Best of 2009

Everyone helped to pick some real winners this year. Everything from casual games that went crazy to genre-bending MMOs to a truly modern take on shooters made the coveted list. With record voter turnout, you stood up and let your voice be heard. Here are your picks for the Games of the Year!

Best Adventure Game Assassin’s Creed II Climbing tall buildings and diving off into incredibly small piles of straw is just one aspect of Assassin’s Creed II, which improves all the amazing elements of the first game and eliminates the bad ones. A grand adventure, you will even meet up with historical characters like Leonardo da Vinci in your quest to murder those responsible for a global conspiracy set in Renaissance Italy and modern day. See our Review.

Best Family Game Wallace and Grommit’s Grand Adventures One of the most beloved family series of all time becomes a wacky game in Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Adventures. Travel to West Wallaby Street and hang out with claymation heroes Wallace and his genius dog Grommit. From surviving some of Wallace’s inventions to adventuring out into the big world, there is something for everyone in this wacky, fun series of family-friendly games. See our Review.

Best Online Only Game Fallen Earth Forget elves and trolls and dragons. Fallen Earth offers a gritty post-apocalyptic MMO adventure set in a unique world where ammunition may be the most valuable commodity. Embark on a journey of survival with thousands of other players as you fight bandits and mutated creatures out in the wastelands that were once civilization. Coupled with an intense crafting interface, Fallen Earth may well set the bar for other MMOs to follow. See our Review.

Best Peripheral DJ Hero Turntable With a ton of controllers offering to enhance gameplay hitting the market this year, it’s amazing that one was able to stand out. The DJ Hero Turntable not only created an entirely new type of music and rhythm game, but made everyone who tried it feel like a club DJ spinning mashup mixes, like when combining “Lapdance” by N.E.R.D. and “The Big Beat” by Billy Squier. See our Review.

Best Puzzle Game Plants vs. Zombies Since we moved tower-defense games into the puzzle genre a few years ago, there have been some strong contenders in the field. But none have proved as popular or as critically acclaimed as Plants vs. Zombies, a title that proves that the developers over at PopCap are either mad or geniuses, or a bit of both. Using killer plants to defend your home from a hoard of cartoon zombies is likely one of the most addicting puzzle-game experiences ever created. See our Review.

Best Rhythm/Music Game The Beatles: Rock Band Who knew that four lads from Liverpool would cause such a huge stir in the world of music that forty years later we would all playing video games based on their music? Some of the most amazing visuals ever created for a Rock Band title (or any music title for that matter) coupled with arguably some of the best songs ever created is an obvious recipe for success. This fan favorite game certainly passed the audition. See our Review.

Best RPG Torchlight The year 2010 could well be known as the one where causal gaming went mainstream, and Torchlight winning the RPG category is certainly another fine example of this trend. The dungeon-delving title looks great, plays smoothly on almost any hardware, and offers some great Diablo-style gameplay that is both easy to learn and challenging to conquer. For a title on sale for $20 to compete and beat the big boys in the RPG field shows how great this game is. It’s the little RPG that slayed the giants. See our Review.

Best Shooter Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2 If you would have asked almost anyone a few years ago if Infinity Ward could beat their Modern Warfare title, you probably would not have gotten many people to say yes. But Modern Warfare 2 did just that. The shooter looks amazing with even the quality of presentation for each mission going off the charts. The actual gameplay changes quite a bit with levels taking place in the arctic, on vehicles, underwater, inside military complexes and during all times of day and night. And some classic levels like “No Russian” will be talked about till the end of time. See our Review.

Best Simulation The Sims 3 What started out as a doll house simulation has become one of the most successful series of games in the history of the industry. And The Sims 3 is no exception to that rule. Better graphics, more interactivity and lots of extras make this latest Sims game really stand out. And with expansion packs that let players create dungeons and adventures for their Sims to go on, this is one franchise that shows no sign of letting up.

Best Sports Game Race On Forty seven of the world’s most realistic racing tracks are represented in Race On, a game series known for being as close as you can get to actual racing. And that realism extends to the sound effects, with actual cars of the type you are driving providing the engine noise. And under the hood, it’s realistic as well, with players able to tweak their racers just like a real car. No wonder it took the checkered flag for sports games this year. See our Review.

Best Strategy Game Elven Legacy Elven Legacy proves that turn-based titles can still duke it out with their real-time siblings. Set in a vibrant fantasy world, Elven Legacy puts players in command of archers, trolls, blimp brigades and powerful spell-casters. Following a great story, your armies will battle though this fantasy realm, matching steel and wits with many terrorizing opponents on your quest to forge your own legacy among warriors. See our Review.

Best Environment Borderlands You wouldn’t think that rocks and desert wasteland would be all that engrossing of an environment, but the cel-shading makes the world here. Possibly the best use of that artistic technique ever used, most people just begin to believe that’s how planet Pandora looks. No other game looks like Borderlands, though after the developers receive their much-deserved Best Environment Game of the Year award, we might start to see others attempt to do something similar. Till then, Borderlands is king. See our Review.

Best Soundtrack Batman: Arkham Asylum For soundtrack, we ask readers to vote based on both musical score and voice acting, plus the environmental sounds. All are top notch here. Mark Hamill does an outstanding job as the Joker and Arlee Sorkin’s perfect accent makes Harely Quinn even sexier. There are 214 music tracks in the game, composed by Nick Arundel and Ron Fish. They mimic the big movie sounds players are used to hearing from a Batman show perfectly. In short, there really wasn’t a better game to listen to all year. See our Review.

Best DS Game Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits When you think about it, Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits could have been nominated in the peripherals category and it would have been fine. The genius thing about the game is that it doesn’t rely on just the DS screen for input. Instead, an entire four button controller is attached to the side. This mimics the Guitar Hero feel as perfectly as possible with such a tiny device. Now you can play your guitar anywhere, and for that, this one takes the DS GOTY crown. See our Review.

Best Expansion Pack or DLC Lord of The Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood An expansion like Mirkwood really makes an epic MMO like Lord of the Rings Online even better. In addition to the standard things like raising the level cap and adding a new (and huge) playable area, Turbine really changed things up by creating a whole new way to play the game. Skirmishes are like instanced capture the flag games, and are extremely well done, and set at critical times in the LOTR storyline. Special awards for battling the forces of evil round out this incredible expansion pack and easily make it the best of the year. See our Review.

Best PC Game Plants Vs. Zombies The game that just keeps on going picks up a huge win in a major category as the top PC Game of the Year. One of the reasons it got so many votes is because the joy of Plants Vs. Zombies is not just static. You fight on your roof and out back by the pool as well, trying to strategically use your plants to keep the undead at bay. Day turns to night, offering new plants to fortify your realm, and fog even rolls in to confuse your protective vegetation. Throw in mini-games like zombie bowling and the ability to play as the awful Zs, and you have a recipe for success on the PC that will keep anyone playing late into the night. See our Review.

Best PlayStation 2 Game Up Based on the Oscar-nominated movie, the computer game follows the grumpy old man Carl and the tag-along boy scout Russell as they adventure in Paradise Falls. The game offers the perfect co-op experience as neither Russell nor Carl can do everything alone. Thankfully, if you are playing alone, the AI does a good job of helping you out, though the game is a lot more fun with friends. Beautiful graphics top off this amazing title, making you forget that you are playing on a last-generation machine, and proving that PS2 gaming is still relevant. See our Review.

Best PlayStation 3 Game Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Naughty Dog Software again proves that it’s the top developer for the PS3 platform with the sequel to the hit Drake’s Uncharted game. Uncharted 2 is about as close to perfect as you can get in a console title. It’s a seamless blend of action, shooting, puzzle solving and storyline. Stunning does not even adequately describe the look of this action-packed title that will have you hanging in there in some impossible situations – and surviving. Backed with amazing voice acting like that offered by Claudia Black, Nolan North and Emily Rose just puts icing on the cake of this amazing adventure game. If you own a PS3 and can only have one game, this is the one you should pick. See our Review.

Best PSP Game Final Fantasy: Dissidia Pushing the PSP to its visual limits, Final Fantasy: Dissidia offers intense fighting and deep role playing. In fact, in terms of Final Fantasy-like RPGs, this is the best one to ever hit the PSP. And Final Fantasy fans rejoice, because Dissidia takes into account a huge array of characters from the series’ entire span, even adding some new storylines and information to some of them that you can’t get anywhere else. Square Enix was playing to the fans on this one, and the fans embraced it mightily. See our Review.

Best Wii Game House of the Dead: Overkill Overkill lives up to its name in spades. The developers at Headstrong Games approached the newest addition to this game series with the idea to make it the worst possible game that they could, and the effort has paid off on almost every front. Never taking itself too seriously, or seriously at all for that matter, they created a zombie killing hit. The game is so bad, it’s amazingly good. Like an awesome B-movie you’re embarrassed to watch over and over and over again, House of the Dead: Overkill will quickly become your favorite game for the Wii, though you might not leave it sitting out when company comes over. See our Review.

Best Xbox 360 Game Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2 Although Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 came out on multiple platforms, the best presentation seemed to be for the Xbox 360. Driven by the strength of the Xbox Live multiplayer network, this astonishingly good shooter has taken on a life of its own beyond the single player game. In fact, many 360 fans reported skipping the single player story (at first anyway) just to jump into multiplayer matches, where it enjoys hundreds of thousands of fans who voted this one over the top with room to spare. See our Review.

Game of the Year Runner-up Borderlands Almost a sleeper hit in 2009, not too many people put their faith in Borderlands when it was in development. However, the final product is a marvel to behold on any platform. With beautiful cel-shading graphics, a tight storyline, and tons of white-hot shooter action, Borderlands is a game that lets you play for fifteen minutes or fifteen hours without getting bored. Throw in tons and tons of guns, and you have a real hit on your hands. Borderlands gets the second most votes for the GOTY category, and enough to earn it the runner-up spot in a very good year for gaming. See our Review.

Overall Game of the Year Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2 Hitting the ground with the most popular launch in the history of entertainment, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is a true juggernaut. Absolutely everything about the game is amazing, from the storyline with its many twists and turns to the variety of missions to the multiplayer action. Even the load screens between missions are fun to watch, as the game seamlessly blends action and cinema for an experience that you don’t want to miss. You can’t play this game without your heart racing, and that’s pretty darn cool. See our Review.

See awards from past years: 2008 , 2007 , 2006 , 2005 , 2004 , 2003 , 2002 , 2001 , 2000