I think this is the first year ever that I have bought, played, and genuinely enjoyed every single GotY nominee. Usually there is at least one or two games I don’t have any interest in.
Edited to add: Also, people may have gripes about RE4 Remake being on the list, but as someone who wasn’t even toilet trained when the original came out, I was so thrilled at playing the remake and getting to experience why people have called it a masterpiece for almost 20 years. I tried to play the Gamecube original but the combat felt so dated that I couldn’t get into it. This was a remake done right, imo.
Interesting take. While I think RE4 is deserving the GotY nom, it didn’t live up to my expectations. I have only played original a couple of years ago and it was a magical experience. I feel that remake lost most of the charm, the story lost good amount of the cheese, the music in the remake is truly a travesty compared to the original. I do like the combat a lot in the remake and parry system is really fun, but I don’t feel the improvement in this regard as significant.
The one thing I love the remake for is Separate Ways, this is such a good campaign, the original was definitely subpar.
Despite my gripes, RE 4 is still pretty high on my GotY list. Not the best survival horror of the year though. Dead Space was absolutely incredible and I hope it wins Audio Design. Alas I have a feeling Hi-Fi Rush is the favorite in this one.
Oh yes, Seperate Ways is great! And I agree with you about the soundtrack, I actually played the Remake with the original soundtrack enabled lol.
But I think I had different expectations of Re4 than most people did. When I played the original I went in to it hearing about how revolutionary the combat system was, and that was what I was focused on the most when I played it. I didn’t care about the atmosphere, or story, or how hot Leon Kennedy is (mostly).
And…it just didn’t click for me. I grew up with modern games and have a hard time going back to older titles because game mechanics have come so far. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad game, it means that I didn’t “get it”.
Then I played the Remake, and the combat is so smooth compared to a lot of shooters on the market that I finally understand what Re4 was to the market at the time, and why the original is so beloved. It made me want to go back and play the Gamecube version with a reframed perspective, and THAT is why Re4 Remake is a successful remake for me compared to like…Final Fantasy 7.
Sorry for the essay, and I hope that makes a bit of sense. I know my perspective is nowhere near the prevalent one, but I can’t help what I like haha.
Thanks a lot for elaborating! I get your point, in fact recently I tried playing BioShock and the combat was unbearable. I don’t think it was bad, but I simply had to stop after 30 minutes. I think for most old games, if you didn’t play it at the time, you are gonna have a hard time to get into it.
I disagree about FF7 however. I think making a ‘safe’ remake like RE4 or Dead Space is fine to bring the game to the modern audience. But to use a remake as a smokescreen to reimagine the original and in some strange convoluted way make it a sequel as well is so much more up my alley. In the end if you love the original it’s still there.
But to use a remake as a smokescreen to reimagine the original and in some strange convoluted way make it a sequel as well is so much more up my alley. In the end if you love the original it’s still there.
This is a very good point, and I know a very divisive topic in the FF7 community! Thinking on it a bit, I actually do agree with you regarding the concept of the remake, and turning a turn-based RPG into an ARPG is also a pretty interesting!
But like…the gameplay/controls for FF7 feel…not great, and a lot of dialogue/cut scene movement feel so cheesy, lol. I know the original had cheesy moments, but they weren’t fully cinematic cutscenes, so they had a less of a jarring impact on me.
I had also played DMC5 directly before it, and the combat in that game is so fluid, and the cheese worked for me! So from my perspective at the time, SqEnix had turned a great tbRPG into a kind of mid-ARPG with amazing graphics and soundtrack (seriously, everyone looks AMAZING, and the rerecorded tracks from the original game BANG). But that’s it.
Your comment made consider that maybe I should go back and give 7R another try, especially with Rebirth coming out soon. Thanks for the discussion!
I think it’s quite telling that Starfield only showed up once, despite being one of the most hyped games of the year. Skyrim and Fallout 3 were both strong GOTY, IIRC, so to me it feels like Bethesda have lost their way.
So many strong games here! I’m a little biased since I’ve not played many of these, but I’m hoping BG3 cleans house.
If People Makes Games doesn’t win that award it’s a f–fuck it its a joke they won’t win. They actually have the audacity to hold the industry to account.
@jonathan_vdw about the T7G VR soundtrack release “Final masters in! I’ll be submitting for release on Streaming platforms later today. Bandcamp will see the release some time next week and the rest will follow a bit later.
When the pandemic effectively suspended E3, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft started producing direct videos. They haven’t been interested in going back.
I’m sure someone will do a full postmortem write-up on E3, but with this sort of thing, there’s a sort of inertia involved. Once something happens that pauses a regular gathering and makes everyone wonder “why were we doing this again?” there are times the gathering doesn’t come back.
E3 was king in the age before widespread social media marketing campaigns. You’d go to those shows to showcase everything to the media to generate hype at one of the biggest events of the year. Those journalists would then go back and write all about it, giving the upcoming projects hype and attention.
Now with social media it’s more effective for brands to run their own campaigns. You can spend millions on an E3 presentation or you can give streamers/YouTubers review copies for free and get a ton of good press.
Once the big companies pulled out it became a lot less attractive to go, then the pandemic seems to have put the final nail in the coffin.
Every year became a competition, and it was unsustainable. Companies could spend millions on their presentation only to “lose” and get their reveals drowned out because Sony announced FF7 or Microsoft got Elder Scrolls etc. On all sides there was a rush to be the winner of the year, and it led to more and more CGI trailers of things 5+ years away just for the big reveal moment. I imagine both Sony and Microsoft would prefer to announce individual games as they come throughout the year, so their reveal is the only big gaming news of the week and everyone is talking about it.
Probably after all major studios pulled out. Turns out dumping tons of money on huge marketing shows that usually turn out a ton of drama probably isn’t the best spend of money. It’s much cheaper to run your own announcements under your own control. The better game show for fans would be PAX.
Not to mention there’s the benefit to companies of being better able to manage the production of the announcements and avoid the random pitfalls that can happen at live shows. They can make sure the games they are announcing look their best and they can control their message. All three major console companies have had their versions of E3 failures that have led to major embarrassments for them in the past. They would rather not have that happen to them again if they can help it.
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