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Rock Paper Shotgun's GOTY 2013 [John Walker responds to your deep concerns]

Curufinwe

Member
But still, Bioshock 1 has a much more cohesive story with better enemies, smarter AI and a stronger sense of place. Bioshock 2 was a much better balanced shooter, and Minerva's Den is the single best piece of Bioshock content. Those are not opinions.

Yes, they are. I enjoyed Bioshock 2 much more than than the overrated Minerva's Den.
 

Kade

Member
I find it absurd that ACIV is on there but Last of Us and Bioshock don't even get a shoe in. You can debate the merits of those games being included if you wish, but ACIV OVER them?? Very debatable.

Yeah, it's really messed up that a website dedicated to covering PC gaming omitted The Last of Us from its GOTY list.
 

spirity

Member
Disappointing lack of Path of Exile in that list! I saw some gameplay of Kentucky Route Zero and it didn't really seem to be my thing, but I'll have to check the others out.
 

Derrick01

Banned
It came out last year, right? I would've included it in my own GOTY list but could've sworn that it was 2012 but came out on Steam in 2013, so I kept it out.

It did but it didn't get to Steam until early this year and for many people, including me, Steam IS PC gaming. I wouldn't even be on the platform if Steam didn't exist and therefore would have never played ETS2.
 

rexor0717

Member
I will never understand the concept of a publication focusing more on titles with less coverage being a bad thing.

And even then, stuff like Gunslinger and SR4 is still on the list.

If you actually read RPS you'd all know that these are the games they cover throughout the year. This isn't a troll list, these are the games they write about.

Does ever website have to be exactly the same, and cover the same eight games over and over? And some of the same people will turn around and complaint about moneyhats and games "journalism" (edgy quotezzz!!!!).

People are mad that the Last of Us isn't on there even though its a PC site.
 

Colocho

Banned
A quick Wikipedia check tells me that Kentucky Route Zero has 5 acts and only 2 have been released. How is it even in the running for GOTY? what if it shits the bed on the remaining 3 acts?
 

BeesEight

Member
Throw me in with skeptical lot for awarding GotY to something that isn't even finished. Kentucky Route Zero just released its second episode of planned five acts. It's not even half way done. Does this mean they're going to rate every episode as a new contender for the year? I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that approach. And what if the final three acts prove to be disappointing?

I haven't played them and maybe they're approaching the episodes like installments in a franchise. We certainly don't denigrate the first two Mass Effects because of their position in a trilogy.

It doesn't help that their writing on the game is rather fugacious and empty. I don't think I've ever read five people try to describe so little with so much flowery language before. Furthermore, the constant mention of how good the writing is in something that, once again, is only two fifths done I find worrying. Just because a work has a section that's well written doesn't make the entirety, I feel, worthy of such universal praise without actually seeing it. People may espouse at great lengths the virtues of Mona Lisa's smile, but I doubt it would be considered a masterpiece if Da Vinci never bothered to put in a background.

You are adorable.

If his GotY list is anything like his previous ones, it should be amusing.

Indie or not indie. Its a game. I don't see how Portal is different from Stanley Parable where Antichamber is miles better than Portal1and2 combined and yet no one mentioned it in goty list because probably wasn't created by Valve.

Budget doesn't make a game. Game is made by people and no amount of money spend will buy you GOTY in normal world. But for many players and sites that money part is more important than game itself.

I'll probably be putting Antichamber on my GotY list, but I don't think it's better than Portal. Opinions and whatnot...
 
FC3 isn't even half the game that FC2 was. FC3 is limiting, forces players to stay within zones while on missions, doesn't allow for creativity or freedom when attacking missions or bases, the main character is terrible (and it was not intentional satire, just shitty) and the best character in the game disappears halfway through because they didn't even know what the best part of their own game was.

FC3 and Bioshock Infinite are two games I can understand people liking, but they are also both steps back from games in their own series. Saying they're the "best of" anything is just wrong.

I'm also just preparing myself for the flames when I vote Beyond my 2013 GOTY. ;)

I completely agree with every point in your post. I still enjoyed the hell out of FC3.
 

gabbo

Member
ooh crap! europa universalis and eurotruck simulator whysolow.gif

Only the GOTY is ranked, everything else is at random. EUIV and Eurotruck Sim could be fighting for 2&3 for all we know/care.

Colocho said:
A quick Wikipedia check tells me that Kentucky Route Zero has 5 acts and only 2 have been released. How is it even in the running for GOTY? what if it shits the bed on the remaining 3 acts?
Then 3-5 won't be GOTY, and 1-2 still will be?
 

spekkeh

Banned
Great list. A better advertisement for PC gaming than any AAA high IQ screenshot thread imo.


I'm really annoyed my netbook convertible is in repairs again because after all these year lists I simply have to play Papers, Please, Gone Home and The Stanley Parable, and I have not felt this way about PC gaming in a looong time.
 

Copenap

Member
I'm going to read between the lines here about posters complaining about their pick for GOTY and say that they wanted a so called "AAA" game to win but i disagree, it should be indies up for GOTY since they are the most original of the whole lot and are the future of video games in my opinion.
Yeah, it's really just the hard truth, a lot of indies are just straight up better games then these so called AAA games, if someone can't see that because of graphics that's too bad.
 
Complaining that the list has too many indie games and RPS is posturing for cred seems ridiculous to me. Why would you want all the GOTY lists to agree with one another? I don't need thirty sites all telling me that The Last of Us is a great game, thanks, I already know that. And do you honestly think the writers at RPS sat in a room saying "oh shit if we put Papers, Please and Proteus on our list we're gonna get soooo much cred and impress the gents/ladies! But really I just want to go home and play 400 hours of Battlefield 4 so HAHA INTERNET"? I'm sure they came by their selections honestly. If that's not to your liking, that's totally fine; it has no worth to you. That's not the same as the list itself being worthless.

I'm going through a bunch of best music of the year lists and they're incredibly varied. You get a real sense not only of what was pretty good this year, but also of each site's particular tastes and whether they match yours or not. And if a few sites with vastly different tastes all mention one album that's like an additional hint that maybe this album is really sweet, but it's not a particularly important criterion. And of course order doesn't really matter to me, nor does it matter to half the sites out there.
 
Didn't they pick Far Cry 3 last year?

edit: Just checked and they did. So why are we giving importance to what they say?

BCI1JXM.gif
 

Opiate

Member
A quick Wikipedia check tells me that Kentucky Route Zero has 5 acts and only 2 have been released. How is it even in the running for GOTY? what if it shits the bed on the remaining 3 acts?

It's certainly a reasonable discussion to have. How does one decide when DotA2 was effectively released? What about MMOs, which are in a constant state of updating? Do the acts of Kentucky Route Zero resemble TV shows (which can be awarded periodically) or simply parts of a movie (which can't be awarded until all are completed)? What about games which are broken on release but very quickly get patches that turn them in to incredible games?

The way games are designed and offered to people make this all more complicated. Unlike movies and shows, games are not necessarily self contained works.
 

Moobabe

Member
Gunpoint was made by Tom Francis, who used to write for PC gamer. Never seen any mention of John Walker being involved at all, do you have a source on that?

John Walker is involved in the new Dreamfall game, which is why he (and maybe RPS?) either aren't covering it or are putting disclaimers in the articles.
 
RPS loves their non-games so not surprising they'd pick KRZ as the overall winner, but the entire list as a whole is actually great.

I hated KRZ's first episode so very much and didn't play the second one despite being on board for the whole series. I admit that I am not the biggest fan of adventure games but there are some recent ones (Deponia series, Memoria) that really clicked with me.
 

epmode

Member
A quick Wikipedia check tells me that Kentucky Route Zero has 5 acts and only 2 have been released. How is it even in the running for GOTY? what if it shits the bed on the remaining 3 acts?

Then the first two acts are still worth playing. And they totally are.

It's not a traditional videogame story at all.

(the article on the GOTY touches on whether or not it's OK to include an unfinished game in this list)

I find it absurd that ACIV is on there but Last of Us and Bioshock don't even get a shoe in. You can debate the merits of those games being included if you wish, but ACIV OVER them?? Very debatable.

It's amazing to me that you had all this time to peruse the thread as you waited for responses to your post but you still haven't realized that RPS is a PC website.
 

Ogimachi

Member
Didn't they pick Far Cry 3 last year?

edit: Just checked and they did. So why are we giving importance to what they say?
RPS was also the sole defender of ME3, specially its ending, and has a lot of clickbait feminist articles.
John Walker is an Arthur Gies-tier journalist, but the whole lot seems to get a lot of attention here.
 
It's telling that the people complaining about the lack of AAA games have not really said what should even be on this list. Hell, most of the people actually bothering to list alternatives are listing other indie games.
 

partyboy

Member
i mean what's even the point of having a list on your site if it doesn't include games that are in every other site's list. makes no sense
 

epmode

Member
It's telling that the people complaining about the lack of AAA games have not really said what should even be on this list.

The few that actually listed examples included console-exclusive games. That says it all, really.

RPS was also the sole defender of ME3, specially its ending, and has a lot of clickbait feminist articles.
John Walker is an Arthur Gies-tier journalist, but the whole lot seems to get a lot of attention here.

John Walker is directly responsible for introducing me to several great modern adventure games which is more than Gies has ever done for anyone.

As for the "clickbait feminist articles", I hope you just have a problem with Walker's articles specifically rather than denying that there's a serious problem in the industry.
 

domlolz

Banned
I find it absurd that ACIV is on there but Last of Us and Bioshock don't even get a shoe in. You can debate the merits of those games being included if you wish, but ACIV OVER them?? Very debatable.

i think you've missed the part where rock paper shotgun is a pc only gaming site
 
*googles Desktop Dungeons*


Ahahahahahahahaha

Possibly the worst post of the year, imo. Such an amazing game, it pains me to see it dismissed by someone who apparently judges every book by its cover.

Also, really happy to see almost no "AAA" garbage titles on there, as those rarely interest me due to oftentimes highly generic gameplay, as well as ridiculous price points. I kind of view these GOTY lists as "here's some stuff you should play if you haven't already", and I'm definitely keeping an eye out for most titles on that list.
 
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