Gamespy's PC Awards for 2005

In my never-ending struggle to bring you news you already know, only spun through my own private prism, Gamespy has announced its PC Games of the Year, as well as the usual genre awards.

I have fewer issues with Gamespy's choices than I did IGN's. This is not unusual, since I have fewer issues with Gamespy as a site than I do with IGN. But I digress.

The division of strategy games into RTS and TBS categories is a little anachronistic. There aren't really enough TBS games out there in any given year. And it's not like Civ IV had any real competition in any case. Dave Kosak, Gamespy's strategy czar, reviewed both Age of Empires III and Civilization IV and gave both five stars. I liked Age of Empires III, but not that much. Age of Empires III wasn't even nominated in any of the Gamespot award categories. It also wins for best graphics and earns a nomination for best music.

Though it's not so unusual that Gamespy's game of the year is the same as mine - Civ IV - but it is interesting that Diplomacy earns their "Coaster of the Year" award just as it earned my "worst strategy game" notice. Kosak eviscerated it in his review. Having not played through all the FPS or RPG or Adventure games out there, I figured that there had to be something worse than Diplomacy. (IGN didn't name a "worst game.") I gave it two stars in my review - the game is not a total disaster, but certainly not good. Kosak gave it one-half of a star.