Game of the Year 2011: Giant Bomb's Top 10

Dead Space 2! My personal game of the year and I'm happy to see it place at all, let alone the top 5.

And Skyrim won! I got it right. ahah didn't expect that this time around.

No Skyward Sword? Son, I'm disappoint.

MY GAME IS BETTER THAN YOUR GAME FUCK ALL Y'ALL.

This was by far the best GOTY content to date. Now I can't wait to listen to 4 hours worth of podcast.

@Counterclockwork87: Hendrix is in no way the greatest guitar player.

Awesome GOTY stuff this year. Also I don't know what people are whining about. I'm about 60 hours or something into Skyrim on PS3 and the game works fine. Sucks it doesn't for some but its not a bad choice for best game this year like some are making it out.  
Anyway, cool stuff. The FMV thing was such a great idea.

I haven't heard the Bombcast but I'm pretty sure since Brad didn't have a "Minerva's Den"-like debacle at any point, motherfucker fought tooth and nail to put Skyrim on top. It's not my choice, but Skyrim's okay - and miles better than fucking Oblivion - and I enjoyed what I played of it before moving on to other to the point of making it boring.

Though I would have picked any one of their top 2-6 over it, but that's just me.

Good to see Witcher 2 getting some love. Probably my favorite game this year. The rest of this list is pretty spot on with me.

>no Dark Souls

lol, can't believe so many people are so upset over skyrim.

Yeah, a lot of it is broken but guess what? it's still better than 99% of the crap that came out this year, it's opinions, don't like it make your own GOTY list.

I was totally expecting Saints Row to win, but I'm really happy it didn't. Skyrim is easily the game of the year for me.

Sir, I'm disappoint. I was hoping for The Third!

I am shocked Saints Row was not number 1.

@Heti said:

People that think Saint's Row 3 should be number 1 are insane.

So Brad, Ryan, and Vinny are "insane." Got it.

Quality list. There are a lot of amazing games too that didn't even make the cut. 2011 shall be remembered as one of the best years in gaming history.

Amazing ending!

@KaneRobot said:

@Heti said:

People that think Saint's Row 3 should be number 1 are insane.

So Brad Jeff, Ryan, and Vinny are "insane." Got it.

Felt like 4 through 1 didn't get as much thought as 10 through 5 but I'll have to listen to the cast I guess.

It is pretty sad that such a busted, broken game still earns Bethesda a number 1 spot. Maybe, someday, people will actually start giving them the criticism they deserve for it, but it was still a solid list.

Fuck Skyrim. Way to support sloppy and broken development. I dread listening to the discussion podcast because I'm sure I know who whined enough to make the list turn out this way.

Saints Row was they GOTY.

@Styl3s said:

lol, can't believe so many people are so upset over skyrim.

Yeah, a lot of it is broken but guess what? it's still better than 99% of the crap that came out this year, it's opinions, don't like it make your own GOTY list.

People are just voicing THEIR opinion. Don't like it, don't read the comments.

I look at it this way. The personal top tens were done from a personal perspective, where as the overall top te is done with as much subjectivity as possible. There are games that are on lists that I personally did not enjoy, but I can see the brilliance behind them.

Just because something is not my own cup of tea, I should disregard its overall impact or quality.

Dead Space 2 over the Witcher 2? Ughhhhh

Also #1 was kind of a genuine shocker. I thought it would have been 3 or 4 with saints row the third taking first.

So glad that Uncharted 3 didn't make the list :D

@Raios: Well, look at everyone's personal Top 10s. A case can be made that Skyrim is a better game. I would disagree, but I understand the sentiment and don't think it's actually wrong. I had significantly more fun with SR3 than Skyrim, but still. Saints Row 3 would be a dumb choice in the same way that Saints Row 3 is dumb: a good dumb, but ridiculous nonetheless.

I'm OK with #1.  I just hope there's an actual consensus on the podcast instead of someone whining until they got their way.

Wow, Did not expect #1 to be #1 they way they've been talking the last few weeks.

I think the right choice was made in the end.

Also, GREAT GOTY Feature!!

I have to say, the FMV stuff often was terrible, but that was pretty damned good.

I think I'm more interested in hearing how they came to these decisions than the actual list. To the podcast!

Brad should of won that magic fight against Jeff. He was using lightning, which drains magicka.

The right game won. Plus it will be exciting to watch everyone cry about it.

That video was amazing! Truly fucking amazing! However, Dead Space 2 was far too high on that list! Higher than Batman? Comeon there is a reason DS2 came and went. Wat?

I haven't listened yet to hear the logic, or see Patrick's top 10, but seeing everybody's top 10s this week, I thought they'd have the balls to go with Saints Row the Third over Skyrim. Not saying it's wrong, but I'd have loved to see them go with the against-the-grain GOTY pick.

Seeing this list is actually bringing me around 2011, to me it hadn't been such a great year, but looking at these 10 games which are all deserving of their spots and then seeing the ones that had to be left out like UC3, Dark Souls, Mortal Kombat, Catherine and Shadows of the Damned to name a few, this was a great year for videogames.

Thanks GB for making me see this, and this is by far the best video that has come out from the GOTY deliberations.

I feel like you people that are calling skyrim being #1 as boring or predictable are being a little crazy. Whether other sites picked Skyrim as GOTY or whether it's the most popular choice elsewhere should not (and obviously have not) play a role in their decision. Although I am surprised that it beat Saints Row as well, I'm glad that the game that I got all the steam achievements in and spent 150+hrs in takes it.

@Claude: I was forced to get a ps3 copy of elder scrolls because my 360 was in the shop(and would be until about a week and a half ago), and the game is UNPLAYABLE. It's not "oh, there's a small frame-rate problem" or there's graphical errors(which there are some, but hey, it's bethesda), it's purely unplayable. There's the crippling multiple-hour frame-rate issue, to an INCREDIBLE amount of freezing, to the save file size, etc etc. It's not the usual bethesda jank, it's far beyond that. I've always had rad scorpions clipping through textures, forced to reload saves because of not tripping story dialogue and other stuff that's more than tolerable for a bethesda game, but the fact that the game is just straight up broken, that really hurts. I was really pulling for saints row, not even having played it, because maybe it'd send a message(my email to bethesda about these problems was met with a stock response), but I guess not.

Ah well, maybe they'll fix the game (realizes they won't(cries)).

the thing about skyrim: when something gets so widely popular as skyrim did, even people that liked it before are starting to hate that thing because so many OTHER people are starting to like it. it's the same as it's ever been in music. all of the games in the top 10 are really, really great and if a game is #1 or #2 shouldn't be your concern: you can make your own top 10 list.

OH MY GOD JEFF YOU BASTARD YOU KILLED BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAD AND THEN PATRICK KILLED ALL OF THEM!!1!111!

Pretty damn good list, i would have made space (dead space) for human revolution myself but there are always gonna be the ones left out.

COLOR ME SURPRISED!

The guys seemed to pick Saints Row: The Third as their personal #1 on each of their own lists, so it's quite interesting that they put Skyrim at #1 versus that. I can't wait to dig into the podcast.

Also, I am more than okay with those top 3. They are easily the three that gave me the most enjoyment this year.

LA Noire and Dead Space 2? Okay, you guys need to stop inviting Brad to these things.

Skyrim at number 1? I don't think I want to listen to the crew talk about Skyrim anymore, so I'll skip the deliberations.

The people saying Skyrim is the "right" choice are kind of crazy. There's things wrong with that game and I don't just mean the bugs. I'd say it isn't automatically deserving of the top spot.

@krabboss said:

Skyrim at number 1? I don't think I want to listen to the crew talk about Skyrim anymore, so I'll skip the deliberations.

The people saying Skyrim is the "right" choice are kind of crazy. There's things wrong with that game and I don't just mean the bugs. I'd say it isn't automatically deserving of the top spot.

Why choose the game you like when you can choose the game you assume everyone else likes? Pretty dumb, yeah.

So glad mw3 and bf3 were not on this list ...complete letdowns bw3 moreso...although I might have put uncharted 3 somewhere in there...good year for games...funny how most of that list I bought on steam...Skyrim for the win...booya

@el_tajij: You're so full of shit.

Blegh, so unoriginal. Saints Row 3 should've been GOTY.

@Make_Me_Mad said:

It is pretty sad that such a busted, broken game still earns Bethesda a number 1 spot. Maybe, someday, people will actually start giving them the criticism they deserve for it, but it was still a solid list.

Or looking at it from a different perspective. What does it say that a "busted, broken game" still gets GOTY. Maybe that other games should step it up. If a professional gaming website, that knows that a game is busted, still gives a game GOTY then its probably a pretty good game.

@Claude: Worst is a little strong. There's some difference here and there between the PS3 version but it isn't unfucking playable like Skyrim.

@mortal_sb said:

the thing about skyrim: when something gets so widely popular as skyrim did, even people that liked it before are starting to hate that thing because so many OTHER people are starting to like it. it's the same as it's ever been in music. all of the games in the top 10 are really, really great and if a game is #1 or #2 shouldn't be your concern: you can make your own top 10 list.

Unless of course you played Skyrim on the PS3... in which case i would say the venom towards that game is justified.

@wickedsc3 said:

@Make_Me_Mad said:

It is pretty sad that such a busted, broken game still earns Bethesda a number 1 spot. Maybe, someday, people will actually start giving them the criticism they deserve for it, but it was still a solid list.

Or looking at it from a different perspective. What does it say that a "busted, broken game" still gets GOTY. Maybe that other games should step it up. If a professional gaming website, that knows that a game is busted, still gives a game GOTY then its probably a pretty good game.

It says, to me, that the problems were overlooked because most of the crew hasn't had the same issues that other players have. There's a laundry list a mile wide of the problems with Skyrim, things you need to tiptoe around to avoid busting quests and abilities, and I understand that Bethesda makes large, open world games the likes of which can't be compared. I don't think that excuses the sheer multitude and severity of the issues Skyrim suffers from.

Also, the game they shipped to PS3 users was insulting and almost criminally busted.

Very well-done list.