So, I've already presented my take on GB's actual award categories. But now it's time to take a look at some of the categories that Giant Bomb inexplicably forgot to include (I hope they fix this for 2018). Please enjoy this 100% serious post, and let me know of games I missed or categories you would have included.

The "Need for Speed" award for most egregious use of always online functionality

Gran Turismo Sport

Gran Turismo Sport was divisive enough already as it strayed away from the series' staple car-PG gameplay and morphed into a stripped down, primarily online focused experience. But even more maddening is the game's insistence for its players to be online to save anything. It doesn't matter if you're playing in offline modes - if you can't connect, you can't save.

And if the GTS servers are down... well, I hope you don't mind leaving your PS4 on and not playing anything else on it for a while!

Best Romance

Hideo Kojima & Mads Mikkelsen

Despite a year dominated by fear, turbluence and hate, it was in 2017 that the budding bromance between Hideo Kojima and Mads Mikkelsen bloomed like the fullest of Spring blossoms. A modern love story played out on Twitter and Instagram, the amourous adventures of these two entwined souls captured the hearts of millions and stitched out a wondrous tale that will linger for a thousand generations.

Meanwhile, in an undisclosed location, Geoff Keighley sobbed gently into his Kojima Productions branded pillow.

Best Recovery for an Official License

Ashes Cricket

2013's Ashes Cricket game was so hilariously bad that they tried to cancel it after it had been released, leading to some horrific publicity and perhaps making cricket's biggest inroad into the American public consciousness yet.

Fortunately, for this year's edition the cricket boards wisely did not award the license to a publisher who admitted they had no idea what the development team they had contracted were doing, and simply got the guys from the respectable Don Bradman Cricket series to do it instead. Now cricket fans everywhere can enjoy the total misery of England's pitiful bowling and dreadful batting.

(Just remember, Don Bradman (statistically the greatest sportsman in history) died for this.)

Worst Reveal

Artifact - the Dota 2 Card Game

The video says it all.

Most telling revision of a long-held opinion

Dan Ryckert on Super Mario Sunshine

Once you get past the excitement over the fact that the latest Mario game is finally here, you'll find a game that's generally pleasing but heavily reliant on a few new moves that seem more like gimmicks than gameplay innovations.

Gerstmann, J., "Super Mario Sunshine review", Gamespot, 26 August 2002

It was Dan's love of and perceived notion of bias against the series' Gamecube entry that led to an entertaining playthrough by the GBE team. Slowly but surely however, even Dan himself began to crack a little at the numerous niggling flaws that cropped up whilst playing Sunshine.

Occasional technical issues also make for quite a bit of frustration, such as clipping problems that cause you to fall through objects or get you stuck inside walls or fences.

Gerstmann, J., "Super Mario Sunshine review", Gamespot, 26 August 2002

He probably still likes the game, but now the secret is out. Super Mario Sunshine is not a great video game. Sorry Dan. Why not play another "collect 100 coins" level to cheer yours-

While a few level goals truly stand out and will remind you of why you love the Mario series in the first place, many of the game's goals--particularly the red coin challenges--are simply tedious, and completing them feels more like a relief than a reward.

Gerstmann, J., "Super Mario Sunshine review", Gamespot, 26 August 2002

Oh.

Best Giant Bomb Opinion of 2017

Cuphead winning "Best Styyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyle"

Cuphead is clearly a cut above anything style-wise. Maybe it's not an original look in itself, but it is an original visual concept for games. But most crucially of all, each component just works together so well. It's just so GOOD!

#dealwithit

Worst Giant Bomb Opinion of 2017

Cuphead winning "Best Styyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyle"

WTF? Do GB staff have eyes? Persona 5 clearly has the best styyyyyyyyle of 2017. I mean, look at the menus. People cosplay as the menus.

I confidently predict that in ten years' time we will open the dictionary and the entry for style will just be a gif of the menu for Takemi's clinic.

They didn't even play the game anyway...

#robbed

Worst Framerate / Best Slideshow

PUBG (Xbox One)

PUBG is a terrific game and is well worth playing however you can get your hands on it. If you have any choice in the matter however, you would do well to avoid the sluggish Xbox One version. The PC and Xbox One X versions aren't exactly a masterful showing of buttery smooth framerates and exceptional technical visuals, but they do offer a considerably improvement over the base One experience.

That said, there are approximately a million videos on this topic on the internet, so instead enjoy what might be the worst performing game of all time.

Best Menus (outside of Persona 5 to make it interesting)

Super Mario Odyssey

Super Mario Odyssey looks absolutely fantastic in every way, but particularly delightful were the excellent menus. Clear, crisp, colourful and genuinely useful, the presentation of information was expertly done in both the traditional menus themselves and the maps of each kingdom.

Not to mention in a year packed full of great video game soundtracks, the menu noises to indicate going backward and forward through the menus were sublime. Especially the back button noise. Mmmm.

Worst Game that Giant Bomb actually played but forgot about

Vroom in the Night Sky

On the Nintendo Switch launch stream, the GB team played what proved to be Metacritic's Worst Game of 2017. I'm not surprised that the guys totally passed over this shining example of how technology can poison the mind, but let it be shown for the record that they did in fact play, and not enjoy, the debut of the self-described "Magical Bike Action Game" genre.

The features of this game are Fantastic feeling, Speedy feeling, and Realistic feeling using HD Vibration.

The publisher of this complete nonsense