Game of the Year: Day 2

In pokemon, the repel is a thing. Tots removes random encounters. Also there's like a total of like 4 pokemon per route. Finding a certain pokemon on a route is usually 1 in 4. I think those complaints are a bit over blown.

Very nice to hear the newest staff member criticizing other outlets' Games of the Year 2021. This site sure is among the last bastions of true critics.

Biome! Take a drink, everyone!

No Valheim? :(

Really happy that Jason fought for GTA Definitive winning Most Disappointing. I was so excited to play through that Trilogy again and could not believe what I was seeing when I started GTA3 Definitive on PC. Framerate was so choppy it literally made me motion sick.

Glad 12 Minutes got cut for Most Disappointing. Based on how much the GB staff kept attacking it, I was sure it was going to get Top 3. But the right game won, and that is GTA: DE. It was through that game I played GTA III for the first time and found out the game didn't age well at all. But then again, I don't know if that is because of the game itself, or how bad the DE made the game along with the others. And all the BS Rock Star did around the game, which should have been given the love letter type of treatment is very disappointing. That said, I wouldn't mind seeing It Takes Two winning simply to give a FU to the Game Awards picking it as GOTY for political reasons. Ratchet winning Best Looking was also the correct choice. Best Styyyyyyyyle I'm conflicted about, but I'll respect their choices.

The new theme song is horrible, honestly. No disrespect to the artist but it really just sounds like a whole lot of noise. I'm sure they could come up with something a bit more pleasant to the ear.

That Most Disappointing run. Mm mm.

I'm just curious because I'm definitely out of the loop, but what were the political reasons?

This is like the first year I’ve actually had difficulty sitting through and watching these goty casts. It’s not giant bombs fault.. it’s the actual games themselves. 2021 was an incredibly weak year for games, my brain starts to switch off hearing in-depth discussions about games I thought were either bad or had no interest in even playing. 2021 was bad year for a lot of things :(

isn't Solar Ash just a mixture of Journey and Gravity Rush? How is that a unique style. Also, can't help but see Killer 7 in Cruelty Squad

Maybe political isn't the proper word. From what I hear, the man behind that game is also deeply involved with the Annual Game Awards, and many people believe his game won for that reason, and so do I.

I think the discussions have been pretty good, but I agree about the games. I picked up Nobody Saves the World on Gamepass the other day and it's already better than 90% of the stuff I played last year.

@therealturk:

the best two things I played last year were Disco Elysium - Final Cut (the new version with voice acting that came out in April) and Final Fantasy XIV - Endwalker (expansion for a 10 yr old game). Neither of which are eligible for most GOTY discussions haha. I am with Jan on Tales of Arise though. I really enjoyed it, although I don't need it win awards as its a niche game.

I did play a few other games no one them compared to these two. I think "It Takes Two" winning the Game Awards says it all really for 2021

I still think best styyyyyyyyyyyle and best graphics is a mess. If you're not going to count what could possibly be the best technically looking game (Forza 5) for best graphics while then nominating other games for the same category with the argument that "they have style," then just combine the two categories. They're already blurring together.

P.S. Psychonauts 2 got robbed!

It Takes Two is fascinating. 80% of people who play it love it, and everyone else can't stand it.

The most disappointing thing about It Takes Two is that the Book isn’t the final boss

I would love to have my Switch melt in my hands from playing Vampire Survivors.

I think your reaction will depend entirely on how much of an impact the story and characters have on you. I played it with my partner we both loved our time with it (and even didn't mind the characters by the end), but if you can't get past the premise or find the characters too grating then I can see it being a bad experience. I know a lot of people who didn't like it but still found the gameplay varied and enjoyable.

Maybe it will come up later, but I'm not sure Bakalar understands why Inscryption would be difficult to do on the switch.

I wish Jess and Jan just would have went full blown spoiler mode and explained mechanically why that might be weird in the later part of the game.

@av_gamer: Interesting, if not all that surprising. That awards show gets points for trying I guess but it's also kind of just a big excuse to market shit.

I’m glad Jason fought for The Ascent in Best Looking. I don’t think it beats out any of the finalists, but that game was the first thing that really blew me away in its look last year.

It sounds like this nonsense that Bloober Team pulls is like all those Supertones tracks that ape intros to a bunch of popular songs; it's not an homage or even proper artistic stealing, it's just straight using someone's work to engage the audience with their own. It's not really plagiarism in a legal sense, but it's reaaaaalllll asymptotic.

Thanks y'all

Greats discussions this year, really enjoyed the vibe! Thanks everyone!

Every time Jess complains about Deathloop it makes me feel so vindicated. I had convinced myself thaty I just maybe accidentally played a completely different game from EVERYONE else. But Jess played the same one I did.

I'm dissapointed no one said 'it has a certain... je ne sais quois!' during the best styyyyyyle category.

Jeff G's Psychonauts 2 takes are so bad. lol. What a fantastic game. The platforming is solid and all of the variety in the different levels is incredible. Combat is fun and using the powers feels great too. The cooking level alone shows you objectively great the game is.

Jess seemed to have a lot of fun. Great to have her on the team!

what if the It Takes Two couple eviscerated the book instead?

Huntdown? 2021 on steam, amazing style

I've been playing it takes two with my partner and we hate the story but are having a lot of fun with the gameplay. We just talk to each other during the cutscenes and try to ignore the grating characters. It's definitely not GOTY material but it's fun enough, Jess's critiques are spot on.

Also, love having Jess for these talks. I've missed this kind of cutthroat deliberation and I feel like she has a good critical voice. With deathloop I bounced off after a while and she voiced what I was thinking but not able to articulate, "this is a basic bitch shooter and I don't really like those". I hope arcane makes more Prey/Dishonored style games :(

I thought the Pokemon Diamond/Pearl remakes were bad and disappointing as well but about half of Jan's arguments seem incredibly bizarre to me in the sense that it's surprising that Jan didn't stop playing Pokemon long ago if those are the complaints he has.

@allthedinos: For sure! When it does those tracking shots that show off the environment it just got me every single time. While it doesn't have the powerhouse graphics of a few on that list I'd probably still put it at my #2 because it had that perfect synthesis of art direction and fidelity that made it greater than the sum of its parts. A lot of the combat effects are really great too.

For real it's like being surprised Call of Duty is the same each year. And Back 4 Blood was one of his favorite games this year is insane. After being disappointed by Back 4 Blood, watching the Crowbcat youtube video "Back 4 Blood proves Valve carried Left 4 Dead" was perfect. It's an inferior Left 4 Dead clone while at the same time taking all credit for Left 4 Dead.

I can't believe Battlefield 2042 wasn't number 1 though. It was a game marketed on going back to what people love about the series and having everything in a wild sandbox. Instead they shipped a barely functioning shooter with empty maps, no voice chat, no score board, and annoying hero characters.

Jess going after Deathloop and It Takes Two felt like someone who recently got a loud voice wants to make waves by having radical opinions. She never likes the shooter games featured on the site and it also feels like she doesn't like challenging games. If you skip the cutscenes, which you can, you never have to see the book character and the imaginative worlds and gameplay are good enough on their own to be a great game. I haven't played Deathloop but after watching long plays, the game seems like it has Bioshock type gameplay, which is so far from being a basic shooter. It looks like it has the type of gameplay where you never get a good feeling sensivity or accelleration curve with the aiming to make it feel snappy like a call of duty basic shooter. And yeah, they rarely make games like Bioshock anymore, where you explore open areas and follow clues while at the same time upgrading your character.

Bakalar calling Ahh Real Monsters "later era" Nickelodeon is hilarious. Real ok boomer energy

The "Should be on Switch" category lasted way longer than it should have. Did not warrant that much discussion... especially considering the winner is literally already coming to Switch, as they even pointed out themselves.

If Jan hates random battles, then how the hell does he still like Pokémon? That's every game until like 3-4 years ago. He hates one of the core mechanics of the series? lol

Two things.

I played San Andreas DE on my Series S and encountered NOT A SINGLE one of the same five bugs that were passed around twitter. The reaction to these games was completely overblown and completely endorses the sick outrage culture surrounding any mild harmless controversy. That was one of the funnest games I'd played in 2021, original visual but silky smooth and modern controls, literally the definitive edition. Get the fuck over it, babies. If we're following your logic, this is now the "definitive" edition of Giant Bomb. lmaoo, your new opening is mediocre btw.

And, for a game that has no artistic value whatsoever, everyone sure is dickriding Bridge Of Spirits real fuckin hard. Watch everyone collectively forget about it by August.