Well, it's no question that of the big three, Nintendo clearly has the most shovelware. But damn, some of those covers are just plain out awful. You wonder how someone could have approved them!

Modern Warfare 2

Added to OP:

Gamespot - Demon's Souls

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An out-of-left-field pick with a really good explanation...and another PS3 exclusive.

Surprised by all the picks of what's essentially a "track pack" -- Beatles Rock Band. Lot of fun, but it's hardly a new game and it's missing a lot of features found in the main series.

That was a bizzare choice. I watched the entire video clip and after a 10 minute exlanation, I'm not even a little bit interested in playing this game, even if I were given it for free. Looks WAY too hard. And I don't think that the online component is as brilliant as they do. I found the souls wandering through Fable 2 to be more annoying than helpful. This doesn't look much better, IMO. Hey, give Gamespot credit for being independent thinkers, but it's still a pass for me.

Same here. Beatles did treat the whole subject with a care that has, for the most part, been unseen in video games - but it was still following the normal rhythm genre paradigm. I rented it, played through it a couple times, and then went back to RB2 where I have a huge amount of variety.

Not really, it's one of the most highly rated games of 09, most people that play it - love it, and it's relatively unique in an age of sequels and direct clones. The souls feature is cool and gives it an MMO feel (great choice of online feature).

I personally thought the challenge of it all was great

Regarding Demon's Souls I can't believe the way they gush in that video about the player interactivity in that like it's in any way something new.

Taking nothing away from your enjoyment of the game, but it's not among the top games according to Metacritic. It's got an 89, which is very good, but not even close to Uncharted 2's 96, and behind Assassin's Creed 2, Batman AA and even SF IV. What I find curious is that Gamespot themselves only gave the game a 9.0, when they gave Uncharted a 9.5. That sort of selection seems to tell me that they're more interested in picking something "different" for GOTY to increase awareness in the game and in their selection as opposed to the game they thought was actually the best.

What? Critics choosing a controversial choice in order to drive traffic to their site?

Or they just have a bunch of editors who geek out for high fantasy.

...but I think you're probably on to something.

Added to OP:

Yahoo! Games: Uncharted 2: Among Theives

http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/g...game/1378333/2

This was actually discussed in a recent podcast i was listening to. They talked about the difference between asking someone what is their Game of the Year and what game did they play the most last year. Most people want to pick something artsy, more independent, or otherwise "different" for GotY but never ever name the same game as one they played the most.

I do the same thing when people ask me my favorite movie. I have movies that moved me and i list as my favorite but i don't pop them in often because they are normally more engaging than i want on a typical relaxing evening.

Also of note, IGN gave Assassin's Creed 2 GOTY on 360 and Uncharted 2 GOTY on PS3.

Considering the fact that Assassin's Creed is cross-platform, it seems reasonably clear where that one is going.

I heard that too...thinking it was John Davison on Mobcast.

By this measure, my GOTY is Fallout 3...hundreds of hours. I've also played Warhawk, Burnout Paradise and LBP (building levels) for over 100 hours each.

Fair enough, but like others, I find it's great but not standout Metacritic score a bit telling. I also find it interesting that among 50+ people who have named a game on here, not one has picked Demon's Souls...nor has a single other publication/website.

I don't begrudge them their pick, and it looks like a cool game...but it is kind of interesting.

Skimming my 360voice ratings it appears not a whole lot from this year have crept into my top played games. Halo 3 is still there which surprises me since i haven't played it in months. Rock Band 2 is up there which is cool.

Modern Warfare 2 is closest to the top from this year. Then way down the most played list is Batman, UFC 2009, and Dragon Age.

The score thing is irrelevant -- the game score is picked by an individual reviewer, not the staff as a whole. The "Game of the Year" is picked by the entire staff. Similar to how, occasionally, a low rated movie ends up on a site's overall top 10.

Glad to see the game getting some love is all. I do agree their video reasoning is a tad over the top. I don't see how a less popular winning GOTY really drives up traffic though, unless it's so fanboys can bitch.

Also glad to see Uncharted 2 cleaning up - easily one of the best single player experiences this gen - lets companies know solo campaigns aren't on their way out (as a lot of focus on multiplayer as of late seems to imply). Though, as xmiyux brought up, it wasn't even close to my most played game of the year.

I agree, but it is interesting. So many games ended up being scored at 9.0 for them, with their 0.5 scoring scale -- the one that actually scored higher I just would have expected to be the favorite.

Well, if they had picked Uncharted 2, I probably wouldn't have watched a 10 minute explanation of why they picked it -- it would be self explanatory. With this selection, I was curious to see their reasoning. I'm not sure I would agree with them if I played this game, but it did at least pique my interest.

Well, most played should never be the criteria. If somebody is addicted to Uncharted 2's solid multiplayer aspect, they might have it be consistently played, but otherwise it's really a solid, thrilling single player journey that doesn't really entice many replays. But I'm fine with that because what's there is phenomenal. Ditto Batman AA. A game doesn't have to last forever to be enjoyable. But I certainly wouldn't fault anyone for selecting Borderlands strictly on the basis of longevity. That game is slightly flawed and repetitive, but it has a heck of a lot of gameplay in it.

Thank goodness...I didn't want to have to fight you.

Get 'em Bloodwing!

On the upside, their pick has been the first thing worth discussing in this thread...and I love that it took them 11 minutes to explain it. Any other game on the list you could explain in two words:

Batman: Nailed. It.
Uncharted: Fucking. Epic.
Borderlands: Guns. Loot.
Beatles Rock Band: Hey. Beatles.
MW2: Multiplayer. Lemmings.

But Demon's Souls takes a eleven minutes to rationalize.

More like:

Demon Souls: Demon. Who?

That makes the Zero Punctuation review of that game even more hilarious.

Here are Gamasutra's Top 10 GOTY:

1. Dragon Age (BioWare, Xbox 360/PS3/PC)
2. New Super Mario Bros Wii (Nintendo, Wii)
3. Demon's Souls (From Software/Atlus, PS3)
4. Left 4 Dead 2 (Valve, Xbox 360/PC)
5. Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady, Xbox 360/PS3/PC)
6. Flower (ThatGameCompany/Sony, PlayStation 3)
7. The Beatles: Rock Band (Harmonix/MTV, Xbox 360/PS3/Wii)
8. Plants vs. Zombies (PopCap, PC)
9. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II (Relic Entertainment, PC)
10. Retro Game Challenge(Namco Bandai, Nintendo DS)

That's just a bizarre list. 2, 4 and 10 in particular are headscratchers for me personally. And regardless of how impressive you thought they were, I can't imagine a top-10 list without MW2 or Uncharted on it.

As an aside, Chris Remo is on my PSN friends list and hasn't played his PS3 in two months. I wish he had podcasting to blame.