The Giant Beastcast: Episode 296

Let's journey into the past

Going to miss Ben's ridiculous webcam backgrounds.

Very glad to have this in podcast format this year - cool way to do the individual staff lists! Debating with myself whether I should listen to it now or hold off until after the final discussions for the Staff Top Ten (I usually avoid reading staff lists beforehand so I don't know people's exact hands going into the deliberations).

If Blenders doesn't make the Game of the Year, this site is BULLSHIT.

Good aaaaanswer

Maneater is not a B Game.

It’s a sea-game.

Long live Lord Bakalar

Who did Jason flip off?

Surprised HL: Alyx didn't make the list at all.

Some crazy ass lists here. I'm into it.

More than once, I let out an audible "Whoa!" akin to Crash Bandicoot (4) when they named their number ones.

And no Doom: Eternal seems bonkers to me. Love it so much and GB just completely bounced off of it.

So, like, is there some actual reason why they're saying Minecraft (a game which came out in 2011) is in competition for best game of 2020? Are they literally just saying that because they decided to start playing it in earnest this year that suddenly makes it a 2020 game? Like, if they had suddenly decided to start playing Counter-Strike this year would that suddenly be a 2020 game as well?

@roadshell: I think it is just them saying what are your games of the year. Minecraft spawned a huge show for the whole site and they all spent time with it in different ways. In that way it was important to 2020. Like Jeff said about THPS1+2 in game feel games of this year will take priority and carry that weight too. Minecraft likely won't end up in the top 10, but it does deserve to be talked about by the community.

Based on this episode, I imagine the corrections segment next week is gonna be wild.

The Beasty Bunch in full force.

NO Spelunky 2?! This is how I know GB is a fraudulent website!!!

But seriously, I get why no one had it. Spelunky 2 compounds everything about the first game (which is pretty ridiculous it pulls that off) but that makes it even more difficult to get into for how much more there is to sink your teeth into.

I like this method of discussing the individual top 10s. Thanks!

"I'm surprised Bugsnax didn't make it on somebody's list."

"You know - shit, fuck!"

"Wow, no Astroneer, Brad?"

"Oh. Oh. Ohno!"

It makes no sense Jan would cut his #6 and #7 and not his #9. Especially when no one else even mentioned his #9.

Really looking forward to the top 10, cause there's not any single game that was shared high in personal top 10s with more than 2 people.

I wanted to put my predictions here so:

A suggestion for next year: do like The Dice Tower and just countdown and discuss your personal top ten lists. I get a little weary of the inevitable nitpicking that is done in the Giant Bomb GOTY deliberations, so it'd be nice to just have a solid hour or so of talking positive about the games you like.

@roadshell: A loose qualification is that RTX released in 2020. The concept of limiting GOTY to games that came out in a given year is getting stale as more and more games become living games that continue to evolve over the years. So, I think it makes perfect sense to acknowledge meaningful updates/patches to games that might've release a decade+ ago but are still in continuous development.

@slinkdickens: Agreed on the stale idea thing. GB is a personality-based website, not the old Gamespot "arbiter of games" style of coverage; the idea that a 2020 Top 10 has to be comprised of 2020 games is dumb. If they played it in 2020 it should count, at least for their personal Top 10s.

Yeah Destiny!

Am I ill?

@roadshell: The personal lists have always included games that didn't come out that year as far as I can remember. There aren't really any rules for the personal lists.

lol i love how this is like an x-men event. "well you gotta watch beastcast 296 to get the whole GOTY list story"

Going back to Alex talking about Valhalla BEFORE he finishes it is very funny.

What are they actually doing here? Is this how they made the preliminary list of games for today's GB top 10? I'm a little confused.

@mobiusfun: Yes, that's exactly what they're doing. It's the logic of "if it didn't make anyone's top ten then it shouldn't be on the staff list" - and then trimming it down a bit just to make the Friday podcast a little bit shorter and more manageable.

@y2ken: Thanks!

My god Jason's mix is so high compared to everyone in this.