Giant Bombcast Game of the Year 2019: Day Five Deliberations

0:00:00 - Intro

0:02:33 - Best Game (Down to 10)

1:25:08 - Best Game (Ranked)

2:18:12 - Outro

Ron Funches: takes a pretentious ass game (as GOTY: OUTER WILDS) Beastcast #235

hi

hERE WE GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I liked a lot of moments and respect the need for a more civil and positive format, but I really miss a lot of the categories that didn't make it.

Two days of categories really doesn't work. Such a shame.

GOTY 2008-2017 were the best in the industry.

And with that, we're here.

What a season, what a season.

I definitely do miss some of the more nuanced categories. I like hearing more in-depth discussions on specific characters, or people really digging down on their favourite moments or fighting for something to be considered the Best Use of FMV, for example. Thankfully the individual videos have filled some of that hole, although not in quite the same way (as they're mostly solo endeavours).

That said I've really enjoyed this year's discussions overall. Looking forward to where this'll be in twelve months; we've potentially got a wild year in video games ahead.

Wow thought they would have some more categories today like last year. No fun categories this year...that’s a shame.

So, no Best Moment or Sequence, no Hottest Mess, no Most Disappointing Game, no Best Surprise? And on top of that, barely any group GotY videos? Been looking forward to GotY festivities all year, and have been consistently and thoroughly disappointed every step of the way. If this is the way it's gonna be, I may just let my sub lapse in 2020.

No "Hottest Mess?"

I feel betrayed.

Just gonna come right out and say that I vastly, vastly, prefer the new format over the old one. Three podcasts of the gang just purely talking about games without the need to fight over said games is so much more refreshing and interesting.

Keep up the great work, GB!

@bathala: My heart sank when he said it because I already know how it's going to go. That being said, the deliberations are always just fun and, well, games, so I never get too attached to what the end result may be. While last year and this one have a couple "oh no, please, anything else" games for me, either way it's been another great year for games with far too many that I still have yet to get around to.

I am in love with the Bammer

Bummed by the new format for GOTY and how much Ron Funches was right.

I will say I really appreciate this new format. Feels way less repetitive and respectful of both the staff's time as well as ours. The opening listing of games was a nice way to highlight stuff that might not appear on categories, and the reduction of categories fits the spirit of this site way more. The only thing that I might miss are awards that maybe dumped on bad games or things, but I can just as easily do without that.

@marino: for the one final time - thanks so much for these time stamps.

Ah, the beautiful sound of Ron Funches laughing hysterically... Music to my ears. :P

Wow, they skipped a lot of other topics like "Please stop", and "Worst game of the year", etc. And I don't need to listen to know Outer Wilds will win it. Yeah, I was on board with this at first, but now I see what other people are saying. Bummer. But it proves the post I made some days ago about why the new format is the way it is, so still DO understand.

Real bummed there was no Hottest Mess and Most Disappointing category. Wanted to hear the talk about the bad this year. Don't want to nitpick, but have not been as thrilled this year with the deliberations and videos.

I agree with what many are saying. Every year I enjoy listening to some of the negative categories such as Most Disappointing, Hottest Mess, Please Stop, and Worst Game.

Please bring them back next year.

That's the largest group of people who somehow didn't like Sekiro much I've ever seen

Disappointed in the lack of awards. Spending 3 days on each game that came out seemed like such a waste. :(

No Hottest Mess or Most Disappointing? I was sure those would have remained. Huh. Oh, well. Maybe next year.

So no Hitsmas? Starting to think Giant Bomb felt its community was naughty this year.

Heyyyyy !!!

Appreciate the hard work you all put in. Thanks for the list ....... I see some negative feedback on new format, but just to say appreciated from me

+Respect to Ben for how well he went to bat for the game that he likes.

Most disappointing Giant Bomb GOTY content: 2019

No Hits-mas, interesting categories, rousing debates, quality discussion, Rock Band, or Jack Box. Winter games returns, which is a plus.

Why are they considering more conversation for games not on the list when they just dedicated three days to only game-specific conversation?

Not going to lie, I'm really underwhelmed with this years GOTY content. Only 5 categories is a huge bummer, less weird group videos (hitmas, rockband, etc.) kind of sucks and the obscure GB crew top video lists were ok but, for me at least, that's not a good replacement for what was done in the past.

I think it'd care less about the category change if they kept more fun group co-op/competitive/weird videos but to have less of both really sucks. The family feud one was a cool idea that I wasn't as into, hopefully the winter games is something more substantial. I want them to try new ideas but this haven't been working for me and the whole thing is just boring.

Overall, this GOTY has been a let down, hopefully 2020's will be better.

So few categories this year... Jeez. :(

Thanks, GB staff! I miss the fun categories, but happy that the staff only had to spend a week on this stuff rather than two and as a result probably enjoyed the holidays a bit more.

@boots33: Honestly I'm glad they didn't do Hottest Mess. It would have just devolved into a contest about who could be the most bigoted against the Chinese

I have a feeling this one will not surprise me

Sekiro was my GOTY of 2019, no question - I even got the Platinum. Control and Death Stranding are in my top 5. Other than them I didn't really have any strong feelings about any games this year. DMC5 and KH3 are fun but I personally think both franchises have better entries. RE2 was a really good remake and I beat both scenarios - but it didn't really grip me. Plague: Innocence was pretty impressive for an indie game.

That's it? Giant Bomb is taking all the fun out of Game of the Year..

Such a shame that we have lost so much content at the expense of 3 days of just talking about games that have already been covered through out the year. As a result of this we've seemingly lost a lot of videos of the whole gang together/combos we don't see throughout the year along with a lot of the more fun categories (best moment, style/best looking being separate, hottest mess) really same.

Anyway time to dive in and see what's top 10.

"Ron Funches was right" T-shirts soon to be available in the Giant Bomb store.

wow you guys really scaled back this year huh? thats kind of a bummer

@lyndbako: Wait? What?

There were so many hot messes this year! THEY MUST BE RANKED! Ugh, what a bummer.

After 2 years of this new format, I gotta be honest and say I like the old format better. I miss the old categories. I feel like the recap takes waaay too long. Even if they got the recap down to two episodes it would be better.

I know the crew busts their asses on this stuff, but I’d take longer podcasts with the old categories over video content.

This was a bad year for GOTY content. They cut everything I like (group videos and fun categories) and doubled down on what I normally skipped (recaps).

Fewer categories, way less interesting video content, no new site... this year's GOTY was very unremarkable and disappointing. This is the first year where I don't feel like watching everything.

Good thing that there is no "Biggest Disappointment" Category. GBs GOTY Content would've won that by a landslide.

no Shenmue and Ace Combat. Come on GB

@raszagal: ha

Thanks for the video, all!

I have to be honest no other categories today has really deflated my enthusiasm to listen. I hope this is not the trend for future years.

Thanks for all the work gb team. This year hasn't been my favorite, but I'm sure I'll get to watching everything. Logistics next year should be crazy, what with next-gen consoles presumably releasing weeks before goty deliberations. Good luck!