GS Awards. Shadow of Mordor is GotY

As far as I'm aware (i.e., asked Tom McShea once and he replied as such) that GS does a bit of a round table to discuss the review in question and then comes to a group consensus on what score the review "reads like."

@commonfate: Exactly, so i would assume that everybody is on the same boat with the scores, so this pretty much makes the scores irrelevant if by the end of the year they are going to choose whatever they feel like without taking in consideration the scores.

Exactly. That's like me giving the movie bird man a 5/5 and guardians of the galaxy a 4/5 and then saying guardians is my #1 best film of the year.

Like...what...didn't I score it LOWER? WTF?

Gamespot goes out of their way to brag about a score of ten. Then they tell us that scores are discussed by the staff.

Then they tell us that scores are irrelevant to the awards...WHAT?

How the hell did bravely default win 3ds goty? Did these people even get to the second half of the game?

Anyone knows at what time they will announce GOTY.?

@madsnakehhh: It should have been 52 minutes ago. Who knows anymore.

So where is GOTY, even GOTY get delayed? lol

@finalfantasy94 said:

@pelvist said:

@uninspiredcup said:

My friends - even though (obviously) a pc title such as "Divinity", or "Legends Of Grimrock", are clearly frontrunner in a year of mediocre console titles, chances are other staff members are casual console gamers compared to Kevin who will not even have touched these titles. These are the type of people who wear memes on there shirts and read what a teleprompter tells them to say.

That, coupled with pressure to use recognized title to appeal to the mainstream, ultimately makes whatever results, corrupt, unethical and overall: dubious.

A low point for humanity.

clapping for him just makes you just as bad.

Then I guess I am just as bad.

It'll be announced on The Lobby stream, 2PM PT.

@pelvist said:

@finalfantasy94 said:

@pelvist said:

@uninspiredcup said:

My friends - even though (obviously) a pc title such as "Divinity", or "Legends Of Grimrock", are clearly frontrunner in a year of mediocre console titles, chances are other staff members are casual console gamers compared to Kevin who will not even have touched these titles. These are the type of people who wear memes on there shirts and read what a teleprompter tells them to say.

That, coupled with pressure to use recognized title to appeal to the mainstream, ultimately makes whatever results, corrupt, unethical and overall: dubious.

A low point for humanity.

clapping for him just makes you just as bad.

Then I guess I am just as bad.

You're bad.

Shadow of Mordor.

Ell. Oh. Ell.

Oh well.

I fully expected it to go to Dragon Age 3, although I wanted Bayonetta 2. Still, it going to SoM, means I gotta check that shit out.

Good stuff with Jeff being on the show though.

Shadow of Mordor isn't that great though.

So in a world where Divinity OS, Dragon Age Inquisition, Dark Souls 2, Bayonetta 2 and Super Smash Bros exist, GS gives it SoM.

It's because of stuff like this why i can never care for GOTY awards and why i find reviews and impressions to be a better metric.

Ok this is it, i gotta buy Shadow of mordor

Multi-Plat GoTY. Multi-Plats are best played on the PC. PC won GoTY gg! /s

Anyways, this year in general has been rather slow in game launches... too much hype, broken games, micro-transactions.

Surprised Bayo 2 didn't get it.

Lame. Shadow of Mordor is good, not even great. There were better suitors for the award.

I'm not even mad. I'm just glad it wasn't DLC.

@deadline-zero0 said:

So in a world where Divinity OS, Dragon Age Inquisition, Dark Souls 2, Bayonetta 2 and Super Smash Bros exist, GS gives it SoM.

My reaction precisely.

Well that's boring.

@deadline-zero0 said:

So in a world where Divinity OS, Dragon Age Inquisition, Dark Souls 2, Bayonetta 2 and Super Smash Bros exist, GS gives it SoM.

It's because of stuff like this why i can never care for GOTY awards and why i find reviews and impressions to be a better metric.

Did you actually play those 5 games?

Good choice. It's a great game.

Shadow of Mordor was absolutely the best game I played all year.

Wow, Shadow of Mordor??? i don't know, while i'm disappointed not to see Bayonetta 2 win it, i'm more...mmm surprised to see Shadow of Mordor winning but losing to Divinity on the PC category, i mean seriously GS, are you high or something??? how can you even explain this???

Sooo basically they didn't want to upset anyone by picking an exclusive, the exact opposite to what they did last year.

So Divinity beat Shadow of Mordor on PC but was beat by Shadow of Mordor overall? How the hell does that make any sense?

If the PC version of Shadow of Mordor was broken on the PC and not consoles I could understand but as far as I know it's better in every single way. GS never ceases to confuse me. Or did they have different people deciding for each category but even that is pretty dumb.

DA no. I cheated abit, but it seems to be very well received.

My problems with Mordor were even touched on by Kevin in the review. The game is good, no doubt about it, but even in it's best, it still has issues.

The combat and movement are fluid and heavy, and feel good. The Nemesis is cool, but you need to get half way to the latter parts of the game to gets the full benefit. Before that, it's mostly a fun random AI generator. And the world itself is mostly barren and lacking in unqiue design.

And ofcourse there's the story and it's the world's character. While not bad in any form, it's not exactly up there either.

In the end, i can't compared Mordor directly with those other games, specially Wii U ones. However, i personally feel they executed their designs better than Mordor. Divinity, for example, has a some way to go in storytelling aspects, since i felt some of poor pacing or very forgetable characters. But in terms of the world building, the sidequest variety, the RPG custimzation options and the funny little co-op with dual MCs, i just find it to be a better overall RPG.

But, this is all my personall opinion, so, eh

LOL

Aw man, GameSpot had a fantastic pick last year and then they lay this egg. Oh well. Time to actually start the second half of SotM.

BTW, thanks to the mod (i'm assuming it was Charizard) who changed the thread title, was a little busy at the moment.

Anyway, i'm sorry but this logic still blows my mind, according to GS:

Bayonetta > Smash, Dragon Age: I, Divinity > Shadow of Mordor.

GS always says the GOTY award is decided by all the staff and not a single person, fair enough...so, following GS own standards:

Divinity > Shadow of Mordor (PC)

Yet, Shadow of Mordor won overall GOTY...seriously GS, what the hell???

8/10 over that many 9/10. GS get your shit together.

Bu-bu-but...

Bayo 2 got a 10?!

Poor sheep

I'm guessing the award discussion amongst the staff involved a blindfold and some darts

Don't forget some booze.

And what makes you think people aren't capable of making similar arguments for the other games?

Because Smash is fine as a fighting game, good core mechanics, solid roster, but pure depth standpoint it's outclassed by one of it's predecessors and a shit load of better fighting games. Then there is the online, which is a fucking crap shoot in terms of connection, which for a 2014 game, with a heavy emphasis on multiplayer that shit does not fly, what so ever. That is absolutely compromising element of the game.

Bayonetta 2: brilliant action game, borderline flawless on the gameplay front sans not being locked at 60 faps, and personally I'm tired of the genre's go to trope of level design of "go forward, here is this open space to fight dudes that is blocked off by red demon door shits, kill them, now you can move forward" as the 3d beat-em up genre has been doing that since fucking Devil May Cry. With Ninja Gaiden 1 being the only thing that really flirted with doing anything different. Minor thing here and there, and the lack of a leaderboard for a score attack heavy game? the **** out of here.

Divinity: cool rpg stuff, but the "sidequest variety" is a bit misnomer here, a good chunk of the first and 2nd area is doing a bunch of npc hunting quests so you can conversation your way to experience points and stat buffs. Also Mordor isn't a RPG, so who gives a flying **** if Divinity is better about the numbers? Likewise for all of Divinity's best combat aspects, it's not like you couldn't break that game wide open with two giant spiders wrecking shit for most of the game.

Dark Souls 2: the level design is mad fucking inconsistent as a whole. Boss fights are way too samey across the board. Otherwise sure the combat, atmosphere, and all that jazz is still bitchin because Dark Souls.

Not saying Mordor deserved to win: game wouldn't even rank in my personal top 10, but the whole dismissing a group (because it's an opinion, fair game), and instead going with a review (also an opinion), is some whiny ass shit over not getting the result you wanted.

Since the PS4 has no games I'd say this is a victory for cows.

SDC

This is the first time Gamespot's game of the year has completely dumbfounded me. I don't understand how they came to this conclusion, especially when they scord the game an 8.

It's like they all came to a meeting to discuss goty and Shadow of Mordor was the only good game they all played and so that just happened to be their decision.

Shadow of Mordor is a great game but I share your view of how it got picked for GOTY

So happy Bayonetta 2 didn't win. That was easily the most overrated game in 2014.

If you suck at games maybe.

Ah I see gamespot chose the fucking stupid option.

Bold move.

L M A O

Having played this game I don't understand this choice. People are overrating the Nemesis system massively. It's not a huge innovation: it's just a gimmicky feature that adds a bit of replayability to an otherwise shallow game. Don't get me wrong, SoM was decently fun, and I think the 8 score was justified, but it's nowhere near GOTY status.

Bayonetta 2, Smash Wii U, Dark Souls 2, hell even Shovel Knight are far more worthy choices.

.... Mario Kart is a part of the Mario series. Don't even try to Compare the milkage of Mario to Halo and God of War, Mario is on a whole other level that Halo and God of War will never reach in milkage

@jg4xchamp: Just 2 points, Mordor is classified has an action RPG and not i'm not actually upset over the result.

I'm just pointing out how this shows the disconnect between reviews and awards, for many, if not most, gaming plubications.

When doing a review, usually atleast, the person in question will look at how the game is by itself, how it executes it, and how it compares to other games in the same genre, or atleast close enough to it.

In this case, MK8 doesn't factor into Bayonetta 2's review. And neither of them factor into Smash's review. And obviously, none of them into the RPG reviews.

But in GOTY awards, all of them are put face to face, without proper metrics to define why one is better suited to received it. Or there is. Has said on the stream, GS, and i bet many others, gather their staff and vote. Since most played and went back to MK8, it was choosen over Bayonetta. And it's also why Destiny was placed on the ps4 nominies, and was almost choosen has a contender for overall GOTY. Because they still paly it today.

Yet most reviewers, rated the game is average.

IMO,it's also another reason why you tend to see first/third person "cinematic action adventure RPGs" whatevers win most of time, and now a simulator, or a fighting game, or a racing game, or an RTS, etc. They resonate with most people more often (myself included).

I respect Gamespot choice, and i'm not trying to bad mouth them if that's what it seems. I'm saying it shows a disparacy and why i always feel GOTY isn't a good metric of anything.

It's almost as if when deciding a winner for each category, only people who played all five games could vote. But for overall game of the year, anyone could vote. Seems like a strange choice considering Divinity: Original Sin beat Shadow of Mordor for PC game of the year....and I was wrong about Left Behind winning. D:

I liked the game, don't get me wrong, but it was amazing or anything. My enjoyment of it was about on par with Assassin's Creed: Revelations. It was fun but the gameplay felt a little too familiar and the nemesis system was really they're only new hook here. By the time I was half way through the game I just rushed to the end because I was ready to be done, that's not exactly the mark of goty to me

Pretty much this.^

it's not about scores, and doesn't necessarily mean that this was better than everything else. 2014 had a lot of good games but non of them was as innovative as SoM, so that's why they gave it Game of the Year.

2014 sucked. Makes sense that an average game like this could win GOTY.

Fair enough, my bad.