Giant Bombcast Giant Bomb's Game of the Year 2015: Day Three

Yeah, agreed.

Such a lust for vacation? WHO!

Dan's picks for best MGSV moments are weak at best. I guess he just FORGOT about mission 43. Much like he doesn't know practically anything else about that game.

I was a little irked by some people saying Life Is Strange takes a lot from those kinds of games so it doesn't fit with that category, but going with Splatoon, which is a shooter. Maybe it's because a shooter is a much broader category. But still, just a little bitter about LIS losing out.

OK, I'm convinced. Spoilers are awesome.

That moment in BLOPS, and the ending of StarCraft both make me want to play those games after having basically zero interest in them.

Also I liked the discussion about Undertale. In the last podcast where Papyrus, Flowey and Napstablook were hailed as some of the "best" characters in that game (...I disliked all three of them) I was extra unsold on that game. Now I can finally, thanks to the end game spoiler discussion, look at that game and go "Huh, ok. That does actually sound kind of neat." instead of making poop noises whenever someone talks about it, so there's that.

I'm guessing a "shooter" (which it technically is, but it's so inventive) from Nintendo is novel enough to make the cut. Also, that kind of arguments is the nature of the beast in GOTY discussions :P

The secret best MGSV moment of the year is the videos that replace Quiet's model with Ocelot's.

"You know when you see the guys at NASA jump in the air?"

Yes Vinny, I know.

@comradesolar said:

"You know when you see the guys at NASA jump in the air?"

Yes Vinny, I know.

Haha.

oh god, if only the GBeast guys knew where life is strange goes from where they're at. properly harrowing stuff.

@melodiousj: Normally I would agree with you, but it's surprisingly Jeff is the one bringing these down. Dude doesn't like ANYTHING.

You can totally punch Quiet in her fight.

Life is Strange has more than 32,000 reviews on steam, even more than kerbal :P just saying

I feel like if Beast had gotten a bit deeper into Life is Strange before recording this it could have run the best moments category.

Man I like Life is Strange way too much. I actually felt a bit of chills when the crew were describing the moments from the end of episode 2 and 3 respectively. :P Still a shame that they didn't get to finish it in time for these discussions, but regardless it's still nice to hear that they enjoyed what they had experienced up to that point.

I was surprised that the Bloody Baron quest line was in the top 3 for best moment kind of just because it already won the best character award.

I totally forgot that the whole paid mods thing happened this year. That was indeed one of the hottest messes that I could remember in some time.

Oh and also Brad describing the ending of Starcraft 2 sounded like one of the most ridiculous endings I've ever heard of.

Goddammit I still need to finish Her Story and Life is Strange. Gonna have to give this podcast a miss for the time being, just in case.

Mission 43, 45, and 46 are all amazing moments. I'm not really sure why everyone keeps treating MGS like it ended after act 1.

There are so many other non story moments too. Like the first time you fulton something, hearing your helicopter come in with a new tape, shooting launchers while on the back of D-Horse, how D-Dog sits in the car, the Paz stuff.

Everyone seems to like the game but deride it for having no to bad story when maybe they've just forgotten it all.

@amyggen: Thank you for the timestamps, especially for the spoiler awards. You're doing God's work.

@notsonic: That's because most of Act 2 was pretty much pointlessly repeat missions of what you did in Act 1 which was really poor story telling.

@jedikv: I can't really make any excuses for the forced repeat missions. But, I will say that I don't remember there being more than a handful. What was it like 3? 4? The second act was weaker by FAR in terms of quantity, but the payoffs for everything happened too.

@amyggen: awesome.

@jedikv: That detracts nothing from the actual good moments of the game, most of which happen in the second act.

Blizzard has never had particularly great writing so at least I can kinda appreciate the idea of just sayin' 'Fuck it' and goin' full on caricature level insane with it.

Blizzards strengths are in mechanics and idiotic spectacle so may as well go all out.

The arguments for Mario Maker, especially as "multiplayer" are weak. It is predicated on having people you know who then upload their gameplay videos on YouTube so you can LOL at them. GB crew are in a unique place having their industry buds and thousands of internet fans playing their levels and uploading their play throughs onto You Tube. What percentage of Mario Maker players have this unique experience? I feel it significantly impacts how much fun Jeff and Dan have had with the game.

@amyggen: Truly, you are a lord and saviour.

@comradesolar: Cheers!

@fram: I just started Her Story as well and they didn't say anything that really spoiled it besides indicating that there could be something worth spoiling.

Oh god. What a fun podcast to listen to knowing this... I wonder how badly they damaged the bathrooms.

@comradesolar: Her Story is in many ways a really difficult game to spoil too.

Jesus christ Brad, let someone else explain shit D:

Jeff’s continuously repeating the same two arguments against most of the games brought up over the course of these, end of the year deliberations. He’s either completely dismissing games because while he believes they have good aspects he’s constantly following this up with, it’s not as good as I think it could be. Which of course is not an invalid argument but it is also a sentiment that could be felt about pretty much any piece of art that has ever existed. He also doesn’t really present much of a case beyond that core sentiment, as to why he feels the way he does most of the time, just his general feelings on the game are given and that’s about it.

Honestly the general laziness in the way he approaches his critique of most of the games brought up is one thing and I don’t really mind it however the second aspect of this recurring sentiment that I do have a problem with is that he then takes this as a legitimate argument to them completely dismiss the game in question if not outright say it’s not worth damn and that they should move on, this gets rather frustrating after the seventh time.

His other primary approach that’s kind of grating on me the more I listen to these deliberations is when it’s a game that he’s not spent any really time with, which differs from the first because it seems a lot of these he spent less than an hour with , again if the games didn’t click with him then that’s perfectly fine though I would question the amount of opportunity he really gives these games to grow on him very little it seems. The issue I have is that he starts all of these by just stating that the game wasn’t really for him and so he stopped playing then if the discussion goes on regardless of his very minimal input he gets progressively more hyperbolic until the game he seemed apathetic about suddenly seems like one of his most disappointing games of the year, that all gets rather ridiculous after a time.

I know these awards don’t mean anything (apart from taking over the whole website for their duration), I also know Jeff likes to play up his role of naysayer and seems to be having a lot of fun in these I just wish I was to, instead of feeling progressively more tried as the same antics are repeated. Love the site.

How is orbiting Kerbin the moment from KSP that gets into best moment? By far, orbital rendezvous and the first time you land on The Mun are hugely more rewarding.

@larmer: they said before but it's basically shorthand for finally accomplishing something in that game. For vinny it was orbiting the planet but that game is all about finally achieving a goal after hours of struggle, then learning how to achieve the next goal

Kinda surprised vermintide didn't get much of a mention at all for best multi-player. Was under the impression that both vinny and Austin played a bunch of it. Didn't really expect it to get top three or win or anything, but not getting mentioned at all is surprising to me.

Couldn't finish because of too many spoilers. :(

Discussion on best moment - A completely inaccessible spaceship simulation with the best moment over the Bloody Baron? Pfffphh...

@dystopiax: These guys play so many games in a year, it's inevitable some games get forgotten about or lost in the shuffle.

Man, the post release patches made MGSV way better. Pink Camo is pretty awesome, and MGO is some of the most fun I've had in multiplayer games besides Rocket League and Splatoon.

Can anyone hook me up with the Galak Z pause screen? My google-fu is too weak.

KERBAL WON SOMETHING!!!

The quicklook almost certainly has the pause screen and it's something you should see in motion as well.

Also maybe I'm just assuming too much but in regards to the best moment in Dying Light. I feel like Brad didn't actually talk about the moment he seemed to be referring to which is when you "get caught out at night" during the missing. Maybe he was just speaking about nighttime gameplay in general but the title seemed to be clearly referencing that specific moment and there was no mention of it.

Basically it's designed to look like the menu of a late 90s/eary 00s VCR because the game styles itself as episodes of an anime. It distorts the game in such a way that it looks like a paused VHS tape.

Thanks guys, this stuff is so good.

Witcher didn't deserve to be in the moment category for the Bloody Baron - that is a whole, 10 hour quest line FILLED with moments, but I cannot understand how it fits into that category at all and definitely makes a case for a redefinition of categories next year.

Kerbal ftw - thanks Vinny!!

I was also surprised the "moment" from GS5 wasn't involving Quiet having to talk to bring the chopper in for Boss.

Man, I had Life is Strange on my must play soon list, but as soon as Vinny said they were talking about the endings to Episode 2 & 3, I stopped the podcast and played straight through so they couldn't spoil that stuff for me, and holy hell, am I glad I did. Very much looking forward to finishing it this week.

I know, right? Being an old softie, that was the only part of MGS5 that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

Pleased for Kerbal though. Like Alex and Jeff, I'm totally clueless with that game but love seeing Vinny reach for the stars.

I feel like the late game MGS5 missions are going to get discussed during best game, once they're down to the final two, they can get Drew out of there and it'll be used as justification for coming first or second (with Mario Maker)

(cuts in) WHAT Mikachops is trying to say here is, in a world of instantaneous gratification, comments tend to downplay the seemingly ethereal importance of long form communication that speaks to how, as a whole, we approach information in the modern game space; which is why this comment is on my top 3 comments list of 2015 - I mean I know I won't win this battle here but I just had to say my piece to give mikachops their dues you know, ok continue.

I think that it's a very subjective matter of opinion. I mean a video game company was almost internally sabotaging it's own project and trying to keep a lid on the whole thing with very blatant "inaccuracies" in their press statements. At some point that whole conversation devolved into a very complex game of semantics. I'm pretty sure most of us here must have been somewhat taken aback after hearing what is happening to Kojima, what is happening to Konami staff and overall where the company is headed. The fact that most of that unsettling conduct was probably all done "according to plan" from Konamis side doesn't make the situation any less of a hot mess when looking on from the outside.

You could make a similar argument that Batman getting taken off Steam wasn't anything weird either. They put out a game, it was getting bad reviews so they pulled it until they could release a fixed version - thats all a very sound business move in the same way that Konami shaming employees and saying Kojima is on vacation is similarly a sound business move for them. The hot mess part shouldn't be judged from the perspective of the offending party but rather from the impact and response of the receiving public.

But hey thats just my opinion on it.