Microsoft’s Xbox division has spent the past eighteen months trying to convince us all that Kinect was brilliant. It has certainly delivered the company a shedload of cash and it is very nice technology but the bit we, as gamers, care about is still lacking somewhat.
As a result of this, Microsoft’s real top drawer gameplay experiences have been lacking since Kinect’s arrival. Luckily, this year saw the return of two massive franchises and a remake of the game that went on to become Microsoft’s (and gaming’s – for a while) biggest hit franchise.
We did find some room in our cynical old hearts for some of the more casual entertainment offered by Kinect but on the whole, we played up to the clichéd view of gamers everywhere by showing how much we liked driving fast and shooting things.
TheSixthAxis’ Xbox 360 Exclusive Game of the Year is the thoroughly deserving Gears of War 3.
iriihutoR48
Gears of War 3 and Forza 4 were both top of the class in their genre. I would have loved to see something new and unique this year for the Xbox 360 though since those are the third/fourth games in a series.
teflon
Halo 4?
No… Wait… ;)
IAmJacksMedullaOblongata
As someone who is not interested in Kinect I really feel Microsoft let their fans down this year in the exclusives division. Sure, GEoW3 is awesome but, compared to its rivals, they really didn’t compete when it came to exclusives. I wonder what 2012 will hold in this area.
Kennykazey
True, just the fact that Fruit Ninja Kinect, a small downloadable title, is qualified for Xbox GOTY shows how weak MS has been this year. And isn’t Fruit Ninja on mobile phones aswell? I hope next year proves to be a better year for 360 owners, though they have had a lot of good multiplats this year.
cc_star
Fruit Ninja Kinect is a really fun game by all accounts, local multiplayer should be full of win too.
There’s only so many stereotypical marine grunts you can shoot on a brown-ish background…. Surely?
Although I totally agree about dropping the ball on 1st & 2nd party exclusives.
Kennykazey
I’m not mocking Fruit Ninja for being a bad game or a Kinect title. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like generic games with space marines and lack of colour. It’s just that the PS3’s nominees were all disc-based high production value titles.
fattyuk
didnt really need to click on this article to find out it was gears of war lol . Fingers crossed theyve got a few things up there sleeve for the next console
MrSpeedyGonzales
I really don’t understand why people like Gears 3 so much, I understand it’s a good 3rd person shooter but that’s all… good. When I was playing it, it seemed like a carbon copy of the previous titles with a storyline that was boring.
Saying that though, I can’t actually think of any Xbox exclusives that were good or original this year…
colmshan1990
Did you come to the series late?
Because the reason it feels ‘samey’ is because a lot of games have copied it.
MrSpeedyGonzales
I haven’t come to it late, I played the first when it came out and the second last year. I just felt they added nothing new to the singleplayer except a new story, which in my opinion was very goodand didn’t keep my interest.
IAmJacksMedullaOblongata
Horde mode with 3 mates. Sublime.
Sad Panda
Agreed, the new and improved Hoard mode is pure awesome. This is tied with Portal 2 IMO for overall GOTY.
Crazyfrog23
Dance Central 2 didn’t win ? How could this happen :(
JBoo
Was that it? LOL
Awayze
Lmfao. Saw the charts. Oh man that was a good laugh……
Awayze
Oh man, I’m still lmao.
Roynaldo
Where’s the rest of the exclusives? Dont tell me thats all of them!
Kennykazey
Well, there’s Once Upon A Monster by Double Fine. And Treched, which probably should have gotten a mention!
Deathbrin
Thorza Thor.
MICKY17
I think most people must have expected Gears to win, but I didn’t expect there to be so few choices. Hopefully MS will rectify this in 2012.