2005, Game of the Year

[The_Liquid_Laser]

The 2005 Game of the Year is Resident Evil 4.
The runner up is Shadow of the Colossus.
The master thread for all of these contests can be found here.

Here we are at the year 2005.  We are most of the way through the PS2 era, and so far the best-selling console of all time has zero Game of the Year awards.  Let’s see if it can do better this time.  Without further ado, here is the list of games:

 

Battlefield II (PC)
Battlefield II ended up with better reviews than the original with a 91 on Metacritic.  The game also sold over 1.2 million copies in its first month of release.

 

Civilization IV (PC)
Civ IV is a favorite among many Civilization fans selling over 3 million copies and getting a 94 score on Metacritic.

 

God of War (PS2)
First game in one of Sony’s strongest first-party IP.  This hack and slash game impressed PS2 fans gaining a 94 on Metacritic and selling over 4.6 million copies.

 

Kingdom Hearts II (PS2)
This is actually the third game in the Kingdom Hearts series, because the second game was made for the Gameboy Advance.  Play as Roxas and try to figure out what is going on until you actually get to play as Sora.  Even though the story started to get confusing, the game proved to be fun and quite popular selling over 4.7 million copies.

 

Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)
This picturesque game was the second release from Team Ico.  Wander the land with your trusty steed, Argo, to find and defeat the imposing colossi.  Shadow of the Colossus would score a 91 on Metacritic and sell over 1.1 million units on the PS2 alone.

 

Resident Evil 4 (GameCube/PS2)
This traditionally Playstation franchise became a treat for GameCube fans when they got Resident Evil 4 several months before the PS2 version was released.  Resident Evil 4 scored an impressive 96 on Metacritic and has sold over 12.3 million units across all platforms.

 

Psychonauts (XBox/PS2/PC)
This was the first game developed by Double Fine Productions with Tim Schafer serving as the game’s director.  This quirky game had poor sales at first but remained a cult classic.  However, after Double Fine obtained the publishing rights several years later, digital sales greatly improved.  Psychonauts has sold over 1.7 million copies across all platforms.

 

Mario Kart DS (DS)
Mario Kart goes viral for the first time in this game where up to 8 players can compete wirelessly.  Mario Kart DS would sell over 23.6 million copies.  Not only was this the first Mario Kart to sell over 20 million, but it was also the first Mario Kart to even break the 10 million barrier.

 

Call of Duty 2 (XBox 360/PC)
While the first CoD was made for the PC, this second entry was a launch title for the XBox360.  The game has sold over 6 million copies.

 

Other (please specify)
If you think another game deserves to be "Game of the Year" other than one of the 9 I listed above, then please vote “Other” and say your game in the comments.  If the "Other" category takes at least 2nd place and no other game gets at least 40% of the vote, then I will do a runoff vote including the most mentioned game(s) from the comments.

 

Voting for 2005 Game of the Year will end on Thursday, Nov 9 at 11:59 PM, EST.

Last edited by The_Liquid_Laser - on 10 November 2023