I award GOTY to Doom every year, until a better game takes its place.
Special mentions:
MGS4 - I'm a big Metal Gear fan, and this title serviced me in about every way possible.
GTA IV - Haven't been a big fan of GTA since III, so it was nice to see the series go back to its roots, and try its hand at a bleak Lord of War-esque storyline.
Condemned 2: Bloodshot - Very scary at times, improved brutal combat system, isn't as cluttered with drawn out investigations compared to the first game. The last part kind of drops the ball, but I forgive it.
Left 4 Dead - I like co-op; I like zombies, and it gave me plenty of both.
Listen to Iced Earth and play Doom
Best Shooter - Crysis
Almost but not quite there. This is the only game I've played that followed the Half-Life 2 formula that got close to acheive greatness. It truly was a fantastic game but it just didn't leave me with and everlasting whoa effect. Great design, better graphics then well anything, and great gameplay. Just put more production values in pacing and design and you got yourself a legend.
Most Progressive Game - The World Ends With You
This was the game that occured to me that handheld games can be more then a game you can play while you go. This game showed me that handheld games can find their own form of immersiveness and gameplay. Prior to this game I've only seen this done in Adventure games (Visual Novels would be the more correct term) but this game proved me otherwise. The presentation was top notched as it seemed that everything was crafted for a portable experience. The gameplay was also crafted as things that usually drive people nuts are an actual benefit. Small overworld? Makes places easier to go. Repeating the same maps? It's benefit to not relearn everything when you want to get into the action immediately. To me this game should be THE staple for all handheld games.
Best RPG - The Witcher
While I enjoyed TWEWY more I felt that this game was a better RPG then the game due to it being far more developed (for obvious reasons). See TWEWY more so turned JRPG's on their head while constantly adding funky ideas while The Witcher just took all the problems that were plaguing WRPG's and through them out the window. Everything was straight forward and right to the point. The quests are interesting and usually have to do with the plot. The gameplay is pretty polished and the design is done extremely well. The game does have some faults such as the unengaing story and being very anti-climatic (both in story and gameplay) as well as me being dissapointed with the lack of diffusion of responsiblity (I felt it at times but they were too far and few inbetween). Overall this is easily the best WRPG I've ever played and a very enjoyable game.
Biggest Dissapointment - Warioland Shake It!
Ugh. I saw the amazing handdrawn sprites and were dazzled. I thought that this game would have been amazing. I was dissapointed with the Japanese sales and didn't know why it sold bad. After playing it I now know...the game sucked HARD. Horrible level design, horrible presentation, and well really the only thing it did that wasn't subpar were the sprties. Even the backgrounds were halfassed. Truly an assfest.
Best Action-Adventure Game - Aquaria
The first game to progressthe 2D action-adventure genre as well as 2D gaming in general since...Symphony of the Knight. With so many innovations (finally BIG maps) and being very ambious the game surely is a winner. A must play for any action-adventure fan.
Best Fighting Game - Marvel vs Capcom 2
So I was at a movie theater, and there it was. The game I was looking for at every arcade stand that they didn't have the game I tried to search for the ROM online but wasn't avaliable. I played it for 15 minutes with my friends and holy shit does this game live up to its hype. Fast, frantic, and fun as hell gameplay. The 15 minutes I spent on this easily surpassed the 15 hours I spend with all the other fighting games this year...now to wait for a copy for the PC or current gen consoles.
Best Adventure Game - Apollo Justice
While not quite as good as 3 it definately was full of quality. I was amazed by the sprite quality increase and while it took some time I grew to love the new characters. Not to mention uping the gameplay with new features that used the stylus. The only thing I found shocking is how lazy Capcom can be by reusing some of the old sprites.
Best Action Game - Devil May Cry 4
What is everyone bitching about? While it wasn't as good as 3 it certainly was still a great addition to the series. The game got rid of the annoying difficulty as well as placing in a tolerable camera. If only the game didn't fall apart when you play as Dante this game would have been the best in the series.
Most Artistic Game - No More Heroes
You always see directors such as Quentin Tarentino (spelling?) and others adding their certain touch and style to films. Up until this year I could only say one game developer could stand next to them, Hideo Kojima. However after playing No More Heroees I can confidently add Suda-51 to that list. To the crazy characters to the crazy game design to the crazy HUD, Suda's influence is found everywhere. Truly the most stylish game this generation IMO.
Cult Classic - No More Heroes
Not only is it stylish but it is the type of game you can throw in at any time and have fun just fucking around killing enemies. This generations Zone of the Enders. Oh and all of the artistic elements I've previously listed above.
GOTY - The World Ends With You
Before this game I was really thinking of quiting gaming. But this game said other wise. Being fun, replayable, and an everlasting whoa effect this game truly is a marvel.
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Enjoying your lists though... Except for Punk's for obvious reasons.
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Play fighting games!
Cannot go unmentioned:
World of Goo. This was made by just two guys? THIS WAS MADE BY JUST TWO GUYS!!! Should probably be joint GOTY with LBP
The World Ends With You: read what punk said above
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Listen to Wu-Tang and watch Kung-Fu
Great list Punk. The more you talk about TWEWY the more I want it. I'm going to hunt it down online somewhere. You know what I love about No More heroes the most? Despite it's repition and shoddy overworld? The style and little nods and winks. When that final cutscene plays and they fast forward past that girls story about what happened to Travis' parents 
Or the guy in the darth vader mask who pretends to be Travis' dad Or the end bit when Travis becomes number one and someone tries to kill him while he's taking a dump?
Oh shit, sorry I forgot to name my GOTY.
It's hard to choose just one so I will have to say two.
Bully firstly. What a suprise, I have never laughed so hard on such a consistent basis. It's got really good story telling too and a few hours in the whole environments opens up to GTA levels, but it maintains variety throughout the whole game. It's like GTA done properly, with decent controls, bags of variety (it's not mostly about driving) and a superlative sense of humor.
Animal Crossing is joint GOTY pick. I say this because I know that by this time next year I will probably will still be playing it. It has an easy interface, constant upgrades, little moments of delight on a consistent basis, they have managed to flesh out the communication aspect, online play even works well. It's one of those games that charms you and never lets go.
Punk Rebel Ecks said:^^^Too long?
If that was the reason I'd be a hypocrit! No, the problem is that you didn't like Warioland.
My personal GotY for 2008 is definately Gears of War 2. Amazing graphics, excellent sound, intense gameplay and just wicked fun all around especially online multiplayer modes. It truly is bigger, better, and more badass. Honourable mentions go to Ninja Gaiden 2 and Dead Space.
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Play fighting games!
On the Wii front, it looks like Brawl was the only notable game I bought this year
. And I wouldn't say I had a blast with it, I haven't unlocked the majority of things. I could have sworn Mario Galaxy, Super Paper Mario, and Battalion Wars 2 were all this year, but I guess not. Wii gets the proverbial middle finger and doesn't even get a GOTY from me.Punk Rebel Ecks said:I really want to try a modern Ninja Gaiden game.
You will cry at the difficulty, just like the NES game. 
gamingeek said:Punk Rebel Ecks said:I really want to try a modern Ninja Gaiden game.You will cry at the difficulty, just like the NES game.
Sigma is toned down a fair bit and quite manageable i thought, even though i only played at my friend's and didn't play the whole game. Nothing is as bad as Devil May Cry 3 (original edition).
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Listen to Wu-Tang and watch Kung-Fu
gamingeek said:Punk Rebel Ecks said:I really want to try a modern Ninja Gaiden game.You will cry at the difficulty, just like the NES game.
I didn't cry because it was hard I cried because of the terrible gameplay.
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Punk Rebel Ecks said:gamingeek said:Punk Rebel Ecks said:I really want to try a modern Ninja Gaiden game.You will cry at the difficulty, just like the NES game.
I didn't cry because it was hard I cried because of the terrible gameplay.
Not the camera?
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Play fighting games!
Punk Rebel Ecks said:^^^The NES one?
I thought you were talking about the 3-D ones. I still cant quite fathom how you do dual screen real time battles in the world ends with you?
Unlike most GOTY's this results on everything you've played for the first time ever. So you can list as anything as new as Animal Crossing Wii to as old as Donkey Kong Country. All that matters is that you played the game for the first time ever now. So I can list Crysis despite being a 2007 game and Edgecrusher can list Sword of Berserk despite it being on the Dreamcast.
You make the catergoriez and I'd prefer for you guys to write at least some details about the games you list.
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