Et Tu, Davis?

@laserbolts said:

@kingzetta

@KingWilly: It was great, Jeff was getting actually kinda getting pissed off.
I really hate brad and wish those rumors about him leaving were true.

Haha that's pretty harsh I like Brad and enjoy his reviews more than anyone but he can be a little crazy come GOTY time.

@kingzetta said:

@Vinny_Says said:

Yeah let's wish these dudes stabbed each other!

What is wrong with you people? These 4 dudes have known each other since forever and have even started a video game website together because they enjoy each others company, but because a certain game came second or first you people wish that they induced so weird sense of animosity in the office? The office where they come to everyday to work and see each other....

sounds logical....

people like drama

People also like to joke. If any of you two took what I said seriously, shame on you...

Brads arguing skills are like a creationist amongst a peer review style scientific discussion. He will never back down or listen to reason and the only way to appease him is to let him think he won.

Some of the shit he came out with during that podcast, especially about rayman. God damn is that dude bias as fuck towards his own tastes to a point that he creates imaginary faults for other games and basically lies and covers for any faults placed upon his choice of game (jeffs 100% correct Dungeon Boss system argument). The only thing that bothers me about it is that jeff might feel he is wrong for thinking SR3 is goty when it clearly is.

@Slaker117 said:

I would have loved if Jeff had straight up called Brad a lair for claiming the dungeon mobs in Skyrim aren't repetitive as fuck. He got close, but stopped just short. It would be really interesting to see things get full on confrontational.

"you must be on the early patch list." is what jeff said, but you could just feel jeff's rage. I was imagine Jeff reaching across the table and shoving his finger right in brad's face and yelling "LIAR!"

I loved the podcasts but I'm just happy all of this GOTY stuff is over. Jesus the retards came out of the woodwork this year with the crying over what should win what awards and in what order. Christ why would you fucking care? I'll never understand it. Fucking good year for games is all that matters not what some random Internet dudes think.

@kingzetta said:

@Slaker117 said:

I would have loved if Jeff had straight up called Brad a lair for claiming the dungeon mobs in Skyrim aren't repetitive as fuck. He got close, but stopped just short. It would be really interesting to see things get full on confrontational.

"you must be on the early patch list." is what jeff said, but you could just feel jeff's rage. I was imagine Jeff reaching across the table and shoving his finger right in brad's face and yelling "LIAR!"

On the subject of "boss at the end of the dungeon being tailor made to counter your guy's stats so he's the same every time", no, I never ran into that issue either.  Brad not having that issue is probably not a lie and claiming his own experience is wrong in that specific example would have been stupid.

My favorite part of the Saints row Vs. Skyrim debate was Vinny referring to Saints Row as a game you want to "fuck the shit out of " while Skyrim was just nice to talk to.

the dark brotherhood in oblivion was probably the most overrated questline in any game ever. why does everyone think its so great?

all the games that they talked about all week are either really good or great games, who cares who won all i know is that i now want to play the ones that i missed out on and isn't that the real point? this year was great and i like the change up of a giantbomb top ten list instead of just a game of the year overall and for each platform, hope it continues into next year as well and look forward to it

@Turambar said:

@kingzetta said:

@Slaker117 said:

I would have loved if Jeff had straight up called Brad a lair for claiming the dungeon mobs in Skyrim aren't repetitive as fuck. He got close, but stopped just short. It would be really interesting to see things get full on confrontational.

"you must be on the early patch list." is what jeff said, but you could just feel jeff's rage. I was imagine Jeff reaching across the table and shoving his finger right in brad's face and yelling "LIAR!"

On the subject of "boss at the end of the dungeon being tailor made to counter your guy's stats so he's the same every time", no, I never ran into that issue either. Brad not having that issue is probably not a lie and claiming his own experience is wrong in that specific example would have been stupid.

I have put 150 hours into Skyrim and have S-ranked it and I didn't even notice that the bosses were made to counter me. Not every player experiences it, so calling Brad a liar is kind of unfounded

@bozosc said:

all the games that they talked about all week are either really good or great games, who cares who won all i know is that i now want to play the ones that i missed out on and isn't that the real point? this year was great and i like the change up of a giantbomb top ten list instead of just a game of the year overall and for each platform, hope it continues into next year as well and look forward to it

They argued about it for two hours. Why can't other people.

@Turambar said:

@kingzetta said:

@Slaker117 said:

I would have loved if Jeff had straight up called Brad a lair for claiming the dungeon mobs in Skyrim aren't repetitive as fuck. He got close, but stopped just short. It would be really interesting to see things get full on confrontational.

"you must be on the early patch list." is what jeff said, but you could just feel jeff's rage. I was imagine Jeff reaching across the table and shoving his finger right in brad's face and yelling "LIAR!"

On the subject of "boss at the end of the dungeon being tailor made to counter your guy's stats so he's the same every time", no, I never ran into that issue either. Brad not having that issue is probably not a lie and claiming his own experience is wrong in that specific example would have been stupid.

I have put 150 hours into Skyrim and have S-ranked it and I did even notice that the bosses were made to counter me. Not every player experiences it, so calling Brad a liar is kind of unfounded

@Dany said:

1. Relax everyone. This is for fun!

2. Ryans 'plot twist' was weird.

Exactly. At the end of the day, none of it matters. The fact that a game like Saint's Row: The Third was the main competitor to GOTY against a juggernaut like Skyrim is a testament to how much that series improved between 2 and 3. Skyrim is my personal GOTY but Saint's Row is an extremely close second.

While I enjoyed Saints Row more than Skyrim, I knew going in I'd be OK with either of them being GOTY.

But when Ryan turned heel for really weakly stated reasons and then they argued in circles for an hour, I kinda tuned out.

Man, I didn't realize everyone was going to go full asshole mode on Brad for his opinions. He liked Skyrim more and he tried to express why he felt it was better then Saints. I really enjoyed listening to all of their opinions and often asked myself who was making a better point. Once again, though, everyone can be reductive about anything they're against. Come on guys, I can tell that the crew were just having a good fight, but Internet, you a dissapoint.

@gladspooky: didn't say other people couldn't argue just wanted to make my point that all the games were good games if people want to fight about it i will enjoy reading it

@ZanzibarBreeze said:

Consider the following: nobody will be playing Skyrim in four years, just as no one plays Oblivion now. Soon Elder Scrolls 6 will be out, and Skyrim will be defunct.

In five years, there is a very good chance I will want to revisit Saints Row: The Third. There is no chance I will revisit Skyrim.

This is purely subjective. I played and enjoyed Morrowind in 2010/2011. I'll admit I haven't played saints row the third, but I played the first one and loved it. However, there is no way I will go back to it. The genre is saturated enough thus there is nothing there to compel me towards it while, like the guys said, no one makes games like Bethesda. Their games are unique on their own.

Again, I haven't played sr3 but listening to what the guys had to say about it, it does seem like the type of game you will enjoy watching more than playing (as they even said). Thus I don't really see why one would want to play it 5 years from now.

Like I said, all subjective.

@Turambar said:

@kingzetta said:

@Slaker117 said:

I would have loved if Jeff had straight up called Brad a lair for claiming the dungeon mobs in Skyrim aren't repetitive as fuck. He got close, but stopped just short. It would be really interesting to see things get full on confrontational.

"you must be on the early patch list." is what jeff said, but you could just feel jeff's rage. I was imagine Jeff reaching across the table and shoving his finger right in brad's face and yelling "LIAR!"

On the subject of "boss at the end of the dungeon being tailor made to counter your guy's stats so he's the same every time", no, I never ran into that issue either.  Brad not having that issue is probably not a lie and claiming his own experience is wrong in that specific example would have been stupid.

but he still wanted to

I find it weird that it won and wasn't even on some of their lists, but w/e.

Who fucking cares which one came in first place? You should play them both!

I rarely lurk these forums, but I'm a semi-frequent visitor to the site. I just wanted to say that this bombcast was my absolute favorite, and I've been listening for over two years now. It was absolutely hilarious, it was very insightful to hear the long discussions about the "bad" things out of a huge list of GOOD games (which does help when considering what games I'd want to play), and I felt everyone got to have their voices heard about pretty much every game on the list. There's some parts that bugged me, like some games just getting a pass (Witcher 2 even though Vinny was the only one who could really speak for it, Bastion), but overall I loved it and I'm gonna listen to it again.

People really need to calm down about what they chose and the order they chose though, I think. If it's on the top 10 list, the game must be pretty ballin'. If it's not on the top 10 list, but was a nomination, it's still a pretty ballin' game to even be considered. It's like people who cry about review scores and if their overly hyped AAA game got 4 stars instead of 5, because protip: it's still probably a great game.

And I, for one, have been completely turned off from everything Saints Row the Third until now (haven't played it, had no interest to otherwise). Jeff and Ryan's constant "you should play Saint's Row" up to this point was really starting to get annoying. It wasn't until they stopped seeing it in such a brilliant light and actually broke it down a bit until I finally realized what I might like about the game and why.

@OHNOgc: You should come by more often, as you seem to have a good head on your shoulders. The thing is, without Jeff and Ryan annoying the shit out of me, I probably wouldn't have played Saints Row before all of this, and it would've been spoiled pretty badly. So, I wouldn't have known how truly amazing that game is.

I sincerely hope people are mostly kidding and not falling into this cloak and dagger, intrigue bullshit all the time.

At the end of the day it's a bunch of guys giving their personal opinions about games in one single calendar year. I hate over-analyzing who chose what, and trying to pull meaning out of how each member of the GB crew ordered their personal top-ten. Personally, I loved Saints Row for what it was, and continue to love Skyrim. Both games got a great deal of love, but stepping back from what I had more 'fun' with I think it's pretty clear that what Skyrim did this year was more impressive than what Saints Row did; I say this in terms of scope, moving gaming forward and overall design.

I guess overall I'm afraid we'll hit a slippery slope here- that because of all the over analyzing we wont get the 10+ hrs of deliberation podcasts in 2012 because of all the drama it creates. I don't want it boiled down into just top 10 lists and awards, nor should anyone really.

I haven't even played Skyrim yet I'm still not particularly arsed it beat over Saints Row The Third. I mean I really enjoyed The Third and all (it's No.3 on my own list, but that's admittedly because there's a lot of games I missed out on this year that I'm only finally starting to catch up on), but I still cannot understand why it's revered as God material. I never found it to be as crazy as how Jeff/Ryan would describe it, and after playing so much Saints Row 2 throughout the years prior, it was a heartbreaking shame to see so much of its content lost between the transition.

Of course Saints Row The Third is still a brilliant game, but when it comes to talkin' GOTY, you gotta pull down the years best games off of their pedestal and really dig deep into their faults.

As for Brad, guy's just relentless; I feel like after so much effort, I'm not surprised he was able to take a hold of the vote. Just like the notorious discussion last year between Minerva's Den and Lair of The Shadow Broker. Ryan I also really appreciate how fair and empathetic he is, too; he's always open to see the other side of things, even if it goes against his own personal opinion. Although truth be told, he could of just backed out because he didn't want to suffer the wrath of Brad ;P

But anywhoo the whole thing about Saints Row The Third not giving you enough content is totally valid (again, speaking as a GOTY here); the city is so completely dead and lifeless that when you're left without the story, it all feels incredibly pointless and bland. Which is all the more baffling because Saints Row 2's Stilwater totally had people wandering around doing stuff, talking, making random chit-chat and saying stupid shit like you'd expect from an open-world game. Saints Row 2 was the kind of game I would love to just wander around and play, picking up stuff off of the street and hurling it at people, watching cops taser pimps, watching old men hurl gang-members across the street, searching for random phone numbers to call up and so on. The Third without a clear goal in mind gets really boring really fast.

Not to mention that all of the pedigree they put towards stuff like having 7 voices available, was introduced via Saints Row 2 as well. That's what's really annoying; how Saints Row 2 before it was so ludicrous to begin with, beginning a great deal of the foundation for The Third, yet it's all forgotten (there's more to that game besides shooting shit at people). The part where they shortly compliment the simultaneous pointlessness and ingenuity of having spikes protrude out of your tyres was in Saints Row 2, as well.

As such, for me Saints Row The Third still comes across as being pretty iterative in a lot of areas. It was another well done Saints Row game that made a lot of improvements, but didn't without sacrifice. And that's why... wait, what?.. Went off on a bit of a selfish rant there... ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh well. Saints Row The Third: great game, not shaken up about it not being awarded GOTY.

I was kinda bothered by Brad calling SR3 combat bad, considering everything I've seen with Skyrim is hit a few times, hold up shield, back up, let stamina recharge, rinse and repeat. Or just hold down magic button, until you have to back off and let Magicka recharge.I dont think Skyrim's combat is any more deeper than Saints Row, I would of expected Jeff to call him out on that. I also expected Vinny to just go IN on arguing the RPG value of Skyrim compared to Dark Souls or The Witcher, two games which Vinny liked more than Skyrim, but seemed like a good chanceto get a good counter to Brad.

Also, MK getting cut for bad online play, is fucking stupid, when you can tell they never wanted to cut it in the first place.

Having played both extensively I would have been happy to see either Skyrim or SR3 take GotY.

That said, I was completely nodding in agreement with Ryan's argument against SR3. The game gives you absolutely no reason to go back to it once you've done what little it has to offer and at the end of the day my friend (whom I played the game co-op with) and I were both left going, "Wait, that's it?" I'm certainly looking forward to jumping back in for the DLC (and bought the season pass) but who knows when we'll start seeing that.

In any event. great year for games and I thought their top 10 list was solid all around. :D

@OneManX said:

Also, MK getting cut for bad online play, is fucking stupid, when you can tell they never wanted to cut it in the first place.

This, honestly, had me staring at my PC mouth agape whereas I was just laughing the whole time during the Skyrim vs SR3 debate. I can't believe Jeff agreed to cut it, and that Ryan was the one that seemed the most saddened to see it go (and it wasn't even on his list!!!). I was shocked, and I loved it. What a great deliberations podcast. I cried, I laughed, I wanted to punch someone. It had it all.

EDIT: Oh and one of my favorite lines was when Brad tried to cut Batman from the top 10. My mind was thinking..."what". Then Jeff said something like, "Come on, son". I don't know if that's exactly what he said, but it had me rolling.

I have said this before, and I will say it again. Ryan chickened out. Ryan was like "Well fuck we'll give it to Skyrim because that's safe and no one will be angry over it" and tried to criticize Saints Row. He was basically talking down his own GAME OF THE YEAR to make Skyrim win. And he didn't even play Skyrim! There is no rhyme or reason in what he did. The fact that he was not even there for half the argument backs up my point, so yes, Et Tu, Davis.

Jeff criticizing Skyrim was all correct. Every point he made is correct. Brad has not played enough of Skyrim to realize how boring it gets. It becomes a better to play but worse designed Oblivion. I loved Jeff's "Then you must be in the early patch list" because that's exactly what it is, Brad did not know what he was talking about. I have run into the same situation as Jeff that every cave I am going into now will be all the same enemy type with the same boss at the end. And I have basically played the game like Brad did.

Brad was blindly making stupid points, "Nothing does that type of game, while open world games have been done" NOTHING is quite like Saints Row 3; and I mean NOTHING, while there are many many RPGs like the Elder Scrolls series.

And give me a break! Saints Row has open-world jank while Skyrim gets a pass for a unplayable version, a patch that fucked up the game entirely, and glitches that prevent you from finishing the game?! This is the third year in a row that Brad is sounding like a blind fanboy.

/rant. I just wanted to see Saints Row 3 win. It was high on everyone's list, yet because of one person and his childish manners they just gave it to him.

@Daiphyer: I would also argue that Skyrim is much more like Oblivion than SR3 is like SR2 where it counts- in Skyrim you are essentially still doing the same things, just better done, but the tonal shift to completely batshit in SR3 is what made it great, and was unlike SR2.

I don't think they would let a game like SR3 win. Gaming needs a Skyrim to save it, or something.

@cooljammer00 said:

I don't think they would let a game like SR3 win. Gaming needs a Skyrim to save it, or something.

I don't even know where that's going but that's real fucking dumb. What about SR3 says it can't win? What qualities does a GOTY need to have to win? It's the best game of the year, period.

@cooljammer00 said:

I don't think they would let a game like SR3 win. Gaming needs a Skyrim to save it, or something.

I don't even know where that's going but that's real fucking dumb. What about SR3 says it can't win? What qualities does a GOTY need to have to win? It's the best game of the year, period.

Whoa guys, this is getting a little out of hand. I thought we were just having fun here.

These awards aren't the "end all, be all" for everyone or even the site. It's actually pretty dumb and you can just take the personal Top 10 lists with more seriousness than this.

Being able to listen to the deliberations is a privilege, and not something they have to do. I don't see any other sites doing it with such rawness as Giantbomb. The site's GotY list is important, but not in such a way that it changes anything. I thought you all took what I took from it in the end, that seeing how crazy this was, even if the games were "tied for 11th" it still meant they were really great games. Anything on the top 10 is awesome, but just stick with the personal lists if these bother some of you so much. This isn't that serious.

The arguments were pretty lame at times, but that's what made them funny and fun to talk about. Well, it was until it got a little too serious in here. I'm out!

I loved SR3, but thank god it didn't get the number one spot. And I know, I know, these things don't matter, but picking SR3 as no. 1 would be a little bit crazy. It's an absolutely fantastic game, but Skyrim is just something really special. It's impressive how complex and gi-freakin-gantic it is. It's just a better game. That said, I had more fun with SR3 than with Skyrim.

I think everyone on this forum takes the GOTY choice more seriously than the actual GiantBomb crew does....

I thought that the reasons Skyrim ended up winning as provided by Brad felt extremely weak. I believe Jeff certainly argued better. While Ryan raised my one concern with Saints Row of "man, I wish you could just play chess with Pierce or play PONG with Kinzie or SOMETHING when that game is done," his blind support of Skyrim feels completely wrong to me. Not having played a game, in my opinion, stands to "I don't believe this game belongs on this list," and even if your philosophy is "I'm saving it till I really have a chance to play it properly and that time will come after GOTY" then you should not be arguing in favor of it. The only exception that comes to mind is the Driver: San Francisco situation, where you realize during GOTY deliberations that a game is either way better or way worse than you gave it credit for. Having been through GOTY deliberations myself in the last 24 hours (totally unplanned for them to be the same day as the final GOTY podcast release, I wish they hadn't been the same day) I can say that I think that Wolpaw's Law is in FULL EFFECT at Game of the Year time.

I believe Jeff and Vinny actually won that argument, but Ryan's tuning them out and Vinny's inexplicable abandoning of The Witcher 2 as evidence against Skyrim...it's a REAL bummer. I think Skyrim might've been a totally valid choice for Game of the Year at Giant Bomb even with 3/5 of the deliberators picking Saints as their #1, and I do not mean to fault Brad for liking the game, but the reasons it won are completely fangirlish and absurd in a way I'm not used to seeing from Brad. Outside of the very last actual GOTY discussion of each year, Brad usually defends the underdog, but when he defends the prize fighter he does so by citing legacy over quality. Simply saying "there's nothing else like it" is not fair as the previous games are almost exactly like it (although Skyrim is way better than any of the previous Elder Scrolls games, though I do not think it holds a candle to Fallout 3) when Saints Row is best-of-class in its genre as well, only comparable in quality to the post-GTA-III-Grand Theft Auto titles. I was not a fan of the last hour of that podcast, though the first three hours were pretty awesome.

Also, I'd like to say that I adored Minerva's Den vs. Lair of the Shadow Broker last year, so inexplicably cyclical arguments are not what inherently bother me so long as they are well fought. Not only do I strongly believe that Jeff and Vinny argued leagues better than Brad and Ryan, I believe that Jeff was actively hurt at Brad's dismissal of Saints Row: The Third. I believe Patrick and Jeff come out looking the strongest today, with Vinny in a close third. I hope they continue to release podcasts in this format as it really gives me a lot of insight into the process and the way these guys perceive games. I'll be looking at each and every one of them with a harder, closer eye next year. And, aside from that last hour, I thought all five days were a blast to listen to, so keep providing content!

That said, I'm not sure the extension to a sitewide Top 10 list is appropriate or especially functional. The sitewide GOTY stuff probably still needs to be tweaked; I think my favorite set-up is still probably that of 2008's "here's the 10 games that make our list, now let's kill them one by one until this comes down to two games." Though I'll never love any argument as much as Batman vs. Uncharted in 2009.

I have to say I was surprised by Ryan's opinion and I wonder why he went that way. Though I'm pleased that he did - I have no interest in SR3 whatsoever and I'm glad it didn't win. I already berated Brad for not keeping Trine 2 in the fight for best visuals, but decided to forgive him in light of his fight for Skyrim. :)

From everything I've seen about SR3 and the little I've played it, it just seems like a GTA with crazy shit piled on top of it - that style of gameplay is just boring to me and if the humour doesn't work, then it's not worth your money. I'll probably give it another go once I can pick it up for myself at some sale, but I'm not expecting to enjoy it all that much. While Skyrim on the other hand offers the kind of wonder that I got from seeing the first Lord of the Rings movie at the cinema - the world is just superb (visuals, atmosphere, history etc.).

Destroying cars with a purple dildobat in a ridiculous urban city with "Power" playing in the background vs. Throwing fireballs at dragons in amazing snowy vistas with orchestral music in the background

As far as setting goes, they're as far apart as they can be - so in the end, it's not so much about quality, but about what you prefer overall. Ryan's vote was the tiebreaker and I would've liked to hear his argument for Skyrim in addition to his argument against SR3.

Regardless of the outcome though, I loved this years GotY deliberations - even if SR3 had won, I would've been satisfied. Patrick was a great addition and he had some good arguments. And Brad was amazing as usual - this time around I was backing him (for no particular reason) and enjoyed every minute of his stubborness. Vinny was a bit disappointing since he didn't try to argue for his games at all - DS might've made the list if he had tried, since couple of the guys were willing to hear him out at least. And all the FMV just blew my mind - they have their work cut ouf for them if they want to top this in 2012!

Jeff might have ruined Skyrim for me. Ice-dudes everywhere.

Skyrim won because three guys out of five were arguing for it. Simple as that.

You people will whine about anything.

@OroJackson said:

@OneManX It was actually Patrick who called the combat "shitty Brad said it was servicible... If you're going to hate on Brad at least do so with facts

Both of them ragged on SR3's combat pretty hard in the start, but I'll listen to it again, but i never said either one of them said it was "shitty"

I don't get why people think Brad is a whiny person who gets what he wants. You guys DO realize he liked Metal Gear Solid 4 in 2008 for GOTY, and GTA 4 won. He wanted Red Dead Redemption to win last year, and instead Mass Effect 2 won. He's not some "filibustering cunt" as you guys mention. (And besides, there's no need for such harsh language.) If anything, I would've wanted him to filibuster the hell out of RDR last year. Totally better than ME2 in my opinion.

Let's take a look at a list shall we?

GOTY 2008 - Grand Theft Auto 4 (Brad didn't like it. Said he didn't even finish it. Conceded.)

GOTY 2009 - Uncharted 2 (Brad supported. Probably deserving anyways.)

GOTY 2010 - Mass Effect 2 (Brad liked it but didn't support it for GOTY. Conceded.)

GOTY 2011 - Skyrim (Brad supported with Patrick and Ryan backing him up.)

Just laying out the facts here folks. This is for the all the Brad haters. There's no need to hate.

@neoepoch said:

@DystopiaX said:

@cooljammer00 said:

I don't think they would let a game like SR3 win. Gaming needs a Skyrim to save it, or something.

I don't even know where that's going but that's real fucking dumb. What about SR3 says it can't win? What qualities does a GOTY need to have to win? It's the best game of the year, period.

A thousand times this. "Gaming needs a Skyrim to save it." ? What the fuck does that even mean.

Also from what I've heard this is the reason why I can't listen to these end of year bombcasts anymore. The snide dismissals of games because of one bad feature (or a reason they make up in order to dismiss it) is fairly obnoxious, and having arguments that are just based on talking your ass off without giving actual examples and facts to back up your statements is fairly tiring and just reeks of someone trying to wear down their opponent's argument with just rigamarole. It has been happening more frequently ever since last year and I just can't listen to it anymore to be honest.

Nice job taking that joke, fellas.

Why does Brad get such shit? A long while ago I didn't like his vocal lack of care for the podcast's content, but I can't think of any other reason he deserves the shit I see being posted here. I've come to really like the guy, and feel he's a part of what makes Giant Bomb whole.

From what I remember (which isn't the most), last year, within 15 minutes of talking, they were more or less decided on Mass Effect 2, and it wasn't as fun. Going from that, Ryan probably knew that Saints Row would've won by overall vote if he had stood for it, and we would've had a repeat of last year, which probably would've pissed off the community, as they'd have been robbed on a fufilling podcast

So, Ryan took himself out of it by not supporting Saints Row, but also saying very little for Skyrim until the crunch time towards the end, meaning the votes were 2 against 2, causing a debate, which is what the community wanted, I assume.

I loved saints row the third but never for a second did i think it was goty material. It had no emotional ooomph. Skyrim has everything required for a goty level game. everything that oblivion and the recent fallout games combined don't have.

I really wish they had a soundboard ready so Patrick could press a button and have it say "oh collusion" during that moment, would have been amazing.

I find it strange that someone who doesn't play a game should have any impact or say in arguing it for (or against) GOTY. I understand that it's not pragmatic for all of them to play every game that they considered but that also makes the site's overall GOTY list pretty meaningless as at least some of it is really based on second-hand experience at best. But that's also why I don't take the site's GOTY year list or deliberations seriously. It's just something fun.

If I were there I would, at a point, just opened giantbomb.com, saw the page for Skyrim and the page for Saints Row, saw that Skyrim got 5-stars and Saints Row got 4-stars and said Skyrim wins.