Haunted
Member
I actually facepalmed when I read my 2006 list again. Our past selves were idiots.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
GAF Games of the Year 2011 - Voting Thread - Voting's Over, Folks!
- Thread starter timetokill
- Start date
- Status
Galaxy beat ME1, but ME2 beat Galaxy 2. I think most agree that ME2 is the most "wtf" of the GAF GotY winners.
From where I'm sitting, MGS4 is the big one. I don't even know what the fuck.
Oh mine is worse than that. I put a list together because I felt composed that I had to create one and fill it. Very little play time and more hype for titles. Mistakes were made. Like drunken night and walking up in the back of a barn type of mistakes.
Its half the reason why I've become very anti-hype over the years.
Not sure if it's really WTF worthy since it did win GOTY all over the media. It also wasn't really hated anywhere near as much as it is now for much of the year.
I actually prefer Galaxy 2 and ME2 over their originals, so I would have been fine with either Galaxy 2 or ME2 taking it that year.
I really liked Mass Effect 2 and I was still annoyed when it won. Red Dead is just objectively the better game.
SteveWinwood
Member
Wasn't even that great until beyond the sword.
MiamiWesker
Member
Why would your opinion on a game change. You played it, you loved it at the time, that is your true reaction. I will never get that reaction.
Salacious Crumb
Junior Member
Battlefield 2 came out in 2005 as well, I'd rate that over RE4.
Haunted
Member
Things reveal themselves in hindsight. With a bit of distance and more of an overall view, you tend to see things that were hidden/obscured to you before while you were in the thick of things.
Of course, I wouldn't go back and change my list, since that's it how I felt at the time after all, but now, looking back, I can see that other games might have deserved that spot on the list more than those that got it.
nckillthegrimace
Member
You should post your list so everyone can laugh at you.
Similar to how our tastes in food shift and change. What's your favorite 5 years ago may be something you're apathetic for or actively loathe now. Of course, that's usually more tastes changing from childhood to adulthood, but I can see various factors (overeating that food, health concerns) that would affect tastes there, and it's probably somewhat similar with video games. Something like Modern Warfare was pretty enjoyable in isolation, but with how most FPS design seems to be behind it even harder than behind Halo's design it may be hard to stomach that kind of design anymore.
That, and you may regret voting for a game in that list because you finally got through others from that year, and those other games were that much better! I could well have said my favorite RPG from 2004 was Star Ocean 3, but more because I enjoyed it a lot than feeling it was THAT good of a game and the alternatives failing to make that last little push for me, but after beating SMT: Nocturne it's no contest which was best that year... period, perhaps.
Haunted
Member
Let's just say that Ninety-Nine Nights might have made an appearance. I think that's damning enough.
Man........that just isn't right.
Hey now... the game wasn't perfect but it was fun damn it!
GillianSeed79
Member
Man, I really regret just listing my top 10 this year. I really meant to type out my thoughts, but then the deadline got extended and I just kept putting it off until it was too late and I didn't have the energy. The again I tend to not express my thoughts well, have bad grammar and my taste is in games tends to feel far too geared toward mainstream AAA games compared to the rest of GAF. The thing that actually surprised me is I couldn't even list 10 games this year. That's probably due to a combo of more financial responsibilities, less free time and the sequelitis/senioritis feeling I always get as a gen is dying down. I will say I gave Portal 2 a standing ovation in my den at the credits and it's the only game besides Witcher 2 I actually replayed this year.
My biggest regret is not playing Gemini Rue this year.
My biggest regret is not playing Gemini Rue this year.
In my first year on GAF, I was a bit enamored with my PS3 and iirc, Killzone 2 was my runner up in '09. It's not a bad game, the online was fun, but it's something I don't think I'll ever play again. My perspective was limited from only playing games on one platform. Otherwise my previous pics are solid, although I didn't have a PC until last year so I'd have to make a few amendments.
Shorty11857
Member
Agreed but still better than RE4, but my opinion of that probably belongs in the controversal opinion thread rather than here
MiamiWesker
Member
To me when you are playing it for the first time is the most accurate representation of how good that game is to you. Everything that comes after is over thinking, you start incorporating crap you read on the internet, as time changes you start looking back but through today's games spectrum. What matters is that at that moment you enjoyed the game that much. Why would those games deserve the top spot when at the time they clearly didn't do their job of entertaining you as much as the ones you did choose.
I understand if you play new games from that year and then you adjust your list cause those games were better but simply saying "wow why did I like that" seems weird to me. We all do change opinions over time but I will always hold me initial reaction as my main basis for how much I enjoyed the game. My example would be the Sonic Adventure games, I LOVED them, but yeah I can see how many issues the games have. Doesn't matter, I will always look on those games fondly.
GrandHarrier
Member
Sorry, just fixed that statement there for you.
That sort of view unfairly advantages the longer and more replayable games I think. If you were able to give two games 20 hours and one excited you more than the other, does the fact that the second game gave you another 40 hours over the years make the first game "less deserving"? I think that's a flawed view and doesn't really take into account the fact that your memories get coloured over the years. There's a good TED talk on this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgRlrBl-7Yg
For example, in 2008 I put Fable 2 ahead of Fallout 3 which I put ahead of Sins of a Solar Empire. In terms of games that I want to go back and play now, that list would be in the opposite order. That doesn't make my initial assessment wrong, unless I'm trying to compile a list of games that someone should go out and play today. That wasn't the purpose of my list. The idea was to put the games I had most fun with in 2008, not the games that I might go on to have fun with in future years.
As another example, I bet CoD4 would be on many peoples "best of all time" lists if it hadn't been given the yearly sequel treatement. Then we'd go back and wonder why it was listed so low in 2007.
I put Eternal Sonata on mine. I feel dirty. =[
You know, I started ME2 last weekend, right after finishing ME1. I've gone in pretty blind other than a few gaffers throwing spoilers around. Outside the obvious plot that is nothing more than a filler side quest. Where I'm traveling around and collecting the most "awesome" team ever to topple over some punks who I don't give a shit about. I been enjoying myself. Their are many damn faults. Zero exploration, the reduced skill tree(Some characters are locked into 3 till I complete their Loyalty mission), and Resource gather is boring. I've been enjoying how every single mission is character centric for the most part. The characters themselves have been very hit or miss, while most not being anything too different from the TV trope definition. I find myself caught up in the world created. Its no where near as good as other titles I loved the world for like Witcher or Nier. But its also a game I haven't quite understood the hate for yet. I have many complaints, but I don't noticed them till after I put the controller down(This is a good thing).
Haunted
Member
The initial reaction is a good basis, and one should never disregard his first impression of a game or the feeling one had when it's over, but it rarely provides the most accuracy results.
You call everything after that overthinking, I believe it's just thinking. And that's not a bad thing to incorporate in your GOTY results. Of course, it also depends on what criteria you go by in your GOTY voting.
You might like one game better than the other depending on your tastes. Talking from a pure game mechanics perspective though I think you'd have to be crazy to say that ME2 is better.
MiamiWesker
Member
Yes within that year think all you want but trying to rethink about something you wrote like 5 years ago gets clouded cause we now have 5 years of new game experiences which kind of changes how we view older games. Like a poster mentioned above, replayability becomes a major factor as well. Many times my favorite game of a year isn't exactly one I want to replay a lot. Some games just aren't as replayable as others, that shouldn't be the determining factor but that is probably the factor thought of most when playing old games. That's just the way I see it.
There's also the angle anyways that sometimes you ignore how you felt about a game because another was "better", stew on that for awhile, and... no, you really should've listened to your own initial gut feeling. Especially since it can be hard to make an accurate judgement call with the way entertainment works, I'm sure almost everyone could re-order those lists to some extent based on how they're feeling any one day.
EDIT: That, and you may find that despite how much you enjoyed a game it just... slips your mind. If it sticks for years it may be the real deal for leaving such an impression (though that also may work for LEAST favorites), while something that just vanishes from memory may not have been THAT great afterall.
MiamiWesker
Member
No, its better. I played both, ME2 to me was clearly more fun, more interesting, had better mechanics than RDR. RDR feels like a lot of Rockstar open world games and I would still put all the GTA games ahead of it. I have never played anything quite like ME2 (I never played ME1).
my list from 06:
1. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
2. Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria
3. Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
4. NEW Super Mario Bros.
5. Elite Beat Agents
6. Kingdom Hearts II
7. Xenosaga III
8. Mega Man ZX
9. LEGO Star Wars II
10. Yoshi's Island DS
i didn't beat final fantasy xii until sometime in 2007. it would take the second slot. nsmb would be off the list entirely. not sure what i was thinking with that one.
new list would prolly be:
1. twilight princess
2. final fantasy xii
3. valkyrie profile 2: silmeria
4. elite beat agents
5. excite truck
6. xenosaga iii
7. castlevania: portrait of ruin
8. dragon quest: rocket slime
9. kingdom hearts ii
10. chibi robo
it's hard having not played any of them recently though. half-life 2: episode one also came out that year, but i consider it part of my vote for the orange box in 2007
SteveWinwood
Member
Good to see excite truck.
I think ME2 is a much better game mechanically. RDR also has all of Mexico, which was a completely overdrawn pace killer.
Raitosaito
Member
Not in those "what is resident evil to you" type threads. RE4 comes off as the destroyer of the franchise most of the time, so no game is immune.
i think it was my first mega man.
SteveWinwood
Member
Papercuts said:
The disparity in their shooting mechanics alone makes it an easy choice for me. When you get right down to it the core game play of those games is a third person shooter. The Dead eye system combined with the fantastic euphoria hit reaction animations make Red Dead's combat a pure joy. The combat in ME2 can get just down right tedious, the dialogue and story is why you play those games.
I don't really have a way to argue for Mexico...it kinda just sucked.
MiamiWesker
Member
Man I must have hated 2006, I only listed 3 games and one was a rerelease. It was Zelda TP, then Okami, then MGS3 Subsistence.
Ok let me check 07:
My number 1 choice, my GOTY, SUPER MARIO GALAXY.
2. Metroid Prime 3
3. God Of War 2
4. CoD 4
5. Uncharted
6. VF5
7. Ratchet and Clank Future
Yeah seems about right still. I had no 360 so no games from that on the list.
Ok let me check 07:
My number 1 choice, my GOTY, SUPER MARIO GALAXY.
2. Metroid Prime 3
3. God Of War 2
4. CoD 4
5. Uncharted
6. VF5
7. Ratchet and Clank Future
Yeah seems about right still. I had no 360 so no games from that on the list.
MiamiWesker
Member
I dont know, ME2 shooting felt fantastic with way more weapon variety, all sorts of special powers and moves to do, far more tactical situations, plus its a game I can go back and play a very different way.
MiamiWesker
Member
This.
At the time I gave it to Galaxy, but given how I feel now I would likely give it to Prime 3 given how much I love Prime 3 and how much better Galaxy 2 is compared to Galaxy 1.
Are these past GAF results in fact real?
Seriously, lurkers must read GAF and think someone just fabricated that list and passed it out irregardless of actual votes, because from all of the discussions revolving around GAF GOTYs, there is never a clear consensus and just endless bitching about how the tallied GOTY is not the same as their personal choice. Any discussion makes it seem like nobody agrees with the winners at all. Is this just a symptom of people being naive when they go to vote at the time, it being cool to hate on the winners or winners all being #2 choices or what is it?
Seriously, lurkers must read GAF and think someone just fabricated that list and passed it out irregardless of actual votes, because from all of the discussions revolving around GAF GOTYs, there is never a clear consensus and just endless bitching about how the tallied GOTY is not the same as their personal choice. Any discussion makes it seem like nobody agrees with the winners at all. Is this just a symptom of people being naive when they go to vote at the time, it being cool to hate on the winners or winners all being #2 choices or what is it?
Yeah they are real.
Couldn't agree more. And I actually liked parts of Mexico (especially everything with Ricketts) but it was sort of drag when they forced you to go along with both sides of the civil war. Didn't really like Reyes or de Santa as characters.
my 2007 list:
1. The Orange Box
2. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
3. Mass Effect
4. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
5. Resident Evil 4
6. MLB Power Pros
7. Phoenix Wright Trials and Tribulations
8. Super Paper Mario
9. Phoenix Wright Justice For All
10. Sonic and the Secret Rings
i didn't play super mario galaxy that year. that's why it isn't there. i don't think it would change much.
1. the orange box
2. fire emblem: radiant dawn
3. mass effect
4. metroid prime 3: corruption
5. resident evil 4: wii edition
6. mlb power pros
7. super mario galaxy
8. soul nomad & the world eaters
9. phoenix wright: trials and tribulations
10. sonic and the secret rings
i always try to make a full top ten, even if it results in games i didn't really love making it onto the list. i played secret rings recently and my skills had deteriorated considerably, but i dunno. there's still something to it for me.
1. The Orange Box
2. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
3. Mass Effect
4. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
5. Resident Evil 4
6. MLB Power Pros
7. Phoenix Wright Trials and Tribulations
8. Super Paper Mario
9. Phoenix Wright Justice For All
10. Sonic and the Secret Rings
i didn't play super mario galaxy that year. that's why it isn't there. i don't think it would change much.
1. the orange box
2. fire emblem: radiant dawn
3. mass effect
4. metroid prime 3: corruption
5. resident evil 4: wii edition
6. mlb power pros
7. super mario galaxy
8. soul nomad & the world eaters
9. phoenix wright: trials and tribulations
10. sonic and the secret rings
i always try to make a full top ten, even if it results in games i didn't really love making it onto the list. i played secret rings recently and my skills had deteriorated considerably, but i dunno. there's still something to it for me.
SteveWinwood
Member
The orange box is the only thing I wouldn't mind putting above galaxy from that year.
The results aren't arrived at by consensus.
In response to these sorts of theories they started gathering this data last year and found that the winner in that case was also the game with the most #1 votes.
People with opinions.
- Status