By the Gamecenter staff (1/21/00)   So we've apparently survived Y2K as well as a host of millennial parties. Now, as we get back to work, it's time for us to look back at the past year and figure out what the best games were. Yup, that's right--it's time for the Gamecenter Awards for 1999. Video Games We present the Dreamcast, PlayStation, and Nintendo 64 award winners, along with the Video Game of the Year. PC Games Here you'll find the best PC games in each genre, plus award-winning Mac games, game hardware, and the PC Game of the Year. GamerX Awards What awards presentation would be complete without a set of dubious honors? GamerX takes the mic in this section. It's always an interesting experience whenever we decide what games deserve to be honored and why. This was especially difficult to do for the 1999 awards, because the year didn't feature a Half-Life-like game that demolished the competition and was the clear-cut favorite as the best game of the year. As a result, we went through a couple of voting rounds before we sat down and verbally argued for our choices. We also had to decide what the categories were going to be, and which games fit in which categories. In this day and age, when publishers ship action/adventure/role-playing games, trying to figure out what genre a game fits in can be difficult, to say the least. One thing's for sure: last year was an excellent year for gaming. Not only did Sega release its long-awaited Dreamcast, but also, on the whole, we saw more superior titles and fewer horrible ones. Perhaps the industry is learning that it is better to ship good games than bad ones. We can only hope. But by rewarding the following games, we strive to recognize the best in gaming and identify the benchmark that publishers must aim for in the coming year. There's undoubtedly going to be a lot of debate regarding the Gamecenter awards. Lend your voice and thoughts to the discussion on the CNET Message Boards.   Why the Bowling Pin? The games industry revolves around money, ego, fun, pride, honor, and greed. With stakes like that, it's all too easy for game developers--and the media who cover game developers--to lose perspective. Last year was the first in which Gamecenter awarded the winners of its annual Best Game of the Year awards trophies in the form of bowling pins. Why bowling pins? In our minds, they represent all the best attributes of the games industry: fun, pride, and honor. More importantly, the bowling pins are a reminder that those of us in the industry--the media included--must hold the forces of money, ego, and greed in check by never taking ourselves too seriously.   Let's start with the Dreamcast awards The Gamecenter editors had a lot of fun compiling the 1999 awards, but we're sure that some of you will want to let us know what you think. Go ahead and send us an email