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Giant Bomb's GOTY 2020 (Site Top 10 and Overall GOTY finalized)
- Thread starter MadLaughter
- Start date
Old format and watching live were so good this year!! Brad and Alex's write ups were brilliant too. There's a great spread of games across the list I think. KRZ and Animal Crossing were pretty poor for my money but I totally get why they're there. Spiritfarer and Ori doing so well made it for me, top 2 were fairly locked going in!
Yeah I kind of wish they'd write more often, I forgot how talented they all are.
congrats to hades. in a year full of great AAA games an indie game getting most of the important awards is really something special.
it's my goty as well, 90 hours in and nowhere near done with it.
it's my goty as well, 90 hours in and nowhere near done with it.
Yes, especially Jeff and Alex. I really miss their writing. Brad's as well, he's a super gifted writer.
I wasn't able to read Alex's piece on Spiritfarer because I haven't played it yet, but everything else I read was great. Jeff's extended outro (I mean, really it's the main piece but you know what I mean) on the KLF was surprisingly touching.
I'm still kind of bowled over by Yakuza being so high on the list and 13 Sentinels making the list at all. Brings a tear to my eye, both fantastic games.
I'm still kind of bowled over by Yakuza being so high on the list and 13 Sentinels making the list at all. Brings a tear to my eye, both fantastic games.
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You have the distinct honor of being like the only person in 20+ pages to ignore these completely
The Last of Us 2 got done dirty.
The combat & exploration in that game are nothing short of jaw-dropping imo. Alex didn't miss a beat to snipe it out of the top 10, haha.
The combat & exploration in that game are nothing short of jaw-dropping imo. Alex didn't miss a beat to snipe it out of the top 10, haha.
The majority of his list is goofs and I have mixed opinions on KRZ but reading his experience had me balling it's a beautiful must read
You have the distinct honor of being like the only person in 20+ pages to ignore these completely
I dunno maybe he was having fun while making that shitty comment?
To be fair to Jeff, I found the translator and still felt completely lost for 75% of the game.
I think this is one of the best GB has ever done. Really looking forward to playing Yakuza on PS5 and I guess I need to check out Spiritfarer ASAP. Every other game on the list I believe earned its spot and I'm super happy to see 13 Sentinels on there.
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TLOU2, GOT, FF7R were all close contenders. TLOU2 turned several off them off because it was so bleak and they say it was the worst possible timing from them. GOT suffers from them being so experienced with open worlds that it's lack of doing much new hit them harder than a lot of critics. Only 2 of them played FF7R and while they enjoyed it the passion wasn't there. Doom none of them finished it because they didn't enjoy the combat loop. HL:A none of them have access to room scale standing VR.
Have you listened to the podcasts at all? Each of them is discussed, and there are decent reasons for them not being present.
You'd have thought that the site that put out ~20 hours of discussions around their GOTY choices might be immune to this sort of pass-agg "Gee, I wonder why they didn't pick the games I like?" comment, but I guess not.
...Astro's Playroom hit the upper echelons almost purely because of Sony nostalgia. It's not biased, but this is a WEIRD year to make that comment!
Yeah, it seems like a good list overall. I didn't love Ori the way some of them did, but I can still respect its gameplay and polish.
I need to play Hades eventually, but I'd really rather wait/hope for it to come out on Xbox than play it on my Switch. And I'm still kicking myself for getting Watch Dogs over Yakuza back when they were both on sale.
Surprised, but happy to see Spiritfarer so high. It really sunk its teeth in me for a few days while playing through it.
I need to play Hades eventually, but I'd really rather wait/hope for it to come out on Xbox than play it on my Switch. And I'm still kicking myself for getting Watch Dogs over Yakuza back when they were both on sale.
Surprised, but happy to see Spiritfarer so high. It really sunk its teeth in me for a few days while playing through it.
This years deliberation were very enjoyable to watch. I now have a few games that I want to play like Hades, Spiritfarer, Yakuza. I'm shocked that FF7 was not on the list, but I am not surprised at all since this is the GB crew talking about GOTY. Seeing 13th Sentinel Aegis Rim actually be on the top 10 list was a real nice surprise.
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Tony hawk shouldn't have made it on the list. It was a 7-8 choice for only 2 people but last of us part 2 was on 3-4 people's list and high on their lists. Think vinny had it at 3.
Lists that you disagree with are actually very valuable, since they show you other opinions that may open you up to discover new and exciting games you would never have touched otherwise! Unless you come to GOTY lists to just verify your own opinion, and at that point just make your own list in words, copy it a bunch of times and look at that i guess?
Yea that is such a weird take. Alex's write up was so moving I was compelled to check out Spiritfarer on Game Pass. Hearing the praise for Yakuza makes me wanna try that too as it was Brad's first Yakuza so I may end up enjoying it too.
This was one of the best GOTY years they've ever had. Great discussions all around, and a great final list. Being remote had almost no negative impact, it felt totally natural aside from a couple moments of talking over each other.
2017 was the year that broke the old format, and 2020 brought it back in the best way possible. Would I still like them to kill Best Music in favor of another (almost any other) category? Sure I would. But beggars can't be choosers.
2017 was the year that broke the old format, and 2020 brought it back in the best way possible. Would I still like them to kill Best Music in favor of another (almost any other) category? Sure I would. But beggars can't be choosers.
I've always found Best Music to be the most boring category. Bring back hottest mess in its place
to be fair, most distressing is essentially hottest mess. im down for another goof category though.
I mean, easily the best GOTY list for my money outside my own... my list came out in the end of December (to prove I didn't just copy them, lol)
www.darkstation.com
7 of my top 10 made their top 10, with my #1 winning. (Hades, KRZ, 13 Sentinels, THPS1&2, Spiritfarer, Miles Morales, Ori)
Another of my top 10 was their final cut. (The Last of Us 2)
Another made their "This Does Hang Here" list. (Umurangi)
The last at least made their top 25 (Streets of Rage 4)
Of their 3 which didn't make my list, Astro was my final cut. (I was torn between it and Ori, decided to cut Astro in the end because it's a pack in and thus didn't need the plug) Yakuza would have been in my top 15 (really good, but not my favorite Yakuza. Had a few issues with the combat system and pacing. Still love the cast and overall the game. Look forward to an even better sequel). Animal Crossing was my most played game of 2020 and while I had too many issues with it in the end (and it should have been cut), I still did enjoy it overall.
Heck, even my finalists which didn't make my top 10 (FF7 Remake, Yakuza, Astro, There is No Game, Bugsnax, Animal Crossing, Fall Guys) all got a fair amount of positive talk or did well outside of Fall Guys.
The one thing I'd change? I'd have them look at their GOTY finalists and be realistic about what has a chance, cutting those that don't, before making the "This Does Hang Here" award. I feel for example that There is No Game would have been a lock for that list if it weren't still hanging onto the top 25 list with no possibility of making the final 10.
Andrew's Top 5 Games of 2020 — DarkStation
In most ways, 2020 was the weirdest year of my life. I think that’s probably true for the vast majority of people reading this. Between a pandemic, transitioning to working from home, an absolutely insane election, everything changed overnight and I found myself for the first time in a long time in
www.darkstation.com
7 of my top 10 made their top 10, with my #1 winning. (Hades, KRZ, 13 Sentinels, THPS1&2, Spiritfarer, Miles Morales, Ori)
Another of my top 10 was their final cut. (The Last of Us 2)
Another made their "This Does Hang Here" list. (Umurangi)
The last at least made their top 25 (Streets of Rage 4)
Of their 3 which didn't make my list, Astro was my final cut. (I was torn between it and Ori, decided to cut Astro in the end because it's a pack in and thus didn't need the plug) Yakuza would have been in my top 15 (really good, but not my favorite Yakuza. Had a few issues with the combat system and pacing. Still love the cast and overall the game. Look forward to an even better sequel). Animal Crossing was my most played game of 2020 and while I had too many issues with it in the end (and it should have been cut), I still did enjoy it overall.
Heck, even my finalists which didn't make my top 10 (FF7 Remake, Yakuza, Astro, There is No Game, Bugsnax, Animal Crossing, Fall Guys) all got a fair amount of positive talk or did well outside of Fall Guys.
The one thing I'd change? I'd have them look at their GOTY finalists and be realistic about what has a chance, cutting those that don't, before making the "This Does Hang Here" award. I feel for example that There is No Game would have been a lock for that list if it weren't still hanging onto the top 25 list with no possibility of making the final 10.
Yes! As someone who had to write a lot in a previous job, Brad is a great writer.
Alex's writeup for Spiritfarer is legitimately emotional. His love and passion for that game makes even more sense after reading it. Makes perfect sense that the game would resonate so deeply with him.
Jeff seemingly cared the least about this GOTY list than he has the past few years from the way the conversation went.
Totally agree about best music. It's so different from other categories because people will argue for or (mostly) against music when their only experience of it is a couple 45 second clips that are completely out of context. And near the end, it's brief clips that they heard once an HOUR or more ago. And when they try to let the music play for longer almost everyone looks disengaged- they don't want to stretch that segment to 4-5 hours.
When they argue against a game, they've at least put a couple hours into it and then bounced off. And generally speaking when they haven't touched a game at all they'll just stay out of the discussion.
I think Best Music would only be an interesting category if they all exchanged their favorites like a month in advance and then made a good faith effort to listen to at least some of the soundtrack while driving or cleaning or something. It's still totally out of context but at least it gives people a real experience of the work.
I'm very happy Yakuza got some props this year, my GOTY by far. I really enjoyed the discussions this year! The one big thing I thought would get discussed that didn't at the time was Paper Mario in the best music category.
I would like a "biggest news story" category. Would help them break up the game specific talk and it's something everyone would have an opinion on. Plus it's a fun look back at the previous year.
Could be a hot mess, could be a great innovation, could be a shift in the industry...lots of options and potentially a lot of good discussion.
Could be a hot mess, could be a great innovation, could be a shift in the industry...lots of options and potentially a lot of good discussion.