This is it. This is where it’s all been leading. We’ve got our sparkly gold envelope in hand and the two best celebrities we could afford* are about to take to the stage and announce the grand winner.
This final overall winner is the game which we thought was the absolute best, the most enjoyable or impressive, of the year. It could have been from any platform, any distribution method and any style of control. In this category Angry Birds faced off against Halo: Reach, Dance Central stared cooly into the eyes of Mass Effect 2 and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood stabbed God of War III in the throat and disappeared into the crowd before the police cruisers from Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit could arrive.
Obviously, this category was hard-fought. Our sub categories have seen some truly exceptional games beat out the opposition and rise to the top of a specific platform’s (or specifically multi platform’s) fare. But that was all just a prelude to the main event.
The inclusion of the Community Team member’s votes mixed things up a bit with several of them favouring some of the year’s big multiplayer hits and adding a little variation to our list. In a year that has seen so many top quality game releases we’re pleased that we’ve been able to recognise so many with titles and inclusion in our lists.
As with the categories that have gone before, any one of these games would have been a justifiable winner of the overall award. Black Ops’ exceptional production values, Halo: Reach’s imaginative immersion techniques, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood’s compelling storyline, Red Dead Redemption’s atmosphere and style, Starcraft II’s balance and tuning or Mass Effect 2’s narrative could all have been reason to pick them over any other. Gran Turismo 5 and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit with their stunning (in two very different ways) visuals would have been worthy winners, as would God of War III with its gargantuan setting and visceral scenes.
None of those games emerged victorious though. There can be only one overall winner of TheSixthAxis’ Game of the Year 2010 and that winner is: Heavy Rain.
*We couldn’t really afford celebrities and we haven’t really got a stage. The magic of showbiz.
2ofclubs
A good selection of games but personally the top two titles just didn’t excite me at all. I did play them and got part way through before sending them back (I only rented them).
Looking forward to another great year of games in 2011 though :)
MaD dOctoR 79
there not really rentable games, you have to put time into them.
both are great games
dude90
Whaaaaaaaaaaaat? No GT5 or GoW3 or ModNation?
Rob92
Brilliant but flawed game but exactly the kind of game I would give GOTY to and I am happy TSA readers have. No other game stood out as being something different this year, so congrats to Heavy Rain for bringing something new to the table.
Peter Rushton
Well deserved :D
LycanGav
Oh dear, innovation does not equal quality. Cage and co tried plenty of new things, and are to be applauded for their bravery, but to put this game even in the same bracket as the narrative on show in Mass Effect 2 shows why democratic voting systems are deeply flawed at times.
ericzap
Ah the ‘your opinion differs from my opinion and therefore is wrong’ comment.
MaD dOctoR 79
Mass Effect 2 had a lot of problems, plus it was merely Mass Effect with better controls/combat, but felt a lot shorter.
Heavy Rain has it’s problems too, but, for the unique experience (made even better with the Move controls) it deserves to be at the top…or would you have preferred Halo Reach or COD at the top?
RDR and AC:B should have been a lot higher on the list…I mean, Need For Speed Hot Pursuit? how in the F did that make the list?…and so high?
Daywalker
My son will be really glad to hear about this. Let me call him.
Jaaassoonn! JAAASSOOONN! JJJAAAAYYYYYYSSSSOOOONNNNNN!!!!!!!!
Dexter17
Sure, it’s surprising, but I can’t say I disagree. Although extremely flawed and didn’t paticularly have the impact we’d all hoped for, it was a brilliant game that, for the first play through at least, kept the player on their toes and for a couple of moments made you think “what is going to happen?” With the predictable nature of the industry at the moment, not many titles can say that they made an unpredicatable game, and that is an accolade that is worth shouting about.
Worthy winner.
Xenoliath
Surprising result, but Mass Effect 2 should’ve won it in my opinion. Oh well, well done PS3. We’ll get you next year.
Charmed_Fanatic
im am surprised! atleast it shows people on TSA know good games
muse88_James
Red Dead Redemption should have won it, maybe Need for Speed which I’m enjoying at the moment. Heavy Rain was good, but it weren’t game of the year…not by a long way.