Giant Bombcast Game of the Year 2019: Day Two Deliberations

These time stamps will only work for the PODCAST version. Thanks!

• 0:00:00 - INTRO
• 0:02:50 - Outer Wilds
• 0:37:50 - Cadence of Hyrule
• 0:44:22 - Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
• 0:56:00 - They Are Billions
• 0:59:40 - BREAK
• 1:02:05 - Dota Underlords
• 1:12:37 - Judgment
• 1:21:17 - Samurai Shodown
• 1:27:22 - The Sinking City
• 1:32:04 - Super Mario Maker 2
• 1:41:41 - Sea of Solitude
• 1:43:40 - SolSeraph
• 1:46:29 - Blazing Chrome
• 1:49:02 - Dragon Quest Builders 2
• 1:52:13 - Horace
• 1:54:48 - Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order
• 1:59:42 - Fire Emblem: Three Houses
• 2:09:16 - BREAK
• 2:12:08 - Kill la Kill - If
• 2:15:02 - Wolfenstein: Youngblood
• 2:21:49 - Madden NFL 20
• 2:26:19 - Rebel Galaxy Outlaw
• 2:28:56 - Dicey Dungeons
• 2:31:01 - Remnant From the Ashes
• 2:40:23 - Telling Lies
• 2:43:25 - Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey
• 2:48:04 - Control
• 3:10:58 - BREAK
• 3:11:16 - Heave Ho
• 3:14:28 - Wilmot's Warehouse
• 3:16:57 - Anodyne 2: Return to Dust
• 3:18:49 - Astral Chain
• 3:21:03 - The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan
• 3:25:07 - Monster Hunter World: Iceborne
• 3:27:21 - NBA 2K20
• 3:32:24 - Creature in the Well
• 3:34:58 - Gears 5
• 3:44:32 - GreedFall
• 3:46:54 - Kind Words (lo fi chill beats to write to)
• 3:50:58 - Borderlands 3
• 3:58:16 - Daemon X Machina
• 4:01:02 - Later Alligator
• 4:03:16 - OUTRO

Video games!

WOO!

I think most people would be okay if you cut the podcasts down to 2 days and spent more time on Winter Games/Hitsmas style videos

I appreciate this new format. I like that they go through the games that came out this year. Feels like a good yearly review

Oh man... this one is STACKED

Awwwwwww Yeeeeaaaaahhhhhhh

@lyndbako: For sure, especially because these 4 hours podcasts are just mostly skippable anyway. If they also take time away from them being able to do fun group videos, it's extra disappointing

I don't really get Jeff's take on Gears 5, especially the open world parts. I liked skiffing around and having short, tight shooting segments with (usually) a robot-upgrade reward (sometimes just more resources to do so, but also many times an upgrade itself is tied to a "side quest").

Perhaps on Normal that doesn't matter, but on higher difficulties, many fights seem balanced with you having upgraded Jack - because if you try to get past them otherwise, it just doesn't work (well) and yo will throwing your controller across the room (if your the type).

Whatever - opinions and assholes and all that.

Ignoring that, or using them talking about it as example - I don't really see the point of people who have already shared their opinion on podcasts and reviews just repeating themselves with everyone else not saying much or at all most of the time. It would interesting hearing from other people, even if it turns out sometimes to not offer much of a different take.

Maybe in the future, people should given a list of games, a sub list of the total list they talk about here, that they have not played and they should play through at least a little. More opinions would make this interesting, at least potentially. Most games can be played long-enough in a few-hours, especially if someone hands them a save for a specific part of the game that's appropriate.

So here's the thing about these GOTY podcasts: They exist just to show the community how they came up with the site lists. And this is how they want to talk about the games before making the lists.

The wildest thing to me about these podcasts is the seating. Ben on the left? Jeff on the right?? Alex next to Brad??? My canonical GB podcast order is shot!

I'm very much enjoying this so far. To offer a counter to @LyndBako's comment, I personally love this review of the year. I do kinda miss the sheer mass of niche and fun categories from previous years, but I do like that this format allows them to cover games that might not otherwise get much conversation.

The other features are fun too, but they're also the stuff GB spends most of the year doing, and the biggest joy of GotY season for me is everyone getting a chance to speak passionately about the games which meant a lot to them (both positively and negatively) this year.

ending spoilers for Outer Wilds around 28-37:00?

@lyndbako: Agreed, my wife and I were just saying the same thing

The opening observatory in the Outer Wilds reminded me so much of the Science Arcade at the Ontario Science Center. A lot of very pleasant memories there, and a great introduction about the rules of the environments and objects in the game.

Oh man, Ben's face when he's dying inside as everyone spoils Outer Wilds for him is so sad. Seeing a man die inside slowly on camera at the very beginning is one hell of a way to start of a 4 hour podcast.

Is there a loop? I like the loop. Loop.

@marino: Awesome!

Also I spent a good 15-20 seconds trying to remember what game BREAK was

@marino: Thank you, Outer Wilds is the only game I don't want spoiled and it's the first game of the pod! I'm going to go buy it on Epic rn actually, as I just found out about the $10 store credit they're giving out for the holidays - alongside a new free game every day until Jan 1st btw

Is Outer Wilds bingable? I just bought it. I would have done so sooner, but I totally slept through the PS4 release. I feel like I need to finish it tonight, if I want to continue listening to these podcasts.

I've got to say I cannot stand Void Bastards or Outer Wilds, I think they're both incredibly frustrating. Weird to be so off base with the team this year.

Currently watching, but given that all of the games being discussed are getting about ten to fifteen minutes but Outer Wilds got about thirty minutes means Outer Wilds is definitely going to be GOTY, right? Unless whomever makes the list puts Tetris 99 on the top and the fatigue causes it to be GOTY instead like Tetris Effect last year.

Got to the Judgement portion of the delibs: "Twisty Mystery" is either prog band or a flavor of ice cream I need to exist.

2019 had some video games but 2020. Let me tell you about the next year of entertainment. 2020 will be one of the most legendary years of entertainment but gaming itself will be compared to 1994 in generations to come as the young sift through our ashes searching for a renewable fuel source as the planet consumes them in floods and fire. Among those terrible moments they will utter words like Doom Eternal, Doolittle, and Cyberpunk 2077 before their breaths too fade into the listless sky.

Merry Christmas

@threeoct: Hoping Alex fights to get Judgment on the list. Sounds like he enjoyed this better than Yakuza 0 and Yakuza 6, so maybe there's a chance.

@steveurkel: I just want Tokyo Mirage Session #FE on the Switch next year.

Some good stuff here.

Kinda? I bought it late in the year and got through it over the course of maybe a little under a week. I had a friend with me who was eyeing a guide at the end to give me light nudges along the way. I don't know if I'd want to rush it, but if you're okay listening to this next week then I think you could do it.

Dammit.. sounds like they all really liked outer wilds.. And it's already #1 on both Dan and Vinnys lists. Ron Funches was right, they are going to pick some "pretentious ass game" for GOTY. lol

@beforet: So you recommend taking a little more than one night XD Okay, I'll do that. Thanks for the info :)

Not a huge fan of this 3 day like 12 hr podcast going over all the games they played, many didn't complete, but played. While I feel this is useful for the crew (forgot games, didn't play, never heard of the game etc) and would be a great supplementary podcast, it feels a far cry from a GB GOTY podcast. Without them arguing over a specific set of categories it feels so disjointed and irrelevant. Let alone as someone who listens to the majority of the two GB podcasts and heard about them talk about many of these games before I could just care less to hear about some of these games, especially those I highly expect to come up again in real award discussion later on.

Do I really need 10+ minutes gushing about Bloodstained when they did an entire playthrough video series, which insures it will probably be a GB Top 10 GOTY and heavily discussed in the real awards debates? No. I skipped the entire Outer Wilds section since its clearly in contention for GB #1 GOTY and god its 30 mins of discussion.

The DOTA Underlords discussion sort of highlights why I feel this format is bad. They discussed Underlords for 10 mins and accidentally briefly mention how TFT is way bigger, but none of them played TFT enough to discuss TFT. With 10 mins in this format I would of expected a comparison of TFT and Underlords(even at a rudimentary level), especially when TFT is arguably the superior game, same genre, and both came out this year within a week of each other.

I think the strategy part in SolSeraph kinda fitting. I mean think about it. What were the popular RTS influences back when AcRaiser was released? And what are the popular RTS influences nowadays? It makes perfect sense.

Edit: No mention of Oxygen Not Included, huh? I guess it was more of a early access game for them, that was forgotten when it finally was released in the middle of the summer.

@lyndbako: Totally.

I'm scared about Jeff tanking Outer Wilds as game of the year. Of course his opinion is valid, but it seems like it didn't hit him right and he's angry about it

I'm with Jeff on Outer Wilds. Just didn't get it.

Also seeing that Brad is on board with Outer Wilds makes me very happy. I wonder how much of it is recency bias, but it ensures that it's going to get a high place on the GOTY list. Maybe not first, it depends on how Jeff feels about it winning, but I think it easily fits in the top three.

The staff's enthusiasm has definitely sold me on Outer Wilds to give it a try.

Outer Wilds isn't good...

I’m not going to go so far as to say they “played it wrong,” but it’s a huge bummer to hear Dan and Ben say they didn’t think Fire Emblem had tactical depth when they played on casual/easy. Ben, you said you come to these games for the tactics! Why the heck would you play it on easy?!?!?

The flight mechanics frustrated me too much on Outer Wilds. But I get the feeling that this happened to me more than once this year. The “gameplay” got in the way of a great game. Control was another one of those for me...

@phah: I agree it’s not good.

It’s phenomenal. Truly unique experience. I was constantly wowed by the bespoke nature of that wonderful little solar system they created and I’m glad it’s getting its dues on this site. Better late than never.

Not sure if any of the crew will read this but I've really enjoyed the deliberations so far, I saw some people being critical of the format but I prefer it to what it was like in previous years.

It's a welcome change.

If you like Control you really need to look into the SCP Foundation, what Control was based on.

I'd love for someone on staff who hasn't finished Outer Wilds yet to do a runthrough for the site. The game sound super interesting, but I have zero interest in playing it myself after spending a couple of hours with it.

@y2ken: i think they seated people next to people from the other sites so its a good mix

Unfortunately I have to agree with everyone saying that this format isn’t really working. It’s just too exhaustive. I know when they started it last year they said they wanted an opportunity to talk more about the games themselves and highlight games that might not “hang” in other categories, but they don’t have to talk about every game they covered. Especially if there’s no chance that it will come up in any of the categories.

What is to be gained from Dan taking about the “monkey game” for five minutes? It won’t come up in the later discussions, no one else had anything to add, and it’s just a rehash of what was already said on the Beastcast and in the quick look.

So...what’s the point?

Is it ok to spoil outer wilds in the comments? No? I figure no, given the nature of it (poor Ben!) So, here goes. What follows is spoilers related to them talking about the end game, story and major details of Outer Wilds (WILDS not worlds). Do not read if that's an issue!

Seriously, skip the section that opens this podcast (and I would guess the final list since by time-stamp alone Outer Wilds seems like a lock for close to top of the list if not #1) if you've not played it and don't wish to be spoiled.

@bladededge: So, I just want to offer a counter point, because I don't know if it got across from the conversation.

If that isn't a compelling argument for you, I understand. I'm not in the business of changing people's minds, especially about this game which is so personal. I might suggest that you just watch the ending and maybe you'll see what I mean. It's not very long, and I think it would be worth your time to do so.

@beforet: Actually, that was very useful in providing context I did not have. If it's as you say? Then I need to see it for myself before assuming what I did. Thanks for that.

Oh man, that Fire Emblem discussion hurt my soul. Nobody seemed to have a good overall understanding of the plot. Which is kinda understandable because it requires multiple playthroughs to understand the differing points of view of the houses and the church and so on.

Me too. I can actually listen to these. The never ending antagonism and "OPINIONS ARE WRONG" shit in the comments really jived my turkey in the past. I also enjoy the refresher of this years releases. Some goooooood shit came out this year. It's the clip show that you didnt know you needed.