NOTE: This thread was deleted and then restored, and the poll was reset in the process. Initial poll results can be seen here.
Welcome to part 5 of the Community GOTY Revisited series, where we take a look back at the top games of past GOTY results threads from the other site and decide if the community got it right. See also the 2016, 2014, 2011, and 2006 editions.
Today's year is 2012, which resulted in the closest GOTY vote in the community's history, with Journey winning by a mere 17 points over The Walking dead (1080 vs. 1063). The critics' choices show a similar lack of consensus; though The Walking Dead won a plurality, 2012 had a wider field than any other year in terms of competitiveness, with nine different games winning at least 20 awards (more games won at least 1 award in 2014, but Dragon Age, the #1 for 2014, won by a much larger margin than TWD did in 2012.)
2012 is widely agreed to be a transition year for the industry, as both the Xbox 360 and PS3 were clearly in decline, but no next-gen consoles were out yet, save the Wii U (which did not light the world on fire.) There was also a conspicuous lack of big AAA critical darlings this year, leading to an unusual emphasis on smaller (if not exactly "indie"--Journey was Sony-published, after all) games that would probably not have been recognized in any other year.
So, in the context of 2012 being an "off year" in terms of megabudget games, which game deserved the GOTY? Personally, I enjoyed Journey for what it was, though it did not really stick with me after the 90 or so minutes it took me to complete it. Felt a bit too slight for me to consider it the best game of the year. The Walking Dead is, I feel, one of the most overrated games of the decade, a real technical disaster (awful framerate, game breaking bugs etc.) with no excuses considering how dated the engine was even in 2012, and how little interactivity there was in the game. The story was, like, fine for a zombie game, I guess, but still pretty standard set of tropes, and it didn't even really live up to the promise of your choices mattering, since the game railroads almost everything toward a single conclusion anyway. Mass Effect 3 was a considerable disappointment to me, nowhere near as enjoyable as 2, which was my 2010 GOTY. So, that brings things down to XCOM, Sleeping Dogs, and Dishonored, none of which would have been my choice in another year, but they were all at least good. I'm going with XCOM here, since I played that one the most, though the "another game" option is awfully tempting.
As usual, I've taken the six choices in the poll directly from the GOTY results thread on the other site. These are the top 6 as voted by the community back in 2006.
Welcome to part 5 of the Community GOTY Revisited series, where we take a look back at the top games of past GOTY results threads from the other site and decide if the community got it right. See also the 2016, 2014, 2011, and 2006 editions.
Today's year is 2012, which resulted in the closest GOTY vote in the community's history, with Journey winning by a mere 17 points over The Walking dead (1080 vs. 1063). The critics' choices show a similar lack of consensus; though The Walking Dead won a plurality, 2012 had a wider field than any other year in terms of competitiveness, with nine different games winning at least 20 awards (more games won at least 1 award in 2014, but Dragon Age, the #1 for 2014, won by a much larger margin than TWD did in 2012.)
2012 is widely agreed to be a transition year for the industry, as both the Xbox 360 and PS3 were clearly in decline, but no next-gen consoles were out yet, save the Wii U (which did not light the world on fire.) There was also a conspicuous lack of big AAA critical darlings this year, leading to an unusual emphasis on smaller (if not exactly "indie"--Journey was Sony-published, after all) games that would probably not have been recognized in any other year.
So, in the context of 2012 being an "off year" in terms of megabudget games, which game deserved the GOTY? Personally, I enjoyed Journey for what it was, though it did not really stick with me after the 90 or so minutes it took me to complete it. Felt a bit too slight for me to consider it the best game of the year. The Walking Dead is, I feel, one of the most overrated games of the decade, a real technical disaster (awful framerate, game breaking bugs etc.) with no excuses considering how dated the engine was even in 2012, and how little interactivity there was in the game. The story was, like, fine for a zombie game, I guess, but still pretty standard set of tropes, and it didn't even really live up to the promise of your choices mattering, since the game railroads almost everything toward a single conclusion anyway. Mass Effect 3 was a considerable disappointment to me, nowhere near as enjoyable as 2, which was my 2010 GOTY. So, that brings things down to XCOM, Sleeping Dogs, and Dishonored, none of which would have been my choice in another year, but they were all at least good. I'm going with XCOM here, since I played that one the most, though the "another game" option is awfully tempting.
As usual, I've taken the six choices in the poll directly from the GOTY results thread on the other site. These are the top 6 as voted by the community back in 2006.
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