Giant Bomb's Game of the Year Thread: Skyrim? Skyrim? Skyrim? Skyrim? Skylanders!

I'm really glad Skyrim pulled it off.

I love Saints Row 3 and have played multiple versions to completion but being a huge fan of Saints Row 2 it just seems like a step back in many ways.
 
ok I will let the statue thing go since they do get sent a lot of dumb stuff. The group of attractive women hand delivering the 3ds was a bit much and that didnt change there views on the 3DS any..... but I am sticking with my point on bastion.



If it wasnt ok for them to review it then it should have been left out of GOTY awards.

If jeff or brad is on and wants to tell me what changed in the last few months that there relationship with that games development hasnt changed there opinions on the game then please.... go ahead.

Why the fuck would Jeff or Brad personally explain to you something they already explained to everyone in one of the early GotY podcasts?
 
Seriously been a fan of these guys for years but this is the first year I have completely avoided their GOTY stuff - and now reading here that they gave it to Skyrim confirmed I won't even bother listening at all. I dunno what it was about this year but I just felt like all of their criticisms and thoughts of all games were "off". Putting aside the joke about Jeff's jadedness, it really does feel like they're looking at games in a very different way than years past. That's totally fine as they continue to grow as gamers and journalists, but it just means I've sort of lost interest in their site. I really don't like to play the "I don't like xxx cast member" card, but to me adding Patrick this year as a core member rather than just a news guy definitely broke something for me.

Ah well.

edit: actually, can I ask to anyone who listened to their final dilberations, did they at least bring up the whole Skyrim PS3 thing? did they say why that didn't factor into their decision?
 
but the open world part of SR3 just doesn't do it for me and doesn't even smack as very open worldy. In GTA I love getting into car chases and just exploring the world they created. not once did I consider doing that in SR3.

Chases in SR3 are fun as hell, especially since it gives some incentive to put yourself in danger to get respect. Now I'm not only getting in chases, but making sure I'm in oncoming lanes getting near misses.

In GTA4 I hated the chases. Randomly flying out of your windshield pretty much screwed you over, though San Andreas was amazing here. I really hope GTA5 goes back to the crazy style.
 
I think you are one those people people that Jeff said he struggles to suppress his want to kill - congrats, that happens once a year!

actually I remember Jeff went off on me on here saying that maybe they should try using Kessler differently since people just get pissed off when he is doing quick looks.

His reply was basically something like "well you guys just hate new people" and he didnt read most of my post which was funny in its own way I guess.

then in a jar time released that week he made that comment about wanting to kill random internet guys ... I like to think he was talking about me.

It felt weird. lol.

Why the fuck would Jeff or Brad personally explain to you something they already explained to everyone in one of the early GotY podcasts?

yes someone else mentioned that they talked about it in one of there podcasts... I will get around to it. I look forward to that discussion.
 
If it wasnt ok for them to review it then it should have been left out of GOTY awards.

If jeff or brad is on and wants to tell me what changed in the last few months that there relationship with that games development hasnt changed then please.... go ahead.

Or if its mentioned in any of the GOTY podcasts I will probably listen to it eventually.

If you can't figure this out by yourself I doubt any explanation they give will help you much... but yes, they do elaborate on this.
 
Just realized Mortal Kombat was nowhere to be seen. I'm surprised Jeff didn't make a case for it for somewhere on the top 10 (though I haven't listened to the overall GOTY podcast yet).
 
Just saw, the Top 10 video...some surprising picks in there, but it was easy to predict the top 3. Can't wait to listen to their podcast deliberations to hear the reasoning behind the decisions.

I would've thought they'd have L.A. Noire and Batman ranked higher given the hype earlier in the year. Surprised to see Dead Space 2 and Witcher 2 so high though, since it seemed like only Brad played DS2 and Vinny Witcher 2.

All-in-all, a pretty stacked year for games.
 
Just realized Mortal Kombat was nowhere to be seen. I'm surprised Jeff didn't make a case for it for somewhere on the top 10 (though I haven't listened to the overall GOTY podcast yet).

LOTS of discussion on this in the cast. Won't spoil it for you, but good rationales here from them on it.
 
Brad kept coming back to saying that nobody is doing what Bethesda is doing, which kind of makes me think that whenever a Bethesda game is released it's an automatic GOTY for him, nevermind how broken it is, because it's big and nobody else is doing games that big.

Also, if "Nobody is doing this" is a valid argument for the #1 spot, what's with LA Noire being so low?

Also also, who else is doing an open world game where you
run around as a toilet killing tron-people?
 
Just realized Mortal Kombat was nowhere to be seen. I'm surprised Jeff didn't make a case for it for somewhere on the top 10 (though I haven't listened to the overall GOTY podcast yet).

Yeah, good call. I figured it would've been a shoe-in for those guys. Also surprised Jeff wasn't able to get Trackmania somewhere in there through sheer force of will.
 
Oh look funkystudent up in here with a whole lot of jabs at Giant Bomb that they explain themselves. And the fucking Skyrim statue again, good fucking god can you not be so dense about it? Give it a rest please.
 
Overall I think their top 10 list is fine, but of the games I played I'm surprised to see Dead Space 2 ahead of Batman Arkham City. DS2 was a fine shooter to blast thru once and never touch again, but BAC was a much deeper and rewarding experience. And it had a far better story and characters.
 
Listening to the deliberations now. Brad is so full of shit. Every single argument he makes against Saint's Row can be made, unmodified, against the game he's championing against it.
 
Brad absolutely nails it in saying that Saint's Row is an average open world game with some insanity thrown in. The best that can be said about all the game parts of that game is that they're competent.
That's more than I would say about the "game parts" of Skyrim.
 
Overall I think their top 10 list is fine, but of the games I played I'm surprised to see Dead Space 2 ahead of Batman Arkham City. DS2 was a fine shooter to blast thru once and never touch again, but BAC was a much deeper and rewarding experience. And it had a far better story and characters.

Apart from better characters, I can say the same for DS2. Point is that it's up to whichever genre you prefer.
 
then in a jar time released that week he made that comment about wanting to kill random internet guys ... I like to think he was talking about me.

It felt weird. lol.

God you are so shit. Like seriously shit.

"Hai guyz I dissed Jeff on GAF and now he's CALLING ME OUT on jar time ga-huh"

Your commentary isn't even valid because you're so clearly retarded and don't accept the reality that is so blatantly in front of you. I'm fine with different views on GB, because I voice things I'd like to see different about the site etc, but you're not even being remotely reasonable.

I hope you don't get DUNKED, because that would just inflate your misguided self worth even further.
 
Listening to the deliberations now. Brad is so full of shit. Every single argument he makes against Saint's Row can be made, unmodified, against the game he's championing against it.

I notice this with him a lot. He's really harsh on certain aspects but then heralds another game that suffers for just as much stuff.
 
Listening to the deliberations now. Brad is so full of shit. Every single argument he makes against Saint's Row can be made, unmodified, against the game he's championing against it.

This exactly. I laughed out loud when he said "That game is not technically perfect" against Saints Row.

While defending Skyrim.
 
This exactly. I laughed out loud when he said "That game is not technically perfect" against Saints Row.

While defending Skyrim.

I facepalmed when he tried to argue that the combat in Saint's Row was just average, while he was defending the world heavyweight champion of godawful combat.
 
Brad absolutely nails it in saying that Saint's Row is an average open world game with some insanity thrown in. The best that can be said about all the game parts of that game is that they're competent.

Skyrim is very competent when it comes to "game parts"? That's kind of hilarious, all things considered.

EDIT: So basically the final bout for GotY was throwing stones from a glass house I take it.
 
Listening to the deliberations now. Brad is so full of shit. Every single argument he makes against Saint's Row can be made, unmodified, against the game he's championing against it.

Can I just come out and say it? I'm totally a Brad fan, but I think he's an idiot. Not an idiot for having his own opinions and thoughts, but an idiot for completely missing obvious points and ignoring others' ideas. It comes off pretty strongly in the podcast that he's usually bored, sleeping, or asking if they can take a break or end the podcast unless it's his turn to talk. And the others just seem to let it go because it'd be a waste of time to point it out or correct it. It's really weird that he sleeps through a year of conversation but then lashes out during GOTY like a gaf fanboy.
 
Kind of surprised at the complete absence of LittleBigPlanet 2. Guess it just goes to show the quality and breadth of games released this year.
 
Skyrim is very competent when it comes to "game parts"? That's kind of hilarious, all things considered.

EDIT: So basically the final bout for GotY was throwing stones from a glass house I take it.

Kinda. I am not really mad because it's just their opinion it just seems baffling especially when you consider the individual lists.

I played 20 hours of Skyrim (basically until it was unplayable for me on PS3) and it just didn't grab me like Oblivion did. It is technically better but not as much as some people say it is and I didn't really care about most of the story stuff. Like jeff said nothing I have seen is as good as Dark Brotherhood from Oblivion.
 
I swear with all this random internet hate for me just expressing my opinion I think I know how a reviewer feels when they give a popular game a 8 instead of a 9.

I dont hate giantbomb............Quick looks are still fun.



so.... dead space 2 is really good huh? I liked the first one but skipped the second. I might have to get it.
 
I swear with all this random internet hate for me just expressing my opinion I think I know how a reviewer feels when they give a popular game a 8 instead of a 9.

I dont hate giantbomb............Quick looks are still fun.



so.... dead space 2 is really good huh? I liked the first one but skipped the second. I might have to get it.

Driving by and making dumb comments is what gets you hate, not "expressing your opinion". Talking about moneyhatting, demanding explanations that have already been given, and then ignoring when that is pointed out.

You're a bad poster - has nothing to do with your hate or love of giant bomb.
 
If Bayonetta was disqualified for a crappy PS3 version, Skyrim should be disqualified as well.
It's disappointing that nobody pushed back on Brad harder. :(
 
I swear with all this random internet hate for me just expressing my opinion I think I know how a reviewer feels when they give a popular game a 8 instead of a 9.

But obviously I could change your mind about the hate if I sent you an awesome statue of something that you liked.
 
Kinda. I am not really mad because it's just their opinion it just seems baffling especially when you consider the individual lists.

I played 20 hours of Skyrim (basically until it was unplayable for me on PS3) and it just didn't grab me like Oblivion did. It is technically better but not as much as some people say it is and I didn't really care about most of the story stuff. Like jeff said nothing I have seen is as good as Dark Brotherhood from Oblivion.

The sad thing is the Dark Brotherhood Oblivion quests aren't even a high mark in quest design, they're just so far beyond Bethesda's usual generic quest structure through the simple act of giving the player some semblance of variety through the bonus objectives that people think they're amazing. Those quests also showed that Bethesda can do more than simple fetch quests, which Skyrim is 99% made of. So they basically heard all the praise for the DB and did jackshit with it in the sequel.
 
I really want to listen to the top ten deliberation podcast, but I can't because I'm sure they go into spoilers for SR3, which I haven't played yet, and Skyrim, which I've only played for 30 hours and need to restart.

Can anyone give me a quick summary?
 
The sad thing is the Dark Brotherhood Oblivion quests aren't even a high mark in quest design, they're just so far beyond Bethesda's usual generic quest structure through the simple act of giving the player some semblance of variety through the bonus objectives that people think they're amazing. Those quests also showed that Bethesda can do more than simple fetch quests, which Skyrim is 99% made of. So they basically heard all the praise for the DB and did jackshit with it in the sequel.

I agree with you, especially about the fetch quest part. Though I think they did better with Fallout 3 but there I think the better speech part made up for it.
 
jeff: "i love busted games."
jeff: (paraphrased) "dark souls is busted, it's not good."

goddamnit.

I think he spelled out the exact things he didn’t like about the busted bits in Dark Souls versus other games.

And he talked quite a bit about the busted bits in Skyrim (360/PC) that shouldn’t be excused when trying to push Saints Row to #1.

The dude just doesn’t like a lot of stuff in Dark Souls. that’s just the way it is. I don’t think anything he said ended up feeling hypocritical.

I do find it interesting how Dark Souls has found its way onto almost all the guest top 10 lists on the site this year. There’s obviously a bunch of people who like it and they’re getting front page space on the site.
 
I think Jeff and Vinny did as well as they could, but Ryan really fucked them over in the end.

Brad's arguments against Saints could be thrown back into his face, and hammered down by the PS3 version being broken!!! They had him on the back heel when he attempted to bring sales figures into the argument.
 
But obviously I could change your mind about the hate if I sent you an awesome statue of something that you liked.

totally.

if giantbomb sent me a live sized Vinny statue I would be posting like crazy about how much I love them and will give them the funkystudent website of the year award.



But seriously... let the statue thing go. No I do now think the skyrim stature was stuffed full of money. jesus.

Maybe I should go back to see how that post originally went down a few weeks ago when I mentioned it. I think I wasnt on here for a while after it and I get the feeling it stuck a chord with some of you.
 
I swear with all this random internet hate for me just expressing my opinion

Everyone is entitled to opinions, although what you are posting here is more rant filled conspiracy theories would not be out of place on the History Channel. It is not just the Bastion thing, but you almost seem to have some kind ofvendetta against the site, as ever second post seems to devolve into over-thought Da Vinci code 'logic' as to why some little facet of the site is flawed in some insignificant way.
 
Is that any different from other years?

Like they admit, they have to rip apart great (I use that term from their perspective on SR3, not mine) games that really they all love.

Um...? I don't get this.

Brad kept coming back to saying that nobody is doing what Bethesda is doing,

He's never seen a MMORPG before?

Huge, poorly crafted worlds (relatively speaking) filled to the brim with quests, items, dungeons, etc. Trade off strong narratives for an amusement park-like approach. Manipulative hooks to get people into doing a ton of quests(and in this case turning map exploration into another progress bar to grind on - gotta turn those symbols white! Gotta clear all these dungeons that suddenly appeared on my map!). Full of filler and repetitive fights(how many draugar do you really need to kill?), and also extremely limited in what it can accomplish in terms of encounter design and cinematic moments. It even has that "launch" / new world for telling stories hype like a MMO. No online and no deep end-game content(ideally when combat stops sucking), but in return you get low(Fallout 3-ish) levels of RPG story manipulation and less grinding(also less patching of balance breaking builds).

It really isn't very special considering making an online MMORPG is a lot more difficult (and more risky) than an offline imitation of one.

I think it's ridiculous to 'punish' Bethesda for a buggy game. The fact is that nobody is making games as complex as Bethesda makes them nowadays, and I'll take something as dense as Skyrim and make do with the bugs instead of something as linear and streamlined as 95% of games on the market today.

Holy fuck. LOL


EDIT:

On "busted" games: Jeff is very easy to understand. He doesn't like games which challenge you more than their suppose to. Dark Souls, Catherine, etc. If a game is weird to him, but doesn't kick his ass, he is totally cool with it.
 
Wasn't Bayonetta disqualified from discussion last year just because the PS3 version was bad? Skyrim PS3 is way worse than Bayonetta PS3 ever was.

Am I remembering wrong? I could have just read it somewhere and confused it with being a memory.

If this is true Giant Bomb has reached new levels of hypocrisy.
 
Brad's arguments against Saints could be thrown back into his face, and hammered down by the PS3 version being broken!!! They had him on the back heel when he attempted to bring sales figures into the argument.

That is true, but man Ryan's reason for voting for Skyrim is fucking insane. He loves the game so much that he is mad at there not being more game for him to play, so he gives a vote to Skyrim because it seems more dense even though he hasn't played it. Totally fucking mind boggling.
 
If this is true Giant Bomb has reached new levels of hypocrisy.

It's 100% true, but it was for multiplatform game. Still, it was literally like "PS3 version is busted, pass". And we're talking some loading times and framerate issues. Compared to Skyrim, Bayonetta is a programming masterpiece.
 
Listening to the podcast, I'm sure Brad wouldn't have been so adamant against Saints Row's deserved win if he didn't suck at games.

The complaints about dying during gunfights, not having AI buddies work properly...it just reminds me of the terrible quicklooks where he's just playing wrong.
 
Hmmm, I recall Bayonetta and Vanquish being dismissed immediately with one breath when it down to 8-9 games, like "Nope, these can't win". I don't recall any real comment though.
 
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