Giant Bomb |GOTY 2018| Cowboys vs. Gods
- Thread starter Death Metalist
- Start date
Links to timestamps in the OP. I believe that would be day 5
Wow for some reason I looked everywhere for timestamps except the OP of this thread. What a dunce.
Thanks!
I agree... but I think it gives him a different perspective which is nice to have.
I enjoyed this year's discussions more than last year. Most hilarious thing was of course Brad vs Dan on Most Dissapointing. I was willing to bet money that Brad was going to reach across the table and smack Dan right in the face if he ever said the words "Red Dead" ever again.
Also, man, fuck the Abby and Ben haters lmaooooo
Just finished Day 2 (finally). My commute is really cut down for the next week or two, so I'm slogging my way through these podcasts far slower than I had anticipated.
One thing I will say, I'm really impressed with Ben in these so far. To be honest, I normally can't stand his sense of humour when he's on camera or in a Quick Look, but I've think so far he's been very well spoken and had excellent contributions to the overall discussion. I'd love to see more of this Ben on camera, too.
As expected, a lot of the discussion about Abby's involvement in GotY is super overblown. She's fine. She hasn't been my favourite person on the panel by far and it does seem like she'll speak over people fairly often, but I really don't see what people are getting angry about. Still, I find her the opposite of Ben in that I far prefer her personality and humour in a video format.
Really wish Jason was more vocal - he's one of my favourite contributors to Giant Bomb and I'd love to hear more from him. Him "driving" the Quick Look for Dead Cells resulted in probably my favourite QL of 2018.
One thing I will say, I'm really impressed with Ben in these so far. To be honest, I normally can't stand his sense of humour when he's on camera or in a Quick Look, but I've think so far he's been very well spoken and had excellent contributions to the overall discussion. I'd love to see more of this Ben on camera, too.
As expected, a lot of the discussion about Abby's involvement in GotY is super overblown. She's fine. She hasn't been my favourite person on the panel by far and it does seem like she'll speak over people fairly often, but I really don't see what people are getting angry about. Still, I find her the opposite of Ben in that I far prefer her personality and humour in a video format.
Really wish Jason was more vocal - he's one of my favourite contributors to Giant Bomb and I'd love to hear more from him. Him "driving" the Quick Look for Dead Cells resulted in probably my favourite QL of 2018.
Finally got to their most disappointing segment and I'm confused as to why Vinny, Jan and Jason are voting with putting Red Dead 2 on the list.
Dan has spoken his mind and makes perfect sense, to him it was the most disappointing game of the year if not the generation because of his expectations from the first.
Vinny has admittedly said he hasn't played much but likes the game, Jeff has clearly said he doesnt like the movement etc.
Jason hasn't spoken much about his time with the game same as Jan. I dont even think Jan has mentioned playing the game at all.I feel like Dan's argument have found counterparts with Abby, Brad, Ben and Alex. His strong disappointment is somewhat countered by the 4 of them being so high on the game. The other 3 seem to only be voicing their opinions on it because Dan is so high on it. If more people who played it deeply more genuinely disappointed in it, it would make sense for it to be on the list, but I truly only count Dan and Jeff versus the other 4 with Vinny, Jan and Jason only picking it to side with Dan over their own playtime (or lack thereof).
Heated discussion though, next is Game of the Year
Dan has spoken his mind and makes perfect sense, to him it was the most disappointing game of the year if not the generation because of his expectations from the first.
Vinny has admittedly said he hasn't played much but likes the game, Jeff has clearly said he doesnt like the movement etc.
Jason hasn't spoken much about his time with the game same as Jan. I dont even think Jan has mentioned playing the game at all.I feel like Dan's argument have found counterparts with Abby, Brad, Ben and Alex. His strong disappointment is somewhat countered by the 4 of them being so high on the game. The other 3 seem to only be voicing their opinions on it because Dan is so high on it. If more people who played it deeply more genuinely disappointed in it, it would make sense for it to be on the list, but I truly only count Dan and Jeff versus the other 4 with Vinny, Jan and Jason only picking it to side with Dan over their own playtime (or lack thereof).
Heated discussion though, next is Game of the Year
RDR2 talk was just obnoxious (both for and against). Not that interesting of a year for discussions imo. Not a fan of the new format.
Also, I just do not understand the praise Obra Dinn gets for its story. It's very plain and simple and uninteresting. The joy of the game lies in its puzzle solving logic. It's also not an "insurance game". Ben used that term way too many times.
Best Music category continues to be bad.
Abby's criticisms of GoW were nothing new and merited some discussion (even though I personally disagree). There were tons of articles on this subject soon after the game's release with the exact same talking points raised by Abby. Not sure why people were incredulous that it was brought up. Vinny did an okay job arguing the other way I feel but everyone else was disengaged.
Also, I just do not understand the praise Obra Dinn gets for its story. It's very plain and simple and uninteresting. The joy of the game lies in its puzzle solving logic. It's also not an "insurance game". Ben used that term way too many times.
Best Music category continues to be bad.
Abby's criticisms of GoW were nothing new and merited some discussion (even though I personally disagree). There were tons of articles on this subject soon after the game's release with the exact same talking points raised by Abby. Not sure why people were incredulous that it was brought up. Vinny did an okay job arguing the other way I feel but everyone else was disengaged.
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I'm totally sympathetic with Dan, RDR1 was one of my favorite games of last gen and RDR2 bored me to tears. I know its alot of the same stuff, but that's probably part of the problem.
Do you mean the female characters stuff? I was kind of surprised Vinny was so incredulous about that. Has he really never heard of the "women in refrigerators" trope before?
Admittedly, I wish Abby had better articulated her thoughts on that subject in the moment, but I completely understood where she was coming from.
Yes those ones. You're right that Vinny was also taken back by the criticism and could have handled them better but I think he also did an okay job at rebutting them. Just would have been nice to hear others opinions for or against as well. I personally don't think the fridged critique applies here and nor is the use of a trope necessarily a negative either. I think that happened way too many times in discussions in general where something was labelled to employ a trope and dismissed. Tropes are just a story telling short hand and can be used well.
Dan getting red dead onto the most disappointing list of his greatest achievement in life. He's also right.
I disagreed with Abby's take on that as well. The one major female character in god of war was well developed and powerful. A mother choosing her son's life over her own doesn't just scream sexism to me, most mother's would make the same decision and kratos wife's death being off screen and from natural causes pregame doesn't really seem like fridging. There were barely any characters in the game period. I don't think GoW 2018 really fits the criticims abby was making.
I disagreed with Abby's take on that as well. The one major female character in god of war was well developed and powerful. A mother choosing her son's life over her own doesn't just scream sexism to me, most mother's would make the same decision and kratos wife's death being off screen and from natural causes pregame doesn't really seem like fridging. There were barely any characters in the game period. I don't think GoW 2018 really fits the criticims abby was making.
I'm not sure how convincing the argument would have been, but I thought it was a conversation worth having. Tropes aren't bad in and of themselves (just like something failing the Bechdel Test doesn't make it bad) but there's nothing wrong with discussing or interrogating how those tropes are employed. It seemed like Abby's point was that there are barely any characters in the game, and the only two women die offscreen, or ask to die on screen, as motivation for the men's stories, and that rubbed her the wrong way. I think it could have been a better discussion, but it was kind of stalled from the beginning when Vinny questioned whether any of what Abby was bringing up even happened the way she said it did and she seemed to get a bit flustered while explaining herself. But as Window pointed out, nobody else at the table seemed particularly interested in it, so it probably wouldn't have gone very far anyway.
Yes absolutely, it could have been interesting listening if they dug into it deeper. I think discussions in these talks are largely uninteresting because they rarely ever care to consider narrative/mechanics/art in a larger scope beyond the surface. Most of it is about bugs, menus, how good something looked, how emotional it got someone etc (okay I'm being a bit unfair here). Those points obviously matter but emotional resonance is the base requirement for any work to be a favourite and is largely the same across all favourite works so hearing the same thing again and again is uninteresting. There's quick throwayay comments about how Donut County is about gentrification but that's the extent of it. I think some speakers have their moments where they do a good job of diving deeper and breaking down the narrative's overarching themes (like Vinny and Abby at times or Brad when he's not being hyperbolic) but many others just don't. I think hearing passion again and again is boring if you cannot articulate what makes this experience especially resonant or interesting vs others.
I had this same thought. I wonder when the last time he played it start to finish was? The shooting is just as bad and there's the same amount, if not more. Those turret missions come to mind.
Some of the animations take longer in RDR2 but the world and characters are a thousand times more interactive.
Shrug
I think his point that games have evolved a lot in the last 8 or so years is solid. Like, yes, 1:1 RDR2 is a better game than RDR1, but RDR1 in 2010 was probably a better/funner game than RDR2 in 2018 to some people, if that makes any sense.
I think they need to do something about the style and best looking categories as they kept getting them mixed up.
Yeah. I disagree with Dan, but just because he liked RDR1 doesn't make his criticisms of RDR2 invalid
It isn't solid because he can't even articulate what he wanted. The point about the movement and feel of the game not having adhered to the evolution of gaming is completely wrong - the developers made a conscious choice for the controls and feel to be as they are. If he disagrees with that artistic choice, then make the point that the game was failed by it. Brad makes compelling arguments why it is how it is and why it wouldn't have the atmosphere and sense of purpose it does without it, and Dan never has any counter to that other than that he didn't like it. Which is fine, he doesn't like it, but when Brad is illustrating how say - for example - the game controlling like Max Payne 3 would in turn ruin the vision of the game, Dan having nothing in return does not make for a good conversation. He just came off like a wailing kid.
Yeah, I don't think Dan did the best job of making his point, but it was clear his passion and disappointment was genuine. I started that discussion on the side that putting RDR2 on the most disappointed list, but by the end it just felt like Alex and Brad were being stubborn and petty. It's not like Dan was insisting it be number 1, but having it be in the top 3 of a list that is supposed to encompass the entirety of Giant Bomb's 2018 as a whole, between Dan's incredibly passionate disappointment and other members of the site (Vinny, Jason, it sounded like Jan was also bummed by it but I'm not sure if that was more of a Jeff like thing where he never liked it to begin with) being disappointed to varying degrees, for a game as huge and highly anticipated as RDR2 was, to have that represented on the most disappointed list seemed super fair.
Sometimes these awards end up in an awkward middle ground where they are titanically long, and yet it feels like almost nothing gets an in depth conversation. Possibly because they have to spend a lot of time talking about awards on a meta level and what the definition of "is" is every year.
Not that I'm complaining. I enjoy hearing these discussions a lot, warts and all.
Those two always do get mixed up (that was part of the drama from last year) but it seems fairly simple from my perspective as basically meaning "best visuals" and "best execution of a unified aesthetic (preferably while being cool)". If it were 2004's awards, Half-Life 2 or MGS3 probably wins best looking, but Katamari Damacy wins Best Styyyyle in a walk. But depending on the year, there can be a lot of overlap (Cuphead), so maybe they need to tweak the wording somehow.
I'm not a big rockstar guy, GTA4 was the first one I owned (GTA was basically the one restriction my folks had) and I hatted it due to how clunky it felt to play. When GTA5 came out I was skeptical that I could get into it but that game felt far less clunky to me. I was right with Dan that he is 100% in the right to expect red dead to evolve with the times.
I wonder if Vinny will end up liking RDR2 if he plays it more. I remember no one stood up for The Witcher 3 in 2015 but after Vinny played it he had nothing but high praise for it.
I finally finished this, and I think that the new format is good. I like the discussion format for the first three days since it gives everyone time to lay out their thoughts without having to immediately think about kneecapping competing games.
I will say that it was kinda lame that Jeff was so irritated with all the RDR2 talk like it wasn't a massive game of the generation-type release. I only had it at four on my personal list (though I would never personally place it below trash like God of War), so I got why it might not be placed #1 on anyone's list, but I do think that it is a dense game that makes a whole lot of interesting choices that are going to ultimately take up time to discuss.
On the other hand, they were in that room for like eight hours a day, so I do kinda get his impatience from that perspective.
Brad is usually a dude that will viciously fight for something he really believes in, like Destiny at #10, but man, was he worn down at the end of the RDR2 fight. This is the first year where I think that I've been on his side in one of these big fights over a game, so probably this was my fault and I cursed it.
He definitely loves new games, I think, but his favorite stuff had no chance of getting on this list outside of Tetris Effect. I was just upset that he gave up so quickly on Celeste, as he seemed to really like it and it was easily better than about six of the games that did get on the final list. He seemed to make a prudent choice because he knew that he couldn't get both Cod Blops and Celeste onto the list, so he went with the game that he liked more.
I agree with this.
"It's not gonna hang" and "[X] has/have so much passion for it" are two phrases that probably should be banned. I'm not sure that they do much to promote discussion.
They also need someone like Austin Walker to draw that sort of thing out. Abby is pretty good at this, but when she starts talking about anything from a feminist perspective, the room just gets confused as fuck IMO and then everybody kinda just moves past it.
I will say that it was kinda lame that Jeff was so irritated with all the RDR2 talk like it wasn't a massive game of the generation-type release. I only had it at four on my personal list (though I would never personally place it below trash like God of War), so I got why it might not be placed #1 on anyone's list, but I do think that it is a dense game that makes a whole lot of interesting choices that are going to ultimately take up time to discuss.
On the other hand, they were in that room for like eight hours a day, so I do kinda get his impatience from that perspective.
Brad is usually a dude that will viciously fight for something he really believes in, like Destiny at #10, but man, was he worn down at the end of the RDR2 fight. This is the first year where I think that I've been on his side in one of these big fights over a game, so probably this was my fault and I cursed it.
He definitely loves new games, I think, but his favorite stuff had no chance of getting on this list outside of Tetris Effect. I was just upset that he gave up so quickly on Celeste, as he seemed to really like it and it was easily better than about six of the games that did get on the final list. He seemed to make a prudent choice because he knew that he couldn't get both Cod Blops and Celeste onto the list, so he went with the game that he liked more.
I agree with this.
"It's not gonna hang" and "[X] has/have so much passion for it" are two phrases that probably should be banned. I'm not sure that they do much to promote discussion.
They also need someone like Austin Walker to draw that sort of thing out. Abby is pretty good at this, but when she starts talking about anything from a feminist perspective, the room just gets confused as fuck IMO and then everybody kinda just moves past it.
That disappointed me for sure. I didn't expect or even necessarily want everyone to agree with all of Abby's points, but it was odd to me that they couldn't even comprehend them. I get that she's not the greatest at explaining things sometimes, but the idea that the guys in the room just kinda looked blankly at it was disappointing.
I finally finished my listen. I wouldn't have gone with Tetris, but I respect it. I still need to try Dead Cells.
Boy it got tense there for a bit. Ben telling people not to put words in his mouth. Vinnie passively aggressively suggesting Brad was calling him an idiot. Abbey had a little viper. Jeff was just like "fuck it" a few times. That impassioned argument about whether or not Red Dead 2 was cock and balls or the greatest game ever. They had me rolling in my car.
Boy it got tense there for a bit. Ben telling people not to put words in his mouth. Vinnie passively aggressively suggesting Brad was calling him an idiot. Abbey had a little viper. Jeff was just like "fuck it" a few times. That impassioned argument about whether or not Red Dead 2 was cock and balls or the greatest game ever. They had me rolling in my car.
Im just playing red dead now so i cant speak much to it, but i do think there was enough dissapointment within that group for red dead to be on that list. I totally get why brad and alex were so adamant it wouldnt make it on there, but ultimatley dans passion for it along with majority agreement by the others made it an appropriate choice. I didnt like that alex and brad in particular got so salty about it especially when they tried to play the voting rules against dan then ignored them themselves
Yeah, when dan brought that up they knew they were fucked. I hope Brad's Destiny bullshit haunts him for years to come
Finally got around to listening to these (I wanted to finish Red Dead first, glad I did because I definitely would have been spoiled!)
I'm through Day 3 so just getting to the voting part now. I'm of two minds on the change in format. It's maybe not the most entertaining listen, but it's much less frustrating to listen to than some of the arguments I'm sure I'm about to hear. At least that's confined to two days now instead of all five...
Some other thoughts:
- Cutting the number of categories down to 10 was smart. "Best World" from last year was probably the lowest point of last year's deliberations, maybe of any year's deliberations. Alex clearly didn't get across to everyone what this was supposed to be about, and with Jeff and Brad having exact opposite interpretations, it was just brutal. There have been some bad takes over the years that I disagreed with vehemently, but they never should have even pressed "Record" on that. I like this move.
- After struggling a bit last year (I think mostly because it was her first time participating), Abby has been great so far this year. And hasn't just shown huge improvement over last year, but also from day-to-day this year. I also think it's worth calling out that not only does she play a number of games that no one else did - this adds a lot of value to the discussion on its own - but she almost certainly played the most games out of everyone in the room, and brings something to each discussion. I think it's great that she's not afraid to say she doesn't like the way Dead Cells or PUBG plays in a room full of people who feel the opposite. I appreciate knowing where everyone stands.
- Genuinely surprised at the lack of enthusiasm for Celeste, especially from Dan. Also was a little surprised at Astro Bot having you look around the environment for hidden robots being brought up as a negative. I thought that was one of the things that most-enhanced the VR experience and got me more engaged in the action. I wasn't moving around a whole lot, but I also just wasn't sitting there doing nothing. I do agree with Vinny that they could have improved the camera somewhat by having it back up if you went back the other way. I don't think that would have broken the experience or anything like that. Though to be honest once I missed a couple hidden robots in the first few stages, I paid way more attention to my surroundings the rest of the way, and rarely had to replay a level because I missed one.
- I had caught some of the stuff earlier in the thread about the God of War discussion with Vinny and Abby. Seemed a bit overblown to me. I think Abby had some fair points regarding the treatment and portrayal of women in the game. I agreed with some of it, disagreed with one point in particular, and it felt like the room reacted accordingly. I thought Vinny made some valid counter points and I thought everyone stayed respectful and nobody's views were dismissed out of hand. Bringing up the Valkyries was a bit of a stretch; I think Abby misread that part and I think that hurt her argument a bit. But as she pointed out, in a game with so few female characters and she had issues with how they were written, it's understandable how she'd reach that conclusion.
- The more confounding part of the God of War discussion was Brad (and Jeff to a lesser extent). First was over-blowing how much the game made reference to the original trilogy. Ben brought up the moment where Kratos went back home, and Brad's immediately like "well, that makes me not want to play the rest of the game!" as if Ben stated they dropped all of the Norse mythology and the rest of the game was Greek mythology again. That was quite the leap. And then knocking God of War for the faults of the PS4 Pro was also amusing. I agree with them that the performance mode should have been better (I also dropped it after a few minutes because it was too jittery for me), but there was a "lol console plebs" tone to their criticisms of 4K Mode. And then Brad's level of outrage about the fan noise was laughable.
- I'm totally with Dan on the Red Dead discussion. Loved the first game to death, saw and did every single thing I could. But just heartbroken by RDR2. Also one of the very few times Jeff has ripped a mostly well-received game and I happen to agree with him (Fallout 4 is probably the last time). Some of the debate still to come should be mighty interesting. It's definitely a split room, between those who were able to get over the game's faults and love what was there, and those who weren't. I'm also looking forward to hearing what comes up during "Best Story". I'm know in the minority as far as being disappointed in the game, but I think I'm also in the minority of that minority that didn't really think the story was all that great, either. Sounds like everyone at GB who finished it really liked it, though. The "emotional, optimistic tone" that it's been described as having, I didn't get any sense of that at all from its story. But I'm always up for hearing what Alex in particular thinks about a story. Maybe I'll at least start to see what everyone else saw in it.
On to Day 4...
I'm through Day 3 so just getting to the voting part now. I'm of two minds on the change in format. It's maybe not the most entertaining listen, but it's much less frustrating to listen to than some of the arguments I'm sure I'm about to hear. At least that's confined to two days now instead of all five...
Some other thoughts:
- Cutting the number of categories down to 10 was smart. "Best World" from last year was probably the lowest point of last year's deliberations, maybe of any year's deliberations. Alex clearly didn't get across to everyone what this was supposed to be about, and with Jeff and Brad having exact opposite interpretations, it was just brutal. There have been some bad takes over the years that I disagreed with vehemently, but they never should have even pressed "Record" on that. I like this move.
- After struggling a bit last year (I think mostly because it was her first time participating), Abby has been great so far this year. And hasn't just shown huge improvement over last year, but also from day-to-day this year. I also think it's worth calling out that not only does she play a number of games that no one else did - this adds a lot of value to the discussion on its own - but she almost certainly played the most games out of everyone in the room, and brings something to each discussion. I think it's great that she's not afraid to say she doesn't like the way Dead Cells or PUBG plays in a room full of people who feel the opposite. I appreciate knowing where everyone stands.
- Genuinely surprised at the lack of enthusiasm for Celeste, especially from Dan. Also was a little surprised at Astro Bot having you look around the environment for hidden robots being brought up as a negative. I thought that was one of the things that most-enhanced the VR experience and got me more engaged in the action. I wasn't moving around a whole lot, but I also just wasn't sitting there doing nothing. I do agree with Vinny that they could have improved the camera somewhat by having it back up if you went back the other way. I don't think that would have broken the experience or anything like that. Though to be honest once I missed a couple hidden robots in the first few stages, I paid way more attention to my surroundings the rest of the way, and rarely had to replay a level because I missed one.
- I had caught some of the stuff earlier in the thread about the God of War discussion with Vinny and Abby. Seemed a bit overblown to me. I think Abby had some fair points regarding the treatment and portrayal of women in the game. I agreed with some of it, disagreed with one point in particular, and it felt like the room reacted accordingly. I thought Vinny made some valid counter points and I thought everyone stayed respectful and nobody's views were dismissed out of hand. Bringing up the Valkyries was a bit of a stretch; I think Abby misread that part and I think that hurt her argument a bit. But as she pointed out, in a game with so few female characters and she had issues with how they were written, it's understandable how she'd reach that conclusion.
- The more confounding part of the God of War discussion was Brad (and Jeff to a lesser extent). First was over-blowing how much the game made reference to the original trilogy. Ben brought up the moment where Kratos went back home, and Brad's immediately like "well, that makes me not want to play the rest of the game!" as if Ben stated they dropped all of the Norse mythology and the rest of the game was Greek mythology again. That was quite the leap. And then knocking God of War for the faults of the PS4 Pro was also amusing. I agree with them that the performance mode should have been better (I also dropped it after a few minutes because it was too jittery for me), but there was a "lol console plebs" tone to their criticisms of 4K Mode. And then Brad's level of outrage about the fan noise was laughable.
- I'm totally with Dan on the Red Dead discussion. Loved the first game to death, saw and did every single thing I could. But just heartbroken by RDR2. Also one of the very few times Jeff has ripped a mostly well-received game and I happen to agree with him (Fallout 4 is probably the last time). Some of the debate still to come should be mighty interesting. It's definitely a split room, between those who were able to get over the game's faults and love what was there, and those who weren't. I'm also looking forward to hearing what comes up during "Best Story". I'm know in the minority as far as being disappointed in the game, but I think I'm also in the minority of that minority that didn't really think the story was all that great, either. Sounds like everyone at GB who finished it really liked it, though. The "emotional, optimistic tone" that it's been described as having, I didn't get any sense of that at all from its story. But I'm always up for hearing what Alex in particular thinks about a story. Maybe I'll at least start to see what everyone else saw in it.
On to Day 4...
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I gave Red Dead 2 another shot solely on the passion of Brad, and I'm still so far on Dan's side it's not even close. I think it's really great that Brad found a game that hit him so hard that he wants to evangelize for it, but every time I've come across the moments that he describes as being so significant I kind of find myself feeling like they're a little flat.
Brad outright refusing to hear Dan at all on most disappointing for Red Dead but wanting to drop GoW entirely from visuals because he had an issue with the 4k mode is egregious in retrospect. I didn't even play GoW, but man, Brad was insufferable this year on RDR2 dissent.
Also, I was a little head scratchy at Tetris Effect getting the number 1 slot so easily having not played at the time, but I just bought it this weekend and have been playing with my girlfriend and it is easily one of the best games of last year. Pure joy.
Brad outright refusing to hear Dan at all on most disappointing for Red Dead but wanting to drop GoW entirely from visuals because he had an issue with the 4k mode is egregious in retrospect. I didn't even play GoW, but man, Brad was insufferable this year on RDR2 dissent.
Also, I was a little head scratchy at Tetris Effect getting the number 1 slot so easily having not played at the time, but I just bought it this weekend and have been playing with my girlfriend and it is easily one of the best games of last year. Pure joy.
Oh great, sounds like I've got a lot to look forward to, then, haha. 12 more hours to go!
Day 4 thoughts:
- Best Styyyyyyyyyyle: The "nobody likes a Sad Vinny" strategy paid off for him again! Was very surprised Gorogoa got on over Red Dead. He kinda mentioned it early and let everyone else tear the other contenders down....This is actually one of the categories where I think Red Dead deserved at least a nomination, though Brad lost me a bit when focusing on the cinematography. It was very filmic and impressive, but to me the game's style is so much more about how it captures the Old West in every respect. And I'm glad I wasn't the only person who groaned out loud when he brought of the "financial risks" of Rockstar making this game. That was ridiculous.
- Best Music: Not that Red Dead wasn't deserving here also, but I knew where it was going when someone wanted to hear some Red Dead music, and Alex and Brad were immediately all "let's save it for the end" and would have played every track from the game if Jeff didn't move them along. This happened again in "Best Moment" when the discussion about Strauss led into them describing practically every moment in the game.
- Best Debut: This has been the highlight of the deliberations so far. One of my gripes every year is that they spend so much time arguing about which game gets on the list at #3, and then immediately go "And [Game X] takes this, right?" and there's never really much of a rebuttal. God bless Abby, she's really been the MVP this year. If she never said "I'd actually go with Obra Dinn..." here, I'm almost 100% certain they would have just given this to Dead Cells without much of a push-back. I loved that they really debated the merits of all three nominees before they decided on a winner. They rarely do this outside of "Overall GOTY" and it was refreshing.
- Hottest Mess: Always a fun listen. I was never fooled by Todd Howard going on stage at E3. I never believed for one second that Fallout 76 was anything more than an afterthought for the main BGS team, so my expectations were always low (I also didn't really need another Fallout game at this point, nor did this seem like a Fallout game that I would have wanted anyways). I never would have expected it to win over the workplace issues, especially when you factor in what happened at Telltale. But man, they really sold me on it winning. What a comedy of errors. Vinny's joke about the bugs escaping from their games into real-life and Todd being stuck in a T-pose had me in tears.
- Best Moment or Sequence: Could not help but notice Vinny sounding really choked up when discussing Florence. Since it's a short game, I feel I have to check it out now. It seemed to have really resonated emotionally with everyone who played it....Brad has my head spinning in circles in regards to God of War. First he was disappointed a few days earlier in hearing how the game eventually starts to tie into the mythology of the original trilogy. Then in this category, he was disappointed when Ben suggested at the beginning of the game Baldur wasn't interested in Kratos' past as a Greek god, because he liked the mixing of the different mythologies. I'm so confused....Dan never ceases to amaze me. How do you not realize that the world serpent caused the water level to change? There's some other real obvious stuff in Red Dead that he missed too, getting major characters mixed up, etc. Though to be fair, Jeff "never even saw the T-Rex" in Mario Odyssey last year, so it's not like Dan's the only one who doesn't pay attention!
- Best Styyyyyyyyyyle: The "nobody likes a Sad Vinny" strategy paid off for him again! Was very surprised Gorogoa got on over Red Dead. He kinda mentioned it early and let everyone else tear the other contenders down....This is actually one of the categories where I think Red Dead deserved at least a nomination, though Brad lost me a bit when focusing on the cinematography. It was very filmic and impressive, but to me the game's style is so much more about how it captures the Old West in every respect. And I'm glad I wasn't the only person who groaned out loud when he brought of the "financial risks" of Rockstar making this game. That was ridiculous.
- Best Music: Not that Red Dead wasn't deserving here also, but I knew where it was going when someone wanted to hear some Red Dead music, and Alex and Brad were immediately all "let's save it for the end" and would have played every track from the game if Jeff didn't move them along. This happened again in "Best Moment" when the discussion about Strauss led into them describing practically every moment in the game.
- Best Debut: This has been the highlight of the deliberations so far. One of my gripes every year is that they spend so much time arguing about which game gets on the list at #3, and then immediately go "And [Game X] takes this, right?" and there's never really much of a rebuttal. God bless Abby, she's really been the MVP this year. If she never said "I'd actually go with Obra Dinn..." here, I'm almost 100% certain they would have just given this to Dead Cells without much of a push-back. I loved that they really debated the merits of all three nominees before they decided on a winner. They rarely do this outside of "Overall GOTY" and it was refreshing.
- Hottest Mess: Always a fun listen. I was never fooled by Todd Howard going on stage at E3. I never believed for one second that Fallout 76 was anything more than an afterthought for the main BGS team, so my expectations were always low (I also didn't really need another Fallout game at this point, nor did this seem like a Fallout game that I would have wanted anyways). I never would have expected it to win over the workplace issues, especially when you factor in what happened at Telltale. But man, they really sold me on it winning. What a comedy of errors. Vinny's joke about the bugs escaping from their games into real-life and Todd being stuck in a T-pose had me in tears.
- Best Moment or Sequence: Could not help but notice Vinny sounding really choked up when discussing Florence. Since it's a short game, I feel I have to check it out now. It seemed to have really resonated emotionally with everyone who played it....Brad has my head spinning in circles in regards to God of War. First he was disappointed a few days earlier in hearing how the game eventually starts to tie into the mythology of the original trilogy. Then in this category, he was disappointed when Ben suggested at the beginning of the game Baldur wasn't interested in Kratos' past as a Greek god, because he liked the mixing of the different mythologies. I'm so confused....Dan never ceases to amaze me. How do you not realize that the world serpent caused the water level to change? There's some other real obvious stuff in Red Dead that he missed too, getting major characters mixed up, etc. Though to be fair, Jeff "never even saw the T-Rex" in Mario Odyssey last year, so it's not like Dan's the only one who doesn't pay attention!