Video Game of the Year Nominations 2008

This category is a bit different than the others for a couple reasons:

1.) I've only been playing video games since August, so my pool of games to choose from isn't as large as it would've been had I actually been playing for all of 2008. Because of this, I'm only going to nominate four games for this award.

2.) Since video games take such a long time to finish, I'm not going to consider any games that I haven't yet finished, even if I got and played them in 2008.

BioShock: As my first game on the 360, I couldn't have asked for a better introduction to what the system had to offer. BioShock was simultaneously really gorgeous and fun to play, had a great story and set of game mechanics, and also managed to convince me that perhaps shooters weren't as brainless as I had previously thought they were. This said, BioShock's not perfect, as repeat playthroughs tend to lose a bit too much weight and fail to keep me interested (unlike some other games on the list).

Dead Space: Although it wasn't very well marketed and came out during the busy season when many other big title games sold in much larger numbers, Dead Space might perhaps be the best new IP (intellectual property) of 2008. With its mixture of Resident Evil-style combat, the Alien-inspired theme, and incredible graphics, gameplay, and story, Dead Space is so good that I'm still itching to go play it again, even despite having played through it over two times already.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock: It's hard trying to compare a skill-based non-narrative game with the other more-typical video games on my list, but even so, it's clear that Guitar Hero III deserves to be on this list. Sure, there's no plot, characters, or action, but the simple achievement of getting better at playing fake-guitar is enveloping enough that you never really want to stop playing, even after you've "beaten" it. Add to this the incredible amount of DLC available for the game, and you've got a real contender.

Mass Effect: How could Mass Effect NOT make it on this list? Thus far, I've spent over 150 hours playing this game almost four whole times, and I'm still itching to play it again. Hell, I'm even reading a Mass Effect-inspired novel! Never before have I seen or played a game that truly plays differently every time you play it (within reason, of course), but Mass Effect does that ontop of looking great, having great voice acting, creating an interesting dialogue and leveling-up system, and having an incredible plot. You just can't go wrong with this game, seriously...

Looking at my list of games, it should be clear that I generally like games with an element of sci-fi to them where shooting is involved (but not necessarily as the driving force of the game). Naturally, Guitar Hero is an exception to this, but that's just because it's both relevant to my career choice AND extremely addictive. While I've played a number of other games over the last five months of 2008, these games were most definitely the only ones deserving of a nomination for my game of the year.