BioShock kindly receives AP's game of the year award

53 Comments by Alexander Sliwinski Dec 17th 2007 6:40PM
Filed under: PC, Microsoft Xbox 360, First Person Shooters

The Associated Press put out a pretty good year-end list about games and named BioShock its game of the year. Sure, the AP almost invalidates the entire year-end round-up by mistakenly listing BioShock as available for PlayStation 3; however, because the wire service didn't simply phone in Halo 3 as their game of the year, we'll generously overlook their faux pas. Speaking of Halo 3, the AP actually says it was the "most overrated game" of the year ... not saying we agree, just sayin' is all.

The AP gave more accolades to the likes of The Orange Box for "best deal" and Rock Band for "best game that involves getting off the sofa" while trashing Lair as the "best idea for a game gone horribly wrong." One sentiment that we think everyone can agree with: the federal law requiring all good games to be released within weeks of each other has to be overturned.

[Via X3F]

Tags: ap, associated-press, bioshock, goty, lair, orangebox, rockband

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

copa: Dec 17th 2007; 6:47PM

I don't know why I don't every get tired of "Would you kindly..." jokes. You'd think that meme had been run into the ground by now, but it still makes me laugh.

Spoiler follows:

Although to this day, I'm still not sure I entirely sure I understand why Ryan had me turn him into a crowbar pizza.

Geist: Dec 17th 2007; 7:59PM

Likely it's because he wanted to die on his own terms, ie he knew he would be killed at some point, and he'd be damned if someone else dictated when and how it would happen.

fluffbox: Dec 17th 2007; 9:28PM

Or maybe because everyone get reincarnated through the vita chambers in BioShock 2

gonk: Dec 17th 2007; 10:51PM

no, the chamber in ryan's office was turned off

rjg: Dec 17th 2007; 6:48PM

Ah, the more mainstream validation this games gets the more I DON'T want to play it.

And those cutesy Mr. Bubbles quotes aren't helping either.

*Cough* over-rated *cough*

gonk: Dec 17th 2007; 7:01PM

try it out dude, you're only punishing yourself by boycotting it

tmacairjordan87: Dec 17th 2007; 7:07PM

you should at least rent it, it was a pretty good game but nowhere near as good as the media is hyping it. Has no replayability, a pretty meh story, and bad endings/last boss but an ok experience for 1 playthrough

nealbailey: Dec 17th 2007; 7:07PM

"Ah, the more mainstream validation this games gets the more I DON'T want to play it."

Well that's too bad for you because it's easily the best game of the year.

Marty: Dec 17th 2007; 7:09PM

I didn't buy into the hype too much - in fact, I largely ignored this game until the demo arrived on XBL. After playing that, I felt like it seemed like it'd be pretty good, so I bought it, and loved it.

Maybe it's not as unique of an experience as some of the press out there might have you believe, but it is a solid, fun game, and definitely one that's worth trying out.

Poisoned Al: Dec 17th 2007; 7:16PM

Someone bought a PS3 didn't they? Bitter much?

Patrick: Dec 17th 2007; 8:04PM

"Ah, the more mainstream validation this games gets the more I DON'T want to play it."

While I agree the majority of the populous are moronic in nature, you included apparently, I believed the mainstream success and praise is well deserved. In short the game is in no way overrated.

Geist: Dec 17th 2007; 8:09PM

Play System Shock 2. It's the same thing, but better, and in space.

Einhanderkiller: Dec 17th 2007; 8:19PM

Before its release, I was hyping BioShock as a serious contender for game of the year as I loved Irrational's previous projects, such as System Shock 2 and SWAT 4, and because the previews looked so awesome, but after I started, as they say, descending into the world of Rapture, the more disappointed I grew. There was so much potential for this marvelously crafted underwater utopia, but in the end, the gameplay grew reptitive and monotonous. You can only kill oh so many Splicers and Big Daddies before becoming bored out of your mind. The plasmids were an interesting mechanic, but, in my opinion, were not balanced well. BioShock really could've used some nice puzzles and "rest times" like in Half-Life 2 to help break up the action; I was actually getting a bit tired of all the shooting in BioShock. I wanted to like BioShock, but alas, I felt it was a waste of $50.

FraGNeM: Dec 18th 2007; 1:54AM

Can't we all just accept that falling for hype leaves only ourselves to blame?

Marketing departments are paid to make us buy games. Those that fall for it are suckers.

Disagree with the reviewers? Well, then the game isn't "overhyped"; it's simply suited to a different taste than your own, which makes you "special." Not everyone can (or wants to be) as special as you are.

At the same time, how worthless of an award is "most overrated game"? So you didn't like a game that a majority of professional critics lauded. We get it. What makes your opinion so special?

tmacairjordan87: Dec 17th 2007; 6:54PM

well the AP got it half right, halo 3 really is the most overrated game of the year (maybe ever), as for goty still waiting for that Mass Effect love.

TXCrowe: Dec 17th 2007; 7:02PM

Mass Effect will NOT get any GOTY award.

I have not played it, but the f-ed themselfs by releasing so late in the year. Hasnt been out long enough to get any publicity.
Hell, the award givers probably had made their choice by the time it came out.

my 2 cents

Marty: Dec 17th 2007; 7:10PM

The fact is, they shouldn't tie their release schedule to when awards shows do their thing.

edge: Dec 18th 2007; 10:07AM

Give me a break. What does GOTY mean? Does it mean that it spends the most time being played? Did it make the most money?

I'll tell you what GOTY means. Someone who thinks they are qualified to tell us artistically what game is better than another pulls a rabbit out of their ass and tells us the best game of the year.

Halo 3 was not overhyped. People just like to call it overhyped. It was a case of marketing backlash. But that had no bearing on actual quality of the game. It was the same Halo, but much better. Why should that me a mark against the game? In my opinion, Super Mario Galaxy did that and you don't see anyone bashing it's face in.

Bioshock is not GOTY material to me. It's was clunky, slow, unbalanced, awkward, and worst of all derivative.

Brymo: Dec 17th 2007; 7:04PM

Good!

Glad to see H3 getting the backseat now.

Obie: Dec 17th 2007; 7:20PM

But it won Best Game Powered by Dew!

Marty: Dec 17th 2007; 7:04PM

Personally, I don't think the press gave Valve enough credit for Orange Box... Half-Life 2: episode 2, Team Fortress 2, and Portal were some of the most fun, unique gaming experiences I've had in the last few years, *especially* for the low admission price of ~$45. Gotta love that pre-order discount!

gonk: Dec 17th 2007; 7:06PM

my friend still can't get the 3 new games from oj box to work right on his comp, but hl2 works just fine, same as it did 4 years ago

he's pretty pissed about it

Marty: Dec 17th 2007; 7:13PM

I've had no problems with it, other than a problem in TF2 where the water and other reflective surfaces don't appear correctly. Other than that, which only happens once in every hundreds matches (and which fixes itself when the map changes), it's been great.

I do have a buddy who has been having crashing issues though - and on a brand new Dell XPS, no less!

Geist: Dec 17th 2007; 8:12PM

I want me some of the Orange Juice Box. Now with more Vitamin GF!

Edge: Dec 18th 2007; 10:11AM

More and more, I'm starting to resent Valve's grab at GOTY with an episodic game. I think it was a cheap shot. Great package, but it shouldn't be up for game of the year any more than other compilation disks.

rjg: Dec 17th 2007; 7:05PM

@gonk

I have played it. JAS ('Just another shooter').

Halo3 is over-rated too though... at least it has coop MP, which might have made BioShock interesting. It does look pretty and all that, just not my cup of tea.

The game that surprised me most this year was COD4, which i expected to be JAS, but turned out to rock.

rjg: Dec 17th 2007; 7:07PM

Mass Effect isn't great (fun, but flawed) so it won't get GOTY.

It should go to Rock Band. It's that good.

rjg: Dec 17th 2007; 7:15PM

I need to play Orange Box, the demo was great and it the reviews are sick.

I'm not some BioShock hater, I was planning to buy it but the demo didn't grab me, and playing it at my buddies just re-enforced it wasn't for me.

Honestly, if it had coop MP I'd really give it a go, but that's a dealbreaker. Hopefully they get that right in BioShock2...

GaryM: Dec 17th 2007; 7:18PM

I wish some outlets would stop putting The Orange Box on GOTY lists; it's not a game, but a collection of five separate titles, two of which have been out for a couple of years already.

Obie: Dec 17th 2007; 7:19PM

Very good list, solid selections and very valid points.
Except Bioshock, fun and pretty, but COD4 or Mario Galaxy are better. Oh well.

Poisoned Al: Dec 17th 2007; 7:23PM

Bioshock is a good game, but anyone who played System Shock 2 was hardly blown away by it. I for one saw the "twist" a few light years away because they did the same damn thing before. Also, Shodan was a way cooler baddie!

gonk: Dec 17th 2007; 7:33PM

thank god i didnt play SS2 then

Geist: Dec 17th 2007; 8:15PM

I agree. As I played I thought "Wait, this all looks familiar"

Also, SS2 is damn awesome and everyone should play it before proclaiming BioShock to be the most amazing thing since sliced Mario.

Shagittarius: Dec 17th 2007; 8:51PM

Bioshock certainly deserves GOTY. I liked the system shocks as well and certainly liked their RPG nature more than I liked the shooter nature of Bioshock but all in all bioshock advances the medium in ways the System SHock failed to do so I still think each game is great for its own reasons.

Another thing I learned from Bioshock is that there are A LOT of morons that visit this blog.

mark: Dec 17th 2007; 8:17PM

anyone notice that under bioshock it said xbox360, PS3, windows pc.

tell me AP: On which console do the graphics look better?

why not the LS2LS7?: Dec 17th 2007; 8:18PM

It's just not GOTY.

Portal (even without the rest of the Orange Box) is better.
Mass Effect is better. Way better.

Rock Band might be better too, it is for me for sure.

Geist: Dec 17th 2007; 8:25PM

I agree on Portal. Never played Mass Effect so I can't comment on that.

GrossGreg: Dec 17th 2007; 8:31PM

After playing Bioshock, I still gotta stick up here for Super Mario Galaxy. Maybe it was released too late in the year, but it relentlessly gnaws the genre's face off.

GrossGreg: Dec 17th 2007; 8:38PM

BTW although Halo 3 is overrated, the most overrated game of the year has got to be Katamari Demacy (if that is how you spell it). I can only imagine how many gamers responded by thinking "WTF?!" when playing the demo after reading gaming blogs rant for several months before the release. Oh, and after the release...*cricket chirping*...?

gonk: Dec 17th 2007; 8:57PM

do you mean the new sequel on 360? it sucks, it wasn't made by the original creator and is also only like 5 hours long (too common of a problem these days)

GrossGreg: Dec 17th 2007; 9:02PM

Yeah, you're right...Beautiful Katamari. I like quirky games, but it reminded me all-too-much of those weird neglected games that sat in the corner of Chuck E Cheez (then Showbiz Pizza) when I was a kid.

why not the LS2LS7?: Dec 17th 2007; 9:17PM

Yes. That demo was awful. It was funny to see the Xbox fanbois going nuts to get the game. And then the demo hit and the cheers fell silent.

This isn't to pick on reasonable Xbox fans, just the few very extreme Xbox fanboys who for some reason made a big deal out of how 360 was getting this game and PS3 wasn't.

I liked the first KD. The sequel was okay, adding co-op was nice and the oddball challenges. But the 3rd failed to expand upon the game at all, and as is pointed out, is very short.

Also note the first game was only $20 retail in the US and the 2nd was $30, both of which helped the reception a lot. The 360 game is $40 (still!).

Dragod: Dec 17th 2007; 10:25PM

I disagree... The reason Halo is great is because of its replay value. No other game has racked up as many hours of play as Halo (Maybe Counter-Strike), and that makes the game that much better. The reason I haven't bought BioShock is because I don't want to spend $60 to play a game once, or to play it twice just because I'm bored.

I can pop in Halo at any moment and join in on a custom match, play matchmaking, or even make my own maps. You can't tell me that's not great. I was just playing a match with a friend who had recreated Beaver Creek from H2, and had recreations of Warlock, Hang 'Em High, and a few others. That's amazing. Players being able to remake entire levels in their own image is something I'd like to see in other games.

Sure, people say "Cod4 is a much better game then Halo!!", but a game is more than just photo-realism. Look at Crysis, gorgeous graphics but horrible AI. CoD4 just doesn't have what Halo has.

Obie: Dec 17th 2007; 11:37PM

It's sad what Gamefuel does to ones brain isn't it?
Just because a game is played more, does not automatically make it better.

Endejas: Dec 18th 2007; 12:06AM

While I agree that there's some nice versatility in Halo 3, my problem lies in the game's inability to change its shallow gameplay formula.

I played Halo 2 religiously for most of the time from its release, to Halo 3's. The small things that brought me out of that game were the new games for my 360, Gears of War being my favorite.

Halo 3 has just grown stale for me. The gameplay was polished and refined 2 years ago, but now, it's just the same game I've been playing for a few years. Combine that with a campaign that I seriously believed lacked a comprehensive and coordinated writing team, and you've got a disappointment of a game. I basically played $75 for a copy/paste version of the multiplayer, and a story that didn't invigorate me. I loved the first two, but the third just disappoints me, over and over again.

Anni: Dec 17th 2007; 11:40PM

I may actually have to be content to ignore any GOTY lists that don't include Mario Galaxy. There's nothing wrong with any of the games listed as top whatever at all, I'm just saying, they're passing over a huge gem without Mario.

Augustine: Dec 18th 2007; 1:17AM

I don't see what all the fuss was about. I fact, I hated Bioshock, give me Half life. Can someone explain to me why this game was so great?

rainking187: Dec 18th 2007; 4:22AM

"One sentiment that we think everyone can agree with: the federal law requiring all good games to be released within weeks of each other has to be overturned."

This. February is looking to be another killer.

I think Bioshock totally deserved it. I haven't been that impressed by a game in...well, ever. Halo 3 was the same old crap, and to be perfectly honest Super Mario Galaxy did not impress me. I bought it the day it came out, played it for a few hours, and then it went back on my shelf where it hasn't been touched since. Portal looks good, but the other four games on the Orange Box just do not interest me at all. I guess I don't get the fuss over Rock Band. Don't really have any interest in the drums and I don't want to listen to someone sing crappy karaoke, so it's basically a more expensive Guitar Hero for me.

zero: Dec 18th 2007; 8:08AM

I agree 100% with their Halo 3 comment...

Come and get me Halo fan boys!

Sentinel: Dec 18th 2007; 11:20AM

Not bioshock damnit, NOT bioshock!

Bioshock had a nice atmosphere, but i didn't even get through the game because the standard gameplay bored me out of my mind.
Crysis was a lot of fun to play, the orange box (portal and TF2 in particular) was great. So how the hell can the bioshock win when two superior shooters were released?

Crysis was better, the orange box was definatly a MUCH better package and mario galaxy was a lot more fun too. But the boring shooter has to win. :/

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