Overwatch Takes Home GOTY At The Game Awards

Setch Dreskar

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As we stated, though only half jokingly. Blizzard used all that sweet loot box money to buy themselves some more awards they didn't deserve, but hey that is award shows in general. Unless you are some industry wide catalyst you aren't going to win an award unless you pay for it heavily.
 

RedDeadFred

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Seth Carter said:
RedDeadFred said:
sagitel said:
Best Game Direction: Overwatch
what? no.
Why not? I'm genuinely curious. Apart from the shit they pulled with the Summer Games loot boxes, they've been consistently putting out great stuff throughout the year. Now I would argue that this was something I knew I was paying for in advance, but I wasn't expecting them to go as far as they've gone. I was expecting new heroes, maps, and skins. Not a massive game mode update and a really fun PvE event too. Not only that, they release videos where the game directors actually sits down and explains their thought process and direction. It's really refreshing.
Though its probably the most nebulously defined award, you'd think they made it up just so they could pick two games, except they picked the same one.
This is what I have issue with as well.

Ignoring that it's best STUDIO/direction (which gives more credence to the idea that it's just GOTY twice), if we are only focusing on the direction part, that just means how well the game was managed and directed to achieve its goals. Overwatch has fewer things to.... direct than other games, but it does those extremely well IMO (maybe we disagree here, but I'm hoping you get my point). On the other hand, you have something like Uncharted 4 which while tackling more things, has fairly lukewarm gameplay. I'll be honest in that I haven't played it, but I did play the first 3, so if it's not significantly better, I still consider it to be a summer blockbuster in the form of a game. I could definitely see an argument being made for Dark Souls 3, but that wasn't even nominated. Anyway, I could do a similar breakdown with the other games, but it really just comes down to my opinion on each one, so I don't really see much point in bothering. My overall point is that just because a developer chooses to juggle more things in their game, it doesn't mean they're somehow better than a developer who knows where they want their focus to be and commits fully to those few things.

Regarding Blood and Wine. Why does it have to be a new game? If they had sold it separately for the same price and simply called it "The Witcher: Blood and Wine" while leaving out the 3, how would that magically make it more qualified? The expansion was certainly large enough to be its own game and the story was easily the best I've experienced this year. I admit that I probably would have given it to Dark Souls 3 because I love that game and it's my favourite in the series, but I still think Blood and Wine was deserving of it.
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
The Game Awards is a joke. Somehow, last year Undertale didn't even get nominated for best narrative and her story won that. The only award Undertale got nominated for was best indi game and rocket league won that, along with best sports game.
 

Hawki

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RealRT said:
Hawki said:
RealRT said:
Overwatch, a mutliplayer game, is GOTY? What is wrong with this bloody world?
As opposed to a singleplayer game?
Yeah, as opposed to a singleplayer game.
So, the argument is that singleplayer is inherently superior to multiplayer, and that if a singleplayer-only game won, all would be right in the world?

Sigh...
 

SlumlordThanatos

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RedDeadFred said:
sagitel said:
Best Game Direction: Overwatch
what? no.
Why not? I'm genuinely curious. Apart from the shit they pulled with the Summer Games loot boxes, they've been consistently putting out great stuff throughout the year. Now I would argue that this was something I knew I was paying for in advance, but I wasn't expecting them to go as far as they've gone. I was expecting new heroes, maps, and skins. Not a massive game mode update and a really fun PvE event too. Not only that, they release videos where the game directors actually sits down and explains their thought process and direction. It's really refreshing.
The thing about Overwatch is that the more you play it, the more you start to see the cracks beneath the polished exterior.

The game is pretty good, don't get me wrong. The art and character design is brilliant, as is usual for Blizzard games. The steady stream of new content is a plus, as well. But the game has been plagued by no end of issues: hacking is still widespread despite the many banwaves. Game balance is awful, but that's normal for a Blizzard game. Hero kit design is atrocious; Ana should never have been released, and Symmetra is already getting a kit rework, despite the game being a little over half-a-year old. And the less that is said about how they handled seasonal events, the better.

Good game? Yes. Game of the Year? Surely there was something better. Doom, maybe?
Worgen said:
The Game Awards is a joke. Somehow, last year Undertale didn't even get nominated for best narrative and her story won that. The only award Undertale got nominated for was best indi game and rocket league won that, along with best sports game.
As much as I hate Undertale, I'm inclined to agree.
 

RealRT

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Hawki said:
So, the argument is that singleplayer is inherently superior to multiplayer, and that if a singleplayer-only game won, all would be right in the world?

Sigh...
Pretty much, yeah. A singleplayer game is an experience. A multiplayer game is no different from solitaire, just a gaming fix with zero substance to it. Worse even, solitaire has less cheaters and assholes in it.
 

Hawki

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RealRT said:
Pretty much, yeah. A singleplayer game is an experience. A multiplayer game is no different from solitaire, just a gaming fix with zero substance to it. Worse even, solitaire has less cheaters and assholes in it.
Solitaire isn't even a multiplayer game - not primarily at least. Also, you'd be very hard pressed to argue that games like poker (another card game) or chess (does that need explaining?) lack substance to them. You'd likewise be hard pressed to argue that the games on that list which are multiplayer-focused lack substance to them as well, outside personal value judgement.

This is coming from someone who generally prefers singleplayer, by the way.

SlumlordThanatos said:
Good game? Yes. Game of the Year? Surely there was something better. Doom, maybe?
Taking that as writ, how does any of that do better than Doom? I mean, one third of Doom, its multiplayer, is a mess. Has some nice ideas to it, namely the demon rune thing, but it's not helped by the universal ammo system, loadouts (which would be fine in some games, but really don't work here), and map/weapon packs that cost up to around $50, depending on where you live in the world. The singleplayer is more enjoyable, but, at least for me, it's marred by repetitive combat, a terrible story with terrible characters, a sequel-bait ending, a rune system that starts off fun, but forces you to inconvenience yourself in order to get the higher upgrades, and boss fights that are...actually pretty good, all things considered.

So, haven't played Overwatch, hence why I haven't said anything about its actual quality, but Doom...yeah. It's fun, overall, and a net positive, but is so flawed in both its singleplayer and multiplayer that I can see why Overwatch would be voted over it, in theory - the "focused less vs. unfocused more," scenario. If we go by RealRT says, that singleplayer is an experience (and yeah, it is), does that make it better by it being a lousy experience? Going by the list, I can't fault it for music/sound design though, so I'll give it brownie points there.
 

Laughing Man

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Anything that was a full-game experience should basically beat Overwatch for default on the Direction side.
Exactly how can you have Overwatch for best Direction and in the same awards group have Witcher 3? If Direction means the same in games that it does in movies then Witcher 3 pisses all over anything you'd see in Overwatch. Flat one note characters with quippy catchphrases vs characters that actually made me care about what they were going through.
 

Spider RedNight

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Kibeth41 said:
And I wish they had an award category for best episodic game. If so, I would have given it to the new Kings Quest.
Seconded in a heartbeat. I friggin' loved that game.

OT: Yeah no, I also don't think Overwatch should've gotten GotY, which I realise is subjective - I would've given it to Uncharted 4 but I'm biased and I do think single-player is better than multiplayer though so that's just my input.

To quote Rick Sanchez: "Well, if it's any consolation, none of it mattered and the whole thing is stupid."
 

laggyteabag

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Im still not sure about Overwatch. I love the CG trailers that they do, but it just makes me feel like Blizzard just really wants to make a movie or a show about Overwatch, and then the game is a reluctant comprimise. I haven't touched it since before Ana came out, and I have no real compelling reason to do so. Not too sure that I agree with it getting GotY.
 
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I don't mind Overwatch. It's not something I play religiously but it's well balanced and fun for what it is. Probably not GOTY material though.

The game I have played the most this year is Forza Horizon 3, so I'm stoked to see that get recognition.
 

gyrobot_v1legacy

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Somewhere in Gearbox Games. Randy Pritchard is crying himself to sleep as Battleborn continues to lose players as Overwatch wins GOTY.

Anyways...

Overwatch winning GOTY can attribute its game design to taking the Street Fighter 2's character design philosophy and applying it their cast. Battleborn trie the we are so unique and failed.
 

Poetic Nova

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008Zulu said:
Can't believe SFV won best fighter. FFS, one of the updates this year installed a bloody rootkit!
Exactly my thoughts. Its initial release was a 60 dollar beta aswel.