The Full Circle: 360 News Report 12.27.08

Posted by Joe Roche on 12.27.2008

It's the last Full Circle of the year, and that can mean only one thing -- it's time for the Full Circle Fans Choice Game of the Year 2008. Will the readers pick Grand Theft Auto IV? Gears of War 2? Fallout 3? Sonic Unleashed? Deadliest Catch: Alaskan Storm? or some game that you've never even heard of -- you can only find out inside.

Merry-After-Christmas everybody! Welcome to a special edition of The Full Circle. Hopefully you all got something entertaining for Christmas yesterday. Luckily now that I'm officially a practicing attorney I got a lot of excitement inducing shirt and tie combinations. Of course I also bought my wife a Wii, so there is at least one thing in my house amongst the paper and boxes that will be a pleasant distraction this weekend.

While I do not have the day off from work I know that many of you are spending the day at home, and as such I anticipate very few people coming through to check out this column. Which is why I am not going to be doing any news, or The Hot Button but will instead be handing out the prestigious Full Circle Fan's Choice Game of the Year Award.

Quick recap - two weeks ago I announced that voting would begin for the Fan's Choice GOTY. There was a thread posted on the message board for voting, and the comments section of the past two Full Circle columns could be used for voting as well. Each person was allowed to nominate one game as their choice for GOTY. I asked you to please explain your choice, although you were not required to do so. I then took all of the games nominated, and counted up the votes that each received to come up with this years Full Circle Fan's Choice Game of the Year.

In order to beef this column up a bit we'll be discussing each game that was nominated with either some comments from yours truly or the words of those who voted for that particular game. As you are all aware I cast my ballot last week for Gears of War 2, a vote that I'm still not totally comfortable with but it was such a good game, and has given me so many hours of enjoyment that I will not fault myself for succumbing to my inner fanboy.

Without further ado: ladies and gentlemen brought to you proudly by the readers of The Full Circle, and 411mania.com, it's the first annual (is it possible to have a first annual anything?) The Full Circle Reader's Choice Game of the Year 2008.

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TheQuackenbush: My GOTY honor goes to Grand Theft Auto 4: Liberty City. Looking at how large polished it is for the amount of content in the game is impressive. The track listing is massive as even today, six months after the release, there probably is a song or two that I haven't heard yet, or have only heard once or twice before. However, what seals the deal for me is the introduction of the multiplayer aspect of the game. With the fun modes of cops n crooks, deathraces, and deathmatches, online play can go on for hours at a time. In fact, what can be even more satisfying is simply roaming around the city in free mode with friends discovering glitches, easter eggs, or making your own games to play. If you havent checked it out yet, go for a ride on the swingset of death...

The Hitman JE: My GOTY is GTA4.

Reason? Liberty City is by far the most immersive virtual city ever created, and if it wasnt for the compass and map, you could get lost in the sheer scale of the city. It's gameplay is very simple, the graphics are amazing, Niko is one of gamings best characters, multiplayer is fun as hell, the easter egg's, collectibles, achievments, etc...

There have been many great games this year, but GTA4 stands head and shoulders above the rest.

Ned is for Anthrax: For me I narrowed it down to 3 games...

Left 4 Dead

Gears of War 2

Grand Theft Auto 4

(note: I have not played Fallout 3 yet, but according to this thread its something i need to get on soon.)

My GOTY is GTA 4. It's pretty much the perfect game. The graphics are great. The story is great. The main character is great, unlike San Andreas. Niko actually shows human emotions and development. Finally, the thing that puts it over for me in the online play. There is so much to do online and the game hardly ever lags. Its so fun and amazing.

dAVE!!! : Fallout 3. I'm no RPG fan, but the sheer scale of this game is amazing. It's so good, I probably won't need to buy another game for a long time. There's just so much to do.

Drue Phoenix: Fallout 3, I havent played them all, but the fact Fallout made me want to play it over them, AND turned out to be sooo not a letdown, is an easy boost to its chances

Bobby21: Gears of War 2

Nemesis: Fallout 3

Zedian: I think it pretty much came down to GTA IV and Fallout 3 for me. I admit, I over-stated GTA IV when it first came out being a victim of hype, same thing happened to me last year with Halo 3.

I think overall Fallout 3 was the better game, the world was soaked in atmosphere as every turn I really felt like I was stuck in the nothingness of a dark-isolated post-apocalyptic America. Making decisions and each ultimately making a significant impact on the gameplay and story I enjoyed plus all the different perks were just FAR TOO bad ass. Voice acting was top notch, music was great, heck I actually liked the music on the Pip and thought it matched the mood. Aside from the horrible 3rd person perspective and some detection issues this game was money and my game of the year.

Again nothing to take away from GTA IV, the game did it's job nicely but all in all it wasn't as drastic as a leap for the series the way Fallout 3 was for it's name, kind of like how Resident Evil 4 revolutionized and changed the canvas for that particular franchise.

Deus Ex Machina: My vote is for Fallout 3. GTA 4 just didnt grab a hold of me, I didnt like Niko as the Hero. He would be a great character to interact with. Or if he was in any other game. But GTA4 was too depressing. Way too serious, it couldnt walk the line between drama and silliness that San Andreas was perfect at.

But Fallout 3 is amazing. Cant put it down.

m8: My game of the year – Prince of Persia, amazing game.

Emperor Brett: As much as I am sure that people will come at me with flaming swords for my choice of GOTY, I am going to give my vote to Sonic Unleashed. Definately the most fun I've had with a game this year.


spacefight: Braid or Fallout 3 GOTY easy.

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So the Full Circle Fan's Choice Game of the Year voting has come and gone and the final result was a surprise to absolutely nobody. Perhaps the biggest shocker came from comments poster Emperor Brett who gave some love to Sonic Unleashed, which I did not see coming.

I also just recently got a chance to have some hands on time with Prince of Persia and I am really impressed. A lot of the reviews have been harsh because of the fact that you can't really die, but I look at it more like – you don't have to sit through a load screen when you fall to your death (which happens a lot). When Elika saves you your enemies get health back so don't look at it as not dying, just look at it as not having to restart the boss battle from a load screen.

But without further ado, the final results are in.

Drum Roll

And the winner of the first Full Circle Fan's Choice Game of the Year Award is…

Tension

FALLOUT 3



The final tally was pretty overwhelming, and it appears that you all love Bethesda's post apocalyptic world, which I can't argue with. For those of you who haven't tried Fallout 3 I could not recommend a game any more then I would this one – and the TFC fans have spoken, it is the fan's Game of the Year for 2008.

For winning this award I will humbly put Fallout 3 back into my Xbox 360 this weekend and use VATS to blow off some heads with stuff animals.

Congratulations to Fallout 3, thank you to everyone who participated…and have a safe and happy New Year. I'll be back in 2009.