Our final 2015 GOTY candidate, Rocket League, takes on all comers in a short conversation regarding what we all look for in yearly gaming award candidates.
With an odd number of people willing to defend contenders, Rocket League felt like the odd title out in more than one way. It lacks a story, much of any extras, and variation, and yet, editor Jake Valentine makes a compelling argument for why it should come out on top. And against everyone else that participated, no less.
This is a short conversation, but you’re welcome to check out our Witcher 3 Vs. Phantom Pain and Fallout 4 Vs. Bloodborne ones as well to settle your own 2015 GOTY debate.
[divider]
Jake: Let’s do this, Myles.
Myles: Alright, so Rocket League. Sell me.
Jake: I will when I get home tonight haha.
Myles: Haha deal.
(Several hours later…)
Jake: 2015 was an odd year for me. I remember when we first started pitching games to defend. Metal Gear Solid, Witcher, and Fallout were all scooped up pretty quickly. After that, though, it is hard to deny there feels like a significant drop off in terms of quality game releases. There have been plenty of good games to come out this year, but nothing else that you can justify see getting a GOTY edition next year. Then, I realized something. I realized there’s another game out there, one that I can keep playing and have a good time. No frustrating controls to worry about, no glitches and bugs, no backtracking. A game that gave some serious bang for its buck that’s extremely high on replay value. One that’s about an all too forgotten metric in gaming: fun. It’s Rocket League.
Myles: Rocket League is pretty darn fun, admittedly, and it’s kind of a “pure” experience in that you don’t have to worry much about story or checkpoints or anything. So yeah, that helps make the game feel fun and awesome.
But, that’s all the experience is. There’s a little bit of collection and competition, but its overwhelming attribute is fun. Do you really think that’s enough for Game of the Year?
Ben: At this point, I’m pretty sure Jake doesn’t include Bloodborne when he lists the best games of the year just to annoy me haha. A game which, by the way, is 100 percent fun/exhilarating.
Jake: For the record I’m not a fan of the Souls franchise. Plus it’s not exactly the most accessible game out there. Think of the other candidates. “Fallout is great just don’t mind the bugs!” “Witcher 3 is huge and fantastic and high end but you really don’t need to play the previous entries.” “You sure?” “Yeah pretty sure.” Based on my initial impression of Witcher, I feel a little left out of the loop not having played the others. Plus with MGS V, that story is hard enough to follow at times even with context.
Rocket League doesn’t care who you are. It doesn’t care about your skill level. It’s the same type of accessibility as a Wii Sports. “Wait so I just drive the—OH MY GOD I’M FLIPPING THROUGH THE AIR.” Sure it lacks the depth of other games, but it’s not about that. It’s about having a good time and getting everyone excited about playing a video game.
Plus it works unlike many other online games.
Myles: To be fair, it didn’t work real well at launch, and Psyonix admitted that and put in their patches.
But those are fair enough points on the simple, just-have-fun mentality. For me, game of the year honors are about a game that showcased as much of what a game can be in a single package. So not just fun but artistry, story, sound, graphics etc. Rocket League is a one category title, and that just doesn’t topple games like Bloodborne and Phantom Pain that weren’t just fun inside larger infrastructures.
Jake: Oh. Yeah. That. It turned your PS4 into an actual rocket. Totally forgot about that
Moving on from that, was there a better value in a game this year?
Myles: As in is there a better bargain game for the price this year? No, probably not.
But all of our games have 100+ hour possibilities, and that’s without the repetition that Rocket League can have at that level of commitment.
Jake: All I’m saying is that it deserves consideration. It was new, unique, affordable, and enjoyable.
You can argue every game has repetition though.
Myles: Of course on some level. The soccer-car league gameplay is a lot of fun too. But in The Phantom Pain, there’s at least the option to approach a situation in a completely different way. Yeah, it’s a larger game with arguably more issues, but it also has so many more options and ways to connect to what’s going on.
Funny thing is that I’d completely argue that Rocket League is somewhere up the list and looking down on Fallout 4, though not the rest of our options. Take that Richard!
Richard: I’ll die on this hill, Myles.
Jake: Rocket League has more personality in its pinky than all of Fallout 4
Ben: Considering rocket league is a car without any fingers, maybe we should use a different unit of measurement?
Jake: How about in its rear exhaust?
Richard: Debate the games you came here to debate, people.
Jake: Think about it. No back tracking. No absurd difficulty. No awkward controls. No (more) glitches. Just rocket soccer!
And I don’t know who I’m debating against, Richard.
Ben: I like back tracking….
Richard: If this is just a general debate on the merits of including Rocket League in our GOTY list, then I am 100 percent pro-Rocket League. If your game design is going to be just bare bones simplicity, then those bare bones have to be damn near perfect. Rocket League has that – it is simplicity executed in the best possible way. Rocket League is not my game of the year, but it is one of those rare games I consider to be pretty much perfect.
Jake: Exactly. Rocket League knows what is and what it wants to be. It doesn’t throw the kitchen sink at you, it goes “Hey wanna blow 15 minutes then let’s do this—oh wait, I’m sorry you’ve been playing for the past 5 hours.”
The game also doesn’t have an absolutely horrible control scheme. I’m looking at you, Witcher 3.
Myles: So for you Jake, that kind of pureness of fun really is enough for a Game of the Year?
Max: How is Witcher 3’s control scheme horrible? If you were to comment on the UI of the inventory, then okay. But actual control scheme; you mean for combat? It’s pretty basic. It’s actually extremely basic.
Myles: Geralt does kind of control like a spaz in small areas.
Max: Movement wise, he kinda did. But hey, at least one of the patches (1.10 I think) added an alternate movement scheme/control so he didn’t spin frantically in circles when panning the camera around to pick something up.
But this all besides the point haha.
Myles: Haha I think Jake’s overall point is that Geralt didn’t control as well as a rocket car.
Jake: Keyboard and mouse is impossible. Controller only works with sensitivity down to 0.5 and even then it’s imperfect.
And yes Myles. Too many games ignore fun for seriousness now. Sometimes it’s nice to just play rocket soccer until my eyes bleed.
[divider]
With no better way to end this talk, that concludes Game of the Year conversations, so expect to see our choice before long. What’s your personal 2015 GOTY?
