Quick note: Only games that I’ve played / am excited to play soon will be eligible to win awards.

Since all of these games have won in other categories, I won’t go into why I picked them since you should already know.

Best Action Game - Ratchet & Clank: ACiT

Also notable: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, inFamous, Batman: Arkham Asylum (playing soon)

Best Fighting Game - Street Fighter IV

Best Music Game - The Beatles: Rock Band

Also notable: Guitar Hero 5, Rock Band Unplugged

Best Platform Game - LittleBigPlanet PSP

Also notable: New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Best Puzzle Game - Critter Crunch

Also notable: Scribblenauts

Best Racing Game - Dirt 2

Also notable: F1 200, Need for Speed: Shift, Gran Turismo PSP, MotorStorm: Arctic Edge, Excitebots (if it was released here)

Best Shooter - Borderlands

Also notable: Modern Warfare 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Killzone 2, Resistance: Retribution

Best Sports Game - FIFA 10

Also notable: Tiger Woods 10 (Wii), Grand Slam Tennis, NBA Live 10, Wii Sports Resort

Best Strategy Game - Plants vs Zombies

Also notable: StarDefense

Best Visual Quality - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Also notable: Killzone 2, Ratchet & Clank: ACiT

Best Use of Sound - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Also notable: Ratchet & Clank: ACiT, Killzone 2, Modern Warfare 2, Shatter, Critter Crunch

Best Story - inFamous

Also notable: Batman: Arkham Asylum, Ratchet & Clank: ACiT, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Best Family Game - Boom Blox Bash Party

Also notable: Wii Sports Resort, Wii Fit Plus

Best Multiplayer - Modern Warfare 2

Also notable: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Left 4 Dead 2, Killzone 2, Battlefield 1943, Borderlands, Resistance: Retribution, MotorStorm: Arctic Edge

Best Downloadable Game - Shatter

Also notable: Critter Crunch, Flower, Fat Princess, PixelJunk Shooter, Plants vs Zombies

Overall Game of the Year - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Also notable: Ratchet & Clank: ACiT, LBP PSP, inFamous, Batman: Arkham Asylum

Quick note: Only games that I’ve played / am excited to play soon will be eligible to win awards.

Best Music Game - Rock Band

Rock Band has great production value for an iPhone game, very good graphics and as you would expect, a good set list of songs to play. The controls of the game can be inconsistent from my experience which can make the game frustrating sometimes.

Best Puzzle Game - Peggle

Peggle is a great game, and this port is the perfect title to keep you occupied for a few mins every now and then.

Also notable: Bookworm

Best Strategy Game - StarDefense

StarDefense is another quality game from ngmoco that takes tower defence to a whole new level. Each level takes place on a 3D planet which you can scroll around freely. It’s a very unique take on the genre with high production values.

Best Visual Quality - Zen Bound

Zen Bound is a very unique, stylish game which is all about a relaxing experience. You simply use your finger to manipulate the object on screen and wrap the rope around it as much as you can.

Best Use of Sound - Zen Bound

The sound of the game compliments the relaxing gameplay well, providing a great overall experience.

Best Multiplayer - Eliminate

Eliminate is an impressive online multiplayer game on the App Store. While I’m not big on playing shooters with touch controls, I can appreciate a well designed and executed online game on a platform where you might not expect it. Plus, the game is free barring any downloadable add-ons.

App Store Game of the Year - Peggle

Possibly the best casual game of all time was perfectly recreated on iPod / iPhone with great controls and the same fun gameplay that the PC and other versions have for years.

Also notable: Uno, StarDefense, Zen Bound

Coming Soon: Overall Awards

Quick note: Only games that I’ve played / am excited to play soon will be eligible to win awards.

Best Action Game - Patapon 2

Patapon was a great PSP game. The sequel takes what you loved about the first one and multiplies it. It’s definitely worth playing whether or not you played the first.

Also notable:

Best Music Game - Rock Band Unplugged

Rock Band Unplugged might not have the same lasting appeal that the console versions have but it does provide an excellent way to spend a few minutes when you want to rock. Because you play with just the buttons, it can make you feel great if you nail a tricky solo or other satisfyingly tough part of a song because the notes are faster than on the normal game, but also easier to hit. Instrument switching takes some getting used to but it is fun after some practice.

Best Platform Game - LittleBigPlanet PSP

LBP PSP is a great portable version of the original PS3 hit game LBP, lovingly downsized to fit the PSP perfectly. You don’t lose much of the experience either, making it an astounding technological achievement.

Best Puzzle Game - PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe

PJ Monsters Deluxe is essentially the collectors’ edition of the hit PS3 tower defence game. It’s a game that was perfectly suited to the handheld from the beginning and it is really fun to play.

Also notable: LocoRoco 2

Best Racing Game - Gran Turismo PSP

GT PSP might not be technically quite up to speed with MotorStorm but in the end, I had more fun playing this overall. The lack of a career mode is a bit disappointing but it is a handheld game so I can accept that omission. Collecting cars will keep you playing for a while and the promise of being able to transfer the cars to GT5 when it comes out will please quite a few players.

Also notable: MotorStorm: Arctic Edge

Best Visual Quality - LittleBigPlanet PSP

This game will make you marvel at the 4 year old PSP and marvel at how this game is really pushing it and unlocking it’s untapped potential.

Also notable: MotorStorm: Arctic Edge

Best Use of Sound - MotorStorm: Arctic Edge

I could have given this to LBP as well, but I think MotorStorm definitely deserves an award. It has a great soundtrack, great effects and provides the same brutal off-road racing experience you will find on the PS3 versions of the series.

Also notable: LittleBigPlanet PSP, Gran Turismo PSP

Best Story - Resistance: Retribution

I must admit that U bought RR mainly for the multiplayer. With that said though, the story that is there, is actually well done and for a PSP game and is worth a look if you’re into the gameplay.

Best Multiplayer - Resistance: Retribution

Resistance PSP really comes alive online. By far the best online shooter on the system, it feels console quality in its setup and really run exceptionally well considering the hardware. You can tell that Bend Studio made use of all their expertise from creating the Syphon Filter PSP series in creating this game’s online component.

Also notable: MotorStorm: Arctic Edge, Gran Turismo PSP

PSP Game of the Year - LittleBigPlanet PSP

I’m a big fan of Patapon 2, but I couldn’t put it ahead of LBP because of how LBP does something that’s never been done before on a handheld. The way you can create levels and share them online works extremely well so you cold conceivably never run out of new levels to play. Of course, the story levels are fantastic as you would expect too. They seem to be a bit tricky for a handheld but they’re fun and challenging without being overly tough. The lack of ad-hoc multiplayer is a shame but the game offers so much that you almost forget about it.

Also notable: Patapon 2, MotorStorm: Arctic Edge, GT PSP, Resistance: Retribution

Coming Soon: iPod / iPhone and overall awards.

Quick note: Only games that I’ve played / am excited to play soon will be eligible to win awards.

Best Action Game - GTA Chinatown Wars

GTA Chinatown Wars on DS is an impressive game. It fitted more action gameplay into a single cartridge than certainly I thought possible. I had fun Dealing drugs and escaping the cops among other things. It feels like a game that shouldn’t be able to fit on DS, but somehow defies that belief.

Best Puzzle Game - Scribblenauts

Scribblenauts is a game so huge in its concept that I can’t believe that it even works as a game. Making a game where you can summon almost anything and still make a working game is so impressive. The only real downside is the fiddly controls, namely not allowing you to move Maxwell with the D-pad rather than by the stylus. It’s still a game that a lot of DS owners will enjoy.

Best Visual Quality - GTA Chinatown Wars

GTA is technical marvel. Rockstar Leeds did a great job on not only fitting a full GTA experience on the handheld, but making it run well and look great as they have done.

Best Story - GTA Chinatown Wars

I’ve never been so engrossed in a DS game before that doesn’t have Pokemon in the name.

Best Multiplayer - GTA Chinatown Wars

I played some local multiplayer with my brother one time and we had fun. It’s a bit basic but they do have quite a few modes to choose from. It’s definitely worth trying out at least once if you can.

DS Game of the Year - GTA Chinatown Wars

For all the reasons stated above, GTA Chinatown Wars on DS is an exceptional game ad pushed the system seemingly to it’s limits. It’s a shame it hasn’t sold up to expectations so far but since Nintendo’s games tend to have a longer lifespan than most, there’s still time for that to change.

Also notable: Scribblenauts

Up next: PSP

Quick note: Only games that I’ve played / am excited to play soon will be eligible to win awards.

Best Action Game - Borderlands

Traditional categories kind of don’t matter at this point. I realised there was a vacancy at action game and since Borderlands is more of an action game with it’s vehicle combat than other games that are more strictly shooters, it made sense to put it here. It’s a great game on all platforms.

Also notable: Batman: Arkham Asylum (playing soon)

Best Puzzle Game - PuzzleQuest Galactrix

Interesting twist on the PuzzleQuest formula.

Best Racing Game - Dirt 2

While Dirt 2 does effectively insult and ignore the history of Rally and what Colin McRae stood for, the fact is that it is a very well made, very fun off-road racing game in its own right. The only game to beat it in the genre in my opinion is Forza 3.

Also notable: Race on, Need for Speed: Shift

Best Shooter - Left 4 Dead 2

L4D2 is a worthy successor to the first game, even only 1 year after the L4D came out. Other series get yearly sequels which people accept for the most part, this does more than enough to warrant its release as a full price sequel rather than DLC for the original.

Also notable: Modern Warfare 2, Borderlands

Best Strategy Game - Plants vs Zombies

PopCap did it again with their newest game, a fun, deceptively simple RTS where you fight back hordes of Zombies by carefully placing Plants which all have different strengths and weaknesses. It’s a move away from PopCap’s roots as a casual games developer exclusively. However, that’s not to say it can’t be enjoyed by a lot of people, just that the learning curve might be high for some people. Regardless, it’s a great game and certainly worth the price of admission.

Best Visual Quality - Borderlands

Gearbox Software took a risk on the cell shaded style of Borderlands paying off, and in the end, it certainly did. The game looks great and very distinctive among many similar games.

Also notable: Left 4 Dead 2, Modern Warfare 2, Dirt 2

Best Use of Sound - Modern Warfare 2

MW2 perfectly captures the intensity and rush of combat through it’s use of sound effects.

Also notable: Left 4 Dead 2, Plants vs Zombies

Best Story - Batman: Arkham Asylum

Batman draws on years of comic storytelling to deliver a great fun and true to the series story for the game. Iconic villains and the location help this cause tremendously.

Best Multiplayer - Modern Warfare 2

MW2 is probably the best multiplayer game of all time, and that’s not an understatement. The game is impeccably well engineered to offer not just a great gameplay experience, but also by far the best matchmaking and hosting service ever. One of the most important aspects in multiplayer gaming is how fast actually getting into the game is and how the smooth / lag free the gameplay itself is once you get there. MW2 excels in all areas, leading to the massive commercial and critical success it has garnered to this point.

Also notable: Left 4 Dead 2, Borderlands

PC Game of the Year - Borderlands

Borderlands was one of those titles, like Batman, that really surprised people this year with how good they were. I personally have had the most fun playing Borderlands on PC this year and that’s reflected in this award.

Also notable: Modern Warfare 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Dirt 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Plants vs Zombies

Up next: DS

Quick note: Only games that I’ve played / am excited to play soon will be eligible to win awards.

Best Platform Game - New Super Mario Bros. Wii

NSMB is a good Mario game. It does what you expect in that it takes an established formula and adds new elements to it including local multiplayer and a little motion. Some of the motion is implemented well, like the tilting platforms. Some is annoying to use, like the helicopter hat jump. Overall the game is fun, it just didn’t blow me away, plus I found it to be too picky and frustratingly difficult, which isn’t new to the Mario series or this genre of course, but it hurt my enjoyment as I just wanted to blast through the levels just having fun.

Best Racing Game - F1 2009

There hasn’t been a new F1 game for several years, and as someone who has become a huge fan in recent times, it was a bit disheartening. F1 2009 isn’t HD, it doesn’t have online and the default controls are the ever-awful motion steering. It even comes with a cheesy Wii Wheel plastic housing for the remote. However, as long as you play this with the classic controller, and you enjoy driving fast cars, you will almost be guaranteed to love this game. You get an intense sense of speed and great driving mechanics which on default settings feel satisfyingly easy to get to grips with, while also giving you enough of a challenge where you really feel as if you’re on the edge a lot of the time. Turn the driving aids off and you get a much more hardcore racing sim for the more hardcore player who’s waiting for the HD version to come out next year, or hardcore Wii owners. Aside from F1 2009, Excitebots (if it had come out here) would have been right up there with it fighting for best racing game, but as we know, it wasn’t released here, which is a real shame.

Best Shooter - Modern Warfare Reflex Edition

While Dead Space Extraction is generally a better game, I don’t really enjoy light gun games so I didn’t play that game. Modern Warfare Reflex therefore wins best shooter by default, in a similar way to how NSMBW won best platform game, without any competition. MW was a pretty good port of a two year old game and to its credit, did have very good online for a Wii game. Especially when compared to The Conduit, which was a big let down in the online play. It practically never worked. It then got shown how to do it by a two year old port. I just find that to be particularly sad. Not only this, but this year I also learned that I don’t like playing FPS games with the Wii remote IR pointer because Dual Analogue is just so much more comfortable and precise. My brother summed it up when he said that he would have come back to the game a lot if it had included classic controller support.

Best Sports Game - Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10

Sports games is a genre the Wii is able to excel at, and it’s where I had the most fun with the system this year. Tiger Woods 10 uses motion-plus in a way which shows off what the peripheral is capable of. It works great and is really enjoyable to play, and very satisfying. Grand Slam Tennis I also enjoyed a lot. Despite the fact that the motion-plus wasn’t utilised as well as it could have been (it doesn’t track the location of the remote constantly, like in Wii Sports Resort Table Tennis for example). Regardless, the game was very enjoyable and shows a lot of potential for next year’s game. Wii Sports Resort is fun, but doesn’t in my opinion falls short of producing the magic that the original Wii Sports had. There are some fun additions though. My personal favourites are basketball 3 on 3 and table tennis. Archery is impressive as a tech demo for motion-plus but isn’t something I would go back to.

Also notable: Wii Sports Resort, Grand Slam Tennis

Best Visual Quality - Grand Slam Tennis

This may seem like a weird choice, but when you talk about Wii graphical quality, not a lot springs to mind in the last 12 months, at least of games that I’ve played. Grand Slam Tennis though has a very cool, cartoony art style which is very aesthetically pleasing.

Best Use of Sound - Modern Warfare Reflex Edition

Seeing as this is a port of the epic 2007 game CoD4 Modern Warfare, this version also brings the franchise’s staple chaotic but fantastic sound to Wii. Turning the sound up really heightens the excitement and the atmosphere.

Best Multiplayer - Boom Blox Bash Party

The original Boom Blox was one of the first console games that my Mum really got into, and we had a lot of fun playing it as a Family. While MW Reflex has great online for a Wii game and NSMBW offers the never before seen up to four player mario experience, Boom Blox has to take this award for how well it suits the Wii platform, and how it can appeal to almost anyone. There were other good multiplayer games too, but none match up in my opinion. Boom Blox can go down in Wii history as a casual game done right.

Also notable: Modern Warfare Reflex Edition, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, F1 2009, Wii Sports Resort, Grand Slam Tennis

Best WiiWare Game - Swords and Soldiers

Swords and Soldiers is a very unique, stylish, side scrolling RTS game which has been really well received critically.

Wii Game of the Year - Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10

Sports games don’t often win awards outside of their own categories, if ever, but I’m going to buck that trend, even if 3DG isn’t exactly a huge site to say the least. Regardless, Tiger Woods 10 is a complete package, well designed and is a great example of how motion-plus can make Wii’s motion control useful for games other than Excite Truck / Excitebots.

Also notable: New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Up next: PC

Quick note: Only games that I’ve played / am excited to play soon will be eligible to win awards.

Best Action Game - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Uncharted 2 – Among Thieves was destined to be a great action game from its inception. The game has astonishing graphics, great fun gameplay and a very engaging story. It’s simply a must play for all PS3 owners.

Also notable: Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time, inFamous, Batman: Arkham Asylum (playing soon)

Best Fighting Game - Street Fighter IV

In the past, I’ve never really known a lot about Street Fighter, or really played it much, if ever. I got Tekken 2 bundles with my PS1 back in the day and always just assumed that Tekken was the pinnacle of fighting games. I must admit that I’m not a fighting game expert, and while I didn’t get into the technical side of SF4, I appreciate the 2D nature of the game and the old school gameplay mixed with modern subsystems which allow many different tactics to be deployed.

Best Music Game - The Beatles: Rock Band

Beatles: Rock Band really stands out among a sea of cheap Guitar Hero cash-ins and while the main entrant in the series, GH5 was actually good, and metallica was good for fans of that type of music. The other GH games: Greatest Hits and Van Halen were shameful cash-ins for Activision. New entrant DJ Hero was surprisingly good but despite the fact that I haven’t played DJ Hero, from what I’ve seen of the game, it can’t compete with Beatles: Rock Band’s incredible attention to detail, great setlist and fun gameplay. The game was made with love, it was clear and that’s a great thing to see.

Also notable: Guitar Hero 5

Best Puzzle Game - Critter Crunch

Critter Crunch is an incredibly stylish downloadable PSN puzzle game where you feed critters to larger ones to create chains. Controls are tight, graphics are incredible and the art style is simple irresistible.

Best Racing Game - Dirt 2

While Dirt 2 does effectively insult and ignore the history of Rally and what Colin McRae stood for, the fact is that it is a very well made, very fun off-road racing game in its own right. Despite playing the game on PC, it’s still undoubtedly the best driving game of the year on PS3. The only game to beat it in the genre in my opinion is Forza 3.

Also notable: Need for Speed: Shift

Best Shooter - Borderlands

I’ve been agonising over this award for a while. Borderlands and Modern Warfare 2 are the main contenders although I did also play Killzone 2. KZ2 and Modern Warfare both have single player campaigns which I didn’t enjoy whatsoever. Please note that this is my own personal opinion. Borderlands, even though it’s known as a co-op game, I’ve been playing so far exclusively single player and I’ve been enjoying myself more than I thought I would do. When I go online, I’m expecting it to get even better so I’m looking forward to that.

Also notable: Modern Warfare 2, Killzone 2

Best Sports Game - FIFA 10

FIFA finally got the jump on its arch rival Pro Evo Soccer this year, and in my opinion it’s richly deserved. Konami has sat back while EA have been really working hard to improve their game and make it the definitive football experience. While I’m not a huge fan of real football, I’ve always had a soft spot for the games, despite skipping about 5 years of the FIFA series up until last year. The gameplay is solid and the licenses of all the leagues and teams is a great thing in my opinion, and has always been one of the series strong points.

Also notable: NBA Live 10

Best Visual Quality - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

It’s hard to argue with this, UC2 has mind blowing graphics in both gameplay and cutscenes. I’m sure I’ve never seen better, more real looking cutscenes before anywhere.

Also notable: Killzone 2, Ratchet & Clank: ACiT

Best Use of Sound - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

UC2 has possibly the best voice acting ever in a video game. Nolan North is fantastic as Drake. The whole cast is brilliant. Voice acting aside, the soundtrack is perfectly suited to the game and the mood feels right when you play. Sound effects too are top notch.

Also notable: Ratchet & Clank: ACiT, Killzone 2, Modern Warfare 2

Best Story - inFamous

inFamous is a very impressive open world game. While I found the difficulty to be punishing at around the mid-point in the game, I thought the story was well told and very in depth for a new IP. Other games like Batman had good stories but are less impressive mainly due to there being such a huge pool of stories to draw inspiration from.

Also notable: Batman: Arkham Asylum, Ratchet & Clank: ACiT

Best Multiplayer - Modern Warfare 2

MW2 is probably the best multiplayer game of all time, and that’s not an understatement. The game is impeccably well engineered to offer not just a great gameplay experience, but also by far the best matchmaking and hosting service ever. One of the most important aspects in multiplayer gaming is how fast actually getting into the game is and how the smooth / lag free the gameplay itself is once you get there. MW2 excels in all areas, leading to the massive commercial and critical success it has garnered to this point.

Also notable: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Killzone 2, Battlefield 1943

Best Downloadable Game - Shatter

This category I think is the toughest to call of all of them. It says a lot about the breadth of great games available on PSN in 2009 that I can’t pick one. In the end, I picked Shatter because it offers something rarely seen anymore in modern gaming, and that is a breakout style brick breaking game, with a twist. I could have given this category to Critter Crunch but didn’t because I felt I should share the awards around as much as possible. Flower is also fantastic and a game you can give to pretty much anyone. Fat Princess is less mainstream but very fun nonetheless. PixelJunk Shooter is a recent release and is also very good. All in all, you should get all these games.

Also notable: Critter Crunch, Flower, Fat Princess, PixelJunk Shooter

PS3 Game of the Year - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

I’m sure you know by now, Uncharted 2 is incredible. It;’s won more awards that any other game and deservedly so. Pick this up, and if you don’t own a PS3 yet, now is the best time yet to grab a slim version.

Also notable: Ratchet & Clank: ACiT, inFamous, Batman: Arkham Asylum

Up next: Wii

I’ve been deliberating on what format to use for this series of features. What categories to include, whether or not to do individual platform awards of just overall and so on.

I think because there were so many great games this year on all the platforms, it wouldn’t be fair to do just an overall list and therefore miss out completely a lot of games that deserve recognition.

With that said, I will do a feature for each platform I’ve played this year. That will essentially be everything except Xbox 360. It wouldn’t be right for me to pick games on a system when I haven’t played many of them.

Yes, there are quite a lot of multi-platform games, but there’s obviously several exclusives besides.

I hope you enjoy, and please remember, the awards are my personal choices, and quite possibly won’t reflect the absolute technical best games. If you want that, please check IGN, Kotaku, GameSpot etc.

I should also quickly mention that I’ll be using IGN’s award system as a template for my own. Go and read IGN of course, although you probably already have.

Not only that but Modern Warfare 2 didn’t get any awards on PS3 either. Not even for best shooter or best multiplayer.

Despite how great Uncharted 2 is, I think in terms of multiplayer, MW2 surely has the edge. Also controvertial is Killzone 2 beating MW in best shooter on PS3.

I feel as if the playstation team used this opportunity to highlight the exclusives for the system. Having said that, UC2 and KZ2 are both very worthy in both categories.

Also excited for Green Day: Rock Band.