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[Lone_Prodigy]

Awards are based on opinion. That alone is enough wriggle room for gaming sites and the like to generate hits and attention by picking any game they want.

It would be easy to give it to games with the highest aggregate review score. But if that were the case everyone would be on Metacritic, not their site. By dragging it out through days, weeks, and multiple web pages to maximize ad revenue, the sites get traffic and discussion. Do they really care who they give GOTY to? Unless a dev has that site in their back pocket, not really, no.

 

[semiconscious]

Bayonetta was my personal choice for game of the year. Nothing was as imaginative, enthusiastic or as unapologetic as Bayonetta. Oh, it was also an extremely good action game.

my choice as well - realy liked rdr, & a number of others, but pure, non-stop climax action = bayonetta ...

 

[r1chard]

Good Game gave GOTY to RDR as welll

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/goodgame/stories/s3085973.htm

 

[ryan-ts]

As for SMG2: It's really just SMG1 but more.

I respectfully disagree. Yoshi, the new suits and uniquely designed worlds not featured in the original make up the majority of the game. The rest of the levels do feature concepts from the original except they've all been perfected.

 

[mr stroke]

I expect the media to complete ignore StarCraft II. =/

sad, but true



which is odd because review scores and sales were high

 

[Ceebs]

sad, but true



which is odd because review scores and sales were high

The major sites will just list it as PC GOTY while ignoring everything else on the PC from the past year.

 

[Tricky I Shadow]

Tons of great games this year, but the big three that stick out for me are Donkey Kong Country Returns, Red Dead Redemption and Bayonetta.

 

[Cheesemeister]

Wait wait wait, does this mean the thread will have the same terrible unwieldy voting system from last year? If so, someone needs to volunteer to do a more typical GOTY thread ahead of time. I remember timetokill was very polite but his preferred voting system was just awful, and I don't even vote! I just like reading people's ballots.

I've been going over this with timetokill, and you'll be able to post a full top 10. We're planning to have the points allocated be weighted by position in your rankings and the number of games you vote for. It should address everyone's concern about people voting for only one title in an attempt to "stuff the ballot box."

 

[Fredescu]

I've been going over this with timetokill, and you'll be able to post a full top 10.

You were "able" to post a full top 10 last year, but it was discouraged because to do so meant you thought all ten games were equally good. Does your new system attempt to make ordered top tens the norm again?

 

[_Alkaline_]

Anything not Red Dead Redemption is wrong.

How about you and your high and mighty attitude shut the fuck up?

People have opinions. Deal with it.

 

[Cheesemeister]

You were "able" to post a full top 10 last year, but it was discouraged because to do so meant you thought all ten games were equally good. Does your new system attempt to make ordered top tens the norm again?

Yes, it will encourage people to post 10, and games toward the top of your rankings will receive more points than those at the bottom. I should have timetokill post a discussion thread about it.

 

[Fredescu]

Sounds good to me, and at least if you're automating it you can try out different weightings fairly easily.

 

[Firestorm]

Not as many as Bioshock, which I think supports VKS' argument. Click the 2007 link in the OP to have a look. It's also funny that every nominee for the Spike VGAs was a sequel, so we can hardly say that SMG2 wasn't there because SMG1 also exists.

Yeah but BioShock was better than Galaxy so it makes sense!

 

[hamchan]

As good as SMG2 is I think it won't get that many picks since SMG already got a respectable amount back in 2007. RDR will probably get the most.

 

[timetokill]

You were "able" to post a full top 10 last year, but it was discouraged because to do so meant you thought all ten games were equally good. Does your new system attempt to make ordered top tens the norm again?

The new system I've put together encourages people to post a full Top 10. I've bounced a lot of the ideas off of Cheesemeister as well as some other users and I think it will make a good compromise between what many people liked about the previous system and the top 10 formats from before.

I'll post a discussion thread on it soon so look out for that.

Wait wait wait, does this mean the thread will have the same terrible unwieldy voting system from last year? If so, someone needs to volunteer to do a more typical GOTY thread ahead of time. I remember timetokill was very polite but his preferred voting system was just awful, and I don't even vote! I just like reading people's ballots.

Last year's system wasn't unwieldy, and even if you thought it was "terrible," many people thought it was an improvement.

At any rate, you'll probably like this year's system a lot better.

 

[The_Dude]

Very happy to see Bayonetta get one. I thought it might be overlooked, having come out so early in the year, but this is hopefully the first of many.

 

[Rahxephon91]

Go Go Red Dead. If I had to pick the best gaming experience I had this year, which had so many amazing games) it has to be Red Dead. Such a well rounded game. Everything about it was great. The music, the gunplay, the graphics. I just can't think of a more well made game.

 

[Dr.Hadji]

Whats all this Bayonetta hate about. Didn't think it had this kind of backlash.

 

[seady]

I haven't played SMG2, so I'm only guessing here, but I think that maybe the reason it wasn't nominated in spite of such high ratings is the same reason movies like The Incredibles, The Matrix and The Hangover never get nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars - genre snobbery.

The Academy Awards were set up partly as a way of promoting and rewarding film makers who did work that could make film be taken seriously as an art form. It seems stupid to think that film isn't an art form today, but back when it was just a fledgeling industry, the opinion among serious cultural afficionados was that film was a throwaway form of entertainment - cheap, lurid, flashy thrills for the ignorant masses. They compared film to music and theatre and saw in it a cheap imitation of art, mass-produced and divorced from the artist.

That led the Academy to nominate only the films they felt promoted the medium as a serious art form and be suspicious of spectacle and novelty. The year Citizen Kane released (one of the first films to really experiment with camera/editing techniques - it was like the Matrix of its day), they gave it to a movie nobody remembers these days - How Green was my Valley. Citizen Kane was the better, more influential movie. It just didn't fit with the Academy's vision for the future of film.

The result is that the movies that get nominated for Best Picture are nearly always tragedies, redemption stories, romances, biopics, historical dramas, coming of age stories and war films - Oscar bait, in other words. Comedies, sci-fi and animated films need not apply.

Likewise, the gaming media has a self-important idea of what they want gaming to be. They want it to be taken seriously. They look at something like Mario - a cutesy platformer featuring a moustachioed Italian plumber having adventures in a whimsical magic kingdom and dismiss it immediately because at no point does Mario vow revenge upon the enemies that took his wife, nor is Peach use her sexuality in order to (I dunno) triumph over her enemies, nor does Bowser have a chequered and complicated past marked by tragedy. It's just not gritty. It's just not "mature". In an age wherein the gaming press is obsessed with proving to the world that games are not just for kids, it doesn't fit into the prevailing paradigm.

So well said.
*claps claps*

 

[tiff]

Whats all this Bayonetta hate about. Didn't think it had this kind of backlash.

It always seemed like a love-or-hate game to me.

 

[A Human Becoming]

The 3rd highest rated game of all-time says you're an idiot.

Yeah because metacritic score is ALWAYS an accurate evaluation of quality. See Grand Theft Auto 4. Don't be a douchebag.

I enjoyed Super Mario Galaxy 2, but I agree it was uninspired. All it added were new suits and Yoshi, concepts taken from previous Mario games. The first Galaxy benefited from the gravity bringing something fresh to the franchise, which Galaxy 2 doesn't. I would say it's more Galaxy 1.5 than 2.

I respectfully disagree. Yoshi, the new suits and uniquely designed worlds not featured in the original make up the majority of the game. The rest of the levels do feature concepts from the original except they've all been perfected.

Uniquely designed worlds? They felt exactly like worlds in the first Galaxy to me. I'll have to disagree with you as well.

 

[Crash Station]

Whats all this Bayonetta hate about. Didn't think it had this kind of backlash.

The hate is mostly superficial. Some people just can't get past the plot or over the topness. Then there are a few close minded people that refuse to play as a female character. The combat was almost universally praised with very few stating otherwise.

 

[DR2K]

Whats all this Bayonetta hate about. Didn't think it had this kind of backlash.

It's not a "quality" game. . . how dare you put it with the likes of Red Dead Auto or Mario Galaxy New Hat edition.

 

[AniHawk]

The majority of these awards always goes to the western-made serious-ish cinematic game. In 2007 it was Bioshock, in 2008 it was GTA IV, in 2009 it was U2, and this year it'll be RDR.

That's not to say U2 or RDR don't deserve praise or aren't GOTY-quality games. It's just that the first two are definitely not. I hate them so much.

Not sure where I was going with this.

 

[timetokill]

The majority of these awards always goes to the western-made serious-ish cinematic game. In 2007 it was Bioshock, in 2008 it was GTA IV, in 2009 it was U2, and this year it'll be RDR.

That's not to say U2 or RDR don't deserve praise or aren't GOTY-quality games. It's just that the first two are definitely not. I hate them so much.

Not sure where I was going with this.

It's true. GDC awards are like this too. Everything is very western-focused, with an eye for cinematics and "mature themes." Like viciouskillersquirrel said, it's more about justifying the medium than really objectively looking for the best games.

 

[PepsimanVsJoe]

My RDR experience was tying somebody up and throwing them on railroad tracks. I figured the game could only go downhill from there. Heck I put maybe 10 hours into SMG2 when I first got it and haven't played it since.

Shows how I feel about what's good.

Interesting.

If you had to choose one game to represent the best of 2010, what would it be?

I can't answer that. My favorite games of this year will be remembered as cult hits at best.

 

[Snuggles]

My RDR experience was tying somebody up and throwing them on railroad tracks. I figured the game could only go downhill from there. Heck I put maybe 10 hours into SMG2 when I first got it and haven't played it since.

Shows how I feel about what's good.

Interesting.

If you had to choose one game to represent the best of 2010, what would it be?

 

[Noshino]

Woot, Bayo and RDR were great. But I suspect a hard fight between ME2 and AC: Bro.

Yep, its going to be all about those 4

I expect the media to complete ignore StarCraft II. =/

As much as I loved it, there was just something about it that didn't make me want to keep going back to play it like the original... but yah, it should at the very least be nominated :C

 

[Snuggles]

I can't answer that. My favorite games of this year will be remembered as cult hits at best.

Deadly Premonition?

I only briefly touched on it with a 360 rental, it was a very interesting game.

 

[Mooreberg]

Metacritic and GameRankings aren't much to go by considering console specific sites have as much effect on the aggregate as sites that review everything. And then you have sites like IGN that cover everything, but with particular reviewers for each platform.

AIAS and GDC have been a pretty good barometer. And no, neither of them gave it to GTA IV, but they didn't give it to a Japanese game either so I guess that discredits them. :lol

in 2008 it was GTA IV

For some publications perhaps, but not the industry wide awards. Ironically, it also isn't one of the nine games from 2008 that released a "game of the year edition."

 

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Deadly Premonition?

It's up there yeah but seriously. You could take the most credible person on earth and still not be able to sell anyone on the case that DP should be recognized as a GOTY contender. Same with Nier and to a lesser extent Bayonetta. Downloadable games will be lucky to even get a mention(aside from Super Meat Boy at least).

Then again I don't think there has ever been a year where I agreed with the popular GOTY vote except for maybe Super Mario 3.

 

[Fredescu]

For some publications perhaps, but not the industry wide awards.

For most publications. See the link in the OP. What is an industry wide award?

 

[hamchan]

I'm absolutely fine with RDR taking everything to be honest. Such a memorable game and one of the best endings ever.

 

[GrotesqueBeauty]

No Sin and Punishment 2, huh?

 

[Aaron]

No Fallout: New Vegas? Even with the many bugs, it's an incredible game. A huge improvement over Fallout 3.

 

[Magic Mushroom]

SMG 2 and RDR - well deserved.

Bayonetta - :lol

I expected better taste from a Dutchman.
Bayonetta is easily one of the best and most creative games of the year, unless you play your games for the storytelling. Probably the deepest and best combat system in the history of the medium. And very replayable to boot. Kamiya raised the bar.

 

[Callibretto]

man, I always have hard time come voting time. because I'm not sure how to ranked the games.

I played RDR and Assassin Creed and recognized that these are great games, offering plenty of value and content, on the other hand, games like God of War 3 are short, and more straight forward, but is very polished and I have more fun playing GoW than the other games.

GoW will most likely take my number 1 spot in GoTY list, although I think not many people gonna pick that because of that content issue.

 

[Otacon]

no GAF GOTY vote thread this year? ;(

 

[Semblance]

Glad Bayo got some recognition. Easily my favorite game of the year.

 

[AniHawk]

no GAF GOTY vote thread this year? ;(

timetokill's doing it, and even when I did it, it was still at least a week away (usually started on the 19th or 20th and ran until new year's eve).

 

[Otacon]

ah, good to know
somehow I thought we always start earlier Dx
anyway, got my list ready:lol

 

[Sevket-Erhat]

I vote for

and honorable mention

 

[Snuggles]

so you like brooding protagonists in bulky armor?

 

[seady]

Yeah because metacritic score is ALWAYS an accurate evaluation of quality. See Grand Theft Auto 4. Don't be a douchebag.

I enjoyed Super Mario Galaxy 2, but I agree it was uninspired. All it added were new suits and Yoshi, concepts taken from previous Mario games. The first Galaxy benefited from the gravity bringing something fresh to the franchise, which Galaxy 2 doesn't. I would say it's more Galaxy 1.5 than 2.


Uniquely designed worlds? They felt exactly like worlds in the first Galaxy to me. I'll have to disagree with you as well.

While I am not in the camp that think SMG2 should win GOTY, I think gameplay-wise it actually does much more new stuffs than most sequels did this year.

The other games feel more "different" mostly because they rely heavily on new storyline - which is easier to "spot the differences" than pure gameplay mechanic because they are so apparent. And isn't gameplay suppose to be the main part of a game?

 

[FleckSplat]

How about you and your high and mighty attitude shut the fuck up?

People have opinions. Deal with it.

So...does that guy...

 

[LiK]

CNET Top Five Video Games of 2010

1) Red Dead Redemption
2) God of War III
3) Super Mario Galaxy 2
4) Mass Effect 2
5) CoD: Black Ops

 

[mescalineeyes]

Yes, StarCraft 2 will probably not win a single award.

At the end of the day, us SC2 player should be happy that we choose to spend time with a game more demanding than following an predetermined path down the same old corridor killing the same, forgettable enemies while being told throwaway trash hollywood gutter-bile stories.
Our game will probably still be played in 5, if not 10 years time and the brightest minds of this community will be on TV playing this game while Call of Duty/Assassin's Creed fanboys will be nickel and dimed for horse armor.

If you think TV has gotten bad, well, going by what people seem to be clamoring for and what's selling, gaming's not too far behind.
Thank you, gaming media(/Spike), for elevating and celebrating the vapid garbage that gamers are being fed nowadays and happily so.

I hope Bayonetta and SMG2 keep killing it, so we uphold at least some semblance of creativity and emphasis on gameplay.

 

[Xater]

I bet in the GAF awards Starcraft 2 will do far better. I have not played it yet, but I know it would probably get on my list if I had.

 

[dejan]

Starcraft 2 would probably not even make it into my "Top 5 PC Exlusives in 2010" list.

 

[LiK]

I dont think SC2 will make it cuz everything is so console-centric these days. The media might just ignore it or place it very low on their lists.