DAILY MANIFESTO

2010 GR Awards: Best RPG

Posted on Wednesday, December 22 @ 11:58:07 Eastern by Kevin_Dermody

Post-apocalyptic scenarios have always been an awesome part of our culture, but there've been very few immersive games that fill the role of letting us play Mad Max on demand. While the initial Fallout game did a fair job of painting the picture, it was limited largely by the technology of the time and didn't quite fulfill the "vast desolate expanses" requirement that any good post-apoc must have.

Bethesda, I'd like to thank you, for allowing - nay, encouraging me to act like a weird old hermit in the desert with a rifle. While Fallout: New Vegas should be praised for a wide variety of accomplishments, it seems only appropriate that it won the award for Best RPG; when playing New Vegas, I am playing a role and find myself just as excited to explore the desolate wastelands as anything else. Between the wonderful music, the expansive territories, and the fascinating (if sometimes weird) characters, I've never felt like I was playing a role as much as I did in New Vegas.

Runners-Up: DeathSpank, Dragon Quest IX, Fable III, Mass Effect 2

[Return To 2010 GR Awards Feature]

Comments

boba1701
Joined: Mar 2009

Posted: Dec 22nd, 2010 at 1:12 pm
Someone needs to call a Code:ADAM for GR's credibility! Bad enough for ME2 to lose out to a complete re-hash of an admittedly great game, but to list it as runner up AFTER DeathSpank and Fable III? Seriously?!

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shandog137
Joined: Mar 2007

Posted: Dec 22nd, 2010 at 1:18 pm
This is a tough pill to swallow. The number of glitches regardless of the size and depth of the game was almost a game killer for me. Hard reset...hard reset...hard reset. It really should not have gotten GoY

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boba1701
Joined: Mar 2009

Posted: Dec 22nd, 2010 at 1:26 pm
I hear you Shandog, and I love how the article mentions complete freedom. Well I got the disappearing companion glitch which prevented me from following half the faction paths (due to having to meet someone by myself). Where was my freedom when I had to force my awesomely evil character to side with NPR?

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KevinS
Joined: Dec 2008

Posted: Dec 22nd, 2010 at 1:27 pm
The runner's up are recorded in alphabetical order, not in the order they were rated in.

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boba1701
Joined: Mar 2009

Posted: Dec 22nd, 2010 at 1:27 pm
haha, meant NCR

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danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Dec 22nd, 2010 at 2:39 pm
I haven't played new vegas yet, so I can't speak to whether one is better than the other, but I know ME2 could also find its way into the action game category with all the changes in there.

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TurinAlexander
Joined: Sep 2006

Posted: Dec 22nd, 2010 at 5:11 pm
ME2 was a good game, but it's not really a good choice for RPG of the year. It was hardly an RPG at all. The only real choices you get are on skill layouts and whether or not you want to be a bad ass with a heart of gold or a good guy with a heart of gold. It does get points for it's cinematic game play though.

The first ten hours of F:NV has more depth than all of ME1 and ME2 combined.

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Ivory_Soul
Joined: Nov 2005

Posted: Dec 22nd, 2010 at 6:07 pm
I agree completely. New Vegas won for my RPG GotY awards too. It just felt like it stuck to the true RPG elements, and ME2 felt more like a third person shooter this year and was light on the RPG side.

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boba1701
Joined: Mar 2009

Posted: Dec 22nd, 2010 at 8:05 pm
TurinAlexander, you obviously never played ME2 or if you did only played a little bit. My second Shephard was a win-at-all-costs soldier of fortune who didn't give a crap who died on her team as long as she secured Humanity's future. Believe me she did not have a heart of gold, much less a heart.

I am so sick of people complaining that ME2 isn't a "true" RPG as if there was a strict definition. If spending hours on end sorting through a belaboring inventory system is your thing, than fine, but that's not what makes an RPG.

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TurinAlexander
Joined: Sep 2006

Posted: Dec 22nd, 2010 at 10:29 pm
It's cute when people pull out the old "you must not have played it" crap. I played it to the end, won the loyalty of all of my crew, finished every mission and side quest and saved my entire crew at the end. It was fun, but it wasn't deep. A true RPG (tehe) needs to be massive and immersive and let me do damn near anything I want to do when I want to do it. Something that can't be said of ME2.

Also, that godawful boring mining minigame by itself is enough to knock it out of the running in my eyes. I don't know what the hell the devs were thinking when they came up with that mess.

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boba1701
Joined: Mar 2009

Posted: Dec 23rd, 2010 at 12:35 am
Really TA, coz I think it's cute when people whine about a minigame that is 100 percent optional right after claiming that the game doesn't give you any choices on how to play.

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Nick_Tan
Joined: Jul 2006

Posted: Dec 23rd, 2010 at 10:12 am
I was actually torn between ME2 and New Vegas. I gave both games an A-, and now, they are just about tied. A lot of the glitches in New Vegas have been patched, and so has parts of Mass Effect 2. I gave the nod to New Vegas, though, because its open-world exploration is much more open world than ME2's almost confined and linear spaces. Group dynamics and wide range of choices apart from just good and evil also make it a more forward RPG. It could also be one of those trilogy things, like the LotR movies. Just wait for Mass Effect 3. If it lives up to the hype, it should sweep many of the categories.

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boba1701
Joined: Mar 2009

Posted: Dec 23rd, 2010 at 12:12 pm
Thanks Nick_Tan, I wasn't really expecting a reply from GR and I admit I may have been a little border-line trollish with my posts, but I'm just THAT into Mass Effect 2. I really am happy to hear that the glitches have mostly been dealt with in New Vegas. I think they just really soured my experience with the game.

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Doc_Holliday
Joined: Nov 2005

Posted: Dec 24th, 2010 at 11:07 am
I think this is a massive blunder. New Vegas felt like an expansion of Fallout 3; I never was in the least bit impressed. Mass Effect 2 was a massive upgrade from the original, in practically all aspects. From story to graphics, game play to playing a "role", ME2 was just miles ahead of NV. I really don't get this choice in the least; I loved FO3 but found NV to be very disappointing.

Nick_Tan, I didn't realize open world concepts mattered more than all the things I listed above. Seriously, I think you guys dropped the ball on this one...

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Nick_Tan
Joined: Jul 2006

Posted: Dec 27th, 2010 at 4:58 am
@Doc_Holliday: Then we can agree to disagree. I felt Mass Effect 2 tries to be quasi-open world with all of the planets and cities, but every area is really just a linear corridor. I also felt that having ten partners was a handful too much considering that you can only take two at a time, and if we are comparing dialogue trees and differing outcomes and their effects, New Vegas wins hands down. And the mining mini-game isn't optional if you want the best ending of the game. This doesn't mean that I think New Vegas didn't have its faults, either - its FPS elements and story structure still has their issues, though the introduction of color, reputation, and hardcore mode is in its favor. Where Mass Effect 2 is the clear winner over New Vegas is its graphics and revamped cover action system, though it could still use improvement. Again, I felt that both games were just about neck and neck.

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ryandebraal
Joined: Jul 2006

Posted: Jan 10th, 2011 at 12:22 pm
My game never crashed, neither did Fallout 3 - it worked perfectly fine...I think it must be hardware related, all these people saying its basically unplayable all probably use nVidia cards or something

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