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Primotech Game of the Year Awards 2007: Day Two

By The Primotech Staff on Tuesday, December 18, 2007 at 8:00 AM EST  

Welcome to the 2007 Primotech Game of the Year Awards!

It’s been a monumental year for gaming. Now that developers have had time to familiarize themselves with all three new consoles, some incredibly well-crafted games are emerging. Additionally, titles like World in Conflict, Crysis, and The Orange Box continue to prove that the PC is an incredibly relevant gaming platform.

But it doesn’t matter if you only own a Wii, are a Sony fanboy, or a PC-exclusive kind of gamer: there are a plethora of exemplary options for every kind of player this holiday.

In 2007, gamers everywhere were drawn into virtual worlds unlike any they’ve experienced before. They’ve defeated every kind of evil imaginable. They’ve saved planets, entire populations, and sometimes only themselves. But, above all else, they’ve enjoyed some of the greatest games the industry has ever offered.

And we’re here to recognize the achievements of those very titles.

How We Decided

No single individual decided what games won each of our thirty coveted awards. All eight of the Primotech editors were allowed three choices for each category: a first pick was awarded 3 points, the second was awarded 2 points, and the final choice was awarded 1 point. Then, each game got a total tally for each award and the one with the most points won. This ensured a democratic and balanced selection of games from a group of game reviewers with differing preferences.

Game of the Year Contest

Finally, we’re holding an associated Game of the Year giveaway contest. If you can name every one of the thirty games pictured in the header image above, you’ll be entered in a drawing to win a $100 Gamestop giftcard. Simply email your answers along with your name and mailing address to “primotech AT primotechnology DOT com.”

All the games pictured were released in 2007. There are no duplicates.

Submissions will stop being accepted after 11:30 PM EST on Sunday, December 23. This contest is open to North Americans only, aged 18 or older.

Most Immersive

BioShock

Ken Levine and his team at Irrational have shaped Epic’s newest Unreal Engine into the desperate, tattered remnants of a 1950’s art deco paradise bottled up beneath the sea. Its a world teeming with crazed mutants, obsessive survivors, and gentle giants caught between two desperate philosophies, trading words and debate for guns and plasmids.

Neon signs flicker, promoting their wares and services to the dead, empty apartments stand as empty exhibits to a life lost, haunting music accompanies the shrill screams in the darkness, and the ocean above hovers over everything like the Sword of Damocles. Bioshock’s world easily demonstrates the kind of creative medium that gaming is capable of providing, an expression of both the power of storytelling and design fused together to defy preconceptions of what our hobby is all about.

Best Visuals

BioShock

BioShock’s visuals serve to draw the player both into the game world, while making him horrified to be there. The water looks absolutely fantastic, and it should considering Rapture is an underwater city. Traveling through dozens of glass passageways never gets old because its like being in an aquarium, and lets be honest, who doesn’t get excited by aquariums?

Try shooting at the metal pipes in those inter-building corridors or letting loose a stream of plasmid-applied electricity at a puddle in which an unsuspecting enemy stands. These actions will yield bullet-sized leaks and overcooked splicer steak. Additionally, nearly every material object—from cash, to whiskey, to hypodermic needles—can be collected. In short, it’s hard to feel confined in Rapture, because the developers ensured that the city looks and feels real.

Highest Graphical Achievement

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

There’s always the old argument that better graphics don’t make for a better game. While it may have some merit, you can’t argue that it certainly doesn’t hurt.

Call of Duty 4 makes use of all the current technology at it’s disposal and it shows through every frame of gameplay. The shadows cast on buildings as the light shines through the trees in Chernobyl, the way characters look and move, the authenticity of looking through the IR camera of a gunship circling above the firefights below, all is breath-taking, and at the same times adds a greater level of immersion to the game. Without a doubt, the graphical elements within Call of Duty 4 make for many cinematic moments and one of the most powerful games of 2007.

Best Sound Design

BioShock

Rapture was brought to life in no small part to the brilliant efforts from Irrational’s sound engineers. We’ve heard tales of the sound team recording grocery store announcement jingles (and almost getting arrested for doing so), which should serve as a testament to the lengths the studio went to in an effort to make BioShock aurally enticing.

Of course, mo one really knows what a Big Daddy sounds like. But after encountering one for the first time, no gamer worth his weight in scrap metal questioned the authenticity of the brute’s pounding footsteps, deafening roar, and strident drill.

Nightmarish just doesn’t begin to cut it.

Best Licensed Soundtrack

Rock Band

This category basically came down to the two biggest games in the rhythm genre: Rock Band and Guitar Hero III. Rock Band, however, won out due to the greater variety of tracks. Featuring songs from metal to classic rock and several modern bands, the set list traverses genres and decades with style. Even though GHIII has more songs upon release (71 versus 58) a greater number of those are bonus songs that have to be unlocked, so the actual main set list comparison is 45 for Rock Band and 42 to GHIII.

One of the reasons why Rock Band can offer a greater diversity is a result of not being tied to axe epics for challenging songs. The song can focus on the drums, the bass or the vocals for a portion of the song without the player getting bored. As well, rocking out with your friends to very well mastered set list blows all the other games out of the water.

Best Original Score

BioShock

Irrational captured the essence of Rapture by cleverly incorporating licensed period tracks from artists like Django Reinhardt and The Andrews Sisters. The team even went so far as to frame a memorable battle against Tchaivosky’s “Waltz of the Flowers.”

But what really set the music of BioShock apart was the brilliant original score, provided by composer Garry Schyman.

Who among us can forget the shrill violins he heard upon coming face-to-face with the deranged Dr. Steinman? Or how about the symphonic grandeur of Sander Cohen’s ostentatious entrance? BioShock’s music simply struck every right note at exactly the right time, making the player feel sorrow, fear, and suspense at every turn.

Most of all, whenever the tempo quickened, we knew it would soon be time to party like it was 1959.

(Bonus points to 2K for releasing the score as a free download)

Best Setting

The City of Rapture (BioShock)

Few games have ever made us want to be inside them…erm…inside the locale, that is…quite like BioShock. Rapture, the underwater metropolis featured in the game, is stunningly beautiful, even in its battle-torn state. The monolithic art deco style of the city will make your jaw drop and your hairs rise. It’s just so damn creepy down there.

Due to the highly stylized environment and the development emphasis on nonlinear gameplay, it’s easy to get distracted from the game’s objectives and aimlessly wander the endless hallways, markets, and chambers just enjoying the sights. After all, its not like we can visit a real 1940’s-built underwater dystopia overflowing with genetically-enhanced psychopaths, needle-wielding lassies, and megalomaniac superintendents. If you are one of the handful of gamers whose interest wasn’t piqued by BioShock, would you kindly go pick it up, pop in the disc, and try not to get sucked into Rapture.

Best Enemy

The Mini-Turrets (The Orange Box’s Portal)

Never before has an inanimate videogame enemy shown so much soul. Portal’s mini-turrets aren’t afraid to the shred the player with a hurricane of bullets, but at least they’re deeply apologetic about it afterward. Even if you do manage to triumphantly take one of the little buggers out, don’t feel too guilty. They understand completely.

Little chatty beacons of death are just another small element of remarkably eccentric and successful gaming experience. Good work, android!

Best Hero

Altair (Assassin’s Creed)

Why did we pick Altair as best hero? Because who wouldn’t want to be a badass assassin (I think that’s the only respectable way you can get the word “ass” into one sentence three times in a row!) during the time of the Crusades. Not only can he parkour better than the French, but he doesn’t take crap from anybody, not even from Al Mualim, the leader of his own guild. To top it all off, his descendant, Desmond, has an above-average chance of hooking up with Kristen Bell!

Mediocre voice acting aside, Altair is one of the year’s coolest characters in a video game. I don’t know about you, but he’s definitely our hero. He could probably even take on Master Chief, although it’s unknown whether or not his retractable blade can pass through Spartan armor. We’ll need to ask Ubi about that one…

Best Nemesis

GLaD-OS (The Orange Box’s Portal)

Waking up in a confined holding cell is a bit unsettling, but being greeted by an upbeat yet slightly menacing disembodied robotic voice is completely disconcerting.

In 2007, countless villains tried to kill players. But only one did it while praising us and mocking us simultaneously for hours-on-end.

In the game’s final moments, Portal’s protagonist wants GLaD dead as much as the conniving computer wants to see the player blown to smithereens.

But that doesn’t mean when the credits rolled, we weren’t a tad heartbroken to see the old girl go.

At least we know she’s not even angry.

Coming Soon

We have awards planned for each day this week, so be sure to keep checking back until Friday for the latest winners!

Join us again tomorrow, when we unveil the year’s best developer and publisher. Plus, the biggest positive surprise of 2007 and the biggest disappointment. Stay tuned!

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Comments

One Response to “Primotech Game of the Year Awards 2007: Day Two”

  1. Oliver on December 19th, 2007 6:49 pm

    It would seem Bioshock is ever popular… but most immersive? At times yes, but it all seems a bit [i]too[/i] unreal at times

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