PSU's Game of the Year 2008
- Posted January 3rd, 2009 at 17:58 EDT by
- 12,891 views
- 114 Comments
Now that 2008 is officially wrapped up, it’s only fitting that we reveal our Game of the Year. Some may recall that last year we had a fairly easy choice for this award; the sensational Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was the clear winner. This year, however, the PlayStation 3 saw an avalanche of great titles from practically every genre imaginable, which made picking a single Game of the Year incredibly difficult.
We’re going to start things off this year with our two runners-up. With such titles as LittleBigPlanet, Fallout 3, Valkyria Chronicles, NHL 09, Burnout Paradise and more to choose from, it was a very difficult decision to pick just two to walk slightly behind our winner. After a lot of discussion and debate, we settled on the following two titles.
These are our runners-up.
While many gamers quickly shout "overrated!" when someone mentions Grand Theft Auto IV, there is no denying the impact it had on the industry this year. Achieving record breaking sales combined with an extremely high review score average, Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto was incredibly ambitious, and succeeded on nearly every front. It had a movie-caliber storyline, a stylistically unprecedented recreation of New York City, incredibly polished game mechanics, groundbreaking online multiplayer -- the list is indeed impressive. Sure, a month or two down the road a good chunk of gamers put the title down, but the original feeling when first stepping into the revitalized Liberty City was unlike any before it.
We appreciate what the people at Rockstar achieved with their flagship title, and we look forward to the next installment in the long-running franchise.
It’s not hard to justify why Valkyria Chronicles deserves incredibly high praise, but it is difficult to explain why it sold so poorly in North America. The characters were all fallible, they each had their strengths and their weaknesses, and it’s that which made the game relatable. With its water-colored presentation and perfect mix of role-playing, strategy, and third-person action, Valkyria Chronicles surprised us all with its sheer quality.
Sega outdid itself in a time where the company was publishing one mediocre Sonic title after the other. To bring the industry something so vivid and enjoyable gives us hope that the ex-console powerhouse is finally returning to its roots -- delivering unforgettable titles.
It's finally time to announce PlayStation Universe’s Game of the Year 2008. This title had an incredible year, not only in sales, but in accolades and benchmarks. It took home our June Game of the Month as well as our Reader’s Choice Award for Game of the Year. Thus, it’s no surprise that our Game of the Year is...
It’s hard to put Hideo Kojima's excellence into words. The man has directed and produced an entire saga of Metal Gear titles, each exceeding the one before it. Still, it’s safe to say that none eclipsed the stealth-action genre like Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots did. His latest masterpiece, released exclusively for the PlayStation 3, brought not only a new meaning to cinematic gameplay, but introduced a very unique and enjoyable online experience to a franchise otherwise known for its offline gameplay.
Metal Gear Solid 4 followed the story of Old Snake on his final mission. The Sony legend met up with a lot of his past friends including Meryl, Raiden, and the intellectual Otacon. Traversing through the jungle, dangerous city streets, and army encampments, Old Snake tied up quite a few loose ends for those who’ve gone on each journey alongside him in the past. It’s highly unlikely we’ll have the opportunity to play such a memorable title anytime soon. Kojima is truly a master of his craft.
We gave Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots a perfect score. We weren’t alone. We’d like to give our congratulations to Kojima and his team at Kojima Productions for creating the best game of 2008.
Comments
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Undying_Darkness
- 6:01pm GMT - January 3rd, 2009
- 1
MGS4 deserves it, the game forever changed my gaming experiance and ill never forget it.
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psycho_mantis |
makaveli_71- 6:04pm GMT - January 3rd, 2009
- 3
GREAT choice, my game of the year too, if it only had abit more gameplay with abit less cut-scenes it would be nothing less than perfect!
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blu-fighter
- 6:30pm GMT - January 3rd, 2009
- 8
I agree with MGS4 one of the best games I have ever played.
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hyperslug |
hyperslug- 6:31pm GMT - January 3rd, 2009
- 9
MGS4 just didn't do it for me, there was so little gameplay and the story was lamer than ever before. Come on guys! it's so obious that Kojima had no idea where he was going and just glued everything together in the wierdest and most dissapointing mgs yet
i enjoyed Gta 4 and Fallout 3 a lot more, even though the endings of fallout were all dumb
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helghan_elite
- 6:45pm GMT - January 3rd, 2009
- 11
ugh ppl dont understand mgs4 is a runner up resistance 2 is a true GOTY
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woz3323 |
woz3323- 7:12pm GMT - January 3rd, 2009
- 14
MGS4 won GOTY for the same reason people keep watching Adam Sandler movies. His movies have gone downhill just like Metal Gear. This game is void of gameplay and rather only gives you action on whether to skip or watch "cutscenes". How this game got perfect scores is beyond me. Playing Haze was more enjoyable (that's not saying much).
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a_stray_bullet10
- 7:22pm GMT - January 3rd, 2009
- 17
@14
obviously you havn't played the other 3 and ddn't even finish MGS4. you played barely half the game and said it was rubbish. how can you judge a game that u havn't finished or barely paid attention to the story? pathetic.MGS4 deserves GOTY over GTAIV, and websites saying they went by 'sales' is ridiculous, because if they went by sales, Halo 3 would've won it last year. so they llie
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Shenlong99 |
Shenlong_99- 7:27pm GMT - January 3rd, 2009
- 19
After playing MGS4 everygame i played afterwards was just crap.
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DarkNemesis
- 7:56pm GMT - January 3rd, 2009
- 21
GTA4 is so overrated.How was LBP not even a runner up? Regardless of sales,GTA4 did NOT do anything remarkable and is NOT as good as the previous 3.It's a shame that hype matters more than quality nowadays.
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dwightkshrute |
IAMTHECAVALRY- 8:07pm GMT - January 3rd, 2009
- 24
i keep hearin bout valkyria chronicles, i should check it out
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Ninja-KiLLR |
Ninja-KiLLR- 8:14pm GMT - January 3rd, 2009
- 25
YAY mgs 4 deseverses every amount of praise it gets
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darthrazorback
- 8:21pm GMT - January 3rd, 2009
- 26
MGS4... 2 hours of awesome gaming... 45 hours of the worst voice acting, dialogue, and writing in the history of anything.
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TheCh0sen01 |
TheChosen01- 8:31pm GMT - January 3rd, 2009
- 27
@17
I like how you and other people jump on someone when they disagree with what people are saying. If one person doesn't like a game then most people will assume that a person never played the whole game or any games before it. Maybe they did finish the game and just didnt enjoy it but yet again thats probably unacceptable to not like MGS. Just let people have their opinions and leave it there.
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GOD_OF_CHAOS_KRATOS |
Majin187- 8:53pm GMT - January 3rd, 2009
- 29
I am glad Valkyria chronicles is getting some attention, it looks good and I have not played it but i am going to buy it(for those doing the same try to get the game new so that the developers actually get some money for their hard work).
GTA4 was not a bad choice(Not a 10, more like an 8). MGS4 on the other hand was the worst MGS.............the boss fights sucked and pale in comparison to The End, The Sorrow and The Joy.
Warning possible spoilers:
Only decent boss fights were the metal gear fight which showed off the graphics but was lacking in depth and ocelot was cool in a cinematic way, i liked the rail shooter sections and the transition from cutscene to gameplay. The only thing that made MGS4 truly worth it to me was the nostalgia and the splitscreen gameplay and cutscenes were interesting. but i still think MGS3 was the best MGS.
My game of the year is LBP(The mgs level pack was better than MGS4) as it is a game that i will play for years to come.
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DarkNemesis
- 8:54pm GMT - January 3rd, 2009
- 30
I don't know where people get this crap from that MGS4 only had 2 hours of gameplay.It's stupid because it took me 30-40 minutes to to kill each boss seperately.As a person that actually completed the game,I know that it took me almost 20 hours to complete.If you people don't like the game that's fine,but stop the non sense about there not being enough gameplay,it's getting old and it's obvious that none of you played through the game.
@29,you don't think that the fight against Laughing Octopus was one of the greatest in the series? Wow!
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supamariobrotha |
supamariobrotha- 9:31pm GMT - January 3rd, 2009
- 32
of course it's game of the year even though other gaming sources disagree lol -xplay fable 2 game of the year even though they gave mgs4 4 awards with 3 of them consecutive what a biased show but that's just imo
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saso_7 |
goose_7- 9:38pm GMT - January 3rd, 2009
- 33
everyone really thinks MGS4 is deserving of GOTy 08 & rightfully so, and although i loved the game and finished the single player mode 4 times i believe its overrated. its very cutscene intensive for my taste (yes i kno its a hideo kojima game and he is known for cutscenes but its no excuse) perhaps MGS4 should have won the award for videogame/movie of the year but certainly not VIDEO GAME. i disappointed that R2 wasnt even nominated, it was a great gaming package. the co-op alone was worth $60 imo, let alone the overall game. i think R2 should have won because even tho it really didnt introduce nothing new, it accomplished what it set out to do which was deliver fun and engaging GAMEPLAY, which for the most part MGS4 did not.
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AnalogueAutomat |
AnalogueAutomat- 9:46pm GMT - January 3rd, 2009
- 34
mgs was the only game i didn't bother to finish, and i played like 40 different ones last year....
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GOD_OF_CHAOS_KRATOS |
AnalogueAutomat- 9:50pm GMT - January 3rd, 2009
- 35
@30
you think that the fight against Laughing Octopus was one of the greatest in the series? Wow!
Though i thought that the Beauty portion of the boss fights kind of reminded me of the sorrow in a weird way. but no, the beauty and the beast unit were dull and boring........i found most of the gunfights in GTA4 to be more satifying than the B&B unit.
MGS4 does have a better camera and controls than MGS3.
Also off topic, i would like to recommend a game that Kojima from Kojima Productions and Fumito Ueda from team ICO have played and have listed Out of This World as one of the greatest games they have played.
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Ensei-Shiki |
djinni001- 9:51pm GMT - January 3rd, 2009
- 36
this game should get game of the pass 4 years... since this game i have yet to be impressed by anything else really, and i have played alot of game(although i don't like the online too much). :)
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Chaozhoutiger |
Teochewtiger- 10:01pm GMT - January 3rd, 2009
- 39
MGS 4 was good but not as good as MGS 3 in my opinion (more emotional and deep story wise). The ending was disappointing *Spoiler* They should of kept a certain someone dead at the end (those whom beat the game know who I'm talking about). I got to hand it to him though, he just doesn't know when to die lol.
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Girugamesh |
Shidousha- 10:11pm GMT - January 3rd, 2009
- 40
I'll never forget MGS, it made an impact on my life as well as my gaming experience. MGS4 certainly deserves this award.
Gamespot's GOTY video pretty much sums it up, you guys should go watch it. It gave me goosebumps, they really hit the nail on the head.
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Sunshine_Killer |
SunshineKiller- 10:49pm GMT - January 3rd, 2009
- 43
Fallout 3 is my fav, i didnt care for littlebigplanet, didnt get mgs4 but the demo kicked butt, havnt played gta4, didnt care for valkery chronicles cool concept demo was somewhat fun but didnt care for it.
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singlestrike
- 11:20pm GMT - January 3rd, 2009
- 45
Leave it to PSU to get it right when the big guys get it wrong. Well done. :)
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kcgreatfox |
El_Senor- 11:24pm GMT - January 3rd, 2009
- 46
MGS4 all the way! It completely re-defined the expectations for current gen games!!!!!
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Funeralfog |
blksabbath- 11:28pm GMT - January 3rd, 2009
- 47
the only reason i wouldnt give VC GOTY is that Welkin is the biggest idiot in video games lol
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CSZ002
- 12:16am GMT - January 4th, 2009
- 49
@7Wow, wtf are you saying? MGS4 "movie of the year"?, Have you even played the game? And yes it IS A GAME, NOT A MOVIE, I hate it when haters of mgs4 make excuses like that, thats like the 1st thing that comes to their mind if they're gonna debate about it. I own mgs4 and it took me quite awhile to beat because of the many gameplay it had delivered. Again, ITS NOT A MOVIE, its just an epic game that's story is deep and rewarding, something that GTA4( although is entertaining) can never touch on. -
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