It is coming to the close of another year. With that thought in mind, we kicked this one around the office and solicited the opinions of many folks to come up with these. Our team has put together our choices for Games of the Year (GOTY) and some honorable mentions. Like any other list that comes out this time of year, there will be plenty of disagreements and maybe some agreements.

Regardless of the selections, one thing is certain: this has been a fantastic year for gaming. As a buyer and an enthusiast, it sure has been fun. Our criterion?  We only had two:

1)                          The game had to be available on the platform (or in the case of overall, not platform specific).

2)                          AND released in this calendar year.

We gave our panel a very large sandbox in which to play. They took advantage of it as you will see below.

So, with out any further delay, here are our categories and winners for Games of the Year.

CATEGORY: Sony PlayStation Portable

3^rd place – Shaun White Snowboarding

2^nd place – Patapon

WINNER – God of War: Chains of Olympus

CATEGORY: Nintendo DS

3^rd Place – Final Fantasy IV

2^nd Place – Lego Indiana Jones

WINNER – Guitar Hero On Tour

CATEGORY: Nintendo Wii

3^rd Place – Super Smash Bros Brawl

2^nd Place – Wii Fit

WINNER – Mario Kart

CATEGORY: Microsoft Xbox 360

3^rd Place – Fable 2

2^nd Place – Grand Theft Auto IV

WINNER - Gears of War 2

CATEGORY: Sony PlayStation 3

3^rd Place – Resistance 2

2^nd Place – Little Big Planet

WINNER – Metal Gear Solid 4

CATEGORY: OVERALL GOTY (not platform specific)

3^rd Place – Wii Fit

2^nd Place – Resistance 2

WINNER – Fallout 3

Before we went to print this, there was lots of jostling back and forth from our distinguished panel. One interesting note, Fallout 3 was a pretty clear winner for the overall GOTY. Each of us was limited to a 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place vote by platform and by overall GOTY. As the buyer, I broke all ties.

Congratulations to all of the winners and honorable mentions. While it does not have the cache of the Oscars, Emmys or other awards, we think it was fun to do. Hopefully, it may spur some discussion here on-line. What is missing from our list? Where are we wrong and where did we get it right?