You're arguing a moot point.

You have the stance that Mario Galaxy is not worthy of being "game of the year". Why?

What do you think should?

You simply have created a thread and furthered it by reiterating the same arguments repeatedly without having a point. The thread is effectively you demanding people justify why you think it shouldn't be game of the year. Yet you have yet to really explain why it shouldn't aside from broad generalizations such as "well it doesn't do this" or "other games have that too" which people have called you on.

Why don't you think it is aside from the typical "well I don't think it's anything special"?

You simply cast down other's explanations why, all the while doing nothing to back up your own stance.

How can wegive out an award based off of such subjective criteria?SentientGames

I'm both thrilled at how much they can take (and dish out apparently) and annoyed.

As you stated, Warhawk was very defense oriented. Thus why I haven't bothered playing over the past month. I got sick of being in too many one sided games where one team wound up getting holed into their main base and that was it. Any efforts to do much got them curb stopped.

It just seems with the dropship this problem won't be fixed but exascerbated. Think of it though, how many times have you seen one team driving the other back into the main base on Euchadia during a CTF game? Too many for my liking. Now with the "roving fortress of doom" you can fly over fully manned with a tank, drop it in grab the flag and fly right out. Or just keep pounding them to death with the thing. Eh well.

I just wish Sony would release the damn network cards so I can purchase stuff without a credit card.

I suppose I still have yet to experience the parts of the game that are "pure unadulterated fun", but I eagerly await them.

SentientGames

Admittedly, for me at least, the first short chunk of the game was typical. I was neither truly impressed or overly pleased. It felt servicable. Fun yes, but not the great fun I was expecting. I actually left the game for weeks after only doing about 12 stars, and only went back when our 360 died on us.

That said though, it was actually a boon.

The later levels of the game are brilliant. Especially the singular galaxies from the main hub, like the Sweet Sweet Galaxy. Once you get to the last few clusters it's just absolutely a blast. I loved the Toy Time Galaxy especially. And once you hit up the purple comets, damn is it fantastic... Sadly, there wasn't enough of it. The later stuff actually made me realize the sad fact that the Wii has no hard drive support and I wouldn't be able to possibly download future galaxies to fool around in.

All that said, the game I feel starts off slow but really shines through once you delve past the beginning stuff.

I also mainly made my point about fun mainly due to the fact games nowadays are hinged on the whole "wow great graphics!". I don't hear "hey that looks fun", you hear and see how good the shaders are or the texture work. And I feel that a lot of games are hinging on that all too much as a crutch to cover up what matters.

That said, I'm not an idiot. I understand that physics work and graphical oomph can definitely (and have) elevated a game beyond what it could be. Dead Rising wouldn't have remotely been as fun had not had a realistic mall and tonnes of zombies on screen. However, graphics are often likened to being a key indicator of a game's quality anymore.

Mostly because you can actually quantify graphics, and even sound. After all how many times are we lambasted with phrases like "with 10,000 more polygons in the character model" or "all new HDR lighting adds even more depth to the visuals". Fun is far too subjective.

Graphics can make a good game more atmospheric and enjoyable. But a poor game will still be just that.

Mario Galaxy would honestly be just as good as it is and as fun even if it had crude early N64 graphics. Which is what sets it apart from a lot of stuff out there.

Saving at any time. Sometimes you have to drop a game and do something else. I can't count the number of hours added to numerous RPGs and such just by being on when I've had to quickly go out and leave it not wanting to lose progress.

And now with the advent of harddrives and really good hardware, and that it's been shown possible (especially in Halo 3) being able to record game footage and watching it later would be tremendous. I'd love it to be standard in games. It's such a great feature, and there would be untold number of awesome moments to watch at a later time.

The ability to watch cutscenes or cinematics at any time once they've been seen once. Especially in RPGs. There have been numerous times I'd love to see a certain scene again but am unable to without playing through an entire game. FFX was a good start with just the CGI stuff... which went entirely absent in FFXII and isn't really available in anything...

That said, the ability to skip anything I want. Especially if I had to restart after a death or am just playing again. Sometimes you just want to get into the action and say screw the story.

So honestly, the ability to rewatch, skip and pause during cutscenes would be grand.

Typical accessibility stuff should always be present. Widescreen support, subtitles, different volume controls, button layout configuration. A lot of this stuff should be standard, but shockingly isn't (look no further than Assassin's Creed's lack of subtitles).

As a more personal thing, I wish more games had the equivalent of a "previously..." feature. Sometimes I'll leave a game for days, weeks or even months without coming back. But when I do, I often find I don't continue because I forget what happened before. Just even a little text thing in the options to know what just happened in the game would be enough of a refresher to continue.

And my absolute one demanded thing in any game... Mandatory co-op. And I don't mean online co-op. I mean bona fide buddy next to you taking on the forces of evil (or good even) Contra style. So many great games have come out that could have included two player or co-op. Like Mario Galaxy, when I heard it would have co-op I got excited about the years of yore when you could play through the game with a friend like Mario 3 or World. It could work just like them too. Or like in something like Crackdown. We bought it because I heard it had co-op, but unfortunately only online, which is a waste. Call of Duty 4 would have been absolutely IMMENSE had it had offline co-op. Like someone said before, I'd even accept a hit in graphics for the ability to play with someone next to me.

Having no idea what you own...

The only decent enough game me and my girlfriend have found for the PS3 with 2 player/co-op would be Warhawk. Only problem is you're relegated to user servers on not Sony's so they're prone to be small and/or shut down on a whim (or you get booted for whatever reason the host decides).

The Wii has plenty of mini-gameathons for your liking. Rayman Raving Rabbids, Mario Party 8 and Warioware being considered the best. Then you got stuff like Mario & Sonic, EA Glayground, Carnival games, etc. Aside from that Mario Galaxy is a decent enough experience with a friend. Second player doesn't do much honestly but it can be amusing. You can draw on the screen with Zack & Wiki but that's about it. Trauma Center: New Blood is great fun with the co-op tossed in, very fun honestly. Aside from that I can't think of anything. Oh, Mario Strikers too I guess. I personally got bored entirely with it after 2 games but a lot of people liked it.

The Xbox 360 has a fair slew of choices, but mostly devolves into shooters and such, primarily Halo 3 which is a lot of fun co-op. Not much else exclusive is really 2 player.

Then of course you have the typical multi-platform titles. Sports are good if you like them. Of course you then have your racing games and the occasional co-op shooter and such. Or some mini game compilations. I know it's been vilified but Kane & Lynch was pretty fun for us over an afternoon, albeit by the end it gets a bit tiresome and isn't too great by yourself (just a typical shooter). Marvel Ultimate Alliance is decent fun.

All three current systems have a slew of terrific 2 player games for download via Live Arcade, PSN and Virtual Console, especially the latter.

If you go back to the older systems though there's tonnes... Sadly though games are starting to becoming too focused with online and starting to lack offline multiplayer which is very sad indeed.

EDIT: Wow I can't believe I utterly looked over the fact you only have a PS3... damn... Figure I'll leave the post if case people were interested otherwise...

Anyways, your best bet is honestly Warhawk with a friend, but that's online and as you specified not, is likely out. Other than that you have the multiplatform stuff like Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Kane & Lynch, and pretty much racing games. Not much out really.

Idiots.

Poor girl.

Besides the only correlation in the article to video games is the guy said he was playing downstairs while the girl's sister beat her upstairs. That's it. And at that the article can't keep it's story straight. On one hand it claims he was downstairs while the sister did it... then it says the sister told him and the girl to stop... but then an eye witness says they both did it? Huh? That said, eye witness? Why didn't this witness stop them? Or better yet why are they not being put up on charges for doing nothing? If they weren't there, then they aren't an eye witness... furthering the fact that the article is borderline nonsensical.

Seems to just be tossed out there on a whim.

Regardless though, that poor girl didn't deserve that.

I miss the days when a game was judged entirely on how much fun you have with it... Alas...

I actually find Nintendo's "our games don't need voice overs and it takes away from the experience" with Miyamoto's "we prefer the player to create a voice in their head" as short sighted and behind the times.

Sure, make it so Link and Mario don't speak (the problem with Mario is the longer lines they give Charles Martinet the stupider it sounds). I see not how you couldn't reasonably have every other character speak their lines. Bowser reverting back to growls works, but in Galaxy Rosalina could have easily spoken her dialogue. It's not like there's a lot.

And despite finding the graphics pleasing and nice, I have to utterly point out...

THE WII IS SUPPOSED TO BE TWICE AS POWERFUL AS AN XBOX! Resident Evil 4 was gorgeous on the Gamecube and the Gamecube didn't even match close to the Xbox's overall power. And considering how close architecturally the Wii is to the Gamecube... Why on earth are they not popping out better graphics? No, I don't expect what the 360 and PS3 can do, but I definitely expect better than the Gamecube and Xbox.

Thing is... And Nintendo knows it full well... They don't have to try. They're product will sell.

Primarily, because the game was damn fun.

Super Mario Galaxy was the most fun I've had with a game this year barring maybe Call of Duty 4 (for shill exhileration of it's single player) and Ratchet & Clank (which I had fun with for very similar reasons). And despite some of Nintendo's audio/visual guffaws Mario Galaxy is a damn fine and entertaining game. Likely and honestly better than all that's come out this year.

Sure it doesn't match up when you compare it to Bioshock's visuals or Call of Duty 4's audio or Halo 3's features, but what it has that a lot of other games are lacking recently (I'm looking at you Assassin's Creed) is pure and unadulterated fun. That's something you can't honestly attach a score too.

And even if you can, I think Mario Galaxy's scores all over the board everywhere beat out every other game released this year. I think that says something.

Yeah... I'll get around to playing the damn thing when Sony quit being gits and allow people without credit cards to purchase content....

But out of curiosity how much does it take for a dropship to go down? How many tank rounds can they take? Will a TOW missile do them in? How about a well placed cluster bomb? Or are Warhawks just gnats? Do missile turrets lock on? If so how many does it take for them to go down? Do the flak cannons do good enough damage?

Are you friggin' utterly screwed on foot? It's bad enough having a Warhawk on your ass without any support, even with a rocket launcher.

I'm mainly curious if it's easy or difficult to damage the things, which seemingly no one cares about.

And are you telling me that a guy who captures a flag can hop in a jeep or tank and then just have the dropship carry them home? I really don't like that if so.