@steveurkel: Path of Exile out-Diabloed Diablo from the start in my opinion. More build variation, more (end game) content and a better atmosphere. It's also free.
Diablo 3 is fine these days, but lacks variaton (only a very few legendary dependent builds) and I still think the end game is lackluster.
@humanity: In a vacuum with no discussion DOOM might've won since they all had fun with it on a personal level, but in the discussion as a whole they realised that Hitman brought them the most fun as a team and the most (fun) content on the site. Even though they tried to downplay that, I think it is important. In my opinion, it is partly why Super Mario Maker got it last year.
Another fun mechanic in these deliberations is that a person can strongarm a game up or down the list and the rest goes 'sure if you say so, I didn't play enough of it' (this is not the 'getting the personal favourite on the bottom of the list' one). Kinda why the first Titanfall got dropped after a minute in 2014, but the second is high on the list in an arguably more stacked year.
Best would be full knifes/bats out to be honest. The list itself is whatever, but the discussion is always interesting to listen to, even if the arguments get nonsensical at times. This year was perhaps a bit tame at times. DOOM vs Hitman could've used some more fireworks.
@ceno: That's my problem with it as well. They played some multiplayer at launch/beta and then ignored it afterwards. Which is sort of okay if they didn't like it then (I like that multiplayer and I heard no arguments about why it's bad other than the obvious 'it's not Quake 3' kneejerk reactions earlier in the year) since they didn't fundamentally change the basics (although the new gamemodes that they added are cool and you can play on well done DLC maps for free).
And I think Jeff expected some different things from SnapMap. He wanted pvp multiplayer, but that's not really fantastic in SnapMap and not only because it uses matchmaking for custom content (which is the main downside of SnapMap). You just can't make good multiplayer maps with standard room templates. But that's fine, because you can (especially after all the added content and patches) make some really good singleplayer content with it without being some map maker master. And those singleplayer maps are easier to find and set up in the hub. And that's really cool about SnapMap.
But in the end I think that the singleplayer of DOOM alone is miles and miles and miles better than anything in Hitman (and I like that game too) and even if the multiplayer bricked your console or installed malware on your PC, it would still not bring down the singleplayer below any other game this year for me. It's a good thing Brad started to hammer on the others to give arguments why Hitman is better, because otherwise it would've been the 'Game that's better than DOOM's multiplayer' award.
Well, time to power up the BFG. (nah, looking at the amount Hitman content this year, it's only logical and Hitman is prettttyyy cool too)
DOOM probably got dropped because they thought the multiplayer was bad (it's not) and SnapMap was limited (was yea, they added a ton to it and improved the hub for it). So yea...
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