5 Reason why Skyrim will be the Game of The Year

[Michael Hirst]

Personally Oblivion never grew on me I felt that it was a very bland mediocre game despite having a nice big world to play in I ofund the characters and encounters rather boring, there was no real tension and no over arcing theme running throughout.

Skyrim on the other hand looks like a vastly superior title because its volatile nordic setting and the introduction of enemies more interesting than Bandits and wolves as random encounters. I also think the animations are vastly improved from Oblivion which honestly was pretty bad to look at.

I'm willing to consider Skyrim and if it cna deliver on its promises then its sure a contender for Game of the Year, but lets face it besides Deus Ex Human Revolution we haven't had much to really call an exemplary AAA game this year.

 

[Alade]

1 reason why it won't be:

It's made by bethesda.

 

[rodain]

5 Facts http://www.pagesportal.net/contents/wp/?p=105

Highlights for those who dont want to read whole article.

The Side-Quests Are Better
Dual-Wielding
The Graphics Are Amazing
A World Living Around You
A Story Not Etched in Stone
F?king Dragons

Skyrim looks 10 times better than Oblivion can't wait

christ... first: those aren't facts, but promises. second: there are 6 not five.

third:
"The Side-Quests Are Better"
the side-quests aren't going to be better - really, they aren't - until they're no longer treated as such. let's look at the boring story-arc of going to the store: "i went there, i bought the shit, i went back". let's look at the side-quest: "i went to cave, killed an elf, went back."

fourth:
"Dual-Wielding" i always liked the novelty of this, but it completely depends on how it's handled, it's just a novelty. bioshocks dual wielding... it's nothing special, and using that as something to aim for is sad.

fifth:
"The Graphics Are Amazing"
is entirely subjective, and nothing has yet to beat uncharted 2 for most who have played it, even the Witcher 2, which i found a lot more enjoyable and was just plain beautiful.

sixth:
"A World Living Around You" THERE IS LITTERALLY NOTHING NEW HERE!

ok, that's it, lost my patience.

 

[RedDeadFred]

5 reasons. The five things all possible GOTY candidates must have, and of course, this year, all possess. Does your favourite game pass?

1. It's
2. Not
3. Call
4. of
5. Duty

It's not out yet, nobody has even played it and it's already being rated game of the year.

FUCKING HYPE, how does it work??

I take it you're a BF3 fan then?

In all seriousness though MW3 is looking way more entertaining then BF3.

OT: Again with the Hype?

Here's the realistic look at those points. well a cynical one at that.

The Side-Quests Are Better - Just because the side quests are Improved does not mean it'll increase the games quality.
Dual-Wielding - Who gives a crap? Everyone jumped through hoops when Halo 2 did dual wielding, it's not something that revolutionises gaming every time.
The Graphics Are Amazing - Absolutely stupid, Graphics are good all in all but just because a game looks pretty, doesn't mean it's going to deliver good fun eg. Final Fantasy XIII
A World Living Around You - and that makes it different from previous Elder Scroll and Fallout games?
A Story Not Etched in Stone - See above
F-king Dragons - one valid point i suppose.

How could better side quests not make a game better?
The world around you is improved from previous games. You're making it sound like this is just another installment in a series that releases it's games every year. Wrong. It's been FIVE years. Your beloved COD comes out every year and yet you jumped to defend it.
Also, looking at Bethesda's track record (past three games have all won many awards) I think it's safe to say that they won't let us down.
Maybe you won't like it, or you'll just convince yourself not to like it, or not even buy it. Maybe these kind of games just don't appeal to you. That's fine. But I can pretty much guarantee that the game is going to gain universal acclaim.
This rant was brought to you by a Bethesda fan-boy.

Just so you know just because it says i prefer one shooter over the other does not make the game beloved to me. and yeah i have played Bethesda's previous games, and always find the same problems, and why shouldn't someone be cynical? means i can either be genuinely surprised by the game, or be right about it. and it may not have a yearly release but let's face it, Skyrim is another instalment in a series. called The elder scrolls.

but lets be adults here, Skyrim will sell like hotcakes no matter what opinion someone on an internet forum gives. Unless of course they decide to sell it on EA's Origin,

It is another installment. But it's only the third one in first person. The first two were quite different. Call of Duty is on it's 8th. Also, I didn't say you shouldn't be cynical, I said if you didn't like it, that's fine (and obviously you don't need my permission to dislike something anyway).
Anyway, this is becoming off topic. The thread wasn't about which games we prefer, it is about why Skyrim will win GOTY awards. I'm looking at Bethesda's track record, and I just don't see how they won't make another GOTY caliber game, especially when all of the previews are pretty much reassuring me.

 

[RedDeadFred]

I really hate the whole "game of the year" crap. It's utterly and absolutely meaningless. There's no central game of the year. Every game blog, game publication, gamer, and their mom give out a game of the year. It's not like the fucking Academy Awards where there's only ONE best picture so it really, really means something when a movie wins it. No. There's a billion games of the year from every site and publication out there. It's totally meaningless because there isn't just ONE really prestigious and well known "game of the year" award. The closest there is to a reputable award for games is GDC, but no one cares about that.

It's pointless. Can we please just move on past the "game of the year" crap?

I'm tired of English countryside (this time should be Scandinavia countryside) fantasy medieval games injected with magic. There's just no end to them, somehow it pushed aside most of the other fantasy themes out of the way.
These are six reasons. Plus, Dragons don't improve a game, nor does dual wielding. A world living around you have been promised every time a RPG centered game came out of the market, especially Fable....
Story not etched in stone - branching plot anyone? NOT a new thing?
Graphics... WooHoo... I'm so happy that I can look at it... Yay. I don't care about the graphics, the problem here is that while the Empire had its central province and others affected by their neighbors, Skyrim has Nords. That's it. What kind of variety you'll find when you visit cities and villages? They pulled it off nicely in Oblivion but I'm wary of what they'll design in Skyrim.
.
Side quests are better.
Wow.
You blew my mind.
Side quests are here to further the plot or the world around you, and sometimes as a joke (with some references). See the quest when you track down the missing painter or when you need to kill every inhabitant in a locked household, a mission given by the dark brotherhood.
It's usually a fetch or kill A creature B times disguised in some other manner, like saving the pet rats of some insane lady.

Oh, and this more or less sums up my general sentiment. I'll just quote you and be done with it. Skyrim is overhyped. I am more than willing to bet that it is going to be a colossal disappointment. It's what happened with Oblivion, it's what happened with FO3, and it's going to be what happens with Skyrim. Pattern recognition people, use it. It's one the biggest reasons why humans didn't get nommed so hard off the food like something that got nommed off the food chain (is the past tense of "nom" with one 'm' or two?).

Colossal disappointment is your opinion but if you look at the reviews, awards, sales, and overall general reaction of the majority of people who played those games, you would realize that your opinion is not actually reality.

 

[jboking]

snip

Those are all legitimate complaints about the game, but my problem is that I honestly don't feel the game was trying to be incredibly deep. You see, you used the term pretentious, that's what I take contention with, not that the game isn't Game of Year.

There is one thing you said that I have a problem with: That the world doesn't react to your choices. When you go into a different situation and you have the choice of stealthily going by your enemies and hacking turrets and doors so you don't alert anyone or getting your guns out and taking everyone down one by one. If you sneak around, the enemies won't even notice you and at most, you'll only have to take down one or two silently. If you go gung-ho, enemies will start coming down on your position, and you'll even find a few MORE enemies than you would otherwise. Gameplay-wise, the game responds to your actions well and the choices you make can be the difference between a slow, meticulous, and well-planned level and a short, dirty, gun-fire filed level.

 

[AngryFrenchCanadian]

I've seen a lot of videos on Skyrim, but what I've seen most of is either environments, quick montages of gameplay, or Todd Howard (I think?) talking about it, especially when he mentioned that the consoles were the lead platform. I believe our PC overlords may be a bit disappointed.

What about the 30 minutes demo?

 

[Doc Theta Sigma]

Sorry but GOTY will go to Arkham City.

 

[Popido]

snip

Those are all legitimate complaints about the game, but my problem is that I honestly don't feel the game was trying to be incredibly deep. You see, you used the term pretentious, that's what I take contention with, not that the game isn't Game of Year.

They were hyping up their waste knownledge of augmentations thought. They even did a short document about modern hightech prosthetics and compared how close it is to their Adam. Then there was that trailer about Icarus and Adam burning his wings by the sun. But yeah, it wasnt exactly a deep game wasnt it. I just expected it to be, because of what Deus Ex had.

There is one thing you said that I have a problem with: That the world doesn't react to your choices. When you go into a different situation and you have the choice of stealthily going by your enemies and hacking turrets and doors so you don't alert anyone or getting your guns out and taking everyone down one by one. If you sneak around, the enemies won't even notice you and at most, you'll only have to take down one or two silently. If you go gung-ho, enemies will start coming down on your position, and you'll even find a few MORE enemies than you would otherwise. Gameplay-wise, the game responds to your actions well and the choices you make can be the difference between a slow, meticulous, and well-planned level and a short, dirty, gun-fire filed level.

Basic AI...was pretty crappy tbh.. You could make them go "What is this I dont even" by simply throwing fridges at them or by picking up a turret. It was just very simple combat AI. Nothing like distracting guards with porn magazines, throwing rats at them or death by candybars.

I dont really care about my privilege to choose between patrolling or combating enemy unit. Deus Ex let the story mold in the player's hands by the choices he made. You could prematurely kill bosses, characters, even to skip whole events and chapters, not just side quest, but important plot lines. And the game would react to this.

 

[Oroboros]

I love the Elder Scrolls, but Skyrim has me a little apprehensive. I'm not yet convinced that the dragon shouts and dual wielding are not gimmicks. Although some of the skill consolidation makes sense, some of the other changes have me a little worried, like the perk system-I am worried about some of the removals and consolidations. One thing that goes beyond simply making my worry though is what they did to Morrowind between Morrowind and Oblivion. Did the Nerevarine pee in Bethesdas cornflakes or something? It seems somewhat jarring that they would just decide to up and destroy the setting of their most interesting game just like that. Of course, it makes everything the player did in Morrowind feel kinda pointless as a side effect, since saving Morrowind from Dagoth Ur doesn't keep it from getting blown up later. I feel slightly hesitant to buy it for that reason alone, as it feels kinda like a slap in the face to people who played TES III.

 

[jboking]

Basic AI...was pretty crappy tbh.. You could make them go "What is this I dont even" by simply throwing fridges at them or by picking up a turret.

I just want to stop you here and point out that you are taking throwing a fucking fridge or picking up a giant metal turret as being something normal that completely human enemies shouldn't freak out about. Just saying, them "WTF!"ing is completely normal. (though, I played on hard and didn't have this problem)

It was just very simple combat AI. Nothing like distracting guards with porn magazines, throwing rats at them or death by candybars.

So you never snuck around and opened a few doors that were closed to wait for the AI to notice and check out the room so you could get behind them and take them out? sounds like that is your issue, not the games.

I dont really care about my privilege to choose between patrolling or combating enemy unit. Deus Ex let the story mold in the player's hands by the choices he made. You could prematurely kill bosses, characters, even to skip whole events and chapters, not just side quest, but important plot lines. And the game would react to this.

Fine, there wasn't enough change in the games story.

But did it really claim it would do that? No. You simply assumed that going in. That doesn't mean the game is "pretentious" it means you had high expectations.

"Pretentious" is a very scathing and slightly cliched word. Make sure you mean to use it.

 

[Monkey_Warfare]

5 reasons. The five things all possible GOTY candidates must have, and of course, this year, all possess. Does your favourite game pass?

1. It's
2. Not
3. Call
4. of
5. Duty

It's not out yet, nobody has even played it and it's already being rated game of the year.

FUCKING HYPE, how does it work??

5 reasons its not going to win
1. Portal
2. Two
3. Was
4. Also
5. Released
Other games like shogun 2, and (if they released in time) dota 2 and diablo3 should beat it
Honestly it probably would be worthy when it gets all its DLC and patches but the initial product probably wont be. Im going to wait until the Game of the Year Edition equivilant is out and get that.

 

[Dagda Mor]

To be honest,while I'm still vastly more interested in fantasy settings than modern military ones,I'd like to see more focus on the fantastic aspects.Look at Age of Wonders.I want a sandbox set in that universe.Seeing the Shadow Realm fleshed out and putting you in the middle of it in an action game is like a wet dream.I want to see exotic things;Shivering Isles came close to my sweet spot than most games,but the map of the place was a little too...generic for my tastes.That might just be because I live in Louisiana though,so most terrain video game designers come up with has trouble matching up to what I see on a casual Sunday drive on the boat.

 

[I-Protest-I]

I just came here to laugh at how excited you must be, since you couldn't get the topics title right.

Stop judging games before you've played them. Every FUCKING time.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

I take it you're a BF3 fan then?

In all seriousness though MW3 is looking way more entertaining then BF3.

I'm not a fan of BF3 or MW3. I do think BF3 looks better than MW2.5, mind, but... eh. Neither is my cup of tea. MW3 looks like more of the same but stupider (so yes, more of the same), and BF3 looks quite good except for the actual shooting and the... well, speaking as a PC gamer, NO MENUS ARE YOU FUCKING JOKING EA?!!

5 reasons its not going to win
1. Portal
2. Two
3. Was
4. Also
5. Released

This, this, a thousand times this. Portal 2, or Deus Ex. Far more deserving than Skyrim "we have dragons and that makes us cool and just forget Dragon Age II ever existed".

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

Sorry but GOTY will go to Arkham City.

AHH SO MUCH TRUTH

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

A Story Not Etched in Stone

I'm sure this has been mentioned, but uh, have you seen the trailer?

More OT: I'm mostly excited by the fact that they've expressly stated that they're trying to improve both the mechanics and the story/setting. People speaking about poor writing and generic settings have clearly not played enough Morrowind. They can be forgiven because the game is hideous and the combat is abyssmal, but that game had the best story and setting I have ever seen - memorable characters (I'll be honest, I mostly just remember Crassius Curio...) that were integral parts of numerous interlocking organisations with quest trees that forced you to interact with other factions, leading to a sort of ripple where your involvement with one faction would have repercussions for several others. Throw in big themes, an intriguing, deep, and understated backstory and interesting questions of imperialism, cultural domination, and religious persecution and combine all that with the wide open gameplay of TES and you have a winning fucking formula.

If they can recreate the magic of Morrowind with better combat, I will probably die in my desk chair still playing Skyrim.

 

[hyzaku]

I'm going to break up the chain of "skyrim is way overhyped and it won't live up to expectations much less get GOTY" posts. I'll bet a good amount of money that Skyrim will be GOTY, not because I'm so amped about it (which I am),but just because pretty much every game Bethesda has ever put out has taken that title. Even Daggerfall was GOTY if I'm not mistaken. Not sure about Arena. The new Fallouts, though? Both GOTY. Morrowind, Oblivion? GOTY.

Anyways, everyone saying that they're just meh about the release of skyrim knows that, deep down, they absolutely cannot wait for the new ES installment. I mean elderscrolls is a staple of gaming. If you don't like it, you're not a true gamer.

I guess its just the cool thing to do at the moment to say 'lolz skyrim sux'.


edit: the one thing I am worried about though is the fact that the PC version will be a port from console. It would sadden me greatly to see the game dumbed down like several others in the name of being console friendly.

I'm sorry, but I have to call you out on this. There is no such thing as a "true gamer." Me not liking an elder scrolls game does not diminish me as a "gamer" any more than some guy who hates Legend of Zelda or Mega Man or CoD. The only distinguishing factor between "gamers" is how much they play. What I, or anyone else, choose to play to sate our appetite for gaming does not make us better or worse than anyone else involved in this hobby (yes gaming is a hobby, not a religion or a way of life). Elitism is not a valid argument. I can just as easily say Call of Duty is a staple of gaming. It is far more popular that any elder scrolls game so if you don't play it you obviously do not have good taste in games. See how that works?

Here is another important FACT for you: People exist that do not like what you like. That is a revelation right there. Seriously, just because you fanyboy over something doesn't mean everyone has too. Hell, that doesn't even mean it is good. That fact is that, believe it or not, some people genuinely do not care about skyrim. Yes they really do exist. You may not understand their apathy, but at least take the time to realize that they do not understand your excitement for this product and that lack of comprehension does not make them lesser beings or diminish their right to have their own opinions.