Giant Bomb's 2016 Game of the Year Awards: Day Five

I don't really care what GB gives GOTY to, but Jeff's decision to die on the Doom multiplayer hill feels disingenuous at best. His arguments are outdated (multiplayer has been continually updated, for free, to include things like deathmatch), and this idea that GB is suddenly a bastion of celebrating "complete game packages" is nonsense. These are the guys that have tossed out an entire platform's worth of game bugs (PS3 Skyrim) to suit their desires.

Gonna get on this train:

DOOM WAS ROBBED

But hey, they made the right choice for Overwatch character, and ultimately that's what really matters. 100% German power!

I enjoyed Jeff's defense of the true best Overwatch character, Mei cute as hell and a cold-blooded, sigh, killer from up close and across the map. The only issue is when your teammates don't FUCKING ATTACK FROZEN ENEMIES!

Glad to see Stardew made the list!

Super happy that Hitman won GOTY. Well I would have been happy with any one of those games getting GOTY to be honest. At least Dan got Starwdew Valley on the list. It totally deserves that spot (for me at least).

Well dammit. I guess it's time to buy Hitman.

I am completely baffled that DOOM did not win all week they have been praising it sometimes a little too much top 3 in story of the year?? It is number 1 in Drew, Vinny, Brad lists but whatever great year for games!

@ceno: That's my problem with it as well. They played some multiplayer at launch/beta and then ignored it afterwards. Which is sort of okay if they didn't like it then (I like that multiplayer and I heard no arguments about why it's bad other than the obvious 'it's not Quake 3' kneejerk reactions earlier in the year) since they didn't fundamentally change the basics (although the new gamemodes that they added are cool and you can play on well done DLC maps for free).

And I think Jeff expected some different things from SnapMap. He wanted pvp multiplayer, but that's not really fantastic in SnapMap and not only because it uses matchmaking for custom content (which is the main downside of SnapMap). You just can't make good multiplayer maps with standard room templates. But that's fine, because you can (especially after all the added content and patches) make some really good singleplayer content with it without being some map maker master. And those singleplayer maps are easier to find and set up in the hub. And that's really cool about SnapMap.

But in the end I think that the singleplayer of DOOM alone is miles and miles and miles better than anything in Hitman (and I like that game too) and even if the multiplayer bricked your console or installed malware on your PC, it would still not bring down the singleplayer below any other game this year for me. It's a good thing Brad started to hammer on the others to give arguments why Hitman is better, because otherwise it would've been the 'Game that's better than DOOM's multiplayer' award.

I havent even played hitman but the amount of times it reappeared on UPF and such guaranteed it a win.

These awards have convinced me to go out and buy Zero Time Dilemma. Like holy shit that story sounded awesome as it was described.

Fuck yeah! I have the same GOTY as Giant Bomb :D

Thanks again for another great year GB Crew! Appreciate all you've done this year.

It feels like a lot of games, even 'big ones', were just completely forgotten by the guys this year. It's odd seeing this small pool of games appearing in all these categories they seemingly don't have much business being in (especially when you look at what else has come out this year).

:^)

I was stewing in a few lost battles for the whole episode. DOOM as a top three story? Uncharted cut from GOTY? But Hitman pulling the upset made it all better.

Hitman is love. Hitman is life.

wow they got Thumper on the list. Shouts to Alex

TitanFall 2 was my personal number 1 but great list nevertheless. I really need to buy Doom.

The new Hitmn game is a very good entry in the series, but there's definitely some areas where it left out things from the older games. They left out some gameplay mechanics.

There's no hideout between level, end of level newspapers, or local accents.

It's a good game, and it's great that a lot of newer people are enjoying it, but there's still some things from the older games that they could bring back and make it even better.

Great GotY discussion, as always. For some reason, I didn't remember how common this Brad/Jeff disagreement is every year, until I saw this, from Crashdown at NeoGAF:

Jeff vs. Brad Scorecard

2008 - Jeff (GTA4) over Brad (MGS4)

2009 - Brad (Uncharted 2) over Jeff (Batman: Arkham Asylum)

2010 - Jeff (Mass Effect 2) over Brad (Red Dead Redemption)

2011 - Brad (Skyrim) over Jeff (Saint's Row the Third)

2012 - No contest (Consensus: X-COM)

2013 - Brad (The Last of Us) over Jeff (anything but The Last of Us/THE GUNPOINT ROPE-A-DOPE)

2014 - No contest (Consensus: Shadow of Mordor)

2015 - Jeff (Super Mario Maker) over Brad (MGS5)

2016 - Jeff (Hitman) over Brad (Doom)

It is really amusing how often they have conflicting opinions about the games, which I guess is why these discussions are as entertaining as they are. If everyone was like Vinny or Drew and just tried to compromise all the time, it just wouldn't be the same.

I agree with the decision though. Not only because Hitman is better game than DOOM, but because I agree with Jeff on having to consider the whole package in this category. Other categories are there for a reason: so you can highlight a game that has one aspect that shines above the rest. GotY #1 should be above everything else as a whole.

It's easy enough to say that the SP is great, ignore the MP. But if you get a plate of food at a restaurant with amazing steak, delicious roasted potatoes and some rotten vegetables - even though you can ignore the vegetables or sweep them off the plate, they will still have a negative impact on your feelings regarding that plate of food. None of Hitman's flaws were big enough to equate them to rotten vegetables, for me anyway.

Super glad to see Hitman win, I had so much fun with that game this year.

@neocalypso: Time to calm down, brother.

ZENYATTA AND DOOM WAS ROBBED!

@dunchad: I'd forgotten all about the 2011 "Skyrim vs. Saints Row" debate. Now that it's back in my head, I just remember how the two of them were campaigning to sway Ryan, and his response to Jeff: "Sorry, but I can't follow you down that rabbit hole" (or words to that effect).

I think Doom's really overrated, so I'm pretty happy with this turnout. Also, for as excited as I am to play Uncharted 4 eventually, I was pretty happy to see it get knocked off the bottom of the list in favour of games that they were more passionate about.

Oh, and Jason's totally right about Zarya.

I still hold DOOM as best for me this year but Hitman deserves it as well. Also, the first Hitman game I've ever played. Everyone should absolutely play both. Good list nonetheless. Bring on Mass Effect Andromeda & Sea Of Thieves.

Mass Effect 2 was robbed! But seriously, great number 1 and glad Dan got StarDew Valley on the top 10

I`m also gonna jump on this train

MEI WAS ROBBED

Stardew Valley on the top 10, very happy.

Good stuff Dan.

I'm glad Hyper Light got some love. I think it was my favorite game from 2016.

I think Dark Souls 3 belongs on the top ten, but I'm happy that it finally got mentioned, at least.

What a great year for games it was. I don't agree entirely with their list, and would have wanted to squeeze on BF1, Dark Souls 3, Enter the Gungeon, X-Com 2, and Salt and Sanctuary.

That's still a super solid list of games.

Doom even in the discussion for best story is a joke, I understand you like the game and it makes you feel nostalgic but the story is almost non existent.

Great list and great picks for other categories too.

Hitman is definitely my goty as well.

I think this is the least amount of games I've ever shared with the site Top 10, which probably reiterates that this year has been pretty damn good for games. A good mix of "big" games and indie games as well which is pretty cool.

part of me is sad that FFXV, Last Guardian and especially Mirrors Edge and Valhalla for soundtracks didn't get their fair shake but think it was good year

2016 #DOOMGATE

Wow!

I love Doom. Campaign was amazing. I went back and got all the collectibles and got all trophies except the ultra-nightmare one and the snap map ones. I haven't touched it since. The multiplayer is bad though I did enjoy some of it all it really has for it is the campaign. Hitman on the other hand has so much more to offer long term. By the amount of hitman playing on this site it is very deserving of the title.

Preach. This is like when Ryan did his heel turn on Saints Row 3 at the last moment in favor of Skyrim. Cannot believe Jeff went against DOOM.

I can get behind this GOTY choice. Hitman is a game that I absolutely didn't expect to enjoy a fraction as much as I have. Something about this entry just feels extra special and it's hard for me to put my finger on it. All I know is that it has pulled more hours from me already than I ever thought it could and it isn't done yet.

I have supported the losing side of this argument every year except 2010. I remember being pretty frustrated at some of the arguments of the past, but this year I actually didn't care which one won and i was still frustrated. Based on the beta, press coverage, reviews, and every game they made after Quake 3, everyone expected the multiplayer to be trash anyway, so it's hard to argue the disappointment angle. "I expected something unrealistic and impossible from the multiplayer even though I simultaneously expected the single player to be bad" is a preposterous stance to take.

Every year we listen to the most petty bullshit complaints about a game they are trying to drag out of contention. I wish they could actually advocate for their candidate and articulate why it spoke to them instead of tearing each other down. Doom and Hitman are both good, would rather hear them argued on real merits than Doom blasted for a bonus mode that nobody expected to be good or even really played.

Figured it would be Hitman or Doom. I was stuck between the two myself.

Rip and tear! More entertaining that way! :)

But honestly, just because we weren't expecting it to be any good doesn't diminish the fact that they still served up a package with shit multiplayer. They did eventually get to comparing the merits, but Doom definitely deserved to take some flak for including trash in their offering.

Man I don't get it sometimes, Brad uses arguments against games that don't really have to do with the category or cherry picks at elements of games while seemingly ignoring arguments against games he's in favor for. He ignores that Doom's multiplayer is a complete disappointment and shouldn't be used as criticism for why that game isn't number one, but on the other hand a problem that Hitman had was online connectivity that for the most part the staff didn't exactly have problems with he critiques heavily. Sure the multiplayer isn't a part of the Doom single player campaign, but it is part of the game that you cannot ignore exists just like the online connectivity is a part of the game you can't ignore.

It reminds me of the Saints Row 3 vs Skyrim arguments where Brad argued to ignore the all the many deficiencies of Skyrim such as performance problems (especially on the PS3), game breaking bugs, boring combat and bad story and focus on the full package. Saints Row 3 was in the same exact spot Doom is in now, where Jeff was arguing to ignore the bad parts of Saints Row 3 and focus solely on the story campaign experience, because it was just that good.

Really funny how it turned out this way.

@blerg: To be fair, by the end they absolutely did start arguing why Hitman is legitimately better than DOOM rather than why DOOM is worse than Hitman, and that's what started to sway Brad and Alex and the rest.

I agree with Drew completely on this one. I've played the first half of DOOM and really really loved it and intend to finish it but haven't touched it in months. I've played the two tutorial levels and Paris all several times in Hitman and still want to continue going back to them before moving on because there's so much to do and that's more exciting to me. I love the way it encourages creativity, though I do believe DOOM does very much the same. They're both fantastic games, but I'm with Drew in that while DOOM is really really fun, Hitman is inspiring.

Beyond that, I do agree that it'd be nice to have less tearing down and more building up, but all the same, I do think it's a valid argument to say — for this category specifically — that DOOM dropping the ball on multiplayer is a bummer and should count against it. I don't think that's the reason it gets dropped to #2, but I do think it's a valid criticism to levy. But I don't think you need to tear down DOOM to build up Hitman because the latter is strong enough on its own.

Hitman was my prediction for GOTY before the week started, but given what's happened this week I just don't think it makes sense. Jeff arguing for Hitman to win when he has barely played it (when playing it for the Hitmas video he didn't seem like he was interested in playing the game at all). Vinny arguing for Hitman when his personal GOTY was Doom. The person who has played the most Hitman by far in Brad was arguing against it.

I don't have any problem with Hitman winning, but it certainly feels inconsistent given all the other information this week.

I agree with the idea of what you are saying, however this point is wrong. As a consumer you 100% can ignore the Doom multiplayer. I never even considered playing it and had a great time with Doom. Even if Doom had the best deathmatch mode of all time I still wouldn't have played it because I just am not interested in deathmatch multiplayer.

However I could not ignore Hitman's connectivity issue because I struggled to connect to the servers for most of the year.

I'm happy with Hitman winning though because I do think it's a better game than Doom.

What if, instead of an amazing steak, it was one of the best steaks you've had in your entire life? (Doom campaign). I think that's the argument. What if it was a top 3 steak you've EVER had? Even with the rotten vegetables, the meal as a whole would still triumph (at least for me).

Nobody was forced to play Doom multiplayer. Just don't play it. A publisher farming out a bad multiplayer mode to stuff in the package to try to prevent used sales or whatever doesn't diminish the work the actual primary developer did.

It was just the one thing Jeff was able to latch on to because he didn't have any real complaints about the Doom campaign and apparently didn't feel like arguing why Hitman was actually better. I'm not bothered by Hitman winning, but I don't feel they actually made a case for why it did, especially with Doom at the top of so many people's personal lists and on more personal lists than Hitman.

P.S. - Best tearing-down ever was everyone vs. Dan on Donkey Kong music. Still makes me smile to think of.

I've put close to 40 hours into HITMAN, and I've only played up to Marrakesh (third map).

I'm really glad that it got GOTY.