The Game Awards 2017

[Ronnie]

Nominees announced yesterday

Most nominated games

Six nominations:
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- Super Mario Odyssey
- Horizon Zero Dawn
- Destiny 2

Five nominations:
- Cuphead

Four nominations:
- Persona 5
- Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

Three nominations:
- PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds
- NieR: Automata
- Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
- Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

[Hero-of-Time]

Happy to see Persona and Nier getting some nominations. I think Mario should win but no doubt Zelda will take the crown.

[dazzybee]

Think it's a definite vote splitter though

[Ronnie]

9 minutes ago, dazzybee said:

Think it's a definite vote splitter though

Yeah I suspect Horizon will win after Zelda and Mario split votes. I've no idea which to vote for, both amazing (at least so far in Mario's case)

[dazzybee]

Yeah I found it difficult, I personally enjoy Mario more as Mario is my favourite series and it's probably the best there is. But Zelda was genuinely more mind-blowing... So personally Mario, but feel Zelda is the more impressive accomplishment.

[Ganepark32]

Saw the news yesterday so need to sit down and look through the categories for my winners. What I will say is that both Art Direction and Sound Design should be sure fire wins for Cuphead and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice respectively. There's really no question that Cuphead shouldn't win art direction because it probably has the best visual style of any game this year and really had nailed the aesthetic of that era of animated features. I've seen some people elsewhere already debating Sound Design, some even saying Super Mario Odyssey should take it, but from the perspective of how the sound in game is designed and how it impacts the game, for me it's a no-brainer to give Hellblade the nod because playing that and experiencing the binaural sound design and how they manipulated it (Ninja Theory have some videos giving insight into the process on their Youtube page which I'd recommend watching, hell the whole load are worth a watch just for how fascinating the insight is into the production of that game) whether through headphones or through the TV was an incredible experience.

So yeah, those are the two awards and games I'd definitely say should be sure fire wins and I hope they win them because you can tell with both that they were labours of love projects (not saying other games weren't but it's very noticeable for these games having seen some of the background to how they were made).

It's going to hardly be a surprise to anyone that Horizon will get my vote for GotY. I have a sneaking suspicion that the awards will throw a curve ball and PlayerUnknown's BattleGrounds will take the trophy but for me, I thought Horizon delivered an extraordinary package for a game which on paper and through describing to someone, you'd sit back and say "...really?" at. It doesn't have it's big innovation, like Zelda with it's climb anything approach which is that game's main addition (I know some will offer other examples but by and large, with the exception of the climbing of anything, all the other mechanics have been present in other games), but it just does everything so well and is incredibly polished and extremely well realised, especially from a studio who predominantly made FPS titles up to this point.

I'll have a proper look through the rest and give my thoughts later.

[Ronnie]

18 minutes ago, Ganepark32 said:

 It doesn't have it's big innovation, like Zelda with it's climb anything approach which is that game's main addition (I know some will offer other examples but by and large, with the exception of the climbing of anything, all the other mechanics have been present in other games), but it just does everything so well and is incredibly polished and extremely well realised, especially from a studio who predominantly made FPS titles up to this point.

Shooting a fire arrow into a lake in Horizon and watching a flame burn on the water surface was a little disappointing. The physics/chemistry engine in Zelda is hugely under-rated part of the game. Ditto the lack of busywork checkboxes on the overworld map.

[drahkon]

Boring awards.

BotW will obviously win everything. NieR, as far as I've read around the internet, should've been nominated in more categories. PUBG should not have been nomainated at all because it's not a finished game, yet.

 

These awards are stupid anyway because the most popular games will win as everybody is allowed to vote But it will be fun to read how fanboys defend their favourite game and talk shit about other games

[dazzybee]

Battlegrounds looks amazing... is it?! With cuphead I'm seriously tempted to get an xbox  

[Ronnie]

"Boring awards" lol

1 hour ago, drahkon said:

These awards are stupid anyway because the most popular games will win as everybody is allowed to vote

I'd suggest spending a couple of minutes reading up on it instead of trash-talking.

The public ballot comprises 10% of the final tally. 90% comes from the jury. A jury which include IGN, GameSpot, Easy Allies, Polygon, Kotaku and another 20+ outlets.

[drahkon]

1 hour ago, dazzybee said:

Battlegrounds looks amazing... is it?!

Battle Royale games have that thrill of you constantly being on your toes, checking every corner, being paranoid. Haven't played PUBG but you should give Fortnite Battle Royale a chance. It's free on PS4 and is a blast.

[Sheikah]

2 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Nominees announced yesterday

Most nominated games

Six nominations:
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- Super Mario Odyssey
- Horizon Zero Dawn
- Destiny 2

Five nominations:
- Cuphead

Four nominations:
- Persona 5
- Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

Three nominations:
- PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds
- NieR: Automata
- Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
- Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

Zelda needs to win everything over Mario as far as I'm concerned.

Just win everything actually.

[dazzybee]

30 minutes ago, drahkon said:

Battle Royale games have that thrill of you constantly being on your toes, checking every corner, being paranoid. Haven't played PUBG but you should give Fortnite Battle Royale a chance. It's free on PS4 and is a blast.

Love these kind of games, from actual Royal Rumble,  to even last man standing on Mario Kart Battle mode (when they had it - dammit).

Just gone onto it, and it sounds exactly the same

[Julius]

3 hours ago, dazzybee said:

Think it's a definite vote splitter though

I agree.

I think a much fairer reflection of opinions would be given if voting was allowed for up to 3 nominees per category, with your first choice earning 3 points, second choice 2 points, and third choice 1 point.

That way votes wouldn’t be so easily split between the two games which are probably going to be the favourites for GOTY: there would likely be one pretty clear winner.

Doesn’t help that you can vote in each category once every day until the awards are presented...

[Jonnas]

I know console fanboys are still a thing, and from that perspective, there might be a significant split between Mario and Zelda in the public vote... but since the majority of the vote comes from a jury, then certainly that jury won't decide their vote on which console a game was exclusive to. If anything, I'm thinking the jury might split their vote between Horizon and Zelda, since they're both fantasy adventure games that "tick" similar boxes when it comes to personal taste.

Either way, I was never a fan of the traditional "awards" system. Either the year's good and a bunch of games get arbitrarily snubbed, or the year's bad and an unimpressive game is arbitrarily celebrated.

EDIT: Also, Drahkon has a point when he talks about popularity. Namely, how nominees tend to be AAA releases and/or well known. When listening to the award categories, I keep thinking "Best soundtrack? Sonic Mania. Best strategy game? FE Echoes. Best voice acting? Ian Sinclair as Berkut. Best ongoing game? FE Heroes, as that's the only one I'm playing".

I admit I only played three games of 2017, and not everybody is going to agree with me, but I'd still like to see them get acknowledged in the relevant categories, at least. There have been two excellent Fire Emblem games released this year, and yet they're both frustratingly snubbed for "Best Strategy game" award? And all because one's in a handheld and the other one's a mobile game? Games like Samus Returns and Sonic Mania were also ignored in other categories (I personally would've put Sonic Mania up for "Best Direction" and "Best Soundtrack", but once again, just me).

[/mini rant]

Edited November 15, 2017 by Jonnas

[Ronnie]

hmmm...

 

[Hero-of-Time]

Will anyone else be watching this live? I'm not fussed about the awards themselves, i'm just looking for some good announcements and hopefully some cock ups on stage.  

 

[drahkon]

I just want a Death Stranding gameplay trailer

[Nicktendo]

Gimmie that Prime 4 trailer, yo.

[dwarf]

On 11/15/2017 at 1:59 PM, Ganepark32 said:

It doesn't have it's big innovation, like Zelda with it's climb anything approach which is that game's main addition (I know some will offer other examples but by and large, with the exception of the climbing of anything, all the other mechanics have been present in other games)

I can't make you like the game, but I can call you out for being flagrantly reductive. Zelda's innovation isn't found in a single mechanic. It's innovative in the way it combines all of its mechanics in a new way, particularly in the open world genre.

Also, many of its innovations aren't mechanics as such, in that they aren't simple actions mapped to a button. One innovation, if we're talking open-world RPGs, is the integrated physics system. Another innovation is giving players every ability from the beginning. And an innovation can be something a game doesn't do that all other games do do. For example, Zelda doesn't litter its open-world map with side-quest markers, or reveal the number of collectables you haven't found yet, etc.

There are actually loads of little innovations in BotW, from the map system down to the sound design, but really it comes down to the effect that all of these changes have on the player and their approach to the game. The freedom of play is Breath of the Wild's biggest innovation.

I feel like a mug for pointing this out, but BotW isn't clearing up at this year's awards because it has a somewhat innovative climbing mechanic. It's clearing up because it's fucking epic. 

 

P.S I promise not to argue with you about Zelda any more. Clearly none of it is going in.

 

Edited December 6, 2017 by dwarf

[Hero-of-Time]

For those who are still up and are interested, the show is about to start. 

[killthenet]

The film about Carol Shaw was great, and her speech was so endearing. Great to see them honouring people whose stories could have been lost to history.

[Hero-of-Time]

Just now, killthenet said:

The film about Carol Shaw was great, and her speech was so endearing. Great to see them honouring people whose stories could have been lost to history.

Yup. Absolutely loved that section.

[Hero-of-Time]

First we had the hilarious jab at microtransactions and now we have shots being fired at Sony for the lack of crossplay. The show has been great.  

[killthenet]

I've watched every other year but this has been the best for sure, the sponsorship and advertising is still a bit much and it doesn't contrast well with the sincerity of a lot of the awards and speeches. There have been way more big announcements than I thought, really excited to see more of the new From Software game.

And they just announced Bayonetta 1&2 coming to Switch and Bayonetta 3 coming exclusively to Switch. 2018 could be as packed for Nintendo as this year was!