Giant Bomb's 2015 Game of the Year Awards: Day Three Text Recap

Man best debut was a thin category this year.

I don't blame anyone for quitting after the Bloody Baron/Crones section because the one right after that (Dandelion) is sort of bad by comparison and drags on forever. And for me the BB/Crones was 100% the highlight of the game. I just never cared all that much about Ciri I guess. My #2 would be the shadow monster in Skellige. (Note: I haven't done the DLC yet.)

There are lots of people who have completed the game that agree with Giant Bomb's selection.

I'm so happy Batman "won" Hottest Mess this year, as everything about the PC situation is so mind-boggling that I still have a hard time processing it all.

In fact, I've been pretty happy with just about every choice this year, which is a first; usually my tastes and those of the Giant Bomb Consensus Hivemind skew pretty far apart, especially last year. (Shadow of Mordor? Really?)

Life is Strange had equally strong if not stronger moments in Episodes 4 and 5. Unfortunately it got mixed up in the GBE Playdate/Choose Our Own Adventure time bomb and lost any continuity of flow for viewers and the crew.

As for Kerbal over Bloody Baron? Really? A completely inaccessible spaceship simulator with a "postcoital moment" over a 10+ hour long fantastic story. Ok then.

I realize this, but at this most important time of the year, it'd be nice if just one person on the entire staff could have finished one of the biggest and most revered games of the year so it gets a fair shake. I get that it's a gigantic game and has its share of issues. Hell, it took me five months to get through it. I don't think they NEED to do anything, I'm just disappointed none of them had the wherewithal or time to finish it. More than anything, I would be super interested in hearing them discuss the final acts of the story.

@grondoth: I don't think so as I don't think the Chloe moment beat out their reaction to kerbal.

@devil240z: I'll be honest I hate everything about the fob and enjoyed the game without it bugging me 24/7

@nevergameover: I think Ciri and the wild hunt wasn't great but the cool realization that Ciri is snow white was great even if the gameplay sucked. The other one I liked a lot was through the portal to the wild hunts relm.

I will also give props to the killing of the crones with Ciri is endlessly satisfying. But none of them top the Bloody Baron quest and at best only match it. I kind of feel me getting the good ending hurt the gravitas of the end of the game.

Super surprised Keep Talking wasn't in the best game debut discussion. Just assuming it was overlooked.

I expect they knew it didn't have a chance as gbwest is so console centric that anything on a computer just doesn't have a chance.

@branthog: Everyone morning at 9am PST a new one goes up. There have been 3 so far.

Listening to the podcast, the part that irks me most is the discussion of Best Moment.

Personally, I think any discussion of a Best Moment in a game shouldn't involve anything without at least some player agency in that moment. The inclusion of a few game endings and cutscenes in the discussions was kind of irksome to me.

I read that comment in the Steve Urkel voice. Made it slightly less embarrassing.

@fujisyusuke808: Really? I think best moment can totally be entirely narrative or entirely gameplay, or anywhere in between. It's just whatever hits you the hardest.

As someone who has sunk a ton of hours into KSP (maybe not as many hours as some people, but probably more than most), I'm happy and beyond surprised that it got the 'Best Moment or Sequence' award for getting a stable orbit. Granted, the game doesn't have many (if any) scripted moments like the other games in the category do, but KSP does reward it's players with the satisfaction of getting rockets and/or satellites into orbit not only around Kerbin, but the other (harder to get to) planets and/or moons/suns. Plus, said satisfaction makes the player and/or players determined to expand on their knowledge of how space travel works to go outside Kerbin and it's moons.

Yeah otherwise it completely overlooks any story based games.

I don't call it bad. It is just different. Having nasty stuff like the Velen quest chain all the time would both ruin the impact after a while and getting stale. Novigrad is a great mixup and even there are some nasty stuff like the serial killer questchain. I don't blame you for not caring about Ciri tough. CD projekt Red did not the best job to make her great in the game. As someone that read the books and know what she has been true i couldn't wait to get to her.

@obeast said:

I'm jealous. I wish I could get into Kerbal. I'm sure that feeling of being successful in it is one of the best gaming memories you could take away.

Undertale fans have quickly started to replace Witcher fans for most annoying. Which is really saying something. Listen to the podcasts, Undertale had at least one moment nominated (I skipped out on the podcast at that point because I've not played Undertale yet & may well do so). There are lots of great moments from 2015 games though.

It is a pity nobody played Tales of Borderlands, since the game could have earned a nomination in Best Character and Best Moment

Mission 45 is terrible and was the least fun I had in that game. Even moreso than 29.

On a more positive note, hooray for Squids cleaning house...by making it messy and full of ink.

Even more than simply not having time, they've made it clear that the number of people yelling at them to finish Witcher 3 basically contributed to them wanting to do so even less. Maybe Vinny will pick it up again, but that's all.

I kinda don't blame them because finding Dandelion sucks, but their assumption that Bloody Baron is the best the game has to offer and Alex's statement that "from what I've read" that is the case is a little sad. There's so much there that I guess a lot of people will never get to becuase they burn out on Novigrad fetch quests and Dandelion's too-long plot.

I was really hoping that Konami would be acknowledged as a Hot Mess winner/runner this year.

I think that the Afro Samurai scandal quickly corrected course by refunding purchases and admitting there was a problem, Konami did a lot of stuff to make it seem like their relationship with Kojima and game development was stable despite all hints to the contrary.

They talked about Konami but sort of decided it wasn't really "a mess" because it's all exactly what Konami intended to do. It didn't get away from them, they are burning it all down on purpose.

@forkboy: I listened to the podcast, I hadn't when I wrote that. I still think it should have been one of the three, and it's not even my goty. Those moments are really good no matter what other great moments in gaming there's been.

People talking about the end of episode 4 of Life is Strange not getting props- The East Coast guys had only played up to Episode 3 at this point.

The write up for Kerbal was awesome.

Yay for Kerbal's Best Moment... I skipped this segment as I'm finally working my way through MGS V, though I heard the initial list of nominees. I was happy Vinny added this moment to the list but never imagined the group would even put it in the top three. It really deserves to win, if you've played Kerbal you know that first orbit is huge...

Day 3 aka the day people forget about MGSV best moment or sequence.

@miyoron: Develop better weapons, son.

I would buy Halo 5 GWARDIANS immediately.

If you haven't played Kerbal you'll never understand why, but it absolutely deserved Best Moment. I'm so happy it won this.

It's a combination of the rush of having finally defeated a really challenging task, and the overwhelming awe of realizing where you are; motherfucking space. Watching the sun appear over the horizon as you float above the planet you were just standing on. It's honestly just incredible.

Frankly though, that first Mun landing is 1000x better than just getting to orbit. Standing on the motherfucking Mun and looking back at Kerbin is one of the best experiences I've ever had in gaming. Seriously.

It's a bit like VR; it's really hard to explain to someone else, it's just something you have to experience for yourself.

@wtravis: Totally agreed. I hope this and the video series help push more people to try it out. I think many people are intimidated by it more than necessary. It really isn't that hard if you watch a couple of videos or read a guide. Also shout out to Scott Manley on YT who does some great tutorial videos and has a charming Scottish brogue.

All in all this was a great year for games all around.

@erikamatsu: The DLC story is actually amazing

Honestly the amount of props given to Undertale thus far have been enough for me. Considering it's a game that a good chunk of them would immediately shun due to the rabid fandom, it's nice to hear that a number of them gave it a decent shot and enjoyed it.

Remember, this is Giant Bomb's Game of the Year Awards. Not the "What everyone subjectively thinks are the best games of the year Awards." And it's clear that none of them made it past Novigrad in the Witcher because some of the best moments come after that such as Geralt finding Ciri, The Battle at Kaer Morhen, and the scenes after that battle. Shame that some of them let annoying fans influence their decisions to see games through.

@qrdl: Is this a joke or am I missing something? This is embarrassingly awkward. I couldn't even listen to the whole thing.

@onekillwonder_: Glad to hear someone thinking this too. It's a shame no one got much further than the Bloody Baron. I think it's a great quest line but wasn't among the top for me. I agree the Battle of Kahr Moran is near the top. I also really enjoyed the ending I got. It's a shame no one really played further to mention this has the best romantic subplot of any RPG (which was a huge reason for my enjoyment of the game). If this game had a leveling/upgrade system that fit the huge length of this game, I would have no hesitation calling it my favourite game of all time.

I believe Alex mentioned that, or Austin did, and Vinny says that yeah, sure, but getting into orbit is the FIRST THING, the FIRST moment. And that counts for alot.

Do we even know technically how many people were affected by the Arkham Knight PC disaster? I personally didn't have a single problem with it and I only have a mid-range computer. Also, it seems as though nobody on the Giant Bomb crew had a problem either and nobody I know that purchased it had a problem. I know this is all anecdotal but do we actually know how widespread the problem was? It seems like everybody just assumes its a huge number but nobody has any first hand experience with it.

I just want to shout out for a best moment/sequence that really stuck out for me (warning: SPOILERS)
Bloodborne:
After you beat ROM and make it back to the Cathedral ward, you realize what those weird blue gravitational distortions all over the Cathedral wards are giant nightmarish Amygdala perched all over EVERYTHING and OH GOD THEY'VE BEEN THERE ALL ALONG, THEY'VE BEEN THERE ALL ALONG. To me it was genuinely nightmarish beyond anything I've seen in a game before.

I'm really sad barely anyone played Tales from the Borderlands cause the space montage, the Gortys vs guardian fight.......THIS: