The official PlayStation blog collected votes on all-time favorite PS2 games from various famous game developers and media personalities. I’ve aggregated the results here:

* Grouping Notes. I grouped most series together. For example, I grouped all GTA games together along with a single vote for Bully. I also grouped Ico with Shadow of the Colossus and Frequency with Guitar Hero. I separated Ratchet & Clank vs Jak & Daxter even those were definitely the same style of game. I separated Final Fantasy X and XI because they were so different (single-player vs MMO).

Here are my Awards of the Awards:

Biggest Trend

Change. Most of the games on that list redefined an entire genre in some way when they first came out. Today’s audience expects today’s games to yet again reinvent a new gaming experience in some way.

Worst Taste

Way of the Samurai. David Jaffe deserves his reputation for helping create the amazing God of War, but sometimes he just has really bad taste.

Trying too Hard to be Unique

Grim Grimoire. This game was a fun quirky novelty. But best of PS2? Come on…

Game I Just Don’t Get

Ico + SoTC. I normally love experimental, unique games, but I just couldn’t get into these games. With this much love, I will have to try these again when the PS3 remastered edition comes out.

Most Overlooked PS2 Title

Manhunt (both 1&2). Manhunt was genuinely awesome. It never had mainstream accessibility, and I can understand why a lot of enthusiast gamers hated it. The core action mechanics weren’t fun by themselves. Instead, they served as a delivery device for building the tension and experiencing the game’s content. Everything about this game just dripped with creative and borderline obscene horror and dark humor: the enemy designs, all of the in-game quips and chatter, the level setups, watching your family tied up and murdered, chasing the white rabbit, and the vulgar and sadistic dialog seethingly screamed into your headset by the evil mastermind, Starkweather. And of course, the soundtrack was a dirge-like masterpiece (which unfortunately was never available for sale).