Game of the Year 2009 poll [ - RESULTS - ]

fragglefart

I really need to get ACII, Borderlands and MW2.

Capt Howdy

This just reminds me how late to the party I am sometimes. I tried FO3 after the poll last year and loved it to death. I'm thinking Boarderlands will be a similar experience.

And this year is shaping up beautifully with Darksiders and Bayonetta already.

Kuratosu

Xagarath wrote: »

And, obviously, lack of Little King's Story votes is a disgrace.

It was in my top 5. At least it just squeaked in top 50... =/

fragglefart

Haha I've still not got around to playing Fallout. After the 200 hours I put into Oblivion I don't know I'll ever have time for it.

captaink

People getting mad at the results need to read more about how the results are calculated.

joshofalltrades

It's funny to me that somebody put The Path as #4 favorite for the entire year

Who are you

REVEAL YOURSELF

Zombie Hero

I like to look at games that scores low on the overall list but still got #1 votes. Never heard of Mirror Stage or the Harvest Moon:Animal Parade. Looks like the few people who played Football Manager loved it.

Clash of Heroes needed more love. 72? We could have done better than that.

Edit: Is there a way to rank the votes to adjust for percentage of individual voter input? In other words, if someone votes for just one game, that vote counts for 20 points, but if someone votes for 10 games, each of those votes counts for 2 each? Do you have that data stored anywhere?

mxmarks

I was pretty happy I wasn't the only one naming 'Splosion Man #1 for the year. That game just totally captured my attention and never let go. I want the Avatar shirt they give you to be real so I can wear it all the time.

Lunker

mxmarks wrote: »

I was pretty happy I wasn't the only one naming 'Splosion Man #1 for the year. That game just totally captured my attention and never let go. I want the Avatar shirt they give you to be real so I can wear it all the time.

Have you seen their actual T-shirts?



I saw HMXSean post a picture of this T-shirt on his Twitter account, which was such a hot mashup of my fanboy desires that I almost exploded.

Spoiler:

or should I say SPLODED?

mcc

Behemoth wrote: »

Hm, kinda surprising how low Uncharted ended up.

I'm happy with how Demon's Souls ranked: low-ish, but with a lot of #1 votes.

I think it's pretty clear the scores for both Uncharted and Demon's Souls have a lot (everything?) to do with the PS3 installed base. I mean seriously Uncharted was #3 (and almost beat Batman) in first-place votes.

Alfred J. Kwak

Capt Howdy wrote: »

This just reminds me how late to the party I am sometimes. I tried FO3 after the poll last year and loved it to death. I'm thinking Boarderlands will be a similar experience.

And this year is shaping up beautifully with Darksiders and Bayonetta already.

Borderlands is amazing (my top pick this year), but remember, you need to find a good coop partner to get the most out of it.

hottoq

mcc wrote: »

Behemoth wrote: »

Hm, kinda surprising how low Uncharted ended up.

I'm happy with how Demon's Souls ranked: low-ish, but with a lot of #1 votes.

I think it's pretty clear the scores for both Uncharted and Demon's Souls have a lot (everything?) to do with the PS3 installed base. I mean seriously Uncharted was #3 (and almost beat Batman) in first-place votes.

Yeah, if Uncharted 2 was multiplatform (or just on the 360) it would've won every game of the year vote pretty easily lol.

metfansc

OremLK wrote: »

Arkham Asylum? Pretty good game, but GOTY, seriously? Over DA:O too?

Guess I should have paid attention and voted rather than just bitching after the fact

Edit: But man, looking over the list... what a weak year for games, especially compared to 2008. I enjoyed a lot of these games, but I can't say any of them other than Dragon Age really grabbed me by the throat.

Man, I couldn't possibly feel different about that in terms of 2009. I have so many games I really enjoyed playing this year:

Demon Souls
Dragon Age: Origins
Borderlands
Torchlight
Uncharted
Ratchet & Clank
Champions Online

Just to name a few. The fact that there were 3 top notch RPG type games in Demon Souls, Dragon Age and Borderlands this year for me was just fantastic. Rarely do I get a year where I have so many good games to play.

pslong9

Just for S&G, I took the data and just rated them by average points - so the 20 pts for #1, 19 for #2, etc, summed up and divided by total number of people who voted for it.

If anyone can tell me how to format this, I'd love to see it - but the order is total points, number of votes, and average.

Removing games with fewer than 10 votes:

1. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3) 3858 210 18.37142857
2. Dragon Age: Origins (360,PC,PS3) 7019 395 17.76962025
3. Batman: Arkham Asylum (360,PC,PS3) 7772 438 17.74429224
4. Assassin's Creed II (360,PS3) 4205 247 17.0242915
5. Rune Factory Frontier (Wii) 168 10 16.8
6. Demon's Souls (PS3) 2342 143 16.37762238
7. Left 4 Dead 2 (360,PC) 4295 265 16.20754717
8. Borderlands (360,PC,PS3) 5579 347 16.0778098
9. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii) 3386 213 15.89671362
10. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (360,PC,PS3) 4458 281 15.86476868
11. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (Wii) 344 22 15.63636364
12. League of Legends (PC) 450 29 15.51724138
13. Forza Motorsport 3 (360) 1034 67 15.43283582
14. Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time (PS3) 694 46 15.08695652
15. Machinarium (PC) 692 46 15.04347826
16. Street Fighter IV (360,PC,PS3) 2576 172 14.97674419
17. The Beatles: Rock Band (360,PS3,Wii) 1991 133 14.96992481
18. Torchlight (PC) 3792 255 14.87058824
19. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II (PC) 1509 102 14.79411765
20. BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger (360,PS3) 1253 85 14.74117647
21. Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City (360) 678 46 14.73913043
22. Half-Minute Hero (PSP) 309 21 14.71428571
23. Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor (DS) 659 45 14.64444444
24. Infamous (PS3) 1844 126 14.63492063
25. Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes (DS) 395 27 14.62962963
26. LittleBigPlanet (PSP) 409 28 14.60714286
27. ARMA 2 (PC) 332 23 14.43478261
28. Halo 3: ODST (360) 2104 146 14.4109589
29. Star Guard (PC) 230 16 14.375
30. AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity (PC) 201 14 14.35714286
31. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (DS) 1241 87 14.26436782
32. Empire: Total War (PC) 1092 77 14.18181818
33. Skate 2 (360,PS3) 479 34 14.08823529
34. Shadow Complex (360*) 2460 175 14.05714286
35. Colin McRae: Dirt 2 (360,DS,PC,PS3,PSP,Wii) 140 10 14
36. Red Faction: Guerrilla (360,PC,PS3) 1665 120 13.875
37. Dragon Quest V (DS) 457 33 13.84848485
38. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (DS) 1257 91 13.81318681
39. Tropico 3 (PC) 289 21 13.76190476
40. Tales of Monkey Island (PC,Wii) 798 58 13.75862069
41. Don't Look Back (Flash) 233 17 13.70588235
42. Captain Forever / Successor (Flash) 219 16 13.6875
43. Resident Evil 5 (360,PC,PS3) 2941 215 13.67906977
44. NHL 10 (360,PS3) 410 30 13.66666667
45. Plants vs. Zombies (PC) 1773 130 13.63846154
46. Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume (DS) 190 14 13.57142857
47. Brütal Legend (360,PS3) 2008 148 13.56756757
48. King's Bounty: Armored Princess (PC) 230 17 13.52941176
49. Way of the Samurai 3 (360,PS3) 135 10 13.5
50. Phantasy Star 0 (DS) 283 21 13.47619048

Mr Fox

So alot of people voted Uncharted number 1
I would like to Vote for PS3 games I've played at my friends house (UC2 and Demon Souls), but I cant in good conscious vote for games I don't own, let alone have the console for.

Henroid

Half the games I played made it onto the list, yay.

I'm surprised that Batman took the top though. I had heard it was good but I never got the impression it was going to come above so many other things.

Barrabas

Henroid wrote: »

Half the games I played made it onto the list, yay.

I'm surprised that Batman took the top though. I had heard it was good but I never got the impression it was going to come above so many other things.

Well it was really good, and really good on all platforms. It had no weak releases. Dragon Age was really good on the PC but had shortcomings on other platforms. Borderlands was really good on consoles but had some serious PC shortcomings. The other two in the top 5 I don't own and can't speak for.

AshtonDragon

Haha, Rune Factory Frontier getting 5th in that last list is hilarious. It's a little unfair considering its total number of votes, but it does just make me wish that more people had played it.

Henroid

Of the games I voted for, the one that got lowest rank was Pulseman (178 on the list), also having the largest gap from the next game up on my list (which is DJ Hero at 76 on the list). DJ Hero was my lowest rated game though.

pslong9

AshtonDragon wrote: »

Haha, Rune Factory Frontier getting 5th in that last list is hilarious. It's a little unfair considering its total number of votes, but it does just make me wish that more people had played it.

Yeah, I thought about raising the vote total higher, but it would have eliminated Rune Factory Frontier, and I just couldn't do that. I brought down the average on that, actually - I put it at 14th, pretty much entirely because of the Runey system. If the Runey system was better, I probably would have placed it at 4th, which would have bumped it up to 2nd on that list.

Edit: Wow, I don't know what makes me more sad - that PictoBits only got 4 votes, or that Swords & Soldiers only got 3.

UnbreakableVow

Unco-ordinated wrote: »

UnbreakableVow wrote: »

Team Fortress 2 had a plot?

Wow, Team Fortress 2 has a single player mode? Or are you saying that we should completely ignore the mode that the vast majority of the games budget would've been spent on?

Also, if 'better is subjective' then how is MW2's multiplayer 'unmatched'?

UnbreakableVow wrote:

I was talking in terms of raw numbers

'Cause this thing is based on popular vote

Numbers

Show me another console game that has as high a number of players as MW2. Have fun with that.

Also, yes, it is absolutely acceptable to ignore modes in lieu of other ones. Resident Evil 4 is one of my favorite games of all time despite me thinking that Mercenaries mode is pure garbage. Why? Because the single-player is so outstanding. Same with MW2. You can safely ignore the single-player and it could still qualify to be on that list by itself.

It's the same reason GTAIV and MGS4 were so highly lauded last year despite both of them having absolutely trash multiplayer modes. Who cares where they allocated their resources? Are you their fucking budget manager? What matters is the final product they put out is of high enough quality overall to keep people hooked, even if its solely in one or two of its game modes.

EDIT: Also before anyone says that's bringing up "popularity" again and uses another awful Transformers 2 analogy, the difference is thus: Transformers 2 was the highest-grossing movie of the year but was a critical flop in every way. Modern Warfare 2 was the most financially successful game of the year and had the review scores to match. This is a case, then, where the high quality of the product actually justifies the numbers, so if you can't see why it wouldn't be on this list other than "I don't like it abloo bloo" then you are a moron of the highest order.

cj iwakura

I can't access the result page for some reason.

joshofalltrades

I'm still waiting to hear from the person who hilariously and obviously ironically voted the Path as 4th best game of the year

Step forward and receive your prize

Melkster

UnbreakableVow wrote: »

EDIT: Also before anyone says that's bringing up "popularity" again and uses another awful Transformers 2 analogy, the difference is thus: Transformers 2 was the highest-grossing movie of the year but was a critical flop in every way. Modern Warfare 2 was the most financially successful game of the year and had the review scores to match. This is a case, then, where the high quality of the product actually justifies the numbers, so if you can't see why it wouldn't be on this list other than "I don't like it abloo bloo" then you are a moron of the highest order.

Well... Not really. PC Gamer trashed the game hard, condemning it's multiplayer and single player. The only saving grace, said the best-selling American PC magazine, was co-op. The cooperative play mode was the only thing that kept the score from sinking below 80%. The rest of the game was a low to mid-%70 performer. They didn't even mention the fact that it costs 20% more than every other PC game, save MMOs and their monthly subscriptions.

And most PC-exclusive reviews and review sources agreed with that assessment. Metacritic and Gameranking's numbers are misleading. The PC version of the game has outliers from sources that used one score for all versions of the game, without substantial differentiation.

Tanolen

Good list, to bad Risen was so underappreciated.

Rami

Hi 5 Little King's Story voters. Pay rises for all!

Spoit

Is anyone else having trouble getting the color coded page to load?

Darlan

I'm a little surprised that L4D2 is as high as it is and that Prototype made the top 20 at all, but overall no huge shocks. I wonder if Uncharted 2 would have taken top accolades if the PS3 install base was as big as the 360's.

And damn Wii, pick up the pace. If I hadn't sold mine last year, I surely would have this year.

cj iwakura

Wii's got Shiren The Wanderer, No More Heroes 2, and Trauma Team coming this year, and Radio Allergy 2(not that I expect anyone to know what that is).

Renzo

My biggest surprise is that Prototype hit the top 20. I really liked it, but I didn't think many people did. And I don't really like Left4Dead and don't understand the love for it, so eh.

LewieP

cj iwakura wrote: »

Wii's got Shiren The Wanderer, No More Heroes 2, and Trauma Team coming this year, and Radio Allergy 2(not that I expect anyone to know what that is).

Magenta'd for "Me me me!"

-SPI-

Melkster wrote: »

UnbreakableVow wrote: »

EDIT: Also before anyone says that's bringing up "popularity" again and uses another awful Transformers 2 analogy, the difference is thus: Transformers 2 was the highest-grossing movie of the year but was a critical flop in every way. Modern Warfare 2 was the most financially successful game of the year and had the review scores to match. This is a case, then, where the high quality of the product actually justifies the numbers, so if you can't see why it wouldn't be on this list other than "I don't like it abloo bloo" then you are a moron of the highest order.

Well... Not really. PC Gamer trashed the game hard, condemning it's multiplayer and single player. The only saving grace, said the best-selling American PC magazine, was co-op. The cooperative play mode was the only thing that kept the score from sinking below 80%. The rest of the game was a low to mid-%70 performer. They didn't even mention the fact that it costs 20% more than every other PC game, save MMOs and their monthly subscriptions.

And most PC-exclusive reviews and review sources agreed with that assessment. Metacritic and Gameranking's numbers are misleading. The PC version of the game has outliers from sources that used one score for all versions of the game, without substantial differentiation.

"Trashed the game hard"

"80%"

What?

Darlan

-SPI- wrote: »

Melkster wrote: »

UnbreakableVow wrote: »

EDIT: Also before anyone says that's bringing up "popularity" again and uses another awful Transformers 2 analogy, the difference is thus: Transformers 2 was the highest-grossing movie of the year but was a critical flop in every way. Modern Warfare 2 was the most financially successful game of the year and had the review scores to match. This is a case, then, where the high quality of the product actually justifies the numbers, so if you can't see why it wouldn't be on this list other than "I don't like it abloo bloo" then you are a moron of the highest order.

Well... Not really. PC Gamer trashed the game hard, condemning it's multiplayer and single player. The only saving grace, said the best-selling American PC magazine, was co-op. The cooperative play mode was the only thing that kept the score from sinking below 80%. The rest of the game was a low to mid-%70 performer. They didn't even mention the fact that it costs 20% more than every other PC game, save MMOs and their monthly subscriptions.

And most PC-exclusive reviews and review sources agreed with that assessment. Metacritic and Gameranking's numbers are misleading. The PC version of the game has outliers from sources that used one score for all versions of the game, without substantial differentiation.

"Trashed the game hard"

"80%"

What?

Not to mention that even if it were a 60 or whatever, a small number of low reviews doesn't mean much next to Transformers 2 being blasted by practically every film reviewer. MW2 is objectively a critically acclaimed game--whether or not that's justified is another matter.

Zython

Fuck, I put off voting too long. Ah well, maybe next year.

TelMarine

I think an interesting thing to think about Modern Warfare 2 is its longevity. How many people will be playing it 5-10 years from now? I'm going to guess not very many compared to some other games (starcraft, half-life/counterstrike, quake, unreal, etc), especially on the computer. Call of Duty 2 and 4 I'd guess will have more people. It seems more then ever then publishers/developers want you to play the game for about a year then toss it to buy the new version.

Darlan

TelMarine wrote: »

I think an interesting thing to think about Modern Warfare 2 is its longevity. How many people will be playing it 5-10 years from now? I'm going to guess not very many compared to some other games (starcraft, half-life/counterstrike, quake, unreal, etc), especially on the computer. Call of Duty 2 and 4 I'd guess will have more people. It seems more then ever then publishers/developers want you to play the game for about a year then toss it to buy the new version.

That is a good point: I've already put in MW1 since trying 2 and found myself liking it more. It's hard to put my finger on what exactly it is about 2, but I just get more frustrated and have a lot less fun than when I'm playing the first game. Maybe it's weapon balance, maybe it's the ridiculous killstreaks (thank god they got rid of martydo--OH GOD IS THAT A MISSLE SHOOTING DIRECTLY INTO MY FACE FROM THE SKY), maybe it's the fact that they didn't bother fixing the broken-ass spawn system and it's more annoying in 2 because dammit they should have fixed it by now, or maybe it's the simple fact that MW1 did it first, but I see myself going back to MW1 more in the long run.

Darth_Mogs

Kinda hoped Uncharted 2 would've broken the top 5, since that would have been -huge- for a PS3 exclusive. Oh well, 7 is still really big, all things considered. I'll just have to take solace in knowing it would've taken 3rd had First Place votes been all that mattered.

And all the people saying this was just an average year for games baffles me.

Ampix

Crap how did I miss the voting for this!? Little King's Story was game of the year, The king could totally beat up Batman!

It's a pretty weird game though, I understand it not actually getting GOTY. It would be an awesome game for a Let's Play.

Aegeri

I find Little King Story is adorable but it's not GotY by a long way. It's music is very repetitive and very annoying (as are the obnoxious sounds of the game), with some annoyances in the games control systems. Beyond that though it's a really excellent and charming game. It's my best Wii game.

EvilBadman

I have updated the Game of the Decade Nominations with 2009's top 30. The list sits at 305 games, now all I need to do is convince MCC to use his existing vote scripts to run it.

As a reminder, the list is comprised of the top 30 games of MCC's poll from 2004-2009. Game rankings and Metacritic were used for the years 2000-2003. It is entirely possible I left off your favorite game, you should probably PM me about it. Nomination suggestions of yearly sport games will be mocked unless there is a consensus of a best year.

Edit: Games with expansions have been grouped together as long as their original game came out after Janurary 1, 2000. The list is also missing most of the console designations, but at this point most people know what systems a game has been on.