ACHIEVEMENT IN GAMEPLAY

Winner: Super Mario Galaxy
Nintendo EAD Tokyo (Wii)

The sheer breadth and depth of gameplay to be found in Super Mario Galaxy is indeed an achievement. From beginning to end, along a path you largely choose yourself, there is a veritable cornucopia of platforming greatness--it spans two and three dimensions, tiny planetoids and sprawling fields, rapid cycling through different polarities of gravity, and much, much, more.

It is a mystery how the Nintendo design team managed to come up with so many consistently inventive gameplay elements, particularly given the sheer amount of content in the game, but we are very glad they did; their competitors may be less so. -C.R.
(Review)

Runner-up: Portal
Valve Software (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

Enough about story and writing and pacing and all that boring stuff. Portal exceeded expectations in some surprising areas, but when you get down to it, shooting actual portals already makes for a fantastic game. A combination of platforms and puzzles and physics made for some head-scratching moments, but each chamber never felt insurmountable.

As a bonus, the very nature of the Valve's creation allows for advanced stage challenges and user-created levels on PC, continuing the fun of solving complex challenges while standing upside down. -N.B.
(Review)

Nominees:
Skate - EA Black Box (PS3, Xbox 360)
Crysis - Crytek (PC)
Crackdown - Realtime Worlds (Xbox 360)
The Eye of Judgment - SCE Studios Japan (PS3)

VISUAL ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT

Winner: Team Fortress 2
Valve Software (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

Who would have imagined that Team Fortress 2 would end up looking more like The Incredibles than a Battlefield game?

As ever, Valve was thinking ahead of us all, covering its zany multiplayer game with a perfect wrapper of clean lines and colorful shaders. We knew we were in for something special from the first screenshot of its final incarnation. The gleeful destruction exuded by the game's trailers--which alone deserve an award--truly matched the subsequent gameplay. Art in motion. -N.B.
(Review)

Runner-up: Crysis
Crytek (PC)

Rare is the game whose visual artistic achievements are so intrinsically tied to its technical ones. Most games that strain the boundaries of technical graphics also strain the boundaries of good taste, overloading the player with goofy artwork, unnecessary bloom, ridiculously shiny textures, and so on.

Crytek, on the other hand, leveraged its considerable technical achievements into a genuinely gorgeous final product--Crysis may bring all but the most capable machines to their knees, but if you have the hardware to run it, this is a truly beautiful experience. -C.R.
(Review, Interview)

Nominees:
BioShock - Irrational Games (2K Boston/2K Australia) (PC, Xbox 360)
Everyday Shooter - Queasy Games (PS3)
Super Mario Galaxy - Nintendo EAD Tokyo (Wii)
Odin Sphere - Vanillaware (PS2)

ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING

Winner: BioShock
Irrational Games (2K Boston/2K Australia) (PC, Xbox 360)

Ken Levine and the rest of his creative team at Irrational Games (2K Boston/2K Australia) created in BioShock's world of Rapture a remarkably evocative, immersive, and personality-infused dystopia. At nearly every turn, there were more clues as to what led to the city's decline, more disturbing scraps of information about its remaining twisted denizens, more anguished accounts from its former citizens.

While not without its flaws, there is a reason why so many threads debating the BioShock's revelations and implications surfaced in the weeks and months following its release. -C.R.
(Review, Interview, Spoiler Interview)

Runner-up: Portal
Valve Software (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)

It is a testament to Portal's script, largely driven by Erik Wolpaw of Old Man Murray fame, that the constant narration by the rogue AI GLaDOS remains simultaneously informative, worrisome, funny, and sinister throughout the course of the entire game. The increasing feeling of impending disaster, and eventual the climactic conclusion, are brilliantly executed.

Portal created one of the most memorable characters in gaming history, and it was done entirely via monologue--certainly, this is an achievement. -C.R.
(Review)

Nominees:
Mass Effect - BioWare (Xbox 360)
Half-Life 2: Episode Two - Valve Software (PC, PS3, Xbox 360)
Sam & Max Episode 201: Ice Station Santa - Telltale Games (PC)
Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulation - Capcom (NDS)

TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT

Winner: Crysis
Crytek (PC)

The PC has always been the vanguard of envelope-pushing technical achievement, but Crytek's tech team clearly went above and beyond the call of duty in its successful attempt to reset the state of the art. Amazing levels of detail, subtle but effective post-processing, impressive destruction physics, and breathtaking scale all tie together.

The recommended system specs may have limited Crysis' audience, but there is no denying its impressive technical work. -C.R.
(Review, Interview)

Runner-up: Halo 3
Bungie Studios (Xbox 360)

PC gamers have long argued that the features found in Xbox Live have been available for years (and for free) on the PC. Fair enough, but few games on any platform deliver so much out-of-the-box online and community-driven functionality in such an elegant, streamlined, accessible way as Halo 3.

A single lobby system--which already set the Xbox Live standard in Halo 2, and is far more impressive here--allows friends to share in every aspect of the game, including four-player cooperative campaign, online matchmaking and custom games, map and gametype editing, replay-viewing on more. The degree to which this is all linked into Bungie's website makes the technical achievement all the more impressive. Meanwhile, Bungie's servers are tracking every online game you play, allowing you to browse tactical overviews of mind-boggling detail. -C.R.
(Campaign Review, Multiplayer Review, Interview)

Nominees:
Skate - EA Black Box (PS3, Xbox 360)
Uncharted - Naughty Dog (PS3)
Assassin's Creed - Ubisoft Montreal (PS3, Xbox 360)
NBA Live 08 EA Canada (PC, PS3, PS2, Xbox 360, Wii, PSP)

Keep reading for the rest of the achievement awards.