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Game of the Year Chances?

Rytex

Resident Netizen
Joined
May 10, 2010
Location
Random house in Texas.
I was talking to a friend of mine (his name is Trey, which is funny, because that's my name too!) who works at Gamestop yesterday. We were comparing titles for Game of the Year. We discussed Portal 2, Skyrim, Battlefield 3, Modern Warfare 3, Arkham City, Deus Ex, Dark Souls, and even Dead Space 2. We both knew it had to come up, but finally I said "What about Skyward Sword?"

He stopped talking and simply stood there for a bit.

"You know, this is probably the hardest choice in the history of gaming." he finally said.

I agreed. I mean, for starters, we have 5 top contenders for the spot: Arkham City, Skyrim, Portal 2, Battlefield 3, and our own Skyward Sword. All of these games were nothing short of superb. AC, SS, and Skyrim all received more perfect scores than any game in history except our own Ocarina of Time, which so far, Skyward Sword has it beat. Now, I was looking at Metacritic to see the chances for each game. So far, it's a dead heat, with Arkham City at 94, Skyrim at 95, and Skyward Sword at 95. The problem is the fanboys of each game. There's at least one troll who gave Skyward Sword a 0 and Skyrim a 10 because he wants Skyrim to get GOTY from Metacritic, not Zelda.

As a rule, I do my best to judge fairly (unlike the BCS College Football polls), basing the game on the game itself, not the legacy it upholds. So, I do not judge Skyrim based ont eh entire Elder Scrolls series, I don't judge Arkham City based on Arkham Asylum, and I don't judge Skyward Sword based on the entire Legend of Zelda series. The BCS system I said earlier judges teams based on traditions. That's why Oklahoma often gets stuck up there, only to choke later. Well, I don't do that.

So, here is my opinion on which game gets GOTY. I will be mentioning every game I said earlier.

Arkham City - Truly a magnificent game, but I don't think it will get GOTY. While it is an amazing game, it just has too much excellent competition from Skyrim and Skyward Sword.
Battlefield 3 - Not a chance. It wasn't nearly as good as the others on here were, but it still might surprise us.
Dark Souls - No chance at all.
Dead Space 2 - No chance at all.
Deus Ex - No chance at all.
Modern Warfare 3 - Possibly, but I don't think it will. It hasn't been out long enough to really make a huge impact. There are exceptions to that rule, though.
Portal 2 - No, I don't think it will. Like Battlefield 3, it just has too much to compete against.
Skyrim - I'll put it this way. If Skyward Sword doesn't get GOTY, Skyrim will. It's that simple.
Skyward Sword - I support this game for GOTY without a doubt. I used to absolutely love Ocarina of Time. I still do, but now this game has taken the title "Best Game Ever!" that I give to... well, the Best Game Ever. As to whether it will get it or not, it's a toss-up between it and Skyrim. If I do the math correctly (and I probably don't), I'd give this game a 56% chance of getting GOTY over Skyrim.

What do you guys think? If you judge, please judge fairly. There's no more reputation system, so you needn't fear de-rep'ing. While I'm on that note, we're on a Zelda site, I get that. If you judge Skyrim over SS, or even Portal 2, or any of the games here, no one will judge you (provided you don't just say "SS sux!" *coughcough* RAYKAY *coughcough*). Just explain why you support one game over another.
 

jugglaj91

I am me....
Joined
Jan 25, 2010
Location
NY
To be completely honest, I think Skyrim has it. As much as I would love SS to win it just isn't feasible. The motion controls alienate a chunk of people from ever playing this game. That in itself is a big con toward winning GOTY. Which is also a con of mine. While the motion controls are great, sometimes they feel to be too much at times making me wish I could use a standard controller. As it stands Skyrim is an amazing, albeit buggy at times, game. It has the adventure, action and puzzles that a great RPG should. There seems to be almost no right or wrong way to do most things. And you can go where you want, just have to start walking lol. Zelda has lost its sense of adventure to me. You can no longer go where you want, you have to unlock areas before you go to them, and you are pretty much still held by the hand through the game. All in all, as much as I love Zelda as a series, and SS as a game, I still doubt its chances.
 

JuicieJ

SHOW ME YA MOVES!
Joined
Jan 10, 2011
Location
On the midnight Spirit Train going anywhere
It's gonna be a close battle between SS and Skyrim, but I'm thinking Zelda's gonna take it. With how awesome Skyward Sword's controls are and how many more perfect reviews there are for it (yes, that affects many people's opinions), I think it has the upper hand. We'll see, though.

To be completely honest, I think Skyrim has it. As much as I would love SS to win it just isn't feasible. The motion controls alienate a chunk of people from ever playing this game. That in itself is a big con toward winning GOTY. Which is also a con of mine. While the motion controls are great, sometimes they feel to be too much at times making me wish I could use a standard controller. As it stands Skyrim is an amazing, albeit buggy at times, game. It has the adventure, action and puzzles that a great RPG should. There seems to be almost no right or wrong way to do most things. And you can go where you want, just have to start walking lol. Zelda has lost its sense of adventure to me. You can no longer go where you want, you have to unlock areas before you go to them, and you are pretty much still held by the hand through the game. All in all, as much as I love Zelda as a series, and SS as a game, I still doubt its chances.

Skyward Sword is pretty much just like that, only better (because of the motion controls). Motion controls are something to get used to, yes. But they're insanely fun. Any people who hate them are just lazy and don't want to move.
 

MW7

Joined
Jun 22, 2011
Location
Ohio
Which GOTY are you looking at? The Metacritic critical average? If you're just saying GOTY in general than virtually every game you mentioned will win at least one award for GOTY. Arkham City, Skyrim, and Skyward Sword are clearly the top 3 IMO and Portal 2 would be fourth. I'm guessing on the aggregate reviewer sites that Arkham City will remain GOTY since it currently sits above the others but I have no idea how many more reviews we should expect for Skyrim and Skyward Sword.

Also I think you are a little confused about Metacritic; user scores don't affect the real score (at least as far as I know). For instance right now Skyrim's critical average is 9.6 with a user score of 8.6, Skyward Sword is 9.5 and 7.9, and (I'm mentioning Call of Duty:Modern Warfare 3 just to illustrate how little the user scores matter) Modern Warfare 3 is 8.9 and 3.2. So clearly almost every user average is unfairly low for games with high critical success. Also by Modern Warfare 3's score it's evident that your troll remark is extremely relevant. I'd guess that the percent of people that genuinely scored that game based on what I'd consider a fair basis is less than 5%. Most people either gave 0's or 10's with no reasoning whatsoever. If you scroll through the scores you'll see virtually ever number from 0-10 used but the majority are 0's, second would be 10, and the rest are pretty much random. No matter how much opinions differ, a legitimate range and frequency of scores would never look like that.

Back on topic I'd say you're pretty much right but you did leave out Uncharted 3 like maiden said and that will win at least one GOTY award almost definitely.
 

JuicieJ

SHOW ME YA MOVES!
Joined
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On the midnight Spirit Train going anywhere
Also I think you are a little confused about Metacritic; user scores don't affect the real score (at least as far as I know). For instance right now Skyrim's critical average is 9.6 with a user score of 8.6, Skyward Sword is 9.5 and 7.9

Yes, but Skyward Sword also had those biased reviews, namely GameSpot's. Take out GameSpot's rating alone and Skyward Sword has Skyrim beat in composite ratings.

Also by Modern Warfare 3's score it's evident that your troll remark is extremely relevant. I'd guess that the percent of people that genuinely scored that game based on what I'd consider a fair basis is less than 5%. Most people either gave 0's or 10's with no reasoning whatsoever. If you scroll through the scores you'll see virtually ever number from 0-10 used but the majority are 0's, second would be 10, and the rest are pretty much random. No matter how much opinions differ, a legitimate range and frequency of scores would never look like that.

Yes. This is also why Skyrim and Skyward Sword's user ratings are so much lower than the composite rating of the reviews. There are always trolls that come in and lower the scores intentionally, no matter what game it is. Zelda looks like it's suffered much more to it though, which isn't a surprise. Zelda's a huge target for trolls because of how big it is. It ultimately comes down to the votes, though. Not these user ratings.
 
I think any of the above mentioned games would deserve it, but I think SS will win it. I am not saying this with a Zelda bias*, but I just feel it's unique and extremely innovative control scheme should earn it a GOTY title. One of the things OoT is so lauded for was it's innovative control scheme that influenced games still to this day, it was revolutionary. I think this ranks right up there in terms of it's revolutionary merit. The control scheme is brilliant and there is no other game like it so far, it's seamless, fun and realizes the dreams of millions of gamers who have wanted to be just like Link or any other warrior and wield a sword and shield themselves. Now they can!
So I think SS will/should win it.
 
Joined
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England
I'd love for it to be Skyward Sword, obviously. But then you see some of these gamers commenting of Zelda videos with real immature points and it really makes me wonder. Plus all everyone seems to be talking about near me is Skyrim. I will guess it will be either of them.
 
G

gamerguy20097

Guest
I'd wish for SS but everyone seems to be talking nothing but Skyrim so I'm going to say that.
 

Ventus

Mad haters lmao
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I'm going to say SS has a very low chance. The reason behind that is because TESV Skyrim is an open world adventure that takes a surplus amount (200+, depending on the player?) of hours to beat, and you feel grateful for ever playing through the entire thing. Compare that to SS' odd 50ish for a 100 percent run [not including Hero Mode which is essentially a 3HC if you leave it as is] and I'd say that Skyrim has a much higher chance. I love Skyward Sword with my heart, but Skyrim is so much bigger and despite what I really want to say, it may even be better.
 

Links Brother

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Canada
This year was a big year for gaming. Granted not all of those games but being the Zelda nerd I am of course my answer would be Skyward Sword. Arkham City was very good too but I think I have to pick Skyward Sword for Story, Gameplay, Controls, Puzzles, and great difficulty.
 
M

Major

Guest
It depends on the site, and what they gave the games, but I sincerely hope it's Skyward Sword, because its the Wii's last hope to win. Unless you count Mario Party 9, damn will that get tens.
 

Garo

Boy Wonder
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Jun 22, 2011
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I'm going to say SS has a very low chance. The reason behind that is because TESV Skyrim is an open world adventure that takes a surplus amount (200+, depending on the player?) of hours to beat, and you feel grateful for ever playing through the entire thing. Compare that to SS' odd 50ish for a 100 percent run [not including Hero Mode which is essentially a 3HC if you leave it as is] and I'd say that Skyrim has a much higher chance. I love Skyward Sword with my heart, but Skyrim is so much bigger and despite what I really want to say, it may even be better.

Bigger does not mean better. Skyrim is a wonderful game, but it feels very, very empty - both physically and emotionally. Because Bethesda wanted to make the game so massive and expansive, characters only get a cursory treatment during short quest lines and even longer ones like the main quest. Outside of that, there are a lot of caves and such to explore, but there is little incentive to do so other than "because you can". Skyrim is a wonderfully technological achievement, but it has no heart. Skyward Sword, on the other hand, has some of the best character development in a Zelda title since Majora's Mask. Link and Zelda's romance was so sweet and earnest, Groose's growth was very realistic, and Link's motivation throughout the entire game to save Zelda felt so natural - the game made you care about these characters and made you want to see the game through to its conclusion. Skyrim never had moments like that

All the expansive open-world games in the world can't compete with a relatively small (but still quite large) game with an excess of heart and powerful storytelling. Will Skyward Sword win? Doubtful - but it's tied with Portal 2 for not only my Game of the Year, but for my favorite game, period.
 

Ventus

Mad haters lmao
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Skyward Sword has three, count 'em, three characters that mean anything out of the entire cast. The entire cast counts for some 50odd characters, and out of all 50 (give or take), only three really mean anything. Well, really there are about five (Zelda and Link obviously, Ghirahim, Groose and I would like to say Impa but she is a weaker character as far as development goes in my opinion) That's no heart, that's a waste precisely as you described Skyrim's lack of meaningful NPCs. What you describe about Skyrim's environment applies directly to Skyward Sword's environment – what you explore out of the main quest is forced upon you, and anything else is just...there. You don't have to do anything, because the game absolutely does not require any of that.

ZeLink lasted for most of the beginning of the game, then Impa delightfully ruined it all. Doesn't matter how sweet it is if it doesn't last. In other words, I'd say it was useless fan service that Nintendo should've had done back in the days of Ocarina of Time, then truly fleshed out and perhaps ended upon in Skyward Sword. :/
Groose was realistic, I wholly agree. But he's the only character who had such a change! Again, it doesn't matter how realistic it is if it doesn't last.
Link's motivation was natural, again I wholly agree, but it made no sense. It goes from "I'm yer childhood friend" to "Oops, spoiler related stuff that is pulled off rather terribly, and I'm STILL useless!". Why should Link save someone who does nothing to keep stranger's hands away from her?

While I cannot count anything out of Skyrim's story, it was definitely bigger than Skyward Sword's. But enough of that, SS has a good chance at GotY if and only if people pull through for it. I don't konw what'll happena nd I don't claim to know, so I'll keep my mouth shut.
 

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