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NeoGAF Games of the Year 2015 Awards

Bloodborne fans vs Witcher fans cannot be described better than this gif

a0G0k.gif


This thread keeps getting more interesting.
 

Megatron

Member
I hope Megatron's idea never becomes reality. I voted for 8 titles, not because I only played 8 titles but because I don't think the other 20 titles deserved to be on my list.

Padding my list just to satisfy people that don't think I have the proper frame of reference for my own personal list and my vote counts less is very exclusionary.

Your number one would be worth 3 points instead of 4. Not much of a big deal in the grand scheme of things.
 

bender

What time is it?
Yes. Of course that opinion is worth less. How can you argue otherwise? If the only game you played all year is Tony Hawk 5, that's the best game you played in 2015. If you played 29 other games in addition to that, it's likely the 30th best game. I think if you don't put in a full ballot, your votes should drop a little. if you put in 8 it should look like:

1.X
2.X
3.Game 1
4. Game 2
5. Game 3
etc down the list. So your 1 would get the points of game 3 in a ten game list.

If you only vote for 5 games it should be
1.X
2.X
3.X
4.X
5.X
6. Game 1
7. Game 2
etc.

Just my opinion, but ultimately it doesn't matter all that much. It's just a fun exercise for forum posters.

Just for fun, let's imagine a situation where I've only played 10 games all year with Tony Hawk 5 being one of them. If I want to construct my list without acknowledging Tony Hawk 5, I devalue the other 9 games on my list. If I want those games to retain their value, I have to acknowledge Tony Hawk 5 and give it value it doesn't deserve. And just because you only vote for 5 games (or 1 game) doesn't automatically mean you've only played that number of games. Those same people could have easily played 30 or 40 games and that fewer than 10 were worth voting for.
 

Battlechili

Banned
I'm kind of disappointed Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon didn't make it in the top 20 and that Etrian Odyssey Untold 2 didn't get more love. :(

Also, it just occurred to me, but why wasn't there a "Best Soundtrack of 2015" section?
 
Yes. Of course that opinion is worth less. How can you argue otherwise? If the only game you played all year is Tony Hawk 5, that's the best game you played in 2015. If you played 29 other games in addition to that, it's likely the 30th best game. I think if you don't put in a full ballot, your votes should drop a little. if you put in 8 it should look like:

Or you just couldn't put Tony Hawk in there at all. Just because you played something doesn't mean you're forced to come here and vote for it. I barely had 10+ games, but if I didn't, I still wouldn't have given mediocre games like Batman and Yoshi any appreciation, despite finishing them.
 

Megatron

Member
Just for fun, let's imagine a situation where I've only played 10 games all year with Tony Hawk 5 being one of them. If I want to construct my list without acknowledging Tony Hawk 5, I devalue the other 9 games on my list. If I want those games to retain their value, I have to acknowledge Tony Hawk 5 and give it value it doesn't deserve. And just because you only vote for 5 games (or 1 game) doesn't automatically mean you've only played that number of games. Those same people could have easily played 30 or 40 games and that fewer than 10 were worth voting for.

If you've only played 10 games and want to leave Tony Hawk off, that only barely changes your score. Your # 1, 3 and 6 would lose one point each. Your 2, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9 wouldn't lose any points. If you only played 10 games your opinion isn't as informed as someone who played 30 or 40 games, so that seems like a fair reflection.

As to your second point, it's possible, but seems like it would be pretty rare given what most people say when they vote. There's no perfect system, we don't need to try to find every rare instance where a system isn't ideal.
 

kpaadet

Member
Precisely. It's never been about combat above all else in RPGs. Looking at nearly any Best RPGs of all time list would you show you that. We judge games holistically.

Dragon's Dogma and Divinity: Original Sin have some of the best combat around yet still pale in comparison to games with considerably worse combat like Planescape: Torment, Baldur's Gate 2, and Fallout: New Vegas by most accounts.

Persona 4 is GAF's #2 pick on the RPG essentials list yet it has incredibly dull combat and dungeons. Historically, that's just not how we view games in this genre or at all really.
You're comparing DD and Divinity to very old games (that still somewhat hold up mind you), we should expect combat to evolve (I'm not gonna defend New Vegas as I was never in the group that adored that game). Persona 4's combat might not be to your liking but it achieved what it set out to do (making a turn based game) Witcher 3 rarely feels great to control, a lot of the time I felt like I was enjoying the game despite the controls. You can have a great RPG with great combat, you mention four of them in your comment and Gaf's GOTY is another, let's stop making excuses for The Witcher.

I would also take dull combat over sluggish combat any day of the week.
 

bender

What time is it?
If you only played 10 games your opinion isn't as informed as someone who played 30 or 40 games, so that seems like a fair reflection.

You have no idea how many games someone has played based on how they voted. Saying someone who has played less games than another voter has less value is also problematic.
 

Instro

Member
Pretty good, but lol Fallout 4, especially over other more deserving RPGs. Unfortunate that Axiom Verge didn't get more votes, definitely one of the best experiences I had this year..
 

benny_a

extra source of jiggaflops
You have no idea how many games someone has played based on how they voted. Saying someone who has played less games than another voter has less value is also problematic.
If you want to walk down that path, has Megatron even played the top 20 games of the year as per GAF? Anything but would mean his ballot wasn't well informed.

(Yes, all this bullshit adding on rules making other people feel like their opinion matters less just because is a fucked thing to advocate. But it only matters a little less, so it's alright.)
 

cormack12

Gold Member
The most interesting thing for me was Bloodborne still taking the GOTY despite Witcher being multi-platform. I think that's what EvilLore was alluding to. I don't think the technical problems was the main point of the post there. It doesn't mean much, it just indicates what sort of audience or demographic was most prominent in the creation of such a list. Especially considering there is such a wide PC audience here on GAF. Saying that, TLoU and Uncharted 2 also took titles in their respective years.

Anyway, Bloodborne wins and the world keeps still turning. It was an excellent game for many reasons. From design, to visuals to encounters. A few niggles here and there. I still think the camera work is shite for big bosses and I think the story/optional areas could be less obtuse (if I didn't use the progress route, I would definitely have missed Hypogean gaol and Cainhurst for example). I wasn't over sensitive to the frame pacing. The 'frenzy' mechanic soured me a couple of areas but I can see how it gets the acclaim. Had a little too much frustration for me in the end which knocked it down a couple of pegs personally.

I must say though, I don't get the hate for the Witcher's combat. I tried alternate controls and they felt skatey. I put it back to normal and everything just has this wonderful fluidity and weight to the combat. Sharpening your weapons, buffing them with oils and using bombs is fantastic. Then you're in the action part of the battle, perfectly timing weaves to get position in between two enemies while laying down signs to get an edge. It sounds like people are actually trying to play it like a Souls game in some regards and it won't work. That's not to say there aren't faults. The lock on mechanism could be smarter, not being able to execute someone downed by 'Aard' because you've locked onto an archer ten yards away is daft. Also it seems that you only get the weaknesses of some enemies after a successful encounter which is a bit random. I'm a Witcher, I should know them already right? Mainly seems to be on enemies you meet in the wild. Like for example, an Endrega Warrior for the first time.

Strangely enough I think both games suffer with having multiple enemies on screen. Witcher less so, but still they exhibit that AI behaviour where they group then attack with the same timing. Then it becomes difficult to seperate them, or manouevre them as you'd like.

Also, if the combat was such a big deal then how did Skyrim outplace Dark Souls? Bloodborne winning the GAF GOTY doesn't take anythign away from how excellent the Witcher is, it just means that more people from this demographic would prefer to play Bloodborne than The Witcher. There's no need to trample on either games. There could be loads of contributing factors - open world fatigue is setting in, there's nothing quite like Bloodborne out there and a myriad of others. If you look at the last five years, the more linear games seem to have done well at the top as well.
 

Megatron

Member
If you want to walk down that path, has Megatron even played the top 20 games of the year as per GAF? Anything but would mean his ballot wasn't well informed.

(Yes, all this bullshit adding on rules making other people feel like their opinion matters less just because is a fucked thing to advocate. But it only matters a little less, so it's alright.)

You've just created a paradox. There's no top 20 if none of us are allowed to vote unless we've all played the top 20. ;)
 

Hypron

Member
If you've only played 10 games and want to leave Tony Hawk off, that only barely changes your score. Your # 1, 3 and 6 would lose one point each. Your 2, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9 wouldn't lose any points. If you only played 10 games your opinion isn't as informed as someone who played 30 or 40 games, so that seems like a fair reflection.

What if I played those 10 games a lot more thoroughly than people who rushed through 30 or 40 of them. I'd be able to form a more informed opinion on the 10 games I played, since I'd know their intricacies better.

Why should my vote be worth less than theirs again?
 

Shahed

Member
Your number one would be worth 3 points instead of 4. Not much of a big deal in the grand scheme of things.
This also works in reverse. If I feel a game is amazing and deserves top spot on my list I'll put it there. If a game is good enough then there's no reason to omit it just because you listed less games. I didn't fulfill the full 10 game quota either because several games like MGSV, FF Type-0 and more were games I felt didn't deserve points from myself. I shouldn't have to add them.
 

Calabria

Banned
Yes. Of course that opinion is worth less. How can you argue otherwise? If the only game you played all year is Tony Hawk 5, that's the best game you played in 2015. If you played 29 other games in addition to that, it's likely the 30th best game. I think if you don't put in a full ballot, your votes should drop a little. if you put in 8 it should look like:

1.X
2.X
3.Game 1
4. Game 2
5. Game 3
etc down the list. So your 1 would get the points of game 3 in a ten game list.

If you only vote for 5 games it should be
1.X
2.X
3.X
4.X
5.X
6. Game 1
7. Game 2
etc.

Just my opinion, but ultimately it doesn't matter all that much. It's just a fun exercise for forum posters.

You're anti-poor people? What's wrong with you?
 

Koh

Member
As to your second point, it's possible, but seems like it would be pretty rare given what most people say when they vote. There's no perfect system, we don't need to try to find every rare instance where a system isn't ideal.

I'd argue your system is overbearing for what is a small % of votes. 59 votes had one title. I'd be hard pressed to say an 8 title vote is less worthy than a 10 title vote, yet you penalize their most valued game by 25%.
 

Megatron

Member
I'd argue your system is overbearing for what is a small % of votes. 59 votes had one title. I'd be hard pressed to say an 8 title vote is less worthy than a 10 title vote, yet you penalize their most valued game by 25%.

Less than 50% of ballots had the full ten though.
 

Calabria

Banned
The most interesting thing for me was Bloodborne still taking the GOTY despite Witcher being multi-platform. I think that's what EvilLore was alluding to. I don't think the technical problems was the main point of the post there. It doesn't mean much, it just indicates what sort of audience or demographic was most prominent in the creation of such a list. Especially considering there is such a wide PC audience here on GAF. Saying that, TLoU and Uncharted 2 also took titles in their respective years.

Anyway, Bloodborne wins and the world keeps still turning. It was an excellent game for many reasons. From design, to visuals to encounters. A few niggles here and there. I still think the camera work is shite for big bosses and I think the story/optional areas could be less obtuse (if I didn't use the progress route, I would definitely have missed Hypogean gaol and Cainhurst for example). I wasn't over sensitive to the frame pacing. The 'frenzy' mechanic soured me a couple of areas but I can see how it gets the acclaim. Had a little too much frustration for me in the end which knocked it down a couple of pegs personally.

I must say though, I don't get the hate for the Witcher's combat. I tried alternate controls and they felt skatey. I put it back to normal and everything just has this wonderful fluidity and weight to the combat. Sharpening your weapons, buffing them with oils and using bombs is fantastic. Then you're in the action part of the battle, perfectly timing weaves to get position in between two enemies while laying down signs to get an edge. It sounds like people are actually trying to play it like a Souls game in some regards and it won't work. That's not to say there aren't faults. The lock on mechanism could be smarter, not being able to execute someone downed by 'Aard' because you've locked onto an archer ten yards away is daft. Also it seems that you only get the weaknesses of some enemies after a successful encounter which is a bit random. I'm a Witcher, I should know them already right? Mainly seems to be on enemies you meet in the wild. Like for example, an Endrega Warrior for the first time.

Strangely enough I think both games suffer with having multiple enemies on screen. Witcher less so, but still they exhibit that AI behaviour where they group then attack with the same timing. Then it becomes difficult to seperate them, or manouevre them as you'd like.

Also, if the combat was such a big deal then how did Skyrim outplace Dark Souls? Bloodborne winning the GAF GOTY doesn't take anythign away from how excellent the Witcher is, it just means that more people from this demographic would prefer to play Bloodborne than The Witcher. There's no need to trample on either games. There could be loads of contributing factors - open world fatigue is setting in, there's nothing quite like Bloodborne out there and a myriad of others. If you look at the last five years, the more linear games seem to have done well at the top as well.

Skyrim won because it was released in November. It's still in honeymoon period, and people didnt realized how shitty the combat is.

Also PC Dark Souls didn't release till a year after

Do another poll right now, I dare you it will not win against Dark Souls
 

Sicious

Neo Member
So now 1 game voters have only played 1 game?
I have played tons of games this year and only incorporated 3 games in my voting. should have been 2 actually, 3rd vote got the same points as the 2nd vote, but I think one game is vastly superior to the other.

Nope, wasn't implying that. If you played tons of game and felt that only few deserved voting that's okay, nothing wrong with that.



How many games would you require person to have played? IMO if you know your gaming tastes by having played multiple games in the past you should know if the game is something you would consider GOTY or no. Yes you might like some game more but then you would have to play every single release for you to know if there is something better than what you currently think is your GOTY and I would assume none of here has the time to play every release of the year within that year.
Well, we don't really have to play every game, since we all have different preferences, so if someone has RPG's as their favourite genre it's kind of pointless for such a person to play a genre he dislikes or have no feelings at all(like sports or racing games in my case) just for getting more info about his possible GOTY, and that's simply because no matter how someone tries, a GOTY choice will always be subjective. So I think the GOTY choice should be made from a mix of games that share a preference with the player(favourite genres, developers, ips, whatever you want) and bigger games(and with bigger i don't mean necessarily hype, AAA games, just games that people are talking about a lot) just to see what's their deal.

This is also the reason I personally didn't vote. I've played like only 5-6 games this years and i missed some pretty big ones (MGSV started yesterday, Undertale, other shit), so i didn't feel like voting, since i aknowledged that some of them,according to my preferences, could have made a difference.
 

Instro

Member
Interesting that there are comments regarding BB being a step back from Dark Souls. Admittedly I haven't followed the discussion on BB, and I'm lttp so I haven't finished the game yet, but most everything seems better than Dark Souls...
 

cormack12

Gold Member
Do another poll right now, I dare you it will not win against Dark Souls

That's not the point though, the point is how the games are viewed of their time hence game of THE year. Who's to say in 5 years time Xenoblade X might not smash Bloodborne as well? I'm not even sure what your point is?

The combat has not changed in either game since they were released. If it was so important Skyrim would not have won at the time full stop (honeymoon period or not). Unless seeing flailing arms is great combat.

I doubt the PC audience would make a difference. Did you read my post? It didn't seem to make any difference with the Witcher.....
 

Koh

Member
Less than 50% of ballots had the full ten though.

True, but the bottom 5 titles add up to 6 points I think.

I voted for 8 titles even though I played more. If I needed 10, those other 2 titles would have gotten 1 point from me. Hardly seems worth the effort when most people would just pad the bottom of their list.

This doesn't even solve the perceived issue of padding a vote. If I wanted my vote to really only count for my top game, I'd put that at 1 and then put on obscure or unpopular titles in the rest of my list.
 
You're comparing DD and Divinity to very old games (that still somewhat hold up mind you), we should expect combat to evolve (I'm not gonna defend New Vegas as I was never in the group that adored that game). Persona 4's combat might not be to your liking but it achieved what it set out to do (making a turn based game) Witcher 3 rarely feels great to control, a lot of the time I felt like I was enjoying the game despite the controls. You can have a great RPG with great combat, you mention four of them in your comment and Gaf's GOTY is another, let's stop making excuses for The Witcher.

I would also take dull combat over sluggish combat any day of the week.

The thing is we don't even have to compare them to old games. Let's take a look at the current list. I'd say most, if not all of the games above DD and Divinity have worse combat. (To various degrees obviously) Combat is not the only factor that can make make an RPG great. Nier, New Vegas, Persona 3/4, Undertale, Mass Effect, Earthbound, Planescape, etc. are generally not well regarded because of their combat even if you personally enjoy them.

I'd say The Witcher 3 easily gets more praise for it's combat than any of those titles do. In what world does Persona 3/4 have better combat than something like SMT: Nocturne? It is hilarious how some of you are trying to rewrite history to make it seem like combat is the only thing that matters and that just because you personally don't like a combat system it's the "worst" or we're making excuses. Give the hyperbole a break. Many people enjoyed the combat.

1. Chrono Trigger
2. Persona 4
3. Dark Souls
4. Final Fantasy VII
5. Fallout New Vegas
6. Final Fantasy VI
7. Xenoblade Chronicles
8. The Witcher III: Wild Hunt
9. Planescape: Torment
10. Baldur's Gate II
11. Persona 3
12. Earthbound
13. Mass Effect
14. Final Fantasy X
15. Final Fantasy IX
16. Undertale
17. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
18. Divinity Original Sin
19. Nier
20. Mass Effect 2
21. Valkyria Chronicles
22(t). Demon's Souls
22(t). Fire Emblem: Awakening
24(t). Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne
24(t). Final Fantasy Tactics
26. Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal/Heart Gold/Soul Silver
27(t). Bloodborne
27(t). Suikoden II
27(t). Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
30. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
31. Dragon's Dogma
32(t). The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
32(t). Dragon Age: Origins
34. Final Fantasy XII
35(t). Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
35(t). Fallout 2
35(t). Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride
38. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
39. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
40. Deus Ex
41. Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King
42(t). Pokemon Red/Green/Blue/Yellow/Fire Red/Leaf Green
42(t). Mother 3
44(t). Diablo II
44(t). The World Ends With You
46. Fallout
47. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
48. The Witcher
49. Xenogears
50. Shin Megami Tensei IV
 

antitrop

Member
Interesting that there are comments regarding BB being a step back from Dark Souls. Admittedly I haven't followed the discussion on BB, and I'm lttp so I haven't finished the game yet, but most everything seems better than Dark Souls...
The most common complaint I see about Bloodborne is the lack of build variety.
 

Azzanadra

Member
The thing is we don't even have to compare them to old games. Let's take a look at the current list. I'd say most, if not all of the games above DD and Divinity have worse combat to varying degrees obviously. Combat is not the only factor that can make make an RPG great. Nier, New Vegas, Persona 3/4, Undertale, Mass Effect, Earthbound, Planescape, etc. are generally not well regarded because of their combat even if you personally enjoy them.

I'd say The Witcher 3 easily gets more praise for it's combat than any of those titles do. In what world does Persona 3/4 have better combat than something like SMT: Nocturne? It is hilarious how some of you are trying to rewrite history to make it seem like combat is the only thing that matters and that just because you personally don't like a combat system its the "worst" or we're making excuses. Give the hyperbole a break. Many people enjoyed the combat.

I can't speak for the others, but in Planescape you only had to fight like one or two enemies., You could have avoided all fights through dialogue, and thus that became an essential part of the gameplay, whereas in The Witcher you are forced to fight.

And The Witcher 3 still won second here by a small margin, you're right in that its not only combat that matters and the results reflect that.... winning second is still an achievement in a year with such excellent titles, and it shows that clearly people were willing to overlook its flaws if it still won the most GOTY awards in 2015.

The most common complaint I see about Bloodborne is the lack of build variety.

This has been addressed in the DLC. For what its worth, I feel Bloodborne now has more variety than previous games because in say Dark Souls I would do a magic build, a faith build... a build for each archetype essentially. In Bloodborne, I am motivated to do a build for every two weapons, and not to mention
you can be an Alien or a Beast now.
 

Wagram

Member
Interesting that there are comments regarding BB being a step back from Dark Souls. Admittedly I haven't followed the discussion on BB, and I'm lttp so I haven't finished the game yet, but most everything seems better than Dark Souls...

I made a post in another thread that highlights the problems I have with Bloodborne. Keep in mind the tone and structure of the comment was geared towards the topic.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=192211434&postcount=443

I don't believe everyone will agree with me on each count there, but that's how I felt anyways.
 

joecanada

Member
I think it's very suspect that many people came in and voted for only 1 game, which was Bloodborne. This is like ballot stuffing, where they only vote for one game so they can be sure that no other game gets points which could potentially raise their placement

In the future if someone just lists 1 game it should only be worth 1 point IMO

There's multiple ways you could pad your ballot with other crap if you put arbitrary rules in.

I voted for a few and left the witcher3 out although I played it. Just didn't enjoy it enough to put in a top ten list. I enjoyed rocket league more. I guess that's very suspect lol.
 

Steel

Banned
I made a post in another thread that highlights the problems I have with Bloodborne. Keep in mind the tone and structure of the comment was geared towards the topic.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=192211434&postcount=443

I don't believe everyone will agree with me on each count there, but that's how I felt anyways.

Shoulda also pointed out how the first half is heavily weighted toward strength weapons and the back half is insanely weighted toward skill weapons.

Oddly enough, the DLC has the same exact set up: floods you with strength weapons right off the bat, and gives you almost nothing but skill weapons in the second half.

That being said, Bloodborne was still my GOTY.
 

antitrop

Member
There's multiple ways you could pad your ballot with other crap if you put arbitrary rules in.

I voted for a few and left the witcher3 out although I played it. Just didn't enjoy it enough to put in a top ten list. I enjoyed rocket league more. I guess that's very suspect lol.

I put Witcher 3 on my Honorable Mentions, just so people would know that I actually played it and still decided to put 10 other games ahead of it.
 
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