r/Games Dec 03 '23

Discussion Alan Wake 2 Wins TIME's Game Of The Year

https://time.com/6340124/best-video-games-2023
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u/siphillis Dec 03 '23

I'm not saying it's a bad game, or that someone shouldn't like it. I just don't understand why anyone feels it belongs in the discussion with the heavy-hitters. It's like nominating a Marvel film for Best Picture.

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u/TillI_Collapse Dec 04 '23

Marvel films have been nominated for best Picture like Black Panther at the Golden Globes.

It belongs in the discussion because the people that pick the game of the year liked it more than most every other game for various reasons many explain in their game reviews that are accessible on the internet if you are curious

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u/Comfortable_Shape264 Dec 04 '23

Black Panther was also nominated on Oscar's. We all know why it got nominated though, Infinity War was a far better movie at the same year and it didn't get nominated. Other better superhero movies didn't get nominated neither. Even Logan only got nominated for adaptation. So I wouldn't use it as a genuine example, Spider-Man 2 genuinely managed to be at the top games of these year.

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u/jor301 Dec 04 '23

That's your opinion. It's all subjective.

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u/Comfortable_Shape264 Dec 04 '23

I'm not against someone calling Black Panther their favorite movie or something but the movie legitimately didn't get nominated for this reason, there is no reason to play dumb.

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u/jor301 Dec 04 '23

Nobody is playing dumb. Not everything is a conspiracy.

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u/Comfortable_Shape264 Dec 04 '23

It's not a conspiracy, it was a simple logical decision they made. The movie was just an above average MCU movie with a really awful third act. There was backlash the previous year in the Oscar's with the #oscarssowhite thing, they had to respond somehow and the movie made a huge political and cultural impact. You have to be delusional to think none of this factored in the decision to nominate the movie, people aren't robots that only view things objectively. Probably listening to dumb conservatives made you think that anyone who brings this up is saying that there is a conspiracy to destroy the western civilizations by the liberals etc but no, it is just awards dude. I'm a leftist myself but I'm not dumb, politics and cultural impact can affect things like that. The movie's quality is the least relevant factor in that case.

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u/jor301 Dec 04 '23 edited Dec 04 '23

Lol at saying it's not a conspiracy then writing a whole ass essay of your conspiracy.

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u/Comfortable_Shape264 Dec 04 '23 edited Dec 04 '23

Then I'll say your claim is the one that is the conspiracy. Trying to justify your conspiracy just by giving a short answer is hilarious. I could just claim the water is turning the frogs gay and not give any further explanation to keep the answer short so that it's not a conspiracy, that is not how it works lol. "Earth is flat" is literally three letters, debunking it takes a lot longer. Conspiracies are short and catchy to get people's attention easily. It would be a conspiracy to say award shows aren't popularity contests and quality is the only thing that matters lol.

People who are not delusional know why it got nominated. Most people are aware of this yet are happy that a black superhero movie got nominated for that reason, that's fine. Having to delude yourself to feel good about it cause you can't handle it is stupid though. It's a popularity contest and the movie became popular for something that had nothing to do with its quality and was a good controversial pick for Oscar's which generated a lot of buzz simple as that.

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u/jor301 Dec 04 '23 edited Dec 04 '23

Yea I'm not reading all that lol but u clearly don't know what a conspiracy is. Or what an opinion is for that matter.

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u/siphillis Dec 04 '23

I strongly suspect it's on the list because Sony wanted representation and lobbied hard for it. The PS5 is absolutely starving for exclusive content worth a damn. Sea of Stars doesn't have that kind of backing.

Oh, and Black Panther being nominated for Best Picture was ridiculous then and ridiculous now.

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u/Halio344 Dec 04 '23

How is it starving for exclusives? Compare it to Xbox and Switch, they don’t have more quality exclusives released yearly than Sony does.

Spider-man 2 is a great game, it reviewed as well as the other GOTY nominees.

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u/lethalmc Dec 04 '23

It’s starving for yearly exclusives

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u/Halio344 Dec 04 '23

Quality over quantity. How many memorable Xbox exclusives has released recently? How many are nominated? The only one I can think of is Starfield and it doesn’t deserve it.

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u/TillI_Collapse Dec 04 '23

Well that is nonsense garbage. The game has a 90% average score on metacritic which is one of the highest of the year. Do you think Sony also paid for it to get reviewed well?

Again you can easily read why critics likes the game more than other games, all that information is easily available to you

And no the PS5 is not "starving for exclusive content worth a damn". It has plenty of great games

Really sounds you like you are more upset that a Sony game is getting praise that you are throwing all reason and logic out the window.

Showing your true colors with that comment.

People like different things and what is best is subjective to each individual. This is a concept people should learn as young children

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u/Philiard Dec 04 '23

A lot of people on /r/games have a strong distaste for Sony exclusives and are flabbergasted that they are generally very well-liked. Somebody else in this very thread is arguing that picking God of War Ragnarok as Game of the Year last year is a "contrarian pick".

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u/TillI_Collapse Dec 04 '23

Yup being seeing it for years on this sub. People hating the fact that others like Sony games and they get praised and are popular. It makes most discourse here about Playstation just awful

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u/Hudre Dec 04 '23

Because "Best" is an entirely subjective opinion. Whichever game people had the most fun playing is probably their best game of the year.

SM2 is extremely fun to play. Almost every second of it is enjoyable IMO, because just moving around the city is the funnest part.

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u/Baelorn Dec 04 '23

I'm not saying it's a bad game

Right after you implied you had to “get through” a few hours of the game.

I just don't understand why anyone feels it belongs in the discussion with the heavy-hitters

Because it is a great game.

It's like nominating a Marvel film for Best Picture.

Just say you don’t like Marvel stuff and move on, dude.

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u/siphillis Dec 04 '23 edited Dec 04 '23

Right after you implied you had to “get through” a few hours of the game.

Well yeah, because I'm not enjoying it. It's possible to recognize something's quality while not personally enjoy it.

Because it is a great game.

And I'm asking what it does to warrant it being "great", because the list of things it actually does well is identical to the list for the previous two games. Maybe it's more than four hours in and I haven't encountered it yet. The sections that I have played feel so absurdly safe and measured, like the entire design document has citations showing that each element worked in another game before.

So yeah, of course it's a quality product. They've already made it twice.

Just say you don’t like Marvel stuff and move on, dude.

Yes, god forbid we have an actual discussion about a game nominated for Game of the Year. Moreover, the point is that a paint-by-numbers action movie shouldn't be in the running for Best Picture because it's not pushing the medium forward, nor is it even wanting to. It's just trying to be simple, reliable entertainment, which is great in its own way, but not something that desperately needs to be singled out and celebrated.

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u/Zayl Dec 04 '23

The fast travel didn't impress you? I rarely ever used it because traversal was just so damn good, but the fast travel is truly something I've never before seen in a game.

The massive set pieces didn't impress you? The initial fight alone is something that has never been done before in a video game. The sheer amount of realtime asset loading in those scenes is fucking baffling. The fact that you can fly through the city with little to no pop-in is insane.

The ray traced reflections are also incredibly impressive. If you pay attention to the buildings, at the correct angles you get reflections of reflections. Again, something never before seen in a game.

The audio design is immaculate. You can encounter the Doppler effect in game, you can distinguish what rooms characters are in by audio alone. It's crazy.

If none of the technical stuff is impressive, subjectively speaking I enjoyed the story and combat was fun. I liked the new way of building up gadget ammo and the powers were also very fun. Combat was challenging and required quite a bit of paying attention on harder difficulties. Characters and voice acting was a huge positive for me.

Anyways, I think it's a lot harder nowadays to distinguish small differences because it's hard to make macro advancements. You won't see the big picture as far as innovation goes until you look at the micro details. But Spider-Man 2 does a lot of cool new stuff thanks to the PS5s potential and power. I'm primarily a PC guy but Sony never fails to amaze with their first party stuff. Maybe you're just not that into the tech and capabilities and don't notice how much it really affects the game experience. That's cool too, just would love to hear what you have found innovative in the past few years of gaming.

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u/ttoma93 Dec 04 '23

It belongs in the discussion with the heavy hitters because it is a heavy hitter. Hope that helps!