Skyrim Named Game of the Year at GDC

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim was named the game of the year at the Game Developers Choice Awards in San Francisco this week. Nominated for five categories, the most-played game of 2011 took home the top award over some hefty competition.
 
It deserves it. Best game I've played in a long time. Best story, game play, and hardly anything feels reused. There's is nothing in this game that requires you to collect obscure crap lying around, that has 0 impact to the game play.

Unlike Mass Effect 3, which seemed very rushed, Skyrim dialog actually does have meaningful choices that have different outcomes. Mass Effect 3 gives you the illusion of choice.
 
Good game, but I think overrated. In general Bethesda's formula is getting a bit stale.

This may seem like a small, nagging complaint, but as an example:

When I've gone around and become the head dude at all the guilds, there seems to be precious little acknowledgement of it. It makes the whole experience seem hollow and without substance. I didn't think I'd care much about that, but now that it happened again in Skyrim I realize that Bethesda aren't trying to innovate or build on their formula at all.

I don't like to feel like I'm playing a disconnected series of mini-games or quests when I'm playing an RPG. It works for Saints Row, but I think to call your game an RPG you have to provide meaningful feedback from the game that acknowledges your accomplishments as a character.

I put a lot of hours into all the TES games, but it's hollow enjoyment that doesn't make strong memories.
 
If Deus ex: HR didn't have such bad boss fights and crappy ending.... would've been a real contender :(
 
Ashbringer said:
It deserves it. Best game I've played in a long time. Best story, game play, and hardly anything feels reused. There's is nothing in this game that requires you to collect obscure crap lying around, that has 0 impact to the game play.
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Hardly anything feels reused? Really, that's just fanboism talking.

It was a good game that I beat in about 15 hours or so. But I never bothered to play it afterwards.
 
dexvx said:
Hardly anything feels reused? Really, that's just fanboism talking.

It was a good game that I beat in about 15 hours or so. But I never bothered to play it afterwards.
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Out of curiosity, what do you mean by "beat"?
 
apparently they overlook the game stopping bugs and absolute frustration the game was at launch and after many patches and fan "patches". It rocks now but after 1 corrupted character file and a second play through with dozens of broken and unfinished quests I finished it. And no more.
 
maboblivion said:
If Deus ex: HR didn't have such bad boss fights and crappy ending.... would've been a real contender :(
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And a bad story and the worst AI in a modern game and lame character development...

It's not really surprising, but Skyrim is pretty overrated. Once you're factoring in patches (both games had very buggy starts,) The Witcher 2 is hands down better than Skyrim, and Arkham City is probably better than both of them.
 
maboblivion said:
If Deus ex: HR didn't have such bad boss fights and crappy ending.... would've been a real contender :(
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Yeah, too bad Witcher 2 came out in 2010 - it would have given PC gamers a respectable and legitimate GOTY this year...oh wait....*looks at Witcher 2 release date*...yeah, I think we know that the big game publishing companies bought & paid for the positions on the awards advisory board of editors (the group that selects the winners) from gamasutra.com and Game Developer magazine.
 
No doubt that Skyrim was fun, but it wasn't head and shoulders above everyone else in any category.

Too bad that the games with the biggest advertising budgets sweep the awards. It would be nice to see some wins by smaller projects in the major categories.

Video games will never be considered art if this keeps up.
 
It was the culmination of a ton of previous titles. This is the "peak" of the engine/system that bethesda has made. It's time for them to find a new engine/system now. And god no, not anything to do with Rage.
 
i find skyrim very unappealing and i do like rpgs a lot. the witcher, the old might and magic stuff, even some jrpgs... so, quite a variety. but skyrim. so boring.
 
I knew it was going to be video game of the year, but then I took an arrow in the knee.
 
Though i'v played Skyrim, i would not call it game of the year; ofc i'm not surprised at all at the choice, which more or less reads "most popular game - best game".

Skyrim was impressive graphically, and had some really nice features, but to me it had two major problems.. missing features (i could do without this), and poor combat.

Now there is a lot i would have liked in that game, but i just find the combat mechanics don't suit a RPG game.

Technically, as vers 1.0 has been released this year, Minecraft could take the crown. Now that is a game that has made a real impact.
 
dexvx said:
Hardly anything feels reused? Really, that's just fanboism talking.

It was a good game that I beat in about 15 hours or so. But I never bothered to play it afterwards.
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How do you beat a game in 15 minutes that requires weeks for others? The only way I could think of is ignoring all the side quests. Which BTW make up the bulk of the game. The side quests are probably more interesting then the main quest.
 
Ashbringer said:
How do you beat a game in 15 minutes that requires weeks for others? The only way I could think of is ignoring all the side quests. Which BTW make up the bulk of the game. The side quests are probably more interesting then the main quest.
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Because.... he's famous :p?
 
Amazing that a game compiled for Windows without optimization flags could win Game of the Year at a conference of game developers. It's ironic in some way.

Still, excellent game. The underground ruin of Blackreach was absolutely one of the most awe-inspiring areas I've ever encountered in a game.
 
Ashbringer said:
How do you beat a game in 15 minutes that requires weeks for others? The only way I could think of is ignoring all the side quests. Which BTW make up the bulk of the game. The side quests are probably more interesting then the main quest.
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Apparently your reading comprehension is a little off because I said 15 hours.

It's poor game design if the side quests are more interesting than the main quest. If it's so damn good, they need to put it in the main quest.
 
The best part of Skyrim, hands down, is that you can ignore the main quest all you want and just go play ... for a very long time. I actually played one character that (after they went and saw the greybeards/blades) decided they wanted nothing to do with this "chosen one" crap and went off to be their own person. Ignored the whole stormcloak/imperial civil war as well because they didn't want to get involved in politics. And, yet, you can play that type of character for weeks and weeks.

Sure, it has its issues. My main beef is what was already noted ... you can become the head of every "order" in Skyrim and nobody seems to blink. You'd think the Mages guild would be a little skeptical of someone that shows up wearing full daedric armor with a pair of war axes that can barely cast enough magic to get into the place. Yet, they make you head of the guild despite your complete lack of magical skill. If they'd limited your ability to be in charge of, or even join, all the guilds it would have made more sense. The leader of a guild should be dedicated to the cause of that guild, not off also running every other guild in Skyrim.

But, that's a minor issue in the grand scope of what is possible in this game. At some point games will be interactive enough to deal with all the thousands of possible combinations but we're not there yet. Games like Skyrim are a stepping stone along that path and we need the stepping stones to get there.
 
Played it, beat the main story stuff. Good game but definally not game of the year in my mind.

But the problem is most Americans are stupid. Just look at the music top 100 for example.
 
jrrandell said:
Played it, beat the main story stuff. Good game but definally not game of the year in my mind.

But the problem is most Americans are stupid. Just look at the music top 100 for example.
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So what is your game of the year, mr. xenophobic person?
 
HardwareSearcher said:
Yeah, too bad Witcher 2 came out in 2010 - it would have given PC gamers a respectable and legitimate GOTY this year...oh wait....*looks at Witcher 2 release date*...yeah, I think we know that the big game publishing companies bought & paid for the positions on the awards advisory board of editors (the group that selects the winners) from gamasutra.com and Game Developer magazine.
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The Witcher 2 came out in 2011 and IMHO should have won GOTY.
 
dexvx said:
It's poor game design if the side quests are more interesting than the main quest. If it's so damn good, they need to put it in the main quest.
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Does it really matter which quest line the best quests are in, if any?
 
Love skyrim. But i wish i would have waited for CK to come out first. I have 400 plus hrs in skyrim and
5 characters. My last character is just for survival, no main quest or guilds at all. I can die from, exposure, lack of food, , almost every item has weight (even money) arrows do more damage and if you take an arrow to the head, your dead!, weight limitation is 160lbs, horse can store items, if you try to attack a group of 3 or more by yourself you will die in seconds, so i have to hire at least 4 mercs to stay alive when going on a mission. all this has been accomplished with mods. I have been using CK since it came out and i just dont know how im ever going to sleep again!
 
Buggiest game of the year too, at least based on the headaches I've encountered.

When a game is as good as this one can be, the bugs are all the more frustrating...
 
Skyrim retail is IMO not GOTY.

Skyrim + mods is what makes it a game worth 100 hours of play.

Interesting twist. Bethesda knows how to make expandable games so in that regard Skyrim retail is GOTY - every game needs to be as community friendly as Bethesda. I'm talking to you EA (like they'd actually listen)
 
"but then I took an arrow in the knee. "

This is not even remotely funny anymore when every smuck and their grandmother is saying it.

Got anything new?
 
Makaveli@BETA said:
"but then I took an arrow in the knee. "

This is not even remotely funny anymore when every smuck and their grandmother is saying it.

Got anything new?
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Those who add a 'but' are incorrect so they are not a part of the joke. There's a period in there. Take a look at my sig to see the correct format.
 
The game was brilliant, but I felt needed a bit more. I don't think I've ever played a game that was quite as immsersive in its experience. The world just feels incredible. My first run through I actually got stuck after the first couple of quests simply because I decided to explore every little dungeon and cave and do every little side quest. It has problems, though...

The combat mechanics are too restricted to the console style. The menu and mouse+keyboard play isn't as fulfilling as it would have had it not been a console port.

The various bugs an obvious sign of a rushed release, though with the current gaming climate that's to be expected. I'm just glad they didn't release a DLC with bug fixes.

It really is only good for a single play-through. I can't give the game a second go despite the fact that the mod community will likely introduce some pretty fun stuff.

I guess BF3 would come in a close second for most folks, but I think it's the worst $50 I've ever spent on a video game. Just mindless and boring with no real significant variation between weapons and doesn't feel like a Modern Warfare game but some sort of weird CoD+MW mix. BFBC2 is the only modern FPS I'll play because at least it has lasting appeal.
 
toffty said:
Those who add a 'but' are incorrect so they are not a part of the joke. There's a period in there. Take a look at my sig to see the correct format.
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I know what you are saying i've seen the original joke.

I'm just curious as to why half the people think its funny just because they add it onto their remark.

Its kinda played out.
 
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