EWB Game of the Year - Results

[TKz]

It's kind of a lose - lose situation on last gen at this point. They don't put it on there, people bitch and moan. They put it on there, the shitty old hardware can't handle it, people aren't happy with how it runs.

Not that it's not a completely valid complaint, though.

Outside of one weird glitch where a Giant flew away (it was magnificent), I didn't run into any problems with DA: I on PS4. I know Zero had one or two problems with achievements, though.

And man, are two of the top three really a remake of a Pokemon game and a Mario Kart game? I own Mario Kart and it didn't even place. These games just don't have anywhere near enough content. It's why I've always said Crash Team Racing was the better game, because there's a good twenty hours + of single player content and interesting race variations on top of a solid multiplayer.

[Sousa]

a good twenty hours + of single player content

This is what missing the whole point of Mario Kart looks like in case you were wondering.

[TKz]

edit: never mind, I'd just rather not.

[Your Mom]

Mario Kart is totally about playing with other people. It's like those shootey games people seem to like so much in that way. I only find Mario Kart fun when the other people are in the room though. Talking through headsets is stupid.

Dragon Age was awesome! It totally deserves number 1. The only bug I had was the one where NPCs would just stand there and not talk when they were supposed to say something. Never hurt my enjoyment

[Bobfoc]

Thou shalt not insult the Nintendo God.

Seriously, though, I like Mario Kart 8 and have had plenty of fun with it. It's a nice, innocent game with plenty of unlockables, a colourful presentation and, most importantly for me, plenty of enjoyment to be had in a local multiplayer setting. If that's not what you're looking for, that's fine, and saying that anyone is wrong for thinking that way is silly, but I can totally see why it's as popular as it is.

[apsham]

Yeah, as much as I had a meh experience with it, Mario Kart 8 is totally a multi-person experience and Srar hit the nail on the head when it comes to actually doing it in person with other people - I wouldn't miss the online if they removed it in the least bit.

But I do take issues with the lack of evolution in the series although they're cutting really, really, really close to actually making it a Nintendo wide thing with the DLC that has come out for it, and that could really be a breath of fresh air to the series. Creating new "Mario" levels that are hardly themed to anything Mario based in the least can only go so far and they've been riding that train for a long, long while now. As a kart racer in general I think the Sonic series has done a lot in the two games that they've put out.

In the end - there are other better and less repetitive things to play as a group for me and my friends.

[TKz]

I'd definitely say Sonic and Sega was the better product overall, it was a long while before I got tired of playing that both single player and multiplayer. Me and Mrs. TKz unlocked pretty much everything in that game. Wasn't so keen on the follow up.

[Pizza]

Mario Kart 8 doesn't need a solid single player experience. But it'd be a lot better if it had one. The game design is great and it's a lot of fun to play at first, but it wears out it's welcome quickly. Especially when the people you'd play it with aren't close enough to you skill wise to make it competitive. Smash Bros is a much better game, both by yourself and with people. The single player is bare bones, but it gives you lots of options to customize your experience and is capable of providing a challenge besides inopportune blue shells. Having goals like the challenge system adds a lot to it. I know a lot of people are down on achievements, but having optional goals for people to pursue if they choose is never a bad idea. And the multiplayer gives you more options too. I don't lose to my niece in Mario Kart, and I don't lose to her in straight up 1 on 1 Smash. But I can lose to her if I give her a Level 7 partner and me a Level 3. Or if I give myself a 40% handicap. Or we can team up. And it's a lot more fun to play with her because of that.

[apsham]

Mario Kart 8 doesn't need a solid single player experience. But it'd be a lot better if it had one. The game design is great and it's a lot of fun to play at first, but it wears out it's welcome quickly. Especially when the people you'd play it with aren't close enough to you skill wise to make it competitive. Smash Bros is a much better game, both by yourself and with people. The single player is bare bones, but it gives you lots of options to customize your experience and is capable of providing a challenge besides inopportune blue shells. Having goals like the challenge system adds a lot to it. I know a lot of people are down on achievements, but having optional goals for people to pursue if they choose is never a bad idea. And the multiplayer gives you more options too. I don't lose to my niece in Mario Kart, and I don't lose to her in straight up 1 on 1 Smash. But I can lose to her if I give her a Level 7 partner and me a Level 3. Or if I give myself a 40% handicap. Or we can team up. And it's a lot more fun to play with her because of that.

This is a great way to look at it. I had a friend come over and she was really excited to play some Mario Kart with us but she hadn't played in years and it just wasn't a fun experience for her. I could've toned it down and I tried to at one point or another but she could tell I was doing it and told me to stop.

[RoyWill Rumble]

Sonic, at least the last one, ate a fucking dick. It became an exercise in bullshit trials that were virtually impossible to do at some point. It was fun for about five hours, then it decided to get stupid hard for no discernible reason. That game was wildly, wildly unbalanced when it came to difficulty level. The ladyfriend and I still play Mario Kart 8 on a weekly basis. We promptly got rid of Sonic after it just became way too hard. That says something. Mario Kart is absolutely still Mario Kart, but it's the best Mario Kart ever. I think there were better games on this list, and I even had more fun with other multiplayer games, but I didn't come back to any other game more this year than Mario Kart 8. It's fantastic.

As for Dragon Age, I've seen many, many, many reports of bugs and glitches on PC, PS4, Xbone, and previous gen on countless sites and forums, and also just from anecdotal discussions I've had with the few people I know who played it. It's a great game with incredible characters—and not just for a video game, either—but it is a buggy, janky-ass open-world game—nothing game-breaking, but the bugs and glitches certainly exist.

Anddddd I have no opinion on Pokémon, but I bet it's rad. All of these games iterated on pretty great games, so it's not too surprising, especially in a supposedly "off" year for games, that these familiar, but incredibly well made games are in the top three. If you want experimentation and new shit, you know to go to indie games. If you want other EWBers to play them, tell them to get off their ass and play them and then maybe the list won't end up like this. That sounds more snarky than it should, but you take a look at the Nintendo and Pokémon thread and then just check out the general gaming thread and it's kinda obvious we as a board stuck to what was familiar in an "off-year" that really didn't have too many indie darlings to speak of.

I also completely disagree about the Mario Kart/Smash Bros. debate. Smash Bros. is not inviting for people who have never played Smash Bros. Never has been. You quickly become "that guy" if you're the dude that owns Smash Bros. and have friends over. You're the asshole that knows all the moves. And it is a great game with an awesome amount of depth, and I'm sure that for a while, people will have fun as the chaos just unfurls. At some point, though, there's gonna be that one dude/girl who's way too good and then you've gotta try to teach people how to play and it's just eh. Mario Kart definitely suffers from the same problem, but it's not as bad. There's parity built in to the game design. Yeah, you can handicap people in Smash Bros., but it still requires you to teach people how to play Smash. Bros. As long as someone can hold a controller and is at least somewhat familiar with Mario Kart, they can have a good time even if they're horrible just because of the random nature of Mario Kart and the catchup logic. Griefing people and competition is built in to the inherent randomness of the items and catchup logic, which levels the playing field. Two player? It's shitty either way for the person who doesn't play games as much/doesn't own Smash/Mario Kart, but the second you get multiple people in there (and hope the framerate isn't too shitty, admittedly), Mario Kart is still buttloads of fun unless you just don't know how to actually drive the karts. Smash still relies on too much skill to me, to be fun to the hypothetical friends that are just coming around to play some games and you're much, much better than.

Even with handicaps on, Smash Bros. comes down to skill. That is fine for the right people (read: people who are good at Smash), but it I just know that if I sat Mario Kart and Smash in front of my group of core friends, we'd try Smash for a bit, get bored/frustrated, then play Mario Kart instead.

[Plubby]

#1

Dragon Age: Inquisition

666.125 Weighted points, 8 nominations.

Surprise! (Not Really) Not satisfied with basking in the critical plaudits, Dragon Age takes home our own GOTY too. Allegedly quite buggy, but what's a few strange errors over what has proven to be the most enjoyable game of the year, and among the most enjoyable RPG's in recent memory. Pick it up if you haven't already, it's proven to be quite the winner!

EWB GOTY History (Plubby era)

2014: Dragon Age: Inquisition

2013: Grand Theft Auto V

Wow, we are so mainstream.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Don Bradman was robbed.

[Benji]

Out of curiosity Plubs, how do you work out the weighted score?

[Plubby]

Total points multiplied by average points per nomination. It's in the original voting post, but I didn't put it in this one for some reason.

[EWB's Best Poster.]

Thanks for the efforts, plubby.

[Ace]

Me and Hammy got Bradman into the top 10?

Exceeeeeellent