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November 18, 2016 4:39 PM   Subscribe

Overwatch and Dark Souls 3 win big at this year's Golden Joystick Awards. As does The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine. [PC Gamer] “The winners of the 2016 Golden Joystick Awards [YouTube] have been revealed, with the coveted Ultimate Game of the Year title going to the grossly incandescent Dark Souls 3. Elsewhere, Overwatch took home the most awards of the evening, including Best Original Game, Best Multiplayer Game, Competitive Game of the Year, Best Gaming Moment, and PC Game of the Year.”
Best Original Game in association with The Sun - Overwatch
Best Storytelling - The Witcher 3:Blood and Wine
Best Visual Design - The Witcher 3:Blood and Wine
Best Audio in association with DTS - Fallout 4
Best Indie Game in association with Kotaku UK - Firewatch
Gaming Personality of the Year in association with Guiness World Records - Sean Plott (Day[9])
Best Multiplayer Game in association with PC Gamer Weekender - Overwatch
Competitive Play of the Year in association with PC Gamer Pro - Coldzera's jumping AWP quad kill at MLG Columbus
Best Gaming Moment in association with Absolute Radio - Play of the game in Overwatch
YouTube - Upcoming Personality of the Year - Jesse Cox
Studio of the Year in association with Edge - CD Projekt Red
Innovation of the Year - Pokémon GO
Lifetime Achievement Award - Eiji Aonuma
Best Gaming Platform - Steam
Best Gaming Performance - Doug Cockle
Competitive Game of the Year in association with PC Gamer Pro - Overwatch
Nintendo Game of the Year in association with Gamesmaster - The Legend of Zelda:Twilight Princess HD
Playstation Game of the Year in association with OPM - Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Xbox Game of the Year in association with OXM - Rise of the Tomb Raider
PC Game of the Year in association with PC Gamer - Overwatch
Handheld/Mobile Game of the Year in association with Digital Spy - Pokémon GO
Breakthrough Award - Eric Barone - Stardew Valley
Hall of Fame - Lara Croft
Critics Choice Award - Titanfall 2
Most Wanted Game in association with Green Man Gaming - Mass Effect Andromeda
Ultimate Game of the Year in association with GamesRadar+ - Dark Souls 3
posted by Fizz (58 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
I knew that Overwatch was going to clean up at this year's awards. I've played it more than any other game this year. That being said. Very disappointed that DOOM didn't get as much love as it should have though. DOOM is an amazing game and worthy of more recognition and praise.

Game on.
posted by Fizz at 4:43 PM on November 18, 2016 [2 favorites]


XCOM 2 was robbed robbed.

Well, actually they had a 89% chance of getting an award but when they took the shot they still missed.
posted by GuyZero at 4:50 PM on November 18, 2016 [34 favorites]


I played Dark Souls 3 for a bit. Gave Witcher 3 a shot. I've barely touched Minecraft since microsoft broke it. This is probably my 'game' of the year.
posted by adept256 at 5:21 PM on November 18, 2016 [3 favorites]


Oh good, they gave storytelling awards to The Witcher. That's the first game I've ever ragequit! There was a scene in the game (minor spoilers ahead and content warnings for assault) where this obviously creepy guy had an entire room just *draped* in dead, naked, gratuitously big-titted women. One outside the room, about ten inside...just dead women everywhere. Hanging here, splayed on the bed there. Clearly murdered, but only just violently enough to keep the guy creepy and the women visually appealing. There was a hot tub in the room filled with at least four of them. I think they were all supposed to be hookers, but I maintain that in addition to being horrifyingly sexist and creepy beyond description, it's absolutely horrible storytelling. What, did the rest of the hookers not notice the FIRST dead hooker outside the door?? This guy was maybe five feet tall. How did he drag them into the hot tub?

Everything about it was implausible, sacrificing any effort at realism for maximum creepiness and complete disregard for female characters as mattering or actually existing in the world.

It made me feel extremely uncomfortable and upset, and I immediately quit the game and deleted every save from my PS4.

Best Storytelling. Low F***ING bar, apparently.
posted by erinfern at 5:25 PM on November 18, 2016 [13 favorites]


Oh wow I didn't get that far. I do recall at the very beginning there was nudity, and I had to eyeroll at my super powerful gaming pc being pushed to render every freckle and pore in exquisite detail. Reflecting that it was someone's job, an artist, to get the moistness of the skin right.

As for storytelling... um no. Can we get some AAA games that aren't about a 15yo white boy's power fantasies?
posted by adept256 at 5:35 PM on November 18, 2016 [4 favorites]


This seems like as good a spot as any to inform you all that if you are playing Titanfall 2 on PC, I created a Metafilter Network. Which currently has zero members, but I was feeling optimistic.

Titanfall 2 is a good game, and you should play it.

Here are my superlatives for the year:
Best Game Where Half The Players are There For The Slashfic: Overwatch
Best Game Where A Giant Robot Urges You To Parkour: Titanfall 2
Best Game That Will Doubtless Be Playable Next Year: Dishonored 2
posted by selfnoise at 5:38 PM on November 18, 2016 [2 favorites]


Oh, and:

Best Game Where You Have To Click Too Goddamn Much: Stardew Valley
posted by selfnoise at 5:39 PM on November 18, 2016 [4 favorites]


no one tell them about cookie clicker they don't know yet.
posted by adept256 at 5:41 PM on November 18, 2016


game most likely to give you tendonitis: overwatch

game most likely to cause epic 7h vendettas against a total stranger: overwatch

best gaming moment: environmental kills as lucio

biggest character design flaw: not allowing roadhog to bounce people off the objective with his tummy

breakthrough gaming moment: realizing that as junkrat you can launch yourself out of mei's ult with your mine

character most likely to induce stroke in members of the opposing team: mei fUCKING MEI I WANT TO WEAR HER HOLLOWED OUT CORPSE AS A CAPE SJEGHGFHGS
posted by poffin boffin at 5:57 PM on November 18, 2016 [9 favorites]


...but it's not even December yet.
posted by ODiV at 7:04 PM on November 18, 2016


I really hope that Dishonored 2 gets cleaned up with a patch soon, I've heard horrible things about the PC port. Not going to bite the bullet just yet but I'm getting antsy.
posted by Fizz at 7:30 PM on November 18, 2016


OverWatch is the only game I've ever played that causes me to completely, 100% subconsciously tune out anything happening around me. So now I have to wait until my kids go to bed and my wife goes to read. Oh and Blizzard: stop giving me every last skin for heroes thay I never play.
posted by Brocktoon at 7:42 PM on November 18, 2016


I hate them for releasing Titanfall 2 a week after Battlefield 1. They're both EA games! Why would they do this?
posted by Justinian at 8:23 PM on November 18, 2016


"No, I do NOT want a Bannana..."

Overwatch is a blast.
posted by Windopaene at 8:41 PM on November 18, 2016


Overwatch is on a free weekend right now and I have discovered that Zenyatta is a blast to play.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:54 PM on November 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


@erinfern: wtf?

Seriously, I do not understand you. The creepy guy who was the sick mass murderer (who's name was Whoreson) had clout and a building to himself, guarded by his thugs. He was a criminal thug with power.

Your comment "What, did the rest of the hookers not notice the FIRST dead hooker outside the door??" just makes no sense as there are any number of ways for this guy to drag women to his hideout, maybe using his thugs or whatever other horrific manner. His dialogue also makes it clear and, yes, he is a creepy, sick, sadistic SOB ... just like some sick people in real life. Only now you get to take him down.

"It made me feel extremely uncomfortable and upset"

That was kinda the point.

"Everything about it was implausible, sacrificing any effort at realism for maximum creepiness and complete disregard for female characters as mattering or actually existing in the world."

I completely disagree with you. Utterly. Not only that, but the Witcher 3 has written very memorable and complicated female stories which not only pass the Bechdel test but accentuate the plight of the women in that brutal fantasy setting. Furthermore, there are quite a few central, strong women with agency in the game.

I really don't understand what else you would want from a subplot featuring a sadistic killer: fully clothed women? Who only targets feminists? Really, such a person WOULD target prostitutes and do sick things to their naked form.

Not only does it fit the subplot, but it fits the world. And it makes a statement.
posted by MacD at 9:17 PM on November 18, 2016 [4 favorites]


Overwatch is the best game. My PC went bork last week and I am entering the eighth day without Overwatch while I wait for them to mail me an unmelted motherboard. I have begun to taste colors.
posted by Scattercat at 9:21 PM on November 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


Zenyatta is completely awesome. Sombra and Tracer and Winston are all Zenyatta killers though. But I had gold damage and gold healing the other day. "I dreamt I was a butterfly..."
posted by Windopaene at 9:40 PM on November 18, 2016


MacD I kinda feel your response there is unnecessarily hostile, and defensive. Erinfern is allowed to feel what she feels about the game. The idea that The Witcher series is some kind of bastion of feminism is ludicrous, and acting shocked that it's receiving criticism for its portrayal of women seems very unusual to me, as the game(s) have received tonnes of criticism for exactly that.

We, sadly, live in a world where sexual violence against women is condoned both tacitly and explicitly. Many people - men and women alike - are sick of seeing it normalised, used as a crappy plot device to titillate/horrify, and played out in the same tired ways, over and over again. The idea that men raping women and then displaying that is necessary or required or making a statement, is one that I and many others disagree with.
posted by smoke at 9:58 PM on November 18, 2016 [23 favorites]


I think Dishonored is one of my most favorite single player games of all time. I bought Dishonored 2 before it came out, so I could preload it.

I have yet to touch it. Since I bought it, I think I must have 12+ hours in Overwatch...
posted by gemmy at 10:31 PM on November 18, 2016


The Witness is definitely my GOTY. It's just an exquisitely-designed, endlessly-clever puzzle box. But it so beautiful, so satisfyingly clever. Johnathan Blow is a magnificent bastard, and I salute him and the rest of his team.

(But I really enjoyed Firewatch as well. And Grow Up and ABZÛ. 2016 is the best year for puttering around exploring nifty stylized environments since whatever year you consider Minecraft to have come out.)
posted by straight at 11:16 PM on November 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


For what it's worth, I suspect that the Witcher 3 storytelling award is at least partly due to the Bloody Baron storyline. It deals with the consequences of an abusive relationship in a sympathetic and memorable fashion. It left an impression on a lot of people.

The Whoreson Jr. bit was offensive, for lots of reasons, and the 'power fantasy for a 15 yo boy' is a valid accusation, but there is, thankfully, more to the game than that.
posted by YAMWAK at 11:16 PM on November 18, 2016


Oh, wait. The award was for the Blood and Wine DLC, which left me cold. Never mind.
posted by YAMWAK at 11:28 PM on November 18, 2016


I really don't understand what else you would want from a subplot featuring a sadistic killer

i would like them to kill naked men for a change
posted by poffin boffin at 11:32 PM on November 18, 2016 [6 favorites]


really though it's hilarious that you're 100000x more outraged by someone saying "maybe fewer dead naked women would be ok" than you are by a bunch of graphically murdered naked women
posted by poffin boffin at 11:33 PM on November 18, 2016 [12 favorites]


The Witcher 3 both contains some icky stuff in the Whoreson Jr. subplot and is one of the top 5 RPGs of all time. Things are complex.

At least you don't get Sex Cards like in the first one anymore.
posted by Justinian at 11:45 PM on November 18, 2016


so is it okay that we didn't actually enjoy The Witness, and felt kind of like it was more tedious than clever overall

like, I loved Braid, and I wanted to like The Witness, but there was practically no reason for The Witness to even be a video game instead of, like, a book
posted by DoctorFedora at 1:06 AM on November 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


"It made me feel extremely uncomfortable and upset"

That was kinda the point.


I am guessing you are a dude?

It might be worth thinking about why someone could be more upset than you are, about seeing the trope of, bad man does lots of sexualized violence (to sexy hookers), so that we can feel more satisfaction when our tough dude protagonist gets to "take him down" for like the 18th time today.
posted by St. Sorryass at 1:47 AM on November 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


Also, giving the name "Whoreson" to such a vile creature really pissed me off. OF COURSE the son of a nasty filthy whore is a sadistic killer (but only of whores, because we're jamming as many whores as we can into this whore sandwich, because whores aren't humans)!
posted by Brocktoon at 2:18 AM on November 19, 2016 [5 favorites]


there was practically no reason for The Witness to even be a video game instead of, like, a book

While there's no way you could do a lot of the stuff in The Witness with a book, I am kind of geeking out trying to figure out how much of the stuff you could do with a book. It would have to be designed to be examined and solved in a particular place, like maybe a neighborhood in a city...and maybe if some of the pages in the book were translucent...ever heard of the book Masquerade?
posted by straight at 2:19 AM on November 19, 2016


I haven't played Overwatch since that whole olympic loot box debacle.

The whole idea of microtransactions in a AAA game is ludicrous.

Jim Sterling said it best: Pay To Spray: Overwatch And Microtransactions
posted by Pendragon at 3:23 AM on November 19, 2016


There was a debacle? Over cosmetic content that is in no way required to play or progress in the game? That you could get all of just by playing the game - not even playing well mind you, just being on a quick play match and having a pulse was enough.
posted by Soi-hah at 3:50 AM on November 19, 2016 [4 favorites]


Mod note: One deleted. Sorry, this isn't really a good place for impassioned defenses of depictions of rape and sexual violence in entertainment, and while I understand that you may not have encountered the discussions before, this is super basic ground that's been covered extensively here and elsewhere online.
posted by taz (staff) at 4:22 AM on November 19, 2016 [4 favorites]


Yes, there was a debacle. It was timed content only available for a limited time, and it was mixed in with the rest of the content so if you wanted a particular skin you had to be very lucky or spend a lot of money on lootboxes.

And cosmetic content is still game content. Especially for Overwatch where the look and feel really is part of the game.
posted by Pendragon at 5:27 AM on November 19, 2016


Not only does it fit the subplot, but it fits the world. And it makes a statement.

Not having gotten that far, I'm not sure it's a statement worth making in the larger context of that game. I mean, I know it's supposed to be super good and everything, but I've bounced off it a couple times so far in large part because it's a game that literally starts by staring at a naked woman's butt. It's hard to imagine that this turns into a context where exploring the consequences of "sadistic killers" is a useful or interesting thing to do, as opposed to an excuse to put lots of tits on screen at once.

It's sort of like an anime that's supposed to be really good but at some point fairly early in you just get sick of the up-the-skirt and and down-the-shirt shots and turn it off.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:16 AM on November 19, 2016


Hitman and Obduction are being neglected, but I like them better than anything on that list.
posted by painquale at 6:27 AM on November 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


poffin boffin: breakthrough gaming moment: realizing that as junkrat you can launch yourself out of mei's ult with your mine

WHAT
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING

BRB, absolutely destroying her from now on, because oh, I loathe nothing more than her ult. (Except Sombra, now. She has the same infuriating 'look, you just make this game un-fun' effect on me Mei's Blizzard does.)
posted by pseudonymph at 8:29 AM on November 19, 2016


(Also echoing the call above to laud Doom more. I didn't even like FPS games before I played that and I came out of it desperately wanting more like it. It's just pure, batshit, action-y fun.)
posted by pseudonymph at 8:30 AM on November 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


I haven't played Overwatch since that whole olympic loot box debacle.

The whole idea of microtransactions in a AAA game is ludicrous.


HA HA oh god they just made it worse too, right in time for the xmas holidays. in a blatant and naked cash grab, leveling up above level 100 now requires 20k xp no matter what level you are. so instead of being able to grind up to the x90s before an event, and then reset to low xp leveling requirements and earn yourself a bunch of event-branded loot boxes via just playing the fucking game, you're now stuck with only buying them if you want a chance of getting a themed item. i assume they didn't sell as many halloween loot boxes as they projected or something, idk.
posted by poffin boffin at 10:12 AM on November 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


WHAT
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING


yeah it will launch you out of the AoE but you may still land frozen if you're not quick enough. otherwise drop your trap at the same time to catch her headshotting your frozen teammates, and kill her when you land.

honestly my favourite (and extremely petty) anti-mei strategy is circling the riptire around her healing icicle until she defrosts and then exploding her. the tire has almost 3x more countdown time than her heal.
posted by poffin boffin at 11:52 AM on November 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


There's only one thing I would like to say about Overwatch:

Boop!
posted by P.o.B. at 12:06 PM on November 19, 2016 [3 favorites]


Hitman and Obduction are being neglected, but I like them better than anything on that list.

Right! How can I pick a GOTY when I don't even know yet whether anyone's gonna give me Obduction for Christmas? ANYTHING can happen in those first seven days of Christmas!
posted by straight at 12:59 PM on November 19, 2016


like, I loved Braid, and I wanted to like The Witness, but there was practically no reason for The Witness to even be a video game instead of, like, a book

Oh... I don't think it would be a good book. The "story" of The Witness is so thin, it's like saying the cut scenes from Pac Man should be a book. I think it is what it is best already: a very pretty little puzzle game that is maybe sort of a meditative experience. I think some people want to believe there's a whole ton of depth underneath it, trying to leverage a whole unseen universe off a couple lines from boring audiologs... but I don't see it that way.

Looking back on it, I feel like the question it's really asking is, "Does a particularly large pile of cleverness, even a really large pile, mean anything?"

(I didn't believe it came out this year. Holy hell it feels like it's been ten fucking years since January.)
posted by fleacircus at 1:09 PM on November 19, 2016


It's funny that The Witness came out just six months before Obduction. It was heralded as a successor to Myst, and it felt like that for a little while, but then Obduction came out and it suddenly became crashingly obvious how far off The Witness missed the mark.
posted by painquale at 1:57 PM on November 19, 2016


No, I meant, like

A book of pencil puzzles

Like Games Magazine used to publish
posted by DoctorFedora at 3:43 PM on November 19, 2016 [3 favorites]


Also, Hitman deserves much more recognition, specifically because I discovered it this year. It's a puzzle game that uses assassination as window dressing. It's what the Metal Gear series could have been with a focus on gameplay instead of on incomprehensibly convoluted and indulgent plotlines about Modernity
posted by DoctorFedora at 3:50 PM on November 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


I am an avid player of Overwatch and I confess I have no idea why people care about the Olympic games thing. I actually quite like the idea of content that you can't get if you miss the window; that seems to me to be the whole point of cosmetics, that they are there to show off, to say "I was here when FOO!" I even enjoy seeing people wearing stuff I never got.

I also almost never use any of them; the original character designs are too good to muck up like that. (Exception: Dr. Junkenstein. Original design is still better for the character's tone, but I love me some Tesla coils.)
posted by Scattercat at 3:19 AM on November 20, 2016


See also Team Fortress 2, a game with gorgeously clean, iconic character design that has been largely defaced by the cosmetic market.
posted by straight at 8:20 AM on November 20, 2016


Guys, the Storytelling award for the Witcher 3 is specifically for the DLC expansion "Blood and Wine".
Not the main storyline.

This is a key difference as the main game plot, while better than the usual gaming dreck, had to cater to the general audience.

The DLC is a "labor of love", with the game's success already assured.
This allows the writers to really express themselves, and makes for a much better story.

Have not finished it myself, but no slaughtered women so far.
It does have vampires discussing philosophy though, which your run-of-the-mill Calls of Duties seem to lack.
posted by Rei Toei at 10:00 PM on November 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


Also, Hitman deserves much more recognition, specifically because I discovered it this year.

It's really incredible. Each level is a huge intricate puzzle box containing a thousand different game systems clattering against one another, and you can just slowly push against some of them in order to see what happens. It allows for a lot of creativity in puzzle-solving as well as procedurally-generated moments of hilarious narrative. You can also just wander around and look at stuff; it's great virtual tourism.

It's gotten bad user reviews because people didn't like the episodic structure and always-online requirements, so they bashed it out of some principles that I personally don't care about at all. But the episodic structure really worked for me. I don't have too much time to play games, so it was nice to get a new chunk of game every month or so that I could dip into fairly leisurely.
posted by painquale at 12:28 AM on November 21, 2016 [1 favorite]


Hitman is Groundhog Day except that the goal is not to find love but instead to secretly murder a person who really had it coming
posted by DoctorFedora at 1:15 AM on November 21, 2016 [2 favorites]


honestly my favourite (and extremely petty) anti-mei strategy is circling the riptire around her healing icicle until she defrosts and then exploding her. the tire has almost 3x more countdown time than her heal.

You can also drop a trap and mine right at the base of her ice block and it will grab her when it breaks and ASPLODE MEI MUAHAHAHA

I got some friends to play this weekend. Nothing makes you feel god tier like being grouped with a bunch of noobs and boogie-ing all over the payload as Lucio while they desperately try to shoot you.
posted by Fleebnork at 5:57 AM on November 21, 2016 [3 favorites]


If this thread turns into a discussion only of ways to kill or fuck with Mei, I am all manner of okay with it.

(For my part, I spent a part of last night very satisfyingly dispatching Sombra's as D.va, and it felt so good.)
posted by pseudonymph at 1:46 AM on November 22, 2016


I love playing D.Va in general. She just recently became my most played character.

I'm not particularly good at twitch-aiming, so her shotgun-like cannons work well for me. Her role is much more of a mobile harrassment tank. I love absorbing Pharah or McCree ults with her defense matrix. Her self destruct can be challenging to use, since everyone runs for cover. I have found that launching it very high is fairly effective, as people don't tend to look straight up for the incoming nuke. Even if you don't take out many enemies with it, clearing the objective can still help for a push.
posted by Fleebnork at 7:01 AM on November 22, 2016


Also, D.Va's mech does a small amount of damage when you use her boosters, which can help to take out enemies with low health. I took out a Tracer in 3v3 by accident because I was chasing her.
posted by Fleebnork at 7:03 AM on November 22, 2016


If this thread turns into a discussion only of ways to kill or fuck with Mei, I am all manner of okay with it.

Btw, there's a subreddit for that.
posted by Fleebnork at 8:38 AM on November 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


Symmetra changes coming up. Hmmm. Cautiously optimistic? I like the reduced set-up time in particular. I have the most fun playing her in general but they're right in that she felt situational.
posted by rewil at 1:15 PM on November 22, 2016


Ramming people with D.Va's mech, and/or rocket punching, is one of my go to moves in close encounters. Getting an environment kill using the mech brings me joy. Well that and using Pharrah's concussive blast to dump people into bottomless holes or the ocean - bring me joy.
posted by P.o.B. at 7:31 AM on November 23, 2016


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