2007 may seem like a distant memory as the first month of 2008 has now already passed. A month which is often seen by console owners as the most drab of the year. That's why at playPS3 we like to keep you gamers happy and excited during the quiet months and are pleased to announce the winners of the Video Gamer Awards 2008.

The Awards take a look back at the past 12 months in the PS3's calender and rewards the games, publishers and you the gaming fans of the playPS3 community. With awards across a range of categories there were some interesting winners and losers.

The results are available in full at the playPS3 forums, but we thought we take this chance to look at some of the big winners this year and reflect on exactly what it was that made them so popular with the voters.

2007 Game of the Year: Call of Duty 4, Activision's first-person-shooter bagged the prestigious game of the year award for 2007 (in addition to Action Game & online game of the year awards!). Following on from Call of Duty 3's release on the Playstation 3, many gamers could have been forgiven for expecting some of a damp squib before seeing details of the latest in the series of COD games. Fears were soon blown away however when Activision announced the latest version was to be set in the modern day with a host of weapons currently in use in warzones all over the world. In honour of the modern warfare shooter bagging 3 awards, we've exclusively featured the game as this edition's featured game (see below).

2007 Driving/Racing Game of the Year: Motorstorm raced into pole position with a massive 71% of all voters choosing the launch title over the competition. Sony's visually stunning racing game features a variety of different vehicles as you challenge your way to number 1 at the rock/racing festival set in the desert location of monument valley. What sets this game aside from the rest of the pack is the absolute carnage created as you smash your way through the opposition, add to that a varied amount of add-on content made available via the Playstation store and we're not surprised that Motorstorm was your winner.

Unsurprisingly, The Edler Scrolls IV: Oblivion stormed to victory in the 2007 Role Playing/Strategy Game of the Year, with very few other games in contention for this title it seemed almost certain that the much loved Oblivion won through, what is surprising however is the sheer margin it won by; an almost unimagineable 95% voted in favour of the Ubisoft adventure game.

One of the most surprising winners of this year's awards was the bizzare Playstation Eye title, Eye of Judgement, which scooped the 2007 Most Innovative Game of the Year. Despite being a rather niche card battling title (like Yu-Gi-Oh & Pokermon trading card games) Eye of Judgement picked up a third of all votes in this category, narrowly beating Call of Duty 4 by just 4% of votes. In fact it was the only game in any category that managed to stop the mighty COD title from scooping an award and making it an incredible 4 out of 4! So what made this title so innovative? There's really nothing like Eye of Judgment: You set up a PlayStation Eye in a special stand, lay out a cloth map underneath it, and use real cards to do battle under the watchful gaze of the camera. The Eye senses the moves of both you and your opponent, and the ensuing action plays out in dramatic splendor on your television screen. It's a gutsy design move that deserves credit for doing something legitimately different, and it's that streak of originality that seems to have appealed to this years voters!

So that's the awards in summary for the Playstation 3's first year. Next year's awards will no doubt be considerably more exiciting with so many games due out that gamers are dying to get their hands on. We are also hoping to do it all very differently next year with a sponsored tie in and a physical awards ceremony bash and after party to really give the gaming community something to get excited about. More news on that over the course of the year.

What did you make of the winners? Do you agree or disagree with them? How about Call of Duty 4 bagging 3 awards, is it really that good? As always we are itching to hear your responses to the awards, so have your say here.

Follow-up: Will 2008 really be the year of the PS3?

We were rather boastful last time on how we saw the PS3's 2008 going and we wanted to know whether 2008 would really be the year of the PS3. Well it seems that it's not just our forum members that agree it will be. In fact President & CEO of Sony Europe (SCEE) David Reeves has gone on record to say that he thinks "PlayStation 3 [sales] will overtake Xbox 360 in Europe by the end of the summer [2008]." He backs up his bold statement with some (not entirely accurate) sales figures and claims that "the PS3 has already outsold Xbox 360 in France, Spain, Germany and Italy." Impressive stuff.

So what did our readers make of the suggestion that this year was going to really push the PS3 to show it's pedigree? Forum member Orpheus agrees that "2008 certainly bodes well. The list of upcoming games is almost too much to get your head around". Newsletter reader Tomas L. added that "with games such as Burnout Paradise & Call of Duty 4 already showing what the PS3 is capable of, it'll be most impressive to see the games released in the latter part of they year as they will have already harnessed a significant amount more of the system's power"

Some members still had reservations about which console would really reign supreme in 2008 with forum moderator DarkUSS adding "I don't know about Wii but PS3 will definitely outsell Xbox 360 in 2008". Which if true is really the battle done, isn't it? After all we all know the Wii technically isn't a next-generation console in terms of power and performance, so surely the main target is to over take the Xbox360 in terms of sales units.

We'll be keeping you informed over the course of the next 11 months on the performance of the PS3 in relation to that of the Xbox 360. But only time will tell if 2008 will really be the year of the PS3!

Incoming - Resistance 2 Screenshots

As soon as the subscribers of Gameinformer got their hands on the latest issue, tidbits of Resistance 2 information started popping up on the Internet. Among other details, news of 8 players online co-op campaign and a massive 60 players online multiplayer mode made gamers around the globe go crazy about the upcoming sequel of PS3’s first multi-million seller title.

Blurry scans of the magazine showed up seconds later but luckily enough Sony didn’t leave us out in the cold this time and released 7 screenshots of the game in HD quality. See the screenshots & voice your opinion here.

GTA IV finally gets official release confirmation

You waited anxiously for every single trailer to arrive, you probably watched it over a dozen times, you gave every screenshot a scrupulous look and you read every preview of it ten times!

What is it? (Have you not yet read the title?!?) But of course GTA IV, one of the most anticipated games of 2008. And guess what? It now has an official release date! That’s right, global release is now scheduled for April 29. In others words, take care of all your real-life responsibilities before then, You have been warned! In the meantime, you can share some of your enthusiasm (or hatred) about the game with us here.

Cry Engine 2 to demo on PS3 at developers conference

Rumours of the PC hit-title “Crysis” coming to PS3 aren’t new apparently. The news here however is that Crytek finally confirmed the actual demonstration of CryEngine 2 on PS3. During a GDC (Game Developers Conference) session, CryEngine 2 will be shown for the first time running on multiple hardware platforms such as PS3.

The above story could be well-indicative that Crysis is indeed coming to PS3, though nothing’s confirmed as of the moment. In any case, we’ll know more as soons as GDC opens its gates on February 18. As you can imagine there is quite a lot of anticipation for this Crysis due to its PC release. Would you buying it if it is finally released, or have they already missed the boat? Let us know!

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - By MrSoul

Here we are entering the second month of 2008 and all the Playstation fanatics are franticly saving their hard earned cash for the games fest that’s only a matter of weeks away. February the 8th sparks a riot of truly great ps3 games and I for one can’t wait to get my hands on them.

As featured in this issue's editorial Playps3.co.uk have revealed their AVGA winners. For the first year of Playstation 3 gaming, despite all the truly amazing games released I think its safe to say that the most talked about game so far has to be Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Our readers agreed by voting it to win 3 prestigious awards including the coveted Game of the Year.

Released on November the 9th Call of duty re-invented its self with this modernised up to date first person shooter. This time around we're introduced to new recruit Soapz Mactavish taking on terrorists in Eastern Europe. With the theme being set on modern warfare Infinity Ward were able to use a blank canvass when setting story lines and villains and despite this they have brought to the gaming public a game which screams realism and a whole new emotional factor. If your not clearing villages from a chopper you're flushing buildings out in the dark with laser sights as your only friend. The game makes your heart stop and race momentarily and that’s before you’ve even got online.

The Graphics are stunning and life like. Grenades splurging dust everywhere or bullets sparking from containers the game's physics are truly impressive. The characters' detail is so life-like you feel your comrades next to you are genuinely real. Their facial expressions and movement makes them look spectacular. The variety of weaponry in the game will keep you going for days trying to master the 5 different weapon class’ not to mention the different pieces in those class’

The Online modes boast a 2-18 player blood feast. The amount of Variation in match choice means one minute your running around franticly killing everything that moves (free for all ) to crouching and sitting quiet biding your time waiting for the perfect moment to plant the explosives (Search and Destroy) for us less sane players there are hardcore modes in which you are stripped down to nothing but your camo and are forced to make every bullet counts as its one hit kill almost. Your online profile allows you to rank up and unlock achievements on the way such as guns , new challenges , camo decals and grips to name a few.

Does this game deserve all the plaudits? do you agree or disagree with it receiving 3 awards? Let us know.