Game Industry reports, according to the data from Media-Control GfK, Nintendo ended 2007 on a high across mainland Europe, with DS titles topping the Spanish chart and Wii games heading the German list for software sales in the week ending December 30.

The full charts are as follows:

Spain
1. More Brain Training with Dr Kawashima (DS)
2. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)
3. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PS2)
4. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
5. WWE Smackdown! vs Raw 2008 (PS2)
6. Assassin's Creed (PS3)
7. SingStar Latino (PS2)
8. Imagine Babyz (DS)
9. Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
10. FIFA 08 (PS2)

Germany
1. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
2. Mario & Sonic at the Olympics (Wii)
3. More Brain Training with Dr Kawashima (DS)
4. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC)
5. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)
6. New Super Mario Bros (DS)
7. Need for Speed ProStreet (PS2)
8. SingStar: Apres Ski (PS2)
9. Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS)
10. FIFA 08 (PS2)
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For anybody who has tried to play COD 4 for the PS3 online these past few weeks, it has been more frustrating than being a one legged man at an a** kicking contest. Well, a fix is coming (or so we're told).
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From Level Up:
"On an unrelated note, N'Gai, maybe you can comment on the holiday software sales for the Xbox360 and the PS3. In particular, I have seen COD4 on sale for $38 no fewer than five different times between Thanksgiving and New Year's (Circuit City, Best Buy, Target included)...I thought this GOTY [Game of the Year] was selling well--if so, do you think that is related to the numerous sales? Or has it been holding its own at $60?"
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PSU writes:
"With the New Year upon us, it's time look back at the games that have graced our PlayStation 3's and congratulate the best of them for helping us through the ups and downs of 2007.

The Game of the Year award goes to the title that provides both a creative new experience in its genre and solid gameplay. Not only that, but titles must exhibit other key factors, such as those which have mystified us with intriguing stories, beautiful graphics, lush sounds, and most importantly the addiction to continue coming back for more.

So, now you know what it is we're looking for, why not join us and find out just what it is we picked for this prestigious award?"
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Jan. 2, 2008 -- MSNBC tallied in their Game of the Year readers' votes between December 19 and 27. "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" garnered 33 percent of the over 17,000 votes and is MSNBC Readers' Game of the Year. The runner-up was "Bioshock" at 22 percent of the votes. The second runner-up was "Mass Effect" at 10 percent.

Here are MSNBC readers' picks for the best in each genre:

¿ Best sports game: Madden NFL '08
¿ Best racing game: Project Gotham Racing 4
¿ Best casual game: Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree
¿ Best family game: LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
¿ Best music game: Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
¿ Best handheld game: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
¿ Best role-playing game: Mass Effect
¿ Best action/adventure game: Bioshock
¿ Best shooter: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

View the full report for the runners-up in each category.
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Kotaku writes:

"2007 has been a crazy awesome year for gamers. While during years gone by we've all fallen prey to too much hype and not enough...what's that word again...fun, the most unexpected part of 2007 was that it lived up to our unreasonably high expectations.

So hit the jump for our Frankenreview, victory lap 2007 edition. We pulled reviewers' top rated games* from Game Rankings to relive some of our best moments from the year.

Note, on repeat games, we picked the higher ranking platform".
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Perhaps you didn't notice, but more than a few PS3 titles got recent and very unexpected updates... and some could potentially hurt the system.

-- 12/31/2007, Ben Dutka
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From Kotaku:

Today's your chance to vote for the PS3 Game of the Year. The nominees are:

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
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Here are the winners and runners-up for all the categories:

Game of the Year: BioShock
Runners-up: Rock Band, Mass Effect, Super Mario Galaxy, The Orange Box

Most Innovative: Rock Band
Runners-up: Portal, Assassin's Creed, Crush, Super Paper Mario

Best Writing: Mass Effect
Runners-up: BioShock, Portal, Assassin's Creed, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Best Adrenaline Rush: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Runners-up: God of War II, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Project Gotham Racing 4, Halo 3

Best Jiggle Factor: Heavenly Sword
Runners-up: Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Conan, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary

Guiltiest Pleasure: LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
Runners-up: Stranglehold, Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, Overlord, Mario Strikers Charged

Best Portable Game: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Runners-up: Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow, Silent Hill: Origins, Dead Head Fred

Worst Game: Vampire Rain
Runners-up: Jackass: The Game, Lair, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s, The Eye of Judgment, Hour of Victory

[ Judges: Scott Alexander, Damon Brown, John Gaudiosi, Scott Jones, Marc Saltzman, Scott Stein and Scott Steinberg ]
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Picking the Destructoid Game of the Year was no easy task, as evidenced by the overwhelmingly varied community response to yesterday's list of nominees. It seemed like each one of the five finalists garnered an equal amount of support: "Pick Mass Effect!" "Super Mario Galaxy is easily the best!" "COD4 FTW!" "BioShock, hands down!" "No competition. The Orange Box!"

And the winner is...
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First day sales in Japan for December 27. Call of Duty 4 sells an equal amount of copies on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, with a three times bigger installed base for Playstation 3. Star Ocean on PSP sells 80k on first day, while Super Robot Wars is the top seller with 150k. Amount in ( ) is total first shipment.

Super Robot Wars OG Side Story (PS2) : about 150k

Star Ocean 1 First Departure (PSP) : about 80k(about 200k)

Suzumiya Haruhi no Yakusoku (PSP) : about 62k

Call of Duty 4 (360) : about 14k (about 20k)

Call of Duty 4 (PS3) : about 14k (about 20k)

Nodame Cantabile (Wii) : about 1k
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Dec. 26, 2007 - John Gaudiosi is a national journalist who has been covering the video game business for more than a decade. In addition to blogging for WRAL.com, he also writes about gaming for Wired Magazine, The Washington Post, Xbox.com and Yahoo! Games. Here are his picks for the best games of 2007:

¿ Mass Effect
¿ Halo 3
¿ BioShock
¿ Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
¿ Unreal Tournament 3
¿ Rock Band
¿ The Orange Box
¿ Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat
¿ Super Mario Galaxy
¿ Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

Notes: In addition to his credentials already listed above, John Gaudiosi is a senior editor for Variety's Video Business and regularly writes about videogames for Electronic Gaming Monthly, GameDaily, GamePro Magazine, Kotaku, MCV, Prima Games, Business 2.0 Magazine, CBS, Chicago Sun-Times, ESPN, Home Media Magazine, NBC, Reuters, and The Hollywood Reporter. He also works on video game programming for networks like The History Channel, The Discovery Channel, Starz Entertainment and VH1.
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According to research group Chart-Track, the game is Activision's first UK Christmas all-format number one. Call of Duty 4's recent 53 percent rise in sales helped propel it to the top of the charts, pushing it almost 35,000 units ahead of Assassin's Creed, which slips to number two.
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ActionTrip's 2007 Game of the Year voting poll registered 10673 participants. 1809 registered users voted for Call of Duty 4, 1279 for Halo 3, 1192 for Assassin's Creed, 837 for "None of the Above", 716 for BioShock, 710 for Crysis, 627 for The Orange Box, and so on. The rest of the results can be viewed in ActionTrip's voting poll section.

¿ People's Choice: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
¿ Runners-up: Halo 3, Assassin's Creed, Crysis, Half-Life 2: The Orange Box

¿ Game of the Year (ActionTrip Staff): Portal
¿ Runners-up: Mass Effect, Halo 3, BioShock, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, The Witcher

¿ Best Action Game: Halo 3
¿ Runners-up: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Half-Life 2: The Orange Box, God of War II, BioShock, Crysis

¿ Best Strategy Game: World in Conflict
¿ Runners-up: Supreme Commander, Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars

¿ Best RPG: Mass Effect
¿ Runners-up: The Witcher, Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer

¿ Best Sports Game: FIFA 08
¿ Runners-up: SSX Blur, NHL 08, Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2008

¿ Best MMOG: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
¿ Runners-up: Tabula Rasa, The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar

¿ Best Rhythm/Music Game: Rock Band
¿ Runners-up: Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

¿ Babe of the Year: Joanna Krupa
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The Bitbag editor picks the winners for:

¿ Best 3D Action Game
¿ Best Racing Game
¿ Best RPG
¿ Best Fighter
¿ Best FPS
¿ Best Strategy Game
¿ Best Sports Game
¿ Best War Game
¿ Best Mecha Game
¿ Achievement In Excellence
¿ Best Handheld Game
¿ Best Graphics
¿ Best Sound
¿ Best Online Multiplayer
¿ Developer Of The Year
¿ Game Of The Year
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As retailers in the U.S. and the UK enjoy a respite from the holiday crowds with a week entirely free of new releases, Japan once again boasts a substantial release lineup. Super Robot Taisen OG: Original Generation Gaiden will likely arrive as the week's most popular release, while a localized version of Call of Duty 4 should meet with an enthusiastic reception among Japan's small but dedicated FPS fanbase.
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Not all games are listed, only major releases. As magazine circulations will stop during the year-end/new-year holiday week (12/29/07 - 1/4/08), major new releases for the week after are listed in advance:

¿ Wii - Nodame Cantabile (12/27)

¿ DS - Rune Factory 2 (1/3)

¿ PS3 - Call of Duty 4 (12/27)

¿ PS2 - Super Robot Wars OG Side Story (12/27)

¿ PSP - Star Ocean 1 First Departure (12/27), Suzumiya Haruhi no Yakusoku (12/27)

¿ 360 - Call of Duty 4 (12/27), Gundam Musou International (12/27)
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What makes a good video game? Strong visuals are important. Good controls are essential. A well-crafted concept helps too. These days, most games can boast at least two-thirds of that criteria.

So, then what makes a game great? Feeling. Emotion. Surprise. Interaction. Even addiction. It's a magical feeling when a game offers all these elements.

Here are the titles L.A. Times deemed the best experiences of 2007. Admittedly, they didn't play everything (because that would probably be impossible), but of the titles that did cross their paths, these are the ones that resonated most. Their favorites in order:

Best of the Year:
¿ BioShock
¿ Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
¿ Assassin's Creed
¿ Super Mario Galaxy
¿ The Orange Box

Honorable Mention:
¿ Halo 3
¿ Rock Band
¿ Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation
¿ Cooking Mama: Cook Off
¿ Lost Planet

Worst of the Year:
¿ Lair

Dishonorable Mention:
¿ Fusion Frenzy 2
¿ 300: March to Glory
¿ Tenchu Z

[ By Pete Metzger, December 21, 2007 ]
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The Simpsons Game for PlayStation 2 has finally managed to take out the top spot in the Australian game charts -- seven weeks after its initial release -- according to data trackers GfK Australia. The DS version of the game also made it into the top 10, taking out the seventh spot.

Super Mario Galaxy for the Nintendo Wii -- last week's number one -- fell down to number two during the week of December 10-December 16. Drawn to Life for the Nintendo DS has reappeared in the overall charts at number three after a brief hiatus. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for the Xbox 360 climbed up from the previous week to number five, while Activision's other chart topper -- Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock -- is nowhere to be seen. Halo 3 for the 360 has reappeared at number nine, while Nintendo's Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree bundle ended the week at number 10.
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MSNBC video game section has been polling gamers about their favorite games in a number of categories, trying to narrow down the search for the Game of the Year.

On Thursday the site put up the poll to decide which of the finalists, culled from the best of each genre, should be named the game of the year.

The finalists are:
¿ Madden NFL 08
¿ Project Gotham Racing 4
¿ Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree
¿ LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
¿ Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
¿ The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
¿ Mass Effect
¿ Bioshock
¿ Call of Duty 4

At the time of this writing Call of Duty 4 was leading with 31 percent of the vote. BioShock was close behind with 22 percent and Mass Effect was in a distant third with 8.6 percent.

[ Words: Kotaku's Brian Crecente ]
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