Elonka wrote:

[ I can't speak to most of these, but I will say something about a couple... Katamari Damacy to start.

Personally, I consider it probably the best video game value of the year... it was released for only 20 bucks, but provides a ton of entertainment. The concept is simple -- just roll a ball around the world picking up the stuff you roll over and adding it to your ball -- but in practice it's extremely fun, and challenging enough to be worth playing, while not being so difficult that it gets tedious or frustrating. They paid attention to details too, making the people run from you screaming, and adding spoilers like gun wielding police officers and so on, that you have to avoid until you're big enough to just roll them up. There's not much of a useful story, to speak of, but the gameplay itself is so simple and addictive that it doesn't matter.

If in no other category, i give this one a big nod in terms of Game Design. Truly, very fun.

I can also talk about GTA: San Andreas. My take on this one is that it's a lot like GTA III and Vice City, only with some of the more irritating parts removed. Like, you can swim now, instead of dying the instant you hit the water, as in previous games... this is such a huge improvement that it completely changes the character of the game. The addition of skills and abilities also added a much needed level of intricacy, without which it would've been truly little more than a scene change from Miami Vice to Compton. The skills are transparent enough to not get in the way, but they're still very present as another part of the game play experience. Other than that, not a great deal has changed... you kill people, and run drugs, and steal, but the story isn't bad, and the missions are as challenging as ever. As with previous games, the biggest challenge is to not just cheat or devolve into pure, mindless rampaging. Sometimes when the missions get frustrating, it's really just not that compelling to put the game in, but maybe I'm just lazy.

My $0.02

-k]

RE: 2005 Game Developers Choice Awards - Assistance Requested