Official 2008 Video Game of the Year Award's Discussion Thread

Well I just got done watching the 2008 VGA's, and was surprised, and not surprised by the winner of the Game of the Year award.

GTA IV took the Game of the Year award, with some heavy competition. I was just curious on what you guys thought on the results. I was surprised Left 4 Dead was not on the nominees list for Game of the Year.

Here is the winners list in case you missed the show:

Best Shooter: Gears of War 2 (Epic Games)
Best Xbox 360 Game: Gears of War 2 (Epic Games)
Best Indie Game Voted by the Fans: World of Goo (2D Boy)
Big Name in a Game: Kiefer Sutherland (Call of Duty: World at War)
Gamer God Inductee: Will Wright (Sim City, Spore)
Best RPG: Fallout 3 (Bethesda)
Best Music Game: Rock Band 2 (Harmonix)
Best Soundtrack in a Game: Rock Band 2 (Harmonix)
Studio of the Year: Media Molecule (Little Big Planet)
Studio of the Year: Little Big Planet (Media Molecule)
Best Driving: Burnout Paradise (Criterion)
Best Game Based on a Movie or TV Show: Lego Indy (Traveller’s Tales)
Best Fighting: Soul Calibur 4 (Project Soul)
Best Multiplayer: Left 4 Dead (Valve)
Best PC: Left 4 Dead (Valve)
Best Portable: Professor Layton (Level 5)
Best Wii: Boom Blox (EA Casual)
Best Individual Sports: Shaun White Snowboarding (Ubi Montreal)
Best Female in a Game: Jenny McCarthy as Tanya in Red Alert 3 (EA Westwood)
Best Performance by a Human Male: Michael Hollick as Niko Bellic (Grand Theft Auto IV)
Best Performance by a Human Female: Debbie Mae West as Meryl Silverburgh (Metal Gear Solid 4)
Best Graphics: Metal Gear Solid 4 (Kojima Productions)
Best Original Score: Metal Gear Solid 4 (Kojima Productions)
Best Action-Adventure Game: Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar Games)
Best Game of the Year: Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar Games)

 

I don't get it, are they stupid or something? Why does a game that 90% of it's fans can't properly run get nominated at all? It's not fair for Rockstar to get heat from its customers and then just be cooled off by a crazy honor like GOTY.

Great, Rockstar is happy with heads in the clouds. Now we'll never get a good port.

(PS: Surprised about L4D also, awesome game that ran on XBOX as well! ... and still lost out. Valve actually worked on L4D running on a different platform, and made sure people can play them. I feel bad for them actually, just hope Gabe Newell doesn't take it personally & kicks everyone's a***s next year with some Half-Life content. Or not even, just has to release a few L4D maps and campaigns. I bet if they did that this year they would've took the cake!!!)

 

i honestly wasnt that impressed with GTAIV, i mean it wasnt a bad game by any means, but there definitely were betters that should have won over it. Idk if id say Left 4 Dead should have gotten best game, but it definitely should have been considered given the popularity its had right from the start.

 

I knew Fallout 3 would be the best RPG.
Also a little surprised at GTA winning, guess it was hyped too much, I tried it and didn't find it too great.

 

These awards are not representing much.... its not all wrong, but definitely not all right.

The criteria for the awards are sometimes a bit skewed... and somewhat questionable.

I am going to wait for other awards to be given, by mags like MaximumPC, EGM, and sites like 1up, etc....

I do agree Fallout is quite good and deserves that title.
- as well as L4D, MGS4 and LitteBigPlanet

 

I haven't had the chance to play MGS4, but I would think it deserves GOTY. At the very least, exclusive of the year. GTA4 best action game. Best co-op L4D. Best online shooter CoD: WaW. Best graphics warhead. Best RPG I agree FO3

 

Gamer God Inductee...? For that pile of rubbish that was spore?

And GTA IV getting best game is rather surprising.

 

That's only the PC version. PC GTA IV accounts for very little to the overall fan base of GTA.

 

No I was talking about the PC fans.

But I completely forgot VGA was for everything, not just PC. Okay, GTA4 wins for me. L4D lacked any story and extra content, I can see why it lost.

 

I know you were talking about PC fans, but it won because of it's console popularity. I think it was a close run between GTA IV, Fallout 3, and Metal Gear Solid 4. Pretty much a year of sequels.

 

MGS4 was great visually and all, but honestly from a fan of the series since the original, it was a let down just cause the fact that half of the game was cut scenes, where was the gameplay?

 

It was more of an interactive movie, but I still found it quite enjoyable. (Been a fan since the Solid Snake NES days)

 

Ya, I agree. I used to love playing the older ones (My favorites were Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater).

I remember logging countless hours doing the same missions over and over. To bad I can't say the same for MGS4.

 

I must have beaten MGS2 on my xbox like 100 times lol

 

Boo, no love for Mass Effect.

 

Mass Effect was a great game, but IMO it could not compete with the standing power of Fallout 3, GTA IV, etc etc.

 

Mass Effect was released last year so it couldn't even be a contender.

 

I was thinking exact same thing, but was not sure, and was to lazy to do research, lol.

 

GTA4 was not all that great. I'm playing Fallout 3 now and I'm loving it. The only other game that I really played this year was MGS4 and that was incredible.

 

GTA IV is very dull in comparison to GTA:SA anyway imo.

Fallout 3 should be GOTY

 

Oh, well on PC I coulda swore it was released in '08.

I'd cast my vote for Fallout 3 then.