Nice to see Hannibal win best TV show. I was a tad worried when I saw the list of nominees since I really thought it might go to a super hero show since (not that they're bad, I'm loving The Flash, but they don't really compare to the quality of other stuff from this year IMO) this site does seem to adore everything super hero (not that that's necessarily a bad thing either). Still, despite all the other shows I would have nominated over some of the ones on this list, Hannibal was by far my favourite. There's just nothing else like it.

Winter Soldier winning was a little weird for me. The only thing that set it apart from your generic spy thriller for me was that it was using recognizable characters that many of us have come to enjoy. To the movie's credit, this was the first time I've actually really like the Captain's character in the MCU. I just feel like there were many more movies that came out this year which were far better and if a superhero movie was going to be picked Guardians should have been it in a heartbeat. Still, just my opinion. I know a lot of people loved the movie.

For games, I have only just started Inquisition so I can't say if it's my GOTY yet. It's quite good, but so far, I'm liking Mordor a bit more. Like I said though, I've only just started (5 hours in) so that could easily change.

RedDeadFred:
Nice to see Hannibal win best TV show. I was a tad worried when I saw the list of nominees since I really thought it might go to a super hero show since (not that they're bad, I'm loving The Flash, but they don't really compare to the quality of other stuff from this year IMO) this site does seem to adore everything super hero (not that that's necessarily a bad thing either). Still, despite all the other shows I would have nominated over some of the ones on this list, Hannibal was by far my favourite. There's just nothing else like it.

Winter Soldier winning was a little weird for me. The only thing that set it apart from your generic spy thriller for me was that it was using recognizable characters that many of us have come to enjoy. To the movie's credit, this was the first time I've actually really like the Captain's character in the MCU. I just feel like there were many more movies that came out this year which were far better and if a superhero movie was going to be picked Guardians should have been it in a heartbeat. Still, just my opinion. I know a lot of people loved the movie.

For games, I have only just started Inquisition so I can't say if it's my GOTY yet. It's quite good, but so far, I'm liking Mordor a bit more. Like I said though, I've only just started (5 hours in) so that could easily change.

The Flash is just embarrassing. And I say that as someone who loves both superheroes and tv. Hannibal is fantastic though, and the only thing I agree with on this list.

Dragon Age: Inq...GOTY? Are you fucking kidding me? Its an MMO! Without the MMO! Fetch quests all over the place, endless loadtimes, boring characters, WAY too much gathering of materials for complete bullshit "progress", yay. A useless garden for my fort. Endless streams of crappy gear...I havent seen this much boring inventory since ME1, and in ME1 you at least could melt down stuff to use for actually useful things. Right? The only thing I can think of that is more disappointing than DA:I this year must be Watch Dogs, and the only reason I'm not more disappointed in that is that I expect everything Ubisoft delivers on the triple A scene to be utter shit.

I LOVE rpgs...and I cant even MAKE myself continue playing DA:I, its that boring.

And while Cap 2 was completely awesome, it really cant beat Guardians. It cant.

This list is completely nuts. I'd expect this stuff from IGN. Just awful.

DA:I as Game of the Year really shows the site has lost any touch it ever had with gaming. It's the kind of game someone who's not a gamer would look at (and by look at the game, I actually mean look at the game box), check the hype levels and say "yeah, this has to be GOTY, right?". Hell, I figured it would take GOTY, probably deservedly so... until I played it. It's an MMO that's been stripped of any fun the MMO comes with. It has all the grind, all the pointlessness of side quests and all the shitty combat mechanics (by which I mean "barely any"), but trapped in a linear world without anyone to actually play with. The story is hard to get into, because to play the game, you spend hours upon hours of time doing meaningless fetch/kill/escort side quests.

And yes, it has BioWare dialogue, but so does Star Wars: The Old Republic and I don't see anyone singing praises of that game either. In fact, SWTOR was a better single-player game than DA:I is (just think of how sad a sentence that is). I'm not saying that out of some outrage or anything, I liked MMOs before and SWTOR was the last thing I played of them before I got burnt out - but it was still fun. The combat was better (that alone raises red flags when comparing an MMO to what's supposed to be a single-player game), there was more story and dialogue and the side quests were at least mildly amusing and, unlike DA:I, they more often made sense in scope of the game's story. You also had choices even on side quests, while DA:I actually has the most typical MMO quest system.

There's just nothing good about that game. Unless your thought process is "jeez, I'd sure like to play an MMO, if only I didn't have to play it with other people" (well, granted, Yahtzee might entertain such a thought process...), there is no reason you should play this game over any respectable MMO on the market.

So Far Cry 4 was the game of the year? Yeah that sounds right. Having played it it's Far Cry 3 with more varied environments so it improved on something that was already amazing.

Captcha: u jelly?
Sounds like captcha is talking to the runners up.

Destiny gets a spot here, but not Titanfall? Even though both of them are always-online? Sure, Destiny has a campaign, but Titanfall can be far more fun.

Wow... Dragon Age: Inquisition best RPG over the likes of Wasteland 2 and Divinity: Original Sin.

Also, why the hell is Destiny even on the FPS list? By all accounts it's a grindy, samey, half-broken mess. Sure, it was a relatively slow year for FPS, but surely, Destiny doesn't belong here. What abount Shadow Warrior? Titanfall?

One of the best years for gaming in recent history with shining examples of games across most genres, like Divinity Original Sin, an RPG that lets you actually freaking roleplay by giving you insane freedom mixed with a very interesting combat system (again, defined by great freedom of choice and diversity), some interesting characters and scenarios (sure, not as good as BioWare stuff) and one of the more interesting non-linear experiences since Planescape:Torment.

Divinity Original Sin was a game I spent the first 3-4 hours running around a shitty little fishing village solving a murder mystery. And I loved every second of it. By comparison, I got bored after the first 2 hours of running around the Hinterlands in DA:I. Boring and limited combat system, barely any tactical depth and the grindy, mmo-ish open world just kills what otherwise seems like one of the more interesting DA titles in terms of characters and story. BioWare RPGs have always been carried by their story and characters, with gameplay barely good enough to not get in the way (too much). Inquisition is the first I just can't be bothered to play any more. I had more fun playing Castle Doombad this year. Hell, I had more fun playing Dragon Age 2, which I finished.

As for Wasteland 2... I can't remember the last time I spent 2 days doing literally nothing but eating, sleeping and playing the same game. I would give this game RPG of the decade, not year. If you like RPGs and the original Fallout games in particular (1&2) you owe it to yourself to play Wasteland 2.

I understand that any such list will come with a heavy personal bias and what is fun for one person isn't necessarily fun for another.. but as discerning consumers of our medium, I just can't see why those games would win.

And if this is the pinnacle of AAA gaming... thank fucking god for indies and Kickstarter...

Glad to see DA:I win this one, it's an amazing game. Not a perfect one, but the characters, the storytelling and the epic scope make up for the slight annoyances. Sure, it's a bit grindy at times, but it's not too terrible and most of the grinding is optional. You don't HAVE to do any of that, it's just there for people who do like it. Only thing I'd really change is making the combat more like Origins, but at least it's better than DA2...

Also, I don't really understand why people are so stoked about Divinity. I got 4 hours into that game before being bored out of my skull with the utter lack of ANYTHING even remotely interesting. For god's sake, the only thing that caught my interest was a talking clam! Maybe it gets better further in, but if I'm several hours in and you've shown me hardly anything remotely intriguing, I'm out. And Wasteland 2 is just too broken and poorly designed mechanically to be enjoyable for me. Also, ugly as sin. And by that I don't mean the graphical fidelity, it's visual design is just crap.

But then again, maybe I just have weird tastes...

The feeling when actual RPG's don't even make it on the list. *smh*

Seeing Wasteland 2 and Divinity Original Sin snubbed makes me lose faith in humanity even more than I already have.

The Goat Tsar:
Awww...Wolfenstein didn't win best shooter? Geez it seems like I'm the only one who played that game. Well, one other guy here has as well. He'll show up.

I doubt you are talking about me but yeah, Wolfenstein not getting even best shooter is just terrible.

I bet Far Cry 4 is fun and all, I did like 3 after all but even I thought 3 was already too samey, didnt managed to finish the 2 island. 4 just seems more of the same.

Wolfenstein though is just on a whole different level, it mixed the old-school with the modern so well, it had some of the best characters this year (there isnt a single bad character in that game) and had great production values.

Far Cry 4 just feels like the safe game in my opinion.

Nice choices for GOTY, DA was definitely my favorite and I would have also been ok with Isolation or Mordor as well, solid games all around.

Jandau:
Also, I don't really understand why people are so stoked about Divinity. I got 4 hours into that game before being bored out of my skull with the utter lack of ANYTHING even remotely interesting. For god's sake, the only thing that caught my interest was a talking clam! Maybe it gets better further in, but if I'm several hours in and you've shown me hardly anything remotely intriguing, I'm out.

I felt the same way, I made it to the first town, explored around and did some quests and I just felt no connection at all to the world or the characters, the dialogue was just... lol I don't know how people can take it seriously. I will eventually go back and finish the game because I hate leaving games unfinished, but it definitely wasn't doing much for me at the time.

Dragon Age Inquisition GOTY... yup, "shit storm abrewin'", yadda yadda.
This year wasn't really that good honestly, but at least we got Dark Souls 2 (all things said and done, my GOTY), Alien Isolation, wich was definitely pretty awesome and Shadow of Mordor, wich isn't my cup of tea, but at least it spawned some great stories and blogs. Happy 2015! :D

The Goat Tsar:
Awww...Wolfenstein didn't win best shooter? Geez it seems like I'm the only one who played that game. Well, one other guy here has as well. He'll show up.

Hi! :)
I guess that people are more interested on the open world FPS design more than the retro balls-to-the-wall action that TNO delivered.

I would've given movie of the year to Interstellar. The Winter Soldier was fine, but I didn't see anything particularly excellent about it. Interstellar, while tripping up occasionally, reached farther and succeeded in more ways than just being a decent comic book movie. Even within the realm of Marvel movies, Guardians of the Galaxy is the clear winner between the two. Captain America remains THE most boring character they've put on screen, so I spend about two-thirds of the movie wishing the fish-out-of-water would just get the fuck out of the way so we can have a Black Widow/Nick Fury movie that would kick so much more ass.

Bayonetta 2 not even being nominated for Best Action Game is a sin of the highest caliber. What kind of gaming publication sees Watch Dogs as a better action game than Bayonetta 2?

Calling Hearthstone a strategy game is stretching it somewhat. What happened to Beyond Earth? If Hearthstone belongs in the genre you'd be hard pressed to say that Civ doesn't.

Dragon Age Inquisition? bah. Such a disappointment. I guess I'm glad to hear the franchise has a strong future though. I absolute LOVE the first 2 games and so I should be happy even though I feel like my money was wasted.

Winter Soldier...really?
I had the good fortune of watching this movie at a friends house in the last month. It's officially the one and only 2014 movie I've seen. It was good. A solid popcorn flick. That's it. I have a hard time believing that the movie industry has sunk so low to say that this was it's shining moment for an entire year. It's not even the fact that it's a blockbuster either...I'm not a movie snob. Heck, action flicks like Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park would make for worthy titles. They 'felt' special at their prime and left a lasting impression on their viewers even early on. Winter Soldier feels like I'm watching a fun enjoyable movie. I've already forgotten 80% of what happened in it and I actually like Marvel flicks.
Sad year for movies.

I will say that seeing Hearthstone win was actually unexpected. This game is truly deserving of praise and feels like it's opened up a genre to people who have previously never really experienced it. I could see Hearthstone being a gateway to other CCG's just like how Rock Band introduced plenty of people to real instruments. Good call. Probably not the most popular choice given the competition but I agree.

WouldYouKindly:
Calling Hearthstone a strategy game is stretching it somewhat. What happened to Beyond Earth? If Hearthstone belongs in the genre you'd be hard pressed to say that Civ doesn't.

I think a lot of people found Beyond Earth quite disappointing -myself included. IMO, it felt like a watered down Civ 5 with less personality (taking out the recognizable leaders, troops, locations, and wonders just makes the game feel a little empty to me) and more restrictive maps. I played one game of it and found myself just wanting to play Civ 5 instead. I'd say I regret my purchase of it, but it was gifted to me.

Hearthstone does have quite a lot of strategy to it. Yes, there's a lot of luck as well, but that's pretty much a given with card games. You have to know how to play against the different deck types, you have to be prepared to play around certain things, weigh the benefits of certain moves, and build decks to fit the meta that's around your rank on ladder. Obviously it doesn't have as much depth as many other strategy games, but it does everything it wants to do very well. Best of all, it is in fact totally possible to do well while going F2P.

There is a lot I disagree with on this list, but I think most of it has been said already. However, there is one thing people are glossing over.

Aliens: Isolation was nominated for "Best Action/Adventure Game".

You had to use a survival horror game with a focus on stealth to pad out Action/Adventure? Even though you only had 3 nominations per genre?

These GOTY awards aren't bad because you picked the wrong winners. It was bad because the entire way it was setup is just wrong.

I fully understand why DAI inquisition won best RPG. And it makes me very, very, sad.
I also fully understand why The Binding of Isaac: rebirth wasn't even nominated, which making me even sadder.

And calling dragon age combat exciting is a severe case of premature tactical ejaculation. If you get excited that easily you will never have the endurance to get to the good stuff. Hold your horses, Escapist, hold your horses.

Best rpg nomination Bravely Default..... WHAT THE HELL

That game was terrible in every sense.

The gameplay was boring and INCREDIBLY grindy, heck even the boss fights were boring.

The story was awful in every way imaginable, NO ONE was likely, everyone you play as has the depth of a childs wading pool and the big evil "insert nation here"... well http://www.awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=082514, yes that bad.

In the end it was a boring and unispired game, I CANNOT understand why anyone ever stood up for this game.

Can someone tell me why anyone liked this game? is it nostalgia?

sorry but as great as Winter Soldier is, GotG was greater. WS easily 2nd place though.

LOL... With such a shitty nomination list to start with, it's no wonder such an subpar game as DA:I did win... There are few games on that list that really have the ability on all of their released platforms to 'catch' the player... DA:I absolutely does not, not matter how blind Tito and other game journalists remain to the pure and utter facts.

Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition

what?

no. I'm not even sure why it's a category to begin with, there can't be much innovation in table top games.

StriderShinryu:
Nice to see the site being called out for picking DA:I as it's game of the year, especially considering DA:I just won the reader's choice tournament too. Not only have all the staff been bought out but the readers have too? *gasps* I really wonder when EA is going to send me my cheque...

It's beautiful, isn't it?

ONLY MY TASTES MATTER EVRYTHING ELSE IS WRONG BLRBLRBLRLRBBBBBLR

Alien Isolation is Action/Adventure? It's a fucking horror game. Mostly the Amnesia-style horror game where you spend most of the time running away from the monster. There's no action-adventure in that at all! And, again, Bayonetta 2 wasn't even nominated for this category (or any category) when it was one of the best games of the year. I won't fault Mordor for winning, but I still think it didn't deserve it as the only worthwhile feature was the nemesis system, which is really the only distraction from the generic revenge-story being thrown in our faces and the Batman-Arkham-style combat. Yeah, it pulls all those off well, but I wouldn't say enough to justify "Action Game of the Year".

MC1980:
Divinity Original Sin, Shadowrun Dragonfall and Wasteland 2 didn't even get a damn nomination for best RPG? Now that's just bullshit, no way around it. Atleast Barely Default was mentioned. And for shooters no Titanfall or Advanced Warfare? I know it's cool to shit on CoD but this one was like the best one since 4 (not to mention god awful ones like MW3 got awards for no reason) and Titanfall, as underwhelming as it was for some, is still a really good FPS (and talking about underwhelming, Destiny? Fucking Destiny? Really?).

But the most insulting in this whole lineup is the action part. The word action by this point is synonymous with Platinum Games, and their big game this year was Bayonetta 2, action game extravaganza, character action galore and it didn't even get a mention? That category should always be won by the Platinum game released that year. Shame on y'all, atleast pad out your list of nominees with a few more worthy titles.

Also casual card game nominated as a strategy game and DAI as GOTY is just wrong. Not even worth discussing.

How is DA:I getting GOTY here wrong? The Escapist community voted and more of the community liked DA:I. Just because you dislike the result doesn't make it wrong. Your opinion isn't any more or less important than the opinions of the people who voted for it.

NRVNQSR86:
LOL... With such a shitty nomination list to start with, it's no wonder such an subpar game as DA:I did win... There are few games on that list that really have the ability on all of their released platforms to 'catch' the player... DA:I absolutely does not, not matter how blind Tito and other game journalists remain to the pure and utter facts.

DA:I also won GOTY of the year from the Reader's Choice Awards that was held here recently. It won by a good margin too. I would have to disagree with you and say that it does have the ability to catch the player.

Bat Vader:

MC1980:
Divinity Original Sin, Shadowrun Dragonfall and Wasteland 2 didn't even get a damn nomination for best RPG? Now that's just bullshit, no way around it. Atleast Barely Default was mentioned. And for shooters no Titanfall or Advanced Warfare? I know it's cool to shit on CoD but this one was like the best one since 4 (not to mention god awful ones like MW3 got awards for no reason) and Titanfall, as underwhelming as it was for some, is still a really good FPS (and talking about underwhelming, Destiny? Fucking Destiny? Really?).

But the most insulting in this whole lineup is the action part. The word action by this point is synonymous with Platinum Games, and their big game this year was Bayonetta 2, action game extravaganza, character action galore and it didn't even get a mention? That category should always be won by the Platinum game released that year. Shame on y'all, atleast pad out your list of nominees with a few more worthy titles.

Also casual card game nominated as a strategy game and DAI as GOTY is just wrong. Not even worth discussing.

How is DA:I getting GOTY here wrong? The Escapist community voted and more of the community liked DA:I. Just because you dislike the result doesn't make it wrong. Your opinion isn't any more or less important than the opinions of the people who voted for it.

It is not wrong.
But it sure is disappointing. Dragon Age Inquisition is a dumb game: great graphics and good dialogue surrounded by technical problems, bloated MMO design, poor PC interface and a bare-bones combat system. It can be mindless fun and it sure is for a lot of people, but in the past, games had to have much more substance to be considered Game of The Year.

Divinity and Wasteland do not have the production values but are way more consistent in their design, although they are much harder to get into.

A most fair prize for Dragon Age Inquisition would be (and I am not even being sarcastic here) Best Casual Game of The Year: anyone that can understand English can play it and have some dumb fun - nothing wrong with that, I like it on that light.

But saying it is more than that is sad because it shows that the audience standards are very low nowadays.