groverat

Dismissing SR:3 as merely zany is asinine. Neither is SR:3 a guilty pleasure. What's to feel guilty about? It's a legitimately great game in its mechanics and gameplay. It's not as if it is some ugly, janky mess that gets a pass because there's a purple dildo. Volition already put out a game in which you drove around spraying feces on people, yet that didn't receive much love, because the game itself wasn't good.

Skyrim and SR:3 are iterative; they are the best manifestations of their genres thus far. They are both games that are moving the genre and will make every participant in that market pay careful attention. Dragon magic game makers will have to reckon with Skyrim, and open-world crime game makers will have to reckon with SR:3.

I am not even arguing that SR:3 is a better game than Skyrim, because it is very much comparing apples to oranges given their wildly different goals and methods. I would merely argue that "Giant Bomb's Game of the Year" should include the "Giant Bomb" part in the decision-making.

The guys didn't pick Skyrim. Jeff, Vinny, and Ryan acceded to Brad. There's a huge difference between, "Yes, this is it" and "I realize that you are completely inflexible, so for the sake of feelings and office politics, fine."

@ThePickle said:

The game of the year has to be more than just fun. It's too subjective to speak for the whole website.

Jeff brushed against this briefly when he said that Saints Row: The Third is the game GiantBomb would have made, not Skyrim. It is 100% apt and Skyrim just rings hollow given how much innovation, quality, and wit Volition brought to the table.

SR:3 is GiantBomb in game form. That's why 3/5ths of the Bombcast regulars named it GotY.

Skyrim is a better choice for a publication/website with a lot less personality.

The deliberations were a lot of fun specifically because they brought in such a huge amount of personality. Brad was going to win GotY regardless of what game he wanted to back, because he went into that discussion like he had a suicide bomber's vest on; no one was leaving alive until Skyrim got its prize. Jeff just couldn't hang with that level of naked aggression and went passive-aggressive. The social awkwardness of these guys arguing about video games is super entertaining because I identify with every piece of the social awkwardness they display when heated up.

The reality is that Saints Row: The Third is GiantBomb's game of the year. I don't care what the actual list says.

@ExplodeMode said:

Never trust Ryan.

He is a NARC, after all.