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Hardware

Best video card: Radeon HD 4870 - It's been a while since we've been able to put some real, outright praise the way of AMD's ATI graphics division, but 2008 is the year that allows us to do just that. Quite simply, their RV770 architecture is a work of minor genius, blending fantastic performance without breaking the bank or emptying your wallet. Sure, it might not have quite enough horsepower for the 30" LCD owners amongst us, but enjoying all the latest games at 1920x1200 with 8x anti-aliasing (yes, that's right, playable 8x MSAA is here) isn't something I'll get bored of in a hurry.

Worst video card: You know, I can't really think of a single graphics board that I've tested this year (and there have been a few) that I could outright label as bad - It's actually been a pretty good year to pick up a graphics upgrade no matter your budget. Thus, my ire must turn to parts that aren't bad in and of themselves, but that have irritated me by way of being stupidly renamed for marketing purposes alone - Yes, I'm looking at you NVIDIA. So, the GeForce 8800 GT became the GeForce GTX 9800 GT, and the GeForce 8800 GS became the GeForce 9600 GSO (which, to make things worse, then had its specifications changed under the same name, creating an entirely hopeless situation for customers with any savvy in the process). I fear that if some of these parts get renamed again in the New Year as certain rumours suggest, my head may well explode and catch fire.

Best CPU: Intel Core i7 - Okay, so it may be overkill for most of you, especially considering the cost of building an entire platform around it, but Intel's new "Nehalem" Core i7 architecture is fast. We like fast things at Elite Bastards. While gaming performance isn't its focus, having used a Core i7 940 for a few weeks now I've luxuriated in the joys of no longer being frequently CPU limited during graphics board testing, and performance in other applications is simply fantastic. I was hoping to have our Core i7 review finished by now, but don't worry it's soon on its way, so keep your eyes peeled in the New Year!

Worst CPU: AMD Phenom - It's more than a little harsh to have AMD's Phenom series of CPUs in this category for two years in a row, and in all fairness a rather decent platform has built up around these processors, which only makes the performance of the Phenom itself all the more frustrating (although Advanced Clock Calibration has at least done something for Black Edition parts). So, rather than simply slate Phenom, let's instead use this moment to mark a line in the sand for AMD, in the hope that Phenom II can wash these memories away as though they were just a bad dream.

Best miscellaneous hardware: Intel X58 motherboard chipset - Intel's X58 chipset is (as befitting an enthusiast offering) expensive, but this is my miscellaneous pick for 2008 for one simple reason: CrossFire and SLI support in a single motherboard. We all know that the only reason this hasn't been possible before is politics, but the moment when the X58 chipset was announced to have SLI support (on boards validated by NVIDIA) to complement the already established ATI CrossFire support, it almost brought a tear to my eye. Okay, okay, maybe I did cry when it happened. Only a little bit though.

Gaming

Game of the year: Fallout 3 - As per 2007, It's been another end to the year packed with big name, blockbuster titles, but there can only be one game that will stick in the memory as a lasting classic, and that has to be Fallout 3. It's difficult to put into words just how incredible this game is - Everything about it is breath-taking from its size and open-ended gameplay upwards, and even the implementation of game mechanics which could so easily have ruined the experience such as VATS ended up working well. I'm not going to wax lyrical about this title as most of you have already played it I'm sure, but if you haven't - Buy it, provided you don't mind losing many, many hours of your life to this game.

Turkey of the year: Far Cry 2 - This might be a little controversial, but we shall see... Far Cry 2 was a game revered by many critics and reviewers, lauded almost as the future of the first-person shooter genre. So far so good you might think... Except almost all the actual gamers I know who played this game hated it - and not just in an apathetic "it was a bit dull" kind of way, this was frequently a full-on loathing that even Yahtzee would struggle to muster. Never before have I seen quite such a disparity between reviewers and actual living, breathing gamers, and for that reason alone Fary Cry 2 gets the Bernard Matthews stamp from me.

Community

Soap opera of the year: There can only really be one, and that's the NVIDIA faulty GPU packaging saga which is still rumbling on to this day. Mountains have been made from molehills, mountains have been forcibly flattened into molehills by PR representatives only to spring back up into mountains in comical fashion - This is the saga that everyone seems to have an opinion on or a tale to tell, and even as 2008 closes it shows no sign of abating completely.

Vapourware of the year: Sony's PlayStation Home has ruined my nomination for this category by actually being released as an open beta now (although judging by the reaction shelving the entire project wouldn't have been such a bad idea), and using Duke Nukem Forever is so boringly predictable that I can't bring myself to do so. Therefore, this year's award will have to go to Alan Wake, Remedy's latest title and much-touted DirectX 10 sporting game which was slated for a 2008 release, but still feels a million miles away from seeing the light of day.

Elite Bastards Personality of the year: As always, it's going to sound like a bit of a cop-out when I say "all of you reading this", but as always, it's also entirely true - This site would be nothing if it wasn't for people actually visiting and reading our articles and contributing to our forums, so if you've done either of those things on a regular basis then you are, in your own fashion, a part of the team.  Of course, a special mention should go to those of you who have taken an extra step this year, by either donating money to keep the site running, or in a couple of cases buying games to add to our benchmarking suite to keep our reviews fresh and relevant.

Miscellaneous

Album of the year: I'm either getting old (okay, I am getting old), or the concept of the album really is dying a death, because I can't think of a single album that I've enjoyed from beginning to end this year.  So, I'm going to be a miserable git for this year and moan about how music isn't what it used to be "in my day".  Oh, and get off my lawn!

Movie/TV show of the year: Wall-E - The phrase "best Pixar film ever" isn't something to be bandied about lightly given their output, but I'm going to use that phrase for their latest release, because I really do believe that Wall-E is their best effort - A perfect blend of humour and emotion coupled to a great story.  What more could you ask for?

Best thing of the year: As usual, I'm finding it tough to choose, but I've met some awesome people this year (one in particular springs to mind), and that can only ever be a good thing.