Skyrim fanboys, chill out. . .

[EzraPound]

Skyrim fanboys really need to stop with their consensus GOTY proclamations. Because the fact is, right now it has around 95 on Metacritic, on all three platforms. Like Portal 2 (which is smarter). And Arkham City (which is more streamlined). And Uncharted 3 (which is more cinematic).

Have you played it? Fully? Or even for more than a few hours? I noticed you're from Toronto and that you posted this around midnight Calgary time roughly when I was recieving my copy so you can't have played for any longer than a couple hours before posting. So I guess my question is: How would you know?

The Elder Scrolls series in general is a pretty intelligent series, maybe less so in Oblivion but Skyrim has seemed pretty smart in the 3 and a half hours I've played it.

Can you define streamlined for me? The Elder Scrolls and Bethesda games in general have a reputation for open, non-linear gameplay, so critisizing Skyrim for not having streamlined gameplay structure is akin to critisizing a calculator for using too many numbers. If you prefer a streamlined experience cool, but using a personal preferance as a general critisism of a game as opposed to using it as a reason you don't like it seems quite silly. If we're talking about a streamlined experience or presentation, the menus and UI are easy to use, the graphics are sharp and faffing about is almost totally optional.

Cinematic is again, a fairly subjective thing to base critisism off of, and the comparison isn't even particularly apt becasue Skyrims opening scene is pretty jaw dropping. I haven't played Uncharted 3 so I can't really make the judgement, but even if 3 surpasses 1&2 (which I have played) it'll find some competition in Skyrim.

I'm a Skyrim fanboy, don't get me wrong, midnight release and all that, but I've never considered anything to be above critisism even if I'm a fanboy and I've never just blindly loved something. It's too early for me to call, but if Skyrim continues to astonish me the way it has for the next 400 hours then there's no doubt in my mind it deserves game of the year from everyone. Not becasue it's the best game I've played this year, but becasue I can see it being the best game I've played ever.

I wasn't saying Skyrim is going to be worse than those games, just that there's nothing to indicate--a day prior to its release, mind you--that it's going to be unassailably better, either. 2011 has been a year rife with AAA releases--unless Skyrim becomes 2011's OoT, it's not as if it's going to easily better every other game released in terms of widespread critical opinion. Such predictions--made before a game comes out--are just wrongheaded.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Personally, I'll be waiting a few months to play Skyrim. I'd much prefer something where I can have some emotional investment in the characters and world I'm playing, rather than just fuck shit up as an emotionless god. That comes later, after I've gorged on some delicious narratives and character arcs.

Why does GOTY really matter at all? Everyone has their own personal GOTY and I've yet to see an official consensus on which games earn that title each year. Granted I'm not getting Skyrim in the near future, but what harm does it do for fans of the game to declare it GOTY?

Still, it's fun to imagine with all the hype surrounding the game that somewhere this song is playing out in someone's head as they wait to pick up their copy.

Beautiful.

 

[RedLister]

I always thought when Bethesda released one of there games as GOTY edition it was just an edition with all the addons included on the disk? I always assumed it was just a name not to take to heart or have i got something wrong here?

 

[Something Amyss]

Peole were declaring Skyrim as GOTY before it was released, now that it has, it will escalate even further.

I can't imagine myself visiting the forums here very often until all of this dies down, just ignore it.

Hell, people were declaring it GOTY before they knew a damn thing about it.

 

[Something Amyss]

More gameplay does not equal a better game. For evidence I precent Final Fantasy 13.

Yeah, no game should ever need the qualifier "but it gets good after the first 20 hours."

I'd like longer experiences, but they don't immediately equal good.

 

[DustyDrB]

How dare they be excited over it! Bah humbug!

Yeah, quite a few Escapists lately seem to get all twitchy and bothered when other people express love for games on a gaming forum.

Spoiler: But hey, at least they earned a title

 

[Rariow]

Well, Morrowind and Oblivion also got game of the year, and they probably had games with a higher metascore. Also, I'm not very clear about this: When someone says "Game of the Year", what award do they mean? As in, from whom? I'm a big videogame fan, as is demonstrated by my being on this site, but I'm really bad with awards. If I remember, my Oblivion box (It's right here, but I can't be bothered to go searching for it in the ginormous pile of videogames I have on my desk) said something along the lines of "Has won X Game of the Year awards!", were X is an excesively large number. I'm pretty sure that every big-name game WILL get Game of the Year from one company or another.

At any rate, I still think that Skyrim should be game of the year, simply because I really haven't enjoyed any of the other big contenders for the name (Except Human Revolution, if that one even counts), and, really, if Skyrim is half as much fun as what I have had with Oblivion, I'd nominate it Game of the Millenium (If Oblivion suddenly ceased to exist, that is).

 

[Macrobstar]

I made a point out of declaring Skyrim the worst game of all time before release.

It only seemed fair since people were calling GOTY before release so I could call it "worst game ever" and be equally informed.

except they ahd a history of good games to base there belief on, theres no reason to doubt bethesda this time around

 

[TKretts3]

Game of the Year really doesn't matter much, and even if it did metacritic scores and sales figures should be irrelevant. GOTY should go to the best game released in that year: Not the most popular, not the highest rated, but the best.

Just look at the Oscars. They [Arguably] give Picture of the Year to the BEST movie, not the most popular or simply the highest rated.
Why?

Well, watch this.
Slum Dog Millionaire deserves a 1/10 - it sucked. On the other hand, FearDotCom deserves a perfect 10/10. That movie was pure genius.

I just gave an obviously great movie a horrid score, and an obviously awful movie a perfect score. Now these are not my actual views, they are simply to show that ANYONE now-a-days can become a critic, and in the games industry it's much easier than in the film industry. Not to mention he various different opinions and tastes that contribute to the scores of things.

 

[Atmos Duality]

As I type this, there are no fewer than NINE Skyrim topics on the front page of the board.

You're failing to consider the fact that Skyrim has far more gameplay than any of these titles. Even without mods, people have spent literally hundreds of hours on its predecessors. You can't do that on Arkham City or Portal 2, even if you do all the achievements.

It has more gameplay, yes, but if Skyrim is following in the footsteps of Oblivion, that gameplay will be heavily diluted simply due to the sheer scope of the game.

A huge series of Step-n-fetch quests makes for gameplay, but not necessarily compelling gameplay.

 

[SyphonX]

Some people completely underestimate the complexity and breadth of Skyrim. I've been hooked for about 18 hours straight. For others, it's just not their cup of tea.. which is confusing to me.. but anyhow, this is a serious contender for GOTY.

Not a fanboy speaking, though I am one. It's just obvious when you play it...

That, and Skyrim is beating MW3 in player usage right now, by a margin of 150 thousand and rising. That is nice.

 

[SyphonX]

As I type this, there are no fewer than NINE Skyrim topics on the front page of the board.

Yea, well.. because it's amazing. People waited 5 years for it. It meets expectations in a glorious kind of way.

 

[Accountfailed]

I'm not trying to instigate a flame war here--rather, I think this is a valid point to raise in an ongoing discussion--but Skyrim fanboys really need to stop with their consensus GOTY proclamations. Because the fact is, right now it has around 95 on Metacritic, on all three platforms. Like Portal 2 (which is smarter). And Arkham City (which is more streamlined). And Uncharted 3 (which is more cinematic). Heck, Skyward Sword could easily top Skyrim's metascore--anyone with a firm grasp of gaming history shouldn't count Nintendo out, even if Skyrim has become to an increasingly isolated demographic of 'hardcore' taste-makers what MW3 is to the frat crowd.

I use Metacritic simply as a communicable benchmark, though, in illustrating a broader point--2011 has been a fertile year for blockbuster, AAA games, and without an Ocarina of Time-like critical smash there's no single title that's likely to unify the press and gamers at large in unanimous GOTY praise. What's ironic about this is that the hype for Skyrim has been so deafening that it's likely to tarnish the critical perception of the game--perversely, anything less than roundabout 10.0 scores for Skyrim (which it has its fair share of, to be fair) almost seems like a bit of a letdown; unlikely as its current reception is to automatically catapult it to the leading position of this year's releases. Instead, we seem to be getting a game on par with Arkham City. Bigger isn't better, folks--in 2002, Morrowind's approach was truly novel. A decade on, Skyrim's size still commands a level of interest, but it's unlikely to reshape the game industry as we know it.

I'll probably pick up Skyrim in December--seems apropos, with the snow and all--and I hope to enjoy it. Even if I'll have to combat the notion, while playing it, that the game is a disappointment if it can't cure malaria and make me a goddamn sandwich.

P.S. No pun intended with the title.

I understand the point you're making, that we shouldn't let the popularity of something affect our objective perception of the game. However surely you must of noticed that this happens every. single. time. something popular comes out, this is not simply limited to Skyrim, the same was true for dragon age, mass effect, left for dead, and so on, anything that's been popular has had GOTY smeared across it by it's fans. And why not? If it's not okay to recommend something simply because you like it, then why am I not allowed murder people over recommendations to watch Scott "overrated" Pilgrim? (look, people. I HATE geek humor and I HATE Micheal Cera, I don't care about what reviews it got.)

Now I haven't had a chance to play Skyrim yet, mine's coming on the 14th for the low low price of 33 euro(Pay an extra 20 lids to wait in line on launch day? I'd rather die!). So all I know is from what I've heard off others since I refuse to look at the vids. To me, so far it looks like this year's GOTY, Without looking in depth in to skyrim you can confirm that; the enviroment is going to be different, the story is going to be different, and the combat is going to be different. How many sequels can you say the same for? you can only barely say it for Arkham City and Skyward Sword, you can't say for MW3, or Uncharted 3.

To conclude; I'm not disagreeing with you, there is often a lot of rhetoric and hyperbole coming up to a popular release, but that's not really a bad thing, is it? We should be celebrating the release of something good, and revolting over the bullshit roster updates and pointless sequels we saw so much of in the past 3 years(Modern Warfare, I'm looking directly at you). I don't take issue with your standpoint, but the fact that you're talking about Skyrim of all things, makes it ring a bit hollow, especially with things like the BF3 vs Mw3 rage threads clogging the forums.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Yea, well.. because it's amazing. People waited 5 years for it. It meets expectations in a glorious kind of way.

It doesn't look that amazing to me.
Honestly, it just looks like Oblivion, but with a better graphics engine.

 

[thiosk]

space marine is the obvious GOTY.

its gonna be skyrim. i don't see any way for it not to happen. its ALWAYS the beth. games--