2004 Otto Award: Best Game of the Year

[digitalpress]

Cast your vote!

[buttasuperb]

xbox Street Fighter Anniversary Collection

EASILY.

[digitalpress]

xbox Street Fighter Anniversary Collection

EASILY.

No one nominated this game. The nomination thread (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=48032&highlight=otto+awards+nominatin) was stickied for two weeks. Sorry.

[Kamino]

I know katamari is going to roll all the other games up.
But I have to stay loyal to my shooters, and besides, I DO really think Gradius V is a better game. Katamari's got solid gameplay but the soundtrack is so damn annoying.

[kainemaxwell]

I know katamari is going to roll all the other games up.
But I have to stay loyal to my shooters, and besides, I DO really think Gradius V is a better game. Katamari's got solid gameplay but the soundtrack is so damn annoying.
lol, nice pun.

[YoshiM]

I gotta say hands down Ninja Gaiden for Xbox. Not only does it capture the difficulty and intensity of the NES classic but it beautifully updates the series into the realm of three dimensions using a solid engine and eyepopping visuals. Combine that with the bonus of Xbox Live downloadables for longevity and you've got a game worthy of Best Game of the Year.

[TheRedEye]

Katamari's got solid gameplay but the soundtrack is so damn annoying.

Oh, wow.

I voted Metal Gear Solid 3. I would have gone with Katamari Damacy, just to spite kamino, but it's already got a pretty solid lead.

[tholly]

Halo 2 (we all know i love my xbox)

[mieu_c]

I know katamari is going to roll all the other games up.
But I have to stay loyal to my shooters, and besides, I DO really think Gradius V is a better game. Katamari's got solid gameplay but the soundtrack is so damn annoying.

HUH?? I loved Katamari's soundtrack! I played that game sometimes just to listen to the soundtrack. Besides that it was the coolest game I've palyed in a very long time.

I wanna wad you up into my life.......

[Kamino]

I know katamari is going to roll all the other games up.
But I have to stay loyal to my shooters, and besides, I DO really think Gradius V is a better game. Katamari's got solid gameplay but the soundtrack is so damn annoying.

HUH?? I loved Katamari's soundtrack! I played that game sometimes just to listen to the soundtrack. Besides that it was the coolest game I've palyed in a very long time.

I wanna wad you up into my life.......
When reviewing game soundtracks, I am ALMOST ALWAYS annoyed when the rookies working the sound booth attempt to add vocals.
Remember the days of kick-ass game scores? Contra, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, Toejam and Earl? On that note, toejam and earl 3 kept it right - the soundtrack that plays during gameplay is just that - an instrumental - which is good, As a rap soundtrack would have KILLED that game for me. (thankfully the game allows for the skipping of the cut scenes. )
Even when the "Created" soundtrack is not of a style that annoys me, it still winds up annoying me. See sonic adventure 2. yawn. At least Rockstar scored Max Payne right.

[Crush Crawfish]

Katamari Damacy. Good god that game was amazing.

[fergojisan]

I voted for the only one on this list I played, Katamari. At DP HQ no less. I don't have any current systems myself (GBA only). Sorry!
:P

[Ninja Blacksox]

MGS3 over here.

-A Boy

[Sotenga]

Well, my Gradius fandom has been admitted, and I'd keep true to my promise that Gradius V would win out as the game of 2004. While Katamari Damacy, Metroid: Zero Mission, Neo Contra, Metal Gear Solid 3, Metroid Prime 2, and Alien Hominid have all come very close to betraying this promise, I just remind myself how different GV is from the rest of the games in the series, and eventually, I get right down to playing it again. Konami just gets better and better, god bless them. :)

[Ed Oscuro]

Half-Life 2. Get a real FPS machine, people.

And when you're done with the game, you can try out a number of variations. Hell, there's even the 2D game Codename Gordon. You just can't lose!

[Jasoco]

For me, it was a toss-up between Katamari Damacy and Paper Mario 2. They are the only two new games this year that actually held my interest. Halo 2 didn't even keep me playing. I chose PM2 because Katamari was already high on the percentage, so I helped PM, but it's still a toss-up for me.

[classicb]

I feel like I betrayed my love for shooters because I loved Gradius V but I haven't had as much fun with a game as I did with Katamari so I had to go with it. I liked the soundtrack not by itself but as a whole with the game I thought the two went so well together.

[Mattiekrome]

GTA San Andreas, super game... Keeps the GTA series fresh

[Bluteg]

GTA: San Andreas, the game I spent the most time with over the past year.

[jerkov]

Throwing down another vote for GTA: SA; with the sheer amount of awesome stuff to do and see in this game, I can't honestly see how you can vote for anything else. Surprised to see Katamari Damacy and Halo 2 currently beating it; haven't tried Katamari yet, which looks like a fun distraction, but I doubt it has anywhere near the depth that GTA has. And, as for Halo 2, I rented it using a free rental pass, played it for 15 minutes, then promptly turned my Xbox off and turned my PS2 back on to play GTA again. Never touched Halo 2 again.

[blissfulnoise]

Having played every game in that list, I've still got to give the nod to GTA:SA.

MGS3 was amazing, but that damn Snake Eater theme song.... <shudder>.

I never really played GTAIII and GTA:VC. GTA:SA was the only one I ever bothered to beat. Great story, perfect pacing, and lots of extra activities.

And no WoW on this list? I know I co-nomiated it; don't know if that was good enough.

[DigitalSpace]

My vote went to GTA: San Andreas. The amount of stuff you can do in the game is just incredible, and its minor flaws don't ruin the gameplay.

Runner-up: Katamari Damacy. One of the most unique games to come out in a while.

[Chainsaw_Charlie]

My vote went to Star ocean till the end of time yet it shows 0%

[Oobgarm]

My vote went to Star ocean till the end of time yet it shows 0%

1 vote is less than 1% the current vote total of 125. That's why it shows zero.

[SegaAges]

geez man, everyone and their mother voted katamari for everything, including best action game :)

katamari is fun, but i feel as though many people voted katamari for its originality or something. it is your opinion, so i guess all of you really enjoyed that game that much. it was fun, but not fun enough for me to even consider it for game of the year with all of the other candidates. i know katamari will end up winning this one, and that is cool with me, because i voted for what i wanted, and you guys voted for what you wanted. i guess katamari was a surprise game for me too. it is a fun game that not many people know about even still (i can approach anybody i know in town and start talking about this game and they will sit there with a blank look on their face because they have never heard of katamari).

it was a good game, but i had to looked passed it and consider the other games on the list. this is game of the year, the most important award for me. i didn't enjoy katamari as much as everyone else did i guess, so i had to look at other options.

doom 3 - many, many years in the making. hell, doom 2 was originally released for dos. i still have the original doom 2 3.5 floppies somewhere. doom 3 had insane graphics. but to think about it, back in the dos day, doom 1 and 2 had insane graphics as well. the gameplay was tried and true to the old doom games, and fit them very well. very good game

half life 2 - even though this game had been delayed for a very long time, it was worth the wait. the physics engine is just crazy. the gameplay is very fun. this is just a good al around game.

halo 2 - this was not near as good as doom 3 or hl2, but it is the best console shooter you can get. this game far surpasses the original halo in every aspect. for a console fps, this is the game to own.

grand theft auto: san andreas - yes, this game was over hyped way too much, but than again, so was halo 2. this game had many improvements on vice city and really felt more like a sequel and not like an add-on pack like vice city. the map was massive, there were a whole bunch of new vehicles added, just a good sequel.

now, with all of these great games, it is a very tough choice (and seeing as i did not even start talking about other games on the list, it makes it a tough choice for me). as you can probably guess pretty easily, i did not vote for any of the games that i just talked about. i was basically saying the games competition based on the games i had played (well some games i didn't mention i did play as well, but i am lazy).

the game i voted for was paper mario 2. why?
this game was released on the n64 way back in the day and was a very good and fun game. many people doubted the game, and that is probably why this game is now so rare while it is very easy to find copies of perfect dark or conker's bad fur day. paper mario was an excellent game. a game that needed a sequel much, much sooner than it got one. don't get me wrong, super mario sunshine is a good game, but paper mario 2 should have been the game that was released instead. paper mario 2 is a sequel of a very good n64 game, possibly the best n64 game. it was going to be very hard to nintendo to even compete against itself and make a sequel to such a grand game. not only did they make a sequel, but they made the game much, much better. if this was one of the best n64 games and now its sequel is better than one of the best n64 games, i think it is safe to say that this will be one of the gc's best games. this is the reason why paper mario 2 got my vote on top of all of the other very good choices.

[RetroYoungen]

Katamari Damacy. It was an incredible game that came from nowhere, what better is there than that? Plus, even after I absolutely kicked the ass of every challenge in it (I think, I'm not entirely sure. lol) I keep putting it back in to make my stars just that little bit bigger...

[soniko_karuto]

ah the roolings blaas has eeeemeeeee

I have no ps2, but i bought the game, crashed at a friends pad, and he wanted to keep the game. We no longer are able to use either his ps2 nor my katamari, but we're still friends.

[XxMe2NiKxX]

Where is doom 3? Not only was it one of the most acclaimed games of the year, it 0wns the competition.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Where is doom 3? Not only was it one of the most acclaimed games of the year, it 0wns the competition.
Evidently, it wasn't nominated during the two weeks that the nomination thread (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=48032) was stickied in the main forum.

[spoon]

I voted Ninja Gaiden. Finally, a game that is actaully hard to beat. Super challenge, slick graphics, great gameplay. Sweet game.

[Blendo75]

I voted for Katamari, but you guys have me wanting to pick up Gradius V now. Unless it's got a blue-bottom disc...

[Cmosfm]

I'm voting Katamari Damacy! ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP!

[Retsudo]

Joint Operations- PC

[Psycho Mantis]

i voted metal gear solid 3. Long Live Metal Gear Solid and Konami!

[miaandjohnrule]

I voted Ninja Gaiden. Damn that game rocks. Loved Gradius V and MP2 as well.

[Lady Jaye]

Katamari (yeah, I know, the anti-KD clan will think, "not another one!").

[FantasiaWHT]

Put me in with the antidisestablishmentkatamarianism crowd.

(being against those who are against the established winner- KD)

[Jasoco]

Put me in with the antidisestablishmentkatamarianism crowd.

(being against those who are against the established winner- KD)You took my favorite word and merged it with my favorite PS2 game. You, sir, are the man. 8-)