If we’re doing this shit, we’re doing it right.

So, spending a few hours assembling this together, I figure I could take the liberty of hosting one of our biggest Game Genius events should be able to help direct us some more traffic. So to celebrate the progress of years in the making with out new consoles shipping in I present the poll for

GAME GENIUS' “BEST OF A GENERATION” AWARDS

Which is going to present hopefully most of Rap Genius' opinion on the best of the best released within this last console generation. But before we directly present awards we’re abiding by the rules of a qualifying round, allowing people to vote up to as many as 5 choices per category and the best of each category will follow on to the final poll which will be held in the next 2 – 4 if everything works out smoothly.

This entails all games available for the span of the PS3, PSP, Playstation Vita, Nintendo DS, 3DS, Wii, and Xbox 360, with the sake of being as early as November 2005 for our PC users.

The categories prepared are as follows:

• Best Audio Design
• Best Original Soundtrack/Score
• Best Song In a Game
• Best Game Design
• Best Game Artwork/Graphics
• Best Narrative/Writing
• Best Innovation
• Best Actor Performance
• Best Actress Performance
• Best Male Character
• Best Female Character
• Best Cast Ensemble
• Best Video Game Adaptation
• Best Studio Debut
• Best Technology
• Best Game Engine
• Best Mobile Game
• Best Casual Game
• Best Music Game
• Best Party Game
• Best Puzzle Game
• Best Horror Game
• Best Platformer
• Best Racing Game
• Best Turn-Based Strategy
• Best Real-Time Strategy
• Best Stealth Game
• Best Fighter
• Best RPG
• Best DLC
• Best Sports Game
• Best Indie/Independent Game
• Best Multiplayer Game
• Best MMO
• Best Third-Person Shooter
• Best First-Person Shooter
• Best Action-Adventure
• Best Sandbox Game
• Best Game Sequel
• Best Handheld Game
• Best Nintendo Wii Game
• Best Xbox 360 Game
• Best Playstation 3 Game
• Best PC Game
• Best Indie/Independent Studio
• Best Development Studio
• Best Game Publisher
• Best Game Franchise
• Video Game of a Generation

As you can see, I tried to be pretty thorough with the categories since this is pretty much covering damn near an entire decade worth of games but if you believe there’s a category in there that’s a bit redundant or one you want included I am open to suggestions before making this poll public to the forums.

2 – 4 weeks*

@haru-rawls @thatkidwith5dollars @Heisenferg @SvenTheImmortal @Wandawaisu @Hopeless_Son @FanaHOVA @AubreyPlaza @CaptPierce

This is bomb, I'm in class now but I'll check the list out and see if we can cut it down a bit!

That is a lot of awards but I think that all of those are important.

I’m in! I’ll see how it goes, and I’d love to contribute.

Best Original Soundtrack/Score
Best Game Design
Best Game Artwork/Graphics
Best Narrative/Writing
Best Male Character
Best Female Character
Best Video Game Adaptation(wht is this)
Best Game Engine
Best Mobile Game
Best Casual Game
Best Music Game
Best Horror Game
Best Platformer
Best Racing Game
Best Turn-Based Strategy
Best Real-Time Strategy
Best Stealth Game
Best Fighter
Best RPG
Best DLC
Best Sports Game
Best Indie/Independent Game
Best Multiplayer Game
Best MMO
Best Shooter
Best Action-Adventure
Best Indie/Independent Studio
Best Development Studio
Best Game Publisher
Best Game Franchise
Video Game of a Generation

How i would do it

@Sventheimmortal on my phone so give me a few minutes before I give details on why I split hairs with some of these categories.

I think you should take out:

Best Sandbox Game
Best Game Sequel
Best Handheld Game
Best Nintendo Wii Game
Best Xbox 360 Game
Best Playstation 3 Game
Best PC Game
Best Song In a Game
Best Video Game Adaptation
Best Studio Depth
Best Technology
Best DLC
Best Game Publisher
Best Game Franchise
Best Actor Performance
Best Actress Performance
Best Cast Ensemble

Just my opinion, take it as you will.

Looks dope! Few thoughts

• Best Mobile / Best Handheld is kind of redundant
• Not a huge fan of Best Casual Game as a category
• I’m not entirely sure what you mean by Audio Design and think we’d be better off sticking with Best Soundtrack
• Same thing with Game Design – correct me if I’m wrong but I think we could get rid of that in favor of Artwork/Graphics
• Best Tech / Best Game Engine are somewhat similar and I would probably get rid off both of them
• I don’t love Best Song in a game – Best Score/Soundtrack is a better idea

The list needs trimming, but it’s great that you gave us a lot to work with!

I like game engines, cryengine,unreal engine etc

Cry engine:

Crysis
Farcry
Ryse: Son of Rome

Unreal engine:

Borderlands
Gears of War
Most comic book looking games

@SvenTheImmortal @DoctorStrange @Heisenferg

Just to say this beforehand, in the poll I already tried to give valid support of why some of these are separated

Audio Design/Soundtrack
As far as audio design is meant that includes things like sound effects, voice acting, placement of the soundtrack, and otherwise. Think of the difference between how Bioshock placed menacing chords as well as a more minimal environment with small things to creep you out (water hitting the flooded bathrooms, whispers catching up to you, etc) as part of it’s mannequin sequence but these don’t fall into the category of it’s soundtrack or the music designed for the game. Even Alan Wake managed this when though it was graced with an original soundtrack, if you stepped far away enough from the path you were suggested to go, you would see the sky start going into some dark frenzy with harsh winds and just an alternating disturbance of whispers would plague you until you got back on the right path but once more, not part of the original soundtrack.

@Heisenferg As for Best Song In a Game, that was meant for a song that could’ve been licensed such as a large selection of GTA Radio or Fallout 3’s Galaxy News Radio or an original work like the Halo theme, or Dishonored’s Drunken Whaler. I honestly just thought about limiting it to “Best Original Song/Theme” to avoid confusion if that would seem better.

@Heisenferg As well as game design, that doesn’t just include the visual aesthetic of the game but what lies beneath such as game mechanics, replayability, adjusted difficulties, level design, and otherwise.

Best Character/Best Performance
Difference lies in how Dameon Clarke for Handsome Jack may have one of the best performances but stature as a complete asshole withholds him from being the best character as opposed to someone like Lee from The Walking Dead, more fleshed out and well-rounded but not on the same level of energy or outlandish performance.

Best Technology/Game Engine
Though Game Engine encompasses stuff mainly involving physics and graphics, it may not provide ground for things such as AI, scripting, animation or sound. Think how both Bioshock, Gears of War, and Mass Effect runs on Unreal Engine but play like completely different games as well as their AI, animation and sound.

As for the rest is really up to you guys. I just felt like fucking around with FPS and TPS to give games like Gears of War and Max Payne a chance.

@Hellblazer @SvenTheImmortal cool. I’m not huge into the technical aspects of games tbh so I’m glad you broke it down for me. The main issue I had with them were that they were kind of niche categories that the casual video game fan might not understand, but if there is enough of an interest they could be interesting categories.

@Heisenferg

Definitely understandable. Coming as someone who plays more video games from a designer aspect than a normal consumer aspect, I’m just trying to make sure we’re absolutely covering all the fields we need to when counting an entire generation.

@Heisenferg @SvenTheImmortal @DoctorStrange
Actually I’ll take of Technology for the sake of game design.