GameBanshee - GotY 2012

GameBanshee has announced their Game of the Year Awards for last year. Some examples include:

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - Best Character System
Inquisitor - Best Story/Writing
Darksiders 2 - Best Graphics
Mass Effect 3 - Best Sound/Music
Wasteland 2 - Most Anticipated for 2013

…and more.
More information.

A huge respect from me. Because of DLC runner-up=none and this description:

we just didn't feel like any of the various DLCs for Dark Souls, Mass Effect 3, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim were deserving of our runner-up award given their entertainment value and price point vs. content.

Won't spoil anything else. Choices, mostly meet my taste except, well, RPG of the year runner-up.
But I won't be nitpicking on it as RPG of the year on GB definetly deserved the title.

Wow, RPG of the year award definitely surprised!

Not surprised at all, nothing else even comes close, except Avernum. LoG was a sure thing.



-Carn

Originally Posted by Drithius
Wow, RPG of the year award definitely surprised!

Heh. I didn't vote in these GotY awards for GB (hadn't played enough games), but like Carnifex said, not much competition really.

It's perhaps a little confusing but for GB indie and main RPGotY aren't absolutely separated. The indie portion is there to ensure we do still honor indies when mainstream just offers too much to acknowledge them in that portion. But sometimes, in a year like this, the indies beat the AAAs.

Did no one at GB play Risen 2?

Game of throne and of orcs and men edge LOG and were way better than KOA IMO. The game breaking area level locking ruined KOA for me. The character progression is useless when the game is so easy you can defeat every monster with just your standard attack.

Also I only played the demo of risen 2 but it can't actually be worse than KOA. Can it?

Originally Posted by sakichop
Also I only played the demo of risen 2 but it can't actually be worse than KOA. Can it?

Risen 2 was the best AAA RPG released last year imo, but I'm partial to Piranha Bytes' style in regards to atmosphere.

Originally Posted by sakichop
Also I only played the demo of risen 2 but it can't actually be worse than KOA. Can it?

Hunting endless mobrespawns for whatever reason as you don't care for the story - that's KoA.
Risen 2 is completely different than that. To some (me) it's better, to some, the better option is mindless grinding.

This is why Risen 2 was not on the list taken from the site.

We considered Risen 2 but thought that, while decent, it was too weak to deserve either a winner or runner-up mention.

I agree and excepted more from the game it didn't deliver. It has nothing to do with grinding and mob spawns.

Guild Wars 2 runner up for story/writing?

It has among the worst writing and story I've experienced.

If they included MMORPGs, then NOT choosing The Secret World is like admitting complete ignorance on the matter. No other MMORPG has writing even remotely close to that, something which pretty much all who played it agree on, even if they disagreed on everything else.

Legend of Grimrock RPG of the year? Ehm, it's a puzzle game with combat. Ok, it's an RPG - but Risen 2? Have you played Dark Souls?

Ok, they're drunk.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
This is why Risen 2 was not on the list taken from the site.

I agree and excepted more from the game it didn't deliver. It has nothing to do with grinding and mob spawns.

Sorry but in my case it delivered completely except the too easy final fight but that was patched soon. Should I mention that I've replayed it already because it was more than enjoyable?
It has everything with existing or nonexisting grinding and mobrespawns - when you put a grinder game as goty runner-up, you're suggesting to publishers "we'd kill for another game like this one is!".

But as I've said in my first post, the RPG of the year on GameBanshee definetly deserved the title and it's all that matters.

Originally Posted by joxer
Sorry but in my case it delivered completely except the too easy final fight but that was patched soon. Should I mention that I've replayed it already because it was more than enjoyable?

Good you found it enjoyable enough to play more than once good for you. I found no reason to make myself play it again.

As for there game of the year I have no opinion about it so I can't say. I never played Legend of Grimrock doubt I ever will.

All I got from last year was it was a bad year for Rpg's.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Guild Wars 2 runner up for story/writing?

It has among the worst writing and story I've experienced.

If they included MMORPGs, then NOT choosing The Secret World is like admitting complete ignorance on the matter. No other MMORPG has writing even remotely close to that, something which pretty much all who played it agree on, even if they disagreed on everything else.

Perhaps the text didn't justify the award enough.

Guild Wars 2 had a crap story, that much is true.

However…

The writing and presentation were frequently charming and engaging, with fairly entertaining and well-written dialogue and characters (if a bit one-note).

More to the point however, the way it allowed you to select multiple story paths, missions, etc. and had lengthy quest chains which were mutually exclusive with each other, then branching quests and arcs, etc. even within them, was very impressive for an MMO, and most single player RPGs are also shamed by that. And frankly, there were very few other games with great stories and writing this year to choose from.

That said, we did not have anyone play The Secret World. We didn't receive a review copy or cover the game all that much. Guild Wars 2 was mostly selected because of its innovation within the MMO scene. Maybe The Secret World did some stuff better, maybe it completely clobbered it, who knows? We cannot comment on games our team does not have experience with.

Seems RPGwatch isn't the only site that found it a bit akward to name a RPG of the year. Grimrock is very deserving of the indie award, but in all honesty I don't think it deserves a RPG of the year award. As fun as it is, for that it is too limited in scope and ambition, imho.

Originally Posted by sea
More to the point however, the way it allowed you to select multiple story paths, missions, etc. and had lengthy quest chains which were mutually exclusive with each other, then branching quests and arcs, etc. even within them, was very impressive for an MMO, and most single player RPGs are also shamed by that. And frankly, there were very few other games with great stories and writing this year to choose from.

Well, I clearly have a very different concept of great writing than you guys do - and that's quite alright.

I agree there was more branching and more choices than is usual, but I don't agree it amounted to much. Then again, I couldn't stand playing long enough to see any of the conclusions.

To me, branching isn't about writing - but more about a mechanic. You can create elaborate branching with multiple choices, but if the writing in itself isn't good - it all amounts to nothing much. I mean, if the story isn't compelling and you don't care about the characters - why would you care about choice? I don't see that.

That said, we did not have anyone play The Secret World. We didn't receive a review copy or cover the game all that much. Guild Wars 2 was mostly selected because of its innovation within the MMO scene. Maybe The Secret World did some stuff better, maybe it completely clobbered it, who knows? We cannot comment on games our team does not have experience with.

Well, I don't mean to be overly negative. But if you're going to create articles about games of the year - and you're going to include the MMO genre - you really should test the major ones - of which there are very few. I mean, how expensive can it be to buy a boxed version and test for a month?

Anyway, maybe that's just me. But if you don't include a game like Secret World when talking about best writing/story of the year - I don't think it makes sense to even write the article.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Did no one at GB play Risen 2?

Reviewed it way back when. In hindsight, I actually think I went too easy on it in that review. It's not all that good. It's not terrible, I didn't hate it, apart from some design decisions which I did honestly loathe (quick-event traps, killcam), but is there any one thing it was good enough at for an award? Sound, graphics, story, character system? Not really. And overall can't say I considered it for RPGotY at all. I didn't vote in these awards, but that's the feedback I gave, and I know at least one other staff member (WUE) played it.

Risen actually was runner-up to both best story and best sound/music two years ago. Risen 2 just did too much wrong. I hope they learn from both games and really pick it up, I'm a big Piranha Bytes fans but this has been a pretty steady decline, and I wouldn't like awarding them for that.

Originally Posted by Brother None
Reviewed it way back when. In hindsight, I actually think I went too easy on it in that review. It's not all that good. It's not terrible, I didn't hate it, apart from some design decisions which I did honestly loathe (quick-event traps, killcam), but is there any one thing it was good enough at for an award? Sound, graphics, story, character system? Not really. And overall can't say I considered it for RPGotY at all. I didn't vote in these awards, but that's the feedback I gave, and I know at least one other staff member (WUE) played it.

Risen actually was runner-up to both best story and best sound/music two years ago. Risen 2 just did too much wrong. I hope they learn from both games and really pick it up, I'm a big Piranha Bytes fans but this has been a pretty steady decline, and I wouldn't like awarding them for that.

It's not individual features that make a game, but how they combine to create a special experience.

Risen 2 had a great mixture of story and exploration - and even if the combat system was poorly balanced, the development system in itself was interesting and entertaining.

The atmosphere was very powerful - especially the jungle setting and the weather system. Wonderfully realised.

I think R2 was miles ahead of simplistic combat-puzzlers like Grimrock or mainstream endless filler combat games like Mass Effect 3. Grimrock gets praise because it's a pretty indie game, and that's it. If it had been a hyped AAA game - it would have been bashed for being simplistic and shallow. GotY? What a joke.

But such is the way in which we differ.

Originally Posted by Brother None
Reviewed it way back when. In hindsight, I actually think I went too easy on it in that review. It's not all that good. It's not terrible, I didn't hate it, apart from some design decisions which I did honestly loathe (quick-event traps, killcam), but is there any one thing it was good enough at for an award? Sound, graphics, story, character system? Not really. And overall can't say I considered it for RPGotY at all.

Yet you guys thought KoA was the 2nd best RPG of 2012? Ok.

Originally Posted by Brother None
and I know at least one other staff member (WUE) played it.

Ah.. so at least two people at GB played it. Well that's reassuring.

the truth is, if 'game of the year' had a "minimum goodness level" requirement, probably there wouldn't have been a RPG of the year this year. You can see it in the RPGWatch final scores, all over the place, no clear winner. But since it doesn't have that requirement, then pretty much any selection would have been as good as what they selected.