Giant Bomb's Multiplatform Game of the Year, 2009

Nothing stops the GODDAMN BATMAN

Amazing game, although I probably would've picked MW2 because it's the better overall package with its multiplayer - but maybe it's just because the game is fresher in my memory whereas I last played Batman in September or early October.

After seeing all the guys lists I'm not surprised this won. I'm glad it won. Batman AA is a great game and I can only hope other similar properties like Iron Man will learn from it's example. Okay that's probably wishful thinking.

this proves that MW2 wont get goty...its basically going to go down to batman vs uncharted 2

" @supermike6 said:

" @Ghostiet said:

" @supermike6 said:

" @Ghostiet said:

"

Modern Warfare 2 is probably the most overrated game of the year.

"

I'd say Uncharted 2 was more overrated.  "

Right. You couldn't shoot down UAVs and get killed by a knife thrown from the other side of the map. "

Yeah, and Uncharted 2 has no problems at all. How often did you actually get killed by knives from across the map or have you not even played it? "

Actually, yes - apart from the lame boss fight I had not found any problems with that, and U2 is alongside with Assassin's Creed 2 the definition of a perfect sequel, that took everything that was cool from the first game, throw out the crap bits and put some new good stuff on top. While in the case of Modern Warfare 2 I can easily say that it's inferior to the first one. Also, I hate plotless games.

And I wasn't killed by it a single time, I just got tired with the ridiculous, unforgiving pacing and that the game basicly encourages players to use cheap tricks to fuck up the balance completely.

"

As much as I loved AC2 I can deeply respect your choice for Batman, that melee combat totally won me over. Probably would of picked it up before now but im not much of a Batman person. But... maybe one day i'll pick it up.

Unexpected! I really thought MW2 would be a shoe-in.

Also: not to geek too too hard but...but this is a videogame website, so where else can I do it? Batman actually DID build a cave under Arkham after No Man's Land (in which there was a massive earthquake).

" @Meowayne said:

"

 What the hell's wrong with sandbox games?

Storytelling, pacing, characters. "

You can still tell a good story"

After I finish up Assassin's Creed 2 and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, this one is next on my list. I'm looking forward to being the Batman.

I haven't had a chance to play Batman yet so it obviously wouldn't be my choice for this. I would have gone with AC2 or Borderlands...but from everything i've heard about this, it does seem well deserved.

" @Kajaah117 said:

" Aha! My prediction that the Giant Bomb GOTY would be between Batman and Uncharted 2 was right. This is a tough one. My favorite was Batman, but I think the best game of the year is Uncharted 2. They both had some dumb parts though. I hated the last 2 chapters of Uncharted 2, and the boss fights in Batman were weak as hell. I choose Uncharted by a hair, but I think Giant Bomb will actually end up choosing Batman. Something about the way they talk about it, it seems to be the most universally praised game in the office. Arg, this is though! I'm just glad MW2 didn't win. It's a phenomenal game, and I actually didn't think the story was as confusing as most people though it was, but dude.... Batman... "

If you're talking flaws in the gameplay, I think Batman's boss fights are weak, while in comparison to Uncharted 2 there really weren't any glaring flaws.  Sure, depending on your taste you could complain about different aspects of that game but there was no glaring flaws like with Batman.  Maybe that can be overridden by the rest of the game but I think it's worth mentioning when comparing the two. "

Makes me wonder if Batman is going to be the game of the year. 
Multiplatform games have a problem when it comes to which version of the game the person should buy.

Another no brainer.  I just finished this game about a week before Xmas.  I didn't send it back to Gamefly because I was having too much fun with it and now I am attempting to 100% it.

" @supermike6 said:

" @Meowayne said:

"

 What the hell's wrong with sandbox games?

Storytelling, pacing, characters. "

You can still tell a good story"

Yes, but you can not tell it good. 
 
Everyone can write a good story. Storytelling is the art. And sandbox games by definition can not feature good storytelling. "

Wow, not MW2. *stands up and claps.

Good choice on GOTY.   I'm glad "that" game wasn't picked.

" @Kajaah117 said:

" Aha! My prediction that the Giant Bomb GOTY would be between Batman and Uncharted 2 was right. This is a tough one. My favorite was Batman, but I think the best game of the year is Uncharted 2. They both had some dumb parts though. I hated the last 2 chapters of Uncharted 2, and the boss fights in Batman were weak as hell. I choose Uncharted by a hair, but I think Giant Bomb will actually end up choosing Batman. Something about the way they talk about it, it seems to be the most universally praised game in the office. Arg, this is though! I'm just glad MW2 didn't win. It's a phenomenal game, and I actually didn't think the story was as confusing as most people though it was, but dude.... Batman... "

If you're talking flaws in the gameplay, I think Batman's boss fights are weak, while in comparison to Uncharted 2 there really weren't any glaring flaws.  Sure, depending on your taste you could complain about different aspects of that game but there was no glaring flaws like with Batman.  Maybe that can be overridden by the rest of the game but I think it's worth mentioning when comparing the two. "

Playing B:AA on hard mode is.....insanely hard. Which makes it more awesome.

" @Stephen_Von_Cloud said:

" @Kajaah117 said:

" Aha! My prediction that the Giant Bomb GOTY would be between Batman and Uncharted 2 was right. This is a tough one. My favorite was Batman, but I think the best game of the year is Uncharted 2. They both had some dumb parts though. I hated the last 2 chapters of Uncharted 2, and the boss fights in Batman were weak as hell. I choose Uncharted by a hair, but I think Giant Bomb will actually end up choosing Batman. Something about the way they talk about it, it seems to be the most universally praised game in the office. Arg, this is though! I'm just glad MW2 didn't win. It's a phenomenal game, and I actually didn't think the story was as confusing as most people though it was, but dude.... Batman... "

If you're talking flaws in the gameplay, I think Batman's boss fights are weak, while in comparison to Uncharted 2 there really weren't any glaring flaws.  Sure, depending on your taste you could complain about different aspects of that game but there was no glaring flaws like with Batman.  Maybe that can be overridden by the rest of the game but I think it's worth mentioning when comparing the two. "

Actually, I don't know that I agree about Uncharted 2 being "without glaring flaws." The gunplay isn't exactly mind-blowing (of the shooters I've played this year, it stands out as the least satisfying gunplay outside of Halo 3: ODST) but for most of the game, it wasn't a problem at all. Shoot-outs in Uncharted 2, for the first half of the game, served to aid in pacing the platforming sections, flesh out the story and provide more meaningful conflicts. However, once you reach the infamous train sequence, the shooting takes control of the game for almost two hours straight, with very little of the excellent platforming and climbing that were the heart of Turkey and Nepal OR even the sense of exploration that filled Borneo. Hell, that section didn't even have any character development throughout most of it, excluding Nathan's hatred of helicopters and its ending. Even if the gunplay were excellent, they ignored so many of the good things about Uncharted to the point that it limits the audience of the game to people who like Uncharted's gunplay, although just about anyone would've enjoyed anything before then. If the sequence had lasted a half-hour, it would've been fine. But the train sequence is so long that it wrecked Uncharted 2 for me, derailing it from my "Game of the Year" title to back below Dragon Age: Origins. I still haven't finished Uncharted 2 because the pacing suddenly went out the window, and I was satisfied with the gunplay and felt like I wasn't going to get anything different anytime soon. And according to other people I know who've played, the final area is just as focused on the gunplay, which is disconcerting to me.

If Batman won this over Modern Warfare 2, it means GOTY is either Batman or Uncharted.    

That's why Uncharted 2 is still my game of the year, but I'm predicting Batman for Giant Bomb's. 
 
Batman had a few flaws but the only one that really got to me was the boss battles. The build-ups to them were amazing, especially the Scarecrow bits, but the main fights were so weak I didn't feel like I was playing the same game. They just don't mesh at all with the quality of the rest of it. On the other hand, I only had one problem with Uncharted 2, and that was the enemies in the last 2 chapters. Without spoiling it for anyone, I just have to say that bullet-sponges are not fun to fight. Naughty Dog made the same mistake with the first Uncharted too, in the sense that they throw a new enemy at you, not necessarily that they were bullet sponges, and that's why it frustrated me even more. I thought they would have learned not to do something like that towards the finale, but they did.  Both games were so close to perfect though, and I don't think I've ever had such difficulty choosing a game of the year before. Maybe 1998 or 2004. I give it to Uncharted for breaking some new ground with animations, pacing, and the way character's interact with environments, but Batman was still one hell of a game. "

Enough already! Fine! I'll play it!

" Playing B:AA on hard mode is.....insanely hard. Which makes it more awesome. "

Good pick.  I am very happy that I got this game for $33 on the PC.  I am super impressed with it so far.  I thought the demo was alright, but playing the full game it goes deeper into the story right away before you even get to the part where the demo starts.

I wanna say there was fog that swirled around you in the PC version or something like that.
 
Even though none of them made my list this year, out of the 3 popular GOTY contenders (Batman, Uncharted 2, MW2), I think Batman is probably the most deserving.  I did play all of them, and appreciate how technically excellent they all are - they're just not the type of games that stick with me I guess.  I generally like a little less hand-holding and a little more freedom.

I really like how GB handled these awards. 
 
Batman definitely deserves credit for it's excellent performance on every platform - no bugs, no performance issues, no matter what platform. And adding the physx stuff was the icing on the cake for PC gamers.

" I really like how GB handled these awards.   Batman definitely deserves credit for it's excellent performance on every platform - no bugs, no performance issues, no matter what platform. And adding the physx stuff was the icing on the cake for PC gamers. "

I have to say, even though I played Modern Warfare 2 more, this deserves it. This had one of the best combat systems I have ever played and really was the best comic book/superhero game of all time.

Not Modern Warfare 2, huh? Good on you GB! Respect has increased!

" @emkeighcameron said:

" Playing B:AA on hard mode is.....insanely hard. Which makes it more awesome. "

I think it's not that hard. The game on hard just forces you to make use of all of Batman's gadgets and to really learn the fighting system. And this is, yeah,... awesome! "

No mention of Borderlands? Lame.

Yep, kinda saw this coming. Well deserved, I must say.

Excellent choice! I feel this game has more impact on the industry than the millions of copies MW2 had sold.

" Nice choice.  The only thing I have to say negative against this game, and it is somewhat of a big deal, is that the boss fights in this game were just lame.  They were shallow and used very basic and cliche patterns.  With how well the rest of the game was crafted I was hoping for some MGS-type boss fights that are less linear and make you really think.  Considering how important the villains are to Batman it was a pretty big misfire.    Still an awesome game but I haven't seen many people call the game out for the boss fights.  I'll be interested to see if the guys mention this on the Bombcast. "

I think the fact that I beat Batman AA on the 360 and am thinking about renting it for PS3 so I can play the game again sums up my feelings towards this game.  It was the Batman simulator, so much so that I started to even read the Batman comics to learn even more about this franchise.

" No mention of Borderlands? Lame. "

" No mention of Borderlands? Lame. "

I had more fun with it using a keyboard and mouse so pc version is my favorite.Ps3 version would be next because you can play as the joker.Altogether good pick for multiplatform game.

Hearing the bombcast really makes me wanna finish this game..

Good choice.

" I was surprised to only briefly hear the quality of the boss fights mentioned as a major knock against Batman when they were talking overall GOTY on the podcast. I think it was only Jeff saying that the final boss fight was pretty weak, which I agree with but found every boss fight to be similarly bad.  Again, still a very good game but I have to think everyone was let down by the boss fights. "

" @Stephen_Von_Cloud said:

" I was surprised to only briefly hear the quality of the boss fights mentioned as a major knock against Batman when they were talking overall GOTY on the podcast. I think it was only Jeff saying that the final boss fight was pretty weak, which I agree with but found every boss fight to be similarly bad.  Again, still a very good game but I have to think everyone was let down by the boss fights. "

I thought Killer Croc was bad, along with the final boss, but I didn't have a problem with most of the others.   I was very happy to see them avoiding simply using QTE's which absolutely ruined other games.  Just take a look at the Force Unleashed, considering it was a game that was supposed to make you feel like an all powerful Jedi, having every big sequence done through a QTE doesn't add to the experience, it just makes it feel like your watching a movie.  So while some of the boss fights in AA weren't exactly amazing..  they could have been so much worse.  Having not played Uncharted 2 yet, this is easily my GoTY. (I did just get Platinum on the original though) "

There is an interesting scandal surrounding this game on the PC, which is about specific technical aspects of the port:
http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news/2009/11/4/batmangate-amd-vs-nvidia-vs-eidos-fight-analyzed.aspx

It's my GOTY.

I think it's crazy that people hated the Killer Croc fight.  Why?  I LOVED Killer Croc.  That was like my favorite boss fight. 
 
Maybe were people getting lost or thought it went on too long?  I have a really good sense of direction so I would not have noticed that, but I suppose it could have been a big problem. 
 
Seriously, why the hate over the Killer Croc fight? 
 
Disclaimer: I am a total geek for Arkham Asylum and REALLY wish it would have won over Uncharted 2.

50 Cent's not even a runner-up? Man, this site sucks.

" @WinterSnowblind said:

" @Stephen_Von_Cloud said:

" I was surprised to only briefly hear the quality of the boss fights mentioned as a major knock against Batman when they were talking overall GOTY on the podcast. I think it was only Jeff saying that the final boss fight was pretty weak, which I agree with but found every boss fight to be similarly bad.  Again, still a very good game but I have to think everyone was let down by the boss fights. "

I thought Killer Croc was bad, along with the final boss, but I didn't have a problem with most of the others.   I was very happy to see them avoiding simply using QTE's which absolutely ruined other games.  Just take a look at the Force Unleashed, considering it was a game that was supposed to make you feel like an all powerful Jedi, having every big sequence done through a QTE doesn't add to the experience, it just makes it feel like your watching a movie.  So while some of the boss fights in AA weren't exactly amazing..  they could have been so much worse.  Having not played Uncharted 2 yet, this is easily my GoTY. (I did just get Platinum on the original though) "

I agree with that QTE stuff. So many other games look awesome in trailers, like Heavenly Sword, but then when you play the game you realize it's just scripted QTE. This game feels more natural and I hope that games will be even better in the future. I can't think of any other game that has pulled off looking like a movie while still being a game, either they play like a game or look like a movie but to get both is just revolutionary IMO. I'm looking forward to what games will be like when they copy this and improve upon it. This game should be the inspiration for any sort of brawler in the future. I'd be fine with it becoming sort of a standard in the genre like the Halo 1 controls became for FPS and a foundation for all brawlers to try and improve upon. "

" I think it's crazy that people hated the Killer Croc fight.  Why?  I LOVED Killer Croc.  That was like my favorite boss fight.  Maybe were people getting lost or thought it went on too long?  I have a really good sense of direction so I would not have noticed that, but I suppose it could have been a big problem.  Seriously, why the hate over the Killer Croc fight?  Disclaimer: I am a total geek for Arkham Asylum and REALLY wish it would have won over Uncharted 2. "