Giant Bomb's Game of the Year 2022: Day 1

Jenga was ROBBED

Funky Kong contemplating the merits of the Bible.

Gex talking about how art affects history.

Hollywood Business Executive Sonic the Hedgehog discussing building new societies on the ruins of old ones.

This was a good idea.

Thanks for getting this up so quick! Love you guys <3

Bummed you guys couldn’t do it in person but this might just be the next best thing

This was really good fun. I'm a little sad it couldn't be in person (as I'm sure y'all are) but this is a fantastic alternative! Great job with all the production - especially to Jess for putting the set together and Jan for running the show.

Fun categories, good discussions with plenty of back-and-forths but without getting too intense, lots of very silly deviations and bits. A fantastic show all around (though I had to duck out for the last category, but I'll come back to it when I've finished GoW and Pentiment). Looking forward to the rest!

Jess! A+ on the studio and set. It got me all nostalgic.

For as silly as this was, I thought you found a really great balance for the podcast. I'm super happy you put this all together. The Vampire Survivor discourse was vintage gb

This was great! Also returning the the pre-2018 format of lots of categories, including goofy ones, was 1000000% the right call, especially when combined with a much more relaxed atmosphere like how this was.

I've played a lot of the Itch.io version of Vampire Survivors, but it's finally available on Mac so I just got it. 🤪

Finding the Holy Cross was the moment of Tunic I thought was a lot more amazing.

love yall, but you're a bunch of HFW bullies! this ceaseless dunking cannot stand.

Super strong start! The vampire survivors discussion was really fun

Shout out to Lucy's Clippy sweater

Halfway through this and the Uncharted 2 slander/retconning will not stand! Harumph harumph

So UPF is free to watch but this is Premium only? What's the logic there?

Jess I understand. She has made it clear how much she hates HFW, and will do so during these whole GOTY discussions I'm sure. But shame on Dan and Jan for giving into peer pressure. Jess doesn't need your help bashing one of the best games of the year guys.

@jstaunton: the drop down defaults to premium audio. I also had to double take at first.

Pretty good day one. Seeing that reel of Uncharted/Mass Effect/Last of Us is the first time ever, e-ver, that I'm glad that Brad is no longer with the site. A trilogy that aged like milk. Makes me feel less bad about the impending Elden Ring GOTY announcement.

I can't believe the metaverse pivot wasn't thought of before. It's such a great, unironic fit! (as long as it's kept in grassroots VR and not actual gross metaverse web 3.0 sludge)

These live shows start right after work for me, perfect timing!

Am a little worried that Jess' hateboner for Sam Barlow games is going to ruin these deliberations, but it's a good first day at least.

And it's a great looking set!

It's a foregone conclusion that she embarrasses herself ever further with that nonsense. Demonstrably false statements like "he does the same game every time" really just paints her every future opinion in a dubious light. Reminds me of when Navarro very clearly spent time working up all of his body blows against David Cage before actually sitting down to play Detroit: Become Human.

She'd decided she hated Immortality before she ever picked up a controller, and that is maddening.

Trover saves the universe in vr while high is quite an experience. I spent what felt like 20 minutes listening to some giant birds bicker at each other. The dialogue just kept going and going.

In Vampire Survivor (to help maintain context) I'll say that if you upgrade the area stat too much, I've had the bible spin too wide and had guys showing up inside BECAUSE it was fully upgraded. Garlic is always right next to you.

And as much as I like the lightning ring, it's really because there is a super strategy where if you play as Porta Ladonna (who starts w/ the ring) and take the 0 Arcana card at the start, you'll stay at level 1 and keep his -90% cooldown bonus and its CONSTANT lightning strikes. Outside of that, it's maybe a good support weapon.

Also was there no mention of La Robba? It makes miscellaneous furniture fall from the top of the screen. Including large grand pianos!

This is not entertaining. Also the focus on the visual gags is frustrating to people who listen to this on audio only. It is not entertaining or informational. All you guys do is fiddle with your fake world, and banter about sexual innuendos.

Your gimmick is getting tiresome to listen to and watch. It is very distracting. Is this supposed to be entertaining or fun?

Your "GOTY" content should at least be entertaining if not taken seriously by anybody.

You criticize other "Games Awards" show, but at least they were entertaining and watchable.

@daavpuke: ah yeah thanks

@wasteland_alpha: you ok there buddy?

@av_gamer said:

When did I talk about Horizon Forbidden West during this?

I think there are at least 4 different LeBron James skins in Fortnite. In fact, his soccer variant skin was in the store for the past week plus during the World Cup!

@av_gamer: “Peer pressure”? By Jess? What the heck were you listening to? She didn’t say anything about it this time. Dan Ryckert is doing that weird thing where ihe goes out of his way to be super down about a game he does not understand the appeal of. I have been listening to Dan’s content for years and this is a thing he does for some reason. He clings to every excuse to say how bad he thinks it is and has been doing that all year.

Forbidden West is my personal game of the year and I knew going into GOTY discussions I would have to deal with a lot of aggressive trashing on it from the GB and Fire Escape crews. To each their own opinion and I handle it is with an eye roll or maybe skipping ahead on the podcast. Still, there is no reason to blame Jess in this instance. She didn’t do anything beyond be the butt of a joke of a thing she said previously. Like, no matter what era of Giant Bomb, the community needs to seem to pick a staff member to blame all problems on. What the heck guys?

@voidburger: You didn't, but my post was more so directed at Jan and Dan. And it wasn't even meant as an attack. I was teasing both guys.

I was going by your past opinions and you did give an approving "Thank you!" when Dan said Horizon was just a bad game overall during the Best Game To Bounce Off list. If I misheard that or you was directing it at something someone else said, then my bad. Anyway, you misunderstand me. I don't care if you don't like HFW. You have a right to your opinion. Please, bring out the knifes. These GOTY debates need it. Day two was pretty good.

"this is not fun anymore"

"Jess is ruining the GOTY discussion because she hates Horizon and Immortality"

We heard all of that before when Abby was here, of course it has nothing to do with gender, nooooo. She liked Dream Daddy and was cornered by all the guys about it and tried to defend it, THREE years ago and people still bring that up when it's time for GOTY. She did not know what a CRPG is, people still hate her for the Elysium Quick Look.

Now it's time for Jess, I guess. But it's not about gender, of course. Dudes hating on almost every game, not knowing things, getting facts wrong, is all good and fun, but it's got nothing to do with gender of course. It makes me sick, seriously.

Not saying it's the majority here btw. but that does not mean it's fine.

@deepressed: I know it doesn't fit into the tidy misogyny narrative you're quite proud of, but I was pretty clear that my disgust at Jess' absurd takes on Immortality directly mirrors my disgust at Alex Navarro's terrible thoughts on another game, and unless you know something I don't about Alex Navarro, then I'll happily be the needle to this balloon of yours.

@av_gamer said:

- I'm interested in how a statement like "Jess I understand. She has made it clear how much she hates HFW, and will do so during these whole GOTY discussions I'm sure. But shame on Dan and Jan for giving into [her] peer pressure. Jess doesn't need your help bashing one of the best games of the year guys." is not directed at me.
- The "Thank You" was clearly a joke. Riffing on how Jason's been razzing me about the "Horizon is Ugly" video.
- I don't hate Horizon. I don't think about Horizon much. My takes on Horizon are "I don't like how it looks" and "The protagonist is a bit annoying" and "Game seems a bit dull", and none of those are held with any sort of fervency.

@wittynickname: why do you think I'm talking about your comment? "tidy misogyny narrative", nice one because I'm just imagining things and women have never been treated poorly on this website of course, sorry that I got that wrong of course.

The virtual GB studio room and location for this year's GotY show talks was a great idea to do.

Still miss the old feeling of watching everyone crammed in a room for GB's yearly talks and antics but this was a good alternate to go with for the COVID era.

@deepressed This is the third time in two comments where you've done the tired "that couldn't be the case NOOOOO" or "that couldn't be it of COURSE" thing. Took me too long to realize you don't actually need a second party to carry on a conversation, so I apologize for the intrusion. Have at it, and enjoy the rest of your day.

Jess did great. HFW was barely mentioned in this episode. Ya’ll aint slick, get fucked.

This was a fun episode, comment section aside.

It's very hypocritical of Tam to criticize HFW for being "another one of those games".

Elden Ring is "just another one of those" Souls games,

It combines Bloodborne weapons/furry boss designs with DS combat, a little of Sekiro's jumping.

Tosses in a horse and George R.R. Martin gave the world a theme (that's all he did, since the narrative is absent).

This is what happens when you're a fan of a game, biased towards it.

Like I said, if the "Thank you" was misheard, then I apologize. I stand by what I said about Jan and Dan. And my comments were based on the points about HFW that you made in the past and that you pointed out in this very post. Hate is a strong word that people overuse these days I'll admit, so again, my bad. BTW, its a very beautiful game. Just my opinion.

@deactivated-63991c79611ef: Dude, I was talking about one game. I agree with Jess on other points that she makes. People can disagree with a woman and not be sexist for doing so. And even though I disagreed with Abby during some of her criticisms during the GOTY debates, I defended her when other people were taking it too far and actually were being sexist about it.

Comments section, y’all gotta relax. It’s just GotY.

Besides, the real enemy is the Catholic agenda, blatantly biasing GB’s best Vampire Survivors weapon. /s

@bisonhero: yeah, not chill comments for an otherwise pretty fun day 1

I love Jan as a Lakitu

If people weren't flipping out about opinions, then claiming to not be flipping out about opinions, then backpedaling on how much they flipped out about opinions, it wouldn't be GOTY.

Never change, comment section. Unless you can. Then please do.

Just heard an example of this in the latest Fire Escapecast, where he had to reiterate how he liked each game he was talking about more than Ragnarok and boy have I not missed that about "Old Dan". In this case I didn't even end up liking FW that much myself, but I think I'll be tempted to fastforward over his bashing of it when I eventually get around to listening to this.

Forbidden West was my only horse in the race this year, since the GB crew has already taken it behind the shed and shot it in the head I have nothing, really. I am still playing catch up with God of War, only just started the first game, and I know Elden Ring is not for me, sadly.

Oh wow, i completely forgot it's GOTY time. That's a fun surprise.

Bit surprised with the Pentiment best moment win, mostly because the moment mostly gets described as the rugpull of dying & playing as a different character and then realizing Andreas is still alive.

But the argumentation went towards why Pentiment is a great game overall, with it's small but meaningful choices having a huge impact on the story and giving you a new perspective on why art is meaningful and that it's stories can be spread by anyone and that it matters who made the art and why etc. All valid, but at that point aren't we straying away from specific ingame moment that got nominated, but arguing it might be GOTY instead? And it's a bit hard to imagine playing Pentiment, and making all these dialogue choices , but then being surprised all the way back in Act III that these choices, big and small, do matter a lot. Even the steam store page mentions that your choices matter and that you will have to find your own path and see the consequences of your actions throughout generations. That's kind of the main draw of the game.

And while i'm being a cynical bastard, i also have to say that the ending of Kirby looks like the most mundane 'climactic action ending' i've seen in a while. You just move forwards while road-segments fall in place and you move a bit left and right to dodge sky-crap and then jump towards the big bad.

@thomasvivaldi:

The moments for me were figuring out what the golden path was, and also what I felt was h to e climax of the story right after you go underground at the mine.