What's your favorite game that none of the staff clicked with.

Were going deep into the depths, that game everyone bounced off of and you kept screaming at the screen, "you quit at the good part"

What game did you like but GB staff was like...Naw dog...

This is not a thing against staff, obviously, they usually can't play every game to completion and they also can't agree with all our opinions, etc. Sometimes you don't like a game just cause etc.

This is more for the game you loved or liked and were excited to hear staff gush over and then...they pounded it.

Personally, DAD of war. I never thought the original god of war was that mind-blowing. It was good. The newest one had depth, that took about 5 hours to notice. Sadly most bounce off by then. Before that, it seems like a generic action game so I understood why people don't like it. Add to that it feels dark soulsy, and I love dark souls but I was one of those people who tried dark souls trashed it cause it was hard, etc then "got it.

So what is yours...Not just staff but any cite by the way or even internet consensus.

@topcyclist: i think vinny and ben spoke pretty highly of Dad of War. maybe it just surfaced at GOTY so it feels passed over.

hmm that's tough- i don't really have a favorite game that was completely derided by the staff...there's usually 1 or 2 supporters that try to spread the good news but ultimately don't get traction.

closest i've come is probably xcom 2 at launch (the tech issues didn't help, and vinny was a fan but i remember the other staff were pretty tepid on it). and maaaybe TLOU2, but i know brad and vinny enjoyed their time with it so it wasn't so much completely dunked on as just a minority opinion.

The Talos Principle and Half-Life: Alyx

Their whole "The Witcher 3 peaks at the Bloody Baron." rhetoric was certainly frustrating, especially since many of them didn't actually get more than halfway through the game.

Don't get me wrong, the Bloody Baron stuff is excellent, but there's tons of fantastic quests in that game, both main story and optional. The second half that game is just stuffed with great content. The whole Kaer Morhen segment is just outstanding, both the quieter and more light moments in the beginning, and the explosive end to that segment. The serial killer part in Novigrad. The stuff with Roche, Djikstra, and Thaler, among many other great quests. There is much great stuff just in Novigrad, let alone Skellige and the later story sequences (like the universe hopping stuff).

Prepare to see a lot of "The Witcher 3" in this thread.

I don't know what my exact answer is but it's probably some JRPG that they showed utterly no interest in over the years, which is fine!

Oh actually, it's probably the original Nier. I don't remember what the staff discourse around it was but it was probably negative and I loved that game to bits despite the obvious warts.

Oh geez where to begin? My tastes almost never fully line up with the staff, which is fine but certainly stings a tiny bit around GOTY time. Pretty much all the Arkane games get super underrated. Most recently I felt like Sable was a game that really resonated with me that almost no one else, staff included, seem to have much to say about.

I'm generally fine no matter how the GB crew land on a game, because nothing's for everyone so on, so forth. That said, I do wish someone on crew had gotten just a bit further in The Missing: J.J. Macfield etc. etc., if only so it could have gotten some more in-depth discussion during that year's GotY "games recap" thing.

To my memory, it sounded like one or two of them had gotten about an hour away from where the game really starts to tip its hand, and everything from that point on feels like such vital context for what the game is and why it's intriguing beyond a kinda clever mechanic and an auteur's oversight. I don't imagine it would have done much better in GotY had the added context been there (2018 was a stacked year and even I'm not sure if I love the game), but it was a bit sad to see the game's discussion boil down to "it's a clever mechanic and beyond that I unfortunately just haven't seen enough to say."

On a reverse note, I'm not one for fighting games at all, but I'm glad that the crew (especially Ben and Jason, to my memory), took a brief shining to Them's Fightin' Herds. It was neat seeing them push aside "oh it's the pony game" and get into it for a bit, especially the practice streams Ben did.

Like, any JRPG.

Probably Griftlands? Granted, I knew what to expect; that was always more of an Austin Walker game.

I remember it really wowing GB staff at E3 2017. It hit early access in 2019, and got an Unfinished with Brad and Ben where they were reasonably positive on it, then it just kinda fell off the face of the Earth in terms of site recognition. In 2020 it really came into its own and added a lot of game content (but was neither the early access debut year nor the 1.0 year, so I don't think GB mentioned it at GotY at all), then in 2021 it hit 1.0.

By 2021 I feel like kinda everybody forgot about it; maybe Klei just didn't make enough of a PR push around 1.0. No one at GB seemed to revisit it, it wasn't mentioned on staff or guest top 10s for 2021, and on the community top 10 it finished in 54 or 60 depending on the list. Maybe chalk all that up to the nebulous slow release of an early access game. :(

Griftlands is really good! Also I tend to prefer the more strategic Klei games (Mark of the Ninja, Invisible Inc.), and Griftlands was a nice return to that style after having to endure several years of Don't Starve and Oxygen Not Included.

To be fair most people on sites seem less into JRPG's in the past. The influx of people being ok with them is recent. Most find them niche or like them but don't talk about it. So IMO reviews in the past were super against them unless they were super mainstream. Hint final fantasy 7 wasn't the best rpg to come out in that decade but it sure was the most popular cause it catered to a different demographic. Anyway yeah JRPG's are also long so staff probably only see the first 4 hours before bouncing and don't see the big hubbub

Madden. Game of the Year every year.

Yes, JRPGs, but especially the Final Fantasy series. The GB cast seemed to have made it their mission in life to hate on the series for no good reason. I laughed how disgusted they seemed when they had to give FFVII Remake some respect for how well it was made, despite hating it.

I put tons of hours into Mount and Blade. They did a quick look and didn’t seem to hate it, but were not super into it either.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Jeff really loves the Syndicate FPS and I went into it with high hopes due to this, but stopped after 5ish hours. No idea what he sees in that game.

Probably Witcher 3.

Most recently probably Guardians of the Galaxy I guess though I dont follow GB content too closely these days and maybe missed some discussion.

With the exception of Austin Walker no one at GB has ever had substantially similar tastes to me so this happens all the time. Most egregious being Prey/Dishonored 2.

The OG crew, Jeff Brad Ryan And Vinny, I’m pretty sure all didn’t like Majoras Mask, it was only when Dan showed up that it got a vocal defender. Whereas is probably my favorite of that era of Zeldas, and second favorite of all time to BOTW.

Chains of Satinav, that Quicklook with the derpy girlfriend fantasy adventure game, is actually a lovely sad little tale that got a sequel and they both are alright. That quicklook is one of the funniest they have ever done, but it also wasn’t as bad as they skewered it.

It's kind of... exactly the opposite? JRPGs have sort of stagnated in recent generations so they've catered much more aggressively to that specific niche. I think that pendulum is only just recently starting to swing back in the opposite direction.

i'm offended on behalf of janathans everywhere. his overall straps were sacrificed for all of us.

I remember being mystified by some comments about Heaven's Vault (imho GOTY 2019) after the fact. But these days I make a conscious effort (above and beyond normal) not to get overly concerned about the reception of my favourite games here.

Personally I get more annoyed with games that get missed/avoided/not mentioned/etc. (Which is a lot) than the games that staff have different opinions of.

For the purposes of this thread though, the difference between the two is moot. Because the most egregious example of both is the treatment of Kentucky Route Zero.

I love all the Borderlands games. They are just dumb mindless fun and sometimes that is exactly what I want out of a video game. I can see why it would not everyones cup of tea, but Jeffs active hatred for the franchise is weird to me.

@pojomofo: What always baffled me about this was that he was full of praise for the First one and he just played it as Roland the most boring shooter man class in the franchise.

I think he would consistently bring up that he couldn't do this in 2 as a downside.

Sorry, have to agree with Jeff G here. Gameplay wise, Roland was easily one of the best vault hunters in the whole franchise, which is why it sucked that they killed him off.

@av_gamer: Baffling.

Immortal Fenyx Rising, that game is very underrated and a ton of fun. I think Brad was the only one who liked it and had it in their top ten last year. Everyone else bounced off it real quick and did not like it

I don't know how much of it is sincere, and how much of it is him playing it up for jokes, but I've never understood what Jeff's problem with Sonic 3 is. I go back to those Genesis games fairly often, and I have no idea what he means when he says they re-drew Sonic.

It's disappointing that the Total War series, to my knowledge, has never been so much as mentioned on the site, never mind having a Quick Look or any discussion in the GotY talks. I know PC strategy games are an entire rabbit hole that nobody on the site, with the possible exception of Rory, wants to go in to, but these games sell very well and are definitely one of the more accessible strategy games out there. Taking a look at Youtube, they had a Total War Rome 2 Quick Look in 2013, and it seems that was the last one. Alex dabbled a bit in Civilization but it seems nobody at the current staff are interested in anything more complicated than XCOM.

Another one would be Football Manager, but the reasons for that one missing are quite obvious.

Jeff and Brad seemed really down on Mario Sunshine in the 3D All-Stars QL for some reason. Nah, that game is great.

@apewins: I think they played a few including Rome 2. The AI did something weird and they decided the game is broken and that the negative criticism they've heard was probably correct. I've played Total War games enough to know how difficult and dynamic the AI could be. It was by sheer bad luck and strange land+water geography of a small map that the AI had such a bad showing and made the enemy army look like it was glitching out. Something I've personally never seen before. But it is what it is.

Total War Warhammer 1 and 2 ( the biggest game coming out this month isn't Horizon or Elden Ring its TWW3!) oh and the Dishonored franchise.

And Far Cry Primal is my fav FC game and I remember Jeff was bored by it. Guess it didn't have enough 30 round mag red dot kitted ARs in it for him

I love Hades, so it's a shame that nobody at GB cared for it. They hardly mentioned it in game of the year. It's like there's an extremely personal and quite frankly unprofessional vendetta against Supergiant. I wish they'd bury the hatchet about those cameras and cut them some slack.

My actual game is Street Fighter V. It's the first fighting game I really put time into. I recognize it has a lot of problems, particularly during launch and the following few years. But it's still the one I stuck with and I think it reached a much better place by the end.

I also liked Shadow Warrior 2, but I remember the change to the loot system turned them off. Looking forward to SW3, which seems to be shifting again to a more Doom 2016 style.

MLB the Show is the easy one. It’s an amazing rhythm game dressed up in MLB licensing deals, but because it’s vaguely a sim Jeff can’t stop comparing it to Baseball Allstars or the first Griffey game and being disappointed.

Returnal is a slightly more “gamer” answer I suppose. I’m so hot on this game after finally giving it a shot late last year, it’s only sentimental reasons that allow me to maintain Psychonauts and Kena above it. Returnal is simply immaculate and if I can beat it, it’s not too hard. Was glad to see some guest lists recognize it at least.

Which, y’know, Kena too. I still can’t believe people dismiss that game as PS2-simple, it’s just short and cute looking but otherwise not all that dissimilar from the structure of, say, the Demons Souls remake I’m playing currently. And the combat is awesome, just the right balance of tough but fair.

The Hitman series is an opportunity for a zag, as I find those games to control like spoiled eggs (funnily enough, I love the feel of Red Dead Redemption 2) and is completely unintuitive. Every time I touch those games I feel like I’ve entered a bad dream.

I wouldn't call it my favorite game, but it was a little disappointing to see everyone bounce off the Last of Us 2 because it was 'too much'. It felt like they made it out to be more bleak and 'edgy' than it actually is. It IS very bleak for a (virtually) 1st party game though. But the game has so many genuinely heartfelt and beautiful scenes I think it was done a bit dirty.

My GOTY this year was, once again, cut from the list, so I guess any game I like :)

Let's just say Genshin Impact. It's massively successful, but was basically dismissed immediately because it's a free to play gacha. It deserved much better.

Almost all the Warriors games that aren't "Dynasty" or "Samurai," because like a director doing big-budget superhero movies to fund their indie passions: Omega Force is doing some of their best work on the peripheries.

I'm honestly more excited about Fire Emblem Three Houses Warriors (or whatever it's being called) than I might have been about a wholesale sequel, or at least AS excited about it. The three-hit combo of both Hyrule Warriors games (Age of Calamity has a legitimately incredible story for being based on a time-traveling robot) and Persona 5 Strikers has me, but the staff (and, hell, most of the site) just do not seem to give a shit because "LOL Yellow Turbans/don't pursue Lu Bu."

Not that Koei/Tecmo has been doing them any favors, monetizing and nickel-and-diming the two core games.

The secret is "Most of them" but most relevantly you know no one here is going to even look at Total War Warhammer III.

Everytime Jeff tells the Blitzball math story my heart beats a bit faster :)

Sure, you can cheese the game. But you can also just... play it and have fun doing that. It's fun to scour the lands and create a good team. It's fun to learn new moves. It's fun to do some tournaments and suddenly have that bump in difficulty hit you to make the game challenging again. All in all, It's a massive step upwards in ambition compared to the truly awful Tetra Master in FF9, which is leagues off of Triple Triad. No, it's no competition to the dedicated sports games that exist in gaming, but for a fun sidething it's a lot of fun. And you only have to do it once mandatory, during which you're allowed to fail. That's not so bad compared to the awful rope skipping minigame in FF9!

Maybe I missed it but The Artful Escape maybe got about 5 seconds of coverage and it was from Jess saying she didn't like it.

I find it weird it wasn't even nominated for best style as that game is dripping with it.

Persona Q. It felt like they only covered it at all because lol Persona 4, and the quick look was just the very beginning of the game and I doubt they ever played any more of it. But that game is great.

Hades is in most of the staff's 2020 GOTY lists, link for proof. I didn't listen to the 2020 podcasts so I don't know how the game went over there, but it seems pretty well-liked among the staff of that year.

@gyratyne: They talked about it quite of bit since it was nominated in multiple categories, I'm not sure what you have been listening too. And they are also friends with one of the guys of Super Giant, Greg Kasavin. Any time a Super Giant game came out they talk about it, hell a lot of them liked Pyre and no one remembers that one.

Y'all should read all the way to the Second Paragraph.

I was trying to make a joke. That's fine. My explanation will only make it funnier, not awkward and desperate for approval.

Hades was so obviously the winner of GOTY 2020 that they barely needed to discuss it. There was bigger debate around what would take second place. There's obviously no beef with Supergiant. I was referencing the cameras that were lent to them for Building the Bastion and didn't need to return because they became outdated.

I need to work on being less subtle apparently.

Basically any anime game of (almost) any genre that not even Jason would fuck with.