2011 Hindsight: GotY is gonna be odd this year

I'm not going to name my 2011 Games of the Year, it is still to early and I still have some stuff to play.

Anyone still here? Ok? Cool has anyone else noticed how there is not a clear Game of the Year this year? All the Triple-A titles released this year, especially those released in the last few months, have been good/great but every single one has some rough spots. Whether it is the bugs of Skyrim, the repetition of Uncharted 3, the sameness of Arkham City or the been there done that feel of yet another Call of Duty. Is it just me or is there normally some sort of consensus by this point in the year as to what the best game is? Personally I'm tossing three titles around in my head as potential GotY and I feel like they are all worthy contenders.
This sort of problem even extends into the normal "what platform had the best year" discussion with each kind of hitting highs but not the highest of the highs. On the plus side this gives me things to wright about for the next few days.
So let's do this!

I'm not going to name my 2011 Games of the Year, it is still to early and I still have some stuff to play.

Anyone still here? Ok? Cool has anyone else noticed how there is not a clear Game of the Year this year? All the Triple-A titles released this year, especially those released in the last few months, have been good/great but every single one has some rough spots. Whether it is the bugs of Skyrim, the repetition of Uncharted 3, the sameness of Arkham City or the been there done that feel of yet another Call of Duty. Is it just me or is there normally some sort of consensus by this point in the year as to what the best game is? Personally I'm tossing three titles around in my head as potential GotY and I feel like they are all worthy contenders.
This sort of problem even extends into the normal "what platform had the best year" discussion with each kind of hitting highs but not the highest of the highs. On the plus side this gives me things to wright about for the next few days.
So let's do this!

As long as LA Noire doesn't win, I'm happy. Dark Souls is also a major contender here, I think. I think Portal 2 is also worthy of being nominated at least.

I think Saints Row has a decent shot at being a GOTY; that game has the best missions of an open world game I've ever played. But I think the consensus is Skyrim at this point.

It will be Skyrim, it's not even open for discussion, at this website anyways.

It'll be Skyrim. The game honestly isn't nearly as buggy as i'd have thought it would be considering Bethesda's history, and all the good things about it far outweigh the bugs.

I think it will be Skyrim all over the place, too.
 
For me, It's Portal 2.  Every time I think about that game I want to re-play it.  Everyone should play it again when they think about Game of the Year stuff.
 
Really Portal 2, Skyrim and Saints Row all scratch different itches really well.

Skyrim is game of the year, though I think Portal 2 and Arkham are worthy contenders among others.

In Saints Row you get Hoverbikes...

Skyrim is by far the favourite.

I've enjoyed this year a lot. While all of the GOTY contenders (apart from The Witcher 2, IMO, which is a solid second or third place here) had faults, we had a slew of very good games. I tried to make a top 10 recently and I've realized I couldn't stuff in or just plainly forgot about games like Bulletstorm, Dead Space 2, Saints Row The Third, War In The North, Bastion, LittleBigPlanet 2 and a buttload of others.

@Animasta said:

I think Saints Row has a decent shot at being a GOTY; that game has the best missions of an open world game I've ever played.

Smart money's on Skyrim to win the most GOTY awards.

I would honestly say Skyrim is going to win. 

It'll be between Skyrim, Arkham City, and Portal 2. Skyrim's the one I'd bet on.

I'm interested to see if someone will put Saints Row at #1 of their list. It's going to be near the top for me, probably behind Skyrim and Dark Souls.

I don't think anything can beat Skyrim for me at this point but there are certainly other contenders. I think a lot of people forget how fucking good Portal 2 was. I haven't played Saints Row 3 yet but I loved the second one and the the guys are crazy about it so I could see it being a dark horse in this race. Then there's Bastion. It's hard to gauge how strongly the crew feels about that game due to their closeness to Super Giant Games but I bet it gets a mention.

My personal candidates for GotY is Skyrim, Dark Souls and Deus Ex: HR.

Skyrim isn't my personal choice (or at least not yet) but it will be a worthy winner.  I think maybe if you swapped Skyrim and Portal 2's release dates you'd have a closer competition.

Divorced entirely from my personal opinion, Skyrim seems like a clear frontrunner at most sites alongside Uncharted 3 and Rayman Origins.

Zelda will definitely be a strong contender, and in my opinion the Witcher 2 is still the best game of the year so far, I think the fact it has more of a narrative edges it out over Skyrim's only real selling point of being really big. But I think it's fair to say Skyrim will be the clear winner for most people/sites, deserving or not.

It'll probably be Skyrim with Saints Row as an honorable mention. I definately agree though this year is tough. Nothing really showed up and wowed me. Most of the AAA games this year were good just not amazing.

@TheGreatGuero said:

As long as LA Noire doesn't win, I'm happy. Dark Souls is also a major contender here, I think. I think Portal 2 is also worthy of being nominated at least.

Given the criticism that's developed against L.A. Noire since its release (and I'm not just talking about the developer controversy), I have hard time seeing that game winning Game of the Year. It's not something that held up particularly well under close scrutiny after the launch buzz died down.

Out of all the games i can remember this year i think Skyrim and Gears 3 has had the most praise, with the least negative comments about them. The only one i can remember for Gears 3 was Brad and Patrick didn't like how the Queen had a human face. I hope they consider Bastion for GOTY my list so far is:

1) Skyrim 2) Bastion 3) Gears 3

Also i really don't understand Portal 2, i played it beat it and forgot about it probably the only game i regret buying.

I love skyrim, and am going to replay it at least 3 more times with different builds. That said, I never finished but loved the hell out of Witcher 2, and will get back to it at some point. Portal 2 however, has the place as the game I stopped myself after playing it once. This is because I want to forget as much of it as possible to try to reclaim the magic on a second playthrough.

I'm just gonna not name a game of the year.
Why put a label on it, man?

I think it'll be Skyrim, with Saints Row as a runner up.

It will break my heart when Ghost Trick isn't nominated for a single award.

While i do agree with most people that it will be Skyrim, i have to say that i am sick of that game, to the point where i don't want to play it ever again... this is mainly because i have put about 90 hours on it, and well, any game i put that many hours into, i usually become sick of (team fortress 2 being the exception to this rule). And this might be the sickness talking, but i don't want Skyrim to win GoTY, the game for the most part is rather sluggish (PS3 version), has the player doing the same tasks over and over again, and lacks notable innovations or surprises in gameplay and story... so yeah, even with these complaints i did put about 90 hours into the game, since i think it is great... but i am sure that isn't going to matter to the fanboys who seem to take it personal whenever someone says anything negative about Skyrim.

I hope the euphoria of Skyrim will wear off and it'll be demoted for its bugginess. Portal 2 is a brilliant and polished game and should win GoTY. Of course, if the vaunted after thanksgiving patch fixes the major performance issues, Skyrim could redeem itself.

Arkham City.

@usgrovers said:

I hope the euphoria of Skyrim will wear off and it'll be demoted for its bugginess. Portal 2 is a brilliant and polished game and should win GoTY. Of course, if the vaunted after thanksgiving patch fixes the major performance issues, Skyrim could redeem itself.

portal 2 is also mad short, and I kinda forgot what happened in that game by now; I remember Cave Johnson, but not much else.

For me , skyrim wins EASILY, and I think a lot of critics will give it GOTY.

If Brad or Vinny really get into it then it might be Saints Row The Third.

I'd personally like to see Portal 2 win.

I think it's going to be boring as hell, because Skyrim will probably win most big categories, not just here, but almost everywhere on the internet. It might be the best game, but I would've liked a more open competition. Personally it's Portal 2 for me, but if I get the chance to play Rayman, it's probably going to be that.

So far Skyrim and Dark Souls are my top two. When I get around to Saints Row 3 I have a feeling that might be my third place. Which is pretty nuts considering Uncharted 3, Portal 2, MW3, and Arkham City came out this year. Hopefully I'll get around to Arkham City too once I finish up MW3.

@Animasta said:

@usgrovers said:

I hope the euphoria of Skyrim will wear off and it'll be demoted for its bugginess. Portal 2 is a brilliant and polished game and should win GoTY. Of course, if the vaunted after thanksgiving patch fixes the major performance issues, Skyrim could redeem itself.

portal 2 is also mad short, and I kinda forgot what happened in that game by now; I remember Cave Johnson, but not much else.

I haven't played Skyrim or Saints Row yet but for me the battle is between Portal 2 and Uncharted 3.

The GB staff's winner will probably be Skyrim.

My GOTY is definitely Skyrim, though I would agree that among all the other AAA titles this year, it's a much closer contest. @Metric_Outlaw said:

I definately agree though this year is tough. Nothing really showed up and wowed me. Most of the AAA games this year were good just not amazing.

I don't know if that's necessarily the games' fault though. I feel that it's going to take a lot these days for a game to really wow or surprise me (i.e. if I were to play Uncharted 2 for the first time today, I probably won't be as impressed by it as I was back in 2009). I think part of it has to do with the fact that games have just gotten more and more competent and though there are fewer surprises overall, the quality of games this year was overall pretty high, especially this holiday season (i.e. Uncharted 3 barely made it in my top ten this year, I don't think that would have happened last year). Also, this generation of consoles has already reached it's limit. I think it's going to take the next gen of consoles to really wow me again like Gears of War did back in 2006 or Uncharted 2 did in 2009.

Everybody better put up a fuckin' fight for Saints Row: The Third. If that game just goes out with a whimper and only one pass, heads will be cracked.

For me the GOTY will almost certainly be Dark Souls (want to take a look at Saints Row and AC: Revelations before making a final decision). The "experts" however basically gave GOTY to Skyrim the day it came out so there's not much suspense really.

Giantbombs 2011 Game of the year will be Jimmie Johnson's Anything with an Engine.*

*Or Skyrim

It's going to be Skyrim by miles. Everyone seems to look past it's flaws and bugs because it's huge. Also, it's still fresh in people's minds.

Dark Souls (which also had it's share of flaws and bugs) is goty for me but it won't have a chance among the "professionals".

According to steam, my most played games this year (if ignoring WoW) is Skyrim, Saint's Row 3rd and.... Dungeon Defenders, and it has more hours put into it than any of the others so I guess mine is Dungeon Defenders! Great.

I reckon it will be Skyrim, however I have only played GOW3, saints row and arkham city so I cannot state whether those are better or not. However I do hope that the binding of isaac gets a nod or mention in some manner as for such a small indie game, it has consumed so many hours of mine and is a game I tend to play almost daily since it was first released on steam.

Highlights for me this year have been Portal 2, Gears 3 and SR: The 3rd.......I am also a couple of hours into Rayman Origins and it really does deserve all the praise its been getting, so it will probably be another contender for me.

Saints Row was great, great fun and had some fantastic missions but I feel like the lack of a proper cohesive storyline (including those 'whats going on???' moments when cutscenes didn't really explain things properly) and a dull middle section let it down. Oh and I had zero interest after the story finished, only a few of those side activities are much fun imo.

I can't fault Gears 3 and the cooperative and competitive multiplayer stuff was the best so far in the series but it was just more Gears and didn't really push any boundaries.

Portal 2 is my favourite game of the year (so far!), it was different, funny and memorable and had a great cooperative campaign. I agree with most people here though, Skyrim will win it and thats coming from someone who hasn't and doesn't plan on playing it.

It'll definitely be Skyrim. Portal 2 probably has the best chance to win other than Skyrim, but I don't think Portal 2 can beat out Skyrim.

For the website: I do think deliberations will at least be interesting, and cases will be made for quite a few games - Dead Space, Portal, LA Noire, Arkham City, Uncharted, Skyrim, Saints Row - but Skyrim's the definite favorite going in.

For me personally: There's a couple of games I feel like I need to make an effort to play this year (L.A. Noire, Dead Space 2) but I think I'd consider some combination of Skyrim, Saints Row, Portal 2, Catherine, and Pokemon: B and W for GOTY. I was ready to stick Skyward Sword on this list through the third dungeon (which was absolutely amazing), but it lost its momentum when it did the "let's pad out the length with annoying sidequests and backtracking" thing that ruined Twilight Princess.

Catherine gets a mention for being an interesting take on subjects video games don't usually address well, but the mediocre at best puzzle gameplay and very cut and dry elements of the story bring it down. Pokemon was a really polished take on a very dated formula that I enjoyed immensely but I don't think has wide appeal with the hardcore set any more, so it comes down to Portal, SR, and Skyrim. While Portal and Skyrim are absolutely great and I enjoyed my time with them immensely (and with Skyrim I'll probably enjoy the further time I spend with it), Saints Row was a fucking amazing tour de force of awesome, and it says something that the down and "boring" moments in that game tend to be shit like "here's a tank go fuck shit up" that are still really fun and feel satisfying.

My votes are Dark Souls and Portal 2 as runner up, and Dead Island as an honorable mention.

Just about every GOTY contender is a sequel. I'm playing Skyrim and I like it, but it's more or less Oblivion with updated graphics, dragons, a tighter world, and a leveling system that makes it a lot harder to totally screw yourself over. That sounds great, and it is, but after 150 hours of Oblivion and 100 or so in each of teh Fallouts...it's not enough for GOTY. Frankly, it's easy enough to put down that I can get a good night's sleep, as is Saints Row 3; they are both great games but by way of comparison, Dark Souls and Portal 2 both absolutely demanded my free time until completion. There was some frustration with Dark Souls initially, but once people figured out the multi-player system, nobody that has really played it doesn't absolutely love it.

On that criteria of being a game that motivated me to play it and play it some more even at the cost of a full night's rest, I'd easily put Dead Island over Skyrim and SR3. Uncharted 3, Modern Warfare 3 and Assassins Creed don't deserve a chance. Arkham City sounds like a strong contender, but I haven't played it yet.

Really, if it's anything outside of Dark Souls, Portal 2, Arkham City, and the unlikely (but new IP) Dead Island...nerd rage.

@spazmaster666: That's true I guess. Better visuals and performance on any of the games these years would have definitely made them exciting.

The guys are going to pick Skyrim for games of the year. After the massive amount of love poured out in the last two or three bombcasts. It seems kind of obvious. Seems like everyone in the office just loves the game.

I doubt games like Dark Souls will get more then a brief aside.

I'm interested to see if someone will put Saints Row at #1 of their list. It's going to be near the top for me, probably behind Skyrim and Dark Souls.