The Escapist's Game of the Year

[Onyx Oblivion]

Also, let me just say how much I really appreciate readers who can say "I didn't personally enjoy this, but I recognize that it's good." It's a very mature and sophisticated point of view, and one I thank you for.

To be honest, I haven't play a game I genuinely thought was bad since...well...2009, at least. Everything I played in 2010 was enjoyed it someway or another. I played more games that a game reviewer on a website who reviews one game a week.

[sub]I need a life...[/sub]

Wait, no. I did play Comic Jumper and Record of Agarest War. But still. I think I just am unable to really dislike most games. I get a kick out of nearly everything, so long as the game mechanics are functional. I liked everything from Bayonetta in January to Singularity in December.

Comic Jumper wasn't really functional for me.

Well, I don't mean bad necessarily. My go-to example for this is Enchanted Arms. The game is a perfectly serviceable JRPG, but nothing remarkable. And I played the crap out of it because, for some reason, it just really connected with me. I enjoyed that game more than many, many others I've played - far better ones, too. So, I had a really great time with Enchanted Arms, I couldn't begin to think of nominating it for a Game of the Year award.

I liked EA, too. The second RPG to be released on the 360, after Oblivion. And the first JRPG on the system, too. Followed by Two Worlds claiming the third spot. How the hell did the 360 become the go-to console for RPGs, anyway? Sony had that throne for PS1 and PS2 generation. But I digress...

But you should never fear putting games you like up for your GOTY, or at least mentioning them in Honorable Mentions. Not everything needs to push the medium forward. And for some reason, people always choose the games that focus on story-telling when it comes to GOTY. That's why we rarely see any straight action games win GOTY. And this results in piss-poor justifications of storylines when games like CoD4 and Halo win the awards. People are afraid to admit they gave these awards because they had a ton of fun with the games. It was shocking as hell to most people when Saint's Row 2 grabbed Yahtzee's GOTY back in 2008.

Actually, Saint's Row 1 & 2 have better storylines than they should have, really. My Hot Dog Suit totally ruined all the dramatic moments...

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

To be honest, I haven't play a game I genuinely thought was bad since...well...2009, at least. Everything I played in 2010 was enjoyed it someway or another. I played more games that a game reviewer on a website who reviews one game a week.

That's probably because you're not a reviewer and because you don't buy games out of obligation.

I can't remember myself playing a game I truly deemed bad.

snip

In case of a magazine, there's a lot of people who might have appreciation for different titles, but, usually, as a sum, the title that is more universally considered good and was fairly equally enjoyed by everybody is probably that best game you're looking for. So, I have no problems with the nominated games being the standard acclaimed stuff.

But, in case of personal lists, well, a game can be best all it wants, but a GotY should mean something.

Fairly standard comparison here - Red Dead Redemption (technically solid, lots of stuff, not that many complaints) versus Alpha Protocol (technicaly abysmal, a ton of flaws). Yet, I like the second one better. It appeals to me more, I understand it. It may not be a better game, but it'll rank higher.

 

[Azaraxzealot]

Mass effect 2 was robbed.

that game has scale you don't even realise until your third playthrough, and you can't say that of many games that will take you 30+ hours to finish.

well, at least it wasnt BlOps or Halo Reach, eh?

Mass Effect 2 won IGN's game of the year, if that makes us feel any better (i loved Mass Effect 2 more than RDR as well)

still, i can agree with this, because Mass Effect 2 won by just a hair in my mind. this is because it made me cry in how AWESOME it was, while RDR made me go "FUCK YEAH!" at the end when i got my revenge and "Red Dead Redemption" showed on the screen.

 

[N_Gin]

Good pick, in my opinion.

 

[JEBWrench]

Ah, there goes my slight shimmer of hope for New Vegas getting a GOTY.

Since ENN already quasi set things straight by giving a quasi-GOTY to Alan Wake, the other best game of this year.

EDIT: Also, there's no way the other other GOTY (Alpha Protocol) will ever get considered, so I didn't have a glimmer of hope for that one.

 

[vxicepickxv]

It was a hard selection from a very small list of games. I'm not going to say that any of the games up there wouldn't have deserved GoTY. They went with what they felt was their best choice, and I'm not going to argue for or against it.

 

[Tim Latshaw]

I was just happy to see Kirby's Epic Yarn nominated.

Yeah, I grow attached to certain games for strange reasons.

 

[Lucifer dern]

Never got into it, tryed it, got bored, never tempted to go back. Fair opinion I guess but I would have gone with starcraft 2.

 

[Grey_Focks]

A very good choice, though not the one I would have picked, it was still a fantastic game. Really my only problem with it was it just had zero replayability to me. The multiplayer was an interesting idea that just went nowhere, and I really just didn't feel the urge to go back to any of the previous missions once I'd beaten them. That, and having to

play as Jack after you beat the game really did kinda make me not want to even bother dicking around anymore. His voice was kinda annoying, and he just wasn't nearly as cool as his dad.

Still a fantastic game, though.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Is it wrong that I failed to muster the effort to care or even bother to look up which games came out in 2010? I'm not a big fan of this kind of pissing contest where we all seem to need to quantify one game as "best" for some reason and I don't have time for the debate. Everyone can do what they like and I'd like to acknowledge that nothing is best, only different. I have to go do something constructive now.

 

[GonzoGamer]

RDR is a game I would not want to replay, a game I'm fairly dissapointed with, but a game I admit is very good.

That is how I feel about 95% of GOTY winners, every damn year.

I first felt that way back in 2004...When God of War kept losing GOTY to Resident Evil 4.

And GTA San Andreas should've beaten them all. Seriously, RE4 is one of the most overrated games of all time... right next to No More Heroes.
I think I'm closer to siding with the Zero Punctuation goty: Just Cause 2.
RDR was pretty cool and everything but just not as absurdly explosive as JC2.

 

[repeating integers]

I would have gone for Halo: Reach, personally. But everyone knows what a fanboy I am anyway, so I won't focus on that.

As RDR reels in more and more GotY awards, though, I'm getting more and more convinced I should try it out. It's funny, I didn't even know anything about it until Yahtzee reviewed it.

Somewhat a bit related:

Game of the Year list for another, very nice forum I go to [http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?255962-The-Relicnews-Forums-Game-of-the-Year]

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

Meh.. Undead Nightmare is better than the actual game.

 

[cerebus23]

Red dead is a great choice i would have maybe flipped a coin with mass effect 2, but rdr did do something me2 did not do give us a huge world to play in and do stuff. me2 i played through 3 times since its release and i love the game aside from the planet scanning...but trainers ftw on pc. rdr also had several other things going for it it was new ip, it is the first cowboy western game that was really great. I cannot fault any choice in rdr despite my love for the mass effect series.

My somewhat distant third pick would have been fallout new vegas, a game that surpassed fallout 3 in every way, and brought the fallout back to fallout with it's offbeat humor, characters and excellent writing in those characters. and a much more interesting story than fo3. aslo the va work in fonv trounces the hell out any rpg bethesda as done. dunno why beth cannot get their voice director to keep a gdamn tone for a character's dialogue but bethesda games are horrible for that.

 

[PeePantz]

I'm somewhat surprised by the hate for the game right now. RDR was by far the best game of the year. It was smooth, polished, immersive due to whenever you wanted to do something, you could. I'm in a race but I want to kill a bird. *Bam*, bird dead. I also found the gambling to be spot on and much more fun than any other gambling in a game. The story was probably the best story in any game that has ever been. There were almost no over-the-top cliches at all. I spend sooo many hours playing this game and not one minute felt like a chore. That is impressive. Also, the best part (which is astonishing because of all the greatness) was the music. The music in that game whether it be the game's original score or actual songs being used was an eargasm. Beyond everything else, I could never get sick of a game that had such an impressive score. Perfect, absolutely perfect.

 

[Susan Arendt]

In case of a magazine, there's a lot of people who might have appreciation for different titles, but, usually, as a sum, the title that is more universally considered good and was fairly equally enjoyed by everybody is probably that best game you're looking for. So, I have no problems with the nominated games being the standard acclaimed stuff.

But, in case of personal lists, well, a game can be best all it wants, but a GotY should mean something.

Fairly standard comparison here - Red Dead Redemption (technically solid, lots of stuff, not that many complaints) versus Alpha Protocol (technicaly abysmal, a ton of flaws). Yet, I like the second one better. It appeals to me more, I understand it. It may not be a better game, but it'll rank higher.

Exactly, which is why we do our Favorites lists, too. 'Cause while I very much want you to all know that Monopoly Streets is effing awesome (and *just* missed out on my Top 5 Favorites), it's really just not GOTY, you know?

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

Exactly, which is why we do our Favorites lists, too. 'Cause while I very much want you to all know that Monopoly Streets is effing awesome (and *just* missed out on my Top 5 Favorites), it's really just not GOTY, you know?

Oh...

Right.

I actually watched those.

My memory has embarassed me once again.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

The tag on the front page really gives it away though.