More so than ever before, all platforms have had some great games come out this year. The PS3 had a slow start on the software side, but the system has had pleasant surprises in the final months of the year.
The Xbox 360 had a lot of wonderful games this year, but 2007 will be known as the year of Halo 3. On the Nintendo front, gamers got the big payoff (if they could find a Wii!) in the form of Super Mario Galaxy. Handheld systems didn't do too badly either.
Below you will find our nominees for Best Game and Game of the Year awards for 2007.
Check back soon as we will be picking the winners. Until then, please comment on which games should be picked as #1 for 2007. Our radio show, Multiplayer Chat, will be discussing these games on Tuesday, December 25, at 9:30 PM EST, so be sure to tune in.
BEST ACTION GAME
- God of War II
- Assassin’s Creed
- Super Mario Galaxy
- Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
- Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass
BEST FIGHTING GAME
- Virtua Fighter 5
- Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection
- Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3
- King of Fighters XI
BEST RACING GAME
- Forza Motorsport 2
- Project Gotham Racing 4
- DiRT
- Need for Speed Prostreet
BEST ROLE PLAYING GAME
- Mass Effect
- Eternal Sonata
- Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions
- Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3
- Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings
BEST PLATFORMER
- Super Mario Galaxy
- Mega Man ZX Advent
- Contra 4
- Crush
BEST PUZZLE GAME
- Crush
- Picross DS
- Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
- Planet Puzzle League
BEST MUSIC/RHYTHM GAME
- Rock Band
- Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
- Beats
- Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80s
BEST SHOOTER
- Halo 3
- Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
- The Orange Box
- Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2
- Crysis
BEST STRATEGY GAME
- Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
- Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars
- World in Conflict
- Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance
- Universe at War: Earth Assault
BEST SPORTS GAME
- skate
- Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground
- Madden NFL 08
- NHL 08
- NBA 2K8
Article comments
1 - Andrew Ogier
Bah, you didn't put in my suggestion of Space Giraffe for XBLA game of the year!
And, if Tekken beats out Virtua Fighter, I'll shoot myself in the face in protest. If a world where Tekken deserves to be in any "best game of year xxx" list, is the day I don't want to be part of the human race. C'mon guys, why even have Tekken even listed when it's not anywhere close to being as good as the other contenders (And that's saying something, considering Dragon Ball Z is in the list)?
2 - Ken Edwards
With one pick out of 15, it is kind of hard to add it to the XBLA list. That, and it sucked. You are one of the few who liked it. Also the categories are capped at 5 noms each, otherwise it would get ridiculous.
Tekken is in the list because it is very popular. You just hate it with a passion that not many of us have.
3 - Rb
How can The Orange Box be considered for game of year being that it is a collections of games and not a single title?
Ridiculous.
4 - Matt Paprocki
It's a product, as are the other games listed. Not to mention two of them are brand new games. Should Taito Legends not be considered for anything even though it's a compilation?
5 - MikeB
Call of Duty 4 is basically the same on the 360 and PS3, according to the devs the PS3 version offers slightly better graphics. I agree not to put the game on the PS3 list of best games, but it's striking none of the PS3 games made it onto the overall list, yet Call of Duty 4 made it. :-)
IMO Halo 3 and Crysis are being overhyped.
6 - MikeB
I think:
Best Racing Game: Motorstorm deserves a spot there.
Best RPG: I think Folklore deserves a spot there, although Oblivion (much improved in visuals and load times, but still not as rock solid one would expect from a console game) on the PS3 is also good.
Best innovation: Actually Lair isn't the disaster of a game US reviewers claimed it to be. The Sixaxis control works and is good fun, but I mostly think Lair deserves a spot for its remote-play connectivity with the PSP. (IMO Halo 3 lacks innovation, don't think the game truly deserves its spot here)
7 - Andrew Ogier
Rb Wrote:
"
How can The Orange Box be considered for game of year being that it is a collections of games and not a single title?
Ridiculous.
"
It's very simple. It's a single SKU called "The Orange Box". Now, The Orange Box is made up of different parts, yes... but so are most games when you think of them. Do we split up Uncharted because it has driving AND adventure segments? No. We look at the product as a whole, and that's what we did with Orange Box.
MikeB Wrote:
"
Call of Duty 4 is basically the same on the 360 and PS3, according to the devs the PS3 version offers slightly better graphics. I agree not to put the game on the PS3 list of best games, but it's striking none of the PS3 games made it onto the overall list, yet Call of Duty 4 made it. :-)
IMO Halo 3 and Crysis are being overhyped.
"
Yes, I think there is an oversight there. It *Should* be in the PS3 list also.
As for Halo 3 and Crysis being overhyped...have you played either of them? Both are utterly fantastic games for different reasons - reasons which deem them both in the running for Game of the Year, right alongside COD4.
MikeB Wrote:
"
Best Racing Game: Motorstorm deserves a spot there.
"
At first glance, yes it SEEMS to be a good racing game, but once you've stripped away the pretty graphics, you're left with a rather bland, empty, simplistic structure of a game with very little (apart from visuals) that stand out. It doesn't deserve to be on the list because quite frankly, there were much, much better racing games released this year.
Mike B Wrote:
"
Best RPG: I think Folklore deserves a spot there, although Oblivion (much improved in visuals and load times, but still not as rock solid one would expect from a console game) on the PS3 is also good."
Folklore was average in every respect. While it may be one of the only 2 decent RPGS on the PS3, there were dozens of better games released on other systems in 2007, therefore it didn't get nominated. Oblivion, while a good game, was unfortunately overshadowed this year. There were SO many good RPGs released, and many had to be dropped from nominations (including my personal favourites, Hellgate London and Blue Dragon). Oblivion had a good showing last year, but this year we've been inundated with great RPG games.
Mike B Wrote:
"
Best innovation: Actually Lair isn't the disaster of a game US reviewers claimed it to be. The Sixaxis control works and is good fun, but I mostly think Lair deserves a spot for its remote-play connectivity with the PSP. (IMO Halo 3 lacks innovation, don't think the game truly deserves its spot here)"
Lair wasn't the disaster US reviewers claimed it to be, it's nowhere near game of the year material. At best, Lair is poor. At it's worst, its an absolute joke, considering how long the game was in development for. It doesn't deserve a nomination at all...apart from in the "Worst of 2007" lists.
As for Halo 3 lacking innovation, well, if you don't count the fact that it is the first ever console game with a 4 player online campaign, with the most in-depth, intelligent matchmaking system ever created, and an innovative on-the-fly, multi-person, in-game editor (again, a first for any console game), and an automatic replay film mode available at the click of a button for both Single and Multiplayer, then I guess Halo 3 isn't that innovative. Even if it didn't have those features, it'd still be more worthy of a place than Lair due to it's amazing innovation in the usage of 7.1 WMA Pro sound.
It's obvious you like your PS3, judging from your comments about what games should be in the list, but the truth of the matter is that on other systems (which you may or may not have access to, I don't know) there were games far more worthy of the praise.
8 - MikeB
@ Andrew Ogier
> As for Halo 3 and Crysis being overhyped...have
> you played either of them? Both are utterly
> fantastic games for different reasons - reasons
> which deem them both in the running for Game of
> the Year, right alongside COD4.
Yes, my expectations for Halo 3 were much higher. Technically the game isn't that impressive neither 640p, no AA and not a solid framerate, far below my expectations for the highest profile XBox 360 exclusive the platform will ever see until maybe Halo 4.
Crysis is also good, the minimal system specs are too high and for the required specs below my expectations, gameplay IMO is not Game of the Year worthy.
>> Best Racing Game: Motorstorm deserves a spot
>> there.
> At first glance, yes it SEEMS to be a good
> racing game, but once you've stripped away the
> pretty graphics, you're left with a rather
> bland, empty, simplistic structure of a game
> with very little (apart from visuals) that stand
> out. It doesn't deserve to be on the list
> because quite frankly, there were much, much
> better racing games released this year.
I don't agree, the graphics do add to the experience, but downgrade the graphics and you still have an amazing game with motorcycles and ATV hopping over each other like crazy, rough rocky terrains, huge tracks, lots of fun!
A very refreshing and exciting game, much more so for me than games like PGR4, DiRT and NFS Prostreet. Forza 2 looks cool, haven't played the game enough to judge.
> first ever console game with a 4 player online
> campaign
I'm far more impressed with Warhawk.
> At best, Lair is poor.
Parts of the game were poorly polished, other parts are excellent and amazing at times. Not a game of the year contender, but IMO remote-play PSP should be a contender for innovation.
9 - MikeB
@ Andrew Ogier
Folklore is very stylish and offers very interesting gameplay, I am not the only one who thinks the game should have gotten more attention.
10 - MikeB
@ Andrew Ogier
> Yes, I think there is an oversight there. It
> *Should* be in the PS3 list also.
I don't agree, maybe if the game offered 7.1 audio, 720p rendering resolution instead of 600p and a single player campaign which isn't over in less than 5 hours! 8-10 hours would have been acceptable for me, come on devs make good use of that huge storage space available on Blu-Ray disc!