Welcome to GameSpot's Best of 2009 awards. This is it. The year is finally over, and all the big games and big news stories have come and gone and made their impact. Our 2009 awards feature is where these games and events get recognized for truly making the year what it was--a tumultuous 12 months that sadly saw the doors close for many well-known game studios but that also saw the release of a great many excellent games of all sizes, shapes, and colors for all platforms. The awards let GameSpot's editors recognize these outstanding games and also give you, the reader, a chance to weigh in with your own opinion and vote for the winners for the Readers' Choice awards.
In fact, this year, Readers' Choice voting has been expanded! While the standard categories all have five editorial finalists, you can now choose from up to 10 different games--that's the five editorial picks, plus five additional choices--as your pick for the winner of that category. In addition, the Game of the Year poll has been expanded beyond the editorial top 10 picks with additional choices for you to vote in. The additional picks we've added to the polls are not necessarily part of a larger editorial top 10 list. Again, GameSpot's editorial picks consist only of the top five games per category, along with a top 10 for Game of the Year--shown in yellow on the polls. The additional games we've added to each poll are games that we felt would give you, the readers, some more flexibility in your voting.