I'm on the fence on innovation.
I definitely don't think it's required, in fact, it might even be a hindrance. Novelty or being innovative does not necessarily mean "good".
The Wiimote is "innovative", is it Controller of the Year?
Apart from the novelty, I think I'd rather play the second or third iteration of something that was at one time "innovative."
I'd definitely rather play something that takes something that was innovative, and does it extremely well. The Ratchet and Clank series, Final Fantasy Tactics, Fallout 3, Borderlands.

That's a good idea. I liked the original a lot, but didn't love it. I sold it right away after finishing it, something I don't usually do (and before the trophy patch was added ). The sequel is SO much better, longer, fresher, more varied and just more fun; it's a much different experience. Uncharted 2 is about as polished as a game can be. There's no 360 exclusive that I would rank as highly, and I'm primarily a 360 fan. I think most reviewers are too generous with games they really love and very few games really deserve a perfect "10" score -- but this is one of them.

I agree, though I probably liked the first one just a bit more than Decker.

...and I thought it was plenty innovative for that matter.

At its heart, yeah, it's pretty much Tomb Raider meets Gears, but there are 3-4 sequences in UC2 that I hadn't previously dreamed possible.

Beatles Rock Band for me.

I'm not surprised at all that Batman and Uncharted are the big players.

I am surprised, however, that Borderlands is beating out COD:MW2. I really need to pick that game up.

I haven't played CoD:MW2, but I did play CoD4. It was very immersive and was definitely much more of a story than Borderlands, and I know CoDMW2 is the same as well. But from what I heard much of the appeal of COD4 and MW2 is the competitive multiplayer, which really does nothing for me. It's almost a nonissue. Whereas Borderlands is coop offline and on, and that is a feature I appreciate much more.

I see Shadow Complex is on there, I'll pick that up during the sale next week.
I am actually a little surprised that Batman is doing as well as it is. I know it gets bonus points for geek cred, and for being a Batman game that doesn't suck, but I guess everyone else sees something more in it than I did (I didn't think it was bad by any means but it just didn't speak to me.)

where is this sale for Shadow Complex? can't that only be purchased through XBLA?

Yes, but per Major Nelson it's on sale next week

"Xbox LIVE Deal of the week*
Week of December 14:
December 21 through December 27:
Shadow Complex for 800 points"

http://majornelson.com/archive/2009/...-schedule.aspx

I started it this week and I'm with you, great game, but I think too much of it hangs on geek cred. I'm about 25% in and it's pretty repetitive. Of what's there, I do really enjoy the balance of it though between stealth and pure brawling to doing detective work.

The leveling seems pretty rudimentary and where are all his wonderful toys? I assume I don't ever get to use the Batmobile or see any other vehicle sequences. Bats is also too stiff, slow and cumbersome. It's like walking around with concrete shoes.

The loading screens are awesome though.

I will be the first to admit that the geek cred did wonders for Batman: AA. I do think it's a great game, by any measure, but it being Batman really took it to the stratosphere for me. That's cool though, because whatever makes a game fun for you makes it fun. I think it's more honest to go with your gut over being pretentious (not really seeing that here, just saying in general) and trying to break down all of the components of a game.

GOTY should be what game you either had the most fun with or had the best experience with of that year. All the rest of it is for the birds.

I'm not going to vote because I don't play enough games, but I'm a big fan of the first Uncharted and am enjoying the heck out of the second, which is the first full-price release-day game I've bought in a very long time.

I'm also drawing the conclusion from this thread that I probably have enough geek cred to now regret not getting Batman AA on Black Friday.

The Beatles: Rock Band
Forza Motorsport 3

In other words...undecided.

GOTY for me: Uncharted 2

Why? It just compelled me to play. Those games for me are very rare (Phantasy Star, Half-Life and Halo only other ones so far). Sure, there are plenty of game over the years that I played and finished, but very few where I really wanted to find out what was next right when I got home.

It did a fantastic job of integrating the cut scenes into the action. The control was spot on, and everything just seemed to mesh together so well. Even though I was a little let down by the ending, boy, was getting there ridiculously fun. And heck, the online play was a blast too. While it has it quirks as far as matchmaking, it's still great fun.

My runner up: COD: MW2 Multi-player

Yup, just the multi-player. Single player just didn't grab me like it did so many others. But the multi-player....wow!!! Again, I am compelled to play it. Gotta max out that gun or perk or get that killstreak.

If I could somehow combine UC2 single player with MW2 online (in the Uncharted universe) that would make my head explode.

I haven't finished enough of the big games to give a GOTY yet. So far I guess it would be Batman, but I still have Uncharted 2, Assassin's Creed 2, Infamous, MW2 and more to get through.

I don't think it's just geek cred. I don't really care about the Batman license or the comics, although I enjoyed the last two movies, but I thought the game was excellent

It's just clear that there was a lot of though that went into each encounter, set piece, battle, detective sequence, etc. So many games feel like they create levels and environments and then just randomly throw enemies in. Batman felt very carefully crafted. I thought there was a lot of variety, and especially excellent pacing and balance. Plus the combat mechanics were easy to pick up but difficult to master and just plain fun.

Not exactly, I just wanted to list more than one
FM3 was my 'runner up' if you will...

Chess, I also think that MW2 split the votes with Uncharted 2 (i.e. why Borderlands has received more votes).
For me MW2 and Uncharted 2 were almost on par, at the end I had to chose only one and decided that overall Uncharted 2 was the better game of the two.

I haven't played Borderlands, but I have really high hopes for it, I mean they say it's like Fallout 3 mixed with Crackdown and some others of my favorite games.

I was going to say Batman: AA but i kept thinking of Infamous more and more. I loved the story, all the powers you get, graphics, sound, and music score. Batman is equally good in those regards except for one thing : Bosses. Infamous had far better Boss battles than Batman. Each one was signifigantly different than the next whereas Batman has dull cliched boss fights.

So my GOTY goes to Infamous.

thanks. is there an actual link to the official page on xbox.com that shows the "deal of the day" each day?

I cast my vote for Borderlands.

It was tough, because MW2 has killer multiplayer but Borderlands hits all the right spots and is having rapid good DLC.

Deftones - Batman: AA
FantasticVSDoom - Batman: AA
Chew - Batman: AA
Dorsalphin - Batman: AA
thematahara - Batman: AA
boredsilly – Batman: AA
XavierMike – Batman: AA
Obi-Wan Jabroni – Batman: AA
Supermallet - Beatles: Rock Band
Hokeyboy - Beatles: Rock Band
chuckd21 - Beatles: Rock Band
poreiux - Beatles: Rock Band
Corvin - Borderlands
dtcarson - Borderlands
foxdvd - Borderlands
darkside - Borderlands
xmiyux - Borderlands
Tarantino - COD:MW2
RichC2 - COD:MW2
maingon - COD:MW2
Chris D - Dragon Age: Origins
Tscott - Dragon Age: Origins
Groucho – Dragon Age: Origins
The Bus - Flower
astrochimp - Forza 3
mhg83 - InFamous
Maxflier - L4D2
Quake1028 - NCAA Football 10
Creature X – New Super Mario Bros. Wii
fumanstan - SF IV
JasonF - Shadow Complex
Braves MG - UFC Undisputed
Chess - Uncharted 2
musick - Uncharted 2
Setzer - Uncharted 2
starseed1981 - Uncharted 2
Decker - Uncharted 2
steebo777 - Uncharted 2
Raul3 - Uncharted 2
mattysemo 247 - Uncharted 2
FatTony - Uncharted 2
UncleGramps – Uncharted 2
SmackDaddy - Uncharted 2
edstein - Undecided
K&Ajones - Undecided
kms md - Undecided
jdpatri - Undecided

Why don't I get mentioned in that list?

arkham Asylum was my favorite until Dragon Age came out.

The more i play it, the more it becomes my fav - Dragon Age!

Because there was nothing innovative this year...apparently.

Geez. I still can't decide. The Batman geek in me really wants to vote for Batman. I find myself itching to go back through the game on the hardest difficulty now.

I spent more time with Borderlands overall and am still going back to get my Hunter up to Lvl 50 and my trophies for the other classes.

But like chess said there were just some things in UC2 that I'd just never seen before.

Can I pick Warhawk?

No?

Okay then. I pick:

Batman: AA