Your GOTY 2011 (poll added)

[Brother None]

No game this year deserves goty.

This statement makes absolutely no logical sense.

GOTY should be an award, not something that gets handed to "the least bad" game.

Yeah, that makes no sense. It's "game of the year". That's not an absolute valuation, it's a relative valuation. By definition, one game is always the best of the year, even if it's just the best from a pile of crap, as clercqer points out.

I often have to deal with this attitude from people refusing to understand what GotY means in context. We gave Fallout 3 the RPG of the Year on GameBanshee because there simply was no serious competitor that year. It was a bad year for RPGs, and Fallout 3 was the least bad. That's just how it works. It doesn't mean we think Fallout 3 was that good of a game.

 

[popej]

My point then, in response to the Op as a whole.

'Game of the year' is a flawed concept because the voting is always hopelessly skewed.

The only GoTY that matters is the game that you enjoyed the most.

Ie, Ignore GoTY awards from big multi-format magazines and gaming publications because they mean diddily squat.

I guess an argument could be made that specialised publications like 'RPGgamer' or this forum could give you a pretty idea of what you might like of course. Assuming you're subscribed to this forum because you like Fallout and the genre it shares with other games.

 

[mobucks]

but... thats what this thread is for. your GOTY. Not GameBanshee's or GameSpot's or SpikeTV's. There is only one vote, yours. Tell us.

 

[Brother None]

Oy, you dissing GameBanshee's GotY? We're specialists, Frithblessed specialists!

And busily discussing our candidates now.

 

[mobucks]

Whats GameBanshee?

 

[Ausdoerrt]

Another candidate from me: http://www.moddb.com/mods/circle-of-eight-modpack/downloads/circle-of-eight-modpack-700-nc

 

[Black]

I often have to deal with this attitude from people refusing to understand what GotY means in context. We gave Fallout 3 the RPG of the Year on GameBanshee because there simply was no serious competitor that year. It was a bad year for RPGs, and Fallout 3 was the least bad. That's just how it works. It doesn't mean we think Fallout 3 was that good of a game.

Yeah, YOU gave FO3 rpgoty, I didn't and I have the right to, since nowadays anyone can call goty.
It's the same with fo3 winning that one writing award, it got it because no one else cared enough to submit their games.

For me, goty isn't supposed to be "the least bad" but a game that pushes its genre forward, does almost everything right and is all around a great game.
Sure, it makes less sense if you want to be anal about it (but that's to be expected from bitter old men stuck in the ping pong era!) but consider this: if the newest "reimagination" of XCom would be the only game in 2012, you guys at GB would have to declare it GOTY and stuff.
How would you be able to live with yourselves then?

 

[Brother None]

if the newest "reimagination" of XCom would be the only game in 2012, you guys at GB would have to declare it GOTY and stuff.

Not really, because we only cover RPGs.

You don't have to name a Game of the Year, just recognize that your definition of "it has absolute value" is not actually used by anyone, and by forcing it on existing awards you're giving them meaning that they don't necessarily have.

 

[Black]

if the newest "reimagination" of XCom would be the only game in 2012, you guys at GB would have to declare it GOTY and stuff.

Not really, because we only cover RPGs.

But there are different weapons, characters, deep plot, skills and stuff, how is it not an rpg.

just recognize that your definition of "it has absolute value" is not actually used by anyone

Fine, I'm too cool for you guys anyway.

 

[popej]

but... thats what this thread is for. your GOTY. Not GameBanshee's or GameSpot's or SpikeTV's. There is only one vote, yours. Tell us.

Not sure if that was a response to me? Apologies if it wasn't.

My personal favourite game this year was Dark Souls by a country mile. It's the only time a console game has ever come out on top for me personally. I posted on the previous page.

 

[PainlessDocM]

This year wasn't that awful for gaming IMO.

The games I enjoyed most this year:

FPS: Hard Reset: amazing setting, challenging gameplay, beautiful graphics, high replay value thanks to the upgrade system and difficulty settings, devs who keep improving their game by listening to the community.

RTS: Anno 2070: deep, rewarding gameplay, futuristic setting breaths new life into the series, brilliant OST, beautiful visuals. This game is so good I decided to buy it despite having one of the worst DRM on the market.

RPG: Deus Ex HR: could be a lot better in the augmentation department and would have benefited immensely from having more quests in the hub areas. None the less I had a good time with Deus Ex HR and was often reminded of Bloodlines (unfortunately DEHR isn't nearly as good)

Adventure: Gemini Rue: it tried to bring back the adventure games of old, it doesn't succeed on all fronts (the UI, shooting mechanics and voice acting are pretty bad) but the story, characters and Beneath a steal sky/ Lucasfilm style graphics more than make up for its shortcomings.

Honourable mentions: Bastion, Frozen Synapse and the Witcher 2.

Scratch my previous nomination for LA Noire, I enjoyed that game but it became pretty monotonous past a certain point and it was never even vaguely challenging.

 

[Walpknut]

My Game of the Year is Catherine.
Good and quirky story, good art and general visual desing, high challenge, lots of variation to the gameplay (Babel) good multiplayer, very good gameplay with lots of possible techiques and exploits. etc. This game is ALMOST perfect, I would like some things aded here and there (mostly in the multiple endings) but the overall experience is pretty solid.
Arkham City fell down my list because the stupid CD kept failling after Redeeming the Catwoman code, fucking Catwoman, always ruining everything!!!!!

 

[Brother None]

Yeah, the number of great RPGs has been a little slim

Huh? I don't really recall any recent year with a better stable of RPGs than this one, even if all RPGs tend towards action-RPG.

 

[ZeusComplex]

I'll have to go with Terraria for my GOTY. I found it to be the most fun I've had in ages with any game out there. (at least those released this year specifically.) In concept, it's not too original, but the genre blending it did was very clever.

 

[eom]

from dark souls wiki:

The game was initially planned to be called Dark Race, "dark" in this instance denoting "cursed" people. However, the developer soon realised that the title could be taken as a racist reference. The producer subsequently tried to title it as Dark Lord but failed to get a trademark for it so they opted for Dark Ring.[7] However, just before the release, the developer realised that "dark ring" in British English is slang for "anus" and the title was changed to Dark Souls.[8]

 

[Brother None]

" Just before the release"? It was known as Dark Souls its entire PR span. Buuuuuullshit.

Funny story though.

 

[Multidirectional]

Surprising amount of games I really liked this year (or my standards are crumbling), but for the sheer overall pleasure I had while playing it "Batman Arkham City" is at the top of the list. I predicted it will be my GOTY before I actually got to play it though.

 

[eom]

No game this year deserves goty.

This statement makes absolutely no logical sense.

GOTY should be an award, not something that gets handed to "the least bad" game.

Yeah, that makes no sense. It's "game of the year". That's not an absolute valuation, it's a relative valuation. By definition, one game is always the best of the year, even if it's just the best from a pile of crap, as clercqer points out.

I often have to deal with this attitude from people refusing to understand what GotY means in context. We gave Fallout 3 the RPG of the Year on GameBanshee because there simply was no serious competitor that year. It was a bad year for RPGs, and Fallout 3 was the least bad. That's just how it works. It doesn't mean we think Fallout 3 was that good of a game.

seeing as how you're a gamebanshee pro, do you have an noteworthy crpg's from the last few years?
basically, I've hardly played anything --- maybe a couple games/year, and I just started checking out these steam sale games thinking I might try some older ones for 10 bucks, or whatever.

something like a more recent fallout, stalker, witcher, oblivion, bioshock, etc.
got any thumbnail reviews?

I played a ton of morrowind, although never finishing it, so I was on the fence about oblivion --- digging up the old threads about it here didn't sell me on it much, but there were some funny ai vids.
I'm looking for an exploratory crpg type game, while using the 'crpg' definition very loosely, of course.

 

[Paul_cz]

Hmmm, for me GOTY this year goes to Witcher 2, only game I would give 10 this year.

Second I guess Skyrim, which is a fantastic game while being pretty bad RPG, and third to Deus Ex.

Honorable mention goes to Dead Island, which very pleasantly surprised me.

 

[Wastewander]

I'll have to go with Dark Souls for me. It's probably the only game I've put over 80 hours in this year and didn't feel like killing myself (because the enemies usually do that :p). Just about everything about it was a great experience, albeit I do hate getting invaded to the point where I got so annoyed at the frequency that I started playing offline. Yeah, that might've been a bit weak, but at that point I just wanted to finish the game. Plus its really troublesome to be invaded all the time when I'm farming for items.


While I really liked Deus Ex: Human Revolution a lot, overall I enjoyed Dark Souls better.