Octopus Overlord’s 2004 Community Awards Voting Results!

[naednek]

Octopus Overlord’s 2004 Community Awards


Welcome to the 1st year of the Octopus Overlord’s Community Awards! For the last 10 days many of you have voted on various categories on what you thought were the best games in 2004. Here are the categories we voted on.


Best Graphics
Best Sound
Best Strategy Game
Best Sports Game
Best First Person Shooter
Best Racing Game
Best RPG
Best Third Person Game
Best Expansion Pack
Best Flight Sim
Best MMORPG
Best Online Shooters
Worst Game of the Year
Best Game of the Year


There were a total of 1278 votes submitted in the 10 day period. The top 3 categories were, Game of the Year (141 votes), Best Graphics (132), and Best First Person Shooter (123), while the bottom 3 were, Best Racing Game (31), Best Flight Sim (34), and Best Expansion Pack (66)

Without further delay, here are your Octopus Overlord’s Community Awards…


Best Graphics

This year, proved to be the year of eye candy. Games like Half Life, Doom 3, and Far Cry pushed the envelope, causing many gamers to ditch their old video cards for new cards. The Source Engine proved to be a great engine that rendered environments so realistically, you really thought you were there.

While the source engine focused on huge detailed outdoor levels, Doom 3 went in the opposite direction. When you could actually see the game Doom 3 centered itself around dark, claustrophobic indoor levels that at times kept you in suspense.

Far Cry while released earlier in the year, first gave us a glimpse on what the next generations of graphical goodness we were to expect to come.

Here are the nominations for the Best Graphics of 2004…
Doom 3
Everquest II
Far Cry
Half Life 2
Medal of Honor Pacific Assault
The Chronicles of Riddick
Unreal Tournament 2004
World of Warcraft
Rome: Total War


Here is what you picked as Octopus Overlord’s game that had the Best Graphics

Half Life 2



Runners Up
Doom 3
Far Cry

Voting Results
Best Graphics
Doom 3 25 18.94%
Everquest II 2 1.52%
Far Cry 19 14.39%
Half Life 2 81 61.36%
Medal of Honor Pacific Assault 1 0.76%
The Chronicles of Riddick 0 0.00%
Unreal Tournament 2004 1 0.76%
World of Warcraft 2 1.52%
Rome: Total War 1 0.76%
Total 132 100.00%


Best Sound

Visual graphics are the easiest category to track change. However, sound effects typically evolve at a much slower pace. While sound effects haven’t changed much, there were certainly some good games that did a great job using music, speech dialogue and special effects.

Here are the nominees…
Best Sound
Doom 3
Full Spectrum Warrior
Half Life 2
Lord of the Rings Battle for Middle Earth
Medal of Honor Pacific Assault
Rome Total War
The Chronicles of Riddick
Thief 3
Here is what you picked as Octopus Overlord’s game that had the Best Sound

Half Life 2



Runner Ups
Thief 3
Rome Total War

Voting Results
Best Sound
Doom 3 15 15.63%
Full Spectrum Warrior 4 4.17%
Half Life 2 29 30.21%
Lord of the Rings Battle for Middle Earth 5 5.21%
Medal of Honor Pacific Assault 4 4.17%
Rome Total War 17 17.71%
The Chronicles of Riddick 1 1.04%
Thief 3 21 21.88%
Total 96 100.00%



Best Strategy Game
It was another banner year for RTS games. Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War, Lord of the Rings Battle for Middle Earth and Sid Meier’s Pirates! Were all fine games, but nobody could beat Rome: Total War

Here are the nominees…
Best Strategy Game
Ground Control II
Kohan II: Kings of War
Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth
Rome Total War
Sid Meier’s Pirates
Silent Storm
Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War

Here is what you picked as Octopus Overlord’s best Strategy Game
Rome: Total War



Runner Ups
Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War
Sid Meier’s Pirates

Voting Results
Best Strategy Game
Ground Control II 4 3.33%
Kohan II: Kings of War 3 2.50%
Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 1 0.83%
Rome Total War 66 55.00%
Sid Meier’s Pirates 17 14.17%
Silent Storm 11 9.17%
Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War 18 15.00%
Total 120 100.00%

Best First Person Shooter

We now come to Octopus Overlord’s favorite genre of First Person Shooter It’s safe to say, it’s the year of the FPS. Games like Far Cry, Doom 3, and Half Life 2 dominated the popularity charts for many months. Some games like focused on frantic/suspenseful game play, while others focused more on story telling. Can you guess which one won?

Here are the nominees….
Battlefield Vietnam
Doom 3
Far Cry
Half Life 2
Medal of Honor Pacific Assault
Painkiller
The Chronicles of Riddick
Unreal Tournament 2004

Here is what you picked as Octopus Overlord’s game Best First Person Shooter

Half Life 2

Runner Ups
Far Cry
Unreal Tournament

Voting Results
Best First Person Shooter
Battlefield Vietnam 2 1.63%
Doom 3 4 3.25%
Far Cry 17 13.82%
Half Life 2 77 62.60%
Medal of Honor Pacific Assault 0 0.00%
Painkiller 6 4.88%
The Chronicles of Riddick 4 3.25%
Unreal Tournament 2004 13 10.57%
Total 123 100.00%


Best MMORPG
We should all thank games like Everquest 1 and Ultima Online for feeding our addictions. They helped created this craze, which led us to games like World of Warcraft, Everquest 2 and City of Heroes. City of Heroes came out earlier this year and has done well and offered a new flavor to MMORPG’s where as Everquest 2 tried to improve on the original game. But as the numbers show in player subscriptions, WOW was certainly the most successful MMORPG this year.

Here is what you picked as Octopus Overlord’s best MMORPG of 2004

World of Warcraft



Runner Ups
City of Heroes
Everquest 2

Voting Results
Best MMORPG
City of Heroes 26 25.24%
Everquest 2 9 8.74%
Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicle 1 0.97%
World of Warcraft 67 65.05%
Total 103 100.00%


Best Online Shooter

With being lambasted with Zaxxon’s subliminal message, it’s safe to say who the winner is. But first, here are the nominees.

Best Online Shooters
Battlefield Vietnam
Counter Strike Source
Half Life 2 Deathmatch
Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising
Star Wars Battlefront
Unreal Tournament 2004

Here is what you picked as Octopus Overlord’s Best Online Shooter

Unreal Tournament 2004



Runner Ups
Joint Operations
Battlefield Vietnam
Counter Strike Source
Voting Results
Best Online Shooters
Battlefield Vietnam 8 8.42%
Counter Strike Source 8 8.42%
Half Life 2 Deathmatch 2 2.11%
Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising 12 12.63%
Star Wars Battlefront 1 1.05%
Unreal Tournament 2004 64 67.37%
Total 95 100.00%


Best RPG

Here are the Nominees
Beyond Divinity
Kult
Sacred
Spell Force
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines

Here is what you picked as Octopus Overlord’s Best RPG

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines



Runner Ups
Sacred
Spell Force

Voting Results
Best RPG
Beyond Divinity 2 2.13%
Kult 1 1.06%
Sacred 14 14.89%
Spell Force 12 12.77%
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 65 69.15%
Total 94 100.00%

Best Sports Game
Here are the Nominees
Best Sports Game
FIFA Soccer 2005
Madden 2005
MVP 2005
NBA Live 2005
NHL 2005
Tiger Woods 2005
World Soccer Winning Eleven 7 International
Out Of The Park Baseball 6
Football manager 2005

Here is what you picked as Octopus Overlord’s Best Sports Game

World Soccer Winning Eleven 7 International



Runner Ups
Tiger Woods 2005
Madden 2005

Voting Results
Best Sports Game
FIFA Soccer 2005 3 3.70%
Madden 2005 11 13.58%
MVP 2005 2 2.47%
NBA Live 2005 3 3.70%
NHL 2005 5 6.17%
Tiger Woods 2005 22 27.16%
World Soccer Winning Eleven 7 International 25 30.86%
Out Of The Park Baseball 6 7 8.64%
Football manager 2005 3 3.70%
Total 81 100.00%

Best Racing Game

Here are the nominees
Colin McRae 2004
Colin McRae Rally 2005
Need for Speed Underground 2
Richard Burns Rally
TOCA Race Driver 2: The Ultimate Simulator

Here is what you picked as Octopus Overlord’s Best Racing Game

Richard Burns Rally



Runner Ups
Need for Speed Underground 2
Colin McRae Rally 2005
TOCA Race Driver 2: The Ultimate Simulator

Voting Results
Best Racing Game
Colin McRae 2004 1 3.23%
Colin McRae Rally 2005 4 12.90%
Need for Speed Underground 2 10 32.26%
Richard Burns Rally 12 38.71%
TOCA Race Driver 2: The Ultimate Simulator 4 12.90%
Total 31 100.00%

Best Third Person Shooter

Here are the nominees
Blood Rayne 2
Full Spectrum Warrior
Prince of Persia: Warriors Within
The Suffering
Thief: Deadly Shadows

Here is what you picked as Octopus Overlord’s Best Third Person Shooter
Thief: Deadly Shadows



Runner Ups
Full Spectrum Warrior
Prince of Persia: Warriors Within

Voting Results
Best Third Person Game
Blood Rayne 2 1 1.35%
Full Spectrum Warrior 12 16.22%
Prince of Persia: Warriors Within 9 12.16%
The Suffering 4 5.41%
Thief: Deadly Shadows 48 64.86%
Total 74 100.00%

Best Expansion Pack

Here are the nominees
Call of Duty: United Offensive
Hidden and Dangerous 2: Sabre Squadron
Joint Operations: Escalation
Painkiller: Battle out of Hell
Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3: Athena Sword
Uru: Path of the Shell

Here is what you picked as Octopus Overlord’s Best Expansion Pack
Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots



Runner Ups
Call of Duty: United Offensive
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3: Athena Sword

Voting Results
Best Expansion Pack
Call of Duty: United Offensive 15 22.73%
Hidden and Dangerous 2: Sabre Squadron 2 3.03%
Joint Operations: Escalation 2 3.03%
Painkiller: Battle out of Hell 4 6.06%
Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots 36 54.55%
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3: Athena Sword 6 9.09%
Uru: Path of the Shell 1 1.52%
Total 66 100.00%



Best Flight Sim


This is where I totally screwed up. When I gathered my list of games that came out in 2004, I used Gamespot’s Advance search engine. On that engine, I could search by release date. During my search, IL-2 Sturmovick: Forgotten Battles came up as a hit, however, I didn’t realize it was actually the “gold” version which consisted of the original game plus the expansion pack. That was released in 2004, but the original game was released in 2003. Someone pointed that out to me, and I immediately addressed the issue, yet others still continued to vote, after I stated that votes would not count. So because of write in, this contest is between Pacific Fighters and MS Flight Sim 2004.

With that being said, here are the nominees

MS Flight Simulator 2004
Pacific Fighters

Here is what you picked as Octopus Overlord’s Best Flight Sim
Pacific Fighters


Runner Up
MS Flight Simulator

Voting Results
Best Flight Sim
MS Flight Simulator 2004 7 36.84%
Pacific Fighters 12 63.16%
Total 19 100.00%



Worst Game of the Year


Ah yes, it’s time for the Worst Game of the Year. Just like every year there are many games that were terrible games. Last year we had Morrowind, the year before that, it was Black and White, what will this year’s be? Could it be Derek Smart’s Universal Combat? Lets find out…

First, here are the nominations
The Guy Game
Beyond Divinity
Doom 3
Kohan II
Shadow Ops: Red Mercury
Shell Shock: Nam 67
Spider Man
Star Wars Battlefront
The Guy Game
Universal Combat


Here is what you picked as Octopus Overlord’s Worst Game of the Year
Spiderman 2


Runner Ups
Universal Combat
The Guy Game

Voting Results
Worst Game of the Year
The Guy Game
Beyond Divinity 1 1.16%
Doom 3 3 3.49%
Kohan II 1 1.16%
Shadow Ops: Red Mercury 1 1.16%
Shell Shock: Nam 67 9 10.47%
Spider Man 29 33.72%
Star Wars Battlefront 1 1.16%
The Guy Game 19 22.09%
Universal Combat 22 25.58%
total 86 100.00%

Game of the Year

And now, it’s time for the GAME OF THE YEAR

2004 had many great games that were tough to choose as our game of the year. Games like Rome: Total War, Half Life 2, World of Warcraft were games that were extremely popular among gamers. The Chronicles of Riddick did extremely well, but apparently didn’t impress many people on it’s pc port. It’s possible that many people already played it on the console, and did not bother playing it again on the PC. Unreal Tournament 2004, has been an active game on our boards. Zaxxon has come close to Hetz’s pimping record, but fell short. One thing’s for sure, he knows how to limit his threads

Anyways, here are the nominations…

Far Cry
Half Life 2
Rome Total War
Sid Meier's Pirates!
The Chronicles of Riddick
Tom Clancy Splinter Cell Tomorrow
UT 2004
World of Warcraft

Here is what you picked as Octopus Overlord’s Best Game of the Year
Half Life 2


Half Life 2

Runner Ups
Rome: Total War
World of Warcraft

Voting Results
Far Cry 12 8.51%
Half Life 2 50 35.46%
Rome Total War 33 23.40%
Sid Meier’s Pirates! 6 4.26%
The Chronicles of Riddick 1 0.71%
Tom Clancy Splinter Cell Tomorrow 1 0.71%
UT 2004 8 5.67%
World of Warcraft 30 21.28%
Total 141 100.00%

There you have it, Octopus Overlords First Community Awards.

[Crowley]

Good post, good games, good year, good night.

/nixon wave

[Enough]

Here is what you picked as Octopus Overlord’s Worst Game of the Year
Half Life 2

We're picky here, that's why I like us.

I kid, but you might want to fix that typo. Very nice post and great layout, I can only imagine how long it took to put together. It's interesting to see how many voted in each category. If this gets done next year it would be fun to see if we get more people to vote. Thanks again for putting this together! 8)

[naednek]

doh damn copy & paste.

Well it took me about 3.5 hours putting the pulls together. I'm glad there was a decent turnout because all that work and no one participating would be such a waste

It took me about 3 hours to do the result page. I had to gather the scores, add them up, find the percentages, and then try to do some narratives.

I was thinking of emailing people and have them give their reason why they think "X" game should be GOTY or the winner of the other categories, but I was too busy this week.

Maybe next year when and if we do this on an actual webpage like PD mentioned we can do that.

It was fun, but there was a lot of time spent on doing things by hand

[warning]

Here is what you picked as Octopus Overlord’s Best Third Person Shooter
Thief: Deadly Shadows

That's a weird thing to see.

[Kelric]

Poor OOTP6. I've never even heard of that soccer game.

[naednek]

Here is what you picked as Octopus Overlord’s Best Third Person Shooter
Thief: Deadly Shadows

That's a weird thing to see.

Well you can play in 3rd person mode.

I meant to put Splinter Cell in there, but got them mixed up. By the time I saw what I did it was too late. But you guys could have written it in. But as you can see, nobody did

[Smoove_B]

Thanks for putting that all together. I guess it's official. We're all a bunch of HL2 fanboys.

[Kraken]

I didn't buy or play any 2004 games, so I didn't vote. But I'd still like to compliment your work.

[driver]

Fun results! But how in the world did the nominations for Sports Games miss out on ESPN NFL 2k5, The Best F'ing Football Game Ever? I half think that Winning Eleven won just for the anti-Madden vote; that's why I picked it anyway.

[Veloxi]

Frigging Half-Life 2 fanbois. I was actually expecting to see:

Best Strategy Game: Half Life 2
Best Sports Game: Half Life 2

Sheeeesh...

[naednek]

Fun results! But how in the world did the nominations for Sports Games miss out on ESPN NFL 2k5, The Best F'ing Football Game Ever? I half think that Winning Eleven won just for the anti-Madden vote; that's why I picked it anyway.

Because ESPN never came out on pc?

[JonathanStrange]

Thanks for an interesting post and poll. Well-done!

[Greggy_D]

Hey didn't FS2004 come out in 2003?

[naednek]

Hey didn't FS2004 come out in 2003?

Why, yes it was. Heh, oh well that category was doomed from the start

[bluefugue]

Frigging Half-Life 2 fanbois. I was actually expecting to see:

Best Strategy Game: Half Life 2
Best Sports Game: Half Life 2

Sheeeesh...

Well, the bit where you command anti-lions is a bit like an RTS, and the buggy and airboat are like a racing game!

[Odin]

Nice job on this whole thing, Ken.

[driver]

Fun results! But how in the world did the nominations for Sports Games miss out on ESPN NFL 2k5, The Best F'ing Football Game Ever? I half think that Winning Eleven won just for the anti-Madden vote; that's why I picked it anyway.

Because ESPN never came out on pc?

Well, that's a whack criteria! Almost everything else in that category was a port.

[Kaigen]

Here is what you picked as Octopus Overlord’s Best Third Person Shooter
Thief: Deadly Shadows

That's a weird thing to see.

Well you can play in 3rd person mode.

I meant to put Splinter Cell in there, but got them mixed up. By the time I saw what I did it was too late. But you guys could have written it in. But as you can see, nobody did

It's not as weird as Full Spectrum Warrior being in the category. That I should've written in, but I'm too lazy.

[Carpet_pissr]

I wanted to vote, but didn't since it would be weird voting for "best" without having played all those games. For instance, I am playing and loving the sports/FPS/TPS/adventure/RPG/flight sim that is HL2, so should I vote for that just because I play and like it even if I have not played the others in contention?

I am overthinking, I know, but I feel the same when confronted with a Tom's Hardware reader's choice awards... They ask you to vote for BEST MOTHERBOARD (out of a selection of 5 or so).

Best hard drive, best...motherboard seating grommets.

I think it tends to turn into, "I will vote for what I bought and love". More of a confirmation bias situation in many cases I think. How many motherboards has a given individual actually used and tested in a year?

Games are different, I know...and as a "true" gamer, I should have played more of the offerings, but really unless I have played ALL the games nominated in a category, I can't actually say HL2 was the best.

Not knocking your work, here, AT ALL...just a weird note about polls from my warped mind. Interesting to see the results, for sure.

[moss_icon]

Poor OOTP6.

poor game indeed.

[naednek]

Fun results! But how in the world did the nominations for Sports Games miss out on ESPN NFL 2k5, The Best F'ing Football Game Ever? I half think that Winning Eleven won just for the anti-Madden vote; that's why I picked it anyway.

Because ESPN never came out on pc?

Well, that's a whack criteria! Almost everything else in that category was a port.

Again, by reading the instructions, you would know that this community awards is for PC Games only. If it was a port to PC, it's still a PC game. ESPN was never ported.

And you're getting a masters ? Just kidding

[yossar]

Ah yes, it’s time for the Worst Game of the Year. Just like every year there are many games that were terrible games. Last year we had Morrowind, the year before that, it was Black and White, what will this year’s be?

Just in case you had forgotten who was doing the writeup at this point, this sentence definitely reminds you

[naednek]

suprised it took this long to be noticed

[YellowKing]

Really cool. Thanks for your hard work naednek. Now to get our name on some box blurbs:

"Sequel to the Octopus Overlords Game of the Year!"

It would bring the whole forum effect to a gigantic untapped audience!

[yossar]

Really cool. Thanks for your hard work naednek. Now to get our name on some box blurbs:

"Sequel to the Octopus Overlords Game of the Year!"

It would bring the whole forum effect to a gigantic untapped audience!

It's too bad we didn't pick a more obscure title for Game of the Year and didn't have a forum with a name completely unrelated to computer gaming. Then it might be possible.

[The Meal]

Thanks for this, Ken! Well done.

~Neal

[naednek]

lol, your sig had me going

[McCrank]

I wondering, for next year do you think you can break up Strategy into Turn-Based and Real-Time? Seeing Rome:Total War win over Silent Storm makes my stomach churn...

[LawBeefaroni]

Very well done.

Only 19 votes for Flight Sims? Ouch.

[Napoleon]

Poor OOTP6. I've never even heard of that soccer game.

Your loss, that game is the best sports game I've EVER played. Of course, it helps if you like soccer. In fact, I'm surprised so many yanks seem to like the game. That's probably a nice indication of it's quality.

[D.A.Lewis]

Good job. thanks

But I dont care what any of you all say. Beyond Divinity was the worst game of the year. Period. I mean come on what hopes did anyone have for a movie tie in game(Spiderman)? Zero Zilch. But what about the expectations for Beyond Divinity with its gaming ancestor being considered a classic to many?

[naednek]

I wondering, for next year do you think you can break up Strategy into Turn-Based and Real-Time? Seeing Rome:Total War win over Silent Storm makes my stomach churn...

Sure thing. I wanted to, but I already had too many threads, and it was getting too big for me.

[Zaxxon]

Unreal Tournament 2004, has been an active game on our boards. Zaxxon has come close to Hetz’s pimping record, but fell short. One thing’s for sure, he knows how to limit his threads

I shall try harder with UT2006.

[Hispanicgamer]

Sorry but I didn't see this until now and wanted to know when the 2005 nominations will be held? January 2006? Silly me