I am currently watching the stream on The Lobby. Jeff was on with VanOrb & Watters for about 30 minutes to discuss previous gamespot GOTY award winners for about 25 or so minutes for anyone who may be interested in that discussion. It may not be my GOTY, but I certainly understand the decision. Seems like the impact of the nemesis system won it over for the staff. I'm more interested in hearing about the discussion of mario kart 8 as wii u GOTY over Bayonetta 2 than the overall award personally*. Any thoughts on this award to SOM or any of the other awards?

*Not that it's the worst thing in the world but it is why I love GB's method. Maybe not the thread to discuss it, but I do appreciate how they put themselves and their arguments out there to see the method to the madness that is these crazy discussions lol.

Not too surprising - it was certainly a weird year for AAA games. I don't think any major publication would put an indie game as #1. There have been some fantastic non-AAA games this year.

@beachthunder: They apparently gave Journey GOTY a few years ago, but that is probably a lightning in the bottle type of winner.

I had to step out (I'll have to go back and check out the full discussion) but it sounded like Divinity was one the main runner-ups for the award so that may say something (or it just says how context changes with the addition + subtraction of certain staff members.....GS does seem willing to go against the grain with the likes of Demon's Souls). Not sure what the other big contender was though.

It's one of the more mechanically fun games this year. I'm not too surprised. In a weird year, it was quite entertaining to both play and watch.

Were there any non-AAA games that really stood out this year? (Kind of a silly question when I say it like that). This seems like a kind of year where there isn't a AAA game that really knocked everyone's socks off.

I don't feel like any game this year was truly game of the year material honestly.

Also, opinions. Mordor was a mechanically sound, well made open world action game with a cool new system. Good to see it getting recognized.

Lightning Returns forever.

Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is probably the best game I've ever played.

What is a "AAA" game? Where does one draw the line? This isn't even a term that Giant Bomb uses, and for good reason. It's completely arbitrary and everyone seems to have a different idea of what AAA actually means.

@demoskinos said:

I will fight this fight with you.

Shadow of Mordor was fun to play, but the Nemesis system didn't impress me nearly as much as everyone else. Maybe because I rarely died or had chances for it to feel meaningful. Also, it's Lord of the Rings-based, so it already is pretty meh.

The only game that I could not put down once I started playing it this year. Had a hell of a lot of fun. Killed a lot of orcs in various horrible ways.

Makes sense to me!

I continue to not get a lot of the praise for this game. I found it to be completely enjoyable but also completely unremarkable. The Nemesis system is neat but it was never this game changing, amazing thing that a lot of people made it out to be, to me. It's just Assassin's Creed with orcs and a better combat system. Again, a perfectly solid game but that's about it for me.

Nope, I don't think I will ever understand the appeal of the game. Even the Nemesis system is a mere elaboration of the champions that Diablo has had for over a decade. Sunset Overdrive is a considerably better game, and was my GOTY.

Cool. I'm not surprised- apparently it was a good game.

I haven't played it yet, but I look forward to next year when I do.

@brendan: It seemed like Divinity might have but like mb said...what is does "AAA" even mean anymore other than the annual COD game.

@mb: For some reason (probably thanks to the recent bombcast) I had the idea pop in my head while reading your comment that Jeff would rap over the "What is a Juggalo" beat in a song titled "What is a AAA game". I blame this ridiculously alcoholic beer I'm drinking.

@demoskinos: One of these days I will actually a FF game damn it.

Bayonetta 2 is the one true GOTY.

They also gave 2009 to Demon's Souls - which while not quite indie, also isn't quite AAA.

@sinusoidal: Yeah I edited that in. Forgot that they did that. Certainly something that went against the grain when they did that, which is certainly commendable considering how revered that series has become.

I just went to the gamespot. Apparently both Divinity and Shadow of Mordor were nominees for PC game of the year and Divinity won that. How does it make any sense at all to then go on and reward Shadow of Mordor overall GOTY?

But to have platform awards and nominate multi platform titles for those is pretty silly thing to do anyway.

Heh, shortly upon Alexa Ray Corriea joining, too :P

I feel like the implication is that Divinity is more of a PC-ass PC game. So, they consider it to be a better PC game than Shadow of Mordor is.

Was this year really that bad for games?

Honestly I think SoM was a REALLY average game. Saw someone say it was the first game that gave them next gen feel. That actually made me a little sad lol. The nemesis system was not enough to carry the game imo. And it amounted to 3/4 of the games content. Graphics were kinda sub par imo. It looked good at night, with wet textures. In the day light not so much. Pretty grainy. The game was also really inorganic looking. Like every fucking wall was flat. Half the game walls looked like a dug out rock quarry. Lots of the environment set pieces were REALLY square or rectangular looking to the point of breaking immersion. Like the artist had x amount of space to work in, and just filled the box to the sides. It made me half heartedly question if the engine, or some of the assets weren't updated from a PS2 title.

@yummylee: Jeff talked when he was that the way to win was to be the loudest in the room, which he especially became good at. I imagine ARC came in and showed no mercy while cutting several throats.

It really smells of "this is the game we can all at least agree on not hating I guess" but that's GOTY for ya. It is a good game but it's just...well...you know...whatever. What a year.

I can totally see Giant Bomb landing on this game the same way.

What? You serious? The rain/hail effects and detail on the orc's faces were extremely detailed and breathtaking. On a technical level, I thought this game was next-gen as fuck. I've got no clue how you're comparing it to ps2 graphics.

It's a mechanically sound game most will forget in 2 years. Everything surrounding the gameplay is really really boring.

I hope to play this one day once I get a current gen console, nemesis system looks cool.

Also, they had one of the developers there to chat about the game which was pretty good.

same here.

The orcs looked great. The environment did not look good in the day light. I was not comparing the graphics to PS2. I was comparing how flat and inorganic everything looked to the PS2 era. It looked just lazy like they couldnt be bothered to put the time in and do anything other then flat sides on everything, or the engine couldnt handle more polygons. Also FYI I played on PC with Ultra settings.

It was a highly competent game, but nothing memorable. I didn't even get much out of the nemesis system, since I just murdered the shit out of every orc that made a name for itself.

The simplistic geometry probably had more to do with making vertical movement easier rather that some graphical bottleneck.

Oh you mean geometry? That was mostly to make things more climbable I'm guessing. I thought it was a good compromise. Not everything was completely flat or anything.

I know, but it just bugged me. It looked really dated imo. It wasnt just the walls either though, a lot of the item set pieces were really flat or boxy as well to the point where they felt a little fake. I come off harsher on them game then it sounds. It was enjoyable, Id give it a 7, just wasnt great imo.

While I did like the game,I wish the enviroments were more.....varied. I felt like The Third Age did a good job of having different kinds of places to see and visit while this felt like it was on one giant island.

Kevin actually did a great breakdown of the gameplay and how all the mechanics were important.

A while back, I captured a late game fight where I use just about everything. Thinking back to that fight, the most impressive thing is how effortless it all felt by that point. And how useful all my abilities were.

Wow! That was pretty damn impressive! Even managed to break up to sections where they stop for dialouge! That drove me kinda nuts at times when I couldnt manage to separate the bosses and I would get like 3-4 in a row screwing up the combat.

I must admit that I am in the "this game was fun, but no crazy bonkers amazing" camp. I just wanted to post this video that lists all of Gamepot's GOTY winners. Say what you will about whether the games deserved the honors or not, all of them are remembered or have influence on games today. Weeeeell, except for Chrono Cross. I will never understand Gamespot circa 2000's obsession with Chrono Cross.

http://www.gamespot.com/videos/a-gamespot-retrospective-past-goty-winners/2300-6422844/

That's a cool choice, especially in terms of future tech that you just know everyone will emulate in, what, 2016?

oh my goodness, it is game of the year time now? I'll need to make sure to tune into the giantbomb stuff to hear about all kinds of games I never played.

Definitely I think the nemesis system is amazing, and hopefully will be adopted/borrowed/enhanced in many, many games to come.

That said, I think I have played one too many Batman games and honestly got bored before even completing the game (70% thru maybe?), which is a tragedy, considering it was purchased for me with the season pass and everything (100+ buckaroos). I'll chip away at it over time.

One reason I'm happy this game is winning GOTY here and there is that I hope it reminds developers that even the smallest progression in AI is hugely exciting, and something worth spending time and money on. I know people here are kind of feeling that SoM is getting more credit then it deserves - and I agree to an extent, that, as a game it can be a little dry - but I strongly disagree with everyone saying we`ll forget about it next year. No, we won`t. The nemesis system, like it or not, is a huge deal. Everyone noticed it, regardless of whether or not it shined in your playthrough. We`ll always look back at SoM as the game which introduced the concept into the industry. In many ways SoM is undoubtedly my most important game of the year, though it is not in my number 1 spot as the game I had most fun playing.

this was such a mediocre year for AAA games, I think GTAV and FC4 have been the most fun for me... one a HD remake, the other a direct sequel...

talk about creative bankruptcy

Out of everything that came out this year, yeah, it's probably the best. But I don't think it's GOTY worthy. It just shows you how mediocre a year this was for games.

Can't say I am shocked, still a poor choice. It is fun and a good time, but hardly the best game of the year.

I haven't play it yet, but everything I've seen and heard sure makes it seem like GOTY material so, sure, why not? Good on 'em.

Opinions!

I think that it has more to do with the combination of the nemesis system and a fairly solid, if incredibly uninspired, combat system that gave Mordor the illusion of a living, developing world more than the other games. Also, this title wasn't hampered by game-breaking bugs (Halo:MCC, AC:U, and many, many more), nor an incredible time sink that put most people off (DA:I, Divinity), nor sent out to die on a dead console (Bayonetta 2, Mario Kart 8, Smash).

In a year in which everything that could go wrong, did go wrong for a lot of games, the games that have an Unique Selling Point but are competent are going to shine.

There are probably only a few people on their staff who play PC games, and probably not too many outside of those would be into a game like Divinity. If there were 20 people doing the deliberations, but only 5 of them played PC exclusives, then perhaps they just left the PC decision up to those 5, since the others wouldn't really have any useful input. It's certainly one of the nice things about Giant Bomb being a personality driven site that also happens to publish its Game of the Year deliberations, as these things tend to make a lot more sense when you have context as to how the decisions were made. For all we know, it was the same group picking for both, and they went with Divinity on PC as a nod towards it but still felt that Mordor was their 'real' game of the year, or something weirdly arbitrary like that. It's not all too dissimilar to Mordor beating out games that received higher review scores, like Bayonetta 2 (one of the few GameSpot 10s), and Bayonetta 2 losing to Mario Kart 8 for the Wii U category, even though Mario Kart only received an 8.

@geraltitude: I think it's interesting in how what we think makes a game "GOTY" and how a site/publication determines it. Not just best overall game, but what impact it may have on the future of games within the medium and what systems within a game (whether it be graphical, narrative, or gameplay design...or whatever mixture of the 3) drive us/them to decide upon it is an interesting thing to think about. It is something Watters mentioned when it comes to the decision making process and what their responsibility is as a website when it comes to potentially highlighting aspects of games that could have a great impact on game design and what they want the future of the industry to be.

Not my favorite by far, or even in the slightest, but a lot of people liked the game so why not.

This year has been weird as shit. Nothing has really, really blown me away. It's a lot good small stuff that makes me say, "oh shit, that's smart, I wonder what they can do with that in the future." I was also busy with my first industry job, getting trained, working crazy hours for about four months, and not doing a whole ton of gaming during that time. And I feel like I've largely ignored the 'indie scene' this year. I'm hard pressed to come up with a game that I thought was fantastic through and through. Currently in middle of Wolfenstein The New Order though, and that's been pretty impressive thus far.