A few weeks ago we asked readers to vote on their Game of the Year for 2009 from an extensive list split into various categories. We have all the results here, and while some were no-brainers, a few surprises did sneak up on us. What's good to see is that our own choices, and even our reviews (and reviews scores) are quite reflective of a lot of readers which tells us the games industry, as a whole, are finally building quality titles, or at least following solid trends with equally solid development tools.

As well as your vote though, we've also compiled our own Top 10s, from both Dan and myself, as well as our growing army of freelancers, and then, Top 10 through the years based on AusGamers review scores. While it's hard to declare an overall winner, we think all of the results and votes here speak for themselves. So, beginning with the Reader's Choice, here is the AusGamers Game of the Year Awards for 2009.


Reader's Choice


First-Person Shooter Title of the Year

We offered you 10 choices in this category, and the percentage votes came in as follows:

• Modern Warfare 2 - 43%
• Left 4 Dead 2 - 20.1%
• Borderlands - 17.5%
• Killzone 2 - 4.3%
• F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin - 3.8%
• Shattered Horizon - 2.5%
• Wolfenstein - 1.9%
• Halo: ODST - 1.8%
• Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter - 1.6%
• Battlefield 1943 - 1.2%

As for honourable mentions from our "Other" field, Zeno Clash, Arma 2, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising and Section 8 made appearances.

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Action/Adventure Title of the Year

Of the 10 games listed here, we copped a lot of flak due to the awesome nature of a majority of them, and the difficulty some of you had choosing, but the votes came in as follows:

• Batman: Arkham Asylum - 36%
• Assassin's Creed II - 23.6%
• Uncharted 2 - 16.8%
• Prototype - 7.9%
• Resident Evil 5 - 6.2%
• Red Faction: Guerrilla - 3.5%
• Brutal Legend - 1.6%
• InFamous - 1.6%
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine - 1.6%
• MadWorld - 0.5%

For other, most of the games mentioned weren't actually released in 2009 barring a single one - Tales of Monkey Island.

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Role-Playing Game of the Year

This was a hard category to flesh out for 2009, which makes the winner a bit of a no-brainer, but to clarify, here's how you voted:

• Dragon Age: Origins - 64.1%
• Torchlight - 13.7%
• Aion - 7.1%
• Demon Souls - 3.5%
• Sacred 2: Fallen Angel - 2.6%
• Overlord 2 - 2.4%
• Star Ocean: The Last Hope - 1.6%
• Tales of Vesperia - 0.9%
• Champions Online - 0.7%
• Runes of Magic - 0.4%

As for extra titles you mentioned not in the list, we saw the likes of HON, Perfect World and Borderlands (which is sort of arguably RPG) with any other mentions being games not released in 2009.

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Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year

There were a handful of great games in this category released in 2009, and with some of the big ones we're seeing already in 2010, it'll be a hard category to judge this year, too. Here's what you voted for:

• Dawn of War II - 23.5%
• Red Alert 3 - 19.1%
• Empire: Total War - 18.6%
• Plants Vs Zombies - 17.3%
• Halo Wars - 4.7%
• Anno 1404 - 4.4%
• Tom Clancy's End War - 3.3%
• Demigod - 2.9%
• King Arthur - 1.1%

In the "Other" category you cats all seemed to dig HON (again), Company of Heroes and League of Legends - other mentions were either the wrong category or games not released in 2009.

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Sports Title of the Year

Plenty of big games in this category, across a variety of sports genres and styles, showing the diversity of sports games in general, and the sorts of games people are playing in the field. You voted as such:

• Dirt 2 - 27.2%
• Forza Motorsport 3 - 25.2%
• FIFA 10 - 20.4%
• Blood Bowl - 7.8%
• NBA 2K 10 - 4.7%
• Madden 10 - 3.9%
• Skate 2 - 3.8%
• Ashes Cricket - 2.5%
• Punch Out - 1%

Sports we didn't mention you felt needed mentioning included Grandmaster Chess, Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 and Need For Speed Shift.

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Handheld Game of the Year

Commuters, people with small hands, or hardcore gamers alike had a pretty meaty list of games to choose from in the handheld department - here's how you voted:

• Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars - 33.7%
• Scribblenauts - 18.3%
• The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks - 18%
• Professor Layton and Pandora's Box - 7.7%
• Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story - 7.2%
• Monster Hunter Freedom Unite - 5%
• Resistance: Retribution - 2.9%
• Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon - 1.6%
• Holy Invasion of Privacy Badman: What Did I Do to Deserve This? - 1.6%
• Giana Sister - 1.5%

HAWX for iPhone had a mention in our "Other" field along with Assassin's Creed for PSP and Dissidia: Final Fantasy (though it makes an appearance in our Fighting Game of the Year category).

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Top DLC/Expansion of the Year

2009 seemed to be the year of DLC, and even if some of you don't like the model, it's definitely here to stay. Regardless, a lot of the DLC deliveries through the year were great, and as such you voted like this:

• Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony - 18.9%
• Fallout 3: Broken Steel - 15.9%
• Borderlands: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned - 15.6%
• Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned - 10.9%
• Fallout 3: Mothership Zeta - 8.2%
• Fallout 3: Point Lookout - 7.7%
• Fable 2: See the Future - 7.4%
• Fallout 3: Operation Anchorage - 6.7%
• Fallout 3: The Pitt - 3.7%
• Borderlands: Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot - 3%

Honourable mentions go out to F.E.A.R. 2: Miniature Replica Soldier (Reborn) and World of WarCraft: Wrath of the Lich King.

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Fighting Game of the Year

It was a big year for the fighting game genre, which is actually usually quite starved of solid, genre-defining releases. You voted as such:

• Street Fighter IV - 51.9%
• Tekken 6 - 19.8%
• UFC 2009 - 8.2%
• Dissidia: Final Fantasy - 6%
• Fight Night Round 4 - 5.1%
• BlazBlu: Calamity Trigger - 4.2%
• WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2010 - 3.1%
• King of Fighters XII - 1.3%

There were no mentions outside of the games we listed in the category.

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Platform/Casual Game of the Year

This was an odd mix of games, but the old platform adventurer has taken a backseat since the release of Wii, with Nintendo focusing much more on making everyone healthy. Here's how the voting went down:

• New Super Mario Bros Wii - 38.6%
• The Sims 3 - 24.1%
• Wii Sports Resort - 12.4%
• Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time - 7.4%
• Splosion Man - 6.4%
• A Boy and His Blob - 2.1%
• Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty - 1.6%
• Boom Blox Bash Party -1.4%
• Scene It! Box Office Smash! - 1.2%
• EyePet - 1%
• Trash Panic - 0.2%

Trine and Audiosurf were added by voters to the "Other" field for this category.

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Top XBLA/PSN/WiiWare 'Arcade' Game of the Year

There's no denying the strength of the digital platform for consoles and PC, with XBLA, PSN, WiiWare and Steam proving even arcade games still have their place among big budget Triple A titles. Here's what you voted for:

• World of Goo - 24.8%
• Braid - 22.1%
• Worms 2: Armageddon - 16.4%
• Shadow Complex - 10.8%
• Trials HD - 8.8%
• Fat Princess - 8.2%
• Alien Breed Evolution - 2.4%
• Pixeljunk Shooter - 2.4%
• Madden NFL Arcade - 1.5%
• Swords & Soldiers - 0.9%

Others added after the fact were NHL Arcade, Flower and Tales of Monkey Island.

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Most Played Game Through 2009

We realised there were definitely a lot of dedicated players out there, not necessarily swayed by any of 2009's releases, still playing their favourite game from the year before, or even before that. Here's what was voted in:

• World of WarCraft - 23.6%
• TeamFortress 2 - 20.9%
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - 13.4%
• Left 4 Dead - 12.3%
• Counter-Strike (CS: Source) - 7.2%
• WarCraft 3: Defense of the Ancients - 4.3%
• EVE Online - 2.8%
• Warhammer Online - 0.7%
• Age of Conan - 0.6%

We had a lot of entries in the "Other" field for this one, but main mentions go to Company of Heroes, Enemy Territories: Quake Wars, Fallout 3, Diablo II, Mass Effect, Supreme Commander, Civilization IV and Halo: CE (kind of surprisingly) among many other random games.

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Most Disappointing Game of 2009

There's no nice way to put this category, and we had more entries in the "Other" field here than anything else, but before we look at that, here's how you voted:

• Avatar: The Game - 33.3%
• Terminator: Salvation - 22.4%
• Lord of the Rings: Conquest - 16.9%
• Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings - 9.2%

Unsurprisingly, while it dominated the FPS field, a lot of disgruntled PC players featured Modern Warfare 2 in our "Other" section for this category alongside the likes of Prototype, Resident Evil 5, Borderlands, Velvet Assassin, Brutal Legend and Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising (there were many more). A special mention must go to "Valve's refund Policy" as well.

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So there you have it - the year in games for 2009, as voted by you, the reader. As we said, quite a few that followed expectation and then some that didn't. But we're not done yet - Click here to check out the AusGamers Editor's Choice of the year, as well as a countdown of the Top 10 based on our review scores for 2009.