@bvilleneuve: Patrick had Katherine high on his top 10 for a similar reason. I have found that he likes to go against the mainstream shooter or action game to a point instead of basing games on their quality at times.
Apparently the GOTY discussions were a bloodbath.
I've only played the first episode of The Walking Dead, but I will be stunned if it doesn't win. Ryan, Vinny, Patrick, Brad (and even Alex) absolutely love that game to the point of Alex calling it a masterpiece, and no game aside from Mass Effect 3 dominated this year's discussions. If Jeff blocks it from winning purely because he's Jeff, that will be one of the lowest points Giant Bomb has ever gone.
But I suppose we'll wait and see.
@Phished0ne said:
Don't count out Black Ops 2 for character development! I know i was just championing Spec Ops, but Blops2 has some really good character moments. Thats the crazy part about this year, shooters that actually *have* memorable characters in them.
Yeah, I thought about it. But I guess that one thing is having a character-driven story (which BLOPS II has) and another different thing is having a character that changes substantially from start to finish (which it doesn't). By the end of the game, Woods and the Masons are, basically, the same they were when the game started. Sure, the player discovers a bit more about their past and what makes them tickle... but that's it. There's no sudden realization, no struggling for redemption or introspection on their actions like there is in Spec Ops: The Line.
@bennym6 said:
@Fearbeard said:
If Jeff tries to block Walking Dead from winning because of his ignorance towards the game then yeah, I can see how things might get really heated.
If Brad, Ryan and Vinny want to put Walking Dead at the top then he should just concede it.
Honestly the only games I can think of that Jeff might want at the top of his list are Syndicate, Forza Horizon and XCOM (maybe Far Cry 3 but he seemed to cool a little on it) with the only game on that list that he might have some support for being XCOM.
Anyways, can't wait to listen to the podcasts.
Ignorance? Since when is an opinion ignorance?
I think you may be twisting @Fearbeard's words a bit. Maybe "ignorance" is not the best word to describe Jeff's feelings for TWD, but he didn't play it and seemed pretty reluctant to do so. "Preconceptions" may be a better way to describe his attitude.
@JoeyRavn said:
@bennym6 said:
@Fearbeard said:
If Jeff tries to block Walking Dead from winning because of his ignorance towards the game then yeah, I can see how things might get really heated.
If Brad, Ryan and Vinny want to put Walking Dead at the top then he should just concede it.
Honestly the only games I can think of that Jeff might want at the top of his list are Syndicate, Forza Horizon and XCOM (maybe Far Cry 3 but he seemed to cool a little on it) with the only game on that list that he might have some support for being XCOM.
Anyways, can't wait to listen to the podcasts.
Ignorance? Since when is an opinion ignorance?
I think you may be twisting @Fearbeard's words a bit. Maybe "ignorance" is not the best word to describe Jeff's feelings for TWD, but he didn't play it and seemed pretty reluctant to do so. "Preconceptions" may be a better way to describe his attitude.
but he did. He didn't play it all, but he doesn't really need to if he doesn't like the game.
@Marokai said:
I've only played the first episode of The Walking Dead, but I will be stunned if it doesn't win. Ryan, Vinny, Patrick, Brad (and even Alex) absolutely love that game to the point of Alex calling it a masterpiece, and no game aside from Mass Effect 3 dominated this year's discussions. If Jeff blocks it from winning purely because he's Jeff, that will be one of the lowest points Giant Bomb has ever gone. But I suppose we'll wait and see.
I think folks aren't giving Jeff enough credit. He seems to be a fairly reasonable dude. If The Walking Dead gets to the point of being GOTY, I really don't see him stonewalling it just because he doesn't like zombies.
I'm really girded up to hear how Patrick shits on every game that had marketing behind it. I've figured out that the real sin any game can commit is dare to have a marketing campaign.
Patrick does not like it when games are marketed towards... People other than him. I used to think he just didn't like games by big publisher, but that's not it; he doesn't like games that have a lot of marketing. What's the main difference between Medal of Honor 2010 and Warfighter? One was kind of thrown out there, and the other was pumped up with Linkin Park and other stuff. Despite being basically the same game, he likes one and reviles the other. He has been stewing about Mass Effect 3 before he even played it, and I think it has way more to do with his idea of 'the target audience' than it does the game itself. I find myself aligning with him a lot, but I feel his taste is way more conspicuous than based on games themselves.@Brodehouse said:
I'm really girded up to hear how Patrick shits on every game that had marketing behind it. I've figured out that the real sin any game can commit is dare to have a marketing campaign.what do you mean?
@Brodehouse said:
@AnimastaPatrick does not like it when games are marketed towards... People other than him. I used to think he just didn't like games by big publisher, but that's not it; he doesn't like games that have a lot of marketing. What's the main difference between Medal of Honor 2010 and Warfighter? One was kind of thrown out there, and the other was pumped up with Linkin Park and other stuff. Despite being basically the same game, he likes one and reviles the other. He has been stewing about Mass Effect 3 before he even played it, and I think it has way more to do with his idea of 'the target audience' than it does the game itself. I find myself aligning with him a lot, but I feel his taste is way more conspicuous than based on games themselves.@Brodehouse said:
I'm really girded up to hear how Patrick shits on every game that had marketing behind it. I've figured out that the real sin any game can commit is dare to have a marketing campaign.what do you mean?
eh... I don't think so. Maybe the Medal of Honor thing (though maybe he liked it all took place in Afghanistan rather than the CoD let's go fuck shit up in all of the world), but I don't see the ME3 stuff at all, he was just mad that they cut so much stuff off at the ending.
I'm really girded up to hear how Patrick shits on every game that had marketing behind it. I've figured out that the real sin any game can commit is dare to have a marketing campaign.I like a lot of the articles Patrick writes but damn if he doesn't have some of the flat out dumbest arguments to why he doesn't like some games.
@TheHT said:
@Marokai said:
I've only played the first episode of The Walking Dead, but I will be stunned if it doesn't win. Ryan, Vinny, Patrick, Brad (and even Alex) absolutely love that game to the point of Alex calling it a masterpiece, and no game aside from Mass Effect 3 dominated this year's discussions. If Jeff blocks it from winning purely because he's Jeff, that will be one of the lowest points Giant Bomb has ever gone. But I suppose we'll wait and see.I think folks aren't giving Jeff enough credit. He seems to be a fairly reasonable dude. If The Walking Dead gets to the point of being GOTY, I really don't see him stonewalling it just because he doesn't like zombies.
Come to think of it, seeing how much the guys all enjoyed Far Cry 3, TWD has a lot going for it narrative-wise but doesn't really do much in the game-play side and it wasn't necessarily an enjoyable experience but it was nonetheless still great considering the genre. Far Cry 3 on the other hand has an interesting story set-up that fell short, but the moment-to-moment gameplay combined with the open-world setting offsets that.
@TheHT said:
@Marokai said:
I've only played the first episode of The Walking Dead, but I will be stunned if it doesn't win. Ryan, Vinny, Patrick, Brad (and even Alex) absolutely love that game to the point of Alex calling it a masterpiece, and no game aside from Mass Effect 3 dominated this year's discussions. If Jeff blocks it from winning purely because he's Jeff, that will be one of the lowest points Giant Bomb has ever gone. But I suppose we'll wait and see.I think folks aren't giving Jeff enough credit. He seems to be a fairly reasonable dude. If The Walking Dead gets to the point of being GOTY, I really don't see him stonewalling it just because he doesn't like zombies.
I honestly dont think he just doesnt like it because of zombies, he's been pretty clear his problem with it is that he doesn't feel its a game as much as an interactive storybook. I'm not sure if i agree or disagree with that idea.
@JoeyRavn said:
@Phished0ne said:
Don't count out Black Ops 2 for character development! I know i was just championing Spec Ops, but Blops2 has some really good character moments. Thats the crazy part about this year, shooters that actually *have* memorable characters in them.
Yeah, I thought about it. But I guess that one thing is having a character-driven story (which BLOPS II has) and another different thing is having a character that changes substantially from start to finish (which it doesn't). By the end of the game, Woods and the Masons are, basically, the same they were when the game started. Sure, the player discovers a bit more about their past and what makes them tickle... but that's it. There's no sudden realization, no struggling for redemption or introspection on their actions like there is in Spec Ops: The Line.
yeah, thats fair. I just think its great that a COD game has a villain you actually care about. and at times with agree with on principle(for me at least). A villian with actual motivations besides "blah blah political intrigue", in fact, i could argue that Menedez' political agenda actually takes a backseat to his personal revenge story. Which is a huge leap for a COD game.
@Phished0ne: What I liked about Menendez's character is that they manage to give him a sympathetic reason for revenge, but it doesn't distract from the fact that he is one evil dude and he always was. It's a trap many writers fall into - they give a villain a sympathetic backstory that overshadows all the bad shit he done and then they have to resort to having him kill kittens so people get the message. I'm glad they managed to avoid it here and with Vaas in FC3.
@Phished0ne said:
I honestly dont think he just doesnt like it because of zombies, he's been pretty clear his problem with it is that he doesn't feel its a game as much as an interactive storybook. I'm not sure if i agree or disagree with that idea.
I know I don't. The fact that The Walking Dead is interactive plays a huge factor in enjoying it. It would still be an effective experience if it were a book or movie, but the fact that you personally have to perform many actions makes some parts of it absolutely gut-wrenching. Calling it an interactive storybook or movie is selling it short, because pressing "next" so Lee can shoot a puppy and actually pointing the gun and doing it end up affecting the player in completely different ways.
@Demoskinos said:
@BrodehouseI'm really girded up to hear how Patrick shits on every game that had marketing behind it. I've figured out that the real sin any game can commit is dare to have a marketing campaign.I like a lot of the articles Patrick writes but damn if he doesn't have some of the flat out dumbest arguments to why he doesn't like some games.
Yep. I'm just waiting for Ryan to actually have a contradictory stance as Patrick's in a discussion and then go ballistic. I just remember Ryan being on Quoted for Truth and just taking Mcshea and the other guy as his prisoner during that Vita discussion.
@Ghostiet said:
@Phished0ne said:
I honestly dont think he just doesnt like it because of zombies, he's been pretty clear his problem with it is that he doesn't feel its a game as much as an interactive storybook. I'm not sure if i agree or disagree with that idea.
I know I don't. The fact that The Walking Dead is interactive plays a huge factor in enjoying it. It would still be an effective experience if it were a book or movie, but the fact that you personally have to perform many actions makes some parts of it absolutely gut-wrenching. Calling it an interactive storybook or movie is selling it short, because pressing "next" so Lee can shoot a puppy and actually pointing the gun and doing it end up affecting the player in completely different ways.
I totally agree with your points here but I can see Jeff's argument a mile away. It will be that it isn't really a game, and that it also does have zombies.
And the weird thing is that Jeff does like game stories. I heard people say he doesn't all the time and that he is always gameplay over story but he liked SR the Third for the story. I'm listening to the first GOTY and he champions GTA IV totally for the story.
Then he wouldn't even give Red Dead a chance when it had better gameplay and a way better story... because it was a western and he just hates those I guess? If he hates zombies then that will be a legit knock against it. I know he's said "whatever" about that but I'd bet a lot of money it gets brought up by him in GOTY.
Moral of the story is Jeff is an enigma and there is no predicting how he will react to a game's story. However, he will never like a "visual novel" type game. He just won't.
I think Vinny, Ryan, and Patrick will all be big for Walking Dead though so it will be interesting.
Am I only the only who loves forward to GOTY podcast way more than anything else related to the end of the year (like iunno, Christmas)?
@bennym6 said:
@Fearbeard said:
If Jeff tries to block Walking Dead from winning because of his ignorance towards the game then yeah, I can see how things might get really heated.
If Brad, Ryan and Vinny want to put Walking Dead at the top then he should just concede it.
Honestly the only games I can think of that Jeff might want at the top of his list are Syndicate, Forza Horizon and XCOM (maybe Far Cry 3 but he seemed to cool a little on it) with the only game on that list that he might have some support for being XCOM.
Anyways, can't wait to listen to the podcasts.
Ignorance? Since when is an opinion ignorance?
Well ignorance is being uninformed about something, so if an opinion is based on preconceived notions about a game or based on minimal play time with it then yeah, I'd call that opinion ignorant. Now he may know enough about the game that he knows he doesn't want to play it. That's fine, no problem with that, but then if he tries to argue the game out of game of the year based on his minimal knowledge of it then I'd see a problem with the ignorance.
Edit: and to be fair, if I had only played the first episode of The Walking Dead then I wouldn't think of it as GOTY material either, but I'm nearing the end of episode 3 so far and it's moving it's way up my list pretty quickly now.
@Fearbeard said:
@bennym6 said:
@Fearbeard said:
If Jeff tries to block Walking Dead from winning because of his ignorance towards the game then yeah, I can see how things might get really heated.
If Brad, Ryan and Vinny want to put Walking Dead at the top then he should just concede it.
Honestly the only games I can think of that Jeff might want at the top of his list are Syndicate, Forza Horizon and XCOM (maybe Far Cry 3 but he seemed to cool a little on it) with the only game on that list that he might have some support for being XCOM.
Anyways, can't wait to listen to the podcasts.
Ignorance? Since when is an opinion ignorance?
Well ignorance is being uninformed about something, so if an opinion is based on preconceived notions about a game or based on minimal play time with it then yeah, I'd call that opinion ignorant. Now he may know enough about the game that he knows he doesn't want to play it. That's fine, no problem with that, but then if he tries to argue the game out of game of the year based on his minimal knowledge of it then I'd see a problem with the ignorance.
Edit: and to be fair, if I had only played the first episode of The Walking Dead then I wouldn't think of it as GOTY material either, but I'm nearing the end of episode 3 so far and it's moving it's way up my list pretty quickly now.
I finished the first 2 episodes and don't feel it. It might get better or something but I had to force myself to finish the 2nd episode, and only did so cause a friend wanted to talk about it with me. I'll get around to it after finals cause people have been saying such good things but I just don't see it.
Also I don't know if it'll be the game you think they'll all push for. I remember last year EVERYONE thought Ryan would campaign for SR3 to be GOTY and he ended up choosing Skyrim instead... you never know.
@mpgeist said:
I really don't care what games win GOTY, i just like hearing the duders fight about video games while I pay fighters online.
That's definitely the best part. The best DLC between Minerva's Den and Shadow Broker was pretty dang amusing to listen to.
Please Log In to post.
Log in to comment