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NeoGAF Games of the Year 2016 Awards

Floody

Member
Doesn't change the fact that Neogaf is predominantly a Sony fan base, so the result was predictable. I never played UC4, but from what most people say, it plays far too safe. It's the fourth iteration of the series and apparently does absolutely nothing new from the previous games, and is considered slower and weaker story-wise from its predecessors. No game should win game of the year for that, regardless of how beautiful it is. Overwatch should have won for no other reason than it is a brand new IP that became an instant smash hit. You have subjectivity, and then you have hard fact.

Not hurt, just humored.

Wait there's people who think Uncharted 4 has the weakest story in the series? If so how does it? It's the only one that isn't instantly forgettable and although not perfect, was pretty damn good. The other 3 (never played GA) were just carried by the series great characters and 4 was as good as the rest there too.
 

Durante

Member
In the "Overall Rankings", is it supposed to list all platforms that a game was released on?
Because just looking over a few of them I've already seen [PC] missing for 6 (Superhot, Oxenfree, Salt and Sanctuary, Inside, SFV and Thumper).
This made me curious, so I just went over the top 100 in the overall rankings, and unless I'm missing something all these should have a PC tag:
Code:
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Superhot
Oxenfree
Salt and Sanctuary
Inside
Street Fighter V
Thumper
XCOM 2 (lol!)
Hitman
Firewatch
Forza Horizon 3
Hyper Light Drifter
Tom Clancy's The Division
Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma (Also missing Vita)
Quantum Break
Darkest Dungeon
Enter the Gungeon
Mirror's Edge Catalyst
Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator
DiRT Rally
Viginia
Unravel 
SteamWorld Heist
Far Cry Primal
The Banner Saga 2

Probably lots more further down, but I can't be bothered to go through the entire list ;)
 
Not surprised at all to see Uncharted 4 at number 1. I'm going to be playing it soon, so I guess we'll see if it lives up to all the praise.

And damn, I was hoping Ratchet & Clank would make top 10. 11th is still really good though.

And Gravity Rush Remastered didn't even get 3 points? huh... I thought it would get at least a few votes.

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XB1 Game of the Year: Forza Horizon 3 = 304 points, 12 honorable mentions
2. Superhot = 149 points, 25 honorable mentions
3. Quantum Break = 119 points, 13 honorable mentions
4. Virginia = 39 points, 13 honorable mentions
5. Trackmania Turbo = 24 points

Why isn't Gears 4 on this list?
 
D

Deleted member 125677

Unconfirmed Member
The big surprise here for me is Doom taking second place from Overwatch. I thought it would be between OW and UC for sure.
 

gow3isben

Member
Uncharted 4 is number 1 on this list as expected. It has one pretty much all of the people'e choice awards and for a reason. Nice to see Last Guardian there as well.
 

benny_a

extra source of jiggaflops
people this is a consensus vote, it's not going to match up your personal tastes 1-to-1. Uncharted 4 wasn't my number one but this board isn't about me, it's about US. What about our brothers and sisters that only play Eastern games? I never see them bitching about Stein's Gate being robbed, "cause of you filthy casuals who only play Western games." Get over yourselves
devlin_10_10-row-of-people.jpg


But yes, it's a popularity vote based on self-selected (to some extent, given the registration process) of people on one particular enthusiast video game website.

It has never been anything else. And that is absolutely fine. It can still be fun to compare it to itself or against the anticipation or E3 threads to see how hype played out after the fact or what people in general thought of a game when it isn't being dominated by very motivated posters that try to drive a narrative. (Same posters many posts vs. one vote per account.)
 
Good job with the thread as always.

The list just reinforces to me how disappointing a year it was for me personally. I would say of the top 6 games, 4 of them I outright dislike, one I like, and one I love. Usually I love all of GAFs top games. I didn't vote for once because I couldn't find more than 5 games I really felt warranted a vote for GotY.

I really hope 2017 is better, 2016 will be remembered as one of the weakest years in gaming to me.

Since you don't have a list, which game did you love?
 
Overwatch should have won for no other reason than it is a brand new IP that became an instant smash hit. You have subjectivity, and then you have hard fact.

Well... that's now how these things work. Just because it's a popular new IP doesn't automatically make it the best game of 2016.
 
Doesn't change the fact that Neogaf is predominantly a Sony fan base, so the result was predictable. I never played UC4, but from what most people say, it plays far too safe. It's the fourth iteration of the series and apparently does absolutely nothing new from the previous games, and is considered slower and weaker story-wise from its predecessors. No game should win game of the year for that, regardless of how beautiful it is. Overwatch should have won for no other reason than it is a brand new IP that became an instant smash hit. You have subjectivity, and then you have hard fact.
.

Actually most of the complains comes from changing the formula quite a bit. U4 showed that there are a group of people that loved the franchise for different reasons than others, and it probably welcomed new fans with its new approach.
You probably misunderstood opinions, not that you're gonna like it though but the truth is that there are some important changes on the formula that created some "confused state" between fans.
 

Megatron

Member
You seriously don't know what the hell youre talking about do you ? Uncharted 4 improved on the serious in many many ways. This is also the best story in the series. People complained that the previous games had way too many combat moments and waves and waves of enemies. Druckmann and Straley acknowledged that, and now everyone complains.

It really wasn't a very good story. They give Drake a long lost brother all of a sudden out of nowhere, who's completely unlikable. Instead of spending most of the game adventuring with legitimately great character like Sully Elena and Chloe, this mouth breather is taking up WAY too much screen time. You're on an adventure to pay off a debt to save said mouth breather and in the most predictable "twist" of all time
he's lying to you and just trying to get you to break your word to your wife and bring you back to a life you don't want to be in any more. Drake's reaction when he learns he was lied to was essentially to shrug his shoulders and be like whatever
. Really nothing noteworthy about the story at all.
 

reKon

Banned
Doesn't change the fact that Neogaf is predominantly a Sony fan base, so the result was predictable. I never played UC4, but from what most people say, it plays far too safe. It's the fourth iteration of the series and apparently does absolutely nothing new from the previous games, and is considered slower and weaker story-wise from its predecessors. No game should win game of the year for that, regardless of how beautiful it is. Overwatch should have won for no other reason than it is a brand new IP that became an instant smash hit. You have subjectivity, and then you have hard fact.

Not hurt, just humored.

Except this is objectively wrong. Did prior Uncharted games had a rope swinging mechanics (biggest change other than AI and level design AND this carries into the multiplayer), huge wide open areas, an expanded stealth system with different levels of AI contextual awareness depending on the difficulty, and many levels with vertical style of design? Also, there were a lot more destructible cover, the contextual melee system was vastly improved, double take downs with your partner NPC...

Lastly, the gun play is easily the best in series by far.
 

Griss

Member
Since you don't have a list, which game did you love?

Dark Souls III. I thought Uncharted 4 was good but flawed in a lot of ways.

The rest not so much so far, though I didn't play much of Doom or Overwatch (just don't like either of those kinds of games, and could tell instantly) or The Last Guardian. Last Guardian is a very disappointing sequel to SotC so far, though. Nowhere near as interesting and very very frustrating. FFXV was a fucking joke, a disaster.
 
It really wasn't a very good story. They give Drake a long lost brother all of a sudden out of nowhere, who's completely unlivable. Instead of spending most of the game adventuring with legitimately great character like Sully Elena and Chloe, this mouth breather is taking up WAY too much screen time. You're on an adventure to pay off a debt to save said mouth breather and in the most predictable "twist" of all time
he's lying to you and just trying to get you to break your word to your wife and bring you back to a life you don't want to be in any more. Drake's reaction when he learns he was lied to was essentially to shrug his shoulders and be like whatever
. Really nothing noteworthy about the story at all.
Again people don;t get there is more to a story then just plot point, how the story is told, unfolds, dialog, characters, all into play. In this regard barely any games touch UC4. Nothing in Godfather/Sopranos is excellent plot wise either, what makes them great is how the stories are told.
 

takoyaki

Member
Thanks everyone who put this thread together!

Really nice Top 20, it reflects how diverse 2016 was in terms of gaming: Strong FPS and RPG games, fantastic single-player campaigns and multiplayer experiences, downloadable puzzle games and AAA big budget releases, ...
 

Kerned

Banned
I'll never understand the amount of love Uncharted 4 gets, but I'm very happy to see The Witness in the top 10!
 
The big surprise here for me is Doom taking second place from Overwatch. I thought it would be between OW and UC for sure.

Surprised me as well. What I like from this list is that it seems to show that GAF likes single player heavy games. Although most of those games have multiplayer components but judging from comments is the single player that left an impact in people's memories.
 
I agree with #1, but I really thought Overwatch was going to be #2. I liked Doom a lot, but I thought Overwatch was more popular.
Good year all around though.
 
Thanks for all the feedback. As you can see on the spreadsheet, the amount of data we try to wrangle is rather voluminous and it's just about impossible to get every detail right. I'm going to push out an update based on the corrections posted thus far.
 

BinaryPork2737

Unconfirmed Member
This made me curious, so I just went over the top 100 in the overall rankings, and unless I'm missing something all these should have a PC tag:
Code:
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Superhot
Oxenfree
Salt and Sanctuary
Inside
Street Fighter V
Thumper
XCOM 2 (lol!)
Hitman
Firewatch
Forza Horizon 3
Hyper Light Drifter
Tom Clancy's The Division
Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma (Also missing Vita)
Quantum Break
Darkest Dungeon
Enter the Gungeon
Mirror's Edge Catalyst
Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator
DiRT Rally
Viginia
Unravel 
SteamWorld Heist
Far Cry Primal
The Banner Saga 2

Probably lots more further down, but I can't be bothered to go through the entire list ;)

After briefly looking at the rest of the list, Battleborn, Stranger of Sword City, Grow Up, God Eater Resurrection, and Sorcery! 4 are missing pc tags as well. Probably still missing more, but those are the ones that stood out.
 

Griss

Member
It really wasn't a very good story. They give Drake a long lost brother all of a sudden out of nowhere, who's completely unlikable. Instead of spending most of the game adventuring with legitimately great character like Sully Elena and Chloe, this mouth breather is taking up WAY too much screen time. You're on an adventure to pay off a debt to save said mouth breather and in the most predictable "twist" of all time
he's lying to you and just trying to get you to break your word to your wife and bring you back to a life you don't want to be in any more. Drake's reaction when he learns he was lied to was essentially to shrug his shoulders and be like whatever
. Really nothing noteworthy about the story at all.

I agree with this. The way the story is told is outstanding because Naughty Dog are stunningly good at storytelling, but the nature of the story itself? Awful. Sam single-handedly brought my opinion of the entire game down. Let's not mention that so many of the themes are recycled from Uncharted 3.

Had they doubled down with the darker ending I was expecting I might have forgiven them, but the ending felt like a massive ass-pull considering all the foreshadowing and general themes of the story.
 

Filben

Member
Doesn't change the fact that Neogaf is predominantly a Sony fan base, so the result was predictable.
Even if that's the case it doesn't happen out of thin air. Sony must make some pretty good stuff then.

I never played UC4, but from what most people say, it plays far too safe. It's the fourth iteration of the series and apparently does absolutely nothing new from the previous games
I was thinking the same about Dark Souls 3.

It comes down to the individual understanding of what a GotY title really is. Is it something that has devoured countless hours on top of every other game? Can you qualify hours or quantify "fun"? I don't think there's an scientific approach to this problem. At the end of the day it all comes down to emotions.

For not having played Uncharted 4 but its predecessors (which I do like), I cannot comment on UC4. However, I guess when so many people are touched in a positive way, whether it's for the great visuals, the characters, story or gameplay (basically anything that others/a minority could not find that enjoyable), that they put this title above any other game, especially one I personally find more genre-defining and revolutionary this year (namely Overwatch), well... then it probably deserved that title of being Game of the Year.
 
Doesn't change the fact that Neogaf is predominantly a Sony fan base, so the result was predictable. I never played UC4, but from what most people say, it plays far too safe. It's the fourth iteration of the series and apparently does absolutely nothing new from the previous games, and is considered slower and weaker story-wise from its predecessors. No game should win game of the year for that, regardless of how beautiful it is. Overwatch should have won for no other reason than it is a brand new IP that became an instant smash hit. You have subjectivity, and then you have hard fact.

Not hurt, just humored.

Go play it. It's great. Lots of people who actually played it loved it. Hence why it gets so much praise and has won lots of awards. It's not a conspiracy. It's hard fact.
 
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