What is your GOTY so far?

Games
#1

This year i have played some good games, but nothing that makes me shout “yeah, best game of the year, fuck yes!!”. The last one i have played that i liked was Red Faction Guerrilla, a very good game but… let’s say i would be a bit sad if the year ends and that is my goty, because it’s not that great, it would mean there weren’t any great game this year.

There is also ArmA 2, but it’s hard to see ArmA 2 as my memorable experience of the year, the problem being it’s a very conservative sequel of other games i have already played a ton (Ofp, Ofp expansions, ArmA, ArmA expansion). In other words, ArmA 2, at its core, feels like playing ArmA, and ArmA already felt like playing Ofp. It’s better, more polished, some new features, but not a new experience. And there are some issues in the campaign.

I have been playing Shift and it’s a good racing game, but also not GOTY material.

RE5 is a good game, more fun that it seemed at first, ignoring the controls and problems with the porting of the pc version. But the bosses, the qtes, the plot/characters, the save system that gave me more than one problem and inventory management from hell put the game a bit below of my standars for goty.

There are still some interesting games from here to the end of the year, Borderlands, Dragon Age, Ofp Dragonn Rising, but they are really a wild card for me, using the fidgit terminology i don’t know if they will be in the “fry it” category, in the “try it”, or “buy it” category.

There are some interesting strategy games i still have not tried, Blood Bowl and Tropico 3, but again they don’t seem like a game from my dreams. Demigod? Nah. Empire TW? Well, i wanted to begin a new game with the patch, it was supposed to be out today…

Thoughts?

#2

Batman: Arkham Asylum

#3

I swear we already had this thread.

#4

For me it is probably Red Faction: Gorilla or The Beatles: Rock Band. I haven’t played Batman or RE5 yet, so things could change.

#5

Shadow Complex

#6

Red Faction Guerilla or The Beatles Rock Band

#7

Either RE5 (cause it’s super duper fun) or Trials HD (cause it’s redonkulously awesome)…fortunately those are probably two different GOTY catagories so I can have both.

#8

I don’t think I’ve played a new game this year, yet. I’m still slogging through my backlog when I can fight off the MMO addiction long enough. I mean, I still haven’t completely worn out last year’s “Best Of” stuff. That was a damn good year…

#9

Easy.

Beatles Rock Band.

#10

Isn’t this a bit premature? We had a thread like this around June I think. Nevertheless, I’m game, but I hope we can keep it from being solely a list thread. Give your reasons people! Justify your choices.

I’ve played quite a few good games already this year.

  1. Chronicles of Riddick - Yeah, I know it’s a remake of a 5 year old game. But it’s still awesome, and it had upgraded graphics.

  2. Beatles: Rock Band - Grrreat Music. Excellent game.

  3. Resident Evil 5 - Whaaaa? I never thought I’d put a Resident Evil game on a list like this, but I had a blast playing through this with merryprankster as my co-pilot. Truly a great Co-op game. And I’m pretty sure I’ll play through it again several times, which is really rare for me.

  4. Red Faction: Guerrilla - What’s great about this game is hard to articulate because it happens not in the canned moments in the game, but in completely spontaneous moments when chaos is all around and you see destruction and a chain of events that makes you go: WOW! This game is AWESOME! Surprisingly enough, this also happens all the time in multiplayer with friends.

  5. Batman: Arkham Asylum. Despite the fact that I find this particular Batman (as opposed to the movies) universe really over-the-top cheesy at times, I absolutely love this game. It’s a masterpiece.

  6. Demon’s Souls. It’s hard to describe moments I love in this game because I fear I’ll ruin someone else’s moment. I don’t think it’s a game for everyone, but it is really different, really good, really bold, really ball-bustingly hard, and at the same time it has a sense of grandeur that I never thought I’d see in a dungeon crawler.

  7. Trials HD. It’s zero, because I hate it, and love it at the same time.

#11

Chinatown Wars.

#12

Probably Batman, although Shadow Complex is a close contender.

#13

The difference being, in my post the discussion of what if the GOTY is only an introduction to the real point: that i find this year underwhelming, there are some good games, but nothing outstanding.

Batman AA is for me the typical “modern” AAA videogame. In the not-so-good sense. Good graphics, good animations, good voices, good controls, very polished, lots of collectables, with some variety in the gameplay so it can’t be accused of being repetitive, but the game itself is pretty superficial and bland, apart from being easy and straightforward. The game doesn’t challenge me, it doesn’t makes me feel smart, it doesn’t makes me feel afraid, it doesn’t make a lot. All the work and money in the game was focused in the surface, the technical aspect, not in the core. Also, i am not a fan of the superhero comicbooks, so there is also that, all the superheroes and supervillians… meh. The “it is written but the guy who made the animation series!” is not a plus.

Other unreleased games
-Brutal Legend… i would interested if the game is released in a platform i own :P. Not for now.
-CoD MW2: No. I am not a fan of COD. A rental game, for me, just to watch the booms! and baams! and rattatata! and the arrgg! in the campaign.

#14

The Hunter. I played this a lot earlier in the year, but have just started it up again and am surprised how much progress they’ve made in the game. The game does a great job making you feel like you’re in the forest, while still making it easy enough that you can be successful most of the time. I think it does a good job with microtransactions, premium memberships, and community support. Its free play offering is also very recession friendly.

#15

Right now, Beatles hands down. I have a very strong feeling that by the end of the year it will be MW2 though.

#16

Well in that case, I mostly disagree about the quality of the games this year then. I take your point about Batman. It is a pretty shallow game, as is Red Faction. But I like their focus on gameplay above all else. Same with Trials HD (which is much, much better than Trials 2 btw, so don’t mix up the two by mistake). It’s a physics-based motorcycle game that has been polished to a diamond by now.

But if you want to play something where the game goes deeper than just the surface gameplay, Beatles: Rock Band and Demon’s Souls both go there I think.

Nevertheless, you do have a good point. Maybe 2009 will be remembered as the year in which most of the top games had gameplay trump all else, including story, atmosphere, immersion, and other factors that make up great games.

#17

Basically, there is no Deus Ex this year.Or Planescape Torment.Or Vampire Bloodlines.Or The Witcher.Or even Fallout 3.I feel the same.

But…I am hoping Risen will do it for me.

edit - from the games I finished (not just played) that were released this year, I would give GOTY to Cryostasis : )).

#18

we did

I’d almost say Men of War. I can’t fully endorse it for goty, but I’ve yet to come up with a better choice.

#19

@Rock8man.

When i think of the last good year of videogames, i think in 2007. Stalker, The Witcher, ET: Quake Wars, all the orange box (HL2 Ep 2, Portal, TF2), Bioshock, Cryisis, GalCiv 2 DA, SupCom, C&C3, WiC, that was a great collection of games.

2008 wasn’t so good, but we had Fallout 3 (my goty), World of Goo, GRID, L4D (a bit repetitive and with a lack of content, but otherwise a great game), Mass Effect, Sins of a Solar Empire, Dead Space, Crysis Warhead. Around 3 excellent games, 5 good games.

I hoped for a return of 2007 levels of quality, but perhaps that was only hopeless wish. Years that good really don’t come one every two years.

#20

But if you want to play something where the game goes deeper than just the surface gameplay, Beatles: Rock Band and Demon’s Souls both go there I think.

I’m curious about that. What do they do there that deepens the gameplay experience?