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Best New Character
As video games have continued to mature as a medium, the criteria for a successful character have undergone quite an evolution. Far from those early days when it was simply a matter of being able to make out a character's face based on a garbled mess of pixels, we're now at a point where we see fully fleshed-out personalities that have become critical pieces of any good story. But for them to be considered for the Best New Character of 2008, they have to be so memorable that we'll continue to remember them long after we take the game out of the system. Here are those finalists.
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Bruce 'Brucie' Kibbutz
- Rockstar North
- Rockstar Games
- Review score: 10.0
Grand Theft Auto IV builds on the series' rock solid foundation with an awe inspiring recreation...
Watch the review » -
Niko Bellic
- Rockstar North
- Rockstar Games
- Review score: 10.0
Grand Theft Auto IV builds on the series' rock solid foundation with an awe inspiring recreation...
Watch the review » -
Sack Boy
- Media Molecule
- SCEA
- Review score: 9.0
Little Big Planet is both a multiplayer platformer and a community-based toolset that lets you...
Watch the review » -
Jansen Friedh
- Mistwalker
- Microsoft Game St...
- Review score: 7.5
Lost Odyssey is a role-playing game featuring both the music composer and producer of the Final...
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Travis Touchdown
- Grasshopper Manuf...
- Ubisoft
- Review score: 9.0
From SUDA-51, creator of the surreal shooter Killer7, No More Heroes chronicles Travis Touchdown's...
Watch the review »
Voting Results:
Best New Character| Grand Theft Auto IV | 14% | 2,568 |
| Grand Theft Auto IV | 35% | 6,433 |
| LittleBigPlanet | 31% | 5,557 |
| Lost Odyssey | 6% | 1,019 |
| No More Heroes | 14% | 2,560 |
Readers' Choice Winner
Grand Theft Auto IV
- Publisher: Rockstar Games
- Developer: Rockstar North
GameSpot's Best Games of 2008 Readers' Choice Winner
For Niko Bellic, fresh off the boat from Europe, it is the hope he can escape his past. For his cousin, Roman, it is the vision that together they can find fortune in Liberty City, gateway to the land of opportunity. As they slip into debt and are dragged into a criminal underworld by a series of shysters, thieves and sociopaths, they discover that the reality is very different from the dream in a city that worships money and status, and is heaven for those who have them and a living nightmare for those who don't.
- Watch the video review: HD | SD
- Read the review »
Best New Character
438 comments
While i didn't see what the huge deal over gta4 was, Brucie cracked me up, hes wayyyy more entertaining than Nico
Sackboy all the way! Way too cute. Anyway, I haven't played any of the other games, so that might be a factor, but I have no interest in GTA at all.
brucie was a far better character than bellic, but i don't think gta4 should even have been on there
i am so tired of gta4. it isnt that great and neither are its characters. sackboy should have won.
WHAT! Niko bellic? Niko is the worst character in all of the list nominted games and all of the gta games!
Is it really fair to have two characters from GTAVI? There are plenty of other games and characters out there...
Yeah where is Mirror's Edge? Should've at least been nominated for a few awards. Meh, my vote went to Travis.
Mirror's edge was really good game dunno why people hate it soo much, but best character was Travis for me
Niko and Brucie are awesome. Niko was very well played and his story was definitly something to remember.
Niko: Brucie, why do you kill...your business I mean...it seems ..you know...legit" Brucie: "Of course I'm legit...Have you seen my delts, thats as legitimate as it gets". lmao.
Everybody knew that Niko would win and it's no suprise and I can live with it and it's always funny to hear how Niko is speaking Serbian :lol:
MGS best graphics and sackboy best new character? dear god, talk about rats clinging to a sinking ship..
As much as I hate GTAIV, Niko was such a scumbag character, I mean he seemed really dirty and scummy, really fresh of the boat, anyone know what I mean? It really added to the game as a whole I think. It's cool to see a character get recognized who's not a shiny-spiffy hero, but rather the kind of guy you don't want to sit next to on the bus. Kudos to them.
Wow, Jansen is last place. Behind Sackboy?... Does Sackboy even have a personality? He's a hackie sack that you customize and use to platform, and other than him smiling all the time, what else does he have to offer? While I'll admit that Jansen isn't a character with a whole lot of depth... he's at least better than Sackboy.
I am proud to say I was one of the 6% who voted for Jansen, and I'll go further to say that I've played all the games on this list.
Niko deserved this, unlike other Grand Theft Auto protagonists his purpose isn't to get rich and have mansions and such. He has a back story, and he's just trying to solve troubles of his past and the ones that happen to come up while the game develops, great choice!
Awe... I really wanted Travis to win. Oh well, at least he's still the best original character for me.
Where's the love for Travis? He's the most intriguing character in an already colorful cast of characters, as opposed to the only funny character in an otherwise bland game (as far as atmosphere goes, anyway). The fact that he's in about the only "artsy" game for Wii doesn't hurt either. I mean, come on, his special moves are named after dessert!
Jansen was a great character in Lost Odyssey, which is a great game. He provides great comic relief
GTA always brings forth a cast of characters that are not easily forgettable. As for Nico, he may be an intense and awesome character, but he was difinitely in the right place at the right time in Liberty City in GTA IV.
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