SPIKE Game of the DECADE

@Fire_Of_The_Wind said:

People keep overlooking Dark Souls. HL2 I've started it countless times since the game was released but once you get to the stupid bike/boat thing section it's just so much of a drag that I've never get past that. If it was "best first hour in the last decade" then I would agree with HL2, I had the same problem with HL1.

Dark Souls doesn't have a legacy.

Not yet, at least. Man, I fucking HOPE in 8 years we'll be looking back and saying "THIS IS WHERE THE ARPG REVOLUTION BEGAN ANEW".

@Fire_Of_The_Wind said:

People keep overlooking Dark Souls. HL2 I've started it countless times since the game was released but once you get to the stupid bike/boat thing section it's just so much of a drag that I've never get past that. If it was "best first hour in the last decade" then I would agree with HL2, I had the same problem with HL1.

Dark Souls? Oh god what. People aren't overlooking it, it just doesn't have much going for it except arbitrary difficulty. And a pretty alright combat system I guess.

Out of all the possible choices Spike could have made, they made the right one. HL2 breathed new life into a genre. WoW (why the fuck would you pick this, other than brand loyalty?) has choked the life out of RPGs as a whole.

wow has choked the life out of RPGs as a whole? No i didnt pick it out of brand loyalty.

WoW is (was at release) a refined Everquest set in the Warcraft universe. I literally can't think of a single thing it introduced to the genre when it first came out.

I gotta agree that WoW would probably make the most sense.

@Vexxan said:

A game of the decade award in 2012? What?

Probably makes a lot more sense that having a game of the decade award in 2010, before people have actually had a chance to think about the quality and influence of newer games.

@Fire_Of_The_Wind said:

People keep overlooking Dark Souls. HL2 I've started it countless times since the game was released but once you get to the stupid bike/boat thing section it's just so much of a drag that I've never get past that. If it was "best first hour in the last decade" then I would agree with HL2, I had the same problem with HL1.

Dark Souls was a 2011 game, not eligible for game of the decade.

Seems a bit odd that they didn't do this in 2010 or 2011. The decade certainly doesn't start in 2002.

@Video_Game_King: They obviously needed two years to ponder it over. That's why I'll soon be releasing my game of the year from 2010. Stay tuned!

@Fire_Of_The_Wind said:

People keep overlooking Dark Souls. HL2 I've started it countless times since the game was released but once you get to the stupid bike/boat thing section it's just so much of a drag that I've never get past that. If it was "best first hour in the last decade" then I would agree with HL2, I had the same problem with HL1.

Dark Souls was a 2011 game, not eligible for game of the decade.

It doesn't really matter if WoW isn't the best game ever or if it wasn't as innovative as others. It has kept millions and millions of players coming back for over half the decade and it's been ingrained in modern culture. If you were to look back at the decade 50 or 100 years from now it is the only game that would have any chance of being mentioned in a history book. "Everyone" knows what WoW is, you would be hard pressed to find a non-gamer that knows what Half-Life 2 is. Hell, you'd probably find plenty of gamers that barely know what it is.

@Fire_Of_The_Wind said:

@LackingSaint said:

@Fire_Of_The_Wind said:

People keep overlooking Dark Souls. HL2 I've started it countless times since the game was released but once you get to the stupid bike/boat thing section it's just so much of a drag that I've never get past that. If it was "best first hour in the last decade" then I would agree with HL2, I had the same problem with HL1.

Dark Souls was a 2011 game, not eligible for game of the decade.

Oh so it's 2001-2010? Why was it done in 2012 then? when someone tells me past decade I just count the last 10 years.

Well if you think about it, games like Mass Effect 2 or Red Dead couldn't have realistically been eligible and fair if they did this in 2010. Either winning or even just being nominated would have felt like "well these are the last games we played that we liked so there ya go", not even considering how the game's latter influence factors into it.

Half-Life 2 still is my favorite game of all time, so I kind of agree with them.

@Ares42 said:

It doesn't really matter if WoW isn't the best game ever or if it wasn't as innovative as others. It has kept millions and millions of players coming back for over half the decade and it's been ingrained in modern culture. If you were to look back at the decade 50 or 100 years from now it is the only game that would have any chance of being mentioned in a history book. "Everyone" knows what WoW is, you would be hard pressed to find a non-gamer that knows what Half-Life 2 is. Hell, you'd probably find plenty of gamers that barely know what it is.

"Game of the Decade" shouldn't be a popularity contest.

I know, I'm amazed it didn't turn into that too. I mean, SPIKE.

"Game of the Decade" should be about what game has had the most positive impression on gaming as a whole. That handily goes to HL2, as much as I'd like to say "Deus Ex, Game of the Year every year".

@Terramagi: Well, my point wasn't really that it was the most popular, but rather that it was something bigger than just a game. It was a cultural event that put a mark in history.

I don't really care for Half Life 2. Grant it, I played it in 2007 but the game lacks a sense of whole. I believe they broke up into teams and each team designed an hour of the game and then they just slapped them all together. It just makes the pacing seem really really bad. "Hey you are going to be on this buggy for way too long, and then fight zombies for way too long, and then deal with sand monsters for way too long." Also the silent protagonist thing just sucks. You go do all these things just because it's the linear path you are on. You get through design team A's 1 hour level meet a dude, who tells you to go through design team B's level until you get to the end. Oh yeah there isn't even an ending and we are going to retcon it in the expansion.

Now as much as the Half Life 2 people will say I'm wrong here, I think Value actually agrees with me because they fixed all these issues in Episode 1 and 2. Episode 1 they have the girl follow you around and provide a narrative and context for what you are doing (which they also did in Portal) and in Episode 2 they actually paced the gameplay sooo much better. It was diverse but didn't feel like people that never talked to each other were working on it.

@Dezztroy said:

Dark Souls? Oh god what. People aren't overlooking it, it just doesn't have much going for it except arbitrary difficulty. And a pretty alright combat system I guess.

This is what people who haven't played Dark Souls get wrong. It has one of my favorite stories and settings in any video game to date. It's just told in an unconventional way. The whole game is a revelation, and I sincerely hope people will give Dark Souls 2 a better peek. As long as that game turns out good that is.

But hey, it doesn't even matter in this discussion, since Dark Souls couldn't win this anyway.

Don't even know if Psychonauts was on the list of possible winners, but that would be my pick. Half Life 2 is a worthy winner though.

There were two valve games nominated. Half Life 2 and Portal. They had to make a decision between the two.

Dude, it's the Spike VGA's. The fact that they didn't pick Modern Warfare is a victory in itself. They actually killed it this year with their choices, and their lack of juvenile gags.

I didn't watch, but saw the article on Kotaku. I guess the decade comes into play since this award show has been around for 10 years now(didn't feel like ten years).

Anyways, anyone who was around for the launch of Half Life 2 through Steam(when everyone hated Steam) knew it was kind of a big deal. Even though it started out rough, the fact that you could download a game and all you had to do was wait to put in your cd to play was a big deal. It also showed the potential for Steam to become what it has today which is an easy way to distribute PC gaming without having to leave your desk. The game itself drew you in with it's scope, something Unreal tried to accomplish years before it, but fell flat on it's face. Eveything about the game seemed to have a purpose for being in the game, even if it was as simple as picking up a plank with the gravity gun and using it as a weapon. The facial expressions, the scale of the world, the narrative told by everyone else so the user could develop their own feelings of what was going on in the game all contributed to gaming as a whole and we have seen it trickle down, even to the most mediocre of games. Half Life 2 set a standard 8 years ago that most games still don't even live up to today.

As for the WoW argument, I get it. It's had millions of players sustained over a long period of time, but as a hardcore Blizzard fanboy I ask what exactly has it contributed to gaming besides the money to Activision Blizzard's pockets? Majority of the gameplay elements came from games that existed before it, and with the community that the game grew, Blizzard accomplished feat of making the MMO genre more casual. I get that, but that's also it's biggest flaw. The game has been nerfed into the ground and literally holds your hand for the past 4 years now. Making it so a player who plays for thousands of hours having accomplished the same feats as someone who only played 40. If anything WoW has shown us that the MMO genre was in need of a radical change when it came out, but did nothing with it but take the ball and run 100 yards into the opponent's end zone. The result became rival game developers to try and copy, which resulted in a flooding of the genre and dilution of product which now has most gamers asking if the MMO can even be reinvented. The question we were all hoping Blizzard would have answered in 2004.

@byterunner said:

@FilipHolm: Psst....Just a word from the Wise, Journey and Half Life 2 didn't come out in the same Decade....

Pretty sure the category was the last ten years since it was the tenth VGA's... So, while we are both right.... I'm right, bitch

<3

This was chosen by popular vote by the way. They just used internet polls. And yeah, I think we made the right choice.

Those sons of bitches.

My personal game-of-this-arbitrary-10-year-period would probably be something like Bayonetta or Persona 3... but honestly, I played so much god damn World of Warcraft, that's got to be it.

WHY DO PEOPLE KEEP DOING THIS?! Every fucking year people complain about how dumb the VGA's are and how they don't matter and yet every fucking year they get bothered that the opinion of the VGA's don't match their own.

Game of the Decade sounds stupid to me, but that aside I think Half Life 2 is a fine choice if there had to be one.

I would disagree with the other nominees, though. I took the category to celebrate games who've had a lasting impact, which is why I thought is was weird to have some relatively recent games there.

Certainly a much better pick than Halo, and a much worse pick than San Andreas, Metal Gear Solid 3, Resident Evil 4 et al.

Influence is irrelevant to this discussion, some of the most advanced games ever made are just too dense, complicated and difficult for most people (Vagrant Story, Valkyrie Profile 2, to a lesser extent the Souls games which are kind of softer versions of VS ultimately and thus more influential), they could be much more influential and they're still far ahead of anything that's out there right now. Dumbing things down is going to be more influential than actually improving design and combat mechanics.

It has a great story, great graphics and great scripting (back when that was novel), but the puzzles are pretty dumb and the shooting is not great, even at the time. I don't think it holds up well enough to be the game of the decade, but that's just me. Also I think Game of the Decade is a really stupid concept, just saying.

If you asked me what I thought this would actually be, I would have said Mass Effect 2. Go figure.

Anyway, I like the idea that such a category can never really have a true answer but in committee this choice makes a lot of sense. However, it feels a little weird having this award now and not two years ago.

Sometimes complex things are actually simple things. We all have different tastes. Anything else is overthinking. My favorite game of the decade is skyrim (on pc, with mods). That's the game I have gained the most enjoyment from within that timeframe. ---- In the end. That's what matters. Nothing else.

"But dude, skyrim is a buggy mess"

That's your opinion random stranger person.

"Giantbomb's game of the decade is saints row the third, because it "just don't give a fuck".

Well great! That's fantastic. I quite enjoyed that game. I'm glad they shared.

Spike didn't make the choice. It was a vote, and if you followed the Valve twitter or FB page they linked the vote. I forgot what I voted for, but HL2 was inventive in some ways. I think its a little too linear to be my GOTD.

Would of been nice if Resident Evil 4 were on their list. It even won VGA goty 2005. I'm not a Half Life 2 fan but this outcome hardly bothers me. It's a slapdash voters award on spike TV.

I would have picked Resident Evil 4. I feel it got shunned out of the conversation, the game still feels fresh with its funs story and dialogue and awesome bosses.

Resident Evil 4 was the correct choice and it wasn't even nominated.

I would have to vote WoW. It completely dominated the MMO genre from 2004 up until GW2 came out this year. It had tons of problems, sure, but it solved so many of those problems along the way, and every current MMO wants to copy many of the systems it came up with.

Hell fucking yes it is bitches!!!!!! Half Life 2 4 life yo!!!!!!! :D

(Not that I needed an award show to tell me that it is)

The right answer, in my opinion, is Grand Theft Auto III or Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, as that opened up a whole genre of games. It did a lot of things games never did before it and set the bar very high.

But If I had to choose from what was nominated I guess I would go with ME2. Another one that should have at least gotten a mentioned is Knights Of The Old Republic.

I feel that games that are truly great stand the test of time and many on the list have not been tested since they came out a good 3 to 2 years ago. So when I play HL2 I don't think it stood that test, it definitely feels dated and their many games that came out around that time that still feel fresh to me. Examples of games that to me still hold up against modern gaming would be RE4( my personal pick), God Of War, Shadow of Colossus, GTA SA, Knights Of The Old Republic, Zelda WW.

Now games from this generation that I feel will have the same longevity would be COD 4, ME series, Uncharted 2, Fallout 3, Dragon Age origins, Mortal Kombat 9, Portal series, Gears 3. Theres more but Im kind of tired lol.

What timespan are we talking about?

personally I think Deus Ex deserves that honor. It successfully blended RPG-mechanics with FPS gameplay, something that nearly every shooter that isn't COD/Battlefield seems to be doing nowadays.

Baldurs Gate II? it came out in 2000.

I'd say HL2 is justified on the back of Steam.

Personally not a huge fan but it's a deserving candidate.

@wemibelec90 said:

Game of the Year is divisive enough; coming to a consensus on a Game of the Decade would be next to impossible. I agree that Half Life 2 maybe isn't the best game, but I think it's a very intelligent choice nonetheless. It informed a lot of games that followed it - things like involved physics systems and having character moments happen as you are walking your character around are concepts that dozens of games have used since its release.

I have to agree with this. First of all, so many fantastic games come out over the course of ten years. Picking one is not an easy task. I mean, look at Spike's list. All of those games are fantastic (with the exception of Wii Sports). In spite of this, I could add a ton of games.

There is no doubt that all of us would choose another game as our game of the decade. Half-Life 2 is absolutely in my list of the top ten games of all time. It may even be in my top five. I would probably choose something else as game of the decade, however.

EDIT: Ok, I'm just going to say it. METAL GEAR SOLID 3 IS THE BEST GAME OF THE PAST DECADE SO YEAH. They could have at least nominated it. HL2 is a god choice though, no beef here. srsly tho snake eatah.

No issues with it being HL 2... It's the game I would have choose.

I'm more confused why Arkham City is even a nomination.

Half-Life 2 is as good a candidate as you're gona get... not sure how anyone can get worked up about it, especially considering its Spike, I'm shocked CoD4 didn't win it to be honest....

Of the ten games nominated, only two of them won VGA's GOTY. This humors me. (Although, to be fair, how was Wind Waker supposed to compete with Madden 2004?)

@Gamer_152 said:

@thugg1280 said:

Entertainment Weekly picked the list from that list i see world of warcraft i kind of feel it would have been a better pick.

And I can absolutely see your reasoning there, WoW is a great game, but you have to remember that there are a lot of people who are going to feel the way about WoW that you feel about Half-Life 2. It's always the situation with things like this that they're so subjective, that however well the people behind the award pick their answer, there are always going to be large numbers of people disagreeing. I think Spike made a very fair choice though, I'm not sure I'd call HL2 my game of the decade, but considering the reception it got from fans and critics at its peak, I think it makes sense that they'd choose it.

I think they definitely could have picked a much worse game, so I really don't mind. Although the VGAs are a marketing event, it was nice to see some lesser-known games get exposure.

@IAmADwagon said:

Of the ten games nominated, only two of them won VGA's GOTY. This humors me. (Although, to be fair, how was Wind Waker supposed to compete with Madden 2004?)

the best of all madens no less

@BoG: MGS3 was actually the exact game I was thinking of when they announced the nominations.

I'm not really sure how you can say WoW wasn't the clear game of the decade. Its' impact was profound and people are still playing it in huge numbers now.

HL2 was influential but nothing like WoW.