Giant Bombcast Game of the Year 2020: Day One

Anyone else not seeing this in the Premium RSS feed?

Cyberpunk got done dirty here. The greatest technical achievement of the year, in terms of ray tracing, world design. With a 3080 or 3090 looks a whole generation ahead of anything released.

And yet was removed from the list first.

Jeff's criticism of "there being only a handful of corporations" in a world where half the fucking point is that corporations have merged into a handful who are now more powerful than nation-states was absolutely mind-boggling.

Just want to pop in and say thank you so much to the team for going back to the debate format. Made my day.

Tony Hawk as a Best Dad- candidate has the same energy as Helmut Kruger as best character

EDIT: I'm all for it btw

This was really great. Was wondering how well it'd go when they aren't all together in the same room and they made it work. Best Dad category was a great "joke" category that lead to some great discussion. Also really glad that they ditched the format they've used the last 2 years (?) where they just recap the year. Having only categories was so much better, I just wish they actually had more. Throw in a 3rd category per day.

And for my pointless griping. How did Ghost of Tsushima not make top 3? That's maybe the best looking game I've ever seen. Also CyberPunk being the first game just easily cut I found crazy. I get if they didn't want it top 3, but everyone just right away agreeing, yeah it's gone, seemed rough. The technical stuff sure, that's a huge knock. But like Digital Foundry, the website that's literally just there to tell you how pretty a game is and how good it runs awarded it their best looking game of the year, Digital Foundry!

Cutting Demon's Souls from best looking made me gasp. Though the knock against it - of some of the ps3 level logic under the hood holding it back - is fair.

Ben said he threw out his back and was in bed

Ghost of Tsushima was robbed!

If this was for best looking screenshot, yeah, sure, the game is breathtaking with everything cranked up, but as someone mentioned, when the whole open-world starts moving, everyone looks so janky and jittery, it ruins the entire look.

Plus, need to account that some of the crew may not have been able to see it with all the dials turned up to 11, especially with RTX cards being hard to get or insanely overpriced by scalpers.

Will these go to the podcast feed?

@kamasamak: nah it's gotta be abby from tlou2 if we're talkin 2020 game moms

I usually don't comment, but I thought going back to old school categories was awesome. As long as the team has fun with the categories and it leads to fun discussions, then it should be an overall good time. Last year, while the site tried to be inclusive and tried to shout out all the games that were worth the praise, it felt forced. I liked the idea but this site has always had powerful opinions that I usually agree with or help make me see a perspective that I would have never seen. Keep things fun guys, it'll create more organic conversations. Keep up the great work!

I was looking forward to these, but now that they are here I just can't listen to people discuss and argue the merits of video games given our current state of affairs. It all seems to trivial. Maybe in a few months...

@brad Would it be possible to upload these to the Premium Bombcast feed too? Took me ages to figure out it was only up on the free one. (Sorry if you're the wrong person to @, just picked the one the vid said it was posted by!)

Personally, I also found Cyberpunk 2077 to be pretty stellar visually, but "Best Looking" is a subjective category. Even though it may be technically impressive (if you're on a modern-ish PC), if the art direction does nothing for you, then "it doesn't hang" on your list.

Good job guys! Ben i made potato and leek soup today. Its great!

@goldgreg: Nope, best mom in games goes to Mrs. Chu from Sleeping Dogs.

Love the return to the old format... thanks guys

I wish they did something instead of Ben's thumbnail. I can't stop staring at his still photo!

Really enjoyed watching this and I'm looking forward to day 2 starting in an hour or so. Just wanted to say I'm so glad that they returned to the old format as well. Didn't quite enjoy last year as much as I normally do. Really liking the discussions they are having this year, very informed and respectable.

If Trials of Mana is not nominated for best music I will explode the sun.

If it doesn't make top 3 I will shank the moon.

If it doesn't win I will punch my desk.

@sweetchigurh said:

This is an interesting choice. I hadn't considered that to be their relationship. Abby is very protective, but I figured it to be more of a big sister relationship than a motherly one. Especially with Yara gone. And their banter seems more like that of siblings. But of course Lev's mother is gone too and these roles can be fuzzy.

I’m so happy for the return of categories! And i really enjoyed listening to this one- good vibes.

Has the audio podcast not updated on anyone’s podcatchers?

Are we getting these as audio podcasts? Not seeing it on the Giant Bombcast Premium feed.

Any time I look at cyberpunk I see a ton of glitches and broken animations, and those things should factor into "best looking." Idc how cool a character's design is, if he is constantly T-posing and walking into walls, it looks bad! Also the children in that game are horrifying.

@nukleon: It just dropped for me on iTunes.

@nukleon: Same here it’s still not available for me. Bummer

I'm glad Flight Sim was so well recognised in this debate, even by Jeff!! It was fiction vs fact and wonderous works of fiction and the emotions they bring naturally have the advantage, which is why i'm not mad it didn't win because that a simulator got to where it did is amazing enough.
I can't discount the insane and phenominal work that went into Flight Sim, it's a real moment, a historical achievement the likes of which we've never seen, so for me it automatically wins :P.

"That is the part where they invert the moral layout of the game" - @brad You are a wordsmith, my man

Cutting Cyberpunk that early is absolutely hilarious. That game has some of the best looking character models I have ever seen on PC. It absolutely "hangs". Though I do get the general apathy towards it based on how CDPR handled it.

Awesome first day, it felt like sitting with friends at a table enjoying the soothing buzz.

I’m confused about Abby not being there, would have liked to hear her chime in on the dad category... and maybe also explain what it is cuz I am still lost :D

How spoiled will I get on the plot of Hades if I listen to the Best Dad section? I've completed a few runs now (mabye 4?) so have a decent idea of what's going on (I think?)

Abby doesn't work for Giant Bomb anymore!

@windir2112: Does it hang once you start putting it into motion? Pictures look incredible, but issues like having no/busted character pathing feel like it would kill the look to me. Who cares if the models look good, if they are basically standing around t-posing (or warping into the hood of a car) all the time.

@mistercoke: Yeah I'm still not seeing it in the premium feed. Guess I'll download the regular one.

Are these not being released as audio podcasts?

Great decision on going back to the old format. The one used the past couple of years had some very good potential but felt the biggest problem was the talk about all the games in the year could have been condensed to just 1 day and it didn't really help save time for the awards discussions afterwards.

I wasn't sure if I was just broken inside or what (yes, probably), but I'm totally in this same headspace right now. No shade to the GB crew or anything though! This is like the first time in a decade where I just have no desire to listen to the GOTY conversations at all.

I have really been enjoying the guest lists though! Cool to discover some games I'm not familiar with and also see people's thoughts on games I liked that are much better writers than me, haha. I guess because the lists are just from individuals they just feel more positive and celebratory, rather than petty/nitpicking discussion.

I'm with you, I feel like this is something I will come back to in the middle of 2021 or so and watch.

As a lot of people have said, this was great; very strong start for GOTY. Maybe the key was just doing it live, all this time? I think the pressure of this being live is bringing out the best of the crew; I'd love to see them do this together in person next year, assuming things are less of a trash fire.

It's a bummer to not get a whole host of podcasts during winter break, but if the end result ends up being this good, I don't really care when we get it. Looking forward to digging into day 2!

Very. They talk about the ending and some of the backstory for character motivations.

Really happy we're back to the old format - it feels much more exciting! Stoked to listen to these while I do chores!

Extremely this!! He was definitely playing it up for fun toward the end but woooooof.

"Alright just so everybody knows we are going to get into serious Hades spoiler territory here"

And that was how you guys motivated me to finally push through and finish the game...I paused the stream immediately. Didn't think Best Dad would be the category I had to NOPE out on...time to grind my last 2 clears.

Cyberpunk got robbed. That game with everything maxed is so much better looking than anything out now and to take it off first is just insane. Just look at what digital foundry awarded that game.