Co-op Game of the Year
Halo 3

Four-player online co-op was pretty much the only way to fully enjoy (and survive) Legendary campaign mode in Halo 3 — and with the inclusion of the Skulls meta-game, Bungie’s trilogy-ending Master Chief opus went from straightforward, familiar-feeling single-player to a shooter-tastic social with three friends. Wonderfully executed and certainly a whiz-bang surprise for us all.
Just Missed: Golden Axe, Aegis Wing, GRAW 2, Rainbow Six Vegas

Achievement of the Year
High Flyer (Crackdown)
It’s one thing to make a world as wide-open as Pacific City; it’s another to give players a novel way to explore it. Climb to the top of the highest point in town – the Agency HQ – for a gorgeous panoramic view and 10 Gamerscore. You’ll get 10 more points for the Base Jumper Achievement if you can survive the dive down.
Just Missed: Press START to Play (The Simpsons Game)

RPG of the Year
Mass Effect
We didn’t call this the “360’s best game yet” lightly — BioWare’s latest masterpiece sets the new standard for richness in storytelling, game universes, dialogue, and so much more. No other RPG came within a light-year of Mass Effect’s power to awe us.
Not Even Close: Eternal Sonata, Blue Dragon

Fan Service Award
Hudson
After the nightmare of Bomberman: Act Zero, Hudson promised fans the Bomberman of their dreams. Bomberman Live delivered eight-player online matches with unlockable costumes, several clever arenas, and customizable power-ups. Then, to sweeten the deal, Hudson released three downloadable-content packs for a very reasonable price ($3.13 each) that added more arenas, characters, gametypes, and even leaderboards. Apology accepted!
Just Missed: Harmonix (Rock Band)

 

Most Shocking Moment of the Year
It’s a TIE! Your suicide (The Darkness) & the “Would you kindly…” reveal (BioShock)
We don’t like ties, but we just can’t favor one of these masterpiece moments over the other. BioShock’s big twist revealed the importance of a subtle layer of storytelling, while The Darkness’ self-inflicted end (near the beginning of the game!) made our jaws drop. They’re both equally deserving of the award for the risks these storytellers were brave enough to take. Bravo!

Missed Opportunity of the Year
No online Band World Tour (Rock Band)
Not everyone is lucky enough to be able to meet up with their three best bandmates in a living room, and Band World Tour is Rock Band’s best mode by a country mile. And don’t tell us it was a lag issue — too many other games have cracked it with far more players and far more stringent demands on the network. Time to dust off a little coding prowess and get us a patch already, Harmonix — this omission is inexcusable.
Just Missed: No Achievements for Xbox Originals/original-Xbox games, No multiplayer in Cyberball 2072

Shooter of the Year
BioShock
Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3 showcase amazing tech and mechanics, but 2K Boston’s action-fable-under-the-sea put such a fresh spin on how a first-person shooter could tell a sophisticated tale while delivering incredibly tight action. We’ve set aside a special mailbox for the righteous rage we expect from CoD and Halo fans for this decision, but we stand by it.
Just Missed: Halo 3, Call of Duty 4

 

XBLA Game of the Year
Undertow
Chair Entertainment’s underwater warfare surprised the hell out of us. Compelling, non-linear, capture-and-defend gameplay in both single- and multiplayer modes (including support for 16 players on Xbox Live) mattered the most, but creating a downloadable game with cinematics and voice-overs in less than 50MB deserves praise, too. And all this in a 360 exclusive!
Just Missed: Catan, Bomberman Live, Heavy Weapon

Best New Character
GlaDOS
Portal’s female artificial intelligence was admittedly a little psychotic. Her hypnotic voice held many secrets. She helped you learn and survive the world around you, but when it served her needs, she lied to you. And yeah, she tried to kill you as you tried to kill her back. GlaDOS is a prime example in videogames that the cake-baking female of the species is much deadlier (and deliciously inclined) than the male.

Downloadable Content of the Year
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion — Shivering Isles
Easily the most ambitious hunk of downloadable content ever posted to Marketplace, Shivering Isles feels meatier than most full-priced, standalone games. Its sadistic sense of humor, compelling quests, and radical we’re-not-in-Kansas-anymore locales revitalized gameplay we’d already enjoyed for 100 hours.
Just Missed: 10-player multiplayer update (NBA Live 08), Steve Vai Halo MJOLNIR Mix (Guitar Hero III), Metallica Pack (Rock Band)

Worst Achievements of the Year
Guitar Hero III
The whole fun of Guitar Hero III comes from the combination of great music and the novelty of the guitar controller. So why did Neversoft create an Achievement that you can earn only if you turn down the music…and two more for playing the game without the guitar? Challenging goals for top-tier players, we understand — but any Achievement that makes a game less fun should not exist.

Best Original Song
“Still Alive” (Portal)
When was the last time you finished a game and wanted to sing along with the credits? The cheeky jilted-love-song serenade that plays over Portal’s roll call was, well, a triumph. Buy the track (or songwriter Jonathan Coulton’s alternate vocal version) for 89 cents each from Amazon, or purchase the whole Orange Box soundtrack for $8 — piece of cake.

 

Multiplayer Game of the Year
Call of Duty 4
Infinity Ward gave COD4’s multiplayer all the trimmings — several gameplay modes, 16 maps, balanced weapons, a smart party system, and a groundbreaking character-progression method that lets you create your own soldier classes and earn experience as you go. Team play is rewarded, but individual heroics help the greater good, too. It’s a stunning, gripping, and utterly complete multiplayer experience.
Just Missed: Halo 3, GRAW 2

Worst Game of the Year
Space Giraffe
Apologists say, “At least the team at Llamasoft was trying something new, and hey, it was only $5.” We say that noble, cheap failures are still failures. Aggravating visuals, a deficient tutorial, and counterintuitive mechanics (your avatar automatically fires…but you get more points by ramming into enemies) made Space Giraffe thoroughly uninviting, if not downright hostile to players.

Studio of the Year
Harmonix
The Boston-based studio founded by ex-MIT musicians unleashed Rock Band on the world in late 2007 — which almost makes you forget that the same studio also shipped the excellent Guitar Hero II back in March 2007. Throw in downloadable tracks for both titles, and you’ve got a double-bill that rocked the 360 to its core.
Just Missed: Bungie, Irrational/2K Boston, Infinity Ward

Sidekick of the Year
Wrex (Mass Effect)
Never before have we wished that a big, creepy alien was a real dude we could actually hang out with. Brilliant dialogue, pitch-perfect voice acting, and incredible comic timing made Wrex the most charming, fun, and just plain cool giant armored lizard we’ve ever (virtually) met.
Just Missed: Arbiter (Halo 3), Lynch (Kane & Lynch: Dead Men)

Innovation of the Year
Portal
New game mechanics don’t come along often, but tearing holes in the fabric of space-time in Portal ranks as the best new trick we’ve seen since…well, since Valve introduced the gravity gun in Half-Life 2. Redefining the term “short and sweet,” Portal blasted a future of action/puzzle possibilities wide open. Call this one the Game of the Year Within a Game.
Just Missed: Saved Films (Halo 3)

Achievement Whore of the Year
Avatar: The Burning Earth
Madden’s launch-year easy-breezy Achievements look like actual work compared to the Gamerscore giveaway that is Avatar. A brain-damaged orangutan can hammer away at one button on the first level and earn 1,000 points just for attacking a string of enemies. Of course, we didn’t use it to pad our Gamerscores. Yet.
Just Missed: TMNT, Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action

Worst Ending of the Year
Assassin’s Creed
You can’t even call it an ending — the characters pretty much just turned off the lights and left the room. Literally! The only way we even knew the game was over was when the 100-point “you finished the game” Achievement popped up. WTF, Ubisoft Montreal? For all the eavesdropping, stealth-killing, and general horseriding around we did, we wanted at least some sort of payoff.
Just Missed: BioShock, The History Channel: Battle for the Pacific

Best Ending of the Year
it’s a TIE! Halo 3 (Legendary difficulty) & Mass Effect
This one sparked a fierce debate in our office: What’s an “ending”? Turns out there’re two ways we look at it: the epilogue and the final act. Halo 3 wins for the best epilogue, meaning the cutscene after you put down the controller. We adored how it tied up the threads and teased a bit at the inevitable Halo 4 (’Sup, Forerunner planet!). And Mass Effect won our hearts for its complete final act, starting with the revelations that come when you stop the Mako in the tunnel on Ilos, on through its epic, final battles. What a breathtaking finale, BioWare!

Game of the Year
Rock Band
“What?” we hear you cry. “Look at that sidebar full of some of the best games the Xbox 360 has ever seen! And you pick Rock Band as your Game of the Year? It costs $170! My guitar broke! It didn’t even get a 10!” Those were all things we considered on the rocky road to this award. The obscene number of truly excellent titles this year made this decision almost impossible. Arguments were made, points were countered, and frankly, feelings were hurt. But in the end, it was feelings that led us to this choice anyway.

Rock Band made us feel things other games never have. Creating your own rocker gives you surprising ownership, letting you live the rock-’n’-roll escapist fantasy at a deeper level. Sitting down at the drums offered most gamers a completely new reflex challenge — because the drum game is so physical, it really feels like you’re learning something when you play. And while it requires skill, playing any of the careers in Rock Band isn’t as intimidating as many other games that use the standard controller. Singers barely need to touch the controller at all — and everybody can (at least try to) sing. Rock Band becomes an invitation to those who would normally condemn or dismiss games in general. They suddenly “get” the appeal of videogaming — even if it’s just at the Best Buy kiosk.

Amazingly, all of the above applies without even addressing the game’s masterstroke: multiplayer. Despite the potential hassle of hardware, Rock Band parties pop up on short notice and last for hours; the game quickly became a destination. Locking into a groove with friends creates a dynamic, communal, co-dependent experience that’s missing from even the tightest multiplayer shooters. Triggering Overdrive to save a fallen friend in the heat of a tough performance is more thrilling than any of us expected. The game’s highs are incredibly high — from chaining Overdrive phrases to whacking out the perfect cowbell solo to nailing a big rock ending as a group, every success feels huge. The best word for it is euphoria: We can’t stop playing.

And while the game didn’t get a 10, remember that this award isn’t called Score of the Year. Repeated play sessions (including the epic Endless Setlist) and the arrival of a la carte downloadable tracks — tons of them, as Harmonix promised — helped us realize that Rock Band is a shining example of what games should aspire to deliver and achieve...and how they should make gamers feel. Rock Band is, in every sense of the word, inspirational.
Just Barely Missed: BioShock, Call of Duty 4, Halo 3, Mass Effect, The Orange Box


It's not over yet! Check out our extended online features, including reader reactions, some snarky one-liners, and a bunch of stuff that was too hot (or maybe just too long) to print! You might also want to listen to our follow-up editorial roundtable discussion in podcast form.