The Best Game award recognizes the overall best - as interpreted by developers - game released during the year.

GDCA Best Game

9th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2008)

Fallout3Recipient

  • Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)

Nominees
  • Fable II (Lionhead Studios)
  • LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
  • Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
  • Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar North)

8th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2008)

PortalRecipient
  • Portal (Valve)
    - Kim Swift, Erik Wolpaw
Nominees
  • BioShock (2K Boston / 2K Australia / 2K Games)
    - Ken Levine, Jon Chey, Alyssa Finley, Melissa Miller
  • Call of Duty 4 (Infinity Ward / Activision)
    - Jason West, Grant Collier, Vince Zampella
  • Rock Band (Harmonix Music Systems / MTV Games)
    - Alex Rigopulos, Greg LoPiccolo
  • Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
    - Yoshiaki Koizumi

7th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2007)

Recipient
  • Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios)
    - Cliff Bleszinski, Michael Capps, Rod Fergusson
Nominees
  • Okami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)
    - Atsushi Inaba, Hideki Kamiya
  • The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Game Studios / 2K Games/Bethesda Softworks)
    - Todd Howard
  • The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
    - Eiji Aonuma, Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto
  • Wii Sports (Nintendo)
    - Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto, Keizo Ohta, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshiaki Yamashita

6th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2006)

Recipient
  • Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.)
    - Kenji Kaido, Yasuhide Kobayashi, Fumito Ueda
Nominees
  • Call of Duty 2 (Infinity Ward / Activision)
    - Mark Ganus
  • Electroplankton (Nintendo)
    - Toshio Iwai, Koichi Kyuma, Yuichi Ozaki
  • God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America)
    - Brad Aldredge, Clint Bajakian, Chuck Doud, Dave Murrant
  • Project Gotham Racing 3 (Bizarre Creations / Microsoft Game Studios)
    - Nick Bygrave, Guy Whitmore, Nick Wiswell

5th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2005)

Recipient
  • Half-Life 2 (Valve Software / Vivendi Universal Games)
    - Ken Birdwell, Gabe Newell, Jay Stelly
Nominees
  • Burnout 3: Takedown (Criterion Games / Electronic Arts)
    - Paul Glancey, Chris Roberts, Paul Cross, Fiona Sperry, Alex Ward
  • Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar North / Rockstar Games)
    - Leslie Benzies, Adam Fowler, Aaron Garbut, Sam Houser, Alexander Roger, Obbe Vermeij
  • Katamari Damacy (Namco)
    - Keita Takahashi
  • World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment)
    - Mark Kern, Mike Morhaime, Rob Pardo

4th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2004)

Recipient
  • STAR WARS: KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC (BioWare Corp.)
Nominees
  • BEYOND GOOD & EVIL (Ubisoft Pictures)
  • CALL OF DUTY (Infinity Ward)
  • PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME (Ubisoft Montreal)
  • THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: THE WIND WAKER (Nintendo EAD)

3rd annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2003)

Recipient
  • METROID PRIME (Retro Studios)
Nominees
  • BATTLEFIELD 1942 (Digital Illusions)
  • GRAND THEFT AUTO: VICE CITY (Rockstar North)
  • NEVERWINTER NIGHTS (BioWare Corp.)
  • TOM CLANCY'S SPLINTER CELL (Ubi Soft Montreal)

2nd annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2002)

Recipient
  • GRAND THEFT AUTO III (DMA Design/Rockstar Games)
Nominees
  • BLACK & WHITE (Lionhead Studios)
  • HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED (Bungie Studios)
  • ICO (Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc.)
  • MAX PAYNE (Remedy Entertainment)

1st annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2001)

Recipient
  • THE SIMS (Maxis)
Nominees
  • DEUS EX (ION Storm Austin)
  • JET GRIND RADIO (Smilebit)
  • NO ONE LIVES FOREVER (Monolith)
  • SHENMUE (Sega AM2)