpowered in any single game, which means you're having fun playing and not dying 10 seconds after respawning.
What else can I say? If you don't like it, try taking out your Halo 2 disc and cross out the 'Microsoft' logo with a marker. See if you'll like it better then ;).
It's amazing how many fanboys are crying in their milk over the GOTY annoucement. It's an awesome game. More power to you if you don't like it, but there's a reason it's doing so well. Just because you loathe it with a vengeance does not erase the fact that it's an amazing game which many people love and enjoy.
And while you're at it do the following:
1. Put down your milk and cookies
2. Take off your MS bashing beanie
3. Repeat after me: "there is no conspiracy."
Rinse and repeat a few times, or you know - just go play your own personal GOTY.
I seriously doubt there are actually any cases of magazines being paid for ratings. However, the writers are certainly aware that failure to gloss over the flaws of a heavily advertised game or to elevate its position in lists like this will be punished with reduced advertizing funds later. I do not think that any gaming publication supported by advertizing can afford to be truly honest. The writers can inject their opinions into the corners, but the bulk of any review is devoid of any actual substance. I doubt that the writers are actually "whores," but I know they are always aware of these things whenever they write anything.
Few of the heavily hyped games are really that awful, but it's more than a bit disheartening to see critics always claiming that the latest games are tremendous improvements over games published 6 months ago. Newer games always get priority since they know that the publishers are watching what they say about games that are still featured prominently on shelves.
Movie criticism is much more insulated from these pressures. Movie criticism is published in newspapers, magazines and on TV. While these media do advertize for movies, very few, if any, of them receive 90% or more of their revenue from movie publishers. As a result, movie studios are unlikely to adjust their advertizing in response to any single publication's review since they know that they can't be a real threat to them.
The gaming press can't be trusted.
Yeah, yeah... blah, blah, blah... mouse and keyboard rules... COUNTERSTRIKE is God... UNREAL did everything before everything else... First, HALO 2 is very, very good. GameSpy is right. There are remarkable ideas throughout the HALO series like The Flood. Plus, Larry Niven, author of RINGWORLD, did not patent a ring in space. In fact, he took the idea from Olaf Stapledon's STAR MAKER and LAST AND FIRST MEN. Second, copyright laws are very specific about what can and cannot be copyrighted because ideas are in the ether for anyone to use in storytelling. Only specific combinations of story ideas can be copyrighted. Recycling ideas is a part of the artistic process. It's called inspiration. You say, I want to write something like BLADE RUNNER, but in a prison and RIDDICK begins to form. You know, GOODFELLAS or RAGING BULL aren't terribly original, but they are still brilliant films. HALO 2 is a brilliant game. Some of you guys go on and on pining for the glory days of PC gaming and it just ends up sounding defensive and silly. You're too imprinted on the PC. I own one. I love playing HALF-LIFE 2 on it. I also own an iMAC, an Xbox and a PS2. I own an iPOD and a Sony digital camera. It's a big world out there, gentlemen. Who cares if PC is the best quality? Yes, 35mm motion picture film exists, but Michael Moore won an oscar for a documentary shot on videotape. Get my drift? Stop banging the PC drum. Turn down the testosterone. It ain't such a big thang. It's tired.