Portal wins GDC Game of the Year

By Robert Purchese Published 21 February, 2008

BioShock bags multiple honours, too.

Portal has scooped Game of the Year at the eighth Game Developers Choice Awards in San Francisco.

The puzzler from Valve also bagged Best Game Design and Innovation awards.

BioShock took home three of its own too, winning Best Audio, Best Visual Arts, and Best Writing.

Elsewhere Eurogamer favourite Crackdown won Best Debut Game, flOw took Best Downloadable Game, Phantom Hourglass received Best Handheld Game, and Crysis was given Best Technology.

Some chap called Sid Meier earned himself a Lifetime Achievement Award for his work on the Civilization series among others, and Ralph Baer was given the Pioneer Award for making the first home videogame system, the Magnavox Odyssey.

Independent Seumas McNally game honours went to Crayon Physics Deluxe, with World of Goo picking up a couple of IGF awards for Technical Excellence and Design Innovation. Synaesthete was selected as the Best Student Game.

You can read our thoughts on the Independent Games Festival short list elsewhere on the site, as well as our impressions of Crayon Physics Deluxe.

The full Game Developers Choice Awards nominees list is below. Winners are at the top of each category in bold.

Game of the Year:

  • Portal
  • BioShock
  • Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
  • Rock Band
  • Super Mario Galaxy

Best Game Design:

  • Portal
  • BioShock
  • Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
  • Mass Effect
  • Super Mario Galaxy

Best Debut Game:

  • Crackdown
  • flOw
  • The Witcher
  • Everyday Shooter
  • Aquaria

Best Audio:

  • BioShock
  • Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
  • Everyday Shooter
  • God of War II
  • Mass Effect

Best Downloadable Game:

  • flOw
  • Pac-Man Championship Edition
  • Everyday Shooter
  • Peggle
  • Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords

Best Technology:

  • Crysis
  • Halo 3
  • Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
  • Portal
  • Assassin's Creed

Innovation Award:

  • Portal
  • Rock Band
  • flOw
  • Peggle
  • Mass Effectú

Best Visual Arts:

  • BioShock
  • Assassin's Creed
  • Team Fortress 2
  • Crysis
  • Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Best Handheld Game:

  • The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
  • Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
  • Phase
  • Contra 4
  • Peggle

Best Writing:

  • BioShock
  • Portal
  • God of War II
  • Mass Effect
  • Half-Life 2: Episode 2
Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (22) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #1 4 years ago

    Can't really argue with any of them, actually - apart from flOw, which admittedly I've only played on PC, but all the same I've had more fun with SWOS and Carcassonne this year! But on the whole that's pretty much the way I'd have voted, and a really good show from GDC.

  • Freek #2 4 years ago

    There were lots of games that scored high this year, Halo 3 among them. But they can't all win GOTY so some don't make it. But that isn't because they are avarage.

  • skillian #3 4 years ago

    It's a shame that Portal, the winner of so many GOTY lists (including EG's) only got a 9/10 on here. What's especially disappointing is there were loads of games picking up full marks on EG around that time.

    I know, I know, 9 is still a great score, but if ever a game deserved 10/10, Portal is it.

  • Turambar #4 4 years ago

    It must just be me who thought portal was only ok then...

  • Zomoniac #5 4 years ago

    Portal is a downloadable game. So if it won best game of the year, by definition it must also win downloadable game of the year.

  • neilka #6 4 years ago

    Hmm, Crackdown the best debut game - by the man behind GTA and Lemmings?

  • sharpfish #7 4 years ago

    Bioshock best audio - there's a joke, it can't even keep the sound going when there's more than 3 sounds triggered (machine guns etc). Crysis is the best in all categorys for me but so few people actually got to play it as 'intended' plus it's PC only (at the time) so that limits widespread acceptance. Seriously though Crysis made all other games, and I mean ALL other games feel like kids toys.

    Play it on a FAST PC and it's almost life changing even if it does follow a standard FPS formula, the immersion is through the roof and a hint of the future - every other game was just more gimmicks or twists nothing ground breaking and that includes Portal which was 'cool' rather than 'awesome', and it had the stench of 'cheap mod' about it rather than full game. However HL EP2 was a beauty a real work of art.

    Bioshock was just shite in all areas except for theme, premise and story (and the story wasn't all that just better than normal stories found in games) the gameplay itself was shockingly crass and repetitive and not actualy fun (guns should be fun to use in an FPS not a chore!) - this applies to the PC version which unless you've played it will never know how crap it felt, 360 version? fine it's a decent game but the PC version really highlights how 2k messed up. Save your retorts, I know what i'm talking about.

  • Grim... #8 4 years ago

    Life changing? Hahaha - your life must suck :)

  • asphaltcowboy #9 4 years ago

    Pretty accurate list if you ask me!

    Sharpfish, I know you're angry and everything, but just chill a bit, Bioshock was a great game, even if the combat needed work. I'd easily give it best soundtrack, but for best audio, I'd hand it to something like Crackdown, CoD4 (which is astounding) or burnout Paradise (although that was probably too recent to be eligible). As for Crysis (which also has a good soundtrack incidentally), I'm playing it at the moment and whilst it is fun, there's nothing particularly groundbreaking in it apart from the technology (the award which, rightly, it won). The AI in particularly doesn't seem very good.

  • UncleLou #10 4 years ago

    "Best Audio" is probably the content, not the technical quality, no? Didn't have sound problems in Bioshock, anyway, but voice acting, choice (licensed) music etc. are definitely ahead of anything else I've heard this year.

  • McBradders #11 4 years ago

    Damn PC crybabies.

  • skillian #12 4 years ago

    Portal has the stench of cheap mod abut it? Wow.

  • UncleLou #13 4 years ago

    More cheap mods then, please.

  • bitesize #14 4 years ago

    i know everyone raved over the audio in bioshock, but i thought it was way overdone. i was constantly spinning round to find out who was making sounds behind me, only to find there was nothing there, it was just more random audio detail. found it really distracting...

  • Eraysor #15 4 years ago

    BioShock winning best writing over Mass Effect? All the other categories were fine but that is just plain retarded. Mass Effect is Star Wars epic quality whereas BioShock had the most horrendous ending ever conceived.

  • asphaltcowboy #16 4 years ago

    @Eraysor: True, I'm playing Mass Effect at the moment and the writing and story are absolutely superb - it's a tough call!

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #17 4 years ago

    An award for Crackdown, but none for Bomberman Live?

    If WaxBrazilian is reading this he'll be livid :)

  • asphaltcowboy #18 4 years ago

    lmao :]

  • monkie_king #19 4 years ago

    neilka: he tried to enter Menace, but it wasn't eligible ;)

    The only surprise for me there is flOw beating Peggle for download game.

  • UncleLou #20 4 years ago

    BioShock winning best writing over Mass Effect? All the other categories were fine but that is just plain retarded. Mass Effect is Star Wars epic quality whereas BioShock had the most horrendous ending ever conceived.


    I haven't played Mass Effect, but if Bioware all of a sudden managed to write dialogues and a story that are even anywhere near Bioshock's quality of writing (even with the admittedly crap endings), then colour me psyched up for the upcoming PC release. The fact that you mention Star Wars, of all films, doesn't do a lot to support your statement. I love the Star Wars films like the next guy, but goodwriting really isn't their strength...

  • loopy #21 4 years ago

    "Save your retorts, I know what i'm talking about."

    No you don't.

  • konnsky #22 4 years ago

    GOD BLESS SID MEIER!