GameBanshee - GotY 2011

Elwro said:
"Currently, this item is available only to customers located in the United States and who have a U.S. billing address."
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To be honest, I didn't investigate legality of this thoroughly, but "have a U.S. billing address" in this case means "enter any U.S. address into their account".
 
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Really? That's interesting, I'd assume that, as usual, it means the address tied to your credit card. I'll try this next time Amazon offers a good deal.
 
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If you run into any problems, feel free to contact me.
I've started to feel uncomfortable discussing this in the public.
 
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Couldn't force myself to play Witcher 2. I stopped after maybe 10-20 hours of gameplay. In particular when I had to fight with that big Octopus or something. I could only beat it after looking 5 times "how it should be killed" on the youtube and trying to reproduced it. Baaa... this is just a sort of a fight that I hate...
I consider The Witcher2 more of the video game.

My awards go to Skyrim. I've been there already for 210 hours and after some New Vegas adventures I plan to return to Skyrim again.
 
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Witcher 2 is also my RPG of the year as well and I think its well deserved. I hope more and more people will take notice of the Witcher franchise.
 
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Since it's already spoiled…
GB is probably the first site that dared to say TW2 is more of RPG than Skyrim is. And I agree with GB on that. That's why I said respect in my previous post.
Your hundreds of hours (and mine) on Skyrim can not change that.
Sell numbers? Again, does that mean Skyrim is really the best RPG? I think not. TW2 well deserved the award.

But when we talk about overall game of the year, then those hundreds of hours in Skyrim and millions of cash earned can be taken into consideration. But then there's Batman and some other games ppl swear they're playing for hundreds of hours.
 
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joxer said:
Hmmm, isn't TRoT 2010 title?
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We work by English language/US release, generally.

CountChocula said:
That some may classify Witcher 2 as an RPG is already tenuous, let alone "RPG of the Year"
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As compared to? "Of the Year" is a relative award, not an absolute one. It was better than Skyrim and TRoT, its nearest competitors. And aside from twitchy combat, I don't see what really precludes it from being an RPG, which is an ill-defined genre to begin with.

Sir_Brennus said:
I can't believe people prefer these games to Faery - Legends of Avalon which IMHO should have won.
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2010 title. Not that it won back then.

joxer said:
But when we talk about overall game of the year, then those hundreds of hours in Skyrim and millions of cash earned can be taken into consideration. But then there's Batman and some other games ppl swear they're playing for hundreds of hours.
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I don't think "hours played" is a good measurement of Game of the Year candidacy. Just because a game is addictive doesn't mean it's the best experience. Arkham City is my personal GotY, by some margin, though I would guess I played it less than Skyrim (played a few dozen hours of Skyrim, then gave up in boredom). But Skyrim has won the most GotY awards by a huge margin, which y'know, cool, so by any "objective" measurement of GotY, Skyrim is it.
 
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Skyrim is by far my GOTY too, as I couldn't relate to Geralt at all. I couldn't roleplay the character I wanted to be, I had to be Geralt the decrepit, scarred, freak of a creature. The first step in any real roleplaying game is creating "your" character. TW2 is a "follow my story" game with two main branches. I enjoyed the first town of TW2, but got bored real fast after that. It's trendy for the smaller sites to not pick Skyrim, which is cool. It lets everybody sell a GOTY version of their games.

I imagine GameBanshee gets more hits from their coverage of TW2 than they will Skyrim. Their is a lot more competition for Skyrim views than TW2. This is just a guess though. It's also much more likely for the devs from CDP, versus Bethesda, to talk to the smaller sites, so that's another bonus to make their game GOTY. I'm pretty sure Bethesda is crying all the way to the bank :) Frankly, I hope both made enough to generate sequels. I keep hoping Geralt will die and we can have a Witcher universe game where we get to make our own character.
 
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The Witcher 2 is also my RPG of the year. But this game is the exact opposite of Skyrim yet both are RPGs, they just focus on different elements.

I guess that choosing one over the other will mainly depend on personal RPG preferences rather than objective evaluation of the game's merits.
 
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They are making a non-Witcher game so who knows maybe you will be able to create your character.

These are role-playing games which means you play a role and just because DnD was the first doesn't mean all rpgs have to be the same so there is room for pre-created characters.
 
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@Guenthar - Don't forget that a lot of D&D modules (and tournaments) back in the early days used pre-generated characters, too. And ditto for "pick-up" games. I wouldn't say it was equally popular as rolling your own (how could it be?), but it was a pretty common practice with the grandfather of all RPGs. I consider it a pretty valid practice in any RPG. (Although that being said, Frayed Knights notwithstanding, I do prefer the games that let you roll your own).

@Shaf - Doesn't look like it's had any effect on my stats yet. Maybe all GameBanshee readers have already played it, and I need to expand my marketing efforts...
 
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crpgnut said:
It's trendy for the smaller sites to not pick Skyrim, which is cool.

I imagine GameBanshee gets more hits from their coverage of TW2 than they will Skyrim. Their is a lot more competition for Skyrim views than TW2. This is just a guess though. It's also much more likely for the devs from CDP, versus Bethesda, to talk to the smaller sites, so that's another bonus to make their game GOTY.
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This is baffling. At GB we enjoy very good relations with Bethesda (yes, even after hiring me). We got a huge amount of traffic from the Skyrim map, and that's not a factor regardless. "Trendy"? C'mon man.

Here's a simpler, more accurate theory: We don't treat the GotY like some kind of political favor to hand out, we picked TW2 because the consensus among our staff is that it's a better RPG than Skyrim. It's not even close for people like me or Steven, who did the review.

RampantCoyote said:
@Shaf - Doesn't look like it's had any effect on my stats yet. Maybe all GameBanshee readers have already played it, and I need to expand my marketing efforts…
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Awww :( I've never had the impression we're very big sales-drivers, no. Then again, we have indeed been covering Frayed Knights since day one, so it's not like it's new to our readers.
 
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GameBanshee - GotY 2011

-> good read - I want more years like 2011 with games like The Witcher, Skyrim, Drakensang, Frayed Knights ... and perhaps Wizardry 9 and Might & Magic 10 :)
 
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Brother None said:
Awww :( I've never had the impression we're very big sales-drivers, no. Then again, we have indeed been covering Frayed Knights since day one, so it's not like it's new to our readers.
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Yeah, GameBanshee and RPGWatch have been great about covering not just Frayed Knights, but really giving the indies in general some great attention. It's amazing to see how the indie side of things has grown over the last few years.

I just have to do better with my marketing and get the word out more. :)

I have serious doubts about FK2 making it out in time for 2012, which in a way is too bad. With luck, this year may be the best one yet for indie RPGs. My list of "most anticipated" RPGs that may ship this year is entirely indie titles.
 
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Daddy32 said:
Really? This may be the first time I hear any praise for the game, across all the Internets.
Care to elaborate?
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1. There's a demo out there.
2. THere was a tiny bit coverage here at the Watch, too.

The games's biggest hurdle is imho the total lack of voiceovers. This is a game that imho "cries" for voice-acting !
 
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Nerevarine said:
The Witcher 2 is more of an RPG than most out there these days - particularly in the sense that you can actually make an impact with your choices, and the choices you make are far more than a mere illusion unlike most RPGs. Isn't the ability to "play a role" the central element of a "role-playing game?"

The QTE's are annoying but hardly intrusive (meaning they barely pop up and all but disappear early in the game), the combat is engaging and enjoyable, character development is important and leads to a decent amount of customization and feeling of progression, the setting is fantastically implemented, the majority of the characters are memorable, dialogue is well-written with a healthy amount of meaningful choices…I don't really know what else one would want from an RPG, quite frankly.
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Tradtional RPG's have not been known for meaningful choices and great dialog. It's become a popular definition for them only fairly recently.
 
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I still don't know how TW2 gets a pass from people when it's a stupid QTE festival. Might as well play BF3's campaign.
 
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