We spend the entire year talking up some games and smack talking others, but we've never actually posted what we think were the best games of the year. Not until now, that is.

Starting earlier this month I polled Kotaku Tower to find out what they thought were the best and worst games for each platform. I also asked them what they thought were the best Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network games of the year. While I'm a judge for a number of awards, including the Spike TV, Best of E3, IGF and even the Rocky Mountain News, I don't typically have the power to design how the awards should be given out.

Most awards tend to annoy me on two levels. First is the almost pathological need to vote for the best games of the year well before the year is over. It's just plain stupid. Sure you can get early builds, and play demos, but why not wait until all of the games are out for the year before starting the vote? The other thing that bothers me is how some award shows bunch all of the platforms into one category. Why would an Xbox 360 owner care if a Playstation 3 game has a better action title? Why would a Wii owner care if the 360's shooter is better? It's just silly and almost feels more like flamebait than anything worthwhile for the readers.

OK, rant over. Hit the jump for our list of finalists and check back next week to see which games ended up taking the Goatie.

The PSX4iPhone Playstation emulator for the iPhone we've been talking about for a few weeks now has finally gone into its public beta. That means if you've got an iPhone or an iPod Touch and more than just a pinch of patience you can hop on over to ZodTTD's site to download and check out the public beta.

After you transfer the application to your phone or pod the software will theoretically allow owners to download ISO, IMG, BIG Z and ZNX files to your phone to play Playstation games. Of course you'd need to already own the game to do this legally.

Reading through the comments over on the site it's apparent that, as with all betas, things are entirely smooth yet. Not all games, for instance, play on the emulator and some work but have missing sound or messed up graphics.

Make sure to check out this thread to watch a bunch of different videos showing off PSOne games in action.

iPhone Playstation Emulator [ZODTTD]

On Christmas morning Mark Wilson posted our off-beat, out-of-tune electronic Christmas Card to you our readers. If you missed reading it make sure to check it out here. If you can sing better than we can, and that's more than likely a given, hit the jump for the full lyrics with annotations to the stories that inspired them.

By John Gaudiosi

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--While the next season of the critically acclaimed sci-fi TV series, "Battlestar Galactica," won't air until 2008 on Sci-Fi, fans of the show have plenty to keep them busy this fall. There's the complete first season from Universal Studios Home Entertainment on HD-DVD as well as the new extended cut of the Battlestar Galactica Razor movie out on DVD. Game maker Blackdot has created a free online game, Raptor's Revenge, to tie into this new DVD release at www.battlestargalacticadvd.com. There's also Vivendi Games new Xbox Live Arcade downloadable high-definition Battlestar Galactica game.

Actor Tahmoh Penikett, who plays Lt. Karl C. "Helo" Agathon on the series, is the resident gamer of the cast. When he's not filming the series, he's playing his PSP or PlayStation 3. The actor got a chance to pilot the new Xbox 360 game on set and he took some time to talk about his gaming background, as well as his love of all things sci-fi.

VGMWatch tonight decided to spill the not-so-breaking news that Matt Casamassina, long-time editor-in-chief of the IGN Nintendo Team, is married to Edie Kissko. This is, in these times of games journalism head-scratching, a bit interesting. Kissko is the vice president of Golin Harris, which also happens to be Nintendo's PR firm.

Neither Casamassina nor Golin Harris have commented on the article, but Casamassina's long-time marriage to Kissko isn't exactly a secret. While his readers might not be aware of it, most in the journalism community and certainly the readers at Neo-Gaf are.

I don't doubt Casamassina's desire to keep his personal and work lives separate, but the problem with conflict of interest is that it's not always about the reality of the situation, but also about appearances.

Both IGN and Golin Harris were contacted for comment, neither have yet responded. We will update this post when and if they do.

IGN Editor Married to Nintendo PR Executive

Update: Golin Harris has responded:
"All GolinHarris employees who work on the Nintendo account sign and adhere to a strict confidentiality agreement."

Update 2: Matt has responded:
"While I would prefer to keep my wife and kids out of the public spotlight, the fact that Edie and I have been happily married for several years is no secret. Nintendo and IGN / FOX have been aware of our relationship since we first started dating. We're professionals. Both of us have signed strict confidentiality agreements with our respective employers and, incidentally, we leave what happens on the job at our home's front door.

The original article makes the suggestion that my marriage to Edie violates the trust of IGN's dedicated readership, but I think my body of work speaks for itself. Over the years, I have remained one of Nintendo's biggest fans and harshest critics and have also developed hundreds of reliable of sources within the industry, none of them Edie."

OK, so we've got some more details on the Jerry Bruckheimer/MTV deal:

- The new, as of yet unnamed studio will be co-owned by MTV and Bruckheimer. MTV will own the IP of all titles produced, and they'll also be acting as publishers, while Bruckheimer's name is due to appear "prominently" on all games the studio produces.

- They're not clear on which platforms/genres they're going to be focusing on, but "they may work on virtual worlds and casual, downloadable games as well as major console releases".

- Bruckheimer is expected to make use of his TV/film contacts for the studio, telling Variety: "When I moved to TV, I got people from features to join, and I plan to rely on the same talent pool and marry them with the gaming community".

Video games represent a new and innovative medium for what we've always tried to do, which is to tell great stories. But this medium is unique in that it gives the player control over how those stories unfold. I look forward to working with MTV Games to create new original game stories, always looking for ways to innovate the medium.

This just in from George Broussard over on the 3D Realms Forums:

"Last Saturday we had our annual company Christmas party. It was a lot of fun as usual but it featured one special surprise. It turns out that several people had been secretly working late nights and into the wee hours of the morning preparing a special video for those at the party. They created a short teaser for Duke Nukem Forever.

After seeing the teaser we thought it was something we should share with all of you and while it's just a teaser, rest assured more is coming.

Tomorrow, Wednesday the 19th, around noon CST, we will release the first teaser trailer from Duke Nukem Forever. To tide you over until then, here is a screen shot taken from the teaser.

Thank you for being fans of the game and for your continued patience.

I'd like to thank the people on the team that worked so hard to create this teaser and the friends of 3DR that helped create it (Jeremy Soule and Julian Soule, Frank Bry, Jason Evigan and of course, Jon St. John)."

That's right, it's the end of times. Now translating that from 3D Realms Central Time that means we should be checking out the video around 2 p.m. Mountain, 2027.

Teaser Video Coming 12/19/07, Noon CST [3D Realms Forums, thanks Caine36 ]

The Santa Monica E3 is dead, long live the Los Angeles E3... again? Not quite.

The Entertainment Software Association today announced that the E3 Media & Business Summit will be returning to the spacious digs of the Los Angeles Convention Center for next year's event which will run from July 15 through July 17. But that doesn't mean that the new E3 is returning to its old ways.

'We are very much not going back to the old E3," Rich Taylor, senior vice president of communications and research for the ESA, told me in an interview. "I think we are all on the same page for the industry on what we want those days in July to be about."

"This is the new E3, new and improved."

Retailers have already been given feedback that we are not big fans of that. We think it masks some of the price advantage we have versus our competition and, frankly, the consumer should decide what they want.

In many ways, many, many ways eBay is an albatross around the necks' of gamers. This is most evident around the holidays when the demand for consoles and games goes through the roof.

Over the weekend there appeared to be another sell out of Wii consoles. On Friday, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime announced that seven retailers-Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart, Sears, Kmart, Toys R Us and Circuit City- would be throwing a lot of Wii consoles out on their shelves over the weekend to try and sate the appetite of games and their families.

But judging by the obvious spike in eBay listings of Wii consoles, I think it's fair to say the only thing sated was greed. From 9 a.m. Eastern Sunday to 9 p.m. Eastern Sunday alone more than 13,500 Wii consoles were listed for sale in the U.S. on eBay. Coincidence? I can't imagine.

Note: These numbers might deviate a little from 100% complete authentic scientific goodness, but the trend is still relevant.

These brand new shots from recently delayed, but still anticipated Gearbox shooter Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway just landed on our doorstep. I like the moody lighting.

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime confirmed today what we first broke earlier this week, Best Buy and six other national retailers will be stocking Wii this weekend. And by stocking I mean they will be advertising the console in their weekly circulars (except Wal-Mart) and then throwing the consoles up on the shelves come the weekend and then running away.

Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart, Sears, Kmart, Toys R Us and Circuit City are all stocking the Wii this weekend for those still on the hunt. We had several tips after our rumor story ran about the stock issue.

According to Best Buy tipsters it sounds like all stores will have at least 21 of the consoles with some carrying as many as 100. I've also heard that Best Buy is expecting a second shipment next week which is supposed to go straight to shelves. Most stores will get them sometimes before noon. The bad news is that rumor has it that that will be the last pre-Christmas shipment for Best Buy, though they expect more in early January.

Target, another tipster tells me, has a big stockpile as well, some stores have more than 100. So this weekend sounds like your best chance to pick up a Wii, unless you don't mind buying a raincheck.

OK, the call with Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime is set to start any second now. I'll be trying to liveblog what he has to say and the questions and answers as it happens on the jump.

The invitation said that Fils-Aime would be discussing the "overwhelming demand for the Wii" and Wii supplies through the holidays and beyond. I suspect he will also be talking about the increase in production and distribution we mentioned earlier today.

According to the cutline of a photo Nintendo just released,the company has tripled its distribution workforce to meet consumer demand for the holidays. Nintendo's current production run is 1.8 million Wii systems a month, almost twice what was produced at launch last year.

Nintendo president and natural quote-machine Reggie Fils-Aime is doing a press phone call this morning to discuss the Wii supply and demand issue. I'll be sitting in on the call and should have a chance to ask at least one question about this. Is there anything in particular you guys wanted to know?

Wow, just wow. Yesterday's local Child's Play fund raiser was truly a humbling experience. I drove down to Denver about 2ish to unload all of the schwag (including donations from Mark and Joel) and then figure out how exactly to split the signal from an Xbox 360 so it could go into a house sound system, a ceiling mounted video projector and an off-stage television.

We finally got the whole thing figured out and tested about ten minutes before doors were set to open at 6 p.m. Five minutes after six I was still standing in an open room, starting to think that perhaps I had over estimated the interest in a local Child's Play fund raiser... but then the booking manager came up and asked if she should start letting people in.

"People? You mean there are people?"

It may be 20 degrees out right now, it may be snowing, it may be icy, but tomorrow I expect sunshine, if not in Denver then at least in The Walnut Room.

Why? Well because that's when we're doing the first ever local Funde Razor here in Denver. For those of you planning on attending in Denver, it runs from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. and you'll need to be 21 or older to get in. The cover is a $10 minimum donation.

The ticket gets you, besides a warm fuzzy feeling inside, a door prize ticket. I'm bringing a mountain of swag with me to the fund raiser to give away including the Manhunt 2 straitjacket, one of those Wii bags from E3 06, a Metal Gear Solid multi-tool knife, a Lair lighter, a Valut Boy Fallout 3 bobble head, Zelda hourglass and more shirts than I want to even think about. We will also have a Limited Edition copy of Rock Band for the 360 on hand to giveaway and, of course, that life-sized companion cube.

If you're planning to attend the Brooklyn Funde Razor hit up the official site for the details.

Stephen Totilo breaks the news that the promised LittleBigPlanet demo slated to hit the Playstation 3 this fall won't be making 2007 after all.

"I can officially confirm that there won't be a demo this year," Ron Eagle, senior manager of PR for Sony Computer Entertainment America told me. But he did say he's played 30 of the games 50 planned developer-made levels and that it's a lot of fun. He seemed genuinely pleased about his time with the game, but his company won't be showing more "LBP" at least until next month. Eagle could only add that the full game is set for a 2008 release.

I hope that by not showing more LBP until next month, Eagle really means to say that their will be a LBP demo hitting in early January. I hope, but I seriously doubt it. Too bad, I was really hoping to smack Totilo around some more in the game.

'Little Big Planet' Demo Not Coming In 2007 [Multiplayer]

Nintendo hit us, and likely the rest of the gaming planet, with a release today pointing out that the DS does indeed print money. But just how much money Nintendo?

"There's no letup in sight," says George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. "Nintendo DS appeals strongly to both core and casual gamers, and its momentum is set to propel us into 2008."

To be fair, while Harrison did say that, he wasn't talking about how much money the DS prints. Instead he was talking about the fact that, according to Nintendo internal numbers, more than 6 million DS were sold in the U.S. in 2007 through Nov. 30. Taken another way, that's about one every five seconds... and remember it doesn't include December.

Release, and probably deserved crowing, after the jump.

Recently Common Sense Media, a non-partisan organization "dedicated to improving the media lives of children and families", sent out a questionnaire about kids and the media to the current roster of presidential candidates.

In it they only ask one specific question about video games, the candidates take on legislating violent video games sales. Only Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, Senator Barack Obama, Former Governor Mitt Romney and Governor Bill Richardson answered the questions in time for the deadline. The answers, I believe, give readers a sense on the candidate's take on video games and the first amendment.

In his answer Edwards points to the ESRB as a good example of industry responsibility. Barack seems to be calling for the feds to get involved, if only to once more study the impact of video games on "children's cognitive development." Richardson calls for the parents to be educated about the inappropriate content of "many video games." Citing the need to protect children from a "societal cesspool of filth, pornography, violence, sex and perversion", Romney says that the government needs to "get serious" against retailers that sell adult games to children.

Both Edwards and Barack also sort of talk a bit about gaming when answering a question about managing their childrens' media use. Hit the jump to read their answers to that question and all four candidates full take on video game censorship.

By John Gaudiosi

When it comes to Hollywood gamers, sure, Vin Diesel has his own game company, Tigon Studios, but I've never met two more die hard gamers than the stars of NBC's hit action comedy, "Chuck," which also happens to be a show that features a lot of games. It's not a coincidence that Zachary Levi's Chuck and Joshua Gomez's Morgan are gamers in the show. They're the reason Gears of War was featured in the first two episodes and that other games have become a staple of the show.

"We're both HUGE Gears of War fans," said Gomez. "Halo was Halo...it will always be that, but as soon as I played the first Halo is how I feel about Gears. I anticipate the sequel to Gears like I anticipated the sequel to Halo. It's going to be tough to follow up on that. I understand why Halo kind of dipped. I don't know if Halo 2 could have ever lived up to the expectations, because they were so high, and I kind of feel like there's going to be a similar thing with Gears. I've taken a lot of heat from a lot of people because Gears was so hyped and so huge of a game, but to me I thought it lived up to it. And multiplayer-wise, that game is so much more up my alley. I actually prefer the smaller four-on-four combat because then I knew who I was playing with and you could communicate and I thought there was a lot more strategy and things like that to it."

"We are incredibly excited to be working with talent of this caliber and believe our game shares the same broad mass market appeal as successful music-based products like Activision's Guitar Hero and MTV's Rock Band."

In a fitting (almost) ending to my six day cross county road trip to move myself from Atlanta to San Francisco, I landed in glamorous Las Vegas last night just in time for the Spike TV Video Game awards. I wasn't quite sure what to expect having never attended a "major" awards show before, but I sat down fueled by five days on the road and a few drinks with my pad and paper to bring you all the big announcements.

One of the things I found amazingly odd was that the awards themselves really seemed to take a back seat to the musical performances, commercials, myriad non video game related guest stars, and occasional World Premier Trailers for games like Little Big Planet, Rainbow 6 Vegas 2, Borderlands, TNA Wrestling, Prototype and Gran Turismo 5. It was almost like the awards were an afterthought, tacked on to an evening of oohing and ahhing over the next big name to take the stage. But, they did eventually get around to the awards and while there were no huge surprises, in general the winners seemed pretty in line with most people's guesses.

*Caution: Spoilers ahead. If you don't want to know any of the winners until the show airs tonight, read no further!*

It looks like Ash may have been right. Stuff magazine is running a rumor item on the possibility of an upcoming Aibo, the robotic dog, working with the Playstation Portable and Playstation 3. The rumor goes that the Sony Aibo PS, as they call it, is being resuscitated by Sony's Playstation division in an attempt to "bolster the PS3's arsenal."

The Aibo PS will appear with its own avatar within Home and react in the real world as he does in the PS3's upcoming interactive environment, according to the article. The rumor article goes on to say that you will be able to download new personalities for the dog from the Playstation Network and that the dog will be fully controllable using a PSP via WiFi. The dog's head camera will send a real world vid feed to the PSP's screen as well. The Dpad will control walking movement and the four main buttons will deal with head movement, which seems odd.

The Stuff folks rate this rumor as having a 53 percent probability. Seems like a cool concept, but I wonder if there's the market for it to hit the real world. Who am I kidding? A remote control dog that can send live video from its head, sign me up for a baker's dozen.

Matt Smith's Facebook [via Gamespot UK, thanks Matthew]

2D or 3D? That's been The Street Fighter IV question that's been kicked around the internet. First details about the DIMPS developed fighter reveal that the graphics are polygonal, but the gameplay is apparently 2D. Game site 1Up (via EGM) reports that there will be new moves, locals and game play. Things that will be the same? The six button control scheme. Returning characters include Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li and Dhalsim. No word on who will round out the rest of the fighters, but we honestly hope that Capcom doesn't take a page out of Super Smash Bros. Brawl PR handbook and let info trickle out until release. (Though, we're actually cool with infinite Street Fighter IV spin-offs.)

What's more, we don't know which platforms the game will be on. Looking at Capcom's recent M.O., we're guessing Xbox 360/PC/PS3. And since it's a Street Fighter game, it should pop up in Japanese arcades. So, let's cut the gibble-gabble. What do you think of the first released screenshot?
SFIV Unveiled [1Up]

Q: Was Eidos Interactive upset by the game's review?