Awards, contest winners, and Dan Weissenberger? This can only be our Fifth Annual Holiday Awards Spectacular! We dish on the best and worst of 2012, Brad's son drops in to share his best and worst of the year, and we give out some fabulous prizes based on a really cool random number generator. Featuring Dylan Collins, Brad Gallaway, Mike Bracken, Dan Weissenberger, Richard "It's not really a spoiler" Naik, and Tim "The Brett Farve thing is getting old" Spaeth.
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Latest posts by Dylan Collins (see all)
- GameCritics.com Podcast Episode 86: Clearing games from our backlog, listener mail - February 15, 2013
- GameCritics.com Podcast Episode 85: Steam Box, Listener Mail - January 25, 2013
- GameCritics.com Podcast Episode 84: Fifth Annual Holiday Awards Spectacular - December 31, 2012
Hi Terese, Witcher 2 got lost in the shuffle this year. I played and loved the 360 version and really wish I’d brought it up more when talking about Walking Dead’s writing. Witcher 2’s writing is equally interesting — and I spent lots of time agonizing over choices in that game too. This is the hard thing about an awards show — good games either get overshadowed, or just get missed. I still regret not having a chance to play Journey, for example. I made it all the way through Amalur — there’s not much to see there. It’s a… Read more »
Ejoyed that podcast as always. Torchlight II vs Diablo III … I found the D3 demo to be boring, which is pretty bad since the beginning often the most engaging part of an ARPG. I have played and enjoyed T2 a lot and am on my second character. I don’t vehemently hate D3; from what I can tell its just not for me and not going to risk $50 on it. Much of the internet’s problems with D3 are based on the peripheral stuff such as the delays and the always on line and it could not possibly live up… Read more »
Hi Dan, Maybe I was imagining a different game when I bought TWD. Of course when you make really difficult decisions, you might be curious about how things would play out if you kept a couple games running “parallel” so to speak. So I was running off of 3 saves and making different choices and seeing what happened. In my opinion (only), this is where the game breaks down. The outcomes didn’t seem to ring true and were often shallow and contrived and most often led to the same place. And dialog decisions before the last one that determines a… Read more »
It seems like a lot of the Walking Dead hate is stemming from people who either haven’t played the game or are coming at it from a traditional “gamer” mentality. To the poster who claimed that it doesn’t adequately support “playing out different dialog options”: what does that even mean? I would suggest that if you’re trying to “100%” the game, then you have missed the point, sir. The Walking Dead isn’t a game about collecting things or experiencing every possible branching path; it is simply about making difficult choices in a harsh environment and living with those choices. That… Read more »
Thanks for an enjoyable year end wrap up. So fun to listen to the diversity of everyone’s thoughts and thoughtfulness, I had the best time hanging out with you all. Interesting comments about Far Cry 3. I was going to play it and what I’ve seen of it so far when my husband is playing … well I think I’m going to give it a miss and play Sleeping Dogs instead. Or maybe Jurassic Park 😉 Some games I enjoyed and unless I missed their mention in the podcast a few I felt were worthy this year were The Witcher… Read more »
Too bad Chi was not there. It’s like the wise old man is gone and the kids can go mad.
I’ve never been more let down in buying a game. I gave it an hour or two and then uninstalled it. Complete waste of time and money. To call this a game is a stretch. Feels like a cartoon you sort of have a role in. The Walking Dead video game was a waste of money, time and I was extremely disappointed all around. Buyer Beware, don’t waste your money. PC gamer for 20+ years here. This game sucks.
There was complete consensus on TWD as Game of the Year — all of us had it as our top pick. Doesn’t get much more consensus than that. It’s a bit of an oversimplification to suggest it only won because it had “good writing.” We’ve done 5 entire shows devoted to the game which chronicled everything that worked about it. Yeah, it’s got great writing — which is something sorely lacking in today’s narrative-driven games. It’s also able to create scenarios that actually cause gamers to think about their choices and the repercussions of them, gameplay that works in service… Read more »
could you guys not agree on a GOTY and so picked Walking Dead as a suitable underdog that everyone could agree on? I don’t get how a point-and-click adventure with quicktime events ranked as year’s best, just because it had good writing. And as Daniel said, they did the same game last year with Jurassic Park, which was great, and everyone hated it. And they did the same game before that with Back to the Future, and it was another sleeper, or dissed because it was a point and click adventure with quicktime events. So I found that choice really… Read more »
Great podcast, guys. I’m glad Tim Spaeth and Dan Weissenberger were able to join. They added some important and insightful dissenting voices. My biggest criticism of the podcast is the “echo chamber” that tends to form around certain games and franchises, like Diablo. To that end, Spaeth admirably stood up for Diablo III. Personally, I loved it and found it to be extremely polished and exciting. I’m not a huge fan of the “loot-whore RPG” genre, but Diablo III brought enough new ideas to the table to make it worth playing. I respect Mike Bracken’s differing opinion. But his criticisms… Read more »
Props to Weissenberger for standing up for the underrated and misunderstood Jurassic Park. Nima! Little Fish!
Great end of year podcast guys. I think it was one of the best shows for expressing rationalisations for why each person liked or disliked a game. For that reason and a few others I saw it as one of the better podcasts that you guys have done. Having Tim Speath as a guest is always an excellent idea. More Speath, more of the time and more often is what everyone really wants. It was Dylan’s first end of year podcast which is always tough to manage and he did great and still doing a superb job. Btw I’m the… Read more »
I just can’t relate to Walking Dead winning Game of the Year. Horrible maddening mechanics, trite and meaningless dialog branching, no good built in way to play different branches out and when I did, most choices led to the same outcome. AND, no skip scene (which should be standard in a game that is supposed to encourage playing out dialog choices) and no controller inversion. I didn’t, as a player, feel welcomed. I just don’t get how everyone thinks this game is well written. I did like some of the choices you are presented with and really liked some of… Read more »
Great show, guys. Other than the Asura’s Wrath hate, I enjoyed every minute. 🙂