Guesses on GB'S GOTY candidates

It's going to be Bayonetta 2 because that's what is correct. Or Shovel Knight because that's what is the most agreeable. None of this Mordor bullshit.

Even if Destiny wins most disappointing it is still a better game than Shadow of Mordor.

Hearthstone, south park, shovel knight and The wolf among Us will likely be kinda overloocked or not fought for much. Persona Q might not even be mentioned.

Hopefully not though. those are all great games that deserve a shout at least

man, say what you will about this year in games, but this year for GOTY deliberations is going to be extremely interesting.

That bums me out. I really enjoyed Wolf Among Us, maybe even more than Walking Dead Season 1. Hopefully they still talk about it in some of the discussions (no idea what the other categories will be).

If, hypothetically, the staff really really sucked, they would pick Destiny because it "sparked conversations" the most.

Somehow I expect them not to pick an overall Game of the Year, instead focusing more heavily on categories. If they don't expect to reach a consensus on Mordor, I think that is what happens.

I'm a little concerned it's going to go the other way, and that something may rise to the top through sheer indifference.

This is an interesting year. I normally feel really strongly about a couple games but I just don't this year. There are some games I really liked though. I'm guessing Mordor and Bayonetta are the top two, Sunset Overdrive, Jazzpunk, Smash, Kart, Wolfenstein, CoD and Shovel Knight will be on the list as well. I'm less sure about South Park, Infamous, Divinity and Inquisition. I can't think of anything else that I'd expect to see there. Maybe Transistor? But there wasn't a lot of love for it, and Patrick really disliked it.

Dark Souls II, Watch Dogs and Destiny are the years most disappointing (it seems like everyone forgets that Patrick has said repeatedly that DS2 was a fine game, but not what a Dark Souls successor should be, I don't think VInny loved it all that much, Rorie was very down on it, and Brad never even finished it).

I'd like to see South Park, Mordor, and Inquisition on the list. I guess the one game I got seriously into was Spelunky, and it released this year on PS4, so maybe that counts? Or it should be the Old Game of 2014.

1. Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor
2. Bayonetta 2
3. Jazzpunk
4. Far Cry 4
5. South Park: The Stick of Truth
6. Sunset Overdrive
7. Dark Souls 2
8. Shovel Knight
9. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
10. D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die

What do I win if I get this right?

I am going to say shovel knight or stick of truth.

Edit: Also Mordor had kind of a shitty ending. Definitely a good game but I dont know about GOTY

Your right it had a bad ending, but i don't think the thing the crew loved about Mordor was the story. Best part of the ending, to me, was that i could continue to mess around with the Nemesis System after i beat it.

Persona Q is an etrian odyssey game. I'm pretty sure that means it won't be on anyone's GOTY list ever.

For good reason, too. Like 4 people enjoy those games.

@49th:

This looks pretty close to what I could see the final 10 being. I'd make Far Cry 4 and South Park lower, Shovel Knight and Call of Duty higher though. Dark Souls 2 is also getting swaped with Dragon Age.

I could see South Park or D4 not making the list for Donkey Kong or Alien Isolation as well, but the lower half is kinda a crap shoot in general with these guesses.

Everyone on Steam seems to be getting really interested in This War of Mine.

It is a late game, so it is likely most of the crew didn't play it, but so far it seems like the kind of indie game people like Patrick and Alex may enjoy...

My hopes are that Dragon Age and Titanfall make the top 10 at least. Would like to see The Wolf Among Us up there but that seems unlikely.

We can only hope man :D With how these things go on for 3 hours, who knows what the hell will be up there.

For all we know, madden may come out of nowhere...

I think it will be either Shadow of Mordor or Bayonetta 2 but I would really like to see Valiant Hearts get nominated.

It'll probably be Shadow of Mordor or FarCry 4. Smash deserves it.

Seeing as how there's gonna be like 20 people in the room it may very well be super long, which I'm all for.

I think I liked it better when everyone played the majority of the games they were talking about in GOTY. This year, we are going to get someone suggesting a game that only 1 or 2 of the crew have played. The rest of them will have to go with what he said rather than having their own critique or personal reactions to it.

For me GOTY is Divinity OS. But it will probably be far away from the top at GB.

It seems like only huge AAA games are the ones they all play. I'm sure all of them spent a decent amount of time with Destiny and Titanfall, for example.

In a lot of ways that's one of the issues with a larger staff, they sort of specifically "spread out" a little bit in order to provide larger coverage, but now that you have people in 3 different offices I'm sure there is way less "you gotta play this" type discussion.

It just seems like often times when someone plays a game late in the year out of obligation (because someone has tipped them off) they go in predisposed to finding problems with it. Jeff has struck me as particularly guilty of this. It's like when you go see a movie that people are absolutely raving about - it's easy to be let down even if it's a solid movie.

Ideally everyone would have played all the games, but it's just not reasonable.

Alright I'll guess (not in any particular order)

• Bayonetta
• Mordor
• Jazzpunk
• Sunset Overdrive
• Shovel Knight
• Dragon Age
• Wolfenstein
• Nidhogg or Lethal League
• Divinity
• Far Cry

BATTLE LINES UPDATE: Most recent Worth Reading has Patrick raving about Bayo 2 after his beaming update from a recent Bombin' episode so...

Bayonetta 2: GB GOTY MMXIV? Maybe?

10. NIDHOGG SURPRISE TOP 10 BITCHES (a man can dream)

9. Dragon Age: Inquisition

8. Wolfenstein: The New Order

7. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

6. Shovel Knight

5. Sunset Overdrive

4. Far Cry 4

3. Jazzpunk

2. Bayonetta 2

1. Shadow of Mordor

Dark Souls II, Divinity, Hearthstone, Alien, South Park, and Mario Kart 8 will just barely miss out to the top 10. Brad will just throw out Destiny for the hell of it, and get immediately shot down. His only potential ally for this is Jeff, and Jeff will not allow it.

@wilshere: It'll probably get a mention when they start to make cuts for 10 candidates. Maybe within "top 20".

Updated list with Geometry Wars 3.

Totally forgot the Alex reviewed The Banner Saga. Hopefully someone else (I'm thinking Patrick) played enough to help him make a case for it as Best Debut if nothing else.

You heard the most recent podcast. It's Bayonetta 2.

As of today or tomorrow, the GOTY deliberations are going to be recorded and we will find out whether the scenarios that we've been theorizing for weeks are going to come down the way we imagined it.

I expect Patrick and Alex colluding on Jazzpunk getting a push as discussed in a past Bombin' episode, Brad maaaaybeee placing Destiny in the shared Google doc only to have Jeff cross it out seconds later, and Jeff also placing the following sleeper hit of 2014 into the list: Hatsune Miku Project Diva F 2nd.

Looking at that list, I can see a lot of divisive games being knocked down, knocked down, knocked down, then they realize Wolfenstien, Alien Isolation, and Far Cry 4, 3 surprisingly alright games that don't really stir divisive opinions, are still standing even though they didn't do a ton of dramatic new stuff. And Shadow of Mordor takes the top slot even though all the stuff you do with the dwarf is just terrible. Patrick and Vinny might push for Divinity but I don't see it making top 3, it'll be on multiple personal lists however. South Park might get on a couple personal lists but I could see that being overlooked in general, same with Mario Kart.

I think Mordor will also get "greatest surprise" but man Alien Isolation really should take that. People were super ready to not give another Alien game a chance. DAI might ought to get the third slot there but I feel like anyone who followed that game's coverage, the game was what they showed. Only surprising in comparison to its predecessor.

Dragon Age needs to be on that list. It's one hell of a game. I'd say Mordor is going to be near the top if not the top and Dragon Age should be somewhere up there as well.

@bargainben: Not sure if you listened to the most recent Bombcast but Bayo 2 is probably gonna go high (probably going to take the top spot, at least top 3) and Inquisition might have a tenuous spot in the top 10 with the way they are talking about it but Patrick has been pretty positive on the game if you followed what he has said in Twitter.

Other people on staff seem pretty lukewarm or haven't played much of the game as much as Patrick with Rorie (being the reviewer) is probably the only one who has finished the game and I'm not sure if he's even going to pitch in during the deliberations.

Patrick was glowing when he was talking about Bayonetta 2 with Alex and Dan agreeing with a lot of his points so it probably has a lot of momentum going into the deliberations.

There was a lot of positive talk about FarCry 4 during the Bombcast, more so than what Inquisition got.

@gaspower: Dan at least has explicitly stated that Mordor is his favorite game to come out this year, however it might actually be an interesting discussion for the first time in 3 years? Skyrim was a lame justification, XCOM was well founded (I mean FTL is better but we're still in an "Indie games can't win major awards" world) but a boring discussion, Last of Us was just too good.

Ultimately the "it's doing something new we haven't seen before" factor is probably still going to propel Mordor to the top spot, though if Mordor had come out in May and Bayonetta 2 came out when it did then Bayonetta 2 would almost certainly win.

@fredchuckdave: To be fair, I think FTL not winning is not because it was an indie game but they all just felt strongly for XCOM. That was my GOTY, too, and I played and loved both games.

I'm going to be very surprised if top 2 is not Bayo 2 and Mordor in some order based on the crew's reactions to those two games (Jeff seemed pretty positive based on his gaming minute, Dan obviously loved it, Patrick seems to have loved it, I got the impression Alex was at least very positive about it...) Beyond that feels like mostly guessing (though would be neat to see stuff like Jazzpunk get in the top 10)

I think the only real competition will be Shadow of Mordor vs Bayonetta 2.

And I think Bayonetta 2 is going to win.

@westernwizard: Patrick did say that Bayo 2 was "fucking amazing", which he admits is not something he often says to describe a game so I'm pretty sure he loved it.

I think Mordor is gonna take the top spot, which I'm kinda okay with even though it's only placing 5th or so on my personal list.

Runners up: Bayonetta 2 or Far Cry 4.

Also on the list somewhere: Dragon Age, Advanced Warfare, South Park.

It would be a disappointing year if Mordor was the best game. It's just so repetitive after awhile. Yes the fighting is incredibly satisfying and the nemesis system is a great concept, but the best parts don't reveal themselves until the last hour or so of the game. It's just another Arkham game with a dash of Assassin's creed. There is nothing wrong with that at all, but is there another game that sounds more like a focus tested AAA videogame: The game? Batman + Assasin's Creed + LOTR = Mad Dollars

I couldn't even begin to tell you an order, given the state of things I can't even give you ten. I can say with certainty that Bayonetta 2, Wolfenstein, Jazzpunk, and Mordor make the list. Those are the only games to come this year that I can think of that everyone on the staff at least enjoyed if not loved. I imagine Dragon Age, Far Cry, Sunset, and Call of Duty on there somewhere too, but I'm not positive.

Hasn't been a great year for games, in my opinion. Then again, I've had almost no time to play any. Personally, Alien: Isolation is my game of the year. Fantastic game, even if the last hour or so sees a step-down in quality, and the way they've used DLC to expand or fill in parts of the story has been really great without feeling exploitative.

You guys are all really underestimating how much Jeff likes Advanced Warfare. He really likes it. Seems to be the only game this year that he's had a strong urge to keep playing.

@lelcar: Did anyone else care though? I could maybe see it getting into the top 10 the way Jeff forced Syndicate in a few years ago, but I doubt it makes it past the 6-7 mark on just him. Same way something like Divinity OS isn't likely to get higher than 7th since odds are only Patrick will give much of a shove on it either.

Slightly tweaking my guess to:

• Bayonetta 2
• Mordor
• Jazzpunk
• Sunset Overdrive
• Shovel Knight
• Dragon Age or Divinity
• Wolfenstein
• Nidhogg or Lethal League
• Far Cry
• Advanced Warfare

with Bayonetta taking the top spot.

Seems like he really likes Advanced Warfare and Far Cry 4. On the hole this has been a pretty good year for first person shooters. I played Advanced Warfare too and loved the speed of it (I personally wanted faster) but it doesn't touch Call of Duty 4. That's an extremely high bar so I think it's still really good. I'm excited for Far Cry 4 though. I haven't tried it but everyone I know who has love it. Wolfenstein was a gory pleasure, Titanfall had a good hook, and GTA turns into one at the click of a button.

Although I've not played it, I'm placing my bets on Bayonetta, Mordor is also a good shout but it plays horribly on last gen systems.

I'm far more interested in knowing what their worst game of the year is...

Octodad? Really?

my feeling for overall is Mordor, just seem to be the game that most of the guys liked and could reach a consensus on. I don't know, I haven't felt much genuine excitment this year from much of the crew.

i think Dragon Age will creep up if a couple more of the crew play it.