Game of the year guyss?

They bodged it together in like 3 years didnt they ? I've never been waiting for the game, played it for 2 hours and fell asleep of the same repeating stuff

 

Half Life 2.......

 

in the mmo category:
i liked city of heroes, and currently playing everquest 2. Havent tried WoW.

epic

 

Oh yes...two awesome games. Too bad BG&E didn't do well in sales...

 

Hmm...I'm not fond of reducing things with a "one game over all" mentality...it ignores too much of what games achieve. The closest I could come is two (and a "half"), out of the games I've played.

The two that I've played that stand out as achieving much on many fronts: Half-Life 2, and Beyond Good & Evil.

I have several thoughts that could explain in some detail a comparison of games to various forms of expression, and pointing out more precisely how some games concentrate on some aspects to the exclusion of others, like providing a rich interaction (I consider interaction more than the ability to articulate your own position in a 3D landscape, and killing or being killed to be a very bare and simple form of it), as well as how what I discuss as gameplay is not the same thing as interaction, but a mechanism that can be used to shape it.

I'll forego explaining them in full detail, and simply touch on how much some games that don't perform that exclusion accomplish in some general aspects of expressing a story:

BG&E establishes a sense of whimsy as a consistent base by its story and dialogue. Further, supported consistently by its graphics, and very strongly and successfully by its music, this feeling of whimsy goes far towards creating a fondness for the characters and maintaining an interesting and, for lack of a less common description, "delightful tale" as the story progresses.
An amazing job of breathing life into a simple story and straightforward characters, and allowing the player to interact with that and be attached to the characters while thoroughly entertained. It reminds me of the best of Disney story-telling over the years, and does a good job of reinforcing that with its interaction.
Simply stated, excellently done.

HL2's story isn't complete, though I can say it achieves an engaging interaction with the story and its characters throughout the part of the story it does tell. It is that character involvement in which HL 2 achieves a new high point, in the technical mechanisms for it, as well as the game play, story, and media presentation (graphics, voice, music, sound...etc).
I am thoroughly impressed with the graphics. There are dark tunnels where its shadow mechanism is lacking, but the sheer amount of subtle detail used on surfaces is remarkable and thoroughly evident, from faces and clothing to wallpaper and floors. There are a few "shiny surface" incidents in the game, but they seem isolated in general (though perhaps it is simply that certain circumstances exposed deficiencies in surfaces that were not evident elsewhere). There are lots of details that are almost subliminal, or brought into evidence by your interaction (like flashlights).
Its gameplay is narrower in "geographic" flexibility compared to Far Cry, but expands in other gameplay areas within that narrower focus (the exploration of using physics with such involvement as a gameplay framework as one example), while working hard to make the backdrop majestic instead of claustrophobic, and provides several levels of interactivity to expand the game experience.
I was surprised by the music...it achieves much of being the perfect backdrop soundtrack music. The surprise came after the game, and was in how finely balanced, almost towards transparency, the soundtrack was throughout, when I listend to the soundtrack separately It would have benefited from an emotionally inviting stand out like Max Payne 2's signature song, I think....MP 2 tells an emotionally richer story in part due to that, though HL 2 has more game play involved in supporting enriching the story in other ways. HL 2 is very good at leaving veils in place over selected parts of the overall story, while concentrating on providing a rich revelation about other parts.

...

In terms of what is typically "GOTY", only HL2 out of these two has the seemingly mandatory popularity to warrant the title, though the actual achievements of the games they seem quite close to me...both ooze quality in telling the story and creating characters, and while BG&E lacks some aspects of interactivity, the personality of the characters is such that I tend to feel it prevents that from being a detraction. I would say HL2 attempts a more ambitious story and involving game play in establishing it, though...BG&E is more reminiscent of one of the better Disney animations.

...

There were plenty of games that didn't seem to try in some aspects and excelled in others. If I were one to discount major significance for the potential of a game being able to tell a story well, Far Cry belongs in the list because of its significant advancements in game play.
I think it is unfortunate that there isn't a widely recognized nuance (AFAIK) that can be used to indicate recognizing a "game" being a possible way to attempt to engange on more than one level...for other forms of expression some use distinctions like "movies" and "films", and "books" and "literature" to indicate a wider consideration. It would make it clearer to talk about why Far Cry wasn't included by selecting the word I used instead of explanation.
What I do take from Far Cry is a hope that Crytek has an interest in expanding their characterization and story telling...they did well on the fronts where they focused their attention the first time through, and I hope they have wider ambitions.

 

My nomination would be EQ2 by a long shot. I would never ever consider any FPS for GOTY but that's just me.

I expected a lot from Dawn of War but it never really did grab me in the end (haven't even finished the single player campaign and its supposed to be short).

 

DoW was a lot of fun, but very buggy, and very unfinished - it really needed single player campaigns for the other three races too, in order to give it more playtime, longevity and to round it out as a game.

Prince Of Persia: SoT was very good, but I think showed some limitations of it's console port, and I think will be superceded by the upcoming POP: Warrior Within.

BG&E was excellent, and did have a really cinematic way of telling it's story, with many side-branches and little diversions in order to follow the main story, as well as being graphically and aurally polished and stylish. It felt very much like a modern fairytale, regardless of the computer medium.

 

For me it's definitely and without a slightest shade of doubt HL2. FarCry was nice, but it didn't really suck me in. Doom 3 could have been much better, but it had awful texturing and level design IMHO.

Polycount is AFAICS much higher in HL2 than in D3. Just an example: all wires on the walls are modeled, while in D3 most of that stuff is flat, just drawn into the texture - not really very advanced. That, paired with rather boring levels and slow-paced gameplay denies even the slightest possibility for D3 to become GOTY, no pun intended.

 

I don't think any game that most people play once, for about 15 hours, should be nominated for GOTY. But that is probably just me.

 

If they choose to just run through the game, it's their problem. I prefer to explore everything, makes for some funny discoveries sometimes.

With that reasoning, no single player game in last 3-4 years would ever become GOTY, since they were all rather short. I also don't believe we'll be seeing any games the length of Unreal or DX1 very soon.

 

Longer answer......

Doom 3 was a bit of a disappointment to me.

Not much story line IMO you felt like you did not know what was going on and you were never really told much.

Sluggish speed performance, very little interactivity for a next gen game, not much change in scenery, very samey gamepley, lights go out monters charge in you fire lights come back on.....rince and repeat.

It was fun for the first quater/half but then nothing new was to be found, I actually got a bit bored with playing it.

HL2 seems to be the game of the year for me, it seems to address most the short commings I found with Doom 3. The game Interactivity, level variaty is miles better.

Short answer....... HL2 is Fun.

 

HL2

closely followed by DoW and R:TW then Halo2 then Full Spectrum Warrior

 

So any movie that you only go to watch at the cinema once should not get an Oscar?

 

Half Life 2, second choice would be Thief 3.

 

Thief 3 was a blast. I played through it three times earlier this year, though probably because it was released during a dry spell.

EQ2 pretty much has GOTY in the bag for me.

 

halflife2 definately for me. and i've played a ton of games over the past year (though only action/fps/3rdps type)

 

Thief 3 would get my vote over HL2. Much better game than HL2 was in my opinion, however I would still have liked to see it on the D3 engine, I felt that for a game where shadows were so important it was too bad that it had shadows that were not as nice IMO. However, I fully realize this would have made it impossible for it to be released this year.

Youguys have to remember I haven't played thief 1&2 though so maybe it seemed more original to me than you.

I do not think that any game that has nothing new to add to the genre should win GOTY, and HL2 had nothing that seemed new and original to me, nothing that I went "wow that was different." I do not believe we have come to that point yet when nothing new is to be found under the sun, or in games. In movies it is different they are so old that people are rediscovering movies, but most games are new enough that gamers remember the previous ones so a copy isn't quite as exciting.

 

Half-Life 2, easily.

Then followed by Thief 3 and FarCry. Maybe Flatout in top of the list also. And Doom 3 at the bottom.

 

Doom3 definitely at the bottom.

 

Half-Life 2. Though I just got out of the mines, I'm not going to play again until I get more RAM.