What was the best GOTY debate for #1 vs #2 slot

You might want to label the #1 and #2. I listened to them all but can’t be bothered to do the research.

It can only be Skyrim and SR3. That was goty at its best. Also out of the poll options its the only one where I can remember what the #2 was.

I was about to say MGS4 vs. GTA4 cuz everyone at the table played a lot of both or Uncharted 2 vs. Arkham Asylum. Don't remember much debate against Mass Effect 2 on this site.

Uncharted 2 vs. Arkham Asylum but that is not on the list.

I hate the debates about #2 and #1, because it really just is about bullying and wearing the other side down. For better or worse the " GB team" is full of 'strong' and 'don't give a ____k" personalities, so that outcome is always just one sides says, "Can we leave now? Can this just be done? Done not because you are right, but because I'm really starting to tire of your BS."

Au contraire, some of these debates are great precisely because Brad is normally so far on the "don't give a ___k" side that when his strong opinion side comes out it's like a great mythical beast awakening and taking flight. MGS4 vs GTA4 and Skyrm vs SR3 are the two that immediately jumped to mind when I saw the poll question.

Of these, I'd pick 2011.

That being said, the right answer is 2008 or 2009. A smaller crew that have all played the same things, and the two games in contention are actually toe to toe, unlike a lot of later years which are blowouts.

2011 is the only actual answer. Some of the others have been good, but so many great jokes and moments came out of the 2011 fight. To this day I feel the greatest fuck you Ryan Davis ever delivered was the heel turn on Saints Row to Skyrim. Thing of absolute beauty that killed the rightful winner.

That SR3 vs Skyrim debate was a bit of a legend for quite a while.

Fortunately, Ryan Davis saw reason and voted for the correct game.

No GTA IV/MGS4? that was my favorite.

Going mostly from memory:

• 2008 GTAIV over Metal Gear Solid 4 with the dark horse Dead Space
• 2009 Uncharted 2 over Batman: Arkham Asylum
• 2010 Mass Effect 2's closest competition was Red Dead Redemption
• 2011 Skyrim over Saints Row The Third
• 2012 XCOM over Walking Dead Season 1
• 2013 Last of Us over Link Between Worlds.
• 2014 Shadow of Mordor over Bayonetta 2
• 2015 Mario Maker over Metal Gear Solid Vee, Rocket League had a strong consensus
• 2016 Hitman over Doom
• 2017 PUBG full stop. NieR Automata fought bravely, Mario and Zelda had a strong consensus.
• 2018 Tetris Effect won with a consensus over RDR2 I think ... er Dead Cells I guess.
• 2019 Outer Wilds over Control.
• 2020 Hades with a bullet.

Looking over this, 2011 is indeed a strong one but I might actually go with 2016. Such a bizarre pair of game franchises to have suddenly been propelled to stardom once again and yet it felt like they could have chose either one and not been horribly wrong. Although I found bringing Doom's multiplayer into the equation was a strange detail to get hung up on I personally was won over by the strong cases made for Hitman by the end.

@mezmero: It was actually Tetris Effect vs. Dead Cells in 2018 (Dan negativity kept RDR 2 out contention). I personally thought it was a really weak discussion as Abby was the only one who even tried to push for Dead Cells, and she wasn't a fan of either game. It was one of those years where the only people passionate about the #2 game were even bigger fans of the #1 game (except for Jason). They never really put forward a good case for why Tetris Effect deserved to win over Dead Cells. It was similar in 2017, with Abby again the only one questioning the #1 spot.

I agree with you on 2016 though. That was a great 1 vs. 2 discussion with no blowout either way and a lot of good thoughts on both games (though I agree that some of the arguments were a bit strange).

2015 was just a really weird year. Them cutting both HM2:WN and Undertale from the best music category still hurts.

2011 is by far the most contentious, other years aren't even close in my memory. Peak entertainment!

@nuttism: Oh yeah. You'll forgive me for my memory getting shakier the closer to modern day it gets. Biggest crime that year to me was the amount of ambivalence towards Into the Breach but hey no use opening old wounds.

Pubg was the obvious choice for that year. Twitch came into its own because of it. Fortnite owes everything to that game. Can’t give Hades a shot until it hits non-Nintendo consoles. I was hoping the Xbox indie showcase would have that game drop into gamepass. I’m so glad games like Animal Crossong don’t get the top spot because that Call of Duty and others just don’t change enough and just because you are new to the series doesn’t make it relevant.