GOTY (and PGOTY) Discussion

[BrawlMan]

God of War: Ragnarok was just the most profound 'eh' I've experienced in recent years. God, Sony first-party games have really been leaving me cold the last 4 years or so.

I honestly couldn't tell you what you're expecting from Ragnarok. It was pretty much stated that it's going to be like the last game, but with more polish and improved combat, verticality, some new mechanics, and better boss and enemy variety.

As for the rest of Sony's first party, it's not too different from what happened back in the PS3 era. Where they're stuck in one genre/loop/rut and keep going on until everyone gets sick and tired of it. I straight up admit that I only care about a few of Sony's recent first party titles. I said it before, but Sony's problem is that they got older IPs, but they either don't know how, nor want to use them, because of arbitrary reasons or thinking they won't make all the money in the world.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Do you think it’s because most of them suffer from a feeling of sequelitis moreso than something like ER?

Nah, it's not that. Videogames generally thrive through sequels, and I quite liked Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. There's definitely too much samey-ness going on in Sony's line-up though.

It sounded like you really dug the story/characters in Rag overall.

Eh... 's alright. There are parts that I really like and the characters are charming enough, but on a whole it just didn't land for me. I'd qualify GoW: Ragnarok as a way more likeable The Last of Us 2 : Similar story and character issues, but the characters don't make you want to dry heave. Though this does put it in an awkward postion where I don't like it enough nor hate it enough to really capture my attention.

I honestly couldn't tell you what you're expecting from Ragnarok. It was pretty much stated that it's going to be like the last game, but with more polish and improved combat, verticality, some new mechanics, and better boss and enemy variety.

Sometimes things don't connect and this ultimately just didn't for me.

 

[BrawlMan]

Sometimes things don't connect and this ultimately just didn't for me.

How you're feeling is no different from how I felt when I jump from Doom 4 to Doom Eternal. The only difference is that Eternal had a worse start and just wasn't that fun for me.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

What is “PGOTY”, you might ask? Well that’s when someone chooses a game released prior to 2022, as a personal pick. Yes, we roll that way up in here!

Yes, thank you for acknowledging that we all don't play everything as it comes out, haha.

So yeah for PGOTY I'm gonna say Lost In Random. This is third person sort of combat-y narrative game visually inspired by Tim Burton style animation. Combat is this absurd mish-mash of EVERYTHING where you have to shoot stuff in order to roll a dice in order to get cards in order to cause damage and effects. It's a deck-building RNG occasional-open-ish world narrative.... I dunno, man, it's a game lol
And it's not, like, perfect or amazing? At times, so frustrating and trying too hard to be weird. But it's extremely charming and it really hit me hard. The story is effectively Disney-ish and yeah you're a kid in a dark world and all that, but as with all the best game narratives it tells a cliche story in a unique effective way through gameplay.

I have three very close runner-up PGOTYs I wanna shout out:
Demon's Souls remake. Yeah I was just curious to see where it all started and I just had a blast. The so-called "gimmick" boss fights were intriguing combat + environment + thematic puzzles and I actually found some of the levels pretty great.
Bloodroots. An exhilarating rush of combat-cum-platforming that is just pure gaming joy for me. This is my game where I'm a little confused and annoyed as to why everyone else doesn't love this as much as me.
Contrast. Given that I've lost whatever patience and interest I had in "walking to the right simulators" like Limbo/Inside, Contrast does that sort of thing brilliantly and I loved it. Jazz, burlesque, domestic drama, and yeah I'll admit the puzzles are easy. This is a vibe game and it is so my vibe.

For 2022 games, I have "objective" vs "subjective." Objective means I'm looking at games that are original and interesting as well as personally fun and subjective is just what gave me the most kicks.

Object GOTY is Neon White. I hate FPS games, 3D platforming gives me an ulcer, and first-person platforming is my idea of a torture. But the quickness, style, and vibe made me get into a play style I normally hate and that is pretty impressive. I still couldn't finish it but that's fine, it deserves all the praise its gotten and is just a really cool game.

Subjective GOTY is Ragnarok. I'm at the end of the main campaign and will do all the stuff to get platinum trophy so I'm sure when I'm at my last few Berserkers or ravens I will like this game less but, man, is this game just hella fun.
Bayonetta 3 may equal or surpass it, I dunno, I'll be starting this tomorrow.

Worst game of the year for me is Elden Ring. I actually started a replay to see if my negative impressions were valid and to try to get a more genuine playfulness with it but it made me hate the game more. I've already posted like 100 times about why so I won't repeat it all, just... f*** that game.

 

[CriticalGaming]

I honestly couldn't tell you what you're expecting from Ragnarok. It was pretty much stated that it's going to be like the last game, but with more polish and improved combat, verticality, some new mechanics, and better boss and enemy variety.

As for the rest of Sony's first party, it's not too different from what happened back in the PS3 era. Where they're stuck in one genre/loop/rut and keep going on until everyone gets sick and tired of it. I straight up admit that I only care about a few of Sony's recent first party titles. I said it before, but Sony's problem is that they got older IPs, but they either don't know how, nor want to use them, because of arbitrary reasons or thinking they won't make all the money in the world.

I really dont understand the complaint of samey-ness from sony.

How are Spider-Man, Ratchet and Clank, Returnal, Last of Us, God of War, too samey except under the premise of they all have stories?

Spider-Man has completely different gameplay and traversal than God of War which is drastically different than Ratchet and that's was different than Returnal.

I mean there certainly are complaints to have about the various games and people can have preferences. But complaining that they are too samey is like saying they are too video gamey.

 

[BrawlMan]

How are Spider-Man, Ratchet and Clank, Returnal, Last of Us, God of War, too samey except under the premise of they all have stories?

People like to just hear themselves complain and will make any excuse not to like or play something. I think the only reason they're putting all Sony games under the same category, is because each game is a narrative driven third person action game of some kind. Regardless of whatever negligible or major differences they do have from each other. In God of War's case, there are still people upset that it's not like the older games and cribs from either the Last Of Us, Dark Souls, or RE4 (the over the shoulder perspective). There is some homogenization, but it's nowhere near the problem certain critics on the internet make it out to be. It still doesn't change the fact that Sony abandoned IPSs that were good or helped them do sales at the time, and don't want to take any risk, even as a low budget. I'm more so talking about their first party Japanese games and even some of their first party Western games.

Spider-Man has completely different gameplay and traversal than God of War which is drastically different than Ratchet and that's was different than Returnal.

Agreed

I mean there certainly are complaints to have about the various games and people can have preferences. But complaining that they are too samey is like saying they are too video gamey.

It's that same mentality jackasses gave saying all Nintendo games are the same or "too kiddy". It's the same selective obliviousness and ignorance they drown themselves with in order to sound smart and think they know everything.

 

[CriticalGaming]

It's that same mentality jackasses gave saying all Nintendo games are the same or "too kiddy". It's the same selective obliviousness and ignorance themselves with in order to sound smart poor thing they know everything.

I feel like it is xbox fanboys just trying to complain because of jealousy that playstation is getting games and xbox got fuckall and they gotta convince themselves that playstation shit sucks.

 

[BrawlMan]

I feel like it is xbox fanboys just trying to complain because of jealousy that playstation is getting games and xbox got fuckall and they gotta convince themselves that playstation shit sucks.

I will say it's more than just the Xbox fanboys. They are part of it, but there are plenty of other groups that aren't related to them, saying the overly negative things are trying to find any excuse not to play the Norse duology. You have certain DMC, Bayonetta, and Ninja Gaiden snobs throwing trash at the games. You have Greek era only God of War fans that hate the newer games. And of course, you just have your standard contrarians hate on anything that's popular.

 

[Satinavian]

Total War : Warhammer 3

 

[meiam]

Total War : Warhammer 3

Now that it has immortal empire, its really awesome, just wished they'd let you start in more location.

 

[laggyteabag]

S TIER

-Overwatch 2 (if, however, you factor in the wider context, it gets bumped down to A TIER)

A TIER

-Overwatch (as in, the original - technically played both, can never play OW1 again, hence the stuff I mentioned above)
-Sonic Frontiers (as of this time of writing, haven't beaten it yet - it's either low A tier, or high B tier)

B TIER

-Gears Tactics

C TIER

-Xenoblade Chronicles 2
-Apex Legends (currently playing this, subject to change)
-World of Warcraft
-Batman: The Telltale Series - Season 1
-Diablo Immortal

D TIER

-Red Faction II
-Quake Champions
-Battlefield 2042

F TIER

N/A

I found Batman Season 1 to be quite dull, to be honest. I'd probably agree with your C-tier rating.

With that said, Season 2 is a *massive* improvement, and definitely one of the better TellTale games.

 

[Drathnoxis]

From the maybe 2 games I've played that were released this year, The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe. It was a very enjoyable sequel to the original game. The narrator is still a blast to listen to, and I could listen to him forever. I may not have gotten everything I would have liked out of the game, but it was still a good time.

For older games that I've played for the first time this year, ummm, maybe Monster Train? I had fun with it for a while. The game is kind of too easy to start and seems to be balanced around the end game after you've beating it 50 times or whatever, but it was still fun for a while. I didn't seem to really play many new games this year, I spent a couple months playing Nethack I think, and then there was the dark month I devoted to Darkest Dungeon.

But then the year isn't over yet. Why are we even having this thread now when there's still a month left to go in 2022? This is a January thread, not a November one.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Fuuuuuck... have I played a game that came out this year that I enjoyed? I have no idea.

Oh, yeah, WH40K Chaos Gate: Daemonhunters. That's pretty much it. Right.. well... Guess that's my GOTY and PGOTY.

 

[Hawki]

As for the best game that I have played this year (that isn't one that I have played previously), probably Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. Im still surprised as to how much I loved that campaign.

Someone else who really likes Infinite Warfare?

Squee!

 

[Dalisclock]

Someone else who really likes Infinite Warfare?

Squee!

*Raises Hand*
I also liked Infinite Warfares campaign.

I mean, as aside from the protagonists making dumb decisions all the the time and then going on about "sacrifice". And the whole dumb thing about the entire campaign taking place in one day which I don't understand why they said that.

Jon snow being the bad guy was just meh.
But It was a lot of fun still.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Here are all the Golden Joystick Awards 2022 winners

Elden Ring wins big as it takes home four awards, with FromSoftware Inc. claiming Best Studio

www.gamesradar.com

I take it their award year ended prior to Ragnarok seeing as it’s absent from everything.

 

[laggyteabag]

Someone else who really likes Infinite Warfare?

Squee!

*Raises Hand*
I also liked Infinite Warfares campaign.

I mean, as aside from the protagonists making dumb decisions all the the time and then going on about "sacrifice". And the whole dumb thing about the entire campaign taking place in one day which I don't understand why they said that.

Jon snow being the bad guy was just meh.
But It was a lot of fun still.

Obviously IW isn't an perfect game, but as someone who really likes (and really enjoys) the normal CoD campaign formula, I was really pleasantly surprised about how ambitious IW was. Zero-gravity gunfights, space combat in space jets, side missions, different enemy types (with different weaknesses to different ammo types?). It just wasn't what I expected from CoD, and I really enjoyed it.

Im sure my incredibly low expectations because of the common opinion that IW was the "worst CoD game ever/other than Ghosts" also really helped.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

Stray is the only 2022 game I played that I finished so Stray gets the nod by default.

Wow, looking back at the games I played this year I have to go with Weird West? It is the only new game that isn't still in early access that even caught my interest in 2022. And that's too bad, WW is fun but no real GOTY contender. I worked quite a bit on my backlog, only to find I wasn't missing much giving those games a miss first time around. So I also don't have much of a PGOTY standout either. Really is looking like a weak video game release year.

I really wanted to like Weird West. I kinda bounced off it sorta quick and it just felt like there was too much game or too many missions. I played each mission pretty stealthy overall and it really took quite a while to get through most missions doing that and it kinda wore me out. It feels like it's meant to be played more as an action game if you want to get through it at a decent pace but being isometric, the action gameplay isn't that satisfying vs something like fucking around in Dishonored.

 

[CriticalGaming]

So I was gonna do my big top and bottom list in my own thread but I feel like there are two threads already for that so I will post my top games here in no particular order except GOTY.

1. Vampire Survivors - I still don't really know what the hell this game is, it's like a auto-battler/tower defense except you move the tower? There are shit loads of unlocks, tons of weapons and characters and objectives. It's such an addicting gameplay loop for 2 bucks that it's hard not to give this game at least a little acknowledgement for being a great little release this year.

2. Pokemon Arceus - The first big release for Pokemon this year, ironically not the last but certainly the better game, Arceus takes the traditional Pokemon game and plays with what an opening world Pokemon game can be and it's frankly fantastic. The twist of being in the beginning times of Ppokemon where people are learning what Pokemon are and how to learn with them is cute and clever. And it runs pretty well on the Switch which is confusing that the other Pokemon game is so bad.

3. Horizon Forbidden West - Horizon's gameplay and open world setting continue to be fantastic, this game does suffer from a middle child syndrome as the story doesn't have the mystery of the first game nor does it have closure since they are setting up for a Trilogy. It also suffers from some bad characterization of Aloy as she sort of forgets how to talk to people after learning it in the first game and she doesn't really have an arc other than being a soulless Jesus figure. That being said the game is stunning to look at and incredibly fun to play, which is enough to rank it in the top spots for the year.

And since this year has been dry as fuck the only thing I have left is GOTY:

God Of War Ragnarok - This game is utterly fantastic, to the point that if you followed the thread for the game I literally struggled to criticize the game. The combat is great, the graphics are amazing, the story is fantastic, the only negatives are tiny little nitpicks that ultimately do not hamper the game in any way. It's easily the best video game released this year by a fucking mile. Some people might perfer other games, but that can't take away the fact that GoW is perfectly assembled.

 

[Kyrian007]

Stray is the only 2022 game I played that I finished so Stray gets the nod by default.


I really wanted to like Weird West. I kinda bounced off it sorta quick and it just felt like there was too much game or too many missions. I played each mission pretty stealthy overall and it really took quite a while to get through most missions doing that and it kinda wore me out. It feels like it's meant to be played more as an action game if you want to get through it at a decent pace but being isometric, the action gameplay isn't that satisfying vs something like fucking around in Dishonored.

Yeah, they didn't really give a lot of thought to stealth "builds" or playstyles. I think the idea was to keep the action going and keep people from feeling like having to save scum their way through. All it really did was not allow me to play through the way I wanted for the most part. Tying the slow time mechanic to the jump function and limiting its use on top of that... this was a game that was just screaming for some kind of VATS mechanic. Or flat out just being turn based like an isometric game should be. Instead, they had to make it a full action game and just crank down the difficulty to keep people from getting frustrated and quitting. And it was just way too easy in the end.