Board 8 > Game of the Decade: 2010-2019 Contest Analysis Crew - Part 0

(+) Yeah! (+)

youll find things as we start getting data in. some of these pathetic games, sure, but I bet well draw broad inferences where we can.

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hallo

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wait when did the start date change from the 13th to the 19th

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god damn it allen

yeah I noticed that the other day and just assumed I read the date wrong the first time

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oh man I need to start writing these huh

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I honestly haven't thought about the contest in like 2 weeks. I'll be interested when it gets going but it's kinda hard to have any strong feelings either way about the results.

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yeah I haven't looked at my bracket in about a week

I should probably look at it again to see if I even still agree with it

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Guest sign-ups for the first couple divisions are most likely going up sometime tomorrow. Also hope to start putting up Crew write-ups for the first few matches on Tuesday.

In the meantime I had some time to kill, so I did one of those tier list things. This one is a ranking from least interesting to analyze to most interesting to analyze.

Low Tier

Division 5 On the surface, it looks like a very cut-and-dry division. All the top seeds are solid favorites to win every match here, and the only thing still up for debate for me is Witcher 3/God of War. Its hard to look for an upset too because weve seen Galaxy 2 and Fallout New Vegas in the past, and Witcher 3 would have to flop pretty hard for it to lose to one of those games, especially since it seems like one of the games most likely to have gotten stronger since 2015 for various reasons.

Division 7 Similar to Division 5, this one is also looking pretty predictable, though a few of the Round 1 matches are a little less obvious. Dark Souls and The Last of Us are very likely to end up in the Divison Finals, and thats a match Im still going back and forth with at the moment. Dark Souls/MGSV is a rematch we didnt need, and theres no reason for that result to have changed over time. Also not feeling the upset potential with BioShock Infinite or Batman either.

Division 3 SSBUs fourpack is one of the biggest wastes of potential in the entire contest, as Link Between Worlds and even Bayonetta could have done some damage in other parts of the bracket. Outside of that though, this division has a number of debatable topics.

Spider-Man seems like it should be strong enough to win its fourpack, but you could make a case for Minecraft if Spider-Man flops. Undertale is back, and while it should be stronger than its base strength in 2015, it probably wont get rallied again and itll have to deal with anti-votes, so an underperformance is very possible. DMC5/Tropical Freeze is a toss-up in my mind, and Odyssey should be strong, but is it strong enough to beat SSBU?

Mid Tier

Division 1 There are a handful of debatable matches in this division, even though theres no question who is getting out of it. Even in Round 1, there are at least 3 that I could see going either way. Round 2 is mostly locked in after that, though Monster Hunter/Sekiro is giving me some pause. DQXI seems like it should be strong enough to get to the Division Finals, but if it flops, then it could be interesting to see if Monster Hunter or Sekiro can upset it.

Division 6 Round 1 for this division doesnt look too exciting, as the higher seeds should be the favorites here, with the exception of the 8/9 Assassins Creed/Civilization match that looks like a toss-up to me. Sonic Mania/Super Meat Boy is an interesting Round 2 match, but Persona 5 looks to be the clear favorite to win the top half of the division.

The bottom half is a little more exciting, mostly because Kingdom Hearts III is such a wildcard. We havent seen much of it since it missed the Game of the Year polls, but most are expecting it to be nowhere near KH2 in strength. If thats the case, then either Portal 2 or RDR 2 are looking good to meet P5 in the Division Finals in a match with some upset potential if P5 doesnt end up being as strong as people think.

Division 2 The first round in this division looks straight-forward, but after that it gets interesting. Has Mass Effect 2 held up after all this time? Fallout 4 could take it out early. The other Round 2 also matches all have favorites to win, but none of those matches are locks to me. ME2 and RE2 are the most likely to get to the Division Finals, and right now I can see that match going either way. I wouldnt be surprised to see Horizon, FE: Awakening, or Bloodborne there though.

Top Tier

Division 8 Very solid division all around here. Theres a handful of debatable meaningless Round 1 matches, as well as a debatable Round 1 match where the winner is the favorite to also win Round 2 in Uncharted 4/Mario Kart 8!

Pokemon HGSS/Nier Automata is a tough call pre-contest, as we dont know how well remakes will play in this environment. 2Bs Character Battle showing also makes it seem like Nier will do well, though this could be a Dante/DMC case where the character is way stronger than the game. Skyrim seems like the obvious winner of this division, but depending on the ceilings of Pokemon and Nier, I wouldnt say its a total lock.

Division 4 A division where a GTA game is the top seed? You already know this is a very debatable one. The top seeds in Round 1 are the favorites, but I can see some upset potential in a few of them, especially Overwatch/Death Stranding.

P4G/RDR is definitely debatable to me, because much like with Pokemon HGSS, its hard to say how well a remake like Persona 4 Golden will do here, since I can see it having both a high ceiling and low floor. GTAV will have to get past the winner of that match, which is not a lock. Xenoblade and Fire Emblem Three Houses is the biggest and most debatable match in the bottom half of the division, and the winner there also has a shot at winning the division final against whoever makes it through the top half.

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I don't see how Fallout 4 beats Mass Effect 2. Even if you want to take the route that Mass Effect is a dead franchise, it's not like Fallout's in much better shape. Plus Andromeda got way better reviews than 76.

Picking Persona 4 over Red Dead Redemption doesn't feel right to me since this is a Vita game and a port we're talking about here, plus based on 2015 stats P4/RDR is already a close match. Picking RDR over GTAV doesn't feel right either given GTAV did way better in 2015 and there's a difference between GTA choking against a Tales of Symphonia, Golden Sun, or Chrono Cross and losing to another game in the same genre from the same developer. Plus John Marston was pathetic in 2018 and it's not like RDR didn't get any older either.

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LinkMarioSamus posted...

I don't see how Fallout 4 beats Mass Effect 2. Even if you want to take the route that Mass Effect is a dead franchise, it's not like Fallout's in much better shape. Plus Andromeda got way better reviews than 76.

Picking Persona 4 over Red Dead Redemption doesn't feel right to me since this is a Vita game and a port we're talking about here, plus based on 2015 stats P4/RDR is already a close match. Picking RDR over GTAV doesn't feel right either given GTAV did way better in 2015 and there's a difference between GTA choking against a Tales of Symphonia, Golden Sun, or Chrono Cross and losing to another game in the same genre from the same developer. Plus John Marston was pathetic in 2018 and it's not like RDR didn't get any older either.

I believe in everything you just wrote yet don't feel confident about any of it.

Fallout 4 isn't as beloved among fans of the series like ME2 is either, so I'm honestly not too scared of it.

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Honestly I rarely hear anything good about Fallout 4. Although a lot of the bad comes from people who were never on board with Bethesda's brand of Fallout anyway. New Vegas is exempt because it wasn't made by Bethesda but rather a company with a lot of people who worked on the first two Fallout games and thus has a lot more in common with them, including the things people liked about them.

The dumb thing is that I own Fallouts 3, New Vegas, and 4 because my brother is into those games, but I just get lost in the open world without any direction. I wound up watching Let's Plays of 3 and New Vegas instead, the latter of which I especially got into, so I know a fair amount about Fallout since I was interested enough to look it all up.

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Tuesday huh? Alright guess I better get going on these then.

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okay, I went back through my bracket and just kinda shrugged. division 4 is the killer and division 8 is tricky, but otherwise it feels pretty straightforward. it won't be, of course, because we're gonna see all kinds of weird stuff this contest with so many weak games. it won't be easy to predict that beforehand though.

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all right got my division 1 writeups done

here goes nothing

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first batch of guest signups are open

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78475871

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Guests please

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And now we're delayed another week

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phew, glad ive been lazy about doing literally anything with this contest!

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"lol"

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you know, it's funny that we had a short bracket period only for it to turn into a pretty long one.

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Bless the delay I would have forgotten to put an entry in

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Only a week until the start of the contest!

For the third time now

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Man! The Crew is back! Thanks for doing all these years! It brings a manly tear to my eye!

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the fact that Guest signups are going so slow is more reason to post writeups early so we can get emergency fill ins from the usual suspects

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everything else in the world has been canceled so I just kinda assume this is even though it makes no sense

the start date has changed so much that I just figure it'll change again

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It's almost time again

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two days away and there hasn't been another delay yet

this might be it this time

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