heroin wrote on Nov 20, 2017, 06:08:
I couldn't give a fuck about Sid Meier, one-trick pony. Sure, the original Civ was fantastic, I remember being amazed by it when I was in 4th grade but Alpha Centauri was better than any Civ game - to this day - and he didn't even work on it.

My vote would go to the all around whacky guy, Richard Garriot. I mean without the Ultimas other great games we have come to know and love like Baldur's Gate, Fallout, Daggerfall/Elder Scrolls, WoW or even System Shock & Thief might never have seen the light of day.

Flight sim pioneer, and the man behind Railroad Tycoon, Civilization, and Pirates. Not to mention his input and dedication to Firaxis, one of the premier PC-centric game developers still going today. His time running and co-leading Microprose was what made him historic though.

sdgundamx wrote on Nov 20, 2017, 19:45:
I just don't get the adoration for Breath of the Wild.

Look at the list.

Best Gaming Performance sponsored by The Sun
Best Indie Game in collaboration with Square Enix Collective
Best Multiplayer Game sponsored by GT Omega
eSports Play of the Year sponsored by Intel
Handheld / Mobile Game of the Year sponsored by Bespoke Arcades
Outstanding Contribution to the UK Games Industry sponsored by The Telegraph

It's by the industry and for the industry.

eSports Game of the Year sponsored by OMEN by HP - Overwatch

This one is the most egregious. HP sponsors Overwatch at tournaments and is pitching their overpriced OMEN as the gotta have machine for eSports viewers.

I just don't get the adoration for Breath of the Wild. I put maybe 50 hours into it and got bored and left. It felt like a stylized, emptier version of Skyrim without any of the things that made Skyrim great: character customization both visual and gameplay-wise via perk trees, ridiculous number of quests, something to do almost every 5 steps you take in the game (whether that be pick flowers, hunt deer, or explore a cave) mod support....

And then to top it all off they put in that utterly stupid weapon-breaking system that actually has the effect of making you not want to fight anything because you're saving your weapons for the boss or guardian fights.

Don't get me wrong, it is by no means a terrible game. It's visually pleasing, the combat feels good (aside from the weapon breaking mechanic), lots of exploration encouraged with the hidden seeds, the dungeons had some neat puzzles.

But in my book it was a solid 8/10. Revolutionary for the Zelda series? Sure, I'll give you that. But GOTY? I think that says more about how this years selection of games was pretty shit than how good Breath of the Wild is.

Kxmode wrote on Nov 20, 2017, 13:29:
Calling this the Golden Joystick Awards is like an award for cell phones called The Rotary Dial Awards.

My thoughts exactly.

Calling this the Golden Joystick Awards is like an award for cell phones called The Rotary Dial Awards.

Well, Gettysburg and Antietam came after Civilization. Post-Civ I can think of Magic: The Gathering, Colonization, the Civil War RTS games and Ace Patrol, which isn't as wildly diverse as he was back in the DOS era. Still far from a one-trick pony, though.

Orogogus wrote on Nov 20, 2017, 07:43:

heroin wrote on Nov 20, 2017, 06:08:
Alpha Centauri was better than any Civ game - to this day - and he didn't even work on it.

That's a pretty bold claim. Is there a source for him not having worked on Alpha Centauri? He's listed as a designer (not lead designer) and coder.

And he's pretty much the opposite of a one-trick pony, but most of his his work was DOS games that came out when you were in grade school. He got started on flight sims, including the fairly important F-15/F-19/F-117A games, wrote one of the early landmark submarine games, and branched out into Pirates!, Sword of the Samurai, Railroad Tycoon and Covert Action before he wrote Civilization, and all these got great reviews. He's been much less prolific under Windows and the age of giant development teams, but it's strange that you call him a one-trick pony but then go for Garriott. I love Ultima, but "living medieval-fantasy world" is basically his one thing.

Don't forget about Gettysburg!

Also, it's important to remember all the devs that mentored under him and at the studio he created like Soren Johnson and Jon Shafer.

MacLeod wrote on Nov 20, 2017, 10:01:

Jerykk wrote on Nov 19, 2017, 18:57:

There was no award for best overall indie game... only best indie game that was part of the Square Enix Collective program, which is extremely limiting.

You're reading the category wrong (mostly because that list is really badly formatted). The category was "Best Indie Game" and the award was presented in collaboration with SEC. Not sure why they didn't use the "sponsored by" tag for that one like they did the others.

I'm more baffled at how Friday the 13th won that... that game was a hot mess of design that faded away really fast. I would have voted Thimbleweed Park or Slime Rancher on their list over that.

Because no one has heard of those two games, relatively. Friday the 13th, at the time of launch, got a good amount of media coverage just due to the license. And the format, which seemed to resonate well with people but have issues (I never played, it sounded like it'd be a blast with friends but awful with internet randos.)

I don't know if this award has campaigning, but I'd wager it has voting, and people will vote for what they've heard of over what they haven't. For AAA games, everyone has heard of everything. For indies, that license went a really long way towards making sure people have heard of it.

Yay winners! I would still rather have an original, mint condition Mrs.Pacman/Galaga cab. I would trade my PC and all my consoles for one of those.

Plus, actual joystick

Jerykk wrote on Nov 19, 2017, 18:57:

There was no award for best overall indie game... only best indie game that was part of the Square Enix Collective program, which is extremely limiting.

You're reading the category wrong (mostly because that list is really badly formatted). The category was "Best Indie Game" and the award was presented in collaboration with SEC. Not sure why they didn't use the "sponsored by" tag for that one like they did the others.

I'm more baffled at how Friday the 13th won that... that game was a hot mess of design that faded away really fast. I would have voted Thimbleweed Park or Slime Rancher on their list over that.

The only one that really surprises me is Friday the 13th, but I've heard enough mixed things that it could be true, and would wager that indie games are the hardest for this type of award to evaluate. People need to be familiar with them, and Friday the 13th is probably one of the ones people were most familiar with.

Seems like a fair list. Not sure if Ashly Burch classifies for a breakthrough award, though. I mean, she's pretty well established by now, but she did a great job, so eh.

The Half Elf wrote on Nov 19, 2017, 21:58:
Did you play Horizon Zero Dawn?

That was my first question when I read that post. Laugh.

Story wise I'd say it rates in my top 5 games, the combat was very solid, the engine was gorgeous, and I had no clue it was Ashley voicing Aloy until I looked it up, it was that good.

When I read this, I was shocked that Ashley Johnson did the voice....then I looked up the credits. Ohhhhhhh, the other Ashly.

heroin wrote on Nov 20, 2017, 06:08:
I couldn't give a fuck about Sid Meier, one-trick pony. Sure, the original Civ was fantastic, I remember being amazed by it when I was in 4th grade but Alpha Centauri was better than any Civ game - to this day - and he didn't even work on it.

My vote would go to the all around whacky guy, Richard Garriot. I mean without the Ultimas other great games we have come to know and love like Baldur's Gate, Fallout, Daggerfall/Elder Scrolls, WoW or even System Shock & Thief might never have seen the light of day.

Sid has done a bunch of other stuff besides Civ. Go look it up sometime. He's worthy of it. And if anyone is overrated it's Garriot. And clearly you have no real knowledge of the history of (C)RPGs if you think all those other things wouldn't exist without Ultima. There were plenty of them before Ultima ever came along.

heroin wrote on Nov 20, 2017, 06:08:
Alpha Centauri was better than any Civ game - to this day - and he didn't even work on it.

That's a pretty bold claim. Is there a source for him not having worked on Alpha Centauri? He's listed as a designer (not lead designer) and coder.

And he's pretty much the opposite of a one-trick pony, but most of his his work was DOS games that came out when you were in grade school. He got started on flight sims, including the fairly important F-15/F-19/F-117A games, wrote one of the early landmark submarine games, and branched out into Pirates!, Sword of the Samurai, Railroad Tycoon and Covert Action before he wrote Civilization, and all these got great reviews. He's been much less prolific under Windows and the age of giant development teams, but it's strange that you call him a one-trick pony but then go for Garriott. I love Ultima, but "living medieval-fantasy world" is basically his one thing.

makes you wonder which awards are bought behind closed doors , when you get awards like

eSports Game of the Year sponsored by OMEN by HP

Outstanding Contribution to the UK Games Industry sponsored by The Telegraph - Debbie Bestwick MBE

I couldn't give a fuck about Sid Meier, one-trick pony. Sure, the original Civ was fantastic, I remember being amazed by it when I was in 4th grade but Alpha Centauri was better than any Civ game - to this day - and he didn't even work on it.

My vote would go to the all around whacky guy, Richard Garriot. I mean without the Ultimas other great games we have come to know and love like Baldur's Gate, Fallout, Daggerfall/Elder Scrolls, WoW or even System Shock & Thief might never have seen the light of day.

everything on this list makes sense you mongrels lol

Sid Meier - the greatest game developer of alle time imo.

The new Zelda was pretty great in a lot of ways but my GOTY also goes to Divinity Original Sin 2, hands down.

Immense replayability, super fun in co-op, it's a game that consistently had purpose while being supremely customizable, something most games do not have. Could have used some work on the tail end of the game which is the reason that I still need to log in and finish it, but still have 80+ hours in the game.

PUBG is a fun game, but it's still early access... seems to be PC GOTY just for it's immense popularity.