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RespectThySole · Jan 24, 2016

Bedameister said:
Looking at the FPS segment. It's so sad

Multiplayer FPS genre is basically dead to me at this point. Even if I like the core mechanics such as with Destiny & Titanfall, there is always something "off" about them. I haven't played a FPS in years that has held my interest for more than a month or two. Maybe Overwatch will save us.

I still enjoy the single player experiences like Wolfenstein: The New Order and the Metro games though.

Josh378 · Jan 24, 2016

If NEOGAF had an official logo for GOTY that can go in front of a game case, what would it be?

Bgamer90 · Jan 24, 2016

Bedameister said:
Looking at the FPS segment. It's so sad

Seemed like every shooter this year had some type of flaw. Halo 5 and Black Ops 3 for example have great multiplayer but many felt their campaigns were messy.

I didn't play Black Ops 3. I enjoyed the gameplay in Halo's campaign but the story was definitely a mess.

2014 was much better for the genre in my opinion (Titanfall, Wolfenstein, Advance Warfare).

Apdiddy · Jan 24, 2016

Great list as always. 2015 was an incredible year for games and can't wait to do this again next year.

I just hope I would have played more during the year because although I liked my list, I didn't spend as much time as I wanted on games like The Witcher 3 or Batman: Arkham Knight.

Ludger Kresnik · Jan 24, 2016

At least Yakuza was the #1 PS3 game. Some very... tough competition there.

;_;

Josh378 said:
If NEOGAF had an official logo for GOTY that can go in front of a game case, what would it be?

aravuus · Jan 24, 2016

I disagree with 6 of the top ten games lol

At least FO4 isn't the winner!

e: thanks for the super in-depth stats too, love that kinda stuff. Just listing top 20 would've been boring.

AyaisMUsikWhore · Jan 24, 2016

Cool stuff GAF.

Welp, I wish I could have participated but seeing as 2015 was the year of some backlog and only 2 select games... I probably wouldn't be able to make a list. But I do see there are a couple of games that I should definitely purchase since they are highly recommended.

sleepydeer · Jan 24, 2016

Doubt I'll ever play either, but *-was-robbed had me interested in what people who've played both think. Using the votes tally sheet to get assigned points:

Code:

446  voted for both Bloodbourne and Witcher 3
35   assigned the same points to each
215  gave more points to Bloodbourne
196  gave more points to Witcher 3

Looks like the top spot is a fair representation of preference, albeit close enough that using rank instead of points to resolve the draws could possibly swing it.

injurai · Jan 24, 2016

Seeing Mario Maker so high is I think my biggest surprise from the results.

JerkShep · Jan 24, 2016

I can't help but feel that putting down Bloodborne for the blood vials system is missing the forest for the trees. Is is an ideal system? No. But neither was having 20 Estus Flask +5 readily available, combined with heavy poise armor it trivialized the difficulty too much.

And considering that the content after the Lord Vessel in Dark Souls is middling at best (Artorias of the Abyss excluded), it doesn't seem so far fetched that people prefer Demons Souls or Bloodborne.

brandonh83 · Jan 24, 2016

Catvoca said:
No need to be snarky about it, I'm not attacking the game the way you attack people who criticise it apparently. I just think that even though it's a good game, it's inferior to the ones that came before it so I don't rate it as highly. The same way Uncharted 3 is a great game but is derivative of 2 and even a little bit worse. Maybe you should read the comment I quoted as well mate.

Naw, you'll not find any ill-intended snark from me, we're just talking videogames so apologies if it came off that way.

Servbot24 · Jan 24, 2016

Acosta said:
Awesome list, thanks for the effort.

About Bloodborne, I think people are underselling the very important changes in the combat system. People compare it with other Souls games and say it´s better than X or worse than Y, but they tend to forget that the combat system, progression, weapon, etc is completely different from other Souls games and THAT opened the Souls formula to a lot of people who felt lost in past games.

So it doesn't matter if you think it doesn't progress the Souls formula enough, of it´s inferior to Demon or Dark. It could be, I don't know. If you payed attention to what people what writing you would have seen lot of people with Bloodborne at top expressing similar feelings: this is the "Souls" game that "clicked" on many people, and that is a huge enough deal to put it at top.

Yep, Bloodborne's similarity to Souls is way too overemphasized. You may as well make the claim that Call of Duty and Battlefield are actually the same IP.

Chronology · Jan 24, 2016

Great list, and great to see all the work that went into it. I'm happy that MGSV got third at least; it was absolutely my GOTY, but I totally get why BB and TW3 beat it out for a lot of people.

Catvoca · Jan 24, 2016

brandonh83 said:
Naw, you'll not find any ill-intended snark from me, we're just talking videogames so apologies if it came off that way.

Videogames are serious business, there's no room for apologies here

No worries mate!

matmanx1 · Jan 24, 2016

Great job, everyone. 2015 really was a fantastic year for gaming and the number of votes and people participating really emphasizes that point. Congrats to the winner's and here's hoping 2016 is as good or better!

(Oh and special shout outs to timetokill and cheesemeister for an excellent, excellent balloting and results posting job!)

Nightmare452 · Jan 24, 2016

Aaaaah, I was quoted for Destiny, I would have written a better synopsis. Great GOTY list. Good variety and balance from everyones tastes. Glad to see Rise of the Tomb Raider and Destiny Taken King on top 20. Bloodborne is a worthy champion!!

Haunted · Jan 24, 2016

yay affinity data

1. Apenheul (108)
2. AndyLonn (95)
3. Paulee (93)
3. Robiin (93)
5. Lady Siara (90)

good taste, friends.

Biff · Jan 24, 2016

ChefRamsay said:
Good result, and awesome work to the organizers. Tons of great data.

Question though... Why is Rainbow Six: Siege classified as a shooter and not an FPS? It is very clearly a First Person shooter. Am I missing something?

I understand why Battlefront is not an FPS, because you have a camera toggle to jump between TPS and FPS. But this is not present in Siege.

I guess no one else could explain it as no one answered me, haha.

I'll just chalk it up to a simple error from the pollsters then!

benny_a · Jan 24, 2016

ChefRamsay said:
I guess no one else could explain it as no one answered me, haha.

I'll just chalk it up to a simple error from the pollsters then!

Genres are fucked in modern video games and trying to classify them beyond the obvious one like racing, rhythm and fighting games is fraught with errors.

timetokill · Jan 24, 2016

ChefRamsay said:
I guess no one else could explain it as no one answered me, haha.

I'll just chalk it up to a simple error from the pollsters then!

Yeah, it's clear we have to reassess how genres are handled next year. With so many titles we have to rely on how other sites classify them so sometimes it gets a little messy. Plus so many games are cross-genre that picking one or the other can be tough. I'm going to look at our genre setup, and see how we can improve it for next year.

Violence Jack · Jan 24, 2016

Conflict NZ · Jan 24, 2016

Bedameister said:
Looking at the FPS segment. It's so sad

Halo was honestly one of the worst in the series for me. As someone who's been playing the series since launch I just don't understand what people see in it. They've tweaked the aiming so much it doesn't feel like Halo anymore and the maps are poorly designed and repetitive. The only people I know personally that were hyping it up it were COD players who have since dropped the game and gone to BLOPS 3.

semiconscious · Jan 24, 2016

top 10:

bloodborne (me, #1; gaf, #1)
fallout 4 (me, #2; gaf, #7)
mgs v: pp (me, #3; gaf, #3)
until dawn (me, #5; gaf, #9)
life is strange (me, #6; gaf, #5)

who says i don't fit in here

...

janoDX · Jan 24, 2016

Gj GAFfy on picking the list.

Toxi · Jan 24, 2016

So this is the first time a main series Metal Gear Solid game didn't place first.

Qurupeke · Jan 24, 2016

Greddleok said:
Nintendo may not put out a lot, but their systems got some serious quality this year, I really disagree with your statement.

MH4U is fantastic as an entry into the MonHun series, and as a game in its own right.
Xenoblade is a good, open world RPG.
Majora's Mask 3D is a remake, but it's still a fantastic game.
Splatoon is one of the best shooters I've ever played.
Mario Maker is potentially one of the greatest games ever made.

I understand if those games aren't your bag, but I just can't agree that it's been an awful year for Nintendo.

XCX and MH4U were perfect for me, no complaints. Splatoon was something that I bought, but it's basically a multiplayer game so it's not really my cup of tea and I didn't enjoy it as much as others did. The rest were fine I guess, but I didn't play them and I don't really plan to. In any case, both quality and quantity matter. They released a lot of garbage this year, while stuff like Fire Emblem, Zelda, Star Fox and Bravely Second, that are potentially good, are coming next year. It was one of the weakest years, for both of their systems, sadly. I guess the fact that both of their systems are probably at the end of their life doesn't help either.

BruceLeeRoy · Jan 24, 2016

Bgamer90 said:
Seemed like every shooter this year had some type of flaw. Halo 5 and Black Ops 3 for example have great multiplayer but many felt their campaigns were messy.

I didn't play Black Ops 3. I enjoyed the gameplay in Halo's campaign but the story was definitely a mess.

2014 was much better for the genre in my opinion (Titanfall, Wolfenstein, Advance Warfare).

Yeah and looking at the Horizon I don't think we have any real contenders until Machine Games next Wolfie

Calabria · Jan 24, 2016

EviLore said:
But.

It doesn't even feel vaguely plausible on any level to any synapse in my brain that what is something of an alternate universe followup to Demon's Souls where all the refinements of Dark Souls never happened, that also retains extremely problematic and fundamentally and continually painful unresolved technical issues that all contribute to placing it firmly beneath one if not two other games in its lineage, could ever conceivably beat The Witcher 3 in this list. It's sort of existentially painful to witness. I'll just leave it at that.

I may not be as eloquent as you, but I'd like to state this simple point, thing is Demon's Souls, a 6-years old game, still has so much better combat and online gameplay than The Witcher 3. Bloodborne didn't even need to improve from Demon's Souls, and it would still be better in gameplay aspect than TW3.

What painful to see is that that these other developers can't seem to catch up to From Soft in combat mechanic after all these years.....that's what so sad about it. They don't need to make the same mechanic, they just need to make the one that's engaging (see Dragon's Dogma for example, not the same, but equally engaging)

bathsalts · Jan 24, 2016

BruceLeeRoy said:
Yeah and looking at the Horizon I don't think we have any real contenders until Machine Games next Wolfie

Shadow Warrior 2, Doom, Rising Storm 2, Space Hulk, Killing Floor 2's full release, Unreal Tournament, I think the genre will be making lots of waves this year, the fog of COD seems to be finally lifting from the genre and hopefully devs are willing to get back to where things left off in 2007.

Yoshi · Jan 24, 2016

Nasreddin said:
Well, that's your opionion. But this is the first time a "sports game" is ranking that high. Why? Because this is a fun multiplayer game, played by people who are not into sports game. I would even say, Rocket League has more in common with Counterstrike or Splatoon than with FIFA, NHL or PES.

Everybody into multiplayer should give it a try.

Of course it's my opinion, I was talking about my recommendations and how they are less useful for me than they were in the past. And it being more like Counterstrike makes it even worse than being like Fifa, NHL or PES.

injurai · Jan 24, 2016

EviLore said:
It doesn't even feel vaguely plausible on any level to any synapse in my brain that what is something of an alternate universe followup to Demon's Souls where all the refinements of Dark Souls never happened, that also retains extremely problematic and fundamentally and continually painful unresolved technical issues that all contribute to placing it firmly beneath one if not two other games in its lineage, could ever conceivably beat The Witcher 3 in this list. It's sort of existentially painful to witness. I'll just leave it at that.

Only you can tame the monster you've created.

Elandyll · Jan 24, 2016

GAF community has great taste confirmed (not about the #1, though it is my personal GOTY 2015).

To all who organized and many of the lengthy ballots...

Kenai · Jan 24, 2016

Really glad Undertale did so well.

Azzanadra · Jan 24, 2016

JerkShep said:
I can't help but feel that putting down Bloodborne for the blood vials system is missing the forest for the trees. Is is an ideal system? No. But neither was having 20 Estus Flask +5 readily available, combined with heavy poise armor it trivialized the difficulty too much.

And considering that the content after the Lord Vessel in Dark Souls is middling at best (Artorias of the Abyss excluded), it doesn't seem so far fetched that people prefer Demons Souls or Bloodborne.

Agreed... I can see why they opted for Blood Vials. Being a fast paced game, they wanted you to be able to play aggressive, say use vials and be able to get more from fallen enemies as you clear a level, instead of being forced to play cautious to reserve your healing items.

brandonh83 · Jan 24, 2016

Catvoca said:
Videogames are serious business, there's no room for apologies here

No worries mate!

"No apologies here" sounds like a Souls ground message lol

Disaster Nebraska · Jan 24, 2016

EviLore said:
It doesn't even feel vaguely plausible on any level to any synapse in my brain that what is something of an alternate universe followup to Demon's Souls where all the refinements of Dark Souls never happened, that also retains extremely problematic and fundamentally and continually painful unresolved technical issues that all contribute to placing it firmly beneath one if not two other games in its lineage, could ever conceivably beat The Witcher 3 in this list. It's sort of existentially painful to witness. I'll just leave it at that.

This is the sort of controversy and overreaction that I was referring to earlier in the thread. MGS4 GotY levels of salt indeed.

Odd how your brain couldn't handle the "unresolved technical issues" of Bloodborne yet Witcher 3 gelled just fine with you. Between the two games, W3 suffers from far more issues than Bloodborne.

It's almost like some things that bother you don't bother others, and vice versa.

SatelliteOfLove · Jan 24, 2016

All this talk is just making me want to play the awesome Demon's Souls again instead of backlog or Darkest Dungeon.

Lanrutcon · Jan 24, 2016

I don't think we should be proud of a list where FO4 actually featured on the top 10.

Azzanadra · Jan 24, 2016

Reading a few pages back... people are really upset about this, huh? Look, I put Witcher 3 as my first as well, but c'mon guys... Bloodborne is an equally deserving winner. Like man, a few years down the road this may be the new "MGS4" in terms of how supposedly "controversial" this pick was. Bloodborne has its problems, but so does the Witcher 3. From the lackluster main story to the inferior combat, The Witcher 3 could also do with areas in improvement as could Bloodborne with its frame pacing and lack of build variety (though to be fair this one has been fixed by the DLC).

Jack The Nipper · Jan 24, 2016

Mgs ah.

Good to see some doing decent and nice to see batman.

Calabria · Jan 24, 2016

Azzanadra said:
Reading a few pages back... people are really upset about this, huh? Look, I put Witcher 3 as my first as well, but c'mon guys... Bloodborne is an equally deserving winner. Like man, a few years down the road this may be the new "MGS4" in terms of how supposedly "controversial" this pick was. Bloodborne has its problems, but so does the Witcher 3. From the lackluster main story to the inferior combat, The Witcher 3 could also do with areas in improvement as could Bloodborne with its frame pacing and lack of build variety (though to be fair this one has been fixed by the DLC).

nope nothing controversial about this. Bottomline is gameplay should be above else when judging a game by. And Bloodborne is way league, head and shoulder above TW3 in that department

benny_a · Jan 24, 2016

Calabria said:
nope nothing controversial about this. Bottomline is gameplay should be above else when judging a game by. And Bloodborne is way league, head and shoulder above TW3 in that department

You're setting yourself up for disappointment when the most popular game on GAF in the next years doesn't coincide with your "gameplay should be above all else" perspective.

HomerSimpson-Man · Jan 24, 2016

The top 3 were sort of what I expected, not bad. Now Rocket League, talk about coming out of nowhere!

Chaos2Frozen · Jan 24, 2016

Every game won something, this is good.

Genuinely surprised that Life is Strange got so high... High enough to get best adventure.

Disaster Nebraska · Jan 24, 2016

Calabria said:
nope nothing controversial about this. Bottomline is gameplay should be above else when judging a game by. And Bloodborne is way league, head and shoulder above TW3 in that department

Gameplay above all else? That hardly seems balanced. The entirety of the game should be taken into account.

Even so, I still believe BB comes out ahead, but W3 is a top-class game in the areas that it does well. W3 is pretty much the new Baldur's Gate II in terms of world building, quest structure, and NPC quality.

generic_username · Jan 24, 2016

Great results! Bloodborne deserved this! Only change I would make is bump Witcher 3 one position down and put MGSV in second.

RoKKeR · Jan 24, 2016

Calabria said:
nope nothing controversial about this. Bottomline is gameplay should be above else when judging a game by. And Bloodborne is way league, head and shoulder above TW3 in that department

I mean... this is simply incorrect, but have it your way. GAF's 1 and 2 for 2012 were Journey and The Walking Dead. No particular facet of a game "should be above" another when somebody is determining their personal favorite games of the year. Sometimes that comes out in the voting, (like this year) other times it doesn't.

Calabria · Jan 24, 2016

benny_a said:
You're setting yourself up for disappointment when the most popular game on GAF in the next years doesn't coincide with your "gameplay should be above all else" perspective.

so be it, but I can say at least GAF got it right in 2015, best game won. Bloodborne wins, when Demon's Souls and Dark Souls should've won their respective year

EDIT: that may seem pro-From Soft, but even I would admit it when their outing a bit lacking in gameplay department ---> see Dark Souls 2

jmizzal · Jan 24, 2016

Xenoblade Chronicles X was robbed lol

Vulcano's assistant · Jan 24, 2016

Calabria said:
nope nothing controversial about this. Bottomline is gameplay should be above else when judging a game by. And Bloodborne is way league, head and shoulder above TW3 in that department

Not always, specially with rpgs where content is so important. There's a reason people love New Vegas and are disappointed with Fallout 4.

Design -> Content -> major gameplay -> story design -> story gameplay (Tell me people don't love Souls for those two first points as much as for the combat)

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