Game of the Year 2016: Day Four Deliberations

Let's do it!

Let's do this.

The content we are getting this week is unreal.

#ImWithVinny

Jeff has been ridiculously silly about Rez in this GOTY stuff it's cracked me up. Get over it dude.

I will say this. The No Man's Sky soundtrack album is amazing. It's one of my albums of the year. I don't think the game hangs in a best music category, but largely because the game sells short the music.

I hope they at least acknowledge Crypt of the Necrodancer.

Love the deliberations this year. Thank you, guys

I'm super happy you guys have been giving so much love to Hitman and props to Overwatch.

No Owlboy for music makes me sad. I know only Dan played it but man what a fantastic score that game has! Really unexpected for a pixel art game that you'd expect chiptunes.

I do not get what the guys are saying at all with Overwatch is a game that makes you feel good. I love it but I feel the exact opposite. More than any other multiplayer shooter, it stresses me out and makes me emotionally upset when losing. I've heard the same from others too who quit playing it for this reason (as did I). If you are oblivious and don't play to win, I guess it could "feel good" but if you understand the game and play to win (why wouldn't you?) it becomes very frustrating when you have bad team composition or team communication and lose because of it. Or you get some healer who refuses to heal because you "let him die" or you are the healer and people run away when you try to heal them. That game can be so incredibly frustrating and feel bad to play at times. I think Splatoon is more of a feel good shooter where you can just avoid combat and just paint shit. Do your best and whatever. Overwatch is a game where YOUR best often doesn't matter and that can be infuriating.

@swimbuff: They did that last year, dude.

@swimbuff: that game came out last year.

Shame they cut Hitman from best music*, that moment when you finish the objectives and the music swells up is so fucking good.

*As far as I've heard, haven't finished this part of the podcast so I don't know yet for sure but uncuts are rare.

I wonder if the concept of dividing the music category into. 'Best Soundtrack' and 'Best Use of Music' could be a way to combat the length of the best music deliberations. Music is so subjective that slightly more granularity could be good.

I'm surprised FFXV wasn't on the list for best soundtrack. Even as a person who wasn't a huge fan of the game, it seems like an oversight.

Probably just came out too late in the year for proper consideration.

My problem with the debates in most of the categories is the arguments keep diverting to:

"I didn't like this game"

"Well I did"

That's fine for game of the year, but for all these other categories it means retreading ground and bringing up old arguments which I think just makes these podcasts less interesting and less entertaining.

Neither Owlboy nor The Division on there for soundtrack ;/

Love the Xbox BC award, as Vinny mentioned it was kinda like a game of the generation discussion. Mass Effect 2 should have won.

Also Alex deleting ME2 while Vinny was still talking, cutting the whole conversation off, was a dick move. Alex goes on about games only he cares about for large amounts of time, however, when it comes to a game he hasn't played yet he just deletes it without hearing a case for it.

I hate Virginia... Virginia had an amazingly well made orchestral soundtrack that should be on top 3.

Edit: I can't believe Firewatch is on this list over Virginia/Thumper.

Best Music is always the worst category for me every year because I hate the Bomb Squads taste in music.

@leafthehero: Yeah, I don't think FFXV makes the top 3, but not mentioning it at all was an oversight. I don't think any of them have played it yet though, so it is somewhat understandable.

That should've been 'Final Fantasy VI presents: Best Music'.

Dan's taste in music is dismal....

Oh god, the time for best music category, aka the one that consistently pisses me off the most. How long until the term "butt rock" gets thrown around?

I really wish they would sprinkle in the name of the game they are talking about every once in a while. Sometimes I'll zone out for a second and miss the name at the start of that conversation. Then I either have to go back to try to find where they mention it or hope I can inference what it is in a sea of "that game" "this game" and "they."

'Cardassian industrial music'.
Bless you, Alex.

Oh Drew, if only your late game entry was World Of Final Fantasy instead...

Witness the drama!

Leaving ABZU out of the Best Music final group was like a punch in the gut.

I will say im disappointed that Forza Horizon 3 didnt even make the list. Im not saying it should have been in the top 3 but that game BY FAR is my favorite soundtrack of the year. I made a few playlists of a few of the radio stations and i listen to it in my car a bunch. I feel horizon 1 bass arena is still the best station out of all 3 games, but the sheer number of amazing stations in horizon 3 beats out the soundtrack for horizon 1.

Haven't played Shadow Warrior 2 yet but I want to hear that music all the time.

I will leave this here:

Picking any other game for best music this year is just silly. Playing the Advanced Research Complex level, picking up the berserk powerup and only hearing the muffled riffs of BFG Division when you stomp the living shit out of something, followed by the full blown track when the beserk ends and the Summoner enemy screaming in the back is. so. motherfucking. GOOD! (and I'm not into metal and listen to the Furi soundtrack outside gaming)

Also no mention of Hitman in the music category? (Wait, thanks based Brad with the save!) Hitman's music is limited , but so perfect for the game. The right balance between the class of James Bond and the suspense of Jason Bourne that responds to your actions in the game. It so makes you feel like a badass hitman.

Also sad to see the instant drop of Battlefield 1. That game is a great multiplayer game and easily the best Battlefield game, but Battlefield, the setting and lack of unlocks just doesn't interest them that much.

Overwatch is the right and the wrong winner. It's really good, but you have to play it with humans. With the MOBA elements you get the toxicity (no matter how positive the game itself wants to be) and losing games because players are picking completely the wrong heroes/classes (playing bad is not the issue). Titanfall 2 is more fun to me because it's 'just' a shooter, even with the poor map design.

YOU ARE INSANE. MASS EFFECT 2 IS A MASTERPIECE

Haven't played Shadow Warrior 2 yet but I want to hear Warrior all the time.

And ME2 was better then Red Dead.

@zombie2011: Yikes, glad I skipped around during this video. Did Vinny ever bring up that Mass Effect 2 totally doesn't have native controller support on PC? Pcgamingwiki would have been useful if not.

Here is why you would want to play Mass Effect 2 on an Xbox One over those other 3 games:

Mass Effect 2 is actually a good video game.

People being so in-love with Geometry Wars is one of those things I will never understand. That kind of gameplay just does nothing for me.

Also:

EDIT: I can't believe Dan never discovered that bit in The Witness. How is that even possible?!? That really Blows my mind.

That Abzu sample Drew played sounded amaaaazing.

#DoesItHang

having Valhalla not win is a travesty for best music

Neon District

a New Frontier

Heart of the City

Vinny's assertion that the best music category always seems like a crime is because I think music is BY FAR the most subjective of all media, and it's often hard to explain why someone likes a type of music more than another. Of course, personal tastes in movies/games/books are also very subjective, but I feel like personal tastes in music has the highest degree of subjectivity. I just like this music because I like it. Hard to explain.

Mass Effect 2 and 3 STILL don't have controller support.

20 fucking 16. EA. I'm replaying them and have had to mod them both, and Origin for 3 means ME3 is way, way harder to mod and I just gave up and I'm playing with M&K.

Also EA and its fucking DLC policy for those games is just the worst. The worst.

@mystyr_e: Yeah, I just started playing it recently and it's a damn shame nobody even mentioned it.

Haha, seeing Let It Die in the Best Music category is awesome. That soundtrack is primarily random Japanese bands shouting LET IT DIE and its great.

Also, shoutout to Vinny and Dan for standing up for Mass Effect 2 and Stardew Valley respectively.

The key change in Warrior is awesome and it works.

THIS IS DAYLIGHT FUCKING ROBBERY! Mass Effect 2 not on this list?!? #TeamVinny

JEFF WAS RIGHT! TITANFALL 2 IS THE BEST MULTIPLAYER GAME OF 2016. YOU'RE ALL MANIACS.

Yeah he did, but as soon as he began to make a case for the game Alex deleted it from the list pretty much making everyone move on to the next topic. You could tell Vinny was a little annoyed but oh well.

Unfortunately I don't think anyone really played it on the site.