Hey everyone. After collecting all the entries for this years Game of the Year, I have them now in poll form for you to vote on. Thanks to everyone that added games to the list.
http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=50d6571ce4b091229a56c192
Please select your top 5 and the winner will be the highest voted game. I will also list out the others so we all know how it turned out.
Voting will be open today until December 31st and feel free to share this out with your friends!
*Yeah I linked the same video again, its totally awesome.
http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=50d6571ce4b091229a56c192
Please select your top 5 and the winner will be the highest voted game. I will also list out the others so we all know how it turned out.
Voting will be open today until December 31st and feel free to share this out with your friends!
*Yeah I linked the same video again, its totally awesome.
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Voted! Looking forward to the results.
Just voted. This will be cool.
Yep.
Any guesses what will take the first prize bacon?
I guess I should be explicit it will be virtual bacon.
Unacceptable. We should insist on giving them real bacon.
I wouldn't be surprised with Borderlands 2. I think it's my favorite, though it's a tough call.
Imagine someone opening a package of shipped Bacon! Haha that would be awesome!
The walking dead needs some more votes!!! Its gotta be one of the top 5!
Share this out with all your friends, anyone is able to vote!
Jon, it seems to have outright rejected your gravatar change.
BR! You are right! Don't let Borderlands loot lottery take the Cheeries again!
Yeah, I'll re upload the image. Odd.
Borderlands, while there is a ton of loot, is way more than a loot lottery. Probably my favorite this year.
But I haven't played TWD.
Look forward to playing TWD myself.
This list could be retitled "Games I want to play but haven't yet." I think the only one on the list I've played is Borderlands 2. So many games, so little time!
I'm just being pithy. I really disliked Borderlands 1 but I haven't played the 2nd. I think the loot system in the first one is total bunko and the quests were boring, but the skill trees were pretty good.
What made the loot system bunk for you? I found it pretty fun.
The quests in BL2 are much better this time around for sure.
The loot system was the basic Diablo-style loot with a ton more possibilities. I love it. People call it an arrow-comparison simulator a lot, and I can kinda see their point, but weighing the pros and cons added a lot.
I dig its simplicity. The game play is the killer feature of Borderlands, that and how badass certain battles can be.
The story in the first game wasn't too compelling but in BL2 the characters and story were much better!
I agree with BR. The Walking Dead for GotY!
Though I must say, I'm surprised Mass Effect 3 isn't on the list. For all the criticism about the ending, it is still a really solid game.
I didn't make it on the list because it wasn't nominated.
My basic issue with Diablo style loot systems is this:
It speaks of shitty design to me. By stimulating the casino/gambling bit of the gamer mind and playing on our desire to watch numbers go up, you avoid actually designing your game. Item drops can be powerful rewards for exploration or, in the best of cases, they can recontextualize the rest of the game.
Consider doing a side quest to get a powerful weapon in an RPG. You're rewarded for going out of your way and seeing more of the game. The developers choose how powerful it should be comeasurate with the difficulty of the quest and can tie it in thematically. I'm on board.
Consider finding a new item in Super Metroid. When you get a new item, you reconsider every area you've already been to because you have a new mode of traversal or ability. That game is very well designed.
And then think about finding a random, more powerful bit of armor in something like Torchlight 2 (which I really liked, btw). Even rare loot is usually not a huge jump in effectiveness and even when it is, it's gated by level requirements. So the pleasure you get is that of watching numbers go up and very rarely of a new ability, like a status effect of some sort. Those status effects are usually already available, without the numbers going up, from shops and the like.
The rare loot you get is barely more empowering than the loot you already had. You're just trading a viable strategy for a very slightly more viable one, with higher numbers, brighter colors and cooler names. Very little actually changes. The fact that it's random means it more or less happens continuously throughout the game. Rare loot is not rare. Playing Torchlight 2, I was finding rare and magical loot constantly. On a given run, I'd find 2 or 3 unique pieces of equipment. When I would find something really exciting, level limits and class restrictions undermine the very thrill that they're hoping to create. Because of this, the effect is a constant marginal increase in your character efficacy, that isn't tied to your actions. That's Progressquest. If you're going to be random, have the courage to be random. Then, at least, it's like a slot machine and you feel like you can really hit the jackpot.
It's also annoying to constantly have to be picking up trash items to sell as the games basic economy. Specifically with Diablo (haven't played 3, just 1 and 2), the rhythms of the game are set by trips to and from the market. It's a game about selling junk you find on the floor. Sometimes you get a nice bit of equipment that is VERY rarely a big jump up, but it's not because of your performance or for exploration or for anything you actually DID.
Interesting points @Gary, thanks for bringing them up. I want to respond to a few though.
I do find gambling fun. Its a thrill to go to Las Vegas and put money down and occasionally win. I mostly lose but then again, I don't go to Vegas all the time and when I do I limit how much I spend and its not much. That said, its thrilling and much more adrenaline packed than the average video game for me. That said, its fleeting and not as rewarding as something like Fallout 3 or Super Metroid that will stick with me my entire life. My point is, gambling is fun, but its not as impactful or even possibly life changing as an awesome and compelling story for me.
Secondly I think that any kind of Diablo style RPG needs to do more than just bring the loot. For instance, I kind of thought by the end game of Diablo 3 thats really all it brought. The loot and grind. Whereas that does give you some mindless fun for a bit and does really give the game a huge amount of time for some, I find it lacking.
I think Diablo like RPG's survive for me not on the grind, which as you say is a bit like Progress Quest, but they need to bring a few more elements. Gameplay(which in my opinion Borderlands fucking nailed to the wall and owned), your character being a Badass and the overall feel of playing game. Borderlands 2 also brought much more interesting quests and a fun story. The side quests do give you a better gun or shields like you mention, which I do think is pretty awesome.
I also don't like games that make you go back to town to sell gear to advance, that shit is lame. D3 had that a bit, but it was lessened somewhat. In the end I don't mind the gambling aspect if the game can bring more fun elements to the table. I mean if I didn't id play online slots all day :D
That said, there is a slot machine pull in Borderlands 2 in Moxxi's bar that I use to "get rid" of my money because buying in game items seems useless to me. That is fun because its like opening a chest and I get some good gear that way.
Again, I'm basing all of my experience on Diablo 1 and 2, Torchlight 1 and 2 and Borderlands 1. It's possible Borderlands 2 is different. Does it have stat/class/level requirements to undercut you when you win the figurative slot machine? That shit drives me bonkers.
I also like a lot of these games, but it's in spite of the loot side. What these games do really well, I think, are skill trees. I love character customization, I just don't want to pick up a whole lot of Shoulders of the North which grant +.03 frost resistance along the way.
Also, random dungeons generally don't seem to add much. It's sort of neat that it's different every time but are the layouts ever considered? Designed? Neat? Most of the time in those games, there are a lot of dead ends with pottery in them.
It's not that I'm against randomization. Consider something like Binding of Isaac where each item you get is random. The difference is there are few, if any, insignificant upgrades. Each item is a meaningful improvement or, even better, drastically changes the way you play the game. Diablo-likes are literal seas of meaningless upgrades.
@Gary, occasionally you pick up an item that is a higher level that you can use.
In BL1 and BL2, I can count the times I got gear higher than my current level could handle on one hand. The general rule is that a level 37 piece won't drop from any enemies below level 37, so you should be getting gear along the lines of where you should be. Now, you CAN go take on higher level enemies and this would probably happen more often, but that's a recipe for repeated death.
And like Jon said, while I think the gear system is interesting, it isn't what makes me play the game. I don't care about the grind, I care about the gameplay, and they nailed it hard. The humor is great (thanks to the new writers headed up by Anthony Burch) and the quests are interesting. The gunplay mechanics work very well, and some of the pros and cons you get from the skill tree are fantastic for playing the game differently.
Interestingly enough, after getting through the main game and the two available DLCs, I started up playthrough 2 today. It levels up with you, so it's advised not to take any sidequests until you're 50, so that you can get the best loot from them for taking on raid bosses and such. Just blasting through the main quest is really quite fun, and I am rarely even worrying about loot unless it's something I want since, as Jon mentioned, money is no factor after maybe 6 or hours.
Voting is now closed thanks everybody!