PC VGChartz Game of the Year Awards 2008 - News

by VGChartz Staff , posted on 29 December 2008 / 31,631 Views

2008 has been a very strange year for PC gaming. Everyone under the sun kept pronouncing PC Gaming dead because the sales numbers, VGC doesn't track PC game sales, since the firms responsible for tracking the sales only track retail sales while digital distribution sales get ignored due to inability to track them. However, looking at the GOTY categories below, clearly PC gaming is very much alive with amazing games.

Best Shooter: Dead Space

Dead Space is a welcomed entry in the Third Person Shooter genre. The game sets itself apart from other games by only giving you one true gun and making you rely on the fact your an engineer and not a soldier. EA's Redwood Shore's studio has done a great job creating a horror Sci-Fi story that could easily be a movie shown on the Sci-Fi channel and could give its players some chills in this thrilling third person shooter.

Runner-up: Mercenaries 2: World in Flames

Reader's Choice: Dead Space

Best First-Person Shooter: Left 4 Dead

Valve has done it again. They have released another action packed FPS franchise that will blow players minds. Each co-op campaign is its own separate movie themed game where you take the four surviving characters of the story from the beginning of their chilling tale to their rescue. There are endless hours of enjoyment to be had with this game. No single game is the same thanks to Valve's new AI Director technology.

Runner-up: FarCry 2

Reader's Choice: Left 4 Dead, Crysis Warhead (Tie)

Best Action-Adventure: Prince of Persia

The latest spin-off of the Prince of Persia franchise brings new life to the series. This game builds on mechanics of the previous three games, and enhances combat to bring a more graceful feel to the game. This cell-shaded masterpiece is not only beautiful but fun. Even if you never played a Prince of Persia game you should definitely play this.

Runner-up: Devil May Cry 4

Reader's Choice: Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut

Best Platformer: Prince of Persia

Two categories in a row Prince of Persia has claimed victory to and it is well-earned. This game is truly amazing and brings even smoother platforming to the franchise. With the free rooming feel of Assassin's Creed and graceful movements of the prince,the game is one of the best platformers on the market today.

Runner-up: Bionic Commando Rearmed

Reader's Choice: Bionic Commando Rearmed

Best Racing: GRID

Mastering both off-road and paved racing styles CodeMasters have released GRID. Using the PC's power this game looks great, but under the hood are some pretty well developed car physics that allows the player to feel the pavement under your car. Race around tracks in Detroit, San Francisco, Milan, Tokyo, Yokohama, Spa, Le Mans and many more. Get pumped if your about to jump into this game's drivers seat.

Runner-up: Trials 2 Second Edition

Reader's Choice: GRID

Best RPG: Mass Effect

Hey that planet's calling for help, should I? Well that is one of the many decisions you can make in Mass Effect. This game is MASSIVE. There is easily 80 hours of content in the game. Each world you explore and every action you take will have a general effect on the outcome of the story. Choice is what makes this game so great. You can enjoy seeing what your actions have on the events.

Runner-up: The Witcher: Enhanced Edition

Reader's Choice: Fallout 3

Best MMORPG: World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

The king is back for another round. Currently WoW has over 11.5 million users thanks to this new expansion pack, simply amazing. Faster leveling, daily quests, 5 man instances with epic drops, easier-to-obtain PVP gear, incredibly immersive story and cinematic additions, and 10 man versions of all 25 man raids that can be beat in pick-up-groups may be the last step in truly making WoW an MMO for anyone. The talent trees on each class are more balanced than ever, and the new Death Knight class is a blast to play (even if it still needs a bit of a nerf). So dust off your old account, and jump in. The Lich King awaits you.

Runner-up: Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

Reader's Choice: Eve Online: Quantum Rise

Best Strategy: Sins of a Solar Empire

Strategy games are glorified games of chess and Sins of the Solar Empire is this year's top strategy game. This game of attack and defense brings the genre into space with colossal battles and massive variation on how to conduct a battle. Combining features of 4X and RTS games for the first time (successfully) Sins is an experience not to miss. There are so many ways to win or lose that you will never be able to tell the outcome until the final blow. Sins is a beautiful and challenging addition to the strategy genre, and who doesn't like a challenge?.

Runner-up: Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3

Reader's Choice: Sins of a Solar Empire

Best Puzzle/Misc Game: World of Goo

Goo sticks to everything but it can collapse if there is to much. In World of Goo you control goo balls that can be used to create structures to collect even more goo. Each level increases the difficulty making it so that you have to constantly think of new ways to build your gooey structure to make it through the game. With all this structure building you will quickly find enjoyment in completing each level and finding new goo-pals with more new and interesting abilities.

Runner-up: Chaos Theory

Reader's Choice: World of Goo

Best Graphics: Crysis Warhead

Ready for the most realistic adventure you could ever have? Well Crysis Warhead delivers with some stunning graphics that will make you gasp and your computer chug if you don't have the right setup. Just standing at the edge of a cliff in this game will make you compare the scenery with real life photos of forests and make you wonder how long till we can finally say that a game is 100% photo-realistic.

Runner-up: FarCry 2

Reader's Choice: Crysis Warhead

Best Musical Score: World of Goo

Tunes always adds to a good experience and World of Goo delivers this in spades. Each world comes equipped with unique, original, and unforgettable tracks that will be running through your head long after you finish the game. A great game needs great style, and World of Goo has style in spades in both music and visuals.

Runner-up: The Witcher: Enhanced Edition

Reader's Choice: Left 4 Dead

Most Innovative: World of Goo

When something sticks its golden and the gameplay of World of Goo's definitely is the stickiest. This game is not your simple run-of-the-mill bridge builder but enhances the genre to a new level with well-designed physics and a wide-variety of goo with interesting and unique abilities. Clever level design combined with a great concept really make World of Goo stand out above and beyond other indie and downloadable titles this year. Do yourself a favor and pick it up.

Runner-up: Left 4 Dead

Reader's Choice: World of Goo

Biggest Disappointment: Spore

Spore is one of those games that you wonder what happened. Everything that was shown up to release was stunning. The game was going to be the most amazing thing ever made. Of course than came the game that was released. The game isn't bad mind you, it just does not live up to what was promised. The game is an empty shell of what it should have been.

Runner-up: Assassin's Creed

Reader's Choice: Spore

Best Game No One Played: World of Goo

Is it me or are these GOTY achievements are getting slightly gooey. Yep, World of Goo wins again. The game is amazing but no one has really played it. There is no doubt that there are many people playing this game right now but there aren't half as many as there should be. For a game to enhance a genre as old as bridge building and evolve it to the level it has it deserves some major attention.

Runner-up: Multiwinia

Reader's Choice: Sins of a Solar Empire

Game of the Year: Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead, Valve, what else is there to say. You put Valve behind any game you get a game of GOTY quality. Left 4 Dead of course shows this. This game is simply endless fun and with the promise of additional campaigns in the future it will continue to amaze everyone for years to come like every other game Valve has published. Congrats Valve for another Game of the Year title.

Runner-up: World of Goo

Reader's Choice: Left 4 Dead

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monkeyman40210 (on 31 December 2008)

good except biggest disappionment, Spore is a pretty good game and shouldn't have gotten that title. besides that good Left 4 Dead should be game of the year all around

BTFeather55 (on 31 December 2008)

Congratulations
Happy New Year

Deviation59 (on 30 December 2008)

Oh man, I didn't even catch that 80 hours of content in Mass Effect comment. Massive LOL there.

How about.... 8-12 hours of real content, and then a bunch of the worst ever random copy/paste planets and corridors tacked onto the ass end.

thanny (on 30 December 2008)

great list!

im not sure if World of Goo is fitting for "best game no one played"
its more "best game no one payed for"

love l4d!

BenKenobi88 (on 30 December 2008)

L4D is amazing, I'm still playing it every day for a couple hours.

noname2200 (on 30 December 2008)

Glad to see World of Goo win a bunch of stuff. Great game. But apart from that and Left 4 Dead, this wasn't really a great PC year (for me).

--OkeyDokey-- (on 30 December 2008)

80 hours of content in Mass Effect? lol?

Mummelmann (on 30 December 2008)

This only confirms my belief that this has been an exceptionally boring gaming year (for me at least).

naznatips (on 30 December 2008)

Bah, you're right Mudface. Oh well, I'm not sure what category it would have won, but it was this year.

haxxiy (on 30 December 2008)

lol multiplats.

Mudface (on 30 December 2008)

[quote]Audiosurf was 2007.[/quote]

[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audiosurf]Nope[/url].

fazz (on 30 December 2008)

Just beat the airport campaign with a friend on L4D. It was epic.

It deserver GotY.

Deviation59 (on 29 December 2008)

These PC choices are baffling.

ssj12 (on 29 December 2008)

Senesboy - some of the staff voted and this is the outcome. me and ben didnt even vote. Heck I only voted for the overall.

SnesTea (on 29 December 2008)

Who picked GotY? benkenobi??

naznatips (on 29 December 2008)

Sins was awesome. Audiosurf was 2007. I would have rather had Sims or Wrath of the Lich King win GotY personally, but hey, if it doesn't piss someone off it's not a good GotY list lol.

jasonnc80 (on 29 December 2008)

Awesome choices for all IMO.

Simulacrum (on 29 December 2008)

Hmh Dmc 4 anyone?

Boberman (on 29 December 2008)

I'm shocked that Fallout 3 didn't even come 2nd for best RPG.

zexen_lowe (on 29 December 2008)

Sins should have gotten GOTY, and why isn't Audiosurf anywhere, don't tell me no one has played it. I still need to play World of Goo, seems like it's a fantastic game

vlad321 (on 29 December 2008)

I agree that audiosurf deserved, most innovative. Sure world of goo's formula is amazing, but it has been seen before. Audiosurf is one of a kind.

Mudface (on 29 December 2008)

Audiosurf should really have gotten a mention here. Left-field, lovely and quirky, it's what PC gaming is all about.

Solid_Raiden (on 29 December 2008)

I'm really shocked at Mass Effect beating Fallout 3 for RPG of the year....

Lafiel (on 29 December 2008)

sins of a solar empire would have been a better choice for pc goty in my humble opinion

RAcCoOnErOuS (on 29 December 2008)

^ Yeah so what...PC games are always better than the console versions..

i say it was a decent year for the PC.....not the best but a good 7/10

a3hmax (on 29 December 2008)

Almost all are avaible on consoles too, a very bad year for PC.

nintendo792612 (on 29 December 2008)

agree on spore BIGGEST DISAPONTMINT

vlad321 (on 29 December 2008)

I still feel like World of Goo was the best PC game to grace us this year. It's almost the same as Portal was last year. Wry humor, nice music, very original puzzle gameplay.

okr (on 29 December 2008)

Nazna, I know what you mean and I knew already when I wrote my comment that it is not entirely true (although your statement represents your opinion and is not entirely correct as well: There were certainly more sims than Spore and more adventures than Sam & Max Season 2 to qualify as a contender a GotY poll. Football Manager 2009 and A Vampyre Story to name just two examples. And there were certainly not more adventures released on DS or "far more" simulations released on Wii than on PC this year).

My statement was a bit provoking on purpose (e.g. I'm aware that flight sims were not only rare, but a niche genre already when PC gaming was still in full bloom in the 80s and 90s; today this genre merely does exist at all). I'm an ex-PC gamer and it makes me sad to see that PC gaming is a shadow of what it once was. Yes, it is still alive and the PC still has the most diverse library of all systems, but since years the awards go to the usual high-profile shooters, to one of the only two strategy games even the devoted genre fans have played this year and to ports of console games. PC gaming didn't take any risks since the mid 90s and that's why lots of people left the system behind. Many of them would return if PC gaming would improve the existing strengths and raise the profile already acquired. PC gaming is not dying but most games originally developed for the system are niche nowadays. If this development continues, the PC will be known as the system for MMO games and console ports. All other genres (even RTS, as in this genre only Starcraft 2 will be played after its release) are slowly retreating into their small niches.

Strategyking92 (on 29 December 2008)

No,No,No.

Spore was terrible. I'm glad to see it win in 2 places for most disapointing :-)
Heck, it's spinoff also won a DS most disappointing award also!

RAcCoOnErOuS (on 29 December 2008)

nice, L4D is really that good, and better than the console version..

Go PC!!!!

naznatips (on 29 December 2008)

Okr there weren't any adventures or simulations released on PC good enough to qualify for a GotY position this year. The only possible choice was Spore for sims, and it worked in strategy as well so it still got its chance for votes. The only possible choice for Adventures was Sam & Max. These games could have been put in with an auto-win, but there wouldn't be much point would there?

Ironically, there were more adventure games on the handheld DS system this year than on the PC, and there were far more simulation games on Wii. So if you want to talk about getting the same games on consoles...

okr (on 29 December 2008)

Of course you need two shooter categories but you don´t need categories for adventures or simulations. Why should you? Everybody knows, adventures and simulations don´t exist on PC, not to speak of under-categories like flight or building sims. And of course you need a platformer category in a PC voting - a very important genre on PC. No wonder everyone keeps saying that PC gaming is dying. Everything looks like console gaming because PC gamers are only interested in the same games they could get on consoles too these days. MMORPGs are the only exception, but only because PC is still their main platform.