Giant Bomb GOTY 2014 - Destiny Has Brought Us Here

That's basically a love letter for the Nemesis system. It does seem like a very cool thing, but I keep wondering if there is anything more to the game. The fighting seems to be mostly showy, but mechanically weak (just like B:I, hehe).



Might be confirmation bias, but this is exactly what I was afraid of. Fights look like awesome spectacles where you're beheading orcs left and right, but if you dig into it a little bit it seems like it's just smashing buttons. Does playing on hard make any difference at all?

There wasn't a hard mode last time I checked.
 
So I just finished and I'm amazed that they let Brad slide with the "Destiny has great loot" comment over and over again even after Jeff already explained why that is bullshit. Destiny has a handful of interesting weapons and the rest of the 99% is lame bullshit. He even had the audacity to compare it to current day Diablo 3. It doesn't even fucking compare with launch Diablo 3. To top it all off, we get to hear the classic FFXIII excuse of "It's better after X amount of hours!" The one and ONLY thing that game has going for it is the shooting mechanics.

Having said that, I'm not surprised that Brad managed to willpower it in there. I only really feel bad for Wolfenstein. Outside of that junk though, it was a fun listen. Recap videos started a bit weak, but ended up being amazing overall.
 
God bless Dan Ryckert for putting up with Jeff and Brad's BS. What a goddamn trooper he is sticking up for Smash 4 and MK8 to the ugly end. Honestly it was either one or the other but I'm glad at least one of those games got in the top 10.

tbh I think MK8 was the better game of the two, now that I think about it. I love Smash 4 and will for sure play that game more but it just feels like it was an buggy incomplete product that had to be rushed for the holiday season. It reiterated too much on Brawl and didn't have the huge jump in content Brawl had going from Melee. I still love the game but it could have gone with an additional delay.

Mario Kart 8 is hands down the best Mario Kart game I ever played, and I played all of them but the 3DS game. Fuck battle mode.

EDIT: Oh geeze I thanked Dan on twitter and he favorite'd my tweet.
 
i know we all love to rib the rudds, but he does post on gaf and read the board so don't pile too hard on him and don't insult him

Thanks for posting this.

It's distressing to see people raked across the coals for dissenting opinions.

Well, at least in matters as "trivial" as video games.
 
I don't really care at all, but at least it's good to know that every person with a reasoning brain in that game knew Destiny was awful and they probably all know it's on the list just to stop Brad's crying.

It was overall funny in how embarrassing Brad acted. But it's business as usual for him, both for these year-end things and other content in general.

All of Brad's arguments sounded like an addict trying to justify their habit.
 
I just finished the podcast. Really really great deliberations, some good passion all around. I disagree sure. but nice year all around.
 
Drew had Wolfenstein #1 on his list and didn't fight for it at all. #1!

I've noticed that Drew's more reserved personality tends to bite him in the ass when it comes to these GOTY debates. He just isn't as loud and hyperbolic as the rest of the crew is able to be when arguing for a game they love. I was actually surprised that he got as impassioned as he did whenever he had to talk about the MCC being a hot mess.

At this point it's basically guaranteed that every GOTY debate will come down to Brad vs Jeff.
 
Man I am going to really miss Patrick, but he managed to make me grimace like thirty seconds into the Best Horror segment. "PT - bad game, but..."
 
Brad was the only person who thought the game was anywhere near good. Jeff was negative to ambivalent and the rest of the crew thought it was hot garbage. If it wasn't for Brad being a giant manchild Jeff would also agree with the others, they were basically unanimous on the game being not worthy for the list.

Brad also manipulated the arguments to cut out games that like half the staff liked out of the running, and only put Destiny in the list after two rounds of cutting, and pulled a bunch of other shenanigans.

I don't really care at all, but at least it's good to know that every person with a reasoning brain in that game knew Destiny was awful and they probably all know it's on the list just to stop Brad's crying.

It was overall funny in how embarrassing Brad acted. But it's business as usual for him, both for these year-end things and other content in general.

The rest of the list was cool though! I'm actually happy with pretty much every other game on the list.

Edit: This reminds me of the time I was on a jury, actually

If one person likes a game enough I don't see why they can't put it on there. I mean Jeff got Syndicate on one year, and there are also plenty of games he thinks are shit that do end up on their lists. The only weird thing about it is that they generally take games off when only one of them has played them, but that seems like a more favourable situation than everyone having played it and most of them hating it hehe.
 
I've noticed that Drew's more reserved personality tends to bite him in the ass when it comes to these GOTY debates. He just isn't as loud and hyperbolic as the rest of the crew is able to be when arguing for a game they love. I was actually surprised that he got as impassioned as he did whenever he had to talk about the MCC being a hot mess.

I noticed him most when he scoffed at Jeff's rationale for not allowing Hearthstone in the best debut category.
 
If one person likes a game enough I don't see why they can't put it on there. I mean Jeff got Syndicate on one year, and there are also plenty of games he thinks are shit that do end up on their lists. The only weird thing about it is that they generally take games off when only one of them has played them, but that seems like a more favourable situation than everyone having played it and most of them hating it hehe.

The issue with that is if all eight people had got that one game only they love but no one else does it would have only left 2 spots on list.
 
Man I am going to really miss Patrick, but he managed to make me grimace like thirty seconds into the Best Horror segment. "PT - bad game, but..."

Patrick seems like a cool guy but I only knew of him indirectly from hearsay. I got into GB right before Dan and Jason were officially introduced.

From what I understand, his employment from GB was controversial with some vocal minority of GB fans but I'm not sure why.
 
Patrick seems like a cool guy but I only knew of him indirectly from hearsay. I got into GB right before Dan and Jason were officially introduced.

From what I understand, his employment from GB was controversial with some vocal minority of GB fans but I'm not sure why.

At first it was because he liked to play indie games and then it was his interest in diversity in the games industry.
 
Brad also made up some arguments about Destiny. He kept talking about modifiers making story missions way more interesting, he says it changed his perspective on those missions. Thing is, there are barely any modifiers for story missions.

Those 'halo skulls' he keeps talking about only apply to the Nightfall and occasionally to the weekly strikes. To be clear, the nightfall consists only of strikes. The daily story mission does get a modifier, but it's only 1 (instead of 4) and you probably won't even notice. Playing the missions at higher levels only adds more enemies with high health bars.

So yeah, bullshit. No one played enough Destiny to notice though.

He should have elaborated more on the raid. The raid is pretty much the antithesis of the rest of the way Destiny was designed. No handholding, teamwork required, surprising mechanics and original bosses that need strategies to be beaten.
 
I dunno, Im so apathetic to Destiny but Brads core argument was "this is the game I had the most fun with in 2k14" and thats the same argument that ultimately got Jazzpunk and Mario Kart 8 onto the list and those two games didnt receive the lengthy drilling Destiny did. I mean sure Mario Kart had to overcome grumpy Jeff, but Destiny was dissected from all angles for like 40 minutes straight. Im sure youd get some weakass arguments for other games on the list if they were subjected to the same.
 
Just finished the podcast. Alex really set himself up to be the most polarizing member of the team. I know what his tastes are from Scoops and the Wolf,but I'm sure there are a load of Bombcast only people wondering who in the world this guy is and why he's pushing so hard. I enjoyed it, he was fighting the good fight.
 
Man I am going to really miss Patrick, but he managed to make me grimace like thirty seconds into the Best Horror segment. "PT - bad game, but..."

I think it's too bad he didn't give the evil within more of a chance. I watched his spooking video for that, and even playing it for the first time he was incredible dismissive and not willing to engage with it at all. he was so infuriated with random unimportant things in the beginning of it that he missed super obvious much more important cues and details. it was like watching brad play something random on gamespot. and his attitude towards it now more recently on these goty podcasts was still exactly the same.
 
Finally reached the meat of the final podcast. I can't help but laugh at all the rage their "arguments" must have incited across all of GB Community & GAF.

Jeff & Brad's hate for Mario Kart 8 and Smash is incredible. It's that kind of irrational disdain that I can't help but chuckle at.
 
Brad was the only person who thought the game was anywhere near good. Jeff was negative to ambivalent and the rest of the crew thought it was hot garbage. If it wasn't for Brad being a giant manchild Jeff would also agree with the others, they were basically unanimous on the game being not worthy for the list.

Brad also manipulated the arguments to cut out games that like half the staff liked out of the running, and only put Destiny in the list after two rounds of cutting, and pulled a bunch of other shenanigans.

I don't really care at all, but at least it's good to know that every person with a reasoning brain in that game knew Destiny was awful and they probably all know it's on the list just to stop Brad's crying.

It was overall funny in how embarrassing Brad acted. But it's business as usual for him, both for these year-end things and other content in general.

The rest of the list was cool though! I'm actually happy with pretty much every other game on the list.

Edit: This reminds me of the time I was on a jury, actually

Stop Brad's crying? Jesus, man... I think you're taking this a bit too seriously.

All I was trying to say is that if one of the site's core members and host of the Bombcast, which is by far their most popular feature, was extremely passionate about a game, I think that game probably deserves to be in the top 10.
 
I dunno, Im so apathetic to Destiny but Brads core argument was "this is the game I had the most fun with in 2k14" and thats the same argument that ultimately got Jazzpunk and Mario Kart 8 onto the list and those two games didnt receive the lengthy drilling Destiny did. I mean sure Mario Kart had to overcome grumpy Jeff, but Destiny was dissected from all angles for like 40 minutes straight. Im sure youd get some weakass arguments for other games on the list if they were subjected to the same.

That's because Destiny has a TON of fundamental flaws while the best that Jeff could come up with for Mario Kart was that he just wasn't a fan of the genre and it was an iteration which, as Patrick put it, is not really a thing that you can hold against it.
 
I dunno, Im so apathetic to Destiny but Brads core argument was "this is the game I had the most fun with in 2k14" and thats the same argument that ultimately got Jazzpunk and Mario Kart 8 onto the list and those two games didnt receive the lengthy drilling Destiny did. I mean sure Mario Kart had to overcome grumpy Jeff, but Destiny was dissected from all angles for like 40 minutes straight. Im sure youd get some weakass arguments for other games on the list if they were subjected to the same.

Well, at least the arguments against Destiny were solid. When it came to Mario Kart and other games it was mostly Jeff and Brad being completely dismissive about games they barely played. Jeff and Brad are obviously in charge of Giant Bomb, but they also act like it when it comes to these arguments. That gets a little annoying sometimes.
 
I dunno, Im so apathetic to Destiny but Brads core argument was "this is the game I had the most fun with in 2k14" and thats the same argument that ultimately got Jazzpunk and Mario Kart 8 onto the list and those two games didnt receive the lengthy drilling Destiny did. I mean sure Mario Kart had to overcome grumpy Jeff, but Destiny was dissected from all angles for like 40 minutes straight. Im sure youd get some weakass arguments for other games on the list if they were subjected to the same.
Well, Mario Kart and Jazzpunk wasn't nominated for Most Disappointing game either... So.

Destiny had a ton of flaws and I think the fact that Destiny is on the. List if only to placate Brad warrented a hour long discussion.
 
If it wasn't for Brad being a giant manchild...

Brad also manipulated the arguments to cut out games that like half the staff liked out of the running, and only put Destiny in the list after two rounds of cutting, and pulled a bunch of other shenanigans.

I don't really care at all, but at least it's good to know that every person with a reasoning brain in that game knew Destiny was awful and they probably all know it's on the list just to stop Brad's crying.

It was overall funny in how embarrassing Brad acted. But it's business as usual for him, both for these year-end things and other content in general.

Man this depresses me. The guy likes a video game and he's called a crying manipulative manchild.

Arguing the points for the game is one thing...
 
People here really hate the meme that Jeff hates videogames, but his like / dislike ratio is extremely out of balance.

I dunno... This year has been a pretty rough one. Between all of the major broken releases, to the disappointing releases, to even the several games that got pushed back to 2015, I'd say it has been a pretty bad year. Usually one expects, and gets better this far into a console launch.
 
I dunno, Im so apathetic to Destiny but Brads core argument was "this is the game I had the most fun with in 2k14" and thats the same argument that got Jazzpunk and Mario Kart 8 onto the list and those two games didnt receive the lengthy drilling Destiny did. I mean sure Mario Kart had to overcome grumpy Jeff, but Destiny was dissected from all angles for like 40 minutes straight. Im sure youd get some weakass arguments for other games on the list if they were subjected to the same.

This kind of struck me as well.

Dan merely mentions MK8 & SSBU and the whole room simultaneously erupts in groans & laughter. Alex & Patrick both say multiple times that they've no interest in going to bat for the two games. Yet Dan gets MK8 on the list and he's once again a hero and a Stand Up Guy.

Brad is drilled for almost an hour over Destiny and the game winds up on the list, yet he's somehow a monster because of it. So strange.

If anything, both Dan and Brad's arguments were entirely the same. Dan taking about the giant s**t-eating grin he's wearing every time he plays MK8. And Brad saying that Destiny is unreservedly the most fun he's had all year, bar none.

Frankly I think both of their arguments are winning arguments. And Giant Bomb is not Consumer Reports, it's a personality-driven game site. Their GOTY list is a culmination of the personalities that run that site.

I wouldn't have it any other way.
 
Man this depresses me. The guy likes a video game and he's called a crying manipulative manchild.

Arguing the points for the game is one thing...

I don't think people have issue with the fact that he likes Destiny. I just think that people have issue with the way he goes about it during these things. People like to make fun of cynical old man Jeff, but the depths that Brad goes with his hyperbolic nonsense during these is obviously going to rub some people the wrong way.

Outside of these things though, Brad is awesome. Yes, you can still enjoy Brad's stuff on the site and just heavily disagree with him on this one aspect.
 
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