I dunno if I'd say a lock but it's definitely one of the strongest contenders I think. If Jeff gets around to playing Walking Dead and doesn't hate it that could take the award.

Nope, and I love XCOM. Personally, XCOM is my favorite game of 2012, but I highly doubt any sites or publications will give a game of the year honor to XCOM.

Highly probable. They all seem to love it. I couldn't get into it but turn based has never been my thing. Walking Dead is currently in the top spot for me, but I expect Far Cry 3 to be #1 with a bullet.

I am sure they hinted on the bombcast that Vinny was making a "push" (telling other to actualy go and play) for Sleeping Dogs as he enjoyed it a lot. To be honest I think that has more of a chance to beat X-Com than any of the games mentioned above.

EDIT: Lets also not forget Diablo 3 which was a big deal at the office for some time when I was launched. It got a five star review also...

I just don't know this year. The fight between Skyrim and Saint's Row: The third was easy to see coming a mile away last year. This year, I'm not so sure. XCOM seems like the only game with any kind of resonance with everybody on the staff. Its bugs are a mark against it, sure. We'll have to see the reaction to the conclusion of TWD to know if it still has a shot. I could see Mark of the Ninja and Forza Horizon as dark horses but I don't see either of them winning.

Only thing I know is that it should be fun to listen to those podcasts.

I predict everyone will agree that XCOM is GOTY with Walking Dead and Mark of the Ninja not far behind. Then Brad will argue about Journey for 2 hours and why it should win.

Considering Skyrim won GotY even with game-destroying bugs and an entire version ignored (that continues to be an issue to this day), I'm sure it'll fare well.

@jakob187 said:

If we're talking about Giant Bomb staff's GOTY, I think it's between XCOM and The Walking Dead.

If we're talking about Spike VGAs, it's Black Ops 2.

Black Ops II isn't nominated. Look, I am no fan of the VGA's, but blind hate is just as bad as blind love. The actual shows are almost always terrible and reflect poorly on our little hobby. However, the awards themselves are always fine. Remember, they're voted on by actual writers (like Jeff) from most major sites.

Past Winners:

2011: Skyrim

2010: Red Dead Redemption

2009: Uncharted 2

2008: GTA IV

2007: Bioshock

2006: Oblivion

I don't really see anything wrong with those winners.

I love X-Com but that game was way too frustrating for me to be GOTY and I think some of the crew felt the same.

I'm gonna have to agree with the majority here, it'll probably come down to The Walking Dead and XCOM (never would have guessed that going into the year). I think they'll end up giving the edge to XCOM, though it's certainly not a lock. Hoping Brad brings up Journey, though I figure the rest of the staff will ignore it (it's my personal GOTY not counting Persona 4 Golden which I got to play a bit early).

It's been kind of a weird year for games hasn't it? Not saying there aren't some really strong games this year, just not your typical fare. Maybe its a good thing. As it stands, my vote is for the walking dead for my personal game of the year but I still have some games to play. As far as the GB staff, I wouldn't lock anything down but I would wager on the walking dead, x-com, and mark of the ninja being the top 3. Hell, maybe even in that order. Jeff is probably going to fight hard against the walking dead, though, as a lot of you have pointed out.

It's true that Hitman and Far Cry 3 haven't come out yet, but do you guys really think these games have a shot with the GB crew? I don't think they do, but I haven't played them either. I hope they're both amazing, personally.

Quite possibly. Compared to other years, it's just a very good game; but compared to other releases this year, I'd say it's outstanding.

If Walking Dead takes it over X-Com I'd be pretty disappointed as it'll mean GB has become a site that prefers story over gameplay. The two games are pretty much the epitome of each side of the spectrum, and while they both might be good it's pretty much a choice of style. I see a lot of people say it comes down to wether Jeff will like Walking Dead or not, however (and sorry for being the asshole) I think it's also very apparent that Walking Dead would not in any way be as strong of a contender if this was pre-Klepek GB.

Not a lock at all, but it'll certainly be in the discussion. Seems like all the guys played it and liked it, so it will have a good consensus probably. I wonder if Jeff will throw support to Forza Horizon. He loved that game it sounded like. This will be an interesting year in terms of discussion and lots of games will be mentioned, more than usual is my guess.

@pweidman: If Jeff was to champion any game this year it would be Syndicate, but it would be completely futile. No game is gonna win unless 2-3 people actually support it (as games like Walking Dead and X-com will have at least that many supporting it).

For some gaming website or random tv show award? Maybe. For me, no. Great game, but not GOTY.

The better question is whether or not Giant Bomb will acknowledge their fuck-up of last year and give Saints Row The Third its belated but much deserved GOTY?

I think it comes down to XCOM, Fez, Journey, and The Walking Dead.

I won't pretend to know what the staff has or hasn't been playing but I'd imagine there's at least one game on the list that someone will have not played at which point it comes down to pleading their cases which I think gives an edge to Fez or The Walking Dead.

This is how I'd guess they vote.

Jeff - Fez

Ryan - XCOM

Vinny - The Walking Dead

Patrick - The Walking Dead

Brad - Journey

I'd guess Journey gets eliminated first. They'll acknowledge the merits of the game and how unique it is, but they just can't put something like that ahead of the other three. Brad will argue it's better than Fez however will be outvoted 4-1 and will get pissed. Fez will be the next to go as Brad targets it to piss off Jeff. Jeff and Vinny were pretty high on it, but I'm not sure if the rest of the staff really fell down the Fez rabbit hole. Jeff having not played much of TWD pushes for XCOM, Brad pushes for TWD. A long conversation unfolds of how to compare to a point and click adventure game to a turn based strategy game. Vinny is on the fence as is Ryan to a lesser degree. In the end, TWD wins.

If Walking Dead takes it over X-Com I'd be pretty disappointed as it'll mean GB has become a site that prefers story over gameplay. The two games are pretty much the epitome of each side of the spectrum, and while they both might be good it's pretty much a choice of style. I see a lot of people say it comes down to wether Jeff will like Walking Dead or not, however (and sorry for being the asshole) I think it's also very apparent that Walking Dead would not in any way be as strong of a contender if this was pre-Klepek GB.

Hopefully the prophet Dave Snider would bless them with divine inspiration in the form of a folded up piece of paper this year. And they would open it this time.

@C0V3RT: Pretty sure Jeff's is Syndicate. He's gotten some of the staff to play it recently.

No. it's a good game but personally I feel its too much of a niche game to be a GOTY contender. After all the GOTY award is basically a popularity contest and I don't think the new xcom game was that popular.

wtf hell no , doesnt have the polish for goty

but id argue that this years pickings have been slim and xcom is a contender purely because of the lack of "new" blood, but that's a terrible way to qualify for game of the year.

@mordukai: We'll see. Maybe it'll one of his top games, but I can't help but think it may be an instance of him implying it's a top 10 contender and people should check it out so they can have conversation around it. I'd have to go back and watch the Quick Look on it and he seemed luke warm about it at best, but maybe he came around on it?

@envane said:

wtf hell no , doesnt have the polish for goty

but id argue that this years pickings have been slim and xcom is a contender purely because of the lack of "new" blood, but that's a terrible way to qualify for game of the year.

Oh yeah, because lack of polish was totally a thing last year.

When SR3 bugs out, you get sent back to a checkpoint.

When Skyrim bugs out, you get sent back to CHARACTER CREATION

@MariachiMacabre: My point was more that he's easily the one that would fight for TWD to be GOTY. Brad will champion Journey/D3, Vinny will champion Sleeping Dogs, Ryan will be torn between X-Com and TWD, Patrick will champion TWD and Jeff will champion Syndicate or some other game. In this scenario Brad, Vinny and Jeff will not have the support to win, everyone will agree that both X-Com and TWD is great, but since Ryan is torn and Patrick is championing TWD it's pretty likely TWD will come out the victor unless Jeff put his heels down drastically. I'm just saying if this was pre-Klepek there would be noone championing TWD which would probably lead to Ryan leaning more towards X-Com which everyone would agree is a great game.

Ofc this is all conjecture, but no game will ever win GOTY unless someone's championing it and I don't see anyone other than Patrick doing that for TWD.

I would be surprised if XCOM and Walking Dead arent most of everyone's top 2 games. I really dont know how things will go between those 2 games though.

Lock it down, XCOM for GOTY.

Not sure, X-com is a great fucking game and I really like it, It would be awesome if it got some love. My personal GOTY is AC3 but that's clearly a personal bias thing and I understand that.

I'm with the crowd on this one... The game is great but has no shot at GOTY

@MariachiMacabre said:

@Ares42

If Walking Dead takes it over X-Com I'd be pretty disappointed as it'll mean GB has become a site that prefers story over gameplay. The two games are pretty much the epitome of each side of the spectrum, and while they both might be good it's pretty much a choice of style. I see a lot of people say it comes down to wether Jeff will like Walking Dead or not, however (and sorry for being the asshole) I think it's also very apparent that Walking Dead would not in any way be as strong of a contender if this was pre-Klepek GB.

Ok can we stop this petty anti-Klepek train, please for fucks sake? [...] You'd think the haters would get bored by now.

The problem with Klepek is how badly he wants to be the smartest guy in the room. He treats his garden variety observations as incisive (sometimes repeating them over and over so that the plebeians won't miss out on his golden words) and his totally mainstream opinions (sexism is bad!) as bold and original.

I wasn't complaining at the beginning. I gave him a chance. I don't see why I'm supposed to get used to something that's bad. Like Alex's writing consistently having a snarky teenager tone? That sucks! It isn't going to stop sucking someday.

To get back on topic, I'll be pretty mad if Klepek tries to forward some non game like TWD as GOTY simply for reasons of emotional impact.

@aceofspudz said:

@MariachiMacabre said:

@Ares42

If Walking Dead takes it over X-Com I'd be pretty disappointed as it'll mean GB has become a site that prefers story over gameplay. The two games are pretty much the epitome of each side of the spectrum, and while they both might be good it's pretty much a choice of style. I see a lot of people say it comes down to wether Jeff will like Walking Dead or not, however (and sorry for being the asshole) I think it's also very apparent that Walking Dead would not in any way be as strong of a contender if this was pre-Klepek GB.

Ok can we stop this petty anti-Klepek train, please for fucks sake? [...] You'd think the haters would get bored by now.

The problem with Klepek is how badly he wants to be the smartest guy in the room. He treats his garden variety observations as incisive (sometimes repeating them over and over so that the plebeians won't miss out on his golden words) and his totally mainstream opinions (sexism is bad!) as bold and original.

I wasn't complaining at the beginning. I gave him a chance. I don't see why I'm supposed to get used to something that's bad. Like Alex's writing consistently having a snarky teenager tone? That sucks! It isn't going to stop sucking someday.

To get back on topic, I'll be pretty mad if Klepek tries to forward some non game like TWD as GOTY simply for reasons of emotional impact.

X-COM has more emotional impact than TWD.

Because when it happens, it's legitimately your fault. Those civilians? Those soldiers? They're dead because you weren't good enough. You could have stopped it. You could have saved them. But you didn't.

That said, you're ignorant if you think Patrick is going to be the only one making an emotional appeal.

Brad is totally going to tout Journey as some existentialist experience of the human psyche.

Mind, Journey probably has zero shot of pulling it off, because the game's 2 hours long.

I don't see any other game that's as good as XCOM this year.

The Walking Dead has really weak gameplay. I don't see how anyone can argue against that.

Top 10? Sure. The one? No.

Journey or Walking Dead.

But yeah, XCOM is in the top 5 fo sho.

No but it is definitely a contender (though it is my personal GOTY).

I can see XCOM standing out the most of every game this year (Journey is still a indie game with a very specific audience to appeal to, and is thin on the game side of things).

Diablo 3 would be interesting. It seemed like there was a lot of outrage at the post 100 hr gameplay, which seemed a bit silly to me, but w/e.

People seriously think that Jeff is going to be promoting Syndicate for GOTY? Not a chance. Liking something is not the same as naming it the best.

I think the final debate will be XCOM vs Walking Dead.

Imo itsnot the GOTY but its up there

@Kidavenger said:

I enjoyed it, but I burned through it in a week and don't see myself going back to it, pretty much the experience I had with Diablo 3, and most other games for that matter; good game, but not GotY good.

so are you saying the only way to get a game to be GOTY in your opinion it has to be extremely long, or take you a long time to finnish. and be worth playing more then once

keep in mind that im not saying your wrong or anything. im just asking.

Based on all the Bombcasts this year it has to be either XCOM or Walking Dead so far. Mark of the Ninja is also high up, but I don't think it's enough to take over the first spot.

Jeff's hatred of zombies is a big mark against Walking Dead (though at least he is planning on playing it) so I just don't see it passing XCOM.

I think Brad might push for Mark of the Ninja above XCOM but we'll see. I'll be curious to see how Ryan and Patrick react to Hitman next week as both were big fans of Blood Money, but I don't know if it's GOTY material yet.

@Kerned said:

People seriously think that Jeff is going to be promoting Syndicate for GOTY? Not a chance. Liking something is not the same as naming it the best.

What other game do you see Jeff putting on the top of his list ? In a year like this "just liking" can very easily get a game to the top of the list. That's not to say he's actually gonna try to make a major argument about it, but if they do a round of "what is your favorite game this year?" I wouldn't be surprised if Jeff said Syndicate.

It's definitely the favorite.

@Bulby33: XCom is certainly my GOTY for now. I thought Fez was a winner too. What is it with me and buggy games? Can't help myself..

@Grillbar said:

@Kidavenger said:

I enjoyed it, but I burned through it in a week and don't see myself going back to it, pretty much the experience I had with Diablo 3, and most other games for that matter; good game, but not GotY good.

so are you saying the only way to get a game to be GOTY in your opinion it has to be extremely long, or take you a long time to finnish. and be worth playing more then once

keep in mind that im not saying your wrong or anything. im just asking.

I don't think a game needs to be excessively long, X-com was probably the perfect length actually, I do think a game of the year candidate should be a game you look forward to replaying though or atleast a game that you get deep into multiplayer, invest extra time in achievement hunting or even just think about after you finish playing it; despite liking the game, it did none of these things for me.

I agree with most people that it will come down to XCOM vs The Walking Dead and maybe Journey unless Hitman and Far Cry 3 end surprising everyone.

However, whichever one of those 3 wins, when we look back and compare it to past winners and runner ups, 2012 will end up looking like a pretty fucking weak year. I just don't see games like XCOM or TWD ever comparing favorably to the likes of Mass Effect 2, Portal 2, Skyrim, Red Dead Redemption, Uncharted 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Call of Duty 4, Bioshock, Mass Effect...

XCOM ends up becoming very repetitive in its mission types and environments and is pretty janky. Its a really well made game no doubt but its limited nonetheless.

TWD has very little gameplay and what it has is nothing more than classic point and click or boring QTE of the worst kind. There's nothing dynamic about how it plays when you compare it to games like Heavy Rain. The point and click aspect of you inspecting the environment for items to use is as basic as it gets and looking back no farther then last year, L.A. Noire proved that it's possible to include some real interaction with items when picking/inspecting them.

And as for the story i can't agree at all with people saying its the greatest story told this year. That game gives the illusion of choices, not actual choices. There's this new character you just met who's pretty cool and now he's in danger, so what do you do? You can say you should help him but the game will tell you nope, can't do that. 5 minutes later you can raise your concern and say you should go back and look for him but nope the game won't let you and no matter what you did or said the guy end up dead. It's like that all the time. What is even the point of letting me make "choices" if there is a very rigid cannon version of the events underneath? As it stands the game doesn't really let you make choices but rather let you express your intentions. The game is not asking you to save this character, its asking you if you would like to save this character. You can't but that's ok, people will know you wanted to. That's 90% of that amazing story for you.

I just hate the amount of fail states there is in the game. In Heavy Rain you didn't succeed every single prompt in that fight? No worry, the fight just ended up being longer but you still won. Or maybe you failed too many and didn't win? That's ok too, maybe the guy left and the game goes on, or maybe now your dead... that's ok too, keep playing. In L.A. Noire you had all the clues you needed to crack this guy in the interrogation but somehow you messed up and didn't make him talk. You could have ended the case right there and then with 5 stars but it's ok, go back to the crime scene, or go interrogate someone else. The guy may have walked this time but you'll get him later. You'll only get 3 stars though... rookie.

TWD is a fine point and click adventure game of the most basic sort. They just threw in more "holy shit!" moments and that works just like it does in the comics and TV show. Just don't pretend the game itself is anything more than that because it isn't.

Sad thing is XCOM and TWD are still some of the best game this year anyway. I'm playing both and enjoying both. I just look at past GOTY contenders and yeah...

I'd be okay with Journey.

It seemed like they were slowing on it during the final Bombcast that they talked about it. I felt that they were talking more about glitches and problems than enjoyment, and the ways to 'game the game.' I don't think it's a lock, but it'll be a strong contender for sure.