As we all know the only GotY that really matters is that of the Banshee. Seeing that it's an RPG site, Fallout 3 walked away with the RPG of the Year award:<blockquote>While 2008 wasn't a noteworthy year for role-playing games, we have to admit that we were pleasantly surprised with Bethesda's iteration of Fallout 3. The main quest leaves a lot to be desired and the game plays more like Oblivion than the original Fallouts, but the team did get quite a few things right. The side quests are well done (save for some morality issues), the devastated Washington, DC setting is an interesting backdrop for the series, and Interplay's original post-nuclear world is fairly well-represented. Best of all, Fallout 3 improved upon some of our biggest issues with Oblivion, like the auto-leveling mechanics, voice acting diversity, and uninspired side quests. Maybe next time we'll get a better PC interface, too.
Overall, Fallout 3 is a much better game than many of us expected, though its flaws may have held it back from this award in a stronger year.</blockquote>... as well as the graphics award:<blockquote>Fallout 3 is not an unequivocal graphical triumph; despite sporting a realistically grim post-nuclear setting, Bethesda still has some room for improvement in the character animation, facial modeling, and world design departments. But, much like Oblivion was in 2006, Fallout 3 is one of the best-looking games of 2008, and in pure graphical fidelity it usurps all others to take our award for this year's best graphics.</blockquote>Amusingly, every category had a runner-up except for the writing award, where no game other than Fable II was deemed worthy of mention. Also, GB does not seem to think Fallout 3 was the best game, as under Hybrid RPG of the Year they note "King's Bounty: The Legend is easily the best game listed in these awards."
Another GotY-esque tradition is RPGCodex' Year in Review, which also looks back to Fallout 3.<blockquote>In all the best ways, Oblivion falls into those category of games that are not particularly good or memorable. Fallout 3 improves on this significantly by simply not being Oblivion. It doesn't end there though as it improves upon this even further by presenting you with more options. Instead of the usual "do the quest" or "ignore the quest" standard in most Bethesda games of recent years, Fallout 3 does provide some methods where you can complete the quest in at least one other way. Sometimes even by using a skill (if you're lucky). This improvement might seem small to those of us born and raised on Troika-style RPGs and their predecessors (like the original Fallouts) but it's a huge leap forward for Bethesda and that deserves recognition. The RPGCodex' "Most Improved Developer" award for 2008 is hereby awarded to Bethesda Softworks.
Congratulations to Bethesda for achieving such an oustanding achievement as not making a game as completely crappy as Oblivion. No, it's not the Fallout 3 we asked for or even really wanted but it does have "Fallout 3" in the title and that's what makes it an RPG.</blockquote>
Overall, Fallout 3 is a much better game than many of us expected, though its flaws may have held it back from this award in a stronger year.</blockquote>... as well as the graphics award:<blockquote>Fallout 3 is not an unequivocal graphical triumph; despite sporting a realistically grim post-nuclear setting, Bethesda still has some room for improvement in the character animation, facial modeling, and world design departments. But, much like Oblivion was in 2006, Fallout 3 is one of the best-looking games of 2008, and in pure graphical fidelity it usurps all others to take our award for this year's best graphics.</blockquote>Amusingly, every category had a runner-up except for the writing award, where no game other than Fable II was deemed worthy of mention. Also, GB does not seem to think Fallout 3 was the best game, as under Hybrid RPG of the Year they note "King's Bounty: The Legend is easily the best game listed in these awards."
Another GotY-esque tradition is RPGCodex' Year in Review, which also looks back to Fallout 3.<blockquote>In all the best ways, Oblivion falls into those category of games that are not particularly good or memorable. Fallout 3 improves on this significantly by simply not being Oblivion. It doesn't end there though as it improves upon this even further by presenting you with more options. Instead of the usual "do the quest" or "ignore the quest" standard in most Bethesda games of recent years, Fallout 3 does provide some methods where you can complete the quest in at least one other way. Sometimes even by using a skill (if you're lucky). This improvement might seem small to those of us born and raised on Troika-style RPGs and their predecessors (like the original Fallouts) but it's a huge leap forward for Bethesda and that deserves recognition. The RPGCodex' "Most Improved Developer" award for 2008 is hereby awarded to Bethesda Softworks.
Congratulations to Bethesda for achieving such an oustanding achievement as not making a game as completely crappy as Oblivion. No, it's not the Fallout 3 we asked for or even really wanted but it does have "Fallout 3" in the title and that's what makes it an RPG.</blockquote>
