Xavtron

It was a mixed bag for me. When he interrupted developers talking about their games it didn't go down so great and at times he was noticeably unhappy to be there. But when off script or pointing out some of the more ridiculous facets of the show it was pretty funny.

Also a lot of people seem to be forgetting that overall, the show is not a respectful celebration of the year in games, its a show on spike that was fraught with ads within the telecast, cutting to whatever ridiculousness was happening outside and guest appearance by fucking pewdiepie. Given that, how much did Joel really have to work with?

Games I played:

Bioshock Infinite

Fire Emblem: Awakening

Device 6

The Last of Us

The Swapper

Kentucky Route Zero (all parts yet to be released)

DMC: Devil May Cry

GTA V

Metro: Last Light (yet to finish but plan to)

Ni No Kuni (unfinished, may or may not return to it)

Paper's Please (need to go back and finish)

Gone Home

Animal Crossing

Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (currently playing)

Risk of Rain

Monaco

Divekick

Saints Row IV (unfinished, won't go back before end of year)

Gunpoint

Steamworld Dig

Proteus

Brothers (was pretty disappointed in it)

Mercenary Kings

Ridiculous Fishing

Agricola

Starcraft II: HotS

Injustice

Don't Starve

I plan on finishing Paper's Please, Metro: Last Light and Zelda before the end of the year and I have Europa Universalis IV to play as well.

My GOTY is definitely Bioshock Infinite, sci fi stories, especially with such risky narrative elements are very rarely done this well across any media, I enjoyed the gameplay for what it was and not just plot, but characters were exceptional.

Toy Story, Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monster's Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up, Toy Story 3, Cars 2, Brave, Monsters University.

1. Toy Story 3

2. Wall E

3. Finding Nemo

4. The Incredibles

5. Up

6. Monsters Inc

7. Toy Story

8. Toy Story 2

9. Brave

10. Monsters University

11. A Bug's Life

12. Cars

13. Cars 2

14. Ratatouille (because its the only one I haven't seen)

I would say that GTA V, The Last of Us and Bioshock Infinite are 3 almost definites and are probably the 3 that will be up for overall GOTY. Sounds like a Link Between Two Worlds and Mario 3D World are likely to make the list.

I think The Swapper, Papers Please, Gone Home, Brothers, Gunpoint and Device 6/Year Walk will be fighting for indie spots, one or more of the guys have had strong reactions to all of those

Brad will be fighting pretty strongly for both DMC and Dota 2 of course

If Alex is on the GOTY podcast he will fight for Rayman Legends, but I'm not sure if it will get there

I hope Patrick argues for either Metro Last Light and/or Fire Emblem, but I think neither will probably make it.

AC IV, Saints Row IV, Rogue Legacy, Animal Crossing and Divekick are all edge cases at the moment, but will probably make some individual lists.

Bioshock Infinite hands down for me Fire Emblem and Device 6 coming in 2nd and 3rd. I honestly don't get the love for Stanley Parable (I found the writing obnoxious and not nearly as clever as it thought it was being) and especially Brothers (I got no emotional response from it, I thought it was really, light and brief in a way that limited it). I obviously don't mind that others enjoy them, but there seems to be a really dismissive attitude amongst a lot of their fans that any top 10 without them is a joke.

Also thank you to all who offered tips and constructive criticism, I did use a couple of things mentioned here (along with trial and error) and am now able to enjoy the rest of the excellent execution on this game.

@seppli: This reads as an insane fanboy post. I played more today and have got to the point where the driving is no longer a hindrance, I'm enjoying myself now (as a couple of people said it took about 5 hours before I felt good). However "pixel perfect" and "nigh perfect" are ridiculous hyperbole. The driving is average at best, this is not meatboy where you get a hang of the controls and then it opens you up to precision control. I loved Red Dead and thought the shooting was fine, even then I could recognize that they were not optimal and GTA V is still a step down. I still think that the races are very poorly designed and dumping you into one at the 2nd strangers and freaks mission was a bad choice. Bottom line its better than my initial impression, but its still average at best in terms of mechanics, the story and characters so far are very entertaining and that combined with the world are what is driving me forwards.

@sharkethic: Look turning off the auto aim clearly isn't the way to go as those controls are absolutely terrible. I also shouldn't have to practice driving for hours just to be able to do the most basic tasks in the game, I've never had a problems this badly with driving in open world games. I honestly think the controls just feel shocking and it kind of annoys me the backlash against the gameplay in bioshock when with GTA its been such a minor talking point.

@brodehouse:I've been driving in several cars, I have been using the brake and handbrake and I'm still having no luck, its really bumming me out because I want to play through and like the game but this is just making me hate it

So I just started playing, played for about 3 hours and I'm finding the driving is making the game borderline unplayable. I barely clip things and the car does a 180, my car flipped as I ran over a fire hydrant and even going around corners at any speed (like that which is required to win races) and I spin out. Its really getting me frustrated and I almost feel like putting the game down. The shooting is also awful, I don't find it fun at all to press LT RT and have the game automatically lock on to everything, I feel I'm barely playing the game.