The Player/Career Mode award is one which could not have existed when Operation Sports was founded in 1998. These modes were pioneered in the middle parts of this decade and have only been refined during the past several years. This year, there were so many quality offerings in so many great games that we could not help but give an award to what we felt was the best of the bunch.

MLB '09: The Show's Road to the Show mode stands above the rest in terms of the mode's depth and execution. While many would disagree, the overwhelming majority of staff members and readers alike voted Road to the Show as the best player/career mode in 2009.

Best Player/Career Mode: Road to the Show

Christian McLeod: Road to the Show is fun, but I experienced an overwhelming sense of déjà vu while playing the mode this year. NBA 2K10's My Player mode offered a fresh take on the career mode, letting me take my player through the NBA Draft Combine on my way to competing for a spot in the NBA. The gameplay was also very rewarding because setting picks, positioning my player properly, and hustling to fill the lane granted me a positive teammate grade -- gone forever were the days of having to score and be a superstar to succeed in a career mode. 2K10's My Player put the emphasis on the team, something other career modes should strive for in the future.

Matthew Coe: I am going to go with UFC Undisputed 2009's career mode. If you played any of the previous UFC-branded games, you know how dismal the "career" modes were in those games. UFC 2009 finally gave MMA fans a respectable career mode and established a rock-solid foundation that can be improved upon in future iterations of the game.

Dustin Toms: Is this really even a competition? MLB 09: The Show was the first game that pulled me away from my franchise and made me spend all my time somewhere else. The depth of RttS is as deep as any mode can really get.

Jayson Young: Like Christian said, déjà vu was a major problem this year for franchises like NHL, Forza and The Show. While all of those games offered a great career mode, none of them were particularly compelling because they featured only minor tweaks when compared to the previous year's game. Even though it shipped with a number of technical flaws, I am giving my vote to NBA 2K10's My Player mode since it gave basketball fans a new way to play the sport, whether alone or online with friends.

Reader's Choice

Winner: MLB '09's Road to the Show

Voting Results: MLB '09's Road to the Show (54%), NBA 2K10's My Player (22%), NHL 10's Be a Pro (13%)

Reader Comments: NBA 2K10's My Player for me. It still needs work but it is miles better than what Madden and NCAA Football have done with their career modes. It also helps that I do not have a PS3 so I do not know how good RttS is. -- BlueNGold

I do not even have a PS3, and I still enjoyed hearing about by brother-in-law's career as a pitcher in The Show. -- StlStudios189

The Bigs 2 would be the correct answer, but I guess I will have to vote for Forza 3 here since I only got to play a demo of The Show, NHL 10 was same ship different bay, and My Player was just plain awful as was the UFC career mode. -- goh

Again, voted for NBA 2K10 in this one. Even pre-patch it was addictive -- just frustrating at the same time. Post-patch, it is just video game crack. I have only played the normal game once, and that was due to an OS Vet requesting a game. -- bornindamecca