Aside from the Community GOTY voting, the 16th Annual Giant Bomb Game of the Year proceedings have officially ended. This year, we saw the first ever live event for the GOTY Finale as well as the return of guest lists after taking a hiatus in 2022. To me, the GOTY guest lists are on the same level as the E3 couch in terms of traditions on this site. That's why I contacted Grubb a few months ago and volunteered my time to enter them all into the CMS, format them, add screenshots, and have them ready to post. I figured if that helped make it possible for lists to return, it was worth my time.

And here we are. At the end of a week that saw a total of 41 lists from staff and guests. Seeing that big grid of articles on the front page makes me happy.

If you've known me at all over the past 15 years here, you know another thing that makes me happy. Data. Math. Spreadsheets.

Now, you may be asking: "Marino, they already did the math in LA. What could you possibly add to this discussion?"

Well, what if I told you that two staff members changed their lists? Oh, you didn't notice? What if I told you what they said in LA was not what they put on their list that got posted to the site this week? MADNESS! Also, since everyone except Tam gave us a full ten game list this week, those 6th through 10th place votes could've potentially affected the Top 10 list!

To be clear, I'm NOT suggesting we change the official list. What happened in LA is engraved in stone as far as I'm concerned. BUT! It might be fun to ask what if...

The Official Top 10

These are official results from the live show in Los Angeles. As you can see, Resident Evil 4 and Baldur's Gate 3 tied for 3rd place with 34 points. I personally rank RE4 higher because it got 4 votes versus BG3's 3 votes. We also had a tie for 9th place with Chants of Sennaar and Street Fighter 6.

Now, let's move on to the results following the lists posted this week...

The Adjusted Top 10

So, two major things happened here. Firstly, we added points for everyone's 6th-10th games. Secondly, Jan and Grubb changed their lists!

Grubb moved Super Mario Bros. Wonder from 5th to 6th and replaced it with Chants of Sennaar.

Jan had more drastic changes. He dropped Chants of Sennaar from 3rd to 9th, which moved Spider-Man up from 4th to 3rd. Jan also dropped Jusant from 5th to 6th and replaced it with Persona 5 Tactica.

The funny thing about these changes is that Jan subtracted 6 points from Chants' total while Grubb added 6, which resulted in Chants staying at 14 points.

Some of those 6th-10th place votes shuffled the bottom half around a bit, but it's mostly the same. The one big difference is that Street Fighter 6 got pushed out of the Top 10 in favor of Lies of P, which jumped into 9th place.

Street Fighter still has 14 points, but fewer votes than Chants of Sennaar, which is the tie breaker.

Another interesting thing to note is that Dan is the only person that voted for Zelda as #1. And, while Zelda won GOTY even with the adjusted points, Dan himself nearly pushed it out of the number one spot by giving points to Alan Wake II in the lower half of his list.

Guests' Top 50

For the purposes of this data blog, I'm considering Bailey and Shawn as guests only because they were not involved in the site's official Top 10. I've also included Dylan as a guest list.

• From 36 guests, we had 110 different video games with votes. In recent years, we had 121 (2021), 184 (2020), and 210 (2019). It seems like in a year with so many great games, there's more of a general consensus.
• Three games got first place votes with no other votes: 1000xResist, Elden Ring, and Pathologic 2.
• Baldur's Gate 3 had more 1st place votes than anything else (6). Marvel's Spider-Man 2 got 4.
• Tears of the Kingdom had the most overall votes with 23 (63.9%). The next closest was Mario Wonder (16) and RE4 (15). Total domination by Zelda.
• 21 of the 36 guests (58.3%) gave a full list of 10 ranked games. That's up from 48.3% in 2021 and 42.2% in 2020.
• Resident Evil 4 was the highest ranked game with no 1st place votes. Strangely, Resident Evil Village had this same distinction in 2021.
• 77 games out of 110 were released in 2023. That's 70%, which is down from 77.7% in 2021.
• The oldest game nominated was Final Fantasy III (1990). You could argue that Karateka could claim this distinction, but... nah.
• 8 of the Top 10 games are the same between the guests and staff. Guests put more points into Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Stars while the staff valued Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon and Chants Of Sennaar more.
• The GB Moderators (first column) have 9 games in the Guest Top 10. The next most was Bailey with 7. The mods also have all 7 of the Top 7. The voice of the people!

Old Data

• 2021
• 2020
• 2019
• 2018
• 2017

There's been a lot of talk this year that 2023 might be the best year ever in gaming. Personally, I don't see it. There's been a lot of good games, but most of them haven't truly live up to the hype in my opinion. Who knows though? Sometimes it's hard to evaluate things that are so recent. Maybe I'll look back on it differently. Regardless, it got me to thinking, what if I applied statistics to the question? If someone asks me, what's my personal answer? What was the best year ever according to me?

If you know me at all, applying stats to that question should not be surprising at all. Well, as it turns out, I wrote a Top 100 Games of All Time list in 2022, which I'm sure would be in the exact same order if I redid it today. Obviously. So, I just took that list, inverted the rankings for points, and made a list of each year from 1981 to 2022. Here's what I came up with for my Top 10 Best Years Ever in the history of games. I should specifically say that the Top 100 is not necessarily what I think the best games are. Many are boosted based on personal experiences and meaning, which I talk about more in that list.

Any "honorable mentions" do not factor into the ranking score. This is pure math.

#10 - 1998

Many will say this is objectively the #1, but not for me I guess. That's probably because some of the games people associate with 1998 I don't give a fuck about (i.e. Metal Gear Solid, Half-Life). And, yeah, I put Ocarina at #61. Wanna fight about it? If you want more thoughts on that, you can see my Zelda Top 10 list.

• #42 - Crash Bandicoot: Warped
• #46 - NFL Blitz
• #52 - WCW/nWo Revenge
• #61 - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
• #99 - Tsumu

#9 - 2011

Kind of a weird year. Skyrim is an all-time great for sure, but the rest of these are definitely more personal. Aside from EverQuest, I've probably spent more time in StreetPass Mii Plaza than any other game and that's not a lie. 2011 also had Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Bastion, but they didn't quite make my Top 100.

• #19 - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
• #54 - StreetPass Mii Plaza
• #55 - Mortal Kombat
• #79 - Dead or Alive: Dimensions
• #84 - Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters

#8 - 2003

SSX 3 is my favorite PS2 game. And that's saying a lot I guess considering I own 135 of them. Everyone wants to say Tricky is the best, but you're wrong. Tricky is great, but it's really just a special edition version of the first game. SSX 3 is the pinnacle. Honorable mentions for me from 2003 include a game that will never get a sequel, Beyond Good & Evil, and maybe the best job/class system in the history of FF, Final Fantasy X-2.

• #6 - SSX 3
• #24 - The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
• #48 - Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

#7 - 2012

I didn't play P4G until early 2013, so it didn't make my 2012 Top 10 list, but it's the best RPG I've ever played. I didn't play vanilla before that, so I still don't understand how that story works without Marie's contributions. I also didn't "get" Journey at first, but I kept coming back to it over the years and it's still incredible. Honorable mentions would include Mass Effect 3 (which is FINE) and Rock Band Blitz, which I miss dearly.

• #7 - Persona 4 Golden
• #44 - Journey
• #49 - The Walking Dead
• #70 - Theatrhythm Final Fantasy
• #89 - MLB 12: The Show
• #94 - Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational

#6 - 2017

A game that revolutionized my favorite franchise. A game that redefined what a story in a game can be and do. And a game that got me to stand up and shout in excitement. Those are my top three from 2017. Honorable mentions here would include Assassin's Creed Origins, Persona 5, Super Mario Odyssey, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, and Tekken 7. Just an extremely solid year all around.

• #4 - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• #31 - NieR:Automata
• #32 - Everybody's Golf
• #82 - Horizon Zero Dawn

#5 - 2010

As we enter the Top 5, we get a year with three games in my all-time Top 20. Mass Effect 2 at this point is clearly peak BioWare. As for Assassin's Creed, you'll hear most people say Assassin's Creed was a concept and that Assassin's Creed II was the proof of concept. That's true. But, Brotherhood was the perfection of that concept. And what can you even say about Rock Band 3? Truly the pinnacle of that wild, plastic era. More importantly, though, so many memories surrounding it.

• #3 - Mass Effect 2
• #16 - Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
• #18 - Rock Band 3

#4 - 2004

One of the handful of years that you'll most often get as an answer when asking someone what was the best year ever for games, and rightfully so. It's stacked. No matter who you are, there's likely five of your all-time favorites from that year (if you're old enough, I guess). Honorable mentions include EverQuest II, Fable, Mortal Kombat: Deception, and Champions of Norrath (put it on PS Plus, you cowards!).

• #14 - ESPN NFL 2K5
• #33 - Burnout 3: Takedown
• #53 - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
• #57 - Unreal Tournament 2004
• #78 - Katamari Damacy

#3 - 2018

This is the most recent year on this list. A God of War reboot had no right being this damn good, but they did it. Simply one of the best action-adventure games of all time. Then, I've got the best of the "big" Assassin's Creed games, the best VR game I've ever played by far, and the best version of the best puzzle game of all time. Honorable mentions here would include Marvel's Spider-Man and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

• #8 - God of War
• #38 - Assassin's Creed Odyssey
• #41 - Astro Bot Rescue Mission
• #56 - Tetris Effect
• #81 - Shadow of the Colossus

#2 - 1999

It shouldn't surprise me that 1999 is so high on this list. I mean, right off the bat, my favorite game of all time gave it 100 points in this experiment. But, even putting all the math aside, 1999 was a formative year. I went to E3 1999, which was my first ever trip to Los Angeles, saw all that Dreamcast had to offer, a taste of what PlayStation 2 would become, and a tease of something called Xbox? Back to the list though, WM2000 ranks high on my personal list not only for being an incredible wrestling game, but because of my involvement with League of Heels. If that game didn't exist, LOH might not. And, of course, there's the best Final Fantasy game of all time. That's right. EIGHT! Honorable mentions would include Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and Soulcalibur.

• #1 - EverQuest
• #9 - WWF WrestleMania 2000
• #10 - Final Fantasy VIII
• #77 - Crash Team Racing
• #87 - NFL 2K

#1 - 2000

I probably would not have guessed that 2000 would be in the top spot here without doing the math, but it makes sense considering four games from my Top 30 are here. I've said more than enough about EverQuest on this here web site, so I'll jump to the other stuff. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 is objectively the best one, but THPS2 is definitely my favorite one. It's where I truly fell in love with the series. I was one of the only people in my social group to have a PS2 at launch, and Tekken Tag made me feel popular for probably the only time in my life. Mario Tennis sneaks into my Top 100 largely because of an experience I had at E3 2000 where I played it with three people who did not speak English. Despite this, it was the most fun demo I played that weekend. Sure, the final version is fun too, but that ten minutes at E3 really stuck with me. Honorable mentions would include NFL 2K1, WWF No Mercy, SSX, Chrono Cross, and Final Fantasy IX.

Turns out Y2K was pretty great, y'all.

• #11 - EverQuest: The Scars of Velious
• #13 - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
• #21 - EverQuest: The Ruins of Kunark
• #30 - Tekken Tag Tournament
• #97 - Mario Tennis

Ah shit, here we go again. The site went through some major changes in 2021, but Game of the Year stops for no one. This is the 14th annual proceedings, and, if you've been here for all of them, that means you're old now. Welcome to the club! For many of those years, I have been compiling stats based on the GOTY data. I like looking at numbers, and it seems like a lot of y'all do too. Back in the good ol' days, I used to post monthly Data Dumps, achievement tracking, and annual reviews data, but those haven't been possible for quite some time. And with E3 potentially being dead, Game of the Year is now the only real opportunity I have to put some spreadsheets together these days.

So, what are we actually doing here? Well, what if we good ol' mathematics to determine the site's GOTY rather than hours and hours of arguing? Sure, the deliberations are fun, but if we deployed a tactical spreadsheet, how different would the final results be? As I've said before, I don't necessarily believe this is how it should be done or the best way to do it, but it's just fun to compare the cold, hard stats to what happened on the stream.

Rules

First off, some ground rules. Since not everyone decides to do a nice and tidy one through ten list, I had to get a little creative with how to tally everything.

• A "regular" ranked list results in a total of 55 points available. (1 point for 10th, 10 points for 1st, etc.)
• No list can earn more than 55 points.
• No vote can be worth more than 10 points.
• If a person gave 10 games but did not rank them, each game gets 5.5 points.
• If a person gave less than 10 and did not rank them, they still only get 5.5 each.
• If a person gave less than 10 and did rank them, they forfeited their points available for 10th, 9th, etc. (i.e. a list of 8 ranked is a total of 52 points)
• If a person doesn't rank their list, but specifically says the last game they talk about is their GOTY, then that game gets 10 points and the rest get 5.
• If someone gave a spot a tie between two games, I split the allotted points. For example, if someone put two games in their 1st place spot (10 points), I gave each game 9.5 points. If you can't make up your mind, your choices take the hit. Sorry.

Staff's Top 26

Jess threw me a curveball this year by putting Devotion on the list. Technically, it's a 2019 game, but it did get an official release in 2021. So, here's what I decided to do. I gave both Devotion and Psychonauts 2 9.5 points and moved everything else down a slot. To keep her list at 55 total points, this means that she forfeits the 1 point for New Pokémon Snap at #10. If you don't agree with this assessment, that's fine. But, no one else voted for New Pokémon Snap anyway. And it doesn't affect the #1 spot, so let's move on!

The Realest Top 10

Now that the deliberations are final. Let's see how the math stacks up to what happened on stream. Here is the official Top 10. The numbers in parentheses are where it placed based on the math.

1. Chicory: A Colorful Tale (9)
2. Halo Infinite (4)
3. Psychonauts 2 (1)
4. Resident Evil Village (6)
5. Hitman 3 (15)
6. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (2)
7. Monster Hunter Rise (10)
8. Metroid Dread (5)
9. Death's Door (16)
10. Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (10)

As you can see, eight of the eleven games in The Math List™ made it to the real list. The ones that didn't hang were Inscryption (3), Forza Horizon 5 (7), and Cruelty Squad (8). This makes sense given how previous GOTY debates go. What I mean by that is that the bottom slots on the GOTY list usually end up being someone's hill to die on. A game that maybe only one person supports, but does so with enough passion that it gets on "the site's" list. This year, that was Jason's Monster Hunter Rise and Bakalar's Death's Door. Then we had Jeff's Hitman 3, which garnered support from those who didn't have it on their own list.

We should also acknowledge the raw passion that secured a slot for Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. Jan came prepared!

Now, there's always one more question we have to ask. That's right. "WHAT ABOUT RORIE?!" I don't include him on the main chart because he wasn't on the stream, and therefore didn't have a chance to make a difference in the results there. But, let's take a look anyway.

This year, Rorie's votes would have slightly altered the site's Top 10. If we count Rorie, Halo Infinite moves up from #4 to #2. More importantly, though, Deathloop breaks the tie at #10 and pushes Guardians and Monster Hunter off the list.

Guests' Top 46

Now let's take a look at those guest lists. There's way more data to wade through with these. And since guests have no rules, I have to get a little more creative with the math sometimes.

• 121 different games were voted for by the twenty-nine guests. That's down from 184 games last year and 210 games in 2019.
• Five games got a 1st place vote with no votes from anyone else: Get in the Car, Loser!, Hollow Knight, No More Heroes III, Slay the Spire, and World of Horror.
• Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker had the most first place votes with four and had no other votes at all. As I watched the lists roll in, we didn't have a duplicate #1 pick until the eighteenth list. This is a huge contrast to last year where Hades had 11 first place votes.
• Metroid Dread had the most overall votes with sixteen. That's 55.2% of the guests.
• Just fourteen of the twenty-nine guests actually gave a ranked list of ten. That's 48.3%, which is up from 42.2% last year. Thanks!
• Resident Evil Village was the highest ranked game that got no first place votes.
• 94 games out of 121 were originally released in North American in 2021. That's 77.7%, which is way up from the 57.6% last year.
• The oldest game named was Quake (1996).
• Despite being Letter of the Year, there are no games that start with "J".
• No, I did not include any tabletop games, anime, books, albums, locations, or TV shows.

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll have another opportunity to share a bunch of stats in 2022. Thanks for checking this out. Now, go play Kena: Bridge of Spirits!

It's always been a silly question to ask. This year more than any other, it's quite obvious that many people had their expectations out of whack. It should go without saying, but COVID has been going for a year and a half now, and has affected just about everyone and everything.

With that said, I still think it's fun to compile a bit of data whenever I can. So, what if we applied a little math and science to it anyway? If you were in chat during any of the press conferences media briefings showcases, then you may have seen a poll at the end asking you to rate the show from 1-10. Well, I took all that data and used it to determine who the Giant Bomb Community thinks "won E3 2021."

I'm only running data on the showcases that Giant Bomb talked over.

Of course, the true winner of E3 was the gamers ...CHAOS! Well, either that or the Devolver Digital show, which was also pure chaos.

Summer Game Fest Kickoff Live

Ubisoft

Microsoft

Square Enix

Nintendo

Overall

After Nintendo ended on Tuesday, I asked everyone who they thought had the best showing at E3. This was the result:

So, if we take this data and compare it to the data collected after each conference, what do we get?

Almost the same order. The "Overall Vote" may have been skewed a bit since it was immediately after Nintendo, but who knows.

Either way you look at it, Xbox dominated this year's E3 according to the Giant Bomb Community.

Until next year (hopefully), <>.

The 13th annual Giant Bomb Game of the Year Awards. Thirteen years. Damn. Thirteen years of asking "does it hang?" is a long-ass time. If you've been here since the beginning, you're old. Congrats! And, if you've been here anywhere near that long, you probably already know that I love stats. Back in the good ol' days, I used to post monthly Data Dumps, achievement tracking, and annual reviews data, but those haven't been possible for years. Alex's drumming has provided an all-year stat opportunity, so that's been fun. But, Game of the Year is still one of the few chances I have to put some spreadsheets together these days, so let's do this thing!

Rules

First off, some ground rules. Since not everyone decides to do a nice and tidy one through ten list, I had to get a little creative with how to tally everything.

• A "regular" ranked list results in a total of 55 points available. (1 point for 10th, 10 points for 1st, etc.)
• No list can earn more than 55 points.
• No vote can be worth more than 10 points.
• If a person gave 10 games but did not rank them, each game gets 5.5 points.
• If a person gave less than 10 and did not rank them, they still only get 5.5 each.
• If a person gave less than 10 and did rank them, they forfeited their points available for 10th, 9th, etc. (i.e. a list of 8 ranked is a total of 52 points)
• If a person doesn't rank their list, but specifically says the last game they talk about is their GOTY, then that game gets 10 points and the rest get 5.
• If a person (@will) is a weirdo and calls three games their GOTY, then lists seven other unranked games...I made it work.
• If someone gave a spot a tie between two games, I split the allotted points. For example, if someone put two games in their 1st place spot (10 points), I gave each game 9.5 points. If you can't make up your mind, your choices take the hit. Sorry.

So, what are we actually doing here? Well, what if we good ol' mathematics to determine the site's GOTY rather than hours and hours of arguing? Sure, the deliberations are fun, but if we deployed a spreadsheet, how different would the final results be? As I've said before, I don't necessarily believe this is how it should be done, but it's just fun to compare the cold, hard stats to what happened on the stream.

Staff's Top 25

The Realest Top 10

Now that the deliberations are final. Let's see how the math stacks up to what happened on stream. Here is the official Top 10. The numbers in parentheses are where it placed based on the math.

1. Hades (1)
2. Yakuza: Like a Dragon (2)
3. Spiritfarer (6)
4. Ori and the Will of the Wisps (7)
5. Astro's Playroom (4)
6. Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (3)
7. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim (14)
8. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 (13)
9. Kentucky Route Zero (16)
10. Animal Crossing: New Horizons (5)

As you can see, seven of the ten games in The Math List made it to the real list. The ones that didn't hang were the bottom three (Minecraft, Final Fantasy VII Remake, The Last of Us Part II). This makes sense given how previous GOTY debates go. What I mean by that is that the bottom slots on the GOTY list usually end up being someone's hill to die on. A game that maybe only one person supports, but does so with enough passion that it gets on "the site's" list. This year that was 13 Sentinels from Jan, Kentucky Route Zero from Alex, and Tony Hawk from Jeff.

I hear you yelling from the back of the room. "WHAT ABOUT RORIE?!" I didn't include him on the first chart because he wasn't on the stream and therefore didn't have a chance to make a difference in the results there. But, for fun, let's add his data into the sheet and see what happens.

Okay...well. Literally nothing changed in the Top 10. Or the top fourteen for that matter. Turns out that Rorie likes a lot of stuff that the other guys don't. Weird, right?

Why are Rorie's numbers strange like 4.25 and 2.2? Well, he named 14 games on his list, so I had to get creative with the points. He still has a total of 55 points among his games like everyone else.

Guests' Top 51

Now let's take a look at those guest lists. There's way more data to wade through with these. And since guests have no rules, I have to get a little more creative with the math sometimes.

Hades, y'all. This is by far the biggest landslide victory we've ever seen since I've been doing these stats.

• 184 different games were voted for by the forty-five guests. 210 games were named last year.
• Four games got a 1st place vote with no votes from anyone else: Judgment, Sludge Life, Valorant, and Star Ocean: The Second Story.
• Hades ran away with the points by getting eleven first place votes. No other game had more than two (Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Half-Life: Alyx, Kentucky Route Zero, and Microsoft Flight Simulator).
• Hades had the most overall votes with twenty-nine. That's 64.4% of the guests.
• Just nineteen of the forty-five guests actually gave a ranked list of ten. That's 42.2%.
• Final Fantasy VII Remake (3rd place) was the highest ranked game that got no first place votes.
• No games starting with the letter "Z" were named. Every other letter in the alphabet is represented.
• Only 106 games out of 184 were originally released in North American in 2020. That's 57.6%.
• The oldest game named was Uncle Poo (1983).
• Yes, I included all of @drewbert's arcade games. I considered them as his #6-10 games.
• No, I did not include any tabletop games, anime, books, albums, or TV shows.

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll have another opportunity to share a bunch of stats in 2021.

<>

If you've been around here at any point over the last decade, you probably already know I love stats. You may remember the good ol' days of monthly Data Dumps, achievement tracking, and annual reviews data, but those days are long gone. Game of the Year is one of the few chances we have to put some spreadsheets together these days, so let's do this thing!

First off, some ground rules. Since not everyone decides to do a nice and tidy one through ten list, I had to get a little creative with how to tally everything.

• A "regular" ranked list results in a total of 55 points available. (1 point for 10th, 10 points for 1st, etc.)
• If a person gave 10 games but did not rank them, each game gets 5.5 points.
• If a person gave less than 10 and did not rank them, they still only get 5.5 each.
• If a person gave less than 10 and did rank them, they forfeited their points available for 10th, 9th, etc. (i.e. a list of 8 ranked is a total of 52 points)
• If a person doesn't rank their list, but specifically says the last game they talk about is their GOTY, then that game gets 10 points and the rest get 5.
• If a person (@will) is a weirdo and calls four games their GOTY, then lists seven other unranked games...I made it work.
• If someone gave a spot a tie between two games, I split the allotted points. For example, if someone put two games in their 1st place spot (10 points), I gave each game 9.5 points. If you can't make up your mind, your choices take the hit. Sorry.

So, what are we actually doing here? Well, what if we good ol' mathematics to determine the site's GOTY rather than hours and hours of arguing? Sure, the deliberations are fun, but if we deployed a spreadsheet, how different would the final results be? As I've said before, I don't necessarily believe this is how it should be done, but it's just fun to compare the cold, hard stats to what went down in that hot, sweaty room.

Staff's Top 25

The score tally on the far left is "without Matt & Engineering" because they were not in the room during deliberations. When using the cold, hard math to make a list and compare it to what they came up with in the room, this is the score we should use since...that's who was in the room.

As you can see, it's a mathematical tie between Control and Outer Wilds. Technically, Control wins because it had more votes. Everyone voted for Control in some form, while Jeff didn't vote for Outer Wilds at all.

But, more importantly, let's make the comparison to the list they came up with themselves. Nine of the games in this top ten are the same. If we swapped out Judgment with Luigi's Mansion 3, it's be the same list just in a slightly different order. And that's pretty cool!

If Jason gets around to posting a list, I'll definitely update this. Get well soon, duder!

East vs. West

Some people often wonder what would happen if West and East did their own separate GOTY lists. Well, this is how their separate Top 25s shake out based on the math. If you look at it this way, all the Nintendo fans can thank Jan for single handedly getting Pokémon Sword/Shield and Fire Emblem: Three Houses into the GB West Top 10!

Guests' Top 50

Now let's take a look at those guest lists. There's way more data to wade through with these. And since guests have no rules, I have to get a little more creative with the math sometimes.

It was tight for a while, but Control easily took this year's crown.

• 210 different games were voted for by the fifty-nine guests. That's five more games than last year.
• Eight games got a 1st place vote with no votes from anyone else: AI: The Somnium Files, Cuphead, Children of Morta, Shenmue III, Jurassic Park, Star Ocean: The Second Story, Stellaris, and Teamfight Tactics.
• Control got the most 1st place votes with seven, Outer Wilds had six, Resident Evil 2 had three, and Untitled Goose Game got two. No other games had more than one.
• Control also had the most votes overall with twenty-five.
• Just thirty-one of the fifty-seven guests actually gave a ranked list of ten.
• The Outer Worlds (4th place) was the highest ranked game that got no first place votes.
• Yes, I included all of Bakalar's pinball games.

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll have another opportunity to share a bunch of stats in 2020.

Releases

Thanks for taking interest in adding and editing Release data on the site. While it's not a particularly fun or exciting part of the site to edit, it's a fundamental part of the data that the wiki is built upon. So, it's important that we do it correctly. This will serve as a style guide on how we should all be doing this. Failure to do so will lead to submissions being rejected and warnings being issued.

Adding a Release

There are two ways to add a Release. The long way and the short way. Feel free to use the quick method, which requires just a Name, Region, and Platform. Though, it is highly encouraged to include the Developer, Publisher, Date, and Image.

If you have the information though, please use the long way as it offers the ability to add much more detail. It's important to get the Release listed, but it's equally important that it be as accurate as possible.

Physical vs Digital

If the game is released in both variations, the digital version should have a parenthetical in the title of the Release to denote the difference. If the digital release is on PC, there should be a comment in the Notes section of the Release to show which store it is from.

Special Editions

Whether it's a collector's edition, premium edition, SteeBook edition, or "Love is Over" edition, this should be listed as a parenthetical in the title of the Release. If it's a digital version, the word "digital" should also be in that parenthetical (i.e. "Digital Premium Edition").

Early Access

Games that are released in Early Access should have a Release entry for that date with a parenthetical (i.e. "Dota Underlords (Early Access)".

A separate Release entry should be added for the full launch of the game once known.

Editing an Existing Release

Currently, editing a Release can be difficult. If a release doesn't have an image attached, you can add one. Here are the steps required:

• Hover your mouse over where the image would normally be and click "Edit"
• Click the tab that reads "Images (0)"
• Click the red "Add New Image(s)" tab on the right
• Upload an image
• Click the "Make default" button, which is to the right of the green "Save" button

If you are having issues with this, please message a moderator and we'll take care of it.

Images

Okay. Here is the complicated part. It may seem nitpicky to some, but it is important that each release has the proper box art and or store image. For example, if a game is released on several different platforms, we shouldn't be using the Steam store's image for all of them. We also shouldn't be using the North American box art for every region. Nor should we be using some generic logo in any situation. So, let's break it down by popular platforms.

PC

PC releases are probably the most complicated at this point due to the various online stores.

Steam

Steam Store

For Steam releases, we should be using the 460x215 "header.jpg" image from the top right corner of the game's store page.

Just right click, save, and upload to the release page. Easy.

SteamGridDB

Alternatively, you can often obtain more Steam image assets more easily by using SteamGridDB. Simply search for the game you want, then click the "View Original Steam Assets". You'll see a list of images including the main "header" store image as well as box art, logo, and background images.

Epic

For Epic Games Store releases, we should be using the 278x158 logo on the left side below the video on the store page. The tricky part about this is that you can't save that logo as an image. You'll need Snipping Tool it on PC or Shift+Cmnd+4 it on Mac.

Epic Games Store

Microsoft

With the advent of Xbox Play Anywhere and Game Pass, many PC games are available through Microsoft directly. For these, we need to use the 200x300 "apps00000.jpeg" that is found on the game's store page.

Microsoft Games

Humble

Humble releases don't require documentation because they are selling keys that used to redeem the game on other stores.

Others

Play it by ear. If you have questions, let us know and we'll make an official decision.

PlayStation

Retail - Amazon

Console release images are much simpler. You've got your retail box art, which is generally easily obtainable through Amazon. They offer high-res box arts that are usually 1500 pixels tall. Just click the box art on the game's page, then either use the magnifying glass to expand it or just open into a new tab to see the largest version.

PSN Store

We prefer you use the largest, highest resolution image available. And then you have your digital release image, which should be obtained from the PlayStation Store. The store is weird, so here's what we'll do for now.

If the game has multiple versions, the game's store page will look like this image to the right. Each version will have a 325x325 square box art. Unfortunately, you can't easily save these images on PlayStation.com, so you'll need to capture them with either a Snipping Tool (Windows) or Cmnd+Shift+4 (Mac) to deftly grab it.

If the game does not have multiple versions, there is no box art on the game's store page at all. There's just a splash banner at the top that you can't do much with. But, if you search for the game specifically, the results will be shown in a grid of box arts. If you right click this small box art and open it into a new tab, you'll get a 445x445 version that you can capture.

Xbox

Same rules as PlayStation.

The digital releases should use the 1440x2160 "apps00000.jpeg" image found on the Xbox.com search page. Just right click one of these box arts and open in a new tab to see the full resolution version.

Xbox Games Store

Nintendo Switch

Same rules as PlayStation and Xbox.

The digital releases should use the 1920x1080 .jpg image found at the top of the game's the eShop page.

Nintendo eShop

Older Platforms

For older consoles and handhelds, follow the general rules above. For example, use the highest resolution image possible for retail box art. Avoid using photographs of a box whenever possible. If it's a platform that offers digital releases, use the official store's images as described above.

Questions

If you have any questions or suggestions about this, feel free to post them below. Or, if you prefer, contact the moderators directly.

Hey, y'all.

I'm back again with a slew of photos from the show. If you haven't seen this before, I've been "photo documenting" PAX since 2008. And I was doing this before PAX for eight years from E3 1999 to E3 2006. After each trip, I upload all of my photos here on GB.

My general goal is to photograph practically every booth as well as every area of the show. The entirety of the Expo Hall, the new tabletop areas at the Hyatt Regency, the Annex (classic arcade, classic console, BYOC, etc), and more are all captured here. So, if you missed anything or if you weren't there and just want to see what it was like...I got you.

I also have photos from six different panels from the front row. Some of them (like GB) include photos from before the doors opened.

Also, I've organized the photos into folders of each booth/area for your convenience.

• Full 1200+ Photo Gallery
• The Giant Bomb Variety Hour
• The Great PAX Bake Off (Abby is a judge)
• Noclip Video Game Documentaries Live
• 404ing It: Breaking (Down) the Internet (featuring Abby, Zandra, and Kahlief Adams)
• League of Heels Presents Tall Tales (featuring Abby, Dave Lang, Trin Garritano, and more)
• The Improvised Postmortem (featuring Abby, Dave Lang, Mike Drucker, Grace Bruxner, and more)
• From Bastion to Hades: 10 Years of Supergiant Games (hosted by Danny)

Expo Hall Preview

Gallery

It's always been a dumb question. But, what if we applied a little math and science to it anyway? If you were in chat during any of the press conferences media briefings showcases, then you may have seen a poll at the end asking you to rate the show from 1-10. Well, I took all that data and used it to determine who the Giant Bomb Community thinks "won E3 2019."

I'm only running data on the conferences that Giant Bomb was present for because the others, while available in chat, had far fewer viewers than these main five.

Unfortunately, there was something wrong with polls during Xbox, so the totals are lower than how many actually voted, but I still think it's enough of a pool to say it's an accurate representation.

Of course, the true winner of E3 was the gamers a tie between Keanu Reeves, Ikumi Nakamura, Bam Bam the Dog, and Gooigi. But, here's the data anyway...

Microsoft

Bethesda

Ubisoft

Square Enix

Nintendo

Overall

Prior to the first GB @ Nite show on Tuesday, I asked everyone who they thought won E3. This was the result:

So, if we take this data and compare it to the data collected after each conference, what do we get?

Hey! They're in the same exact order. That worked out pretty well.

Either way you look at it, Nintendo dominated this year's E3 according to the Giant Bomb Community.

Until next year, <>.

Formerly known as our "E3 & You!" info dump, this is now the Giant Bomb vs The Electronic Three Official Player's Guide. For a quarter of a century now, E3 has been the biggest trade show for the video game industry. We're gonna see a slew of new trailers, demos, announcements, interviews, and live streams over the next week.

So, here's all the information you need to survive a week-long marathon of live chat, the tidal wave of new forum threads, and an onslaught of wiki submissions for new games!

Press Conferences

The Electronic Three is once again starting early this year. While E3 2019 is officially Tuesday through Thursday, the press conferences media briefings showcases start with Xbox on Sunday. But, Electronic Arts is still doing...stuff...on Saturday.

From Saturday afternoon through Tuesday morning, you are going to see threads dedicated to each of the major publisher's presentations (EA, Microsoft, Bethesda, Ubisoft, Square Enix, and Nintendo). These threads will be posted and stickied shortly before each press conference. They are the go-to place for any and all discussion for their respective press conferences before, during, and after the show is over. Let's try to keep it all in one place.

The Chat

Here are the details on when the Giant Bomb crew will be streaming live throughout the week. For either the conference commentary or the night shows, you'll want to be hanging out in GB Chat. If you click, the "Local Time" link should translate the time automatically to your local time.

Keep in mind that GB will typically go live about 30 minutes ahead of each conference.

The Forums

We know you want to talk about all these glorious new games that are about to get announced. But, there's no sense in fifty duders creating a new thread to talk about that thing that Phil Spencer just announced 18 seconds ago. And, in case you didn't know, every game in the Giant Bomb database has a forum attached to it. Tidy organization is built right in! All you have to do is utilize it.

E3 is fast and furious, so we know there are going to be duplicates sometimes, but help us out by taking a few seconds to check first. The dupes that get through will soon be locked anyway.

The Wiki

But, what if there's no page for the game I want to talk about?!

Well, the answer is pretty simple. Go ahead and make a page for it. Before you do, though, make sure there's not already one created. We have a some hardcore wiki users that are going to be lightning quick on new stuff. Sometimes, when a new page is created, it takes a bit of time to show up in search. Here's a tip for you:

** THIS PAGE HAS THE MOST RECENTLY ADDED GAMES **

Even if someone submitted it three seconds ago, it's going to be there. So, use that instead of just checking the search bar. The mods will be monitoring the wiki queue like hawks trying to get the new stuff through as quickly as possible.

And That...

E3 is one of the most fun times of the year for anyone who loves games. It's fast. It's chaotic. It's sometimes ridiculous and/or hilarious. All of us here in the Giant Bomb community want to have a good time with all the news, announcements, trailers, and late-night podcasts. So, let's all do our part to keep things as organized as possible so everyone can find anything they're looking for during E3 2019.

Got questions? Feel free to post them here so that anyone else with the same/similar question can get helped at the same time.

Let's do this!