Finally getting around to listening to the podcasts. For the most part, I agree with their decisions, but some noticeable complete snubs for me include:

Best New Character: Haytham Kenway

Best Music: Sound Shapes

Best Revival: SSX

Not even mentioning Xenoblade Chronicles for best music pretty music invalidates that entire category...

Best moment for me was Shepard and Garrus shooting cans on the citadel in ME3. My Shepard missed his shot and Garrus declared "I'm Garrus Vakarian, and this is now my favorite spot on the Citadel."

¡SPOILERS!

I just made an account on this site to say that Mordin's death deserves a nod in the Best Moment/Sequence category; it's the clear winner for me.

New Super Mario Bros. U was excellent. That is all.

Personally, I think FTL should have won the best music category. While the Hotline Miami ST is amazing, I think Ben Prunty did an outstanding job on his own, great arrangements, very clever with the dual versions for each track. I'm baffled he didn't even make the cut.

Love these award shows, looking forward to listen to the rest soon.

I decided to purchase Super Mario 3D Land because of this list.

Go Jeff :)

Watched until 2:26, paused to comment about how crazy great this is, un-paused.

Greatness!

* Back to video

@MrKlorox said:

Wow. Battlefield 3 is easily the 2012 2011 GOTY. I understand that all three of the biggest Battlefield fans in the clique no longer work with you guys, so I can understand you guys mostly overlooking it. But wow, that game has gotten so much better this year than it was last year. It also has the best bow of the year. I really liked Pushmo as well, but there's no comparison. And Trackmania2 would seem like a running joke if I didn't know any better.

Wow, it's almost as if it's Giant Bomb's 2012's 2011 GOTY and not yours! Man, you just don't get it, do you?

@Chavtheworld: I loved both of them. Both were incredible to me!

@JustinAquarius: Then I'm afraid to tell you either your television speakers are broken, you had it on mute the entire time or you're suffering from some kind of auditory-based amnesia. Many things can be said about Journey, it having a forgettable soundtrack is absolutely and unquestionably not one of them.

Nobody thought NSMB U was disappointing except you, GiantBomb. It wasn't lackluster. It wasn't formulaic. It certainly wasn't easy. I'd wager you never got past Layer Cake Desert and abandoned the game before it turned creative, clever, and most importantly, far more challenging. If you afforded SM 3D Land the courtesy of a double-playthrough to unlock the only "Kaizo" Mario stage, I'd hope you would've done them same for NSMB U. As a fan of SM3DL, I can honestly say that NSMB U is ultimately a far better-realized game than SM3DL, especially in stage design. I dare you to play Superstar Road 8 and claim it's pedestrian or easy. I've played Kaizo levels easier than that.

Okay, I think I'm convinced that I need to play Far Cry 3.

Vaas sounds like a truly scary villain, and the open-world that you get to explore excites me, because I love that type of game. I've gotten pretty good at playing shooter games over the years, and the only thing that worries me is if the game will be too hard.

@MrKlorox said:

Wow. Battlefield 3 is easily the 2012 2011 GOTY. I understand that all three of the biggest Battlefield fans in the clique no longer work with you guys, so I can understand you guys mostly overlooking it. But wow, that game has gotten so much better this year than it was last year. It also has the best bow of the year. I really liked Pushmo as well, but there's no comparison. And Trackmania2 would seem like a running joke if I didn't know any better.

Wow, it's almost as if it's Giant Bomb's 2012's 2011 GOTY and not yours!

Wow. Battlefield 3 is easily the 2012 2011 GOTY. I understand that all three of the biggest Battlefield fans in the clique no longer work with you guys, so I can understand you guys mostly overlooking it. But wow, that game has gotten so much better this year than it was last year. It also has the best bow of the year.
 
I really liked Pushmo as well, but there's no comparison. And Trackmania2 would seem like a running joke if I didn't know any better.

@edgefusion said:

Best music didn't go to Journey? Are you all high? Do you not have ears?

For all the hype on music Journey is getting, I played through the game and loved it, yet I don't remember a single thing about the score. You could tell me the game had no score at all and I'd believe you because it apparently didn't register with me.

Hotline Miami's music is so bad, can't believe that shit beat FEZ.

Urgh.

Best music didn't go to Journey? Are you all high? Do you not have ears?

That secret level in Mario 3D Land...was not that hard. Yeah, I said it. Having beaten Rayman Origins and gotten 100% in Meat Boy, it's not even close to anything in those games. It's fun, sure, but Patrick sure likes to play up the difficulty. I think I died four times before beating it.

@MiniPato said:

@crithon said:

Double Dragon Neon for revival? Yikes, man, that's scary to be in there

Jeff said he hated it at first, but then came to like it. And well, the other nominees were pretty bad anyways.

I'm more disappointed that they didn't even mention it for Best Music. Both the mixtapes and actual background music were great.

I love this!

Nothing says christmas like Game of the Year content!

Vaas truly is awesome, and now I'll have to play Hotline Miami.

All great games here. I expected more "makes me furious"-kinds of choices :)

Although I don't know any of those new characters. You'd figure Handome Jack from Bo'derlands 2 would, easily, have wrapped that up. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

@crithon said:

Double Dragon Neon for revival? Yikes, man, that's scary to be in there

Jeff said he hated it at first, but then came to like it. And well, the other nominees were pretty bad anyways.

Double Dragon Neon for revival? Yikes, man, that's scary to be in there

really really not feeling the hotline miami soundtrack maybe that's just me.

While I understand the nature of the category, but man... No mention of Awesomenauts in best music?

The only one I didn't really see coming was Super Mario 3D land.

Excited for this!

I don't know about you all, but I've been sitting jamming to the Hotline Miami soundtrack up there for SO LONG now.

Oh, yup, they only played through XCOM once and never touched it again. Otherwise they'd be, "This isn't as good as I first thought..."

Sine Mora music should have been thrown into the mix

@radioactivez0r said:

I've only listened to the beginning of the podcast, but did the Darksiders II music get any mentions? I was amazed not only at the fact that I even noticed it, but also at how awesome and epic it was in parts.

Wouldn't be a surprise since it's the great Jesper Kyd (Hitman, Ass Creed).

I've only listened to the beginning of the podcast, but did the Darksiders II music get any mentions? I was amazed not only at the fact that I even noticed it, but also at how awesome and epic it was in parts.

So is Jeff the only staff member to've played Syndicate? I know this stuff is already set in stone, but I hope that game gets the recognition it deserves. Criminally underrated and then some.

And was original XCOM really "beloved"? I would call classic Nintendo games that people were practically raised on as kids to be "beloved", but a series that caught the attention of the hardcore PC dwellers, who would obsess elitist over anything that was sci-fi + punishing difficulty?

I certainly don't think the reason behind the Internet furiously whining over the FPS reboot was because of the quality, the lack of original characters, or different writers/designers. Just SAYING.

Frog Fractions? Honestly, I just played it, and it is pretty fucking boring. How is this game even entertaining?

I swear to god, I look back over my shoulder every time I hear Silver Lights. /creepy

"WHO AM I??!!"

@OneKillWonder_ said:

I dunno, Vaas barely being in FC3 and still winning over Lee is kind of lame, but whatever. Not to discredit how awesome Vaas is, but he is criminally underused. For me it would be between Lee and Handsome Jack for sure.

They're all winners in my eyes! And yes, there needed to be more Vaas, what a whiff of a conclusion for him.

@MjHealy said:

THE IGNORING OF SOUND SHAPES FOR BEST MUSIC CANNOT BE EXCUSED.

But Hotline Miami still wins anyway

Yeah, I wish Sound Shapes or Hell Yeah! would have been considered. They mentioned Hell Yeah! on the podcast, but I think it got overlooked too easily. I would have taken Fez out and switched in Hell Yeah! for that category, myself. Hotline Miami and Journey are both totally legit, though.

Frog Fractions?

The fake documentary/office theme is fucking astounding! Well done indeed!

@Protome said:

@Graham_Nix said:

Where's Kid Icarus: Uprising for best retro revival :/

I don't think it should win over XCOM, but it should at least have been nominated.

Listen to the podcast, it is mentioned but the unanimous opinion was "The terrible controls stop is being a nominee."

The controls aren't great, yeah. But once you get used to them they stop being an issue. And every single other thing about the game is so goddamn amazing that I can't believe it got looked over for Double Dragon Neon.

Oh, Lee Everett is certainly my Character of the Year. Lee is the epitome of a fully-rounded character.

They couldn't have chosen a better video clip of Vaas. That was perfect.

this is fantastic,

I got to say, the old-school X-Com fans who have rejected new XCOM are out there. It may be a fine game for those who are unfamiliar with the series or genre, but for the long-time fans like myself, the new game is kind of sad. The biggest complaint, really, is that the game is basically solvable. Once you figure out an opening gambit, you can pretty much have the game on cruise control to the point where the tactical and strategy layer both become by-the-numbers. XCOM has no legs, no replayability. Once you've beaten the game, there's very little reason to want to play it again, and that's a cardinal sin for strategy games.

I can't agree with the NRA's "Games make you violent" argument normally, but playing Hotline Miami while jamming to it's badass soundtrack and embracing the trippiness of it all, may be the closest videogames have come to making me understand psycho killers.

this is why i pay the monies.