ON THE 2008 BRAMMIES - GAMES

These awards are for games that I played for the first time in the calendar year 2008. Again, they are my favorites, nothing technical here.

FAVORITE WII GAME OF THE YEAR - Super Mario Galaxy

Although at times the spheres gave me nausea, and at times my inability to dodge a fireball gave me hypertension, the game was beginning to end fun. I tried Super Mario Sunshine for the Gamecube and couldn't get into it; Super Mario Galaxy had me hooked from the beginning.

FAVORITE PS3 GAME OF THE YEAR - Metal Gear Solid 4

Snake's adventures came to an end in an appropriate manner; with me forgetting that the goal of the game is stealth. You see, Snake has a choice to kill enemies or to trank them. About halfway through the game I remembered to trank them. Whoops. The gameplay was immersive, the storyline - told mostly though extensive cutscenes - was deep, the graphics were amazing.

FAVORITE 360 GAME OF THE YEAR THAT DIDN'T WIN OVERALL GAME OF THE YEAR - Rainbow Six Vegas 2

I spent a lot of time playing this game in the single-player mode. But I probably got the most use out of the multiplayer mode. In fact, this is probably my most-played Xbox Live title of the year.

GAME THAT I DIDN'T UNDERSTAND ALL THE HYPE - Smash Bros. Brawl

Maybe it's because I'm terrible at it, maybe it's because the online components never seemed to work for me. But this fighter for the Wii just didn't do it for me.

FAVORITE GAME OF THE YEAR - Rock Band 2

This is how you do a music game. Include a Pearl Jam song (Alive!), update the peripherals, but then make it possible to play all the songs from the first Rock Band! Then add in a Dashboard song and some Motley Crue, and you have my favorite game of the year.

Honorable Mention - Buzz! Trivia series

Coming tomorrow - Music awards