Your Game of the Year for 2010

Hey community, I can get behind this list.

Seeing Heavy Rain in the top 10 goes some way to restoring my faith in the future of games that try something different (flaws and all).

 We'll have further opportunities for this sort of voting in the near future,

I tend to not give a lot of weight to these, as to some extent they are just a measure of what games were played by the most people in the first place.  It's hard to vote for something as the best if you never even tried it. 
  
It's kind of a shame to see Picross 3D so low on the list, but at least it's on there, I suppose.   It surely didn't take nearly as much work to make it as it took to make most of the games above it, but, despite the name, it's a rather unique and fun game that really stood out to me among the rather large field of been-there-done-thats.  

" Ooh, Bayonetta came very close to the top ten. "

DP is better than FFXIII... 
 
I'm ok with that.

Finally bad company 2 gets the attention it deserves in the top 10. It was strangely lacking from any of the GOTY deliberations. I guess jeff and co dont dig it as much as the community does!

I dig you too, Jeff. 
 
It's good to see that Halo and Battlefield did better than Call of Duty and such happenings.

Happy to see Heavy Rain up there.

" @Green_Incarnate said:

" @Sasran: Got it. I thought he was using some crazy comma system. "

Yeah it does look confusing, but if it was a number with an odd comma in it, it'd mean that Mass Effect 2 got 384 million points. Which given that the maximum points any one person can give it is 10, would mean that a minimum of 38.4 million people voted for Mass Effect 2.  Just  how popular do you think Giant Bomb is?  :) "

" @Hailinel said:

" Ooh, Bayonetta came very close to the top ten. "

But alas, Other M isn't anywhere to be seen. Clearly everyone else was too busy drinking from the Bioware and Rockstar Vats of Kool-Aid to hear your gospel of that game's greatness.   As for the list itself, I find it vaguely insulting that there were 16 games that people considered worse than Alpha Protocol, and that there were only 24 games considered better than Deadly Premonition. Oh well. That's what you get when people hop on an endurance run bandwagon. Or like RPGs with bad gameplay. Mass Effect 2 deserves its spot. "

Bayonetta could have been higher, but everything else about this list is pure win.

Glad to see Limbo and Super Meat Boy so close to the top.  Go indie games!

Glad to see Bayonetta not just make the list but come in at number 11.

Bad Company 2 scored significantly higher than Call of Duty: Black Ops. I'm so proud to be part of a community that has actual taste.

Pretty decent list with some very interesting things going on.  It seems the list is more about what the most people played and liked and not so much about what the best games are.  Enough of a % of the GB users played Heavy Rain and enjoyed it to rank it in the top 10.  O.K. fine.  ...and there is 
Call of Pripyat down there at #59 with some other pretty good stuff.  Stark contrast.  People just didn't play Call of Pripyat.  So there it is.  Marketing makes (or breaks) a game.

" I'm pretty sure Deadly Premonition is not better than all of the games it's above. People just like to be ironic I guess. "

I completely support this GOTY ruling.

That's a solid ass top 10. 
Taste still exists folks!

I loved Final Fantasy XIII, and considering this community, I'm glad that it got as high on the list as it did. I'll take what I can get.
 
Other than that, we have a pretty solid top 10 this year. All of those games are pretty amazing.

Being the Statistics teacher that I am, I couldn't help but do this.
 
Based upon the total points vs total list numbers, the top five game's average ratios are:
1. ME2 - 8.8
2. RDR - 7.9
3. AC II - 6.8
4. SC II - 6.7
5. SMB - 5.8
 
Essentially, Mass Effect 2 on average placed second on the lists it made, with Red Dead Redemption at third, Assassin's Creed II and Starcraft II at fourth, etc. Aside from the fact that ME2 creamed RDR in total points, it also was held in higher regard by it's consumers than any other game this year.  
 
Unsurprisingly, the Persona 3 parade of love continues, with it holding a 6.3 ratio, meaning that those few faithful that played it placed fairly high (around fifth) on their lists. And a telling sign that Final Fantasy is down for the count: ratio of 4.3 (seventh place). No true FF fan ranks a game in the series that low unless its abhorrently bad or they have a scathing hatred for the story.
 
...If you think this was bad, should've seen what I had my brats doing for Stats projects this quarter...

I'm disappointed RDR lost to ME2, but oh well. The rest seems fine. Nice to see Alpha Protocol on there, but I'd like to see it even higher ;)

Glad to see Bad Company 2 is getting some recognition.  That has the best online shooter multiplayer of any game in my opinion.

cool list jeff, glad to see a lot of good games that i enjoyed playing this year.

Glad to see Battlefield: BC 2 on the top 10

Glad SC2 made the top 5, and glad that Dead Rising 2 made the list at all. :D

I was tempted to put DP on my list. I mean it's a hell of game, if you don't actually have to play it. Later, I decided against it.

I can almost smell the influence of the GB crew on that list but thats not a bad thing ... glad to see SC2 and Civ5 up there, made me real proud. Also glad to see Bad Company 2 up so high.  
 
I wished Lara Croft was higher, that game is really fun. 

I agree for the most part, but VVVVVV definitely deserved more love!

Mass Effect 2 is the best game of 2010. Accept it HATERS!

" @Hailinel said:

" Ooh, Bayonetta came very close to the top ten. "

But alas, Other M isn't anywhere to be seen. Clearly everyone else was too busy drinking from the Bioware and Rockstar Vats of Kool-Aid to hear your gospel of that game's greatness.   As for the list itself, I find it vaguely insulting that there were 16 games that people considered worse than Alpha Protocol, and that there were only 24 games considered better than Deadly Premonition. Oh well. That's what you get when people hop on an endurance run bandwagon. Or like RPGs with bad gameplay. Mass Effect 2 deserves its spot. "

How effing insulting is it that Mafia 2 is on this list and MLB 10 The Show isn't?

" @mavs: FFXIII had better visuals, art design, gameplay mechanics and overall polish than DP. DP is full of broken mechanics, a completely idiotic storyline and some stupid, stupid characters.   The only reason why it has developed such a twisted and degenerate following on GB is cause of the ER. If it wasn't for that it would have stayed in obscurity like it should have, but since the GB crew picked it for the ER, it's treated in some sort of revered, almost perverse way and frankly I'm quite sick of it. "

" @mavs: FFXIII had better visuals, art design, gameplay mechanics and overall polish than DP. DP is full of broken mechanics, a completely idiotic storyline and some stupid, stupid characters.   The only reason why it has developed such a twisted and degenerate following on GB is cause of the ER. If it wasn't for that it would have stayed in obscurity like it should have, but since the GB crew picked it for the ER, it's treated in some sort of revered, almost perverse way and frankly I'm quite sick of it. "

Singularity was probably my favorite single player experience of 2010.
 
Having said that, I didn't vote, so my vote doesn't count.  Because I didn't.

You're saying FFXIII is better than Deadly Premonition and I'M the one out of my mind? At least SOME semblance of entertainment could be derived from DP.

I didn't make a list for exactly two reasons.
 
1. On the rare occasion I make a list on Giant Bomb, it's for something that actually means something, not my opinion on game quality. Or I'm drunk. I made a list whilst drunk once.
 
2. Let's be honest here, no one cares about users' choice awards. :P
 
But if you held a gun to my head and made me make a GOTY list, I probably would have put either RDR or Darksiders at the top, so I guess I'm not too far off the Popular Opinion.

I didn't vote because I barely played any 2010 released games last year. Hopefully that'll change this year.

Really nice list and really coherent to the staffs list.
BF:BC2 and SMB are higher and Pacman are lower here, though.

That was more or less the exact make up of my top 10 list.

" Being the Statistics teacher that I am, I couldn't help but do this.  Based upon the total points vs total list numbers, the top five game's average ratios are: 1. ME2 - 8.8 2. RDR - 7.9 3. AC II - 6.8 4. SC II - 6.7 5. SMB - 5.8  Essentially, Mass Effect 2 on average placed second on the lists it made, with Red Dead Redemption at third, Assassin's Creed II and Starcraft II at fourth, etc. Aside from the fact that ME2 creamed RDR in total points, it also was held in higher regard by it's consumers than any other game this year.    Unsurprisingly, the Persona 3 parade of love continues, with it holding a 6.3 ratio, meaning that those few faithful that played it placed fairly high (around fifth) on their lists. And a telling sign that Final Fantasy is down for the count: ratio of 4.3 (seventh place). No true FF fan ranks a game in the series that low unless its abhorrently bad or they have a scathing hatred for the story.   ...If you think this was bad, should've seen what I had my brats doing for Stats projects this quarter... "

I'm surprised to see Civ V on there (and in the top 10, at that). Not shocked that Mass Effect 2 and Red Dead are the tops, and not surprised that Mass Effect 2 edged out a victory. Glad to see the age of the game didn't mean it wasn't in peoples minds for GOTY.

" Well, goes once again to prove how 360 focused Giantbomb userpool is.  Also, hooray for Deadly Premonition! "

Nice to see Alan Wake up there, not Top 10, but still pretty good. 
Bought that game last week and thought it was really damn good. 
 
Also, Deadly Premonition in 25th place? 
I just finished watching the BR Endurance Run, only watched VJ when it was ongoing, and while the story and characters are really good, especially near the ending, the gameplay is horrendous, and that's when I'm just watching and not actively playing...
Well, I guess I shouldn't complain since I didn't even make my own list, but just you wait until 2011's GotY awards!