Good Games That Won’t Win GOTY
2011 has been a fantastic year for gaming, with developers showing that they really know how to take advantage of the PS3 and Xbox 360; dishing out games with both quality and innovation. As the year comes to a close, lots of gaming websites will begin picking their choices for the best game of the year, and while many games will be nominated, very few will actually walk away with this coveted award. Like the title says, I believe that all (well, most) of the games below are very good, and have a chance of being nominated for Game of the Year, and on some web-sites/media, may even win. My intention isn’t to belittle these games at all, but I believe that on most gaming sites these games won’t win GOTY, and here’s why.
Little Big Planet 2
The first Little Big Planet was this incredibly quirky, charming and vibrant game. Made by the talented team at Media Molecule, which consisted of less than 50 team members, it was a breath of fresh air to the PS3, and is also the center piece for Sony’s “Play, Create, Share” platform. LBP2 has carried on the tradition of the first by creating a huge community and letting them all connect and share their creations and levels. I felt LBP2 came out a little too soon, not because it lacked any polish, but because the first game was still so active and growing. New content was always being added by the community, and one of the best things LBP2 did was allow access to that content while providing new creation tools. Still, I think it would have been better if Media Molecule had waited a few years for LBP2 and made other new IP’s in the mean time. In many ways, the first LBP was a game that never needed a sequel.
Killzone 3
Killzone 3 had some interesting and new elements for a FPS. It was the first major title to support the new PS Move, even including a nifty gun peripheral, and it was also a big supporter of 3D gaming. Both of these features are meant to immerse people and draw them into the experience, but the issue became that, especially at the time, not a lot of people had a PS Move and even fewer had a 3D TV. The game was still fun, and it is nice that they at least tried to do something new in the shooter market, even if it’s super gimmicky. The inclusion of the “Operations” game mode was nice, bringing a cinematic element to multiplayer, but its major shortcoming was that it wasn’t supported in nearly enough maps. Ultimately I think they should have scrapped the 3D and Move support and focused more on polishing the actual game. Also, the story was lame and the MP was watered down, but that’s just my opinion.
Modern Warfare 3
As we all know, the Modern Warfare series is as popular as God, and equally controversial. Some people love it, some people hate it, and we all buy 2 copies. I’m not one of those people who hates Modern Warfare, but I also don’t understand its insane popularity. The single player, even on Veteran difficulty, can be beaten in less than 5 hours. The multiplayer is fun at times, but also riddled with glitches and cheaters. Despite its faults MW3 is a fun experience, especially if you have a good internet connection. The reason it won’t win GOTY is because we have already played this game, or something very much like it. Let me say that there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m a believer that if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, but in my opinion a GOTY game needs to feel fresh and surprise you a bit. We knew what to expect from Modern Warfare 3 and it didn’t disappoint, but it also didn’t exceed any expectations. To really make it in this industry you need to do more than give people what they want, you need to give them the things that they didn’t even know they wanted.
Battlefield 3
I’ll try and spend some time explaining this, but many of my reasons why BF3 won’t win GOTY are parallel to what I think about MW3. I’m part of the crowd that believes that there’s a HUGE difference between MW3 and BF3, so the two games really aren’t comparable to me; but regardless the same issue exists between them. 2011 was a year of many sequels and naturally a sequel is going to be similar to its predecessor—it would be an injustice if it wasn’t—so this argument of mine for why these games won’t win has some holes, however the main difference between these two games and all the other sequels isn’t the quality of releases, but quantity. For example: Batman AA came out 2 years ago, giving gamers a chance to really appreciate and absorb its content, which provided the excellent sequel and even greater impact when it was released just 2 months ago, while the MW and BF series have had new games released every year for a number of years. It’s great that the developers can release a quality game every year, but sometimes it’s better to hold back and get people to WANT your game, and make them feel some anticipation. If they release one every year it begins to make previous games feel irrelevant and passed over, like the developers didn’t put everything they could into it and instead began focusing on the next one. When I see new features in a BF game, I think “well why didn’t the one before this, that only came out 10 months ago, have this feature? Were they saving it for this new game just to give me one little reason to buy it?”, and I feel somewhat robbed.
Portal 2
I was really surprised by the announcement of Portal 2. Due to the success of the first game, I knew a sequel was going to happen, but I imagined it more as a downloadable title, or DLC for the first game rather than a full retail game. Everything in Portal 2 is phenomenal; the voice acting, level design, story, and charm are all top quality. My only real issue is that it seemed like Valve was shooting to make Portal 2 more than it should have been. Well, that and the super long and frequent loading screens. Add a little more content, than cut it into 2 separate $20 games and that would have made more sense to me. As it is, Portal 2 is still a fantastic game, but not Game of the Year fantastic.
What games do you think should win Game of the Year? What games shouldn’t? Do you agree with our list? Let us know in the comment section below.
val
December 11, 2011 @ 4:47 am
I played killzone 3 last week and it’s ridiculous to have it as game of the year, it was worse than killzone 2 and even worse than resistance imo. LA Noire & Yakuza 4 should be on this list, no one’s considering them but they were really amazing ambitious games for those of us who enjoy a more culturally immersive game.
Daniel Flatt
December 11, 2011 @ 10:33 am
GOTY in many cases is still a popularity contest. Frequently games that should win aren’t even nominated or games that shouldn’t end up winning first place. Really I don’t pay attention to a lot of it and the bottom line is you can’t please everyone. To someone out there a game that the rest of us detest is GOTY and that’s ok. Really it all comes down to personal opinion and we spend too much time worried about what tops our list for the year.
Personally for me it’s Skyward Sword.
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