Game of the Month: August 2006

The end of each month signifies a variety of milestones across everyone's lives. People are getting their paychecks, making resolutions, doing their laundry, going grocery shopping, cleaning their gutters, and possibly celebrating with a frosty beverage. In keeping with the theme of closure, we here at IGN amass from our vast library of green-boxed games the ones that came out over the past month and determine which one is the reigning champ.

Our method of selection varies and is largely dependent on how much parmesan encrusted veal and Alaskan king crab legs we've consumed during the day. After all, we here at IGN are fancy people. Usually, and we're not exactly sure how this keeps happening, our selection process comes down to having the top two titles in contention fight to the death in arena-style gladiatorial combat. Sometimes, though, if we've eaten enough fancy food, we all sit down and discuss which game deserves the top spot while sipping steaming china cups of Earl Grey Cr?me tea.

Since most game reviews are written by a single person, this feature gives you, the reader, a chance to see which games hold up under different angles of criticisms. This way, we can rule out games that maybe got a high rating from one person because they happened to be a big fan of the subject material, or perhaps got a low rating for the exact same reason. Eligible games include any that were reviewed over the past month.

Some of our basic guidelines for Game of the Month (GOTM) selection include the score, obviously, but also several other factors. A game might get a good score, but what about if a title is an original or a sequel, whether it's unique or just an improvement on an existing formula, whether it looks pretty but plays like crap? These are all issues that must be run through to make the final decision. All in all, we're trying to combine myriad factors to determine which game is the most fun. If you're looking for the definitive word on which title to buy for this month, this is where to look.

Now that you understand which games are eligible, how they're selected, and how amazingly fancy we are, we'll move on to this month's selection.

Readers' Game of the Month:

Madden NFL 07

Developed by EA Tiburon

Published by Electronic Arts

Reader Review Quote: "I tried the X360 game first, but with limited franchise mode and no fantasy draft, I went out Wednesday morning and got this game for my plain old XBOX. Had a ton more fun with this one due to the fantasy draft. Granted, the graphics are much better on the 360, but I go for substance over style every time." (read the full review)

-- submitted by Howler87.

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