ScottMacDoodle

It's almost as if by looking into the soul of Mario Party Party 6, you're looking into the soul of us all.

I see the GotY podcasts more and more akin to an exciting wrestling match, with the staff being champions for the game(s) they love the most, regardless of public perceptions or review scores. If I wanted an objective, reasonable list I'd go elsewhere. I want bloodshed!

I really love hearing them criticise the best games of the year (though I suspect nice-guy Vinny doesn't enjoy that part). Picking flaws in some of the best games can be really insightful, especially for someone interested in game design.

It's so much fun how the guys battle it out with any dirty trick (Ori) or moment of glory (Invisible Inc) or surprise new contender (Kerbal) as they kick dozens of games to the kerb.

I also like going into the podcasts with a favourite game you really want to see do well and have fun cheering it on until it either wins or gets stabbed in the back. This year I really wanted the flawed hero MGSV to win, (though I knew MM was the big favourite), and I genuinely found it tense and entertaining seeing how high it could climb before it got betrayed at the end by the "evil" (aka I didn't like it) Mario Maker. Hearing Brad realise he was out on a limb with no allies was deliciously tragic. The staff's personal lists unlocking one by one also added to the fun e.g. "who can I count on to bat for MGSV?" etc.

It's especially fun this this year as there were so many divisive games (Witcher 3, Undertale, Fallout 4, etc) out there and hearing a game you hate but others like get picked on is cathartic, silly fun. (Witcher 3 was lucky to get 10th!)

I find it extra amusing they don't even decide how they're going to thin the games down until they start recording, and make up a system on the fly! The sorting process itself is one of the surprise weapons (I'm not sure how Rocket League got positioned behind Mario Maker when they were positioning the top 10!). It simulates the cheating ref aspect of wrestling.

20+ games enter, 1 game leaves. I can't wait for this winter's well-reasoned carnage. :-)

EDIT: My only criticism was the unavoidable nature of the office being demolished around them, you could hear the hammering. I felt that caused them to rush the final deliberations, but maybe it didn't?

Has it's good moments, but it's just not original enough for me. Too much riffing on the past to appease a Star Wars fanboy like me. I understand why, it's trying to win back an older generation of casual Star Wars fans and excite kids at the same time. Old-school nerds like me are fed nostalgia and nothing else.

My main issue is that it ignored my main delight of Star Wars - the sense of wonder. This is not a new Star Wars movie, more a cool remix of the past ones. Death Star 3.0 was probably the worst. We used to mock it returning in Jedi, and doing it again here was ludicrous, I thought.

When I watched the original trilogy, I was constantly being presented with things I'd never seen before, (AT-ATs, Cloud City, Death Stars, Snowspeeders, Hoverbikes, Boba, etc). Every film seemed to expand the universe. This one adds almost nothing at all. Not even a new set design or vehicle as far as I could tell, just remixes. Lucas, for all of his flaws, had a stellar imagination and even the Phantom Menace introduces so much new stuff (pod racing, underwater cities, new types of spaceship, mobile ground shields etc, etc) and though I didn't miss his writing or cheese at all, I missed his vision. I missed his presence and I never thought I'd say that after the prequels.

But what this new one doesn't copy enough, which annoyed me, is the heroes journey because it's going for more of a 3-way story with the girl, ex-Stormtrooper kid and Darth Adam from Girls (I'm terrible with names), and it's way too frantic to give them all a satisfying character journey.

I have many other gripes, but they are really gripes in the nerdiest sense.

In a weird way I feel more disappointed than I did after the prequels, because this film is so good in many ways, but it's all teasing and no satisfaction, which is more frustrating (though it's a better film at the same time).

The caveman setting is a dull setting. Out of the many, many Far Cry settings such a game could present, mammoths and people in loincloths - like an offline Rust - is about as dull as it could get.

Far Cry 2 remains pinnacle of the series in my opinion (despite its crude gameplay!) because it portrayed a human, twisted world you could mess about in and affect. Who cares about upsetting a bunch of sabre-tooth tigers?

The setting of Far Cry, that of a Western everyman going nuts in a Heart of Darkness kind of way, is what makes this series fun. Not the historical window dressing.

@manhattan_project: Good to know, thank for the heads-up. It was what helped make me a subscriber of this site in the first place (angry Giant Bomb is my favorite) :-)

I loved this series and hope they carry it on, though I'm guessing it's not much fun to play a shit game for several hours, it is fun to a viewer.

Perhaps they could at least mention if they've dropped it, or intend to carry it on? Just a little expectation-guidance would be lovely.