IGN's 'Best of Xbox 2004' Winners

[thrAsher]

Best Action Game
Ninja Gaiden

Best Adventure Game
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow

Best Fighting Game
Dead or Alive Ultimate

Best First-Person Shooter
Halo 2

Best Racing Game
Burnout 3: Takedown

Best RPG
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (*sigh* Poor Fable...)

Best Sports Game
ESPN NFL 2K5

Best Xbox Live Game
Halo 2

Best Downloadable Content
Ninja Gaiden

Best Graphics
Dead or Alive Ultimate

Best Soundtrack
Halo 2

Best Use of Sound
Halo 2 (uh, is there a real difference between this category and the previous one?)

Best Story
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords

Most Innovative Design
Bungie.net

Biggest Surprise
ESPN NFL 2K5 (runner up? Ed Fries departure from MS)

Best Game No One Played
The Bard's Tale (hrmmmm.....)

Xbox Game of the Year
Halo 2


IGN

A whole lot of good choices. Can't say I'd argue w/ any of them, except maybe 'Best Graphics'. I think there were a lot of stellar looking games, and I'm thinking maybe the guys over at IGN need to get some.

[LTM360]

I agree with all of them except best game no one played... since.... I didn't play it. I want to, I'll probably try it eventually.

[BananaMan]

i voted for those awards a week or so ago. almost all the ones i voted for won, yay.

[Variation-XBA]

I agree with most of those, Kudos IGN

[JediMasterChief]

I practically agree with all of them.

I suppose "Soundtrack" refers to the music, while "Use of Sound" refers to the sound design and sound engineering.

[Peepers]

I don't disagree with any of their choices.

[Casper]

Yea, IGN did it right - nice job. Especially since they gave the award to DOA for best fighter, rather than MK by that lame ass SpikeTV awards...

[Ghost]

yeah surprisingly i agree with them.

[OC Noob]

I disagree with gfx only. I think Rid**** is far and away the best gfx ever for a console game, but fighting games can do so much more since they don't have to do a lot of things typical 3d games do so DOA does look very, very nice.

Like I said though, its easier to make a fighting game look great with limited resources, but to make a FPS look almost as good as DIII (at 640 x 480) is something no one else has done. Simply amazing job with Ridrichard.

[AloneInTheDark]

Rid**** had some major rough spots, it definitly wasn't polished enough. Everything looked pretty fake too, all the metal looked like melting plastic, and half the time you could see big black spots on the characters. Very very unpolished, as DOAU looks gorgeous, it's definitly the best graphical accomplishment on the xbox.

[shrew king]

Rid**** got screwed.

That game runs circles around these others, including Halo 2.

[Snowblind]

As much as I love the KOTOR series, I'd have to disagree with KOTOR II having the best story.

[Rhiannon]

I still have yet to play Bards Tale. Their web site is hilarious though. Perhaps I will pick it over over the holiday weekend.

[gingerj]

I'd agree with some of them but theres no sign of fable, kingdom under fire, phantom dust, outrun 2, chronicles of rid****. Although i would say this years lineup for the xbox has been pretty bland.

[Snowblind]

I'd agree with some of them but theres no sign of fable, kingdom under fire, phantom dust, outrun 2, chronicles of rid****. Although i would say this years lineup for the xbox has been pretty bland.

Bland?! Are you crazy?

Ninja Gaiden, Rid****, Battlefront, Star Wars KOTOR II, Fable, Pandora Tommorow, Burnout 3, Halo 2, MVP Baseball, ESPN NFL 2K5, NBA Live 2005, DOA Ultimate and soon to be Mech Assualt 2: Lone Wolf. And I'm pretty sure I missed some others.

Bland he says.....

[gingerj]

Yeah bland, generic sport/racers/fps shooters have been chucked onto the platform. Ninja gaiden is a good game but the slow camera and the random locations/enemies let it down. Rid**** is far to linear and halo 2 offers nothing new in the single player aspect just more of the same really and has no purpose other than to squeeze more out of the fanbase the same with pandora tomorrow is just a cash cow. Compared to Snake eater the SC series has been nothing special now since its on the scene. Fable is a terrific but some gameplay elements have been cut out because of time delays and its to short. I haven't played doa ultimate to i can't evaluate it.

[Snowblind]

Yeah bland, generic sport/racers/fps shooters have been chucked onto the platform. Ninja gaiden is a good game but the slow camera and the random locations/enemies let it down. Rid**** is far to linear and halo 2 offers nothing new in the single player aspect just more of the same really and has no purpose other than to squeeze more out of the fanbase the same with pandora tomorrow is just a cash cow. Compared to Snake eater the SC series has been nothing special now since its on the scene. Fable is a terrific but some gameplay elements have been cut out because of time delays and its to short. I haven't played doa ultimate to i can't evaluate it.

Rid**** is supposed to be linear since it ties in with the movies, it wouldn't be good for business to keep Rid**** alive in the movies but have him killed off in a game that is a prequel to the movies. PT and Halo 2 campaign's sucked but if you read into both games histories then you'll find out that Ubisoft and Bungie were focused (in most cases) on multiplayer more the SP. DOA is possibly the greatest fighting game in the world let alone the XBox.

[gingerj]

Well there you go then you've answered your own question as to why the xbox platform hasn't been that great this year.