Sidewinder665

@mannymar: Those are both games I'm interested in but are worried they'll just be massive timesinks without a satisfactory overall experience (Dark Souls being a good example of a timesink which definitely is worth it overall). Any thoughts?

Beating 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia' on Expert in Guitar Hero 3.

Yes. Though who 'actually' (I.e. the game says) wins or loses will certainly be strong evidence in/not in your favour.

At an amateur level, any form of credit is only in the eyes of your audience. If you have a win that you think 'counts' but everyone you're with doesn't then it effectively doesn't as your reputation in their opinion hasn't increased. My favorite example of this is ScoreHero's (a Guitar Hero/Rock Band score-tracking website) policy on people who put fake scores in was 'So what, they're only fooling themselves that they've achieved something.' (I'm paraphrasing).

This shouldn't stop you from arguing your case though. If a game says someone else won but you really feel it should have been a tie then if you can persuade the people your with (or at least the majority of them) will make it 'count'.

@demoskinos: Ok, thank's for the extra insight. I'm guessing it boils down to the story in 13 being better but maybe the gameplay mechanics (and there of a lot of them) in 14 being more addictive.

I spent 150+ hours this year destroying my social life and health in desperate addiction to FF14 and I wouldn't change it for the world? Is 13: LR really better?

Is GOTY waiting allowable in here? Probably gonna be at my browser hitting refresh from Thursday afternoon (UK time).

Oh, I'd forgotten about spoilers. Not too worried about spoilers for most stuff on that list except, like OP having some of the setpieces in Bayonetta 2 'spoilt'. Have to be ready to stick my fingers in my ears and hum for a few minutes until it passes (historically Dark Souls discussions in particular were hazardous for this).