Giant Bombcast Game of the Year 2019: Day Two Deliberations

I bounced off Outer Wilds hard. It wasn't even the mechanics of the game that turned me away (although I definitely didn't like it), I eventually got adjusted to the controls of the ship and the time limit. The game didn't resonate with me on a fundamental level: everything that everyone sings praises for with the story and lore, came off as nothing more than a passive "huh, I guess that's interesting" for me. Sure, it was fun placing the pieces of the puzzle together, it just didn't hit me a tenth as hard as anyone else. It wasn't a deeply emotional, transformative, innovative masterpiece that's GOTY/GOTD.

Based on the discussion, I'd probably wager it being top 3 on the GB GOTY list, possibly 1 or 2, although they admit Outer Wilds has flaws, and Jeff will put up a fight for Control. Which is another game I didn't care for despite being a huge Remedy fan.

My GOTY is FFXIV: Shadowbringers btw, by a country mile, and while I didn't finish listening to this podcast yet, they probably didn't even mention it. Which is expected, but yeah :(

Ben: i come to fire emblem for tactics and it wasnt there for me.

but it is there,if thats what you want you can pick the hard/maddening mode and enjoy that, sure it wasnt there for the difficulty you picked, but that should be kinda a given, and saying its not there is kinda...

@sorla10:To be fair, the game does not allow you to go from Normal to Hard, only from Hard to Normal. Putting several hours into a game only to realize that in order to enjoy it you're going to have to start all over is kind of a bummer. That's also why I think games that have difficulty settings should let you change those settings on the fly, or at least between encounters. It's one of the things I liked about Jedi Fallen Order, that and it being very clear what variables the difficulty settings were changing.

@benpack you're kinda editorializing wildly during the fighting game discussion around Samurai Showdown. Also, the supposition that people aren't still playing SFV is baffling.

Smash had around 4k entrants at EVO, while Street Fighter V came in second with around 2k, and it is certainly blowing up the EVO Japan entrant numbers.

BUT, it's also Smash Ultimate's first EVO, which always balloons the entrants. DBFZ also topped SFV its premiere year, but is now down to about half SFV's entrants.

Further example: When SFV launched, it had over 5,000 entrants at its first EVO.

Will the numbers keep up? Maybe. I'd wager Smash has a 50%+ drop similar to DBFZ. Acting as if SFV hasn't been consistently dominant at EVO since release, only falling off during the twilight of its lifespan (and it's still number two!), or that premiere EVO entry numbers qualify something to be "the best current fighting game" is kind of silly.

A lot of people came around on SFV after Capcom made some foundational changes to how it played, actively encouraging a neutral heavy playstyle, and reduced the input lag to be less than SFIV; it's numbers on SteamCharts have been pretty much consistent throughout its run.

Gotta say, miffed that Pathologic 2 doesn't even merit a mention. I know no one on staff played it and it's a HARD game to love but not even a hat tip is kinda sad.

Note: This is based on the timestamps posted above, it might come up in a way that didn't warrant one?

hey look at that, a good idea in a giant bomb comment section, surely to be 100% ignored by the staff.

Game of the Year has long been my favourite GB content, something that I look forward to pretty much all year. I'm the kind of idiot who has re-listened to the GOTY podcasts of years past multiple times, and probably will again.

Having given this format a chance over these two days, I have to admit to being pretty disappointed. I'm not averse to GB trying something new (I liked the review videos, unlike a lot of people), but I don't like this format being a replacement for the more focused discussion that comes out of having individual categories which it seems is how it's shaping up this time. It looks like 3 days are going to be taken up with this "recap of the year" format, so I can't see they'll have time for much of the more traditional categories. GB West just don't seem to have spent as much time in SF this year for that to happen.

For sure, the "making of the sausage" aspect of GOTY has always been more important than the lists themselves. But having limited slots forced the staff to choose the games they really cared about rather than just being like "Astral Chain came out, it's kind of whatever". Having categories forced them to focus in on the specifics of what they liked about a particular game and proved out what they actually care about.

I know it's tough with there now being 9 people in the room to give everyone enough of an input, though. Dunno, just a bit bummed out and feeling less into GB nowadays, I guess.

@bladededge: I might be misinterpreting the ending, but beyond what was already mentioned I think the ending is also a meta reflection on the experience of the developers in making this game for 7 years. And not in a cheap way, it is also valid for both the player of this specific game and for the creative process in general.

I really hate the new deliberations format. I get why Jeff and co might like more "constructive" game conversations but... they do that on their podcasts all year, these recaps are redundant. It's disappointing because GOTY used to be such a wonderful highlight of the year and what they're doing now is a pale shadow of what they used to do.

If they absolutely can't bring themselves to do five days of traditional deliberations anymore they should just take the two podcasts of real deliberations and split them into five shorter episodes and use the twelve hours spent doing these recap podcasts making fun video content that's probably more monetizable anyway because they seem to be skimping on that stuff this year too.

This is exactly as Ron Funches said. They will make the worst game of the year goty i.e Outer Wilds. The game is so boring no abilities to unlock, bad controls, super stressful because of the super annoying game mechanic where you have to feel stressed out about time running out. Idiotic. I don't get it. This game is trash, game fucking sucks and it's so annoying that people like this game. I've listened to everything GB have said about this game and to me everything they say about it sounds fucking boring and straight up bad. Thank god for Jeff please save GB from making a gigantic mistake.

@phah:

Yeah. It's really bad. Majoras Mask is straight up a bad game and taking the worst gaming mechanic ever and making it the center of the game seems idiotic to me.

As much as I appreciate the sheer amount of hard work they've clearly put into these videos, I don't know that an exhaustive list of pretty much everything that came out this year is really that informative or entertaining. It means a lot of games that are interesting to discuss get short shrift so a lot of mediocre to bad games can get talked about for 3 or 4 minutes a piece. Is there really anyone who thinks Wolfenstein: Youngblood is in the running for GOTY, or interesting to talk about beyond "this is kind of a bad version of the mainline games?"

I think the format I'd like to see is each member of the crew making a short list (like 3-5) of their favorite games of the year (an/or favorites for particular categories), and then have a series of short videos where everyone who didn't play those games, plays those games. Then have the big deliberation podcast after that.

That format puts everyone kind of on the same footing so that they aren't completely spoiling games for each other, but also have enough grounding to have a meaningful discussion about GOTY.

It kills me that they didn't finish Young Blood because the end sets up some FUCKING WILD stuff for wolf3, basically made the entire game worth it for me

I enjoy these.

I also enjoy how mad people are.

GOTY is great.

@lyndbako: Thats one of the greatest ideas i ever heard. Too bad they dont listen too their paying customers.

Same

They talked so much about Control and never mentioned how it's in the Alan Wake universe.

@murph: Alan Wake is in the Control universe.

@splodge: @murph: Alan Wake is in the Control universe. Don’t worry the “opinions are wrong!” Part is coming just a little later. You literally cannot have a GOTY list thing without it.

@skumberg: another negative comment. At least your consistent. Happy Christmas 😄

@halfpastwhenever: He is the CEO of Giant Bomb. He literally pays their salaries. Strange though that they seem to have presented GOTY in a way he disagrees with. I would have thought they were on the same page.

A veritable nebula of salt.

@skumberg: ok my friend. I'm going to go back to enjoying the end of year content. Have a good one.

Considering the purpose of these is just to show how they got to their decision, they should just stop releasing them because people will a) forget that fact; b) complain it isn't entertaining; and/or c) bitch and moan anyway.

Some of y’all are upset about outerwilds, imagine reconciling what I have to—that I actually enjoyed anthem and like no one else did. Anthem won’t even rank except hottest mess maybe

@skumberg: @zinkn: perhaps they need this time to refresh what they've played so that they feel they can make an informed decision and it has nothing to do with paying customers and instead their own enjoyment of how they reach THEIR top 10?

People really have to get a grip with regard to GOTY.

@skumberg: Great! I'm happy for you I guess. Keep watching content you don't enjoy.

Hm. Not sure how I feel about the new format. And that's not code for "I dislike it," I genuinely don't know yet. As it stands it kind of comes off like a themed podcast/show like the worst song of the 80s (which it is, just with every major release of the year) which makes for an entertaining listen, but it's less exciting than usual. I don't need them tearing each other to shreds every day like before (except for the last day!) but this seems a bit too far in the other direction, where it's just kind of whoever played whichever game is up saying what they liked about it and moving on.

Without the categories or anything, it's very... normal? And if there's one thing I'm not after when it comes to GOTY, it's normalcy. GB's best GOTY shows of course were the highly produced (and I'm sure extremely stressful and no longer practical) content like Hunkadunk.

If they've extended out the amount of days they're doing and this is all in addition to the normal podcast content, great! If this replaces it, then maybe not so great? I don't really remember last year's GOTY too well as I remember something interrupted me and I never got to finish it, and people are saying this is basically that. So that has me a bit worried.

While the days of ridiculous fake FMV games is likely behind us for good, or at least for the foreseeable future, I always look forward to the wild GOTY deliberation podcasts, and this just isn't wild at all. It's not bad at all either, but I think so far, it's not a replacement I'm satisfied with.

thankfully 90% of the whiny crybabies have checked out of the goty discussion so i dont have to scroll thru their sniveling about "format"

I really wish they took a half step from last year and cut one day off. Three days of this is way too much and based on how last year went, it's going to be extremely repetitive when most of the same points are brought up again during the top ten discussion on Friday.

Hearing everyone finally talk about their thoughts and feelings on Outer Wilds in detail was pretty gratifying. As someone who put a bunch of time into that game and regretted every minute of it, it's cool to have someone to flat out say in plain language what they liked about it, and not just raw enthusiasm coupled with the stubbornly vague bafflement of someone who just discovered Eva for the first time.

@skumberg: just because you post like 9 negative comments doesn't mean the entire community dislikes this setup. Several comments clearly indicate that they like this format.

You're bitter and angry and spoiling for a fight, I assure you everyone gets it at this point, even those that agree with you.

Whenever i hear people talk about Outer Wilds i wonder how much more impressive it is compared to the Sexy Brutale. Like everything you hear & see during the Sexy Brutale's loop is accounted for as well and it's story has multiple layers and is way more human than you'd expect from that game. I'd should check it out regardless.

It does sound like Outer Wilds is a bit more freeform with what parts of the loop you have to actually engage with and which aspects are optional, while Sexy Brutale wants everyone to see the same path. That said, if figuring out a loop piece by piece, def give Sexy Brutale a shot!

I wish I could agree about Control. The combat's just not interesting, you have lots of abilities but finding cover and throwing rocks is still the most efficient manner of getting through these (mostly uninspired) combat sections.

The most interesting part of the game is the side missions and those are mostly just visual effects and very basic puzzles.

I felt it was a complete waste of the setting.

@garr123: it’s literally my job to editorialize things. don’t worry, nobody can take your enjoyment of SFV away from you. i’m glad you like the game.

Chalk me down for thinking this way to do GOTY is boring and I hope they go back to the more entertaining discussions of previous years.

Jeff has said they have no interest in going back to the old format because they don't enjoy the argumentative nature and find more value in these kind of reviews. Not enjoying it is valid but they just dropped a ton of free content; I'm pretty okay with them doing it the way they want.

Wow, this control segment is like 30 minutes of annoyances and gripes about the game. Didn't expect what will probably be a top 10 game to have so much negativity directed to it on the recap part of the GOTY podcasts. People don't stop arguing and having negative feelings towards games just by changing the format if they have things to say about it that others don't agree with.

That's a certainly a way to get through much of the game, but I wouldn't exactly call it efficient. Effective for sure though.

The game definitely needs a little tuning to make players more willing to play aggressively, however.

I really don’t understand why anyone is upset about anyone’s opinion regarding the end of year content, as long it’s respectfully shared.

I haven’t found the content this GOTY to be particularly compelling, but I have no problem with anyone enjoying it.

I was waiting for Business Dave’s music to start playing when Alex was ripping into Madden.

2:46:30

Ben: “Is [Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey] better or worse than Death Stranding?”

Dan: “...Probably better.”

Brad: “What!?”

The absolute dismay in Brad’s voice in this moment is the perfect distillation of the Brad/Dan dynamic.

Really disappointed they kept this format. It's turned GOTY into one of the high points of the GB yearly output into something where the first three days is entirely skippable tedium.

There's barely any interaction between the hosts and it's basically just the least fun bit of any podcast "host explains game they've played to other hosts" without any of the fun comedy and personality that breaks that up on a regular podcast.