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.

Here are some other notable games for 2005:

Age of Empires III (PC)
Guild Wars (PC)
Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening (PS2)
Guitar Hero (PS2)
Lego Star Wars (PS2/XBox/GameCube/GBA/PC/Mac)
Need for Speed: Most Wanted (PS2/XBox/GameCube/GBA/PC/DS/PSP/XBox360)
Ratchet: Deadlocked (PS2)
Soulcalibur III (PS2)
Star Wars Battlefront II (PS2/XBox/PC/PSP)
We Love Katamari (PS2)
Yakuza (PS2)
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (GameCube)
Starfox Assault (GameCube)
Pokemon XD Gale of Darkness (GameCube)
Forza Motorsport (XBox)
Jade Empire (XBox)
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Red/Blue Rescue Team (GBA)
Burnout Legends (PSP)
GTA: Liberty City Stories (PSP)
Monster Hunter Freedom (PSP)
Wipeout Pure (PSP)
Advance Wars: Dual Strike (DS)
Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)
Big Brain Academy (DS)
Brain Age (DS)
Brain Age 2 (DS)
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS)
Clubhouse Games (DS)
Kirby Canvas Curse (DS)
Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time (DS)
Meteos (DS)
Nintendogs (DS)
Perfect Dark Zero (XBox 360)

No Guitar Hero? Not a fan myself, but that game kinda too over the world by storm.

Resident Evil 4, for me. Scary, thrilling, rewarding, and addictive. I love the tactical gunplay and the diverse and surprising set pieces. A true masterpiece.

Second place goes to Psychonauts. Inventive, cerebral, and endlessly imaginative.

Great year, but an easy choice for me. Its Resident Evil 4.

This year is a very easy choice, only one game of 2005 made it to my top 50.

Need for Speed Most Wanted was fun as well, the open world was merely decent though. Psychonauts I didn't get far in. It was a great concept but the first time graphics actually put me off a game, sorry to say but the original Psychonauts on PS2 is ugly and made it hard to see what I was doing. Prince of Persia Two Thrones was disappointing, a big step back from Sands of Time.

Call of Duty 2 is one of the only CoD campaigns I have played as it was the first HD title I played on the 360. It was good for the HD experience, but didn't entice me into playing any more CoD games after. PGR3 was much better, one of my favorite racing series, needs a comeback! Kameo was also good at launch on the 360, loved it at the time, but don't know how well it stands up to the test of time.

Midnight Club 3 was competent, still fun, but not really any progress. Resident Evil 4 I skipped at the time and currentlyl waiting for the VR patch to drop for the remake (maybe end of the year or early next year) Fahrenheit / Indogo Prophecy was a nice return to adventure (like) gaming, however the ending was just weird. Loved the first half of the game.

God of War started in 2005. The first game was good apart from the infernal QTEs. Just for that reason (and for popularizing QTE during boss fights) it can't be my 2005 goty. QTE is such a cop out and should be left for rhythm games imo. It was necessary for Laserdisc games, no excuse today nor in 2005. It works in games like Fahrenheit and Heavy Rain, yet action games should stay clear of QTE.

F.E.A.R was good, great AI that was fun to play against. I can't really remember the story or much of the setting though, so it's just the AI that left an impact. Looking through the screenshots I made at a time, it seems to be a lot of empty office buildings.

Civilization IV was good, interesting to add religion to the game. Just another way to spread influence though, not much insight into religions of the world. It definitely wasn't a game changer, just another layer of (limited) complexity.


So easy choice: Shadow of the Colossus towers above any other releases in 2005. The game pushed the ps2 beyond its limits. Large sprawling landscapes with towering bosses to climb. Bosses that are all puzzles to solve instead of brute force and quick reflexes. Great story to back it all up and a landscape that is amazing to explore and navigate around. It's so nice to be able to explore a desolate open world that doesn't feel the need to constantly throw enemies and POI at you. Still tower climbs always felt rewarding for the views, and you could hunt for lizards and collect fruit to increase your stats. Just health and endurance, essential for the climbing mechanic which is still one of the best climbing mechanics today.

Agro (the horse) still also feels most like a real horse, the way Wander works with you and has a survival sense. (Avoiding obstacles and cliffs) Galloping around holding your sword up to see which way the next boss is by following the reflection of the sun on your sword, brilliant. Then the riveting chases on horse back for some of the bosses, shooting from horseback never felt as good again as in SotC.

SotC also has the best remake ever, standing the test of time thanks to it's grand ideas and ageless game play.

I voted for other. Jade Empire is my GOTY even through it was not till the 2007 PC release that I actually played. I loved the settings and combat system. The story was not amazing but good enough. It really the combat system, level and monster design that really stood out to me in this game as being great. The only big problem I had with this game is it really short. Even doing every possible optional the game can be completed fairly quickly. Not as big deal for me but other complaint would be choices don't really affect ending other then one. You could play the entire game evil and make the "good choice" on one option and get the good ending and same other way around.

Game I played the most in 2005 was Serious Sam 2 but mostly because I had a friend who lived far away and this was the main game we played together online in 2005.

If I was playing a FPS solo in 2005 then I was probably playing F.E.A.R which is a enjoyable Horror FPS that introduce a slow-motion mechanic in combat that I thought worked well.

Finally Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard was an enjoyable RTS from 2005. I not saying it as good as warcraft 3 but I enjoyed the eberron setting and the fact they added hero unit and some form of questing.

Resident Evil 4, but Mario Kart DS is a very close second.

God of War is a strong third place as well - both it and its sequel are easily my favorite PS2 exclusives.

I don't think anyone would list it even among the top 5 Guitar Hero games. Sure it took the world by storm, but it's not GotY material. Especially because I feel like Guitar Hero 2 and 3 made a bigger impact and are the ones that really turned Guitar Hero into a world sensation.

My pick here is Shadow of the Colossus, of course. Unbelievable work of art.

Choosing between RE4 and Shadow of the Colossus was hard. SotC is an amazing game that still holds up well to this day...but RE4 is practically third person shooter gaming perfection. In the end, I had to choose RE4