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Year in Review

The year is finally coming to a close, and despite following the absolutely amazing year of 2007 and its incredible lineup of games, 2008 acquitted itself with honor, bringing with it fantastic games of practically all genres and to all platforms. And now that the year is drawing to a close, it's time for GameSpot to recognize the year's top games in all categories with our Best of 2008 awards. Here, you'll find our top picks for the best games in all major genres, on all major game platforms, and Special Achievement awards for outstanding accomplishments in certain areas as well as Dubious Honors awards for less-than-outstanding accomplishments in others. Be sure to sound off in our Best of 2008 forum with your thoughts.

Best of 2008: Schedule of Events

Monday, December 22 - 12:00PM PST Special Achievement winners revealed
Tuesday, December 23 - 12:00PM PST Dubious Honors winners revealed
Wednesday, December 24 - 12:00PM PST Genre winners revealed
Thursday, December 25 - 12:00PM PST Platform winners revealed
Friday, December 26 - 12:00PM PST Best Game of 2008 revealed

Best of 2008: About the Awards

Our awards deliberation process included spirited debate from all sides, from editors across the globe, and our Special Achievement awards also include distinctions awarded to games from specific global territories. And as always, we have our top 10 list for the top 10 games of 2008, from which we'll pick a single best game to receive our coveted Game of the Year award. Be sure to also cast your vote for the game you feel should win the category; your votes will go toward our Readers' Choice awards, which will be posted later on.

Please note that, with the exception of our top 10, each category allows for a maximum of five finalists. In the case of picking awards for genre, we chose those games that both fit the genre qualification, and were the best games overall--not necessarily those games that best embodied the virtues of that genre. We consciously made this choice to reward the best games in each genre, rather than the best implementation of gameplay specific to a genre--which is what our Special Achievement awards are for. Given that this was such a fantastic year for games, narrowing down each category to just five was extremely challenging, and although we could pick only one winner per category, simply making the cut is an honor unto itself. Please also note that due to the increasing number of 2008 ports of games that had been previously released, GameSpot's 2008 awards have taken into account only original releases from 2008--no rereleases from previous years. Otherwise, GameSpot considers all games released in North America from December 11, 2007 to December 10, 2008.

Please note: Separate Readers' Choice award features for the UK and Australian territories will appear in January. Although we invite our readers from those territories to participate in the voting in this feature, please be advised that separate voting specifically for those territories will also be made available at a later date.