Board 8 > Giant Bombs's Game of the Year 2022 starts today Dec. 12 5pm GMT/12pm ET/9am PT

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://twitter.com/giantbomb/status/1601661914601656320

Theyll be doing their usual deliberation podcasts live, plus some streams including what sounds like weird metaverse stuff. Will stream
at:

https://www.giantbomb.com/chat/

Community voting here:

https://www.giantbomb.com/articles/community-goty-2022-voting-begins/1100-6265/

I liked it better when they did it in the new year.

I get why they do it now from a marketing perspective but it makes no sense otherwise. Everyone is scrambling to play an hour of all the big games at the last minute so they can have an uninformed informed perspective. Then everyone comes back in January, after actually playing those games and goes WTF were we thinking?!? Not to mention talking about spoilers for games that their audience might not have time to play until the holidays.

Im months behind on the podcast though, so I probably wont listen to this until well into 2023.

Yeah, I broadly agree. They were getting a bit late in January but I liked them having the break. Still, this mid-December slot is much better than how they used to do it, literally starting in November most years.

Youtube link is up:

https://youtu.be/-MEJnD4er_k

into the metaverse we go

Just getting started now, its the full crew thank goodness (including Tam and Lucy).

Edit: Wow they have a virtual version of the old studio.

https://twitter.com/giantbomb/status/1602348836600561664

Thats on Twitch, youtube is heads-only.

I cannot relate to this category

Finally the return of Soulja Boy Presents Best Game for People Who Drink Beer and Get Drunk or Smoke Weed and Get High.

Hey, they finally did a best game I bounced off of category.

I'm really enjoying this! Haven't enjoyed these in a while.

I definitely prefer this time period for GOTY. By the time it's early January, I don't really want to think about the previous year anymore. Sometimes there's new exciting games in early January coming out that are good, and they're not eligible of course, so it really makes it feel like 2022 games are old news.

I just can't get into GB GotY deliberations where people aren't getting heated. That's, like, all the fun.

The current crew just can't keep my attention with this stuff. Like, I like these people, I like the current podcast, but when it comes to the GotY discussion I may as well be listening to a Polygon or Kotaku podcast.

Saints Row vs Skyrim will never happen again.

With the behind the scenes drama at Giant Bomb, I can't get into it this year.

Not to attack any of the remaining crew members or anything, but I'm soured on the site after what happened to Jeff. It's the same feeling I had towards Gamespot after Jeff was fired there.

I feel after 2017 those insane debates were definitely on the way out, but there was definitely passion, mainly aimed at dunking on Horizon.

Big_Bob posted...

With the behind the scenes drama at Giant Bomb, I can't get into it this year.

Not to attack any of the remaining crew members or anything, but I'm soured on the site after what happened to Jeff. It's the same feeling I had towards Gamespot after Jeff was fired there.

Nobody involved with that decision is related to the site any more after the sale. It doesnt really make sense to hold it against them.

Dans feud with Bakalars kid is very funny

Big_Bob posted...

With the behind the scenes drama at Giant Bomb, I can't get into it this year.

Not to attack any of the remaining crew members or anything, but I'm soured on the site after what happened to Jeff. It's the same feeling I had towards Gamespot after Jeff was fired there.

This is where I am, too.

LightningStrikes posted...

Nobody involved with that decision is related to the site any more after the sale. It doesnt really make sense to hold it against them.

In a general sense, I know that, but I cant get over my personal, probably wrong, feeling that they didnt give Jeff the respect he deserved/deserves.

Kinda weird to hold a grudge against a website based off of a decision some suit made who doesn't even work there anymore and all parties involved seemed to have moved on from.

Honestly the idea that a grudge should be held against people who had nothing to do with it, on behalf of somebody who has made it very clear that he doesnt hold a grudge or want anybody else to do so, is just silly.

Cant keep up with this today due to personal stuff.

Look I know Bayo 3 isn't as good as Bayo 2, but I don't know if that's enough to keep it on Most Disappointing over a lot of the other noms on that list

For the most part I haven't heard animosity towards Bayo3, but people just, like....don't wanna talk about it. Their dissapointment runs deep and personal, lol.

I'll play it once it's on a different console.

Excited to see this new format for GotY

Part 1 will be putting together an unranked list of 50 games

Part 2 will be each member will be giving their top 5 ranked which will assign point values too them and Jan will be running the math and they will come up with a top 10 based on those rankings

(of course the real reason they're moving to ranked voting this year is so Vampire Survivors can win over Elden Ring)

Oh so they won't even be arguing for their pick placement at all, MATH makes the list?

Yeah I'm not listening to these moving forward.

They are whittling it to 50, then 20, so therell still be a lot of discussions but with a bigger list. It seems kind of aimed at avoiding a Chicory repeat.

I would say dont knock something until youve tried it!

I completely forgot about Chicory to the point that when all the GOTYs were reveled in tower unite I went back and checked because i thought it was wrong.

Jess didn't even need to argue to get Immortality off the list they just did it to not hear her complain

Its so weird that theyre not doing individual lists this year

I guess losing Alex has broken their access to guest lists ?

They did it last year. I think its just the chaos of the acquisition and the schedule changes.

Top 50 has been split in half. Now they need to remove 5 games from this list

Power Wash Simulator
Spider Heck
Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Vampire Survivors
Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Elden Ring
Sifu
Signalis
Fortnite
God of War Ragnarok
Neon White
Tinykin
Marvel Snap
Evil West
Midnight Fight Express
Pentiment
The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe
Tunic
Nobody Saves the World
Stranger of Paradise
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope
Norco
Cult of the Lamb
Sonic Frontiers
Goat Simulator 3
Bayonetta 3

No Somnium Files no listen.

Ive not even played Bayonetta 3 and I cant see it not on Most Disappointing.

AI the zzz files

Jan with the incredible personal reveal

lol holy shit he spent $200 for a flutist

I tuned into about 25 minutes in line at the store and I still love Jan.

These are some good arguments just to try to erase 5 games from this list

I'm gonna steal some of Jan's lines when I do my own Xenoblade 3 writeup

ha ha, I messaged Bakalar in chat like you gotta attack Powerwash to get back at Dan for his attempt to cut Spiderheck, and he replied like youre exactly right

then it fully backfired, sorry Jeff!

please put Stranger of Paradise back in the top 20

What Ive been able to catch has been a lot of fun.

The new method has not made it shorter or less intense lol.

Here's their unranked top 20. Next up is everyone ranking their top 5 and putting it into the Eurovision software

Power Wash Simulator
Spider Heck
Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Vampire Survivors
Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Elden Ring
Sifu
Signalis
God of War Ragnarok
Neon White
Tinykin
Marvel Snap
Evil West
Midnight Fight Express
Pentiment
The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe
Tunic
Nobody Saves the World
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope
Goat Simulator 3

(or at least I think that's what the top 20 was. It was hard to keep track of it all when they started moving things around)

Fan voting results

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/9/1/AAB6RfAAD_WD.jpg

Giant Bomb staff final voting

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/1/1/AAB6RfAAD_WX.jpg

Eurovision voting format wound up being excellent. Best GOTY in ages.

Having actually had the chance to listen to the whole thing rather than tuning in and out now, that was great. The voting worked very well and didnt reduce the arguments. Tam is a menace, he and Lucy were fantastic additions for this. All winners and runners-up:

Soulja Boy Presents Best Game for People Who Drink Beer and Get Drunk or Smoke Weed and Get High: Winner - Powerwash Simulator Runners-up - Vampire Survivors, Giat Simulator 3

Best VIDEO game to stream: Winner - Neon White Runners-up - Fortnite, Powerwash Simulator

Best Game You Bounced Off of: Winner - Sifu Runners-up - Live a Live, Sparks of Hope

Best Vampire Survivors Weapon: Winner - Garlic Runners-up - Guns, Song of Mana

Best Moment or Sequence: Winner - Act III of Pentiment Runners-up - Warping across the map in Elden Ring, Meeting Guernica Vandham in Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Best NEW Fortnite Skin : Winner - John Cena Runners-up - Vegeta, Robocop

Best Running Around: Winner - Tinykin Runners-up - Goat Simulator 3, Super Kiwi 64

B-Game of the Year: Winner - Evil West Runners-up - Evil West, Evil West

Most Disappointing: Winner - The Callisto Protocol Runners-up - Bayonetta 3, Gotham Knights

Best Music: Winner - Metal Hellsinger Runners-up - Neon White, Vampire Survivors

Giant Bombs Top 10 Games of the Year:

1. Elden Ring
2. Vampire Survivors
3. God of War Ragnarok
4. Neon White
5. Pentiment
6. Tinykin
7. Tunic
8. Xenoblade Chronicles 3
9. Signalis
10. Sifu

8 and 9 were actually a tie. Solid, very Giant Bomb list.

looks like this week Giant Bomb is still releasing some pre-recorded content plus everyone's individual GotY lists

This week's bombcast they applied the Eurovision scoring to all past game of the years and it fixed a lot of wrongs including flipping Skyrim and Saints Row the 3rd in 2011 so now i'm convinced this is the best format

SHINE_GET_64 posted...

This week's bombcast they applied the Eurovision scoring to all past game of the years and it fixed a lot of wrongs including flipping Skyrim and Saints Row the 3rd in 2011 so now i'm convinced this is the best format

That thread was made by me.

I think its a good system that works best to stop Chicory-style gamesmanship or the absolute gridlock where few come out happy like in 2017. On Skyrim vs Saints Row it is less useful because all five of them had played Saints Row by then but only three had played Skyrim.

I still think Saints Row over Skyrim is a cuckoo bananas take.

It is a tough one as Saints Row was definitely more of the sites pick, it was the more Giant Bomb option. However Skyrims generally seen as the much better game and was the much more respectable industry choice.

The thing is, from 2008-2014 Giant Bomb used to align with common industry GOTY winners. Then with Mario Maker in 2015 they shifted to much less common winners that the site got a lot out of and had more of a personal meaning to them. This lasted until either 2019 or 2020 (Outer Wilds is kind of both forms) when they went back to the more standard GOTY-winners except for Chicory which was just Jeff playing the game to block Psychonauts 2. Saints Row was the predecessor of the second type of GOTY-winner, though of course it did not win.