The Games of 2006 Awarded

It's almost the end of the year, and various organizations are handing out awards for what has been a very busy year in gaming. The Associated Press handed the top honor to Oblivion, while Gamasutra's Quantum Leap awards gave Wii Sports the nod for bringing the whole family together. Gamespy and Gamespot are still in the midst of handing out the prizes, but you can already check out genre winners at Gamespy, and Gamespot's list of dubious honors for games that only deserve the faintest of praise.

Comments

Defcon

[necrognome]

Overlooked (mind you I didn't look too hard) in both of these articles is one of this year's great strategy games: Defcon. Everybody dies!

Re:Oblivion

[Bloodmoon1]

I have it on the XBox360 and I agree with basically everything you said, as much as I can given the console difference. Good game, yes, I've spent about 40 hours on it and can easilly play it for a while longer. Great... eh, graphically, yes, maybe in the non-graphical departments if you get the numerous bugs on it fixed.

That said, the only thing about the game that has really pissed me off is the need to play it power gamer style to "correctly" level up if you want your character to be even remotely usable by the time you get around level 13 or 14. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I was always under the impression that your 7 major skills should be things that help you and that you use almost exclusively, not that hinder you because they're all you use and now you're suddenly hosed when the game's enemies level up with you, but because you leveled "poorly" a wolf is now a problem for you, and imps and other humans are almost able to kill you in two hits.

I tried the whole power gamer thing for a few hours and realized how retarded it is, since then it just feels like work, but then I discovered the magic of the difficulty slider. Sure, you kind of feel like a bitch for a few minutes after turning it down to 1/4th of the maximum, but then the game is fun again and you get over it.

All told, I'd gladly buy it for $45 used again, but I certainly wouldn't pay the full $60 for it. Though, out of principal, I refuse to buy any game over $50.

Re:OT : Why no Mario in Wii Sports?

[LineNoiz]

Unpersonal? They use the Miis: user generated characters. How is a personalized avatar anything BUT personal?

GoW an FPS ince when?

[wickedsteve]

I think Gears of War is a great game and deserves recognition but since when is it a first person shooter?

Re:Interesting List...

[Spikeles]

I am still sad to see Oblivion win, though, as it shows such a bias toward PC "style" gaming

My god, have you actually played Oblivion? It is so glaringly obvious that it's NOT DESIGNED FOR PC. Notice the huge font that only allows 5 or so items to be displayed?, the limited key configuration?, the stupid little mini-games?. They designed Oblivion for console and left PC gamers who are used to much more in depth RPG's out in the dark.

Non-linearity...

[7Prime]

I like my non-linearity like I like my women... short, and sucking my cock.

Let me clarify: Fuck non-linearity. I'm sick of the pedistal that many in the gaming community have made for it; it seems to be some people's be-all-and-end-all of gaming. It reminds me of when I used to play trumpet back in high school; the only thing anyone ever cared about is being able to play as high as possible; that was our benchmark for a "good" player. Our dream was to be able to hit double Cs, while at the same time, our low Cs sounded like shit. What I'm trying to say is that there's nothing wrong with non-linearity, a healthy dose is great, but without some linearity or structure, a game has no purpose. It's like a trumpet playing playing nothing but double-Cs throughout a solo, just to show his balls. That's what I feel when I hear people talk about non-linearity: "you're some kinda pussy if you're taste doesn't revolve around being as non-linear as possible." Just the day, I saw someone flaming someone else's post because they dared to bring up the importance of dramatic elements in video games. Are we, as gamers, becoming a culture so afraid of experiencing another person's creative vision, that we're willing to turn our backs on artistic intent?

THIS is why video games aren't embraced as Art, and will never be, until we stop creating these intrinsic benchmarks.