Let's be honest: most of us place a lot of stock in game of the year awards. We all have our favourites, and in good years, like this one, it's tough to narrow it down to those few games. Which is why instead of just doing a single top X list, I'm changing the game - FOUR lists, each smaller than the last.

5 runners-up.
3 3rd place games.
2 2nd place games.
1 Game of the Year.

Sounds amazing, doesn't it? As a special bonus, at the end I'll throw in this at the end so you can tell me how ignorant I am:

6 best games I never played.

No point in wasting more space rambling, let's get into it!



RUNNERS-UP


Shadow Complex, Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, Demon's Souls, Assassin's Creed II, Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time

You know it's an amazing year when even the runners-up could be game of the year contenders. Talking up all the high points of each would take five blog posts, so I'm going to limit myself to a few points on each.

Shadow Complex (XBLA)
+ Metroid with a modern twist
+ great power-ups (foam gun!)
+ resurrected a genre

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (NDS)
+ made RPGs fun again
+ awesome, giant Bowser battles
+ hilarious dialogue

Demon's Souls (PS3)
+ taught everyone what it means to be a sobbing little girl
+ hard as teeth, and just as satisfying
+ eerie aesthetic

Assassin's Creed II (PS3/360)
+ proved that second time's the charm
+ brought back the collectible platformer
+ when the assassinations work, they work

Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time (PS3)
+ put to shame the claim that you can't teach and old dog new tricks
+ wide open environments
+ challenge planets



3RD PLACE


Torchlight, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor, Flower

Now that we're looking at third place, I can afford to get a bit more detailed.

Torchlight (PC)

Torchlight was by far the hardest game for me to place in this scale. I'm still on Cloud 9; I've only been playing the game a few days and it's in my head every waking moment. I can't decide what I like best about it. Is it the steampunk/fantasy aesthetic? The shitty wizard who gives gifts with one hand and punches you in the eye with the other? The randomly generated maps you can purchase, filled to the brim with boss monsters? Items with fifteen enchants? The list goes on and on and on. Suffice to say, Torchlight is modern man's Diablo 2, with all of the addiction and none of the archaic interface. With a fantastic dev team watching it like a hawk and a community that's put together hundreds of mods already, Torchlight is not only a game for this year - it's the game you'll have installed on every computer you own, "just in case".

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor (NDS)

If there's one thing that always gets me, it's a game that forces you to make hard choices and pay for them. Devil Survivor does that in spades. At any point you have half a dozen options available to you, and in many cases, someone's life is riding on the choice. I've already written a blog on just how poignant the choice and consequence of Devil Survivor is. Mix in a fantastic battle system that blends tactical and traditional JRPGs, interesting art and music direction and a plot that will have you needing to find out what comes next, and you have one of the few DS games I would ever consider for Game of the Year.

Flower (PSN)

Another game I've already written a blog about, I once said that Flower "will be my game of the year". Certainly, time, and a fall filled with games I did not expect, have changed that, but Flower still deserves a strong spot in my list of competitors. I don't believe any person who played through Flower could argue that it's anything but an emotional rollercoaster; a story communicated through visual and auditory cues that is empowering in a way that leaves goosebumps on your skin. Certainly an art game at heart, Flower is the perfect example of why games need to (sometimes) think outside the box, the house, and out into green fields and blue skies.



2ND PLACE


Batman: Arkham Asylum, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

These games were hard to pick, and I feel a bit bad picking them both; on some deeply fundamental level I feel like Arkham Asylum and Uncharted are successful for much the same reason, and it's almost like picking the same game twice.

Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3/360)

Admittedly as a Batman fan I may be less than objective when considering a Batman game as a potential Game of the Year contender, particularly one that is also a good game on every other level. But even ignoring it's comic book roots, Arkham Asylum provides a complete package quite unique in the medium. On the Arkham Asylum disk, a player will find a compelling single player, nearly-open world game, a bevy of behind the scenes videos and an increasingly-large quantity of challenge maps. The game can be played however the wishes to, whether that be as a linear experience or an open-world collectathon, complete with riddles and hidden items. Combat and Stealth are an example all modern games should look to. Despite being incredibly simple and intuitive to control, both "modes" of the game provide the player with enough options to create satisfying depth. Simplicity and complexity in the same package; this leads me to the next game...

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)

There are a lot of reasons people love Uncharted. Most often cited are the gorgeous visuals, the Indiana Jones plot, the incredibly voice and motion capture cast or the over-the-top setpieces. A less mentioned quality, one that has been very much improved between the first and the second, is the amount of depth the player is offered relative to the complexity of the controls. In the first game, a player might spend their entire playthrough sitting behind cover and spraying bullets - not so in Uncharted 2.

Now, there is reward for using though when entering an arena. No longer limited to mainly corridors and small outdoor areas, Uncharted 2 rewards a player who moves into a position where they can have the most advantage. Weapons are scattered everywhere, ensuring the best tool for the job is always at hand. A new spread of stealth attacks allow a player to eliminate targets beforehand. In one battle, you might eliminate three enemies by stealth, move forward behind a riot shield firing magnum rounds, bunker down with a rocket launcher before switching to an assault rifle, then finally push forward and eliminate stragglers with a shotgun. It's the same principle of freeflow combat as Arkham Asylum, and like the other game, it provides a sneak peak into a future of intuitive, dynamic gameplay.



GAME OF THE YEAR


Dragon Age: Origins

Dragon Age is, quite honestly, a game with many flaws. The visuals are all over the place by modern standards. Some of the voice acting and characterization can be grating. Hell, I found a game breaking glitch that made me end my playthrough forty hours in. Despite all this, Dragon Age is indisputably my game of the year.

I mentioned in my Devil Survivor blurb that I respect a game that makes you make difficult choices. There have been other games like this: Mass Effect, The Witcher, etc. Dragon Age takes this to a new level. There is no good or evil, but there is the impression you leave on your companions, a humanization of good and evil that is much more reflective of reality than a meter ever was. Choices you make early on can rear their heads anywhere - when you leave behind a mess, do not believe that it will not follow you. Ultimately, as a Gray Warden, Dragon Age tasks you with saving the world, and there may be times where you decide in order to do that you must force people to do things that make your stomach twist. But you will do it, because Dragon Age has done such an amazing job of sinking you into its lore that you truly believe that what you did was the only right decision.

Of course, with choice comes consequence, and Dragon Age weaves an illusion of consequence quite unlike anything done before. While, ultimately, most choices will eventually lead down the same path as another player, Dragon Age makes you always feel like it was your choice that brought you to where you stand. At the end of it all, your decisions form the threads of a grand story that you will find yourself invested in.

Gameplay meets story stride for stride. The combat in Dragon Age takes all of the best bits from it's spiritual ancestor, Baldur's Gate, and it's more direct influence, World of Warcraft. The delicate balance of tank, DPS and healer is here, but it's less cut and dry and leaves much more room for moving outside those boundaries. The variety of spells and attacks echo that of a Dungeons and Dragons-based game while being very clearly designed for a video game from the beginning. Micromanaging each party member is the key to success, and each battle is interesting. In my playthrough on Normal, I found the battles roughly evenly balanced between easy, challenging and difficult, a balance which was as compelling as the combat itself.

It may be difficult to understand why Dragon Age is a clear Game of the Year winner from just reading this. After all, other games have had good stories, gameplay, and even graphics to boot. To really understand Dragon Age, it must be played, preferably for long stretches of time and in an absorbing environment. Normally, it's difficult to pick the best game of the year, but in the case of Dragon Age, it took no time at all.



Best Games I Didn't Play, and Other Caveats

Well, obviously there are a few things missing here. There are some high profile games I didn't touch with a ten foot pole, and I'm writing this December 1st - there are still games to come out. However, as it stands, I have played every game I plan to this year and more. So here is a short list of the "best games I never played" of 2009, so you can tell me obviously Borderlands was GOTY and I am an ignorant fool.

Borderlands
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
Halo 3: ODST
Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Brutal Legend



Final Thoughts

When we were approaching the fall season, I thought it would be pretty empty. I had planned on only Uncharted 2 and Ratchet 2; Dragon Age wasn't even on my radar. I had already figured Batman was going to be game of the year and thought that I'd have trouble entertaining myself until the Q1 2010 rush. Turns out I was wrong. Of the 11 games on my list, 7 came out in Q4.

The other thing I'm surprised about is how few games came from Japan. Only 3 games are Eastern. I have in the past been more a fan of Japanese games than American, but as this gen goes on it's increasingly clear that the East hasn't been able to keep up with the West when it comes to game design and execution.

I was also surprised I didn't end up picking any PSP games, as I'm a Sony-addled fanboy who can barely identify my Xbox since it spent the last six months under a blanket.That being said, three of my games were Sony exclusives, so I guess I still am kind of a blind follower.

Finally, it's been an amazing year for games. Possibly better than 2007, the best year ever. I hope everyone had as much fun as I did.