Giant Bombcast Giant Bomb Game of the Year 2012: Day Five

This bomb cast was a real winner. I love these discussions!

I really have no idea how you guys didn't pick up on the fact that Far Cry 3 is a satire. The racism, the messianic overtones, the cheap mysticism, the white kid with a gun - the critique of that stuff was so glaringly obvious that to treat it seriously is a mark of a willful blindness or idiocy. I'm not saying that you need to like the writers' intentions in that regard ( I certainly didn't - maybe it's something about an interactive medium not mixing well with satire) but to attribute to Far Cry 3 a lack of self-awareness similar to CoD10 or B13 is like saying that a sketch by Mitchell and Webb parodying Big brother is on the same intellectual level as the original.

I don't understand how everyone on the bomb crew can enjoy a difficult game like XCOM, where the difficulty is based purely on luck, but they refuse to give Dark Souls a chance. Its probably because if you lose in XCOM you can chalk it up to "ahh the dice didn't roll my way" but in DS it is the player's fault 99.8% of the time. I enjoyed XCOM a lot but tactics mean NOTHING in that game, you can stack the odds in your favour but at the end of the day it is just luck.

It's a shame that the guys did not seem to have played revelations 2012. Which would have been a strong contender for worst game of the year.

@FierceDeity said:

@Terramagi said:

@MstrMnyBgs said:

Does Brad ever not have technical issues with games? Sounds like he breaks whatever he plays.

He apparently got along fine with Skyrim.

Which is weird.

Because within 5 minutes of starting that game I'm seeing rotating heads and, within 5 hours, the main quest has become irrevocably bugged because an NPC ran through a wall.

I played through all of Skyrim on the Xbox 360 and never had any serious issues.

Or you could just believe that Brad's a liar if that makes you feel better.

Man I had two gamebreaking bugs in Skyrim on the PC. Thankfully I just used the console to "complete" the two quests. The first was where the NPC is supposed to open a circular vault door, and he just wouldn't. The second was where an NPC is supposed to unlock a door for you after speaking to him THROUGH the door; he wouldn't. Skyrim was (maybe is, haven't played in a while) buggy as fuck.

@Fire_Of_The_Wind said:

I don't understand how everyone on the bomb crew can enjoy a difficult game like XCOM, where the difficulty is based purely on luck, but they refuse to give Dark Souls a chance. Its probably because if you lose in XCOM you can chalk it up to "ahh the dice didn't roll my way" but in DS it is the player's fault 99.8% of the time. I enjoyed XCOM a lot but tactics mean NOTHING in that game, you can stack the odds in your favour but at the end of the day it is just luck.

They (with exception to Patrick after playing ZombiU or Vinny... and MAYBE Ryan) dont like the gameplay part of Dark Souls.

One of the best.

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

So uneventful, pretty much somes up the year. That was ok, this was ok lets give GOTY to that one I guess.

Yeah I felt that too. However, it isn't their fault man. Why don't YOU try make this years games seem interesting in your own discussion? It's pretty fucking hard. They did the best anyone could with a dying console generation. Salute Giantbomb and roll on 2013 where I think we can start to get a little more excited.

"If its 10 O'clock at night and your turning on XCOM, you f**ked UP!"

Quote of the year!

One of the best.

Man, I felt so bad for Vinny. He really loved Sleeping Dogs but it got screwed into the 10 spot because he's too nice to brute force it in like Jeff.

@FierceDeity said:

@Terramagi said:

@MstrMnyBgs said:

Does Brad ever not have technical issues with games? Sounds like he breaks whatever he plays.

He apparently got along fine with Skyrim.

Which is weird.

Because within 5 minutes of starting that game I'm seeing rotating heads and, within 5 hours, the main quest has become irrevocably bugged because an NPC ran through a wall.

I played through all of Skyrim on the Xbox 360 and never had any serious issues.

Or you could just believe that Brad's a liar if that makes you feel better.

It seems he's very good at stamping his feet on the ground and sticking his fingers in his ears until he gets his way - hence why Skyrim won, hence why ME3 did not win Most Disappointing Game and actually made it into the the GB Top 10 games of 2012.

Yes, the game that managed to ruin everything Mass Effect for seemingly everyone but Brad is the #8 game of the year.

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

@xSeanZx said:

I completely disagree with the notion that discs are bullshit and we should go all digital.

I much prefer driving 8 minutes down the street at picking up the physical copy of a game and not having to download and wait for it.

In addition, I like having cases line the shelves in my room. I dont know why, I just do.

Maybe I am alone here but I never want to see physical games go away.

But what if you downloaded it a few days before release and could finally open it on 12:01.

I would say "wtf do we have release dates?!"

@Rewcastle said:

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

So uneventful, pretty much somes up the year. That was ok, this was ok lets give GOTY to that one I guess.

Yeah I felt that too. However, it isn't their fault man. Why don't YOU try make this years games seem interesting in your own discussion? It's pretty fucking hard. They did the best anyone could with a dying console generation. Salute Giantbomb and roll on 2013 where I think we can start to get a little more excited.

I feel like I listened to a different podcast.

@Fire_Of_The_Wind said:

I don't understand how everyone on the bomb crew can enjoy a difficult game like XCOM, where the difficulty is based purely on luck, but they refuse to give Dark Souls a chance. Its probably because if you lose in XCOM you can chalk it up to "ahh the dice didn't roll my way" but in DS it is the player's fault 99.8% of the time. I enjoyed XCOM a lot but tactics mean NOTHING in that game, you can stack the odds in your favour but at the end of the day it is just luck.

There is a LOT of DS content on this site.

Wasn't all that exciting this year. Seems like it came to down to a lot of shoulder shrugging in the end. It's still incredibly strange to me that no one put up a fight for Asura's Wrath in the least and that they all gave in so easy to Jeff talking Syndicate onto the list.

I really thought this year was going to be rough when Brad called Jeff petty over his ME3 arguments, but it turned out to be a pretty mild year. Hopefully next year we'll get some extended arguments.

I love the content on this site and all, but every year at GOTY time i shake my head for some reason. The crew never seems to discuss anything beyond the most base, surface level of games when deciding what games "were the best". They dont really dig anywhere when they discuss, they just take everything at the surface level.

A game like Spec Ops or Hotline Miami deserves more than a "well, the mechanics were _____, and the story was ____, so it should/shouldn't be on the list". Both those games have pretty meta moments that make the game a lot more than should be taken at face value. Both those games get pretty weird towards the end, and make you question the "true" intentions of the developer/storyteller.

Hell Hotline Miami can be taken as a commentary about how little story you can get away with if you just have solid mechanics, loud awesome music, and shiny lights in the players face the whole time. Im sure in the end it wouldn't change anything, but it still would be nice to hear the crews thoughts on stuff like that since the GOTY podcasts are meant to be a wrap up of the year in gaming. I know the crew doesn't necessarily try to deconstruct the stories of games, but some would argue a game like Hotline or Spec Ops is basically begging you to look past what is in front of you and think about what the game is saying or doing.

/rant

Besides that minor quibble i feel like these were another great batch of entertaining goty podcasts.

@Sammo21: Playing Asura's Wrath is more fun than watching it. It has the best QTE's in history, and not just because of all the crazy shit that's happening.

Man, Vinny was about to kill someone when Alex suggested cutting Mass Effect 3 at 1:25:20 ish. Good stuff.

Bullshit! Forza Horizon should of made the top 10.

the songs in the star wars game were fucking great

Last years game of the year discussion was better I thought. I love the way you eliminated each game one by one until you got to number one. I still rave about that podcast to friends. Awesome listening. This year was great, as always, but not as majestic as last year. I understand the rational of picking much of the top 10 at the very start of the discussion, but it was much less intriguing and suspenseful for the listeners. I still love you guys though!

Just glad Brad didn't get his way again. Last year's GOTY was bullshit, mostly at the fault of Brad.

@Shtinky said:

Just glad Brad didn't get his way again. Last year's GOTY was bullshit, mostly at the fault of Brad.

How did he not get his way?

@Shtinky: Actually, Brad did get his way. Mass Effect 3 was put on the top ten list. As a result, Dishonored - which should have been on the list - was cut. Then he clearly was going to bitch about Walking Dead winning GOTY with his petty technical issues argument, the same one he used against SRT3. Never mind that Syrim, like XCOM, also had a lot of technical issues. So the staff didn't even bother and just let him get his way by letting XCOM win.

Sad to see Dishonored and Halo 4 get snubbed.

Would have liked to hear second opinions from someone who played syndicate. 

Fantastic list regardless of petty feeling on my part. Well done Giant bomb. 

@Sammo21 said:

Glad that Walking Dead isn't game of the year. A game needs more than just a decent overall story to get a game of the year win and The Walking Dead's game play is just fine, but nothing great.

Also, the fact Brad is so disappointed about Asura's Wrath really disappoints me as a gamer. There needs to be a rule for kicking out games that have less than 10% of the experience as actual play time...interesting art style or not. These aren't lists about interactive anime.

Your dismissal of a game for being something that you don't agree with is disappointing to me, as a gamer. Keep an open mind.

@The_Nubster: I did keep an open mind, which is why I played the game from start to finish and played the last "level" twice so I could get the "true ending"...but surprise it ended up not really being the true ending after all. Even the parts where it actually tried to be a game were the cheapest versions of those styles of gameplay. Also, the fact it was IMPOSSIBLE to fail at 99% of the QTEs make it a "what the hell is the point" moment of clarity.

I have an open mind, but not so much that any garbage can come in. They complained about quick time events in a game like God of War 3 and others but then glorify it in a "game" like Asura's Wrath just because the universe is interesting. That just disappoints me is all.

Huh. The battle for GOTY was less heated than I'd thought it would be. 2011's Skyrim vs. Saints Row was a much bigger debate.

So many audio bugs

You guys are nitpicking on the PS+ deal saying there should be a way to know what's free, but there is. Maybe you guys don't use your PS3 as your main console, but most people just log evey week when the store updates to see what's new in the free section of the PS+, there's even a newly arrive and a last chance section in the PS+ telling you what's about to leave the following week. If you can't even log on the PS store once a week you deserve to miss some deals I guess.

Funny, best downloadable game: Walking Dead, Fez and Mark of the Ninja... Last cut Journey

Top 10 GOTY: 4. Fez, 5. Journey and 6. Mark of the Ninja

Down mean to bitch that much, it's more that I wanted to highlight how hard it is to make a list and stick to it since it changes day to day and depending if one more person is there or not.