Game of the Year awards continue to trickle out as we pass safely into the 2007 gaming season.  Today, we move on to GameShark and their picks for 2006.  We received two nods of recognition this year.

PC Game of the Year Runner-Up.
We made it to the final round and were up against PC gaming heavyweights such as Bethesda's Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion,  Monolith's F.E.A.R: Extraction Point, Civilization 4: Warlords from Firaxis, and the ultimate winner of this year's PC competiton; Company of Heroes from Relic.  This was a brutal year for the PC market in terms of competition.  All of the games that were in the final running were outstanding titles.  Several of which have seen heavy playtime around the office and at LAN parties.  To be named as a contender with games like this is both an honor and a testament to how great a game Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords is.

A little bit from GameShark:

"Stardock's turn based strategy space conquest game is a prime example of what happens when a company sets out to make a fantastic product, complete with the new features, a well-calculatd design plan, and scope that the designers want rather than worrying about focus groups and bottom lines."

In addition to taking top marks in the PC category, GameShark also bestowed upon us an award for special achievement.

Best Trend
A tie between Galactic Civilizations II and Company of Heroes for our industry defying approach on game copy protection.  Company of Heroes took a step forward by allowing one disc per LAN gaming session, allowing more people to enjoy some good old-fashioned multiplayer Axis stomping (or alternatively, Allies crushing).  We received the nod for our approach of having no copy protection at all, making life as easy as possible for anyone who purchased our game to enjoy it.  Don't want to use the CD when playing?  Once installed, you never need the CD again.  Lose the CD?  No problem, if you registered you can just download the game direct!  This move to place more freedom in the hands of our customers has been proven time and again to have been the right one, and GameShark, among many others, were kind enough to offer recognition.

This just adds to the list of accolades we've received this year.  Maybe the turn-based space strategy genre isn't quite as dead as some believed, eh?