The Shacknews Editor's Choice Awards

[CSN NewsBot]

Why am I bothering to post about this? Why, it's because the annual Shacknews GOTY awards have given much praise to Valve and the Orange Box!



2007 was a fantastic year for gaming, some are calling it the best since 1998, and I might just have to agree with them. Let's give a mini recap to the categories that came up with the big "W" for either Valve or one of their titles (I'll even toss in the categories they were runner-up in).

Winning


• Overall Game of the Year - Portal
  
  
• Visual Artistic Achievement - Team Fortress 2
  
  
• PC Game of the Year - Portal
  
  
• Shooter Game of the Year - Half-Life 2: Episode 2
  
  
  
  1st Runner-Up
  
  
• Achievement in Gameplay - Portal
  
  
• Achievement in Writing - Portal
  
  
• Outstanding Multiplayer - Team Fortress 2
  
  
• Studio of the Year - Valve Software
  
  
• Xbox 360 Game of the Year - Portal
  
  
• Platform Game of the Year - Portal

I think they really, really liked Portal. I have to say, I really do disagree with their pick for the studio of the year. They gave it to Bungie, and outside of releasing one title, albeit a highly anticipated title, that's all they did. There are some interesting features in Halo 3 (automatically saved playbacks, and the file sharing), but beyond that? Really, from what is largely accepted as fact, the only real saving grace for Halo 3 is its multiplayer given how short its SP experience is (though it is enjoyable). Oh, they dissolved from Microsoft, sort of.[break="click here for the rest of my late night, can't sleep ramblings"]This may sound like I'm being a fanboy here, but Valve should have won those honors. They've maintained the largest digital distribution system out there, have offered up additional merchandise through their own store, they've picked up some huge game developers to include their titles on Steam, have built a large community focused system in the Steam Community that was released a few months back, released the second expansion to Half-Life 2, released the highly critically acclaimed Portal, and finally released Team Fortress 2.



Oh well, it's not my award ceremony so I can't really say much. If you want to scope out the rest of the categories and winners, by all means head over to Shacknews. They really did a fantastic job, and included some really nice, in-depth explanations as to why they chose the winners they did in each category.

[_PeNgUiNs_ lord]

Team Fortress 2, visual artistic achievement?



All they did was make a few character models.

[Zom-B]

_PeNgUiNs_ lord wrote..

Team Fortress 2, visual artistic achievement?



All they did was make a few character models.

I hope you're kidding.

[Thortok2000]

They created their own visual style that isn't quite cel-shaded. That's the newest thing to come along, art wise, other than cel shaded and "as realistic as humanly possible".



Personally, I prefer realistic graphics (like HL2), it's easier to get lost in, and fun to ooh and ah at. But I do have to admit spontaneously creating your own art style that's not quite like anything before it is award-worthy.

[Zips]

_PeNgUiNs_ lord wrote..

Team Fortress 2, visual artistic achievement?



All they did was make a few character models.

Top contender for the "Most Ignorant Comment of 2008" right there...

[Kotae]

Honestly, both Valve and Bungie deserve the spot light. It's really hard to pull away from a huge corporation like Microsoft, but now Bungie is able to stand on its own to feet - this means that we'll hopefully see more than just Halo from them. As for Valve, they've done amazing for themselves with all that they have done. (Okay maybe I just like Bungie because of Halo 3 but bite me)



It's nice to see the two games that I probably played the most multiplayer wise made 1st (Halo 3) and runner up (TF2).. though I do need to play more of TF2, I hardly play.

[MrBosnia]

Probably the worst Game of the Year awards I've seen from a site. Episode Two isn't anywhere close to the superiority of Crysis and BioShock. Looks like ShackNews didn't play any other games except The Orange Box for 2007.

[Zips]

MrBosnia wrote..

Probably the worst Game of the Year awards I've seen from a site. Episode Two isn't anywhere close to the superiority of Crysis and BioShock. Looks like ShackNews didn't play any other games except The Orange Box for 2007.

Crysis, save for its glossy overcoat, sucks.



But hey, if you looked at the rest of the awards, as you possibly didn't, you'd see they gave mention to both of those titles in various areas.

[Renegade[CSR]]

Zips wrote..

Crysis, save for its glossy overcoat, sucks.

I wouldn't go that far, it is a good game, but alot of its praise has been due to, as you put it, its glossy overcoat. Similarly, when there is a dumb girl who is very attractive, her capacity to attain and maintain knowledge is overlooked because of her superior looks, and will thus get the most attention =p

[MrBosnia]

Zips wrote..

Crysis, save for its glossy overcoat, sucks.



But hey, if you looked at the rest of the awards, as you possibly didn't, you'd see they gave mention to both of those titles in various areas.

Wrong. You have played it right? It is built on some pretty electrifying shooting action. The fun really kicks in when you start using vehicles in battle. It even starts to ignore its "glossy overcoat" when you enter the Alien world. Some of the most artistic and unique futuristic architecture I've seen, and the aliens are quite terrifying.

[ul1sses]

And far superior soundtrack. =)

[Zips]

MrBosnia wrote..

Wrong. You have played it right? It is built on some pretty electrifying shooting action. The fun really kicks in when you start using vehicles in battle. It even starts to ignore its "glossy overcoat" when you enter the Alien world. Some of the most artistic and unique futuristic architecture I've seen, and the aliens are quite terrifying.

Wrong? No, I don't think so.



Where's this "pretty electrifying shooting action" when every battle is a rinse and repeat, save for a few sporadic moments here and there where things are shook up for a moment. Ooooh, big deal. It's Far Cry with aliens instead of retarded mutants. Oh, and that overcoat I mentioned. At least I'm able to see through the graphics and the BS to see just how mundane Crysis is... and so have many other consumers given its sales.

[whitefanges]

It's sales are low because most people don't have the necessary hardware to play it... If the game is so bad, why are most reviews of it a 9/10? I personally thought it was excellent. It's no more repetative than CoD4, yet it gets all the attention. And please don't tell me the multiplayer. Rank up to unlock weapons? It's been done before.

[MrBosnia]

Edited by [user="499931"] @ [time="1199670775"]

f

[Zips]

whitefanges wrote..

It's sales are low because most people don't have the necessary hardware to play it... If the game is so bad, why are most reviews of it a 9/10? I personally thought it was excellent. It's no more repetative than CoD4, yet it gets all the attention. And please don't tell me the multiplayer. Rank up to unlock weapons? It's been done before.

No, I've talked to people who have run it on lesser hardware who can run it just fine and still don't see the appeal in the game. Hype gave this game such high reviews. It just isn't fun.



Far Cry received roughly the same scores (according to metacritic) and it's still an absolute chore to play.