VGChartz's Overall Game of the Year 2015 - Article
by Karl Koebke , posted on 13 January 2016 / 9,431 Views
2015 has been a good year for gaming. Some on staff have argued that it was a disappointment, but when I look back I see such diverse releases that I can't help but feel there was something for almost everyone this past year.
Nintendo fans got a stellar new IP from the company in a genre altogether new to them, while fans of smaller titles had everything from story-driven tear jerkers to highly competitive internet phenomena. Established franchises like The Witcher, Metal Gear Solid, Fallout, and Halo all shone brightly and From Software created a superb new Dark Souls-type offshoot franchise. You can’t ever please everyone, but 2015 took a reasonable crack at doing so.
The Nominees:
Splatoon
Ori and the Blind Forest
Rocket League
The Witcher III: Wild Hunt
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Bloodborne
Halo 5: Guardians
Fallout 4
And the Winner is...
Rocket League
Community's Choice - Bloodborne (23.8% of the votes)
Amongst all those fantastic games listed above, it’s a smaller title where the goal is to get a ball into the back of a net using remote controlled, rocket-propelled cars that won our staff over. It's not the prettiest of the bunch, and there's no narrative to pull at your heart-strings, but it has by far the most addictive gameplay we've had the pleasure of experiencing this year.
In a testament to the under-acknowledged greatness of its long winded predecessor, Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, Rocket League took an established but unique gameplay mechanic and polished everything around it. The final product is something that has been a mainstay amongst staff for months. We love the gory vistas and tough encounters of Bloodborne, the chaotic fun of Splatoon, and the engrossing setting of The Witcher III, but it’s the pure, unadulterated fun of Rocket League that ultimately won us over. Rocket League is our official Game of the Year for 2015.
Previous Winners:
2014 - Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
2013 - Super Mario 3D World
2012 - Journey
2011 - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
2010 - Mass Effect 2
2009 - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
2008 - LittleBigPlanet
2007 - BioShock
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Excuse me.. pukes into the trash can
This is the best thing I've read on the page
Opinions!
Just out of curiosity: Have you played the game and still think it shouldn't have won, or are you just expressing your unhappiness about your choice not winning?
At least it wasn't Splatoon
@Zkuq I played it back in 2008. Back when it was called Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket Powered Battlecars. It was shallow then, and it's shallow now.
I'm happy the community award went to Bloodborne. Beautifully crafted world, dark and interesting lore. Incredible depth to its gameplay mechanics.
What in the actual... ? RL is great, we get it, but not the game of the year, gee! Anyway, community had a nice pick (BB).
What a surprise, said no one.
The image banner gave it away completely, just like it did for the others.
I seriously cannot nor want to believe that out of all the games we had in 2015 and all the other deserving indies and exclusives, one multiplat indie won out of mostly everything. At least other sites and their writers had different picks and selections, Destructoid's staff all have different picks and choices along with reason as to why they chose them. To top all that off they also held community votes that yielded different pics from different categories. On here it's largely the same exact result and you don't even need a mystic ball or anything to know the outcome.
I guess that's the game the staff enjoyed the most last year. Whether it's an indie game or not, and whether it's a multiplatform game or not, should not matter in the choice. Only the game should, and if the staff found it the game of the year, you can't argue about it without dismissing their opinions.
That said, community choice are left in the shadow a bit too much. There was a voting with a lot of votes, and all it gets is one line per category with no mention about the game.
SM3dW instead of tlou?? Are you kdding me vgc??!
.....Anyway, i love you community for choosing Bloodborne.
Seriously. Vgchartz stop making bad decisions.
Okay, even this is getting a bit excessive now. Reminds me of when Destiny won GR's GotY, and the entire website was covered in Destiny ads for the months before and after the awards. At least I'm not seeing RL adverts here (yet?).
If you did this for the clicks then shame on you.
Before I clicked on it I literally said "it's going to be RL"
Lmao
because you could see the thumbnail or because you played Rocket league a lot and enjoyed it?
Oh... you haven't played the GOTY, man you missed out during 2015 gaming!
I must be the only person who played it for a couple of hours with my mates and felt content to never play it ever again.
My mates on the other hand can't get over it.
Real talk, how much are they paying this writers? I can understand if rocket league wins best indie, but no way it's game of the year over games like Witcher III or Bloodborne
Lmao
Well then...
My condolences dude, I think I have a 12 pack of apple juice in my bag that may placate the masses.
For what it's worth, all signs point to the writers being humans who may have opinions of their own, so I support your decision.
Unless you guys are actually lizards placed here by Psyonix!!! :-O
I have no problem at all with Rocket League winning GOTY. It's a great game. It's a brilliant example of a conceptually simple game with excellent execution. It meets that fundamental essence of what makes for a great gaming experience: easy to learn, hard to master. It gets great dev support including a whole lot of free DLC. Of the other nominees I've only played The Witcher III. And while I like The Witcher III a lot Rocket League is more fun. And why not give GOTY to a game that's a whole lot of fun packed into a nice bite sized 5 minutes. By far I prefer strong story driven games these days. But a game like Rocket league deserves to be in most gamers' libraries and it deserves at least one overall GOTY from someone, so why not VGC?
And now I see why other sites laugh at plenty of stuff on VGC. Bloodborne or Witcher 3 were perfect choices.
Good job on making a fucking joke out of these awards, VGBC. Now who could possibly take this seriously anymore?
No one. No one could possibly take this seriously. Except for scrubs.
Based on the other categorys, I expected this to go to either Rocket League of Ori and the Blind Forest. Both games won just about every category they were a nominee in.
I personally would have given it to Splatoon or Bloodborne, so I'm happy with the communitys choice.
Halo 5.... Also I can't believe Tomb Raider wasn't even considered...This whole thing is just lmao.
In 10 years no one will play Rocket League because everyone will have moved on or the servers will be shut down. Bloodborne you will be able to play it forever in your life time and will be just as awesome. No multiplayer focused game deserves goty imho
I think they picked this one just for the lulz. Good one guys!
Haha, totally called it.
Erm..... previous comments sum up my thoughts pretty well.
I see most of the comment section is unhappy about Rocket League. Personally I'm thrilled that Rocket League won, a game doesn't have to be AAA to be the best game of the year :-)
Indeed, throwing money at 20 min high res movies during "gameplay" shouldn't be what makes "Game" of the year, it should be what is the best pure game. Also regardless of anything, this is an opinion, the fact that people have a different one doesn't make this opinion wrong, just different.
That's all fine and dandy, but Rocket League has already been proven to fail. The exact same game (by the same people) released a few years back and was also free. Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket Powered Battlecars was a flop. The only reason it succeeded this time was the inclusion of online multiplayer and a PC crowd hungry for a free video game. Bloodborne had better, more intricate mechanics, a mind-boggling story, a wonderful art direction, and (regardless of what the tasteless editors here have to say) the best soundtrack of 2015. SSARPBC2 doesn't deserve this, and it's insulting to the developers on real GOTY contenders to say that car soccer is better.
I've played SSARPBC, and it doesn't play anywhere near as good as Rocket League. Not sure what you mean by "A PC crowd hungry for a free video game" because it cost 20$ on PC (and it has sold nearly 2.5 million on PC).... Furthermore it has been high on the PSN sales charts after the month were it was free with + ended, so I'm also not sure what you mean by "Rocket League has already been proven to fail". It made 50 million revenue in 6 months, on a 2 million budget. In what world is that a fail?
Bloodborne was probably a great game as well, and it is obviously the Goty of many users on this site. My and VGC's writers' Goty was Rocket League.
You can criticize opinions all you like, but you can't go and claim their wrong.
I argue that RL doesn't play anywhere near as well as the real GOTY. And I thought it was free everywhere for a month? I know it was free on PS4. If 2.5 million PC gamers spent $20 on it, then... Well, it says a lot about that community. And RL already failed as SSARPBC. Change in market and the addition of online play allowed for a mediocre game to get popular. Just like Call of Duty.
"Bloodborne was probably a great game". No, shoo. If you haven't even played the actually GOTY, then I'm not sure you really have a dog in this fight.
And I didn't say they were wrong. But oh lordy, is their opinion bad. It has become impossible to take their opinions seriously, and honestly? If there's such a thing as a wrong opinion, it's one that destroys the validity of your other opinions.
You haven't outright said that their opinion was wrong. You've just said stuff like "Bloodborne is the real Goty", "only scrubs could take this seriously" and "you haven't played the actual Goty"
I don't need to have played Bloodborne to have a favourite game of the year. Have you played every game released this year? No? Yeah, thought so. That doesn't mean you can't have an opinion on your favourite game of the year :-)
I'm not sure why you chose to stick to that "Rocket League failed" statement. It didn't. Simple as that.
Right, because their opinion is a joke.
No, but you do to say another game deserved GOTY over it, but in reality you can't properly judge that.
And that because I'm referring to the game itself, not it's sales. Rocket League is a bad game made interesting through social interaction. Just like every MMO ever.
And you're telling me you've played Ori, MGSV, Halo 5, Splatoon, Rocket League, The Witcher 3, Fallout 4, Tomb Raider, Undertale and all other goty contenders to claim the Bloodborne is the Goty 2015?
I don't intend to play Bloodborne. I've played Dark Souls, didn't like it, so I'm not going to force myself to buy a game I'm not interested in just so that you'll allow me to have an opinion.
I can make up stuff as well. "Bloodborne is a bad game made interesting because people want to prove they're hardcore. Just like every Souls game ever."
I loves RL, but I kind of look at this and cock an eyebrow.
fun = all games! characters, story, the big worlds, the great soundtracks, the gameplay, all this things... Metal Gear Solid 5 / Bloodborne / Witcher 3 >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Casual Rocket Leaque. Community's Choice - Bloodborne (23.8% of the votes) = awesome.
You can say a lot about Rocket League, but casual? Lmao
Who didn't see that one coming needs eye exam.
Yay for indies! Haven´t played the game but it seems awesome.
it really is, one of those games that takes about 20 secs to figure out how to play it, and hours to get good at it.
Lol, the salt.
I personally don't get why or how Halo 5 made this (and the X1) list
interesting? could give it a try, always underestimated Indie games but proved wrong in some cases, there are some hidden gems that are worth giving a chance
Deserved. Most playtime and the game I had most fun with in 2015.
RL got repetitive quickly for me. I do understand why some find it addictive. But I don't think this is enough. The team went 100% subjective with this one, without taking in consideration objective factors ( which is quite alright ).
What exactly are the objective factors one takes into consideration when picking a GOTY?
That's why you have "technical", narrative and voice acting awards. But games are games at their heart and it is not necessary for a game to have narrative content or world building for it to be the best game of the year. Hence ticking various content boxes is a bad method for determining GOTY. The game I enjoyed the most this year, is the best way of picking your GOTY, and it seems like the VGC crew enjoyed Rocket League the most.
WTF! ROCKET LEAGUE!
seriously?
if this game were a multiplat from the start i SERIOUSLY doubt it would even be mentioned anywhere on this list to begin with.
It was Multi-plat from the start: PC and PS4. Or does PC not count as a platform anymore?
ugh..
you know pc doesnt count when it comes to this ridiculous PS4/X1 war that is going on right now. if a game is on PC/PS4 and not on X1, its a win for the PS4 side. if a game is on the X1/PC it is a win for the X1 side.
come on, you have been here long enough to know this, i shouldnt be having to explain this to you. sony fans have treated this game as a giant tally mark for their side against the X1 side all year. again, you know this too and i shouldnt be having to explain it to you.
Lmao the writers are trash.
But that's not nearly as absurd. Despite what the LoU boxart would have you believe, it won just over half the credible GOTY awards; that 200 count is padded with tiny sites, some of which were really new and even short lived, having died since. GTAV, BioShock Infinite, and even SM3DW managed to grab multiple GOTY awards. But ROCKET LEAGUE? Over Bloodborne, Witcher 3, Metal Gear, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Fallout 4, Mario Maker? I mean...wow, come on.
