@ Bethesda marketing - BE VERY CAREFUL with the launch of TES 6, avoid the release year of Cyberpunk 2077 at all costs! The "small" eurpoean studio came into your freaking niche and taught you how to make an open world rpg, Jesus Christ! Maybe hire some of their writers, or other competent writers.

Haven't played Witcher 3 yet, is it actually open world, I'd heard it was still a series of linked areas?

It's linked areas, but they are huge, open areas.

http://i.imgur.com/0bThhDB.jpg

Witcher 3 undoubtedly deserved the award. I know a lot of people here are trying to write it off, saying the awards don't matter, but they do. They really do. Witcher 3 is just a better game. Even though I personally prefer Fallout 4 over it, I still recognize that Witcher 3 is a more polish and better put together experience.

Fallout 4 launched with a myriad of issues that still haven't been fixed. Horrible framerates on rigs that should run the game without issue. Stuttering problems, and crashing. Slow texture loading/texture pop-in. This is the same engine as Skyrim, and it has so many of the same issues. Like, recently I've been experiencing that bug where it takes your character 10 seconds to switch weapons. I had the EXACT same issue in Skyrim. Bethesda couldn't get that sorted out in the past 4 years? We still don't have a FoV slider, so I guess we gotta mess with the ini files again. Bethesda doesn't want to support any resolution besides 16:9 and 16:10, so if you have some "exotic" resolution like 5:4 you need to install a mod. You can't even turn off V-sync without breaking the game.

Witcher 3 did have a few issues on launch, but CDPR actually put in the effort to patch their game. They released three patches in the first month of release, not counting the launch patch. Almost a month into Fallout 4, and Bethesda hasn't released any patches. Look back at Skyrim, Fallout 3, Oblivion, and Morrowind, and you'll see that Bethesda has no issues ceasing development on a game while it still has a [censored]load of bugs. Thank god the modding community actually fixes their games.

On top of the great writing, and sort of pretty good gameplay, Witcher 3 looked pretty amazing. I mean, it looks better than Fallout 4, and it also performs better than Fallout 4 because CDPR actually attempted to optimize their game. Bethesda just doesn't give a [censored].

I spent about 80 hours playing the Witcher 3, and I really have no complaints. It felt like a complete and polished game. CDPR had a vision and they executed it near perfectly. I still prefer Fallout 4 because I love the "Bethesda RPG", but I've got a laundry list of complaints after 100 hours of gameplay. Bethesda needs a new engine, and they need to stop releasing buggy, half done games.

sometimes i wonder if those game journalist are playing the same games as we do

obvious not the same like me i hate the witcher 3 , it is stupid makes no sense and is pretty boring in my opinion and certainly is NOT a open world rpg , it is a story driven liner hack and slash and do not get me started on the main protagonist who is in my opinion a psycopathic narcistic freak and pretty stupid aswell

i stopped taking game reviews seriously a long time ago since in most cases they only present the personal views of one person who in most cases does not play those games because he is a fan of that or that game franchise

Such awards are partly subjective but also follow some objective criteria that professionals from the game industry and magazines developed. Wether the criteria and the awards are important for you personally is a whole different question. Braveheart f.e. won 5 oskars while for me being one of the worst movies with a historical theme ever. Some game features are exiting for professionals but annoy me, like voice-acting. So, who cares? Make your own decisions based on your feelings.

I think The Witcher 3 deserved the award, from what I read about it. I don't play Witcher games and will never play them even if they paid me for because I don't like to be the witcher, I like to create my own appearance. If a first person RPG would win the award and would be the only game released in the whole year I would never play it because I don't like playing in first person. And so on.

I was not very interested in the Fallout series before and I'm really surprised that Fallout 4 got me. The last game I was similarly affected from was Morrowind. I would still prefer Skyrim over Fallout 4 (in a heavily modded form), mainly because of the better item slot policy (different leg slots but no feet slot? - omg) but Fallout 4 is the game of the year for me.

Honestly, if this game only strived to win GOTY, I probably wouldn't like it as much.

Bethesda made what they wanted to make, and I will never hold that against them. People who balk at FO4, simply because it didn't win a GOTY award from a specific outlet or two can stuff it. I don't want them in the fandom anyways.

I have far more respect for a company that tries something different, that people might hate, because its something they wanted to do, then the companies who shell out carbon copies year after year, for the sake of making a dollar.

The very fact that Fallout 4 released very late this year, and still was immediately put up as candidate for Game of the Year is testament enough that it was a huge success and BGS will stay the course, continuing with their iterative process.

So what if Fallout 4 didn't win any Game of the Year awards? If anything, the number of sales tell a game company the story way more than some random subjective award that only serve to rile up [censored] and haters.

The only thing that matters to me, it is my game of the year. (with Witcher a close runner up)

You may not like TW3 for several personal reasons, but you sure need to recognize what a great game it is. I never saw a game so beatiful run so smothly, tw3 is, at least, a technical marvel. It has a great story, a good enough combat, an addicting card game, deep NPCs, great quests lines...Well deserved award.

FO4 is a great game too, only is not in a good shape yet. Given more six months, with patches and mods, and will become a better game than TW3.

And of course awards are important, they help sales, they sometimes are conditions to the companies pay a bonus to their employees, some of them are result of votes of fans and other devs (being that way a prove of recognition). Saying that GOTY awards doesnt matter is denying the way our society works. Again, you can disagree, like people hate consumism, but its part of the way we live right now.

its not a better game to me cause i'm not into fantasy midevil type of games, so its subjective, midevil fantasy games are so numerous its not even funny, and the witcher isn't all that great, it won because of its graphics mainly, it doesn't matter that it won game of the year, in what way? and there's other game of the years anyway so we'll see how things pan out

Fallout 4 really isn't anything different though. It's more of the same, a new iteration of what Bethesda has been doing since Morrowind. On paper it isn't all that different from Fallout 3, or Skyrim even. Same exact engine too.

If Fallout 4 had actually launched as an optimized and bug free game, it would have been looked on much more favorably by critics and fans alike. But Bethesda, Bethesda never changes.

fyi, there is no such thing as a bug free game... or any software for that matter

I agree that Witcher 3 deserved it, but I have and will continue to play Fallout 4 a lot more. Witcher 3 doesn't have as much replayability, and after I beat the main story I was too high level to go back and do all the quests and activities I missed without it being too easy. People complain about the level scaling in Bethesda games but it does have advantages over no scaling at all like what Witcher 3 has.

In terms of story, writing, depth, and optimization, Witcher 3 definitely blows Fallout 4 out of the water though. But because of its completely fixed protagonist and lack of moddability, it won't be the game people will put hundreds of hours into over the next few years.

Well franchises like a lot of the EA sports ones,or the call of duties routinely reach mega sales.Would you say they are innovative,great games?I wouldn't.They come out yearly,reskinned offerings of the previous years.I think these sales can in no way reflect a games greatness.

There are great indie games and niche titles,rich well made games with little of the marketing budget these yearly hyped releases get that blow these corporate mega hits out of the water in gameplay terms.

I'm glad tw3 got it,not just from a gameplay perspective(i loved that game,it was incredibly well crafted with a rich world) but also because their devs put a lot of passion and care into that game and also obviously by their communication are extremely grateful to their fans and don't see them as a buncha cash cows,unlike most of the larger gaming companies.CDPR deserve all the good press and free advertising they get from all of this.They certainly need it a lot more than bethesda do.

For the record,i'm not putting Bethesda into the same bracket i'd put EA,Activision or Ubisoft into,i still enjoy Bethesda games a lot and they do still deliver great products,but i do recognize that with every release there is a stripping away of things that made me fall in love with their games in the first place,and imo fallout 4 didn't do nearly enough to get my game of the year.

Not vindicated. Rather sad.

But exactly, they should go back to the drawing board to see what went wrong indeed.

Maybe, it's the first Bethesda rpg that didn't win because they kinda neglected the "RP" part in the "RPG".

Have not read many reviews, have you?

The number of their first week sales is mostly because of the franchise name. Their long term sales and the sales of their next title will be affected alright

Its like going to a Jessica Jones board and trying to point that series many issues.

When Bethesda took this last turn (approach handled for consoles) it made clear what matters to them is revenue. We have seen companies solding themselves for money before (*cough* Blizzard *cough*) and its not pretty or ends well, Still there were people that liked Diablo 3 at launch, same case here. Point being that you can never displease everyone. Sadly, too many people only notice the boat going down after its underwater.

For a Besthesda game FO4 falls short (it should/could have been so much more), its a bit surprising, but points the new direction the company has aimed to. Best of luck to them.

EDIT: In before moderatos (again?) close the topic for whatever reason after it reaches a few pages, cause acknowledging the truth hurts (same thing Blizzard did in their forums too, also didnt work well for them).

I dont quite understand why people say Bethesda doesn't listen to the community... Why? Because they didn't implement something you personally wanted? Because they dont respond on a forum like this (honestly, i think they monitor their own forum).

The first thing I noticed with fallout 4 compared to 3 was the vast amount of popular mods that has been "implemented" in FO4. From small mods to big mods. Fallout 4 got its faults but overall I'm impressed and I think they've listened.

When some time has passed and patches/DLC/mods have been released i have no doubt FO4 will be my game of the year.

This is sad, Bethesda being officially a shadow of its former self. Skyrim won dozens awards like this, they should be wondering why.

reviews are not always an indication of quality, as they are ALMOST ALWAYS biased or trying to appeal to popular opinion.. heck, back when Star Wars Episode 1 was launched, we had magazines that said it was the best thing to happen to the franchise and that Jar Jars character was "a refreshing change from the series' status quo"

well, post apocalyptic games don't have quite as much universal appeal as Fantasy titles, so that may be a contributing factor..

Rrrright, the average score of dozens of reviews and the cons mentioned in almost every review are "biased". Have you thought the possibility of, perhaps, *YOU* being biased? Just saying, hahah.

Wow, that's a great excuse, the only problem is the dialogue and lack of options regarding the story don't have to do anything with the game world setting.

I agree. Opinions and preference are fine but some people here seem to be looking for whatever reason to put it down just to downplay its sucess by any means. It's kinda hillarious actually because more than likely, the same people would be singing a completely different tune if Fallout won something.

"it's good only because of graphics/six scenes/it was paid!" - yeah you wish.

TW3 won, so what? Put on your big boy pants and accept it. Bethesda still sold millions so it's not like its (and its formula) going anywhere anytime soon.

In your opinion, none of gamesass games deserved a GotY. Yet, some of those awards were handed out due to popular vote by gamers!

I′m on the same boat with the awards thing and anyone using salesfigure to gauge whether a game is good or not should be reminded of the X-Rebirth debacle. It was buggy as can be and was generally disliked by its community.

But whether or not FO4 is a good sequel and RPG is again subjective.

Just because someone thinks its a failure on Beths part, doesn′t mean he′s a purist.

That has actually been answered by someone else, but I say it again nonetheless.

This is a beta patch. Disabling any and all mods is imperative to bugtesting. You don′t want anything interfering. I installed a mod that led to my game frequently CTDing. Now I know that this happened due to some mod, but how many users will not know that?

Especially if the comments section of said mod doesn′t hint at the possibility of it leading to CTDs.

I remember during the Golden Joystick Awards, Life is Strange fans called the entire thing rigged and complained every time they lost, specially during the Ultimate Game of the Year Award which was given to The Witcher 3. What you said is exactly what these fans said was the only reason LiS lost, "Of course they were going to give it to The Witcher 3, it has boobs and six, it's a game for horny nerdy virgins! Life is Strange deserved to win!"