Here's What Won

Really nice list. Congrats, duders.

Awesome work all of you!

Thought it would be Tetris. Great pick

I guess I have to listen again.
Wasn't Celeste also under Best Game?

God of War is above RDR2 so I consider this whole endeavor a success.

still crazy to me that sea of thieves is most disappointing game but i guess it is "giant bomb's most disappoint game" after all. but seriously that game has only gotten better over the course of the year and is one of my favs.

also rad to see red dead not in the top 3. bless. hell yeah cool tetris and dragonball.

Pretty much. :)

I'm going to assume Quiet Man was #11 on the Best Game list.

I can feel it with my blood

Bummer Horizon 4 didn't really get much love.

No real big surprises this year, good list imo.

Loved the Most Disappointing discussion.

I'm a bit sad we couldn't get Reroll on this list somehow. I can only hope that it makes a category that Abby and Alex have forced into the mix just so we can praise this most amazing game again.

That top 10 is so surprising, it echoes my feelings, but based on the other category conversations I thought it would turn out differently. I was ready to skip the best game video (last year it made sad and I stopped after a hour), but I feel like I need to see and hear this.

Pretty much perfect!

I fucking love this top 10 list so much, might be the list I’ve clicked with the most in this sites history.

I haven’t listened to all the podcasts yet, just cause it’s a lot, but was super curious what would win as I thought the fight would be god of war vs red dead,

But to see Tetris effect come from behind and take it and god of war ahead of red dead has me EXTREMELY interested to hear the discussions now,

AAA stuff this year felt like it was totally skippable so it's a bummer to see so much of it represented in the top 10.

Kinda disappointing that a Tetris game won Game if the Year when all these awesome original games full of great writing came out this year but hey it’s not my list. Congrats on getting through another year.

No Crosscode... as I expected. *sigh*

I like that RDR2 is a runner-up for Most Disappointing while also being #4 on the top 10 list. No sarcasm, I think that is hilarious.

Looking forward to listening to the discussions, all 21 hours of it. RIP me.

Great lists and great discussions. Both highlight a year of great and diverse games.

I really enjoyed this format too. It gave more and positive discussion/review of games this year. Something I very much needed and appreciated. Thanks for everything this year!

Bummed that Celeste didn't make the top ten (and was robbed for best music) but I'm happy Dead Cells managed to beat out the 2 lumbering behemoths.

The real winner was the friends we made along the way :/

I definitely don't object to the Winners, its been an oddly under-saturated year which has let some names punch above their weight against traditional AAA Mainstays.

I'll be interested to see 2018 with a few years of context. The industry isn't smaller than it has been, but maybe we're reaching a point where 'games as a service' has reduced the number of big new releases?

A telling lack of EA too, perhaps for the same reason.

Sad to see the Sony censorship stuff get no play in hottest mess.

Best Style Presented by Persona 5.

I've yet to play anything that received an award, or appeared on that top ten even. Packed year.

Good stuff. Haven't listened to all that much of the deliberations/discussions yet but I can get behind those results even if they are pretty predictable (team really needs a JRPG rep imo)

@hassun: That's such a hard act to follow, I don't think this years nominees even come close tbh...

I fine with the list. Didn't want rdr 2 above God of war.

How can there be any kind of "Best Of..." list without "Subnautica" anywhere to be found? :|

Also, Sea of Thieves came out last year, didn't it? Still, as of the last update it is now the game it was promised to be originally. So...not sure about it being a "disappointment" this year...

God of War though...that game was GOLD. My GOTW is currently split between that and Subnautica, with RDR2 close behind. Good year!

Great year for games looking forward to how 2019 stacks up. Only bummer is Celeste instantly getting dismissed from top 10 but oh well. Great list and great discussions have a happy New year everyone.

@l2enstrike: "Sea of Thieves" came out in March. There was a beta in January; perhaps that's what you were thinking of.

@ronniebarzel: Oh, wow, didn't realize it was this year! Yeah, i can see how it would qualify as a "disappointment" based on it's initial release. I was VERY disappointed. But by the end of the year, all with free updates, that disappointment has been removed. If I would have played the first release with no attempts to return i'd still keep it in the same category as this, so it makes sense.

Great year, I honestly can't get enough of you guys closing out the year and there's like 24 hours of podcasts about that. Loved it.... but also I'm burying the lead. Man, I honestly was really let down by the hottest mess category this year. I put this in the forums, but I want to link to it here because I haven't seen anyone else saying this and I think it needs to be said, unless I'm really missing something.

https://www.giantbomb.com/forums/general-discussion-30/hottest-mess-disappointed-me-this-year-1860088/

Bit surprised seeing Tetris #1 but cool to see some IPs that don’t normally get recognition... would only tweak a few things for my list

Celeste

Dead Cells

God of War

Red Dead Redemption 2

Marvel's Spider-Man

Hitman 2

Black Ops 2

Return of the Obra Dinn

Tetris Effect

Dragon Ball FighterZ

I'm surprised there hasn't been more negative reaction to Dan 'hijacking' Biggest Disappointment.

That said I'd have to agree with him, I was really disappointed by RDR2 after seeing everyone squeeing all over it and then renting it to find out the controls were THAT BAD. I can only assume those that loved it had a case of Gaming Stockholm Syndrome after playing it long enough, or something...

I bought Tetris Effect, I like Tetris Effect, at its core it is just Tetris. It is not a #1 game over at least 6 of these games. I don't get how beating the first boss of Dead Cells is anywhere in the top 3 great moments either when all it does is reveal that there is actually more of the game.

The Most Disappointing debates were GREAT.

@humanity: Tetris is soooo addicting, play it with lights down and stereo up, it’s an experience!!!

@unrealdp: I feel ya but they are a gaming website still and once you go too far into social issues it opens up a can of worms that can’t be closed. They still have to be appealing to everybody! The fact they have it in their top 3 is a win to me.

I just want to point out that both a Monster Hunter and Dragon ball game got top 10.

Hearing Dan turn on RDR2 during several Beastcasts and the deliberations they had, I totally see why it made the list.

The one I didn't expect to make this list was Fallout 76. It was exactly what I expected coming from its announcement. The pedigree didn't sway me before it launched, so it didn't sway me during their deliberation.

I thought Sea of Thieves might be something not for me, but I could see why people would be disappointed in it. I was disappointed in hearing that A Way Out wasn't good, so I avoided it. It could also have been a game I liked if I had played it, since not everyone likes the same game, as the RDR2 discussion showed. We're merely relying on Alex's opinion on it (and I should say that his tastes tend to line up with mine the most on this site).

RDR2 being on the most disappointing list makes sense when over half the staff found it disappointing, even if the rest thought highly of it.

This might be the first year the crew managed to beat Brad's filibustering techniques. So many flaws denied over and over again but they finally managed to wear him out. So happy with these lists.

What a diverse and cool list! Cheers to 2018 for the awesome games (and not much else)!

I skipped over Obra Dinn as another adventure game, but looks like I really need to check it out. Also added Donut County to my to-play list.

And on this Tetris-shaped hill is where we make our final stand.

... I can't wait to hear the deliberations.

@unrealdp: I think one of the main reasons Fallout won over the terrible workplace practices is that they aren't really new. Yes all of those stories broke this year but crunch, poor office culture, and layoffs are pervasive problems in gaming. So I guess the way I'm looking at it is Fallout 76 is "2018's Hottest Mess," whereas the bad workplace section is just gaming's hottest mess over decades.

Called it.

Overall I think this year's deliberations were an improvement over last year. We still ended up with 24+ hours of podcasts, which is arguably too long, but perhaps that's the way things are when you get 9 people in a room to talk about 80+ games.

I'm honestly surprised by the top 2 spots. I saw the leaked list yesterday and almost thought it was a goof (I personally thought Into the Breach or God of War was going to be their GOTY).

As someone who is still in Chapter 2 of Red Dead Redemption, hearing those various story details makes me more interested in finishing that game in 2019. I still think A) RDR2 would be better if there was no third person shooting, and B) Rockstar should really evolve their game design beyond their same basic structure since GTA III.

In terms of personal taste stuff, I'm surprised Celeste didn't grab more people. It's my favorite platformer that is wrapped up with a good story, excellent music, and nice visuals and style. The general feeling I got was people didn't really mess around with it because it was "another indie platformer"; as if an entire genre is uninteresting because there are a lot of downloadable games where the playable character jumps around.

Is there anybody else who only engages with GOTY through this list? I mean I'll read most of the staff and a few of the guest lists but I gave up listening to the 80 hours of podcast years ago. Not saying other people shouldn't enjoy it but it started getting on my nerves and I've been happier skipping it entirely.

Thanks for the 24 hours of entertainment! Listening to these podcasts after Christmas is a tradition at this point. Since you're trying new things like changing the format and forgoing the write-ups, I just hope you don't try to cut down on the duration in the following years. I like my GotY podcasts girthy (I also listen to bunch of other GotY discussions, increasing the total even further).

COOL. TETRIS.

Seems like the format change was just what they needed to break the curse of the wrong game winning every GB GOTY. I joke but damn Tetris winning is fucking awesome!

<>

I really felt the absence of some of the more light-hearted, one-off awards this year. I know "Best World" was a debacle last year, but man I was really looking forward to hearing someone stan for "Gavin's Friend" in the "Best new character" discussions. I feel robbed!

Happy new year to all the duders, and thanks for 10 god damn years of goofing about games.