Which games won't be discussed in Game of the Year?

What games do you think will receive little to no discussion? I don't mean this in a "they won't appreciate this game enough" kind of way, just what you think they didn't like and probably won't bring up. I'm guessing south park will get a brief mention if only to say nothing really stands out. Divinity OS 2 as well, before most of them say they didn't play it so can't say anything about it.

Discuss the games that will barely be mentioned during the podcasts. Plenty of bad games will be discussed but many more won't even come up in conversation.

Just judging from the spoilercast they did, I get the sense that Ben and Alex didn't like P5 enough to go to bat for it and nobody else played it.

I think Splatoon 2 could either squeak (squirt?) its way onto the top 10 or go completely unmentioned. It seemed they were all about it for a hot minute then it dropped off the cliff.

Doesn't seem like Gravity Rush 2 will get any love.

I'm pretty confident Syberia 3 won't come up.

Agree on Divinity OS 2. I think Hollow Knight will struggle too. For me those were the best 2 games to be released on PC in 2017, so I think I am going to be disappointed. Judging by the recent review I wouldn't expect Mario+Rabbids to gain much traction, either. I don't think anyone really enjoyed Mordor, so I can't see that getting any coverage, although I'd agree with the team on that one.

@redhotchilimist: That's the real shame, I loved P5. I liked it so much I played through it twice! Oh well, it's their list not mine.

Persona 5 and that’s a damn shame!

Thimbleweed park, probably?

Battlefront II and Forza 7 were seemingly GB's lightning rods for loot crate outrage, so I imagine those two games will be basically disqualified from any and all discussion. I'm not about to claim either are remotely GOTY quality or will be "getting the shaft" or anything, but I expect some games to be discussed at length that have similar/worse systems at play. I'm prepared to be mildly frustrated/annoyed at that. Moving on.

In actual practice, Battlefront II's systems are indeed terrible, but surprisingly more for the overwhelming, needless layers of bullshit than how nefarious or game-altering they are. Pro tip: If your progression is so absurdly elaborate that it requires a tutorial video, it's probably a good indication that maybe that shit should be scaled back significantly. I just want to shoot pew-pew space lasers at Star Wars things without having to worry about managing star cards, classes, crafting, etc. Apparently that's too much to ask. I will say that Battlefront II looks fucking awesome, and should probably be at least mentioned under best-looking game.

As for Forza 7, I found the loot crate implementation there to be almost a complete non-issue, and the only way it even could be is if you really want one of the lame driver outfits. Its interfaces are also garbage. It's like a poorly-designed web page with tabs obfuscating things from view/quick navigation, replete with scrolling on a controller, and that's as awesome as it sounds. Moreover, how are Forza Horizon 3's trees amazing and Forza 7's often look like they came from Forza 2? I don't need 24 cars on track at once (who does?); give me pretty visuals throughout. It's still a good game at its core, but again, it's hidden under superfluous bullshit.

That's a lot of words on some games that don't merit much GOTY discussion, if any, but I figure this is as good a place to talk about them as any. I also wonder if PUBG will be DQ'd for "early access" reasons. If so, it belongs here as well. I'm sure PUBG's "eligibility" in and of itself will be a potentially contentious discussion, but I hope they at least mention the fun times they had with the actual game. If nothing else, it made for some great site content a la HITMAN last year. How it's handled will be interesting, because it's one of few (only?) that the staff all seemed to enjoy, but so far it seems like they don't really want it to count, which IMO would be a disservice.

Nioh, Persona 5. Both games that I have absolutely loved :(

Xenoblade 2.

Yeah I sadly feel Divinity OS2 might get ignored, but it's hard to blame them. Honestly, this year has been so crazy and filled with high quality games that it's easy to forget something came out in 2017. Whenever I browse stores or read about some games I'm shocked to discover and remember that something did come out in 2017. Like someone reminded me about Halo Wars 2 and I was like "holy crap, you're right! That did come out this year, wow!". I had that with a couple of other games, especially released in Q1.

I'm gonna talk about this game so fucking much on my top 10.

@hippie_genocide: @redhotchilimist: both of those will still get decent mentions even if they don't make the top 10 or win any awards.

Do you mean just during the top-10 debate itself or during all the GOTY discussions? Because something like Battlefront II probably won't come up during the top-10 debate, but is guaranteed to be mentioned during 'Hottest Mess' (though I suspect EA will win that award). And I think Persona 5 will at least be discussed during 'Best Style.'

There aren't that many reasonably well-known games that I think the crew will completely ignore. I could see Divinity Original Sin 2 being one of them though, since I think only Rorie played it.

@fezrock: I meant all of the discussions. Battlefront 2 will definitely come up a lot, if only to mention the failings. I'm more interested in what will go unnoticed.

that new xcom 2 expansion- that thing looks rad as hell (and if you'll forgive me, appears to be a real game-changer)- but all the bomber-bros were real down on xcom 2 so i don't think they'll return to it.

also- anyone think it's kinda nuts no one mentioned dawn of war 3 like, ever? i seem to remember vinny being real into DoW 2.

I think South Park Fractured But Whole gets no more than a passing mention with an accompanying scoffing noise from most of the staff except Alex, if anything.

Divinity Original Sin 2 is one of the best games of the year and it'll probably go nearly completely unmentioned

I'd be surprised if Sniper Elite 4 even gets mentioned. And unless they pulled a Shenmue on Yakuza Kiwami and already secretly prerecorded an entire playthrough, that one will most definitely also not be brought up.

@babychoochoo: A Red Apple Fell From the Sky best music of the year?

Nioh perhaps. The story was a bit shallow, they were just interested in making it evident there was more to it than they were going to involve the player. I sort of understood. But I really enjoyed the gameplay, and the graphics/art was fine, also

Another is Shadow Warrior 2. The protagonist was, or unwittingly could be a butt head. But the game was very fun and had some depth.

Hmm.. I think most things I liked or disliked will get a mention in either a passing positive nod or as part of a bigger negative topic.

Only thing that really comes to mind would be GT Sport. I don't think it's the best game of the year and I understand they don't have any interest in proper racing games, but I at least think it should be given a nod for being something unique to consoles and a bit risky with a casual mention of the offline content expected in Dec. Be nice if there was some segment or topic discussion about a few games shaking things up or whatever. At most, I expect the words "Gran Turismo Sport" will be mentioned once when Jeff complains about Forza 7.

Resident Evil 7 probably won't get the recognition I think it deserves either. It just came out too long ago and among of bunch of games. Some of them seemed to enjoy it, and it's great that they made a new RE game that doesn't suck, but I'll assume the passion anyone there had for it will have faded by now. It'll get a "Yea, I liked it, but we can cut it"

God am I not looking forward to hearing tons of discussion about PUBG though.

Edit: Oh oh! I thought of one! Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood expansion. There will be zero mention of this. That is as on topic as I can get lol

For good reason - it was released October last year...

Sadly, these are my picks, too. Personally, I think Nioh is a better Dark Souls game than any Dark Souls I played and I was more invested in Persona 5 than in any other game this year.

Tae best girl

Mario & Rabbits will probably get nothing but a passing mention, as I think the crew fell down from it pretty fast after the initial surprise.

Prey is another game that is likely to be forgotten and overlooked due to a lot of stronger competition...

Possibly Nioh as it was released so early in the year and it is the type of daunting game they rarely get into. I didn't think it was necessarily better than other Souls games like the guy above me, but it is certainly in my top list, might even be near the top.

The Ringed City, the last DLC for DSIII will surely not even be mentioned at all. I don't know if any of them even played it. Not even upset about it though, it's good Dark Souls content but DSIII was a lackluster game compared to the other ones.

I kind of doubt Absolver will get mentioned. I understand why, but still that game was doing such a cool thing that it is pretty high on my list.

I'll echo Nioh and since I've recently been playing Evil Within 2, I don't think that will come up either. Wasn't Ben the only one who mentioned playing it and only sort of liked it?

I’m really hoping that Hollow Knight gets its due, but I don’t think any of the staff put significant time into it. That’s a shame, because it’s definitely in contention for my personal GotY.

F1: 2017

If I had to make a list it would probably be this:

Yakuza 0

Persona 5

Nier: Automata

Shadow of War

Night in the Woods - released at the beginning of the year, sometime in January I believe.

I'd be very surprised if they mentioned 1989's Who Framed Roger Rabbit for the Nintendo Entertainment System during this year's Game of the Year discussions.

Sadly Persona 5 will be a #9 or a #10 if it's lucky enough.

But I hope it wins BEST SSSSSSSSSSSSTYLE

Hellblade and Observer are both in my top 5 for this year, and I expect to hear absolutely nothing about them at GOTY. Makes me sad.

They've been talking about Nier constantly since it came out, I highly doubt it won't get mentioned. Alex and Abby are definitely going to try and get Night in the Woods somewhere on the list, perhaps at #10.

I think South Park is going to get buried due to its controversial humor. I enjoyed it quite a lot but I think I almost prefer the crew not even bring it up because it'll be 10 minutes of the crew segmenting into two camps: "Yeah, the game was fun but I don't approve of the humor" versus "I couldn't even bring myself to play it because I don't like South Park at all anymore."

I think it's more likely that Shadow of War will wind up on some kind of (non-negative) list than South Park.

I think Divinity Original Sin 2 will get a passing mention from Vinny but that's all.

Nioh might get a brief mention at some stage but will be moved on from fairly quickly.

South Park (which I haven't played) might barely garner a mention. I think some people will go into bat for Splatoon 2 but it's not making anywhere near the top 10. Shadow of War will suffer a similar fate (I bought it off the back of the QL where Brad mentioned that it was good, but I very quickly got bored of it).

Brad will talk about Hellblad (to whoever posted about that earlier)

Was it? My bad. :)

I guess then it got ignored last year...

No way Abby doesn't Brad her way into this being at least discussed at length.

I think it will get mentioned especially when talking about best STYLE but a I think in the final top ten it will get regulated to " I enjoyed it but I know a lot of people didnt and there is so much good games im not gonna fight it"

The two games that I would like to see but won't:

• Divinity: Original Sin II
• Nioh

I feel like Persona 5 will get a mention and maybe.... mmmmaybe... even make top 10, but I doubt they will gloss over it entirely.

Was just about to write the same thing. I'm currently playing The Fractured But Whole and I'm enjoying it a lot but I doubt it will be mentioned and, just like you said, it's probably for the best. Rather have no mention of it at all than another segment of them mindlessly bashing on it.

Continuing the trend of Giant Bomb staff members enjoying Souls-like games and then snubbing them come GOTY time, I fully expect Nioh will get a brief mention before everyone says "Buuuuuuut I didn't finish it, so let's move on." Maybe it'll win "2018's 2017 Game of the Year" or something. It'll probably end up pretty high on my personal list alongside fellow "certain to be snubbed" title Prey, but at least I can feel assured that the team over at culturalmarxism.club is more than willing to back me up on immersive sims.

Yeah, sadly. I remember Vinny liking it during the Quick Look, but I don't think I've heard him talk about it recently before GOTY deliberations. Shame because its a very solid adventure game.

Also I don't think anyone will mention Hollow Knight (maybe for best looking game if anything) and Fire Emblem Warriors.

@arbitrarywater: I'm 100% sure that link goes to Waypoint, and I didn't even click on it.

Hollow Knight will get 2 minutes.

You would be absolutely correct that said link goes to www.bastionfucks.com.

• Behold the Kickmen
• Gravity Rush 2
• Prey

@arbitrarywater: Oh okay. As long as it doesn't also go to www.averagebomb.com

@wasabicurry: Nier: Automata is going to be discussed heavily during GotY. 0% chance that it doesn't get mentioned. I think loot boxes are a shoe-in for "Please Stop...", and Shadow of War will get mentioned there or most disappointing.

@kblosnack Cuphead or riot for best style