2007 was dominated by some pretty big franchises Halo, *Shock, Call of Duty etc. In the midst of all this a teeny tiny publisher came out with a little thing called The Orange Box. Perhaps you’ve heard of it.
Well, the little box that could ended up winning a whole crapload of awards last year. Valve has the count currently at 113 awards, 53 of them for Game of the Year. If those figures weren’t astonishing enough, chew on this; of those 53, Portal took 31.
That’s 58% of their game of the year awards going to what is essentially a puzzle adventure game made by a bunch of recent college grads. And one that you could blow through in one sitting.
Portal also walked away with 45 other awards (75% of the ‘other’ awards handed over to Valve) including Outstanding Achievement in Game Design and Game Play Engineering (AIAS), Funniest Game (Gamespot), Best End Credit Song (IGN), Most Memorable Villain (GamePro)… the list goes on.
Team Fortress 2 walked away with 4 awards in Art Direction among some others. TF2 was one of the best multiplayer games I have had the privilege of playing. It’s also easily the best looking. It was great to see it get some lovin’ when the only multipayer games you hear about these days are Halo and Call of Duty 4.
For the six of you out there in Node Land who haven’t picked up the Orange Box, you should probably get on that. Portal is one of the best games I’ve ever played. Totally worth the 60-dollar price tag, and critics seem to agree.
[via Valve]
