Game of the Month: December 2004

Xbox's best year has come to a close. Though December is often a slow month for games, 2004 saw three excellent sequels to close out the year. There were only a half-dozen eligible games, but only three truly worthy of consideration for December Game of the Month. Last year was an excellent one for gamers and December turned out to be a fine month to own an Xbox.

With all the videogames that are released each and every month, it can be quite a difficult task to decide which title to spend your hard-earned money on. Granted you could go by our review scores alone and weed through the long list of names to find something that scored high or low, but what if you had somewhere else to turn?

Rather than wait until the end of the year like for our big award blowout, your incredibly masculine friends at IGN.com have decided to employ a monthly tribute to the weeks that were. We're resolved to illustrate to our readers what we thought was the very best game for each system over the past month, and tell you the reason why.

While some of us often chime in with our comments at the end of reviews, for the most part, the reviews on IGN are primarily written by one editor; in this feature we get all of the editors on a particular channel to vote for our Game of the Month. What better way to represent your channel than to speak your mind all at once?

How does it work? Simple. Any game released in the past month is eligible for the award and is taken through a battery of tests by every editor on that particular channel. After we've finished evaluating each game that comes down the pipeline, we put our heads together and decide on a single "best of" winner that's worthy of the title "IGN Game of the Month". Pretty straightforward, don't you think?

Now that we have the guidelines out of the way, let's move on and congratulate this month's winner...

Compare Prices

Why We Picked It: Following up the success of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is not an easy task but developer Obsidian Entertainment proved up for the challenge. KOTOR 2: The Sith Lords is not only the best game of December, but the best RPG on Xbox in 2004. There are some valid complaints, such as a lack of any true technical advancement for the engine, but KOTOR 2 does so many things right, it overcomes the limitations.

KOTOR 2 takes place five years after the events of the original, placing you in the role of a fallen Jedi seeking the truth about your past. Throughout your 40-hour journey, you must gain allies and manage your influence over them to gain more information and breed loyalty. The dialogue is top-notch and the story explores the very nature of Jedi and Sith. KOTOR 2 does what every great sequel must, it improves on the original and leaves you wanting even more.

Runner-Up: MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf
Developer: Day 1 Studios
Publisher: Microsoft
Released: December 28, 2004

Buy it at the IGN Gamestore

Why We Picked It: The original go-to-game for Xbox Live, MechAssault 2 returns with an improved single-player experience and a much better Xbox Live offering. This time out, you must fight numerous bosses, each one more eccentric than the last. Online it's all about Conquest Mode, where players battle for control over a semi-persistent galaxy. Though the single-player is a bit too short to recommend on its own, combined with multiplayer, MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf is a great choice.

Other Games Worth Noting:
NFL Street 2

---

With the Game of the Month awarded, we can finally leave 2004 behind and prepare for the exciting prospects of 2005. The battle for next month's best game looks to be fierce with Mercenaries, Oddworld Stranger's Wrath, and The Punisher all fighting for top spot. It's going to be one hell of a year.

©2005, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved