Xbox Game of the Year
Halo 2
Publisher: Microsoft | Developer: Bungie
Why it Rocked: Halo rocked because of 476,000 reasons, not all of which we can list here. Bungie's first-person shooter is a fabulous piece of production, with a single-player campaign and a monstrous online mode that is far above anything else we've seen on the consoles to date. We're pretty much out of words to describe it in any greater depth than we already have, but let us just list a few instances we think are worth its Xbox game of the year award: Using the Covenant Energy Sword, using it in Sword and 'Nades online, pulling off Banshee barrel rolls and Banshee loop-de-loops, vehicle jacking a Banshee out of mid-air, vehicle jacking a tank for the first time, duel wielding; the more complex story, those superbly detailed characters and amazing animations, discovering for the first time the secondary playable character, the truly amazing sound effects and music, online play, 11 new maps, the return of Blood Gulch (or Beaver Creek, whatever), the party system; Legendary mode, skull kills, watching the intelligent enemy AI at work, the Brutes, watching the politics of the Covenant elders evolve, Cortana's sassy demeanor, playing all night online even though your body says no, confronting Brutus, Gravemind, the super Doom 3-like dark areas, co-op play, playing with four people online using split-screen, watching the Flood re-inhabit other host forms.
Runner-Up: Burnout 3: Takedown | Ninja Gaiden
