Broder Salsa
Banned
I had no idea either. *realizes he accidentally pirated the bombcast to a friend with a direct link*
Giant Bomb's Game of the Year Thread: Skyrim? Skyrim? Skyrim? Skyrim? Skylanders!
- Thread starter The Dutch Slayer
- Start date
I had no idea either. *realizes he accidentally pirated the bombcast to a friend with a direct link*
I don't subscribe and iTunes fetched them just fine.
But if you're right, it begs the question: What did I just spend 10 hours listening to?
Foliorum Viridum
Banned
You should be subscribed you peasant!
But I doubt they did. They said they wouldn't lock out content that was free before, like GOTY.
Broder Salsa
Banned
Foliorum Viridum
Banned
Oh, I totally failed at reading 
AwakenedCloud
Member
Glad L.A. Noire made the list.
I'm finally at the SR3 vs Skrym discussion and I was right, it was gonna be an epic debate. I also predicted Brad would be pushing Skyrim over SR3.
BUT one thing I didn't expect: Ryan siding with Skyrim over SR3 because he didn't really play it. That was BIZARRE. I didn't get that. At least he still defends SR3 to a point.
Well, the Jeff/Vinny vs Brad/Patrick debate was worth it. Reminded me of the Vinny vs Brad DLC debate from last year...heh
BUT one thing I didn't expect: Ryan siding with Skyrim over SR3 because he didn't really play it. That was BIZARRE. I didn't get that. At least he still defends SR3 to a point.
Well, the Jeff/Vinny vs Brad/Patrick debate was worth it. Reminded me of the Vinny vs Brad DLC debate from last year...heh
AuthenticM
Member
Brad was right to hold his ground. In fact, this is the fourth Game of the Year deliberations that Giant Bomb has done and I have always sided with him whenever he butted heads with Jeff. In '08, MGS4 should have won; in '09, Uncharted 2 rightly won over Batman; last year, Minerva's Den was clearly the best DLC of the year and better than Shadowbroker. And this year Skyrim was more deserving of the GotY award than Saints Row.
You people ranting against him are just riding a fucking train. I'm not sure when did the Brad hate trend started, but I'm fucking tired of it.
You people ranting against him are just riding a fucking train. I'm not sure when did the Brad hate trend started, but I'm fucking tired of it.
Nobody here hates Brad. His arguments were just bullshit.
:lol Giant Bomb.
edgefusion
Member
I pretty much hate Brad at this point. He just steamrolls in with his shitty arguments and fanboyish love of any game he has interest in and roadblocks it for everything else by being a stubborn ass until the other GB members just give in and let him have his way, ending in skewed results. Also he's unfunny and dies all the time. [/bradhate]
At least they were more than "but it's craaaazy!" and "I don't like it" from Jeff's side. People also seem to be forgetting Patrick, I feel like he worded his arguments better than Brad.
SatelliteOfLove
Member
They just talk like it in order to get him to post comebacks, apparently.
Yeah that makes no sense given it was his top game of the year. Sometimes I wonder just how much of these games actually get played. I can't wait to play SR3 to see what all this fuss about.
I also think its annoying that every other top ten video on the site is from a game developer. Talk about fox in the hen house. No wonder we get opinions like "Yeah Batman single player lockout codes are great." Vinny was the only one who questioned that bullshit and only tepidly.
AuthenticM
Member
You're confusing Brad with Jeff. Jeff is the one who doesn't have any arguments when talking against a game. Dark Souls, Limbo, etc. Whatever it is, if a game doesn't have guns or explosions, then it's "fuck this game" for Jeff.
Yeah, it's why Jeff loved Stacking, Skylanders and Trackmania 2 so much this year. All those explosions. And why he's the biggest fan of Pushmo, Picross 3D and Rhythm Heaven at GiantBomb, those are notoriously gun-heavy games.
Wait, what? The top ten videos were all from Whiskey staff. There were some top 10's in text by developers, but they've done that for years now. Don't see why that would be a problem; developers provide the text and GiantBomb just publishes it, it's not like they're influenced by it. I, for one, actually enjoy reading Ed Boon's or Erik Wolpaw's favorite games of the year. Why not?
Explain Trackmania.
Outside of his obvious love for Trackmania 2: Canyon (which doesn't even seem to model car damage that much), Jeff didn't put a single first person shooter on his top 10 this year.
Don't forget his gun-heavy favorites like the Forza series, WWE All Stars, LittleBigPlanet 2, and DJ Hero!!
Oh and he really liked Skylanders from what I understood, and Mortal Kombat.
MarshMellow96
Member
Car guns.
cuevas. PhD.
Member
Stop bringing up facts, it's ruining his argument.
Just got done listening to the deliberations and I'm definitely pleased. The Portal 2 vs. Bastion thing was a little weird though, and I think I just have to chalk that up with them being so close to the developers. That's fine, it's their personal site list and I don't think poorly of them for that choice, but personally I think that battle is a no contest victory for Portal.
To comment on the Skyrim v. SR3 debate, I think they came to the right conclusion eventually, but it was a rough road to get there. I think Brad shot himself in the foot in complaining that the cool parts of SR3 had nothing to do with the part where you play the game while simultaneously conceding that the combat in Skyrim is mediocre (paraphrasing, of course, I don't recall exactly how he worded it). Jeff kind of equally weakened his own position several times by making jokes instead of legitimate arguments, though I think the arguments that he did make were spot on. It may have already been pointed out in the thread as I've only read the past page, but the core of the argument comes down to a fundamental difference in what the two groups were looking for in a video game. Brad and Patrick liked Skyrim because it immersed them in a world and gave them reasons to explore it while also directing them towards quests that they might not have discovered otherwise. Vinny and Jeff liked SR3 because it provided them with a compelling and finely crafted piece of entertainment. I think that was the core difference: being given an world to immerse oneself in, and being presented with a piece of entertainment.
Additionally, this podcast further solidified my understanding of how awesome Vinny is. He was lighthearted when the time allowed it, but also had extremely well articulated and aptly supported arguments. I was just totally impressed with him.
Also props to Drew for having great taste in games. If I were to make a top 10 list it would be strikingly similar to his, except for that A10 Tomcat game or whatever it was called haha.
As for the whole end of year awards, I am incredibly impressed with what they've done. They turned what could have just been tedious and uninteresting lists into hours of entertainment, which is ultimately what I subscribe to GB for.
To comment on the Skyrim v. SR3 debate, I think they came to the right conclusion eventually, but it was a rough road to get there. I think Brad shot himself in the foot in complaining that the cool parts of SR3 had nothing to do with the part where you play the game while simultaneously conceding that the combat in Skyrim is mediocre (paraphrasing, of course, I don't recall exactly how he worded it). Jeff kind of equally weakened his own position several times by making jokes instead of legitimate arguments, though I think the arguments that he did make were spot on. It may have already been pointed out in the thread as I've only read the past page, but the core of the argument comes down to a fundamental difference in what the two groups were looking for in a video game. Brad and Patrick liked Skyrim because it immersed them in a world and gave them reasons to explore it while also directing them towards quests that they might not have discovered otherwise. Vinny and Jeff liked SR3 because it provided them with a compelling and finely crafted piece of entertainment. I think that was the core difference: being given an world to immerse oneself in, and being presented with a piece of entertainment.
Additionally, this podcast further solidified my understanding of how awesome Vinny is. He was lighthearted when the time allowed it, but also had extremely well articulated and aptly supported arguments. I was just totally impressed with him.
Also props to Drew for having great taste in games. If I were to make a top 10 list it would be strikingly similar to his, except for that A10 Tomcat game or whatever it was called haha.
As for the whole end of year awards, I am incredibly impressed with what they've done. They turned what could have just been tedious and uninteresting lists into hours of entertainment, which is ultimately what I subscribe to GB for.
That was my biggest irritation of the entire thing, Jeff said next to nothing to legitimately sway the argument, okay you're extremely passionate and staunchly for SR3 then bring some goddam hard ammunition to the table. You can't champion a game so hard and so rigorously if you can't properly articulate or convey the reasons why you like it so much outside of "yo, you guys are nuts, Saints Row is clearly GotY" or "you should go play Saints Row" (to funnily enough Patrick remarked 'I did' and Jeff said "you should play more" and Patrick said 'I finished it' and was cut off) which to me sounded like, yep, Jeff hears ya, Jeff doesn't care, he really is an arrogant douche bag sometimes.
That was my issue, Jeff just couldn't make an argument for SR3 and he couldn't properly make a valid argument against Skyrim, the floor was his, Ryan didn't wanna go there, Vinny wasn't going balls deep in this and essentially he was on his own to sway the entire thing, which he did extremely poorly, and I'm happy to see Skyrim win.
forgeforsaken
Member
This is absolutely missing the point of why some of us are upset with their choice. Personally I might put Skyrim above SR3, it's a close call for me, and well I think Dark Souls is better than both and that's not even in their top 10. It's the context of the choice based on their personal top 10s and previous podcasts, as well as the method that went into choosing Skyrim over SR3 that has us upset, not the game itself.
killer_clank
Member
I agree. Jeff seemed to go in thinking it was his given right SR3 should have been game of the year, and never really argued for it, aside from "ITS SO ZANY AND BURT REYNOLDS"
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
It was kind of sad, really. It's like Ryan just gave up and said "well it's gotta be Skyrim since that's the game everyone else in our industry is voting for this year."
It seems like Ryan just felt oddly guilty for enjoying all the superficial stuff in SR3 over the gunplay/ driving and thats why he flipped.
I could understand that if he had played the number 2 game and was arguing for, I dunno, Portal 2, which was his number 3 or 4.
It just seems so weird that he ended up deferring to Skyrim which he didnt really play much at all.
I dont mind which game comes out as number 1, but I do find his thought process surprising. I didnt expect Ryan to be someone to go back on opinions like that. I actually wonder if he would go back and rework his own personal top ten after that incident. like he had a moment of clarity after ten hours of podcasting.
I could understand that if he had played the number 2 game and was arguing for, I dunno, Portal 2, which was his number 3 or 4.
It just seems so weird that he ended up deferring to Skyrim which he didnt really play much at all.
I dont mind which game comes out as number 1, but I do find his thought process surprising. I didnt expect Ryan to be someone to go back on opinions like that. I actually wonder if he would go back and rework his own personal top ten after that incident. like he had a moment of clarity after ten hours of podcasting.
Riposte
Member
It is too bad he didn't feel guilty while talking about LA Noire.
...or he realized that he had no better arguments than Jeff and saw what Brad and Patrick felt Skyrim accomplished.
I respect him for that.
cuevas. PhD.
Member
Except he acknowledged the fact that he like LA Noire so much was because of his personal affection for that theme.
Except Jeff did have arguments. You may not agree with them, but they were valid arguments. The whole thing about SR3 being the game he would make, that's an argument. Sure, it relies on emotion, but so does Brad's 'no meaningful flaws in Skyrim'. In the end he and Vinny enjoyed the game the most for the year.
elrechazado
Banned
Haha, this post was hilarious.
McBradders
NeoGAF: my new HOME
Brad, awesome.
Skyrim, whatever.
I aint even mad.
Skyrim, whatever.
I aint even mad.
You're upset because of a meaningless video game award given out by five guys on the internet you don't personally know? That upsets me.
Yeah, I think Ryan was smart to flip (I really dont think his heart was in it and bowed out early and Vinny didn't press hard, but that's kind of Vinny for ya) because that was primarily Jeff's argument for it, all that surface zany crazy auto-tune pimp chariots blowing up tiger cars Johnny Gatmobile stuff which is all fine and generally well done. But with that type of humor the milage will vary from person to person, and I don't think everyone in that room was as enamored with that stuff as he clearly was, enough to press the issue as hard as he did.
Skyrim and Saints Row 3 have a lot of the same flaws. Their AI are shit, the dungeons/missions are repetitive, there's jank around every corner, combat is less than great... but I would go with Skyrim too just because of the vastness of scale. The world feels immense, while SR3 is smaller than its sequel. It feels almost confining, and almost a postage stamp when you get helis and jets. While most of its area is just dead space that you can't interact with in any way. I'd rather have some copy paste areas with different stuff going on than the occasional random call for a survival wave.
StevePharma
Member
People having problems with Jeff's arguments for SR3 are understandable, but Jeff's side is understandable as well. From the moment the Quick Look, Bombcasts and reviews went on they've had a really hard time explaining why they felt SR3 was such an amazing experience. Both Vinny and Jeff claimed they couldn't stop playing it even when they were already somewhat invested in Skyrim, and that says something even for game enthusiast press who get to play everything they want.
I platinumed (1000/1000) both SR3 and Skyrim (on PS3), so I'm quite invested in both games. My Skyrim game was fucked on PS3 but I'll leave that out of the discussion.
Both games were iterative and built on concepts from earlier titles. I loved Skyrim, but for me it felt like a pimped up Oblivion. Brad saying that this is not comparable to New Vegas, Oblivion and Fallout 3? I laughed a little. It is EXACTLY the same, systems and all. UI got changed but I wasn't a big fan of that. Radiant quest are nothing more than "fetch this bullshit" 90% of the time. Quests were good but nothing more outstanding than the stuff that was done in Morrowind and Oblivion. Nevertheless the soundscape and general world are amazingly realized, but the fact that you overlook jank because of that is not acceptable in my book. The comment about encumbrance and merchant gold supply was good, it added to the immersiveness but detracted from the play experience (imo), and that's a bad thing.
SR3 did the shallow open world again, but it somehow feels to me that Volition did a lot of stuff right in streamlining the experience. Things like bo-duke-en cars, in world navigation arrows and the lack of difficulty, reflected in the upgrade system and power progression from playing the story/side missions shows that Volition understands that a lot of people just want to have fun with a game and not be bothered by intricate and balanced systems. Maybe that's what made Jeff/Vinny/Ryan like the game so much, at least that was the case for me.
I platinumed (1000/1000) both SR3 and Skyrim (on PS3), so I'm quite invested in both games. My Skyrim game was fucked on PS3 but I'll leave that out of the discussion.
Both games were iterative and built on concepts from earlier titles. I loved Skyrim, but for me it felt like a pimped up Oblivion. Brad saying that this is not comparable to New Vegas, Oblivion and Fallout 3? I laughed a little. It is EXACTLY the same, systems and all. UI got changed but I wasn't a big fan of that. Radiant quest are nothing more than "fetch this bullshit" 90% of the time. Quests were good but nothing more outstanding than the stuff that was done in Morrowind and Oblivion. Nevertheless the soundscape and general world are amazingly realized, but the fact that you overlook jank because of that is not acceptable in my book. The comment about encumbrance and merchant gold supply was good, it added to the immersiveness but detracted from the play experience (imo), and that's a bad thing.
SR3 did the shallow open world again, but it somehow feels to me that Volition did a lot of stuff right in streamlining the experience. Things like bo-duke-en cars, in world navigation arrows and the lack of difficulty, reflected in the upgrade system and power progression from playing the story/side missions shows that Volition understands that a lot of people just want to have fun with a game and not be bothered by intricate and balanced systems. Maybe that's what made Jeff/Vinny/Ryan like the game so much, at least that was the case for me.
Lasthope106
Member
The Witcher 2 made the list?!
Thank you based Vinny!
Thank you based Vinny!
Well, maybe Ryan felt that Skyrim accomplished more as a game than SR3 did, even if he really enjoyed playing SR3. Kind of like the Renegade Ops discussion they had.
I'm not going to say it's not comparable, but it's so much better than Oblivion. One thing I feel they've come really close to nailing now is the dungeons. Most of them are actually unique this time, sometimes have little mini-stories going on and just feel way more interesting and rewarding to explore. That is a huge thing to me and a big reason why I stopped playing Oblivion. The leveling system also isn't completely fucked like it was in Oblivion.
Again, I think Patrick did a better job than Brad explaining why he loved it so much.
EmCeeGramr
Member
Skyrim's copy-paste dungeons are the exact same thing as past Bethesda games, just disguised slightly more and with a new coat of paint.
The obviously scripted "radiant quest" stuff is really bad too.
The obviously scripted "radiant quest" stuff is really bad too.
Sure, I'm just saying that Jeff did make good arguments for SR3.
This is true, but isn't new for a Bethesda game. Fallout 3 did this too, and I think did it better, actually. Bethesda streamlined some of the process by giving each dungeon a very linear layout and a clear 'end'.
ShockingAlberto
Member
I have no issue with Skyrim as game of the year.
I just felt "I didn't play it, but it has my vote" is fucking weird.
My site also did GOTY deliberations and the game I was pushing for (Portal 2) would have won if I convinced the guy who didn't play it to vote for it. But that's not right, he didn't play the game so he can't really argue, even in the form of a vote, that it's the best game of the year.
I just felt "I didn't play it, but it has my vote" is fucking weird.
My site also did GOTY deliberations and the game I was pushing for (Portal 2) would have won if I convinced the guy who didn't play it to vote for it. But that's not right, he didn't play the game so he can't really argue, even in the form of a vote, that it's the best game of the year.
CrunchinJelly
formerly cjelly
Statues full of cash will do that to people, I guess.