Board 8 > ~*Ultimaterializer's Post-Contest Analysis!*~

(+) Yeah! (+)

The reason all big companies suck now is because of microtransactions and DLC. Name me one big game that doesn't have them. Seriously. I know money is good and all but we just want to play a game, like the old days. Plus how in old days all these companies not only managed to survive but thrive too without microtransactions and DLC?

EA made a single player star wars game, Jedi Fallen Order, which is ONLY Single Player DOESN'T have Microtransactions and DLC, did REALLY well with sales and critical reception from both fans and critics and they were suprised that it did so well. The thought<Wait people want Single Player games without extra stuff? I thought multi player games with DLC and microtransactions everywhere are what gamers wanted?>

Seriously they even said that. This is hilarious. But then again so many idiots keep bying DLC and microtransactions so it is our fault in the end.

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It's almost like making games today is way more expensive now than the "old days" while game prices are the same or cheaper.

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Just not gonna comment on ultis comments cause I got nothing nice to say

hockeydude15 posted...

It's almost like making games today is way more expensive now than the "old days" while game prices are the same or cheaper.

That is generally an issue yes

But I think DLC/microtransactions are fine as long as theyre not needed to enjoy game at fullest

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ColZach posted...

Just not gonna comment on ultis comments cause I got nothing nice to say

I didn't mention your name at all? I am confused.

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PostContestUlti posted...

I didn't mention your name at all? I am confused.

I think hes just mentioning that he heavily disagrees with some of your recent comments but doesnt want to start anything in this topic

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DLC can go both ways. If it's quality content, then, I can see getting it. [such as the Dark Souls offerings: Artorias of the Abyss/Crowns of the Three Kings and etc.]

Whether the DLC or microtransactions available are *good* or *not*, it all comes down to the consumer's choice, and being smart with your money. While there are many that say DLC is bad as a business practice, the other telling side is, people are willing to drop enough money to make the content available profitable, and as long as it continues that way, a company will more than likely not change course unless the need arises.

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Unplanned DLC on a good game can really make it amazing. Mass Effect games say hi.

Scammy DLC? No thanks!

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That's the other issue, DLC that skirts the line of being linked to unfavorable RNG results or even legality issues, with EA being one of the most common answers used by many.

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Dark Silvergun posted...

That's the other issue, DLC that skirts the line of being linked to unfavorable RNG results or even legality issues, with EA being one of the most common answers used by many.

There's also the thing with fighting games recently where there's a "fighter pass" DLC equivalent announced before/during the game launch. Usually 4-6 DLC characters per year.

While Smash Ultimate generally did it best since it had 70+ characters at launch..

Some games do the DLC thing even with there's only like 20 characters at launch or hell... sometimes even less than that (Granblue VS)

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UltimaterializerX posted...

Once women hit 30, 90% of their eggs are gone and their looks deteriorate without winning the genetic lottery. We dont have that problem.

https://youtu.be/H-gfxjAaZg0

That sounds like an advantage but only if you accept there are reduced outcomes. >_>

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It's not. The overwhelming majority of women who waste time in their 20s come to realize that high value men are all taken by modest, high value women and that they should have settled down far sooner. I don't blame women for this, either. They're being fed a massive number of lies by our culture right now. But the story always ends the same way.

Division 1 Quarterfinal: (1)The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild vs (8)Halo: Reach

(1)Breath of the Wild - 22268 [84.86%]
(8)Halo: Reach - 3972 [15.14%]
Total Votes - 26240
Prediction Percentage - 90.96%

Zelda scoring an absurd blowout in round one was predictable. Doing the same in round 2 is some pretty rarified air. Since lists are fun, here is everything that's broken 80% in the first two rounds.

-Mega Man in Summer 2002 over Ms. Pac-Man and Serious Sam. The blue bomber broke 90% twice, which is a record that is never getting matched.
-Link in Summer 2003 over AiAi and Fox.
-Sephiroth in 2003 over Raziel and Max Payne.
-Zelda 1 in Spring 2004 over Adventure and Donkey Kong.
-Final Fantasy 7 in Spring 2004 over Suikoden 2 and Xenogears.
-Link in Summer 2004 over CATS and Ganondorf.
-Cloud in Summer 2004 over Duke Nukem and Vyse.
-Samus in Summer 2004 over Lara Croft and Sam Fisher. (God the Summer 2004 Contest sucked.)
-Mario in Summer 2005 over Joanna Dark and Ness.
-Zelda over Civilization and Mega Man X in the series contest. This one broke 80% in round 3 against Metroid, too.
-Mario over Madden and Warcraft in the series contest.
-Mario and Bowser over Earthworm Jim/Slug and Ike/Black Knight in that godawful rivalry rumble.
-Link and Ganondorf over Arthas/Illidan and Amaterasu/Orochi in the rivalry rumble.
-Chrono Trigger over Ratchet & Clank 3 and Dragon Quest 8 in Fall 2015.
-1998 isn't in this club, technically, because it broke 80% in rounds 1 and 3 over 1993 and 2003. In round 2, it did not break 80% on 1992. Just typing this sentence is ridiculous because that contest was awful.

That's the entire list, and it gets far more exclusive once we discuss round 3. It's pretty rarified air to get 80% twice in a row, and almost impossible to do it three times in a row. We all expected Zelda to go crazy here, but not ''this'' crazy. The oracle consensus undershot this match by 4%, and who can blame them? 85% in round 2 is insane, and this match really brought home how dominant a favorite Breath of the Wild was. It was around here where people realized that even a CD Projekt Red rally in the final might not slow this thing down at all. Halo pulled off a cute win in round 1, but that's all it was. Nice to know you, bro.

We've compared Zelda to a lot of things over the years -- my favorite comparison is the New England Patriots, because beating them feels like divine intervention -- but I found the best comparison yet. I finally got around to watching No Country For Old Men, and Zelda in these contests is Anton Chigurh -- a dominant, cold, ruthless killer that just does ''not'' care about anything other than the mission. You never really get the better of Zelda. You can only delay the inevitable if you're in the crosshairs.

But Zelda is a fair assassin. It's not undefeated. It just ''feels'' undefeated.

"Call it."

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Reach might have been the last great Halo game, or at least the last one well received by the majority of its fanbase. 4 gets hated on quite a bit, and fans hated 5 getting rid of couch co-op.

In my yearly tournaments, most Halo games bow out early for obvious reasons but somehow Halo 4 made it to the elite eight in 2012

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I come here to see analysis about the videogame contest and I even learn about women too! Ulti is awesome.

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Safer_777 posted...

I come here to see analysis about the videogame contest and I even learn about women too! Ulti is awesome.

Lmao

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charmander6000 posted...

I mean that's true for everyone that claims a game to be the worst game ever. There are so many games that are released that almost no one has played that can barely run without crashing every few minutes.

Knowing Ulti for a long enough time I can tell you to not pay too much attention on what he dislikes as they can be quite hit or miss. On the flip side if he claims a game is good he's most likely right.

I get that, but I'm used to people being more open about this like Chuggaaconroy and Paper Mario: Sticker Star. Emile later admitted himself that he had a horrible experience with the game due in part to outside circumstances that had nothing to do with it (when ProtonJon recently streamed the game with him commentating).

As an example, most of the problems people have with Shadow of the Colossus can be attributed to it being a wildly ambitious game, especially for its time. So, logically, wouldn't that automatically render it better than something that fails at even being a "normal" game like a Superman 64 or Big Rigs? Although maybe I'm again just not used to the idea of a game like SOTC getting such passionate hate thrown at it, since games that typically fall under this category tend to be franchise instalments like the aforementioned Sticker Star. Since SOTC is (more or less) a one-off, it had to sell itself on concept rather than brand name like most games, thus there's a lesser likelihood of it getting this kind of criticism because most people who play the game know full well what they're in for and expect accordingly. Plus the game probably gets extra brownie points from a significant chunk of the gaming community just for not being made with any commercial interests in mind. Most of the time even people who don't like the game admit it does a lot well.

SOTC even falls out of the range of being a "nostalgic" game so it doesn't get criticism directed its way for "not aging well" the way something like Final Fantasy VII would. Ulti's hatred of the game is fairly understandable but is just so strange on the whole.

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Ico is awful

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RPGlord95 posted...

Ico is awful

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TheCodeisBosco posted...

Lmao

It's true. If you're married and successful, girls tell you all of this yourself.

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@swirIdude

Quoting you ironically does not mean I hate you, btw. You're ok in my book.

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Division 1 Quarterfinal: (5)Final Fantasy XV vs (4)Hollow Knight

(5)Final Fantasy 15 - 13229 [50.42%]
(4)Hollow Knight - 13008 [49.58%]
Total Votes - 26237
Prediction Percentage - 51.64%

For all the hype that indie games got in this contest, round 2 is where all but one of them fell flat on their face. With that said, Final Fantasy 15 got ''incredibly'' lucky in this contest and was spared a huge embarrassment. Hollow Knight is great and all, but how embarrassing would it have been for main line FF15 had it lost to freaking Hollow Knight?

The reason FF15 got so lucky is because this match happened on April 12th. Final Fantasy 7 Remake released on April 10th. The contest got delayed twice, and FF7R's release date got delayed by a month from when it was initially supposed to come out. It took all those stars aligning at just the right time to get the Final Fantasy series just the right exposure to drag Final Fantasy 15 across the finish line, and even then it almost lost this match. I have zero doubts that FF15 loses fairly easily without the universe aligning in its favor.

When this match started, FF15 had the slimmest of leads, likely due to bracket voting. When that wore off, Hollow Knight came storming back and looked like it was going to put this match away quickly. But its momentum died as quickly as it started, so FF15 was able to close things up fairly quickly. After the match was tied for a couple hours, FF15 started taking off, and most people assumed the match was over right then and there. By now, we all noticed the indie trend of hot starts cooling off quickly, so once Final Fantasy started climbing overnight we all figured it was over.

Not necessarily true, though! Hollow Knight pulled off an incredible fight here thanks to, apparently, being one of the only indie games popular in Europe. I don't know what FF15 did to piss off our friends over the pond, but it wasn't good apparently. Hollow Knight kept this match in the 150-200 range for the entirety of the overnight period. It gave folks hope that a comeback could happen come morning, but it was not to be. FF15 ran away with this match during the morning vote, and built up a 400 vote lead at lunch.

But before this match finally ended, Hollow Knight put up one final act of defiance. It spent the last 8 hours of this match refusing to lose, and though it was never a threat to actually come back and win, FF15's 400 vote lead got chopped all the way down to a 221 vote win. It was as respectable a loss as one could ever have in a contest, and I have zero doubts Hollow Knight wins this match without Final Fantasy 7 Remake coming out two days -- TWO DAYS!! -- before this match. On top of that, FF7R launched on a Friday and this match happened on a Sunday, so there may have even been a small weekend boost.

Final Fantasy 15 had all those direct lucky advantages, and needed all of them to win this match. Just pretend FF7R comes out on March 3rd like it was supposed to. How much does Hollow Knight win this match by? 500 votes? Maybe more? Or just pretend this contest isn't delayed twice and this match happens three weeks prior. Hollow Knight probably wins.

Those are the breaks though, and only one stat ever matters in sports. Scoreboard. For all that luck and all that effort in winning this match, this was Final Fantasy 15's reward.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/p5WImZGPAFg/maxresdefault.jpg

Have fun, bro.

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Zelda a more consistently strong dynasty than FF yay.

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I was just extremely satisfied with Hollow Knight going the distance with Final Fantasy. Easily the 2nd best game of the decade, and there are times where I considered putting it above Mass Effect 2 for the top spot.

Also platinum'd Hollow Knight yesterday, a feat that is most certainly not easy.

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I have never seen a more Pyrrhic victory than Final Fantasy XV in this match. What should've been a fairly easy victory ended up in the most painful win I've ever seen for a game. The fact that Final Fantasy VII Remake was released days before yet allowing Hollow Knight to defy indie trends speaks a lot at what strength you have and what people think of you. It's even more embarrassing when using the raw vote totals, as it showed FFXV winning by a single digit.

Final Fantasy XV was the 2014 Brazil team in the World Cup--absolutely shaky in its wins and then pummeled into the babies they were in the match where they lost. They have lived in infamy ever since.

Division 1 Quarterfinal: (3)Monster Hunter: World vs (6)Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

(3)Monster Hunter: World - 14644 [55.8%]
(6)Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - 11599 [44.2%]
Total Votes - 26243
Prediction Percentage - 53.48%

This match absolutely destroyed me on a personal level. In a contest where all of the Souls games -- even Nioh -- looked good, Sekiro is the one Souls-like that crapped the bed. I don't know why or how, either. Was it the "too hard" memes? Was it the lack of weapon options? I truly do not know, and I would love the opinion of anyone reading this who doesn't like the game to hit me up. This one has me stumped. The game has some issues, no doubt, but to fall this flat while ''all'' of the other Souls-likes did so well blows my mind. Not to keep plugging my reviews, but I think this will give you guys an idea of my love for the game: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/241004-sekiro-shadows-die-twice/reviews/168443

Yes, the camera work is a joke. Yes, the game is obnoxiously hard. Yes, the rope swing is effing goofy. So what? It makes the journey so rewarding, and it's what made this match so hard on me. Of all the Souls types to choke, it had to be Sekiro?

By the way, none of this is a slight on what Monster Hunter World accomplished or the respect that it's earned. Did you guys know it has 16 million sales, which is almost a third of sales for that entire series? It deserved to make waves during its long-awaited contest debut, and make waves it did. Just not at Sekiro's expense. Jeez :(

At least it was a 55-45 type loss to a very, very strong game, and in skipping ahead a little, maybe Sekiro didn't choke after all. Monster Hunter World would end up having a very respectable exit, and the game that beat it would itself have a ''very'' respectable exit. Here's hoping Sekiro just got unlucky instead of choking.

I will say this. If any game needs to die and come back for our sakes, there isn't a better example. The code must indeed be determined by the individual, my friends.

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ZeroSignal620 posted...

I was just extremely satisfied with Hollow Knight going the distance with Final Fantasy. Easily the 2nd best game of the decade, and there are times where I considered putting it above Mass Effect 2 for the top spot.

Also platinum'd Hollow Knight yesterday, a feat that is most certainly not easy.

Holy crap are you serious?!

Did it require help from the trophy forum or did you pull it off alone?

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Nintendogs posted...

I have never seen a more Pyrrhic victory than Final Fantasy XV in this match. What should've been a fairly easy victory ended up in the most painful win I've ever seen for a game. The fact that Final Fantasy VII Remake was released days before yet allowing Hollow Knight to defy indie trends speaks a lot at what strength you have and what people think of you. It's even more embarrassing when using the raw vote totals, as it showed FFXV winning by a single digit.

Final Fantasy XV was the 2014 Brazil team in the World Cup--absolutely shaky in its wins and then pummeled into the babies they were in the match where they lost. They have lived in infamy ever since.

I'm stealing this.

https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/(5)Final_Fantasy_XV_vs_(4)Hollow_Knight_2020

I love giving you guys shine.

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PostContestUlti posted...

Did it require help from the trophy forum or did you pull it off alone?

Alone.

Closest thing I got to help was watching YouTube tips on Pantheon 5, and I guess the occasional guide for the one random item I was missing.

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Division 1 Quarterfinal: (10)Bastion vs (2)Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age

(10)Bastion - 7370 [28.09%]
(2)Dragon Quest 11 - 18869 [71.91%]
Total Votes - 26239
Prediction Percentage - 64.99%

As is very typical of seeded tournaments, entrants pulling off early round upsets usually get destroyed when they face legitimate competition. Bastion will be remembered for embarrassing Dragon Age: Inquisition in round one, but that's all it managed to pull off in this contest.

Well, unless you count rolling over and helping make Dragon Quest 11 look like a shitkicking badass. Dragon Quest 11 is clearly on a higher level than anything else in that series, and it proved its round 1 domination was no SFF fluke over some nothing burger Board 8 hype machine. Scoring 72% in round 2 is legit, regardless of competition, and this match was a huge eye-opener for how legit the game was.

I think the reasons for the resurgence in Dragon Quest love are obvious enough. For starters, Hero got into Smash Bros. Ultimate and made a ''lot'' of waves in that game, both good and bad. So much so that it's too much to list in an unrelated PCA writeup. The series had respect long before 11 came out, but 11 is just a different animal. It's universally loved, has over 5 million in sales, and is on the Switch, Playstation 4, 3DS, and even Steam. The "universally loved" bit cannot be understated, either. People ''love'' this game, and that's how you end up scoring 72% in round 2 over a Bastion, a game that's universally loved in its own right. No disrespect to Bastion here, but DQ11 is many, many cuts above it.

Spoilers, DQ11 would end up facing Zelda and getting into the top 20 of the x-stats anyway. Think of how crazy that is when Zelda was sticking 80% beatdowns on fools.

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I actually took Hollow Knight to R3 in my bracket. My reasoning was a mix of "Hollow Knight fans will crawl over broken glass for their game," "I need SOMETHING in my bracket that isn't chalk" and "Noctis lost to a fucking glove." It may not have panned out, but I still don't regret that upset pick; Lord knows I've made dumber ones in the past.

I took Monster Hunter to R3 as well, but was sweating bullets about it. It just screamed "3-seeded choker" to me. So, Monster Hunter really earned my respect this contest, even in its honorable loss to DQXI.

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Hand > Noctis is why I took it initially too, but I chickened out and took Berseria > Hollow Knight. Never again will I have faith in Fails Of.

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Bastion actually beat The Walking Dead in round one, although at this point you could just label it "Overhyped AAA GOTY contender" and leave it at that.

Also Monster Hunter: World is apparently Capcom's best-selling game of all time. I picked it to Round 3 mostly with that knowledge, although I will admit a lot of it was ignorance of Sekiro. That game might have been done in this contest by it being a straightforward action game instead of an RPG, which Monster Hunter very much is. There you go.

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PostContestUlti posted...

. I don't know why or how, either. Was it the "too hard" memes? Was it the lack of weapon options? I truly do not know, and I would love the opinion of anyone reading this who doesn't like the game to hit me up. This one has me stumped.

Honestly, the reasons it didn't do anywhere near as well as the FROM games is because

A) It's one of the newest games in bracket, and FROM's game often gain strength over time via bandwagoning and people evangelizing for them on every corner of the Internet. Look at where Dark Souls & Bloodborne were in 2015 vs where they are now.

B) That said, I don't think the Dark Souls fanbase has embraced Sekiro anywhere near as much as they did Bloodborne. The PvP and multiplayer component in those games matter A LOT to them, on top of the games' longevity thanks to the different builds and fashion souls, as well as arguing over the lore. Sekiro just doesn't have any of that, and in the inverse of the rest of FROM's game, this might actually be the strongest it'll be.


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PostContestUlti posted...

Fails Of.

Don't humor Black Turtle by using his "clever" terms.

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PostContestUlti posted...

I'm stealing this.

https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/(5)Final_Fantasy_XV_vs_(4)Hollow_Knight_2020

I love giving you guys shine.

I'm flattered. Thank you for quoting me.

As for Sekiro's loss, any chance that Activision publishing the game might've hurt it due to brand distrust?

PostContestUlti posted...

Bastion will be remembered for embarrassing Dragon Age: Inquisition in round one, but that's all it managed to pull off in this contest.

Yeah. Should fix this one for the wiki. Ori was the one that beat Dragon Age. Bastion beat The Walking Dead.

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Nintendogs posted...

any chance that Activision publishing the game might've hurt it due to brand distrust?

I don't think anyone cared tbh. It's not like the game felt rushed or was riddled with microtransactions or any of the usual reasons why anyone would take note of the publisher.

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Oof. Thanks for being my editors guys!

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_SecretSquirrel posted...

Don't humor Black Turtle by using his "clever" terms.

He is 100% right on this one, homie.

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https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78702874

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Division 2 Quarterfinal: (1)Mass Effect 2 vs (8)Fallout 4

(1)Mass Effect 2 - 18568 [66.88%]
(8)Fallout 4 - 9197 [33.12%]
Total Votes - 27765
Prediction Percentage - 58.29%

There was a lot of concern for Mass Effect 2 in this division after its horrendous performance in round 1. Unfair 16 seed or not, Resident Evil 7 scored 37% on this game. Any 16 seed doing that is cause for alarm. We know now how grossly mis-seeded RE7 was, but at the time there was a lot of fear for Mass Effect 2's future. Was the game going to be punished due to Electronic Arts being a corrupt garbage can? There was fear it could even lose to Fallout 4 here, and even the oracle folks, arguably the smartest prognosticators we have on all of Board 8, only picked Mass Effect 2 to win this with consensus of 57%. Only a fourth of them picked it to break 60% in this match.

Turns out that fear was completely misguided, and Mass Effect 2 would come out in round 2 and just beat the piss out of Fallout 4 for 24 straight hours. At a glance this doesn't look like the most impressive of wins, but for those reading this reads down the line out of context, remember what was going on here. Mass Effect as a series was deader than dead, because of the internet hating 3 and Andromeda. EA didn't help matters, either. It had just gotten 63% against a 16 seed, and people were worried it was done for in this division, because a bunch of other games broke 80% in round 1.

So of course Mass Effect 2 beats Fallout 4 ''worse'' than it did a 16 seed. This was super impressive, and it was the win people have been asking for from Mass Effect 2 for a full decade in these contests. It was a win so strong that people invoked those three beautiful letters -- SFF. When that gets busted out, you've done something special. And make no mistake, given the circumstances this was a special, special performance.

Let's not forget that Fallout 4 once got 45% on Witcher 3 in a Game of the Year final poll. Let's also not forget that Fallout 3 was a #1 overall seed and make the semifinal in the last Game of the Decade contest, including wins over Halo and Metroid Prime, before getting over 45% on Brawl. It also had a 6800 vote lead on Undertale in round 2 in 2015. These Fallout games are legit, and Mass Effect 2 went full Rick James on it.

Yeah, so all that consternation about Mass Effect 2 losing this division was greatly exaggerated, though not unfounded. EA completely and thoroughly ruined the reputation of that series, so the thought that Mass Effect 2 might be punished was not impossible. Thankfully ME2 was spared all that, and retained its rightful spot as the divisional favorite.

What ''did'' get punished for the sins of the father was Fallout 4. Series fans already didn't like that game and blamed it for the series falling off, going so far as to call New Vegas the "real Fallout 4", but Bethesda has become such a stain on gaming that everything associated with it is screwed. They are so incapable of being complete and total shitstains that they waited over a month after launch to put Denuvo on the PC version of Doom Eternal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTCdA-zJOqY

Bethesda, seriously, go fuck off. You legitimately ruin everything you touch.

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Earthbound sucks

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Ico too, sucks

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Xenosaga rocks

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