As part of our annual Buyer’s Guide to Games, we present our annual awards for Traditional Game of the Year, Electronic Game of the Year, and Best New Game in various categories. Here are the most recent winners, announced in the December 2007 issue of Games Magazine.

Previous Games of the Year

Traditional (Nonelectronic) Games

Game of the Year: Pillars of the Earth
(Mayfair Games; designers: Michael Rieneck and Stefan Stadler) Read review.

Best New Abstract Strategy Game: Easter Island
(Twilight Creations; designers: Odet L’Homer and Roberto Fraga)

Best New Advanced Strategy Game: Khronos
(Rio Grande Games; designers: Arnaud Urbon and Ludovic Vialla)

Best New Family Game: If Wishes Were Fishes
(Rio Grande Games; designers: Peter Sarrett and Michael Adams)

Best New Family Card Game: Bull in a China Shop
(Playroom Entertainment; designer: Michael Schacht

Best New Family Strategy Game: Shear Panic
(Mayfair Games; designers: Fraser and Gordon Lamont)

Best New Party Game: GiftTrap
(GiftTrap Enterprises; designer: Nick Kellet)

Best New Puzzle: Sacred Myths and Legends Series
(Family Games; designers: Yvan David and Francois Vachon)

Best New Word Game: Unspeakable Words
(Playroom Entertainment; designers: James Ernest and Mike Selinker)

Best New Historical Simulation Game: Ran
(GMT Games; designers: Richard Berg and Mark Herman)
 

Electronic Games 

Game of the Year: Bioshock
(2K/Irrational; PC/360; Rated: M) Read review.

Best New Action Game: Gears of War
(Microsoft; 360; Rated: M) 

Best New Role-Playing/Adventure Game: Lord of the Rings Online
(Turbine; PC; Rated: T)

Best New Puzzle/Arcade Game: Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
(D3; DS/PSP; Rated: E)

Best New Sports Game: Mario Strikers Charged
(Nintendo; Wii; Rated: E)

Best New Strategy Game: Supreme Commander
(THQ; PC; Rated: E10+)

Effortlessly reaching the top this year is a tale of cathedral construction. It blesses gamers of all levels with a tremendous number of choices, and it plays splendidly with any number of contestants.

Three builders in each color begin in the bag. You have 12 workmen, three primitive craftsmen cards, and initial gold. Start each round by revealing seven random resource cards and two craftsmen from their respective decks. Place two additional craftsmen and two privilege cards faceup on the board.
Players in turn purchase an available craftsman, or allocate workers (two to 10) to book the resources on a vacant card. This first phase ends after all players have withdrawn and added remaining workers to the board’s wool mill.

Next, the active player draws builders, one at a time, from the bag. The builder’s owner may pay to place it in an available area (accommodating one to four builders) on the board. Initial builders have more choices, but cost more—and gold is never abundant. Alternatively, send your builder to the “end of the line” and place it free after all builders have been drawn; sadly, by then, the best places are likely to be occupied.

After placing all builders, reveal a random event card, affecting everyone for good or ill. Next, resolve the board areas in order, including awarding gold for workers at the wool mill and collecting resources booked in the first phase. Occupying builders reap their area’s rewards. Rewards include: protection from a malevolent event card; victory points; immunity from taxes (determined by a die roll); a free craftsman; extra workers to use next round; and the right to buy and/or sell resources, to become the starting player next round, or to acquire a privilege card. Privileges enrich the already abundant possibilities by offering a plethora of enticing advantages.

Now, everyone optionally activates their craftsmen, which convert specified amounts of resources (discarded) to victory points or gold. The craftsmen deck is arranged semi-randomly, to ensure that increasingly efficient and remunerative craftsmen become available. The number of resources you can carry to future rounds is limited, and acquiring a craftsman beyond your maximum forces you to discard one. Tough decisions abound.

At the end of each round, a piece of the Cathedral is added. The player with the most victory points triumphs when the Cathedral is completed. (originally reviewed 7/07)—John J. McCallion and Robin H. King

Bioshock
2K/Irrational; PC/360, $50-$60; Rated: M

Sometimes a spoiler comes along just as we’re compiling the Electronic Games 100, dethrones our intended Electronic Game of the Year, and sucks up all of our time so that we miss deadlines. Bioshock is that spoiler. Until this heir to System Shock showed up, Lord of the Rings Online was leading the pack. It only took a few hours with Bioshock to know that couldn’t last.

System Shock is one of the landmarks in PC gaming history: a deep, first-person game that offers a vivid world and narrative, then lets you progress through combat, stealth, puzzles, or any combination of the three. Irrational Games, staffed by some of the original System Shock team, has called Bioshock a “spiritual heir” to that classic, and it’s easy to see why. Several of System Shock’s core elements have been carried forth into a new and even better game.

Bioshock is set in 1960, and begins with a plane crashing into the middle of the ocean. As the sole survivor, you swim through the wreckage, only to encounter a strange kind of lighthouse rising out of the deep. Inside, a bathysphere takes you into a city of wonder on the bottom of the Atlantic. Called Rapture, this city is the work of a megalomaniacal visionary named Andrew Ryan, a radical Objectivist millionaire who seeks to create an anarcho-capitalist utopia: Ayn Rand via Charles Foster Kane. As you’d expect from such a libertarian wonderland unfettered by morality or restraint, it doesn’t take long for Rapture to descend into utter chaos, leaving it overrun by genetic mutants as various factions fight for power. The story of Rapture’s collapse emerges piecemeal through messages and recordings collected in the course of exploration—a technique used to great effect in the original System Shock that works even better here.

From a pure gameplay perspective, Bioshock can be called a first-person shooter, but that would sell it short. The combat elements are handled elegantly, with many ways to approach each enemy. As you progress, you pick up Plasmids and Genetic Tonics, which can be loaded into a finite number of slots on your character. These genetic modifications add different kinds of attacks, but also enhance various physical, engineering, and combat skills. By using special stations, you can customize your character with very specific attacks and skills, enabling each player to create a unique character. The game also incorporates System Shock’s “hacking” mode, which allows users to solve puzzles (styled on the Water Works tile game) to bypass certain obstacles or gain bonuses.

There is much more in Bioshock than this. The world itself is a richly detailed art deco hell populated with a large cast of characters and creepy enemies. And I won’t even go into Big Brothers and Little Sisters, who are not only strange and wonderful, but key to the entire game. Indeed, the game forces you to make a very moral choice in dealing with the Little Sisters. It’s the kind of choice a radical Objectivist like Ryan would believe is irrelevant to society, but it has a central effect on how the game plays out, leaving us with a very clear message about right and wrong and the place of the individual in society. And just how often does that happen in a video game?—Thomas L. McDonald

Previous Game of the Year awards