Yahoo! Games: Best of 2006 Awards

• Best Action-Adventure Game
• Best Online Multiplayer Game
• Best Parlor Game
• Best Racing Game
• Best Role-Playing Game
• Best Shooter Game
• Best Sports Game
• Best Strategy Game
• Best Original Game
• Best Video Game of Year

• Best Casual Game
• Most Innovative Casual Game

WINNER:

The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion

Not a hard choice to make, nor a hard choice to predict, Oblivion easily stood head and shoulders above the rest of 2006's RPGs. The PC versions received a variety of modifications, thanks to the tireless efforts of a few dedicated fans. This award in part serves as a recognition of the community's input and the foresight of the developers for making the game so open to their ideas.

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Editor Notes

Oblivion probably swallowed more of my time than anything else in 2006. While it had its share of cookie-cutter objectives and unoriginal moments, anyone who played through the Dark Brotherhood questline to its (messy) climax couldn't fail to name it as one of the best-realized sub-plots in any RPG. --Mike Smith

I played Oblivion for 175 hours. That's over seven days of RPG goodness. This, coming from someone who won't touch an MMO because he doesn't want to get addicted. And the weird thing is, I kind of hated Morrowind, its precursor. What can I say? Bethesda fixed every problem I had with the third Elder Scrolls, and gave me an absolutely fantastic world to explore and conquer. The quests were well done, leveling-up was balanced perfectly, and its environments were realistic enough to remind me of fields I played in as a child. I don't know if another game will ever captivate me like Oblivion did. Actually, I really hope no game will -- for my own good. --Justin Leeper

For a guy like me who's been laying off World of Warcraft for a while, Oblivion was the perfect compromise. Just give me 50 hours of free-forming roaming and storylining, then let me be totally over you. RPGs like this are a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. Also, it's nice to see the PC version has been so markedly improved by player-made mods which have been created since it was released. It's almost -- almost! -- enough to make a guy want to go back through it. --Tom Chick

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