Halo 2 tops GameSpy's list of top ten Xbox games, and is a nominee for Game of the Year overall. It also won special Xbox awards for best use of Xbox Live and Best (and Worst) ending.

At GameSpot, the results were more confusing; Halo 2 won Best Multiplayer Game, but astoundingly lost out for best music to Katamari Damarcy, for music that is described as a male voice humming appearing "as a rousing mambo-influenced piece that sounds as though it were remixed by a dance-club DJ." (I hope Marty doesn't take GameSpot that seriously. After this, I don't, if I ever did --Ed.) Then it lost out on sound effects to Metal Gear Solid 3. Original Game Mechanic seems clearly an ill-conceived category from the start, as Halo 2's Xbox Live matchmaking system (which isn't really a gameplay mechanic at all) lost out to the implementation of mental powers in Psi Ops. (First notice I've seen of this game --Ed.)

And, last but not least, Metal Gear Solid again snipes Halo 2, taking away the award for best Story with a plotline set "in the wake of the Cuban missile crisis" where Boss and her five "Cobras" defect to the Soviet Union. (Perhaps they felt the game was educational --Ed.)