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

The chat about Life is Strange when they haven't finished it feels odd. It seems a little silly, a very incomplete discussion.

Best day so far!

Did the moments they pick for Metal Gear seem a little...odd? A teaser and the introduction to mission 11?

I thought the quarantine scene and aftermath was easily the best moment this year. Surprised it wasn't mentioned at all.

I agree, this is all pretty subjective. I'll also acknowledge that much of this discussion is influenced by how much each of us was personally impacted by the events. I didn't play Batman this year, but I can imagine some of the frustration by those who purchased the game on PC.

What might make the difference is that the people who played MGS V didn't necessarily follow all of the negative press surrounding the Kojima/Konami thing. The game had some minor issues, but the final product was playable at launch. So for some people the Konami mess may not be as much of a factor in their overall experience with the game this year.

If we try to be objective and look at some of the items we can identify as fact, the respective "messes" in the category range considerably in terms of their impact on the end user. Afro Samurai just doesn't exist any more. Batman playability on PC is questionable. Kojima Productions LA studio is shut down, but Metal Gear Online is releasing DLC, which has already been previewed by journalists.

I think the argument for Konami being the Hot Mess of the year hinges on a personal affinity for Kojima and his team. In that sense I'm sympathetic to what happened/allegedly happened, but look at the end result. MGS V shipped, and is probably game of the year for a number of people. The game made a ton of money. Metal Gear Online still exists (for now). Kojima got "fired/dismissed" but got scooped out by Andrew House and is probably getting better treatment/more money/more power and got to bring much of his former team with him.

As far as my personal opinion; I think MGS V got severely chopped by the circumstances at Konami. I think this started to happen over a year ago because "business". Kojima clearly didn't get to make the best game he could, and the game suffered from it in the story department (the engine rocks). For me, it was the most disappointing game I played this year. Having said that, I put 50 hours into it. I don't think I could invest that much time into the other nominated games, even if I wanted to.

My favorites keep getting robbed. But the way the consensus works is interesting to watch.

\m/

@dave_tacitus: Yep, not afraid to admit a tear welled up for me at that part. Maybe because it was on the back end of the game and the character is so divisive that it was easier to stay away from.

@swampwalk: All you've said is absolutely true but the categories are so nebulous that it's hard to say what the actual criteria for them are. If this is all judged as a hot mess that had affected a game in the end, then the Konami situation is iffy because we can all suspect but we can never know for sure - whereas in the case of Batman it's very obvious how the bugs affected the consumer. I was approaching the situation from a purely general point of view - as in, that whole situation sounded like a hot mess, without necessarily judging the severity of it's impact on the end product.

I actually wrote out a whole thing about MGSV here but then realized it was way too long and not what the conversation is even about.

Unless you search the database for "Her Story," which kind of gives away the... "twist"...?

Either way, the whole thing ends up being a pretty average UK crime drama plot.

The performance is fine, but the non-linearity adds nothing and can potentially detract from the narrative.

But hey, that's video games.

Oh look, here's Gordon Freeman jumping up and down on a table and spinning in circles while someone gives vital plot information. sigh

@notsonic: Minus one or two missions the story telling had already fallen apart by then, with most of it occuring in the hamburger tapes etc. The whole thing ended on a wimper and a shrug to me. It seems apparent in my eyes that the issues at Konami may have played a major role in that.

@humanity:Fantastic satire but it sounded a little chip-tuney so I can't highlight your good work this year. So sorry, better luck next time~

I'm still salty

@stordoff: I definitely understand when people talk about bugs. I've seen the clipping and the frame rate hitches (luckily never crashed on me), but those things haven't bothered me. I understand and agree with Jeff's review and good on him for calling those problems out.

@larmer: Because at the time of recording none of them had done that yet.

I think Life is Strange is amazing. With Telltale's drowning of the adventure market recently I didn't think I could be into this genre again but I think LiS nailed it. The story is really good and they actually put some nice little puzzles into it rather than purely being the conversation simulator that Walking Dead became especially in Season 2.

It would have been great if they finished Life is Strange before starting the GOTY stuff. Every episode is better than the last imo.

It was also sad to hear the reason for Undertale's inclusion (made by one person, and his first game) not taken into consideration for other games. That logic was used to get rid of LiS (because of Jeff and his well-calculated "they're the same game" gambit, seemingly because they both put effort into telling a good story) but the same logic wasn't applied to Grow Home or even Splatoon.

@re_player1: Yeah that one discombobulated me for like.. 15 minutes.

Personally I don't really "get" what makes the Bloody Baron questline so great; I found it kind of boring much like most of Witcher 3 and was just trying to get it done like all the other quests. I'm glad that moment from LiS got on though, it really is good.

Man, if any of the guys reached Kaer Morhen in Witcher 3, this would have been an entirely different conversation.

lol @ vape rig ad

lol @ Dirtbag Mario

I get how they think that Starcraft thing was so dumb it was kind of funny but glad it wasn't actually on there over actually great moments. Because that shit is so fucking dumb.

So with Jeff on giving them too much credit. Blizzard don't do stories well.

So happy to see Kerbal get the nod here.The whole best moment discussion was really fun to listen to and highlights what a great year for games this has been.

Thank you so much for this!

Holy crap, how was Day 3 also nearly 4 hours? The Bomb Crew is putting in work, I also really need to check out Kerbal Space Program.

Honestly,. the best moment of Witcher 3 for me is

When you get transported to the series of different planets.

too bad none of the guys finished that game :(

I think they should record video of their podcasts. Even though it's just them sat around a table i would have an easier time sitting and watching than just listening.

Man, that Black Ops 3 bit sounds pretty great. Makes part of me want to get Black Ops 3, but another part of me remembers playing the beta and coming out feeling like I'd rather keep on chucking C4 at people in Black Ops 2.

I have to agree with Jeff on the Black Ops 3 moment was pretty cool. That World War 2 section was awesome. Just came out of no where and I just laughed when I saw it happen. The Inception stuff with the folded world was cool too and your character's reaction to when they transition planes made me chuckle.

Unfortunately, as Jeff pointed out, the end of the game just undercuts everything. That cool moment pretty much never happened, as did the entire rest of the game. Nothing is worse than telling the player "Yeah, everything you just did never happened. It was all a fabrication of your dying mind. It was all a dream! Be sure to buy the DLC!" It made me feel like I just wasted my time with the entire campaign despite enjoying it moment-to-moment.

Without reading the journal text scroll where you learn this, I had thought that at the end of the game was your character losing grasp on reality, which is why that whole last level is nuts, and the AI overwriting your character's memories, and when you purged your system at the very end, Taylor was the only memories and personalty that was remaining. Kind of like what they did with Crysis 2. It was dumb but the kind of dumb I could have gotten behind.

Halo 5's multiplayer was a godsend after everything they tried to do with it in 4. They rolled back a lot of 4's changes and what they kept (and added) for 5 resulted in the best-feeling Halo I've played yet.

As well, regarding Konami as a hot mess, it seems way too forgiving to simply chalk everything up to "It was a calculated business decision that people got riled up over.". Konami could have handled that situation infinitely better than they did. It's one thing to get out of the AAA game business; it's another thing entirely to get out of the AAA game business and flat-out anger your fans with tone-deaf press releases and pachislot announcements ("Erotic Violence" Castlevania, "Pull The Lever!" Silent Hill) to the point where it seemed like intentional trolling.

Hi everyone! I did these timestamps a little after the podcasts were out, but I kinda forgot to put them on the site? I know Myggen posted them here, but just in case it's a few pages back, here they are again:

00:02:15 - Podcast starts

00:03:57 - The categories are announced: Best Debut, Hottest Mess, Best Multiplayer, Best Moment or Sequence

00:04:39 - Best Debut.

• 00:07:01 - Super Mario Maker
• 00:08:21 - Galak-Z: The Dimensional
• 00:08:57 - Helldivers
• 00:09:48 - Her Story
• 00:10:23 - SOMA (game mechanics spoilers)
• 00:13:26 - Until Dawn
• 00:14:04 - Grow Home
• 00:18:28 - Dying Light
• 00:19:47 - Invisible, Inc.
• 00:21:59 - Splatoon
• 00:23:40 - Life is Strange (game mechanics spoilers)
• 00:30:13 - Rebel Galaxy
• 00:30:58 - Ronin
• 00:31:18 - Undertale
• 00:32:09 - Final discussion
• 00:39:04 - Kerbal Space Program intermission!
• 00:46:42 - Ori and the Blind Forest intermission!
• 00:50:45 - The discussion resumes

00:55:56 - Hottest Mess.

• 00:58:06 - Just Cause 3 on consoles
• 00:59:15 - Afro Samurai 2: Revenge of Kuma
• 01:02:53 - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5
• 01:03:06 - Raven's Cry
• 01:04:01 - Batman: Arkham Knight on PC
• 01:08:49 - Konami?!?!?!?!
• 01:18:23 - Mortal Kombat X on PC
• 01:21:20 - The rollout of Skyrim paid mods
• 01:27:49 - Final discussion

01:34:30 - Best Multiplayer.

• 01:38:12 - Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime and Affordable Space Adventures
• 01:39:03 - #IDARB
• 01:39:21 - Halo 5: Guardians
• 01:40:15 - Duck Game
• 01:40:45 - Mortal Kombat X
• 01:41:45 - Super Mario Maker
• 01:43:57 - Metal Gear Online 3
• 01:44:42 - Final discussion (Splatoon, Rocket League and Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes are talked about here)

01:46:40 - Best Moment or Sequence.

• 01:53:06 - Fallout 4 - Brotherhood's arrival
• 01:54:32 - #IDARB - hashbombs
• 01:55:22 - Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - the first time D-Dog uses a knife
• 01:56:37 - NBA 2K16 - that time a ghost talks to you
• 02:00:11 - Lara Croft Go - falling deeper in
• 02:01:01 - Batman: Arkham Knight - vanquishing the Joker
• 02:02:51 - Xenocross and Galak-Z: The Dimensional - when you get your mech
• 02:03:38 - Mad Max - when you first start doing the convoy missions
• 02:04:18 - Hacknet - getting counter-hacked
• 02:07:00 - Hacknet - the final co-op hack
• 02:07:58 - Hotline Miami 2 - the drug trip sequence
• 02:09:04 - Invisible, Inc. - the final mission
• 02:11:35 - Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void - Kerrigan's apotheosis (god, this is dumb)
• 02:18:18 - Contradiction - Spot The Liar! - does this (\m/) mean anything to you?
• 02:20:34 - Kerbal Space Program - getting into a stable orbit
• 02:25:30 - Assassin's Creed Syndicate - World War I
• 02:28:11 - Call of Duty: Black Ops III - the mission that takes place inside that lady's mind (this is dumb too)
• 02:36:46 - Life is Strange - the end of Episode 2
• 02:41:16 - Life is Strange - the end of Episode 3
• 02:50:04 - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - the Bloody Baron and the Lubberkin
• 02:53:15 - Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - the way Episode 11 starts
• 02:56:40 - Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - the moment after the first credits
• 02:59:16 - Undertale - the Flowey fight
• 03:04:25 - Dying Light - getting caught out at night
• 03:10:00 - SOMA - the mirror scene
• 03:17:45 - Rise of the Tomb Raider - the ending
• 03:26:24 - Galak-Z: The Dimensional - the pause screen
• 03:27:32 - Super Mario Maker - uploading a super hard level successfully
• 03:28:07 - Rocket League - every time you score a goal
• 03:28:58 - Final discussion

03:41:36 - The day is done!

Just going from their descriptions, since I haven't watched the GB Playdate videos of it yet, I thought the episode 3 Life is Strange stuff sounded way cooler than the ep2 stuff. But that's just me.

Definitely. The teaser is worth a mention, but the quarantine stuff was definitely the best moment of that game. Very bummed it wasn't even discussed.

Well I've been spoiled,I guess...

I really don't get how those moments from Life Is Strange could be options for Best Moment and how come one was picked as a runner up. End of Episode 3 is straight up stolen from Butterfly Effect and extremely predictable, when she got back in time the first thing I thought was "I bet someone is going to get crippled". The Episode 2 thing not only feels shoehorned on how her powers stop working on that moment and it's also predictable that she's probably going to kill herself but it's also a pretty common moment on the story of "pick your dialogue" kind of games, where you a have a moment which a character might live or die depending on your previous options. Most of the other moments on that list felt way more important and impactful than these. Also, speaking of best moments, MGSV had so many better moments they don't even mentioned!

I also wished they kept Drew away when they spoke about the after-credits thing, I bet Drew's reaction without knowing about it would be a nice moment on Metal Gear Scanlon.

Man Undertale got robbed in best character.

Not that the Bloody Baron didn't deserve it and Napstablook did.

But man...Papyrus wasn't even in the running.

My god I would marry you were you to have me, this is exactly what I was wanting to know for Life is Strange.

Thanks!

Jeff's explanation of that Call of Duty sequence is far better than it actually plays. It's the type of sequence that sounds amazing on paper but in execution it felt super thin.

Like listening to Jeff explain CoD was way better than playing CoD.

What happened to MGSV?!

Why does everyone hate Metal Gear?!